5.5 hours!

Wow, our little man slept for around 6 hours last night. Jan awoke at 430 and thought that she had totally missed something!! Tristan is sure throwin' us curve-balls every day/night. We had our 2 month pediatrician appointment today. Dr. Kamon was happy about his progress. about 50th percentile for height and weight. She also stuck him with a couple vaccines today and he really took it like a man. We were both really surprised at his reaction...Obvious initial wailing, but after about a minute he was totally fine.9 weeks. Thats how long we have kept a totally dependent human alive; its pretty amazing.

I was telling Jan tonight about my epiphany. I can be a pretty selfish and absorbed person. On Saturday I was literally feeling like my insides were tying themselves up in knots; I felt I really needed some "seth" time. I was super anxious and had a lot of nervous energy. Tristan was cyring in his swing and I could feel my blood pressure rising. I pulled him out of the swing and layed him on the couch and started singing to him. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are grey..." And then I finally realized it. It was like a huge wave came over me and all my anxiety and bad energy just dissipated. It was amazing. I was really disappointed in myself for not instantly becoming immune to his crying from the start. It was a hard transition. I kept thinking, "you are terrible, his cries frustrate you...that isn't normal for a parent." I always was thinking "What am i doing wrong, why is he crying". As a male, we are constantly trying to solve situations and if we cant...FAILURE. But with this little guy, there isnt always an answer or it might not be obvious. So one thing I learned is not to be so hard on myself. I may not be able to get him to stop cyring, and that is OKAY. Maybe a hand-off to mom is in order, or maybe he has an upset tummy. But realizing that was a huge step in the learning process. And he is just so damn cute!

Time is just slipping away...

And our little munchkin is plumping up like a little pot roast. All you FB'ers, you can check this blog at bigabv.blogspot.com there is a link on my INFO tab. Remember you can see more pics by clicking on the link on the right (Seth and Jan's Web Album). I cant believe that Tristan will be 8 weeks on Wednesday. Its an amazing transformation from a arm flailing bowl of jello to a semi-morpheus infant who can now smile and rub his eyes when he's gettin tuckered out. He is now pushing 11 pounds and his has totally outgrown most of his little outfits that we bought coming out of the gate. We have discovered many more of his favorite positions and learned that he may not be too keen on the favorite of last week. He loves to kick and flail on the changing table after he is all cleaned up and i sometimes find myself watching him there for close to 15 minutes. Arms saluting me and his little legs are trying to kick start that imaginary moto. His eyes will bug out and he will fit in a smile here and there...it just melts your heart.

He has now met all of four of his grandparents. My mom arrived the end of July and brought her friend Richard. Grammy instantly fell in love with her 3rd grandson and i think that little Tristan misses her sweet gentle touch. My dad and his new wife Lisa followed a few days after my Mom and Richard left and were kind enough to bring Dublin a few playmates. They refer to their little white dogs as a Canadian Terror Cell, but they were more akin to Canadian Antagonists.

About a week after the four Townsends left, Jan's parents arrived. Rich, Jan's dad, is unstoppable. He saw me mowing the lawn and immediately went into the garage and started edging the yard. A few hours later, he had cut beautifully straight lines along every edge of the yard.

A feat that i haven't attempted all season. The next evening we were

sitting on the front porch and he looks at me and says "Hey,

how about I trim up this bush?" Next thing I know, there are leaves and limbs flying like a scene from Edward Scissorhands; then he recruited Bonnie in on the fun. It was like having Smith and Smith Landscape Architects working on the yard.

They earned a few pints of homebrew for that job!! Sometime I'll tell you about him and our washing machine.

Tristan's best friend

Well, we think we know why he's so drawn to Mr. Lion (do you see the resemblance?)! Tristan is now almost 6 weeks old - so hard to believe! We are still trying to figure out what makes this little guy tick - sometimes with success, sometimes without, but ALWAYS at 4 am it seems! What's a little surprising is that I think our level of patience is increasing, rather than the other way around. At first, it was very frustrating not knowing what to do with him at all. Now, I think we know that sometimes we will never know exactly what to do with him when he cries, but just hold him and love him the best we can. And if that doesn't work, then another meal is usually the answer! But he is doing just great, gaining plenty of weight (he was 8 lbs 14 oz one week ago), and filling out much quicker than we expected . He is getting a little more interactive with the arms flailing and legs kicking around, and some days we even get a 2 second smile that just melts your heart (whether he meant it or not). We are hanging in there with the exhaustion....naps never felt so good!!