A Month of the Bug

Brynn is a whole month old now! She's focusing so much more, and has discovered her hands. She is starting to entertain herself a bit more by eating her hands. We will take that assistance! Our little Bug (for that has become her nickname) is growing and growing!

She also seems to be trending towards sleeping for longer amounts of time. We’ll get a few 3 hour blocks a night. The other night Jen even managed to get her to sleep at 9, which gave us an extra 3 hour block, which was awesome. Generally she is going to sleep only after cajoling that lasts until about 11. Jen and I will be going on our first date since Brynn was born this next week. We’re going to see The Avengers. It’ll be Jen’s first time, but my second. It is a good enough movie that I will go see it in the theater twice. This time will be 3D. Kudos to Jen’s Mom for making this happen. Maybe soon we can work up to a trip down to Denver for sushi. Jen loves it and hasn’t been able to have it while pregnant. We’ve yet to be brave enough to take Brynn to a restaurant. Of course, we’re getting ready to fly with her. Soon we’ll be heading out for a wedding on the East Coast, and that will be an adventure.

Hmmm. I keep on typing hoping that I’ll remember the other thing that I wanted to blog about, but it is not coming to me. So let’s mention a few things that I am quite excited about. First off, the Dragon capsule launched by Space X. If you haven’t followed this story, check it out, as it is an exciting new step in human space faring. It is nice to be inspired by something going on in the news rather than just depressed.

Another item of note is the Leap. It is a fine-grained haptic control that catapults us closer to the interfaces of Minority Report and Iron Man. But rather than being some pricey gadget, this thing is available at a mere pittance of $85. I don’t know what I’d use it for, but I feel I almost must have such an amazing device for how ridiculously cheap it is.

Speaking of ridiculously cheap, how about a $35 computer? That’s what Raspberry Pi purports to be. It doesn’t come with a monitor, but that’s okay. You’re supposed to hook it up to your TV and use it as a media machine. Well, actually it is supposed to be a computer for disadvantaged kids to learn programming. But it is freaking $35. $35. For a computer! I haven’t looked deeply into it, but one of my co-workers has and is excited to use it as a media machine. Having wasted a bit of time trying to get my XBox and laptop to connect for media streaming, I am fine with the idea of dropping $35 to set up some media streaming. Watching Sherlock on the laptop is getting a bit old.

Oh, there’s another thing. Sherlock is a modern reboot of Sherlock Holmes that is done by the BBC and being broadcast stateside by PBS. It is very enjoyable to watch, partially because Sherlock is a bit of a jerk (or absolute jerk) in a very entertaining way. The episodes are 1.5 hours long, so they are like mini-movies. It allows some story to develop in each. My only warning would be that Moriarty is not done right in my opinion. But what the heck, still enjoyable.

Well, still no revelations about what I had intended to write about. I’m just about done getting my winter tires changed off, so I’m gonna stop rambling. By the way, getting your auto serviced late on the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend is a great time to do it. I got my oil changed in record time, and the tires are being changed faster than I've ever experienced. Happy Memorial Day Weekend to you all!

Brynn TV

Since we've got to document this cuteness, here is another Brynn video. This one captures one of our favorite expressions that she makes. I will dwell on this for a while as she is being very difficult about going to sleep tonight. Jen is tending to her while I let a bit of frustration dissipate. She is getting into this state where she is tired, but will not go to sleep. I can get her asleep, but as soon as I stop moving or singing she snaps back to consciousness.

We did find today at least that she can be put to sleep while I bounce on an exercise ball with her in the Baby Bjorn. That means I can play Skyrim and keep her asleep. This is a good thing. I got in at least an hour with her today. Brynn and I killed a dragon, raided a dungeon guarded by an undead sorceror and did a lot of selling, smithing, and enchanting. Good father-daughter time.

This weekend was pretty social. We attended some friends' renewal of their wedding vows. We did house church. We did a brunch with people from our church. Grandma watched Brynn during the vow renewal, so we got in our first childless outing. Next I need to take Jen out for some sushi and let her watch the Avengers, so we're glad Grandma enjoyed her solo time with Brynn and is eager for some more. The other two events, she did pretty well coming along. In general she likes the noise, but she still craves motion. We will be the Perpetual Motion Parents. We will be very sore and tired.

Singing at Three Weeks

Brynn is three weeks old now, and she's getting a little harder to put down to sleep. In the late afternoon to early evening, she is just awake and awake and if we can get her to go to sleep, it is a short-lived sleep. Thankfully she seems to settle down by the time we are ready to go to bed. She does not get to this state without coaxing. Today we tried a walk by the lake in the stroller, which was pretty successful until a few minutes after we got home.

One of the other techniques is to walk around and sing or talk to her. I've been extemporizing, but also singing some songs. I love Johnny Cash's repertoire, but a lot of my favorite songs of his seem a little ... odd to sing to my baby daughter. So I've been reworking the lyrics a bit. One song I learned from listening to the Man in Black, even though it is not his own, is "Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie".

Oh, swaddle me not, on the lone prairie.
These words came shrill and angrily
From the milk-stained lips
Of the babe who lay
Angry and red, at the close of day.

Oh, swaddle me not, on the lone prairie,
Where the wild coyotes will howl along with me
And the hawk and dove,
As they fly above
Will poop on me without love.

Oh, swaddle me not, in a burlap sack.
For it will irritate my crack
And I'll cry all day,
And I'll cry all night
And I'll cry until the morning light.

Oh, swaddle me not, but her voice failed there.
And we paid no heed to her sleepy prayer
In a shallow crib
Just five by three
We swaddled her there, on the lone prairie.

Cotton Time

Well, the cotton is coming in and that means my patience is running out. It's already falling from the trees and collecting in drifts on the deck and insinuating itself into the lawn. I mowed yesterday before the bulk of it came down, but it is starting to get heavy out there. Fortunately it wasn't totally jamming up the mower. Right now yard care is grinding me down: weeds, rabbits, wasps, dead patches, and the like. I just want to pave the whole lot over.

Brynn continues to do well. She gave us a good night of sleep last night, for which I am grateful. When I was off work for her, it was interesting. I had less time to work on projects, but because I wasn't coding at work, I had a lot more energy to work on projects. So I got more done on them, even though I had less time. Hopefully now that I am back at work I still will be able to carve out some time to work on it. More importantly, I need to find the mental energy to work on it. Heck, I still have a board game project that I got fairly far into before it got dropped. I'd love to try to reclaim that effort. It's just that now we have the time and energy to get the essentials done. If after those I have enough time and energy that I'm not going to bed at 8:30, as may have happened a few times recently, I feel like spending them on recreational things rather than productive. That means Skyrim sucks me in, or I spend a quiet moment out on the deck. If I'm going to be pouring all this time and energy into the yard, I had better spend some time enjoying it.

2 Weeks, 30 Years, and 1 Day

Brynn turned 2 weeks old on Thursday. We're halfway to a month-old baby! As someone recently said to me, "the days are long, but the months are short". I can totally see that. We've already started the tradition of going to bed around 8:30 or so. Exhaustion will do that, but it's also hard to believe that Brynn is already 17 days old. The time is moving fast and she is changing already.

Jen's sister Christine came out to see Brynn as well as to have an early birthday celebration with the family. She's turning 30 and it was fun to be able to celebrate with her and have her get to meet her niece. She and Jen's mom also helped out immensely: cleaning, cooking, going to the store. We are so very, very spoiled.

And then there's today, which is Jen's first Mother's Day where she is the celebrated, as well as the celebrant. I'm helping her celebrate right now by letting her get some extra sleep. Then we'll do some breakfast with scones provided by our friends David and Emmy, and God willing, take Brynn to her first formal church service. We've been doing a sort of house church/Bible study with some friends from Cool River, so last week was Brynn's first service. Today, though, we'll be doing dinner with Jen's parents to celebrate Grandma Carol, especially in light of her amazing gifts of service to us. So that means we won't be able to do house church tonight. So we're going to try to hit a service at a church with a cry room.

This Mother's Day we have a much better appreciation of what moms do. We are so grateful for the awesome moms Jen and I have been blessed with. We can't understand what moms do until we start to do it ourselves. So, THANK YOU. Thank you for your sacrifice and sleepless nights and care and love that you have given us. You rock!

Spit Up

Note: video is mostly unrelated 

It's interesting with babies how a major spit up event is often times not preceded or followed by anything that would reflect the volume of the event. The baby is just chilling out, perhaps there is a gurgle in the throat, then a Vesuvius of spit up launches up from the baby all over your baby and hand and shirt and pants and chair and carpet. Perhaps, as I just experienced, this prolific flow is followed by another gusher as you frantically rush to locate a burp cloth, mindful that you are dripping partially-digested breast milk all over your carpet. But then, surprisingly, the baby is calm as if the deluge never spewed forth in volcanic spectacle. You would think after losing dinner and possibly lunch they'd cry or be startled. Not Brynn. She is as calm as her antediluvian state. (Sorry, just wanted an excuse to use the word antediluvian).

I'm sure this is only the harbinger of spit ups to come. And perhaps it is a lesson for me to not incorporate so much bouncing as I soothe our little Bug to sleep. Whatever the case, a personal spit up milestone has been reached.

This follows a lovely evening with Jen's family. Her sister is in town and we had a dinner together with more of that delectable Georgia Boy's barbecue and some awesome Ghiradelli brownies. They are taking such good care of us, I feel a little bad. I am having to give up some self sufficiency and let myself be served. I just need to remember to pay that love forward (and back).

The Daddy Switch

One of things I was interested to see when Brynn was born, was if I would feel the Daddy switch flip in me. Would I feel like "Dad". I have to say I haven't felt that switch flip yet. Right now I haven't quite totally assimilated the idea of Brynn being my daughter. I'm definitely growing into that idea though. I'm still me. I haven't felt a big identity shift. Being a dad is now another facet tacked onto my identity. At the end of the movie Waitress, Keri Russell's character undergoes a whole personality change as soon as she holds her daughter in her arms. I definitely haven't gotten there yet, but I'm interested to how my identity shifts.

Oh, and total random note, since I did mention a movie, Jen gave me a leave of absence to go see The Avengers with Gavin and Sarah. It was excellent. I really enjoyed it and am ready to go see it again. They really balanced out the characters and it is packed with funny and totally awesome moments.

On Friday, Emmy and David came over with their little girl Anna who is three months old. It's eye opening to see how much our little girl is going to change in the next few months. Anna is so much larger than Brynn and looking around, holding her head up, and the like. When we saw them side by side, we had a preview of where we're headed. That spurred us to make sure to capture Brynn in her littleness and that newborn state. We want to make sure that we appreciate and enjoy each state that she goes through. So we did a little photo shoot. You know, the embarrassing photos your parent will show to your boyfriend or girlfriend; little butt in the air.

We got a lot of good pictures, and Brynn was surprisingly cooperative. Unfortunately my phone failed to save the video I took, as I got some good sneeze footage. So, score Brynn: 1, Phone: 0. Thankfully I got plenty of good pics on my camera. We are loving this little girl, and I'm so glad we have her. We just need to cherish every little moment we have with her and every phase she goes through.

Baby Pope vs. the Ottoman of Slumber

I am very grateful that Brynn is a sound sleeper. Right now a crew is running a wood chipper out in our cul de sac to get rid of a dead cottonwood tree and she is sleeping through it. I'm particularly grateful right now, because Jen just ran out to get some supplies on her first solo trip, so it's me and Brynn until she gets back. I do not have the Power of Milk on my side when it comes to soothing babies.

Fortunately, I have had decent luck finding motions or techniques that get Brynn to settle down. However, in this last week (Brynn's a week old!) I'm coming to believe it is more the length of my soothing attempts than the efficacy of any particular technique. One I have found is the ottoman for the gliding rocker given to us by our friends the Klings. The ottoman also glides, so it make a perfect rocker for Brynn. We can set her on it and with one finger or a foot keep the ottoman rocking. That's the Ottoman of Slumber in the title. Brynn, of course, is the Baby Pope. We have this one particular cap for her than when it stands tall on her head and she is swaddled up in blankets makes her look rather papal.

Huh. The wood chipper just stopped, and now Brynn's getting a little restless in her slumber. Go figure.

So, anyway, the Lever also seems to be an effective technique. Rather than rock her back and forth, I rest her legs in the crook of my arm and hold her head away from me and swivel my arm like a level. This works even better if her head is turned. That is her traditional sleeping position. Her head is usually turned directly to her right. If we start her out in the crib with her head to the left, generally it's going to end up facing right.

Last night was a pretty good night. We (read: Jen) only got up twice to feed her at about an hour each time, and she didn't feed for the crazy four hour chunks that she has recently. We actually woke up feeling refreshed today. Jen actually got enough sleep to put a dream together. Again, I'm grateful that she slept so well, since today will be my first day back at work. Granted, it'll be a half day, but with my sleep-deprived brain, going back and being effective will take some focus.

Yesterday was also Brynn's first bath. She was not a fan. It'll be a while yet before we have bubbles and rubber duckies and smiles. This time around it was shrieking outrage, despite the little terry cloth duck finger puppet. Ah well, we'll enjoy each phase as it comes. She is such a sweet baby, and we are so blessed. She may have a sixth sense about when we're sitting down to eat and and fuss accordingly, but she is not colicky or alien looking or a light sleeper. I'll take feeding each other over the baby instead of sleepless nights or walking on egg shells.

First Outing and a Few Non-baby Things

Yesterday we did our first outing with Brynn. We headed to Target to replenish our desperately low diaper stores and pick up a few more things. I am really starting to appreciate diaper cakes at baby showers. The excursion was pretty good, though not without some good crying (on Brynn's part, not ours). Brynn is happy in the car as long as it is in motion. Waiting for a long light to do a left turn brings on some protests (from Brynn, not me ... most of the time). Once we got to the store she had a little crying jag and Jen took her to the bathroom for some girls time while I went in search of items I've never shopped for before. Once Brynn calmed down, they rejoined me and the baby was fine as long as the stroller was in motion. But we got in and out and back home without any meltdowns from any of us. Success!

Jen's mom spent another night with us performing her rock star grandma vigil that allowed us to get a 5 hour block of sleep. Thank you so much! We feel so much better today, as we receive visitors, eat food brought to us by friends, and admire the gifts and flowers sent by friends. We are so blessed to have this support and love!

In other areas of life, Kidrobot's next line of Dunnies has been leaked, which is exciting. The series looks pretty good, though there aren't many "gotta-have-its" in there. The Andrew Bell one looks awesome, though. I will definitely keep my eyes peeled for a release date.

Also, Jason brought to my attention a new contest/promotion by Blackberry to get developers making apps for their upcoming phone. The incentive is better than a Playbook. How about $10K? Of course, there are some stipulations. You have to earn a grand on your own to qualify and pay a "nominal" fee to get your app certified. Now, since I happen to be developing a phone app for Android right now, this could really work well for me. I even have some ideas for monetizing it, so I could hit that $1,000 threshold. I certainly could use that extra incentive, and I've been building my app in a way that it could be easily done on multiple platforms. I will certainly be keeping an eye out for more details.

Day Five and the Real Name

Note: if the above video has weird colors, try using Firefox to view it. 

Brynn will be a whole 5 days old today. Today was the tentatively scheduled time for induction of labor. I'm glad we didn't have to wait for that. Of course, it would have been 5 more days of solid sleep for us. Last night she fed for 4 hours straight, with a couple of 15 minute breaks. She also followed up with another feeding an hour later. Jen is pretty wiped today, and I'm a bit better as she let me sleep through most of that. Good thing she's mighty cute. So, uh, when do we hit our stride?

Now, although Delorean Speaks would be an awesome name, Brynn Renée Thingvall is pretty great too. Brynn is just a name we liked the sound of. It means "hill" in Welsh. It can be feminine if she wants it to be, or tomboy if she wants it to be. There's no strong pop culture references (other than the Vampire Weekend song Bryn, which is spelled differently anyway). It may have come to mind from a melding of the names on the post in our garage. Previous families have measured their kids' heights on a post there. There's a Brae and a Quinn. Maybe those merged into Brynn in our minds. Also, we have a neighbor girl whose name is Aubren, whose mother pointed out yesterday that sometimes they call her Brynn or Brinny.

Renée is where we went a little more directly feminine, plus it has the meaning of "rebirth," which we thought was great, as we are born again into Christ's family when we accept His forgiveness. Of course, now I need to figure out how to do the é on my phone's keyboard.

One other fun name fact has more to do with me. When we were admitted to the Mother & Baby wing, we introduced ourselves to the nurse. She was surprised by my name, because she said there was a baby already in the wing whose name was Nils, and whose mother's name was Jennifer. I'm sad to say we didn't get to meet them, because that's quite the coincidence. There's a slight chance we know them, because there was a Jen in our birthing class who was due on the same day as us. Maybe I made a good impression?