A.B. Kagledom

The regularity with which I've updated this website is a definite indication of how much free time has been available this past week. Last weekend we had a fun Halloween gathering with a few friends. Although some of our kid-free friends were brave enough to show up, it was mostly a kid-focused party with gooey gross things to touch, stickers to place on the witch, and lots of fun on the outdoor play structure (it was, after all, close to 80 degrees outside).

The day after the party was our seventh wedding anniversary. Grammy came to stay in the late afternoon and Matthew and I went out for dessert after the kids went to sleep. It wasn't the most romantic of days but, hey, we've got a lot going on - romance will be saved for late November. Grammy visited until Thursday morning and witnessed our usual 4:45 am to 8 pm routine (ok, we spared her the early wake up call). Simon was thrilled to have Grammy's attention for a few days. We've been trying to keep the kids up later and later to prepare for the horrid time change this weekend and it was very nice to have Grammy as a positive distraction.

By Wednesday, news of changes at Moto prompted me to check in with the office and, as I suspected, the work intensity and focus of our group had increased just a tad so it became clear that my vacation needed to be cut short. I increased my hours at home and went in to the office for a bit but still managed to make it to Simon's preschool Halloween parade this morning as well as take the boys trick-or-treating along Main Street in Los Altos this afternoon and take Simon trick-or-treating around the neighborhood this evening. The decision to spend today celebrating Halloween was an easy one but it does mean I need to spend as much time as possible working over the weekend. My birthday party, planned for Sunday, had to go and was promptly canceled.

Let's not lament the sadness of a working birthday weekend and instead lament the sadness of wee Adlai who has been sleeping about as well as a really unsleepy newborn. We've all been suffering from a minor cold at some point over the past week but Adlai's version is much worse and a stomach-with-pacifier-sleeping-baby does not mix with extreme congestion. In general, something really needs to be done about the lack of sleep in this house - we will be sleep training him as soon as the congestion is over. I'm actually considering putting him in the garage (aka "bonus room") for a few nights. Matthew thinks we should investigate solid-core doors so at least Simon won't continue to suffer.

In any case, despite the sickness, lack of sleep, and work, we've had a pretty good week. Instead of posting the photos here I'm going to sleep. Please take a look at the Flickr page and make sure you click page by page or view the slideshow so you don't miss anything.

Happy Halloween and good night!

Posted by kagledom at 08:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Adlai has started to cautiously walk across a room with one of his hands firmly planted in the palm of a parent and he can stand for up to 15 seconds. It won’t be long before he has the courage to take those first few steps on his own. Next week would be a good time. The week starts with our anniversary, follows on with Halloween, and ends with my birthday. To celebrate, I’ve taken the week off (sort of – I have a deal to work two hours a day) to just be at home and get a few things done – maybe have time to post the boppy photo, update the banner of this page, get a new photo in the upper left. More likely, I’ll do none of that and just hang out with my boys.

“Busy” doesn’t seem to capture our lives lately. I’ve realized that I don’t even stand up at work unless I’m on my way to or from a meeting or to or from the Mom room. Once home, there is nursing, and cooking (often three variations of the same meal), and eating, and bathing, and more nursing, and bedtime followed by an hour of dishes, and laundry, and picking up toys, and lunch preparation, and list making. I never call anyone and I rarely respond to personal email. I love Facebook because I can feel connected to my friends at a glance - it is fast and easy and doesn’t require a response. Someday I will look back on this time and wonder how we managed. In answer to my future self, we just do. Frankly, the schedule isn’t a heck of a lot of fun. I miss sleeping and exercising and leaving the pump and/or the baby for more than two hours at a time. Two months from now, when pumping ends, I’ll have a whopping two hours a day returned and I will celebrate by leaving the house without a large black bag for four hours in a row.

I think I might even be daring and spend that time with Matthew. Matthew’s schedule hasn’t been any easier than mine. He has a master list of things that must be done and a list of things we need to buy and a calendar full of play dates, appointments, nap times, school drop offs and pick ups. Next week he’ll add teaching twice a week and grading. Somehow, in all of this, he has managed to find time to create a blog : I KEN RITE FUN-EE

I’ve always thought of Matthew as particularly hilarious and I’m glad he is finally combining his writing talent with his quick wit and deep sarcastic tendencies. Just as I have warned that this is a site about babies and if you don’t want to hear about babies, you shouldn’t be reading this site, I will warn you that Matthew’s blog is not about our lives but about his ability to tell a story. He may write something that offends your sensibilities and, if so, use the little X (or the red circle for you Mac folks) on your browser window and do not return.* I, however, recommend you start reading from the very beginning of his posts and enjoy!

*Clearly, I’m still a little bitter about losing friends via the things I’ve written here - I don’t want that to happen to him.

Posted by kagledom at 09:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Adlai is standing for longer periods of time (still only counted in seconds). The other night he stood and raised his hands up in the air and made a happy "yee!" noise before falling back to his bum. Matthew, Simon, and I clapped. Adlai tried again. We clapped. Adlai clapped. Adlai tried again...

We went to our first Halloween party of the season over the weekend and Simon was thrilled to be dressed in his lab coat stocked up with all his "instruments." He has decided to be a family doctor. We're so proud. Adlai isn't sure yet if he should make a life's work out of being the devil. He was, however, very good about leaving on his head gear and wings. No pitch fork was provided.

Posted by kagledom at 08:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Adlai turned ten months old on Saturday. We took the usual Boppy photo set and a video but were too busy to post. In fact, we’re still too busy. Luckily, the video uploaded to YouTube while we slept. My new Dell laptop doesn’t turn off. EVER. In fact it wakes up and goes to sleep all night long. “Zhawing!” “Dinnawing.” Between the sounds of the laptop, the crying of Adlai for hours, and then the crying of Simon for an hour brought on by the crying of Adlai, I’m pretty sure I’ve gone mad. I have not gone mad enough, however, to think that this Boppy video is particularly interesting. But, if you’re related to us or really really bored, give it a whirl:

Adlai had an exciting weekend, started off by his first steak. Oh how Adlai LOVED that steak. So Friday he ate half of my steak, Sunday he ate half of my chicken breast and that was before a big chunk of Salmon ... It’s my new diet plan – feed the kid instead of myself. All this eating you would think that Adlai could carry himself through the night but reality is exactly the opposite. The more he has been eating, the more he wants to eat. And during the week he doesn’t eat much during the day because he won’t eat for Daddy. He stores all this hunger up until 7 pm, 9 pm, 11 pm, 2 am, and 4 am. I’m a little bitter about this schedule which will make it so much sweeter to do the ol’ cow milk switcharoo two months from now.

TWO MORE MONTHS.

We did do a number of exciting things over the weekend. Maybe that post will appear tomorrow.

Posted by kagledom at 08:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I gave Adlai his first official hair cut a couple of days back. It's not perfect but much better than having wispy hairs hanging in his face, over his ears, and down his back. His hair is a little wavy and curls up at the ends - you may not notice the difference but I'll try to post some new pictures soon.

In other news, Adlai has started to point and now waves "Bye Bye" to the characters in "Pat the Bunny." He really likes "Pat the Bunny" but his very favorite books are those with baby faces. They're really funny. Look at the sad baby! How FUNNY!

One of these days, he'll enjoy a good plot.

He also is a huge fan of Simon's couch cushion forts. Crawl in, crawl out. Stand up and touch the ceiling! It's great fun.

I think we're going to see some first steps soon. He's now holding on to things with only one hand while squatting, rotating, etc.

Posted by kagledom at 02:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've debated if this qualifies as bloggable material but, what the heck. I was promoted last week. Hooray for me. (I just found out yesterday - my manager was on an island last week.) What does this mean? Not much. Well, actually, I suppose it means that Moto cares about me. They care enough to add a little to our mortgage payments and they care enough that they went out of the traditional promotion cycle to get it done. A lot of my friends have left Moto lately because of rumors and fear about the spin off of Mobile Devices next year but, from where I sit, leaving might just be a huge mistake.

In other job news, Matthew starts teaching at yet another school in late October. This art college is only twenty minutes away as opposed to the last couple which were - farther. And his class will meet one weekday evening and one weekend morning each week which means twice as much income.

Three cheers for more money in a bad economy. Hip Hip...

(Hooray!)

Posted by kagledom at 08:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Friday afternoon the boys started the weekend off with a "paper party" because, really, what else are phone books good for these days? I received this series of photos via my phone while I was at work and, as you can imagine, I was a little afraid to go home...

5 minutes later...

20 minutes later...

Fun!

Saturday we spent the morning at Simon's swim lesson before moving right along to the birthday party of his friend, Nathan. The boys bounced and did some art work and ate and bounced some more. Adlai napped in their crib for a while before roaming the yard and attempting to pull himself to a stand using anything available. After the party our friends Cindi and Mike came over for a few hours of little-boy-immersion. We even made a boy from pastry, filled him with treats, baked, and ate him.

Sunday morning we made our usual trip to the farmer's market only this time we came home with our first political sign to post in our first real yard. While walking with the sign (No on Prop 8 - against the ban on gay marriage), Simon asked all sorts of questions about the political process and then about the proposition and then said "Well, I want to marry Mama." So Matthew explained that you can only marry someone who isn't already married and he said "Well, I want to marry Tessa and Lisa." So Matthew explained that you can only marry one person at a time. So Simon said, "Then I want to marry Calvin, my silly friend." Fortunately, Calvin is in agreement with this current plan and that's exactly why we will vote No on Prop. 8. Who doesn't want Calvin as a son-in-law?

Adlai has been spending a lot of time trying to rotate while standing. He's very concerned about getting down gracefully. Simon was already starting to walk at this point but was constantly falling over and using momentum to get him across the room. Adlai could be walking right now but I'm sure he won't do it until he has mastered standing and rotating and squatting first. Ahhhhh, the cautious child.

Adlai is also teething and spending a lot of time wanting comfort from teething in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, the only comfort acceptable for aching gums is me along with the shields. Ouch. Now, to get that vision out of your head, here is another phone photo:

Things Adlai loves:
the sound of the hair dryer
the wind from the hair dryer
the sound of the bath water running
being in the bath water

Things Adlai hates:
having his diaper changed
having his clothes changed
having his face washed
green beans
tofu

Posted by kagledom at 07:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I really have nothing interesting or useful to say right now but, really, do you care about that? We both know that you just want to see the boys. Here are some phone photos taken this week...

Posted by kagledom at 07:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Adlai started standing on his own this afternoon. I believe the free standing count is up to roughly three seconds (although he continues to work at improving his time). After the first successful attempt, Simon grabbed a pillow from the couch and ran it over to Adlai to soften his fall. Have I mentioned how much these two boys love each other? They love each other so much I think it's worth repeating.

Posted by kagledom at 06:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've been sick and the boys are starting to show signs that they may have consumed my germs. Alas, we still had a full weekend. Sunday we conquered the traffic to Half Moon Bay for a visit with our friend Cindi and an afternoon of pumpkin hunting.

I'm pretty sure Simon loves his brother

All these pumpkins! Adlai is in this picture somewhere...

Simon and his selections

On the way back there was a terrible smell coming from the back seat so we decided to stop at a Toy-R-Us for a changing table and a few things we've had on our list for a while. Simon found a costume he couldn't live without in the "pretend/imagination" section of the store: a Doctor. And he decided that Adlai HAD to be a devil because "Doctors and devils go together!"

New things for Adlai:
-he uses his new sounds to sing to music ("BA ba ba ba, ma ma ma ma, da da ne ne...")
-he stands up in his crib to cry, which causes him to lose his pacifier on the floor, which causes him to cry
-he loves his Mama, that isn't new but he becomes more of a Mama's boy every day (much to my delight)

Posted by kagledom at 09:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Just before the debates last night was bath time for the boys and Adlai started yelling at Simon in the tub. It went something like this...

[kick *splash* kick *splash* kick *splash* kick *splash* ]
[stop, look at Simon and very seriously shout]
"Neeeeya! Nee Nee Neeeeya!"

[kick *splash* kick *splash* kick *splash* kick *splash* ]
[stop, look at Simon and very seriously shout]
"Neeeeya! Nee Nee Neeeeya!"

[kick *splash* kick *splash* kick *splash* kick *splash* ]
[stop, look at Simon and very seriously shout]
"Neeeeya! Nee Nee Neeeeya!"

Simon thought it was hysterical. And then we thought maybe, now that he can argue, it is time for Adlai to prepare his candidacy...

Check this out

Be sure to vote!

(Thanks, Lenore)

Posted by kagledom at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Adlai and Matthew have been attending a number of baby playdates lately...

"Some day, we'll be big enough to open these doors."

"Share!"

"I can make music!"

Posted by kagledom at 07:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)