new overalls

new overalls
Originally uploaded by grahampc.

Fern got a few new outfits this week; here's one of our favorites! Don't forget to notice the "shoes" -- socks, actually, with a Mary-Jane print on them.

a set of Gary's photos

Gary is quite a photographer (with quite a camera!). Here's a set of his photos from their visit last week.


That last one wasn't technically taken by Gary (he's in it, after all!), but with his camera. (Note: if you want to get prints of these, you should contact Gary for the originals; I've just got small versions.)

Related Photos on Flickr : Gary, Graham, Jewel, Joan, Ken, Kristin
File Under : Gary, Graham, Jewel, Joan, Ken, Kristin

Gary & Joan's visit

Here are a couple of last shots from Gary & Joan's visit from last week.

Coming soon: Gary's photos of same -- as you can see, he's quite the photographer!

Related Photos on Flickr : Gary, Joan, Kristin
File Under : Gary, Joan, Kristin

back from a hiatus!

Sorry about the long break, everyone! Here's a quick cute face shot to keep you interested as I get Fern's blog back up to date!

Correction ...

Gary is using the name "Papa," not "Opa" ... this confusion is a result of having 7 grandparents!

Fern meets Papa!

Fern got to meet "Papa" today as grandparents Joan & Gary arrived for a visit today, Fern's 7-week birthday! Gary (Papa) is quite a photographer, and made good use of his new camera, as you can see from the series here. (Gary took all the pictures in today's post.) Unfortunately, that means that he's hardly ever in the picture, a situation we plan to rectify as their visit continues!

One of the greatest things about having grandparents around is that when work intrudes...

You can always count on someone to hold the baby!

Fern in motion!

Well, Fern hasn't yet taken to sleeping in her crib, but she does seem to enjoy just being in it, for short periods of time, at least. Nice action shot here: check out that foot!

As long as we're on the subject of motion, here's another one of my horrible animations. I'm having far too much fun with Photoshop!

a sleepy visit to the conservatory of flowers

Grandma Linda took us all to the Conservatory of Flowers today and, as usual, Fern slept right through it. We did, at least, get some nice pictures of sleepy Fern in front of some pretty plants, including a fair number of, of course, ferns!

I think my favorite is this one on the right here, with Fern's head draped in ferns. I've added these photos and a couple of others to the albums for "asleep" and "outings."

8 1/2 hours?!

A Kristin entry...

People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one. —Leo Burke

As you can from these photos, Fern was happy as a clam at high tide this morning, perhaps because she slept for eight-and-a-half-hours-straight last night! We don't know whether this is the beginning of a trend or simply a fluke, but we're hoping for the former. (I did, of course, check periodically to make sure she was still breathing... it seemed too good to be true!)

mom & daughter

Just a little good morning shot of mom and daughter. Fern seems to have settled into an actual bedtime of around 9 or 9:30, which is quite nice for us. She'll also usually sleep through the night with just a short food call: four or five hours at a stretch is pretty common. What a good girl!

grandma Linda gets Sven practice

Grandma Linda arrived today for some Sven practice! It seems that when a grandparent is here, Fern tends to be on her best behavior -- no extreme crying jags, pretty good dinner skills, and lots of smiles. She can't even walk but she's already learned to show off!

Related Photos on Flickr : Linda, Sven
File Under : Linda, Sven

some miscellanous face shots

We've been collecting a lot of nice expressions; you may have seen many of these as my "faceroll" shots, or on the expressions slide show. Here are a couple more we've captured just in the past few days, presented with no bothersome accompanying text! (This mostly means I'm getting lazy.)

the ringleader returns!

Kelley, who as you know was the organizer of the month of food deliveries, came to finish it up on Monday night with one final meal. Little did she know she was going to be asked to feed Fern, too, but as you can see, she did brilliantly! We are so grateful to Kelley for organizing it and promise to pay her back for it someday!

You'll notice from her pinky, I hope, that Fern has been learning her teatime manners!

a visit to work

We took advantage of a "meet and greet" at City College to introduce Fern to some of her future teachers and colleagues, and, as you can see, to Chancellor Day, as well! Fern seemed most at home in a room of a hundred people; either she's truly a social animal or else she jsut likes the white noise.

two dads

I have one last photo to post from our museum outing... me & my daughter & my dad in the park!

Especially since it's all you can see of her, I want to point out that the hat Fern's wearing was knitted for us by Graham's friend & former coworker Kristi!

an outing with Fern's grandparents

Saturday came, and Alan & Laura came over with rolls & berries (a pleasant surprise breakfast!) to get us ready for our museum outing. Of course, getting ready for an outing is never all the assorted tools & materials required for keeping a baby happy, so we called on grandma Lola to comfort & hold while we ran around taking care of all that. Then we were off on our long walk into the new De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park.

We brought the stroller along with us, although it turns out that was mostly to carry our bags and coats. (Fern spent the entire four-mile walk in her Baby Björn!) She was an angel, though. Not too interested in the art (what can you expect? it was modern), but she seemed to enjoy being outside, hearing and smelling and maybe even seeing new things.

The museum has an attached garden, and although I question the landscaper's logic in putting them in all the sunny spots, the place is teeming with ferns! So we had to take at least one photo of Fern & parents in amongst her namesake plants:

first dinner out

As you probably know, Kristin and I really love to eat out at some of San Francisco's finest restaurants. The finest of the fine, of course, is our local bistro, Le Metro Café. The idea of going out in the middle of a potential "witching hour," though, was a little daunting. But if we're going to bite the bullet anywhere, it should be at the Metro, where we've become something of a regular fixture. So, with Sven in tow, we headed down the block so grandpa Alan & grandma Laura could buy us all dinner... what's the worst that could happen?

Nothing bad, it turns out! We had a wonderful dinner, with Fern even taking an active interest in what was around her for a little while after her own feeding (right at the table!). I can tell as I write these words that for those of you who are parents this will seem like no great feat -- I mean, you go out with your babies all the time, right? But for us, it felt like a real accomplishment that we'll have to repeat! Now that we know that we can go out, the sky's the limit, right?

more grandparents!

Grandpa Alan & Grandma Laura came to visit this weekend, and on the very first afternoon, grandpa gave feeding a try. (Fern's only gotten bottles at all for a little over a week now, and only from Graham, so far.)

It's a challenging operation, as you can see, made all the more so because of the suspicious look Fern casts on you the whole time. She's actually pretty good at it -- at times, she'll take 100cc over 20 minutes! -- but it's still not her favorite way to feed, especially if there are any distractions. (Light, especially, can distract her, but we've had so little sunlight recently I just didn't have the heart to close more curtains!)

He didn't do half badly, as you can see from the technique, and, in the picture below, he got good results!

We somehow seemed to miss all the Lola-holding-Fern picture opportunities today... a great oversight, since she certainly did her part! We'll make sure to even out the picture-taking tomorrow.

We've got some fun plans for the weekend, including Fern's first trip to a restaurant tonight and the art museum tomorrow... stay tuned!

Incidentally, unlike some of the grandparent clan, Alan hasn't picked a specific name yet, but Laura reports that her nieces call her "Lola," so she's going with that!

Here's a link to the photos featuring Alan or Laura, or (Lola).

Related Photos on Flickr : Alan, Laura, feeding
File Under : Alan, Laura, feeding

the drumroll please... SIX WEEKS!

Yep, believe it or not, we've hit six weeks! (As a side note, this is blog entry number 100!) Appropriately, Kristin today started pulling out the 6 month clothing from storage. (Fern is big, that's true, but to some degree these manufacturers just don't know how to size their clothing!)

Anyway, as part of the celebration, I thought I'd post another "face" series here, which of course, I've also added to the "expressions" slide show. I also animated a typical crib session for you... as you can see, Fern is not afraid to let us know what she's thinking!

One of the most exciting things about month two is that Fern has started to look at (and occasionally even interact with) the high-contrast toys and books we've got for her. I've tried to capture some of those expressions in this set... Here you go!

a stuffed freezer!

A Kristin entry...

Never eat more than you can lift.

—Miss Piggy

With all of the gourmet goodies coming our way (most recently from Granna and Grumpa and Alex and Jo Anne), I was inspired to organize our freezer ... what a refreshing change of pace from the usual chaos!

A Graham addendum...

It's a good thing, too, that Kristin organized when she did, because as you can see from the newly-refilled freezer, Alex & Jo Anne took the "let's feed Graham & Kristin" mandate very seriously! At their visit on Thursday, we got: quiche lorraine, Bolognese sauce, shepherd's pie, and Belgian leek tart, all labeled with ingredients and reheating instructions! Wow, guys --- that's above and beyond, all the more so considering that Jo Anne's still recuperating from hurting her back and you've still got your entire new house to put together! We're just overwhelmed by your efforts!

Unfortunately, they couldn't stay to eat with us, so we'll have to plan a thank-you dinner sometime soon!

Some of you may remember Alex & Jo Anne as the couple who rescued us during Fern's first outing, when Graham idiotically locked us out of the house!

Auntie Rekha

Auntie Rekha
Originally uploaded by grahampc.

Rekha came over a couple of days ago to bring us some homemade dal (and a serving of coo, as you can see).

For those of you on my side of the family, Rekha is Kristin's early-childhood friends from Minnesota.