Favorite things

I often write about my adventures with Joaquin but less about what he is doing day to day. Part of the purpose of this blog is to record the wonder of the first days of Joaquin's life. So this entry is about his favorite things.

Probably my favorite thing about Joaquin, second only to how unbelieveable cute he is, is his laugh. It's a giggle with a few belly coughs. These days I can usually get him to laugh with one his favorite songs like Two Little Kitty Cats, when we get to the part at the end where I touch is nose. He also cracks up when you kiss his neck. I think he is ticklish there. We have been trying to record his laugh and here is our best attempt in video.




I would guess that Joaquin's favorite thing is kicking. He loves to kick anything he can get his feet on. Almost every waking moment, he probes the air with his feet testing if there is any solid object in his reach. When he finds a arm rest or counter, he contently kicks and pushes against it with all his little might.

Joaquin is also crazy about music. Really. Lots of parents say their kid likes music. But for Joaquin, the ultimate soother is a song. His favorite music seems to be reggae and latin rhythms. An observer peaking in on his naps will find him snoozed to One Drop playing on loop. In fact driving through New York City, we discovered he loves Romantica. It keep him from grousing in his carseat. Joaquin is more soothed by music and songs than by nursing. That's unusual.

For the last two months Joaquin has been fascinated by his hands. This is separate from chewing on them. He is often seen pondering his hand. First it was their basic existance. Then it was touching all the fingers together and staring intently. In Italy he mastered the "Ma che fai" (But what are you doing?) hand gesture. Now he is onto pressing his thumb and forefinger together in the OK sign.

His fourth month of life was probably my favorite so far, along with the first dreamy month. Joaquin became a cheery family member. Always greeting me and Daniel with a big smile.

The food in Italy is delicious. We dined at a roadside restaurant en route to a small hill town outside rome. Really the town of Ceri would make no guidebook compared to the province of Lazio's multitude of sights. But it was a good choice for a baby hike.



Joaquin loves this new baby carrier. Daniel carried it up from the basement the day before we left. The Sherpani carrier was a gift from our friends Roger and Lucy. They found in it a unnamed dumpster in Berkeley, perfectly new minus a small cosmetic tear in the fabric. I didnt think I would really use it. But it is baby transport mode of choice at the moment.


Here is Joaquin in happy baby pose with his Auntie Jaya.


Another few pictures because I think my boys are really cute.

Babymoon Last Hurrah- Rome

We are in Rome visiting my papa and family. It is the last hurrah of my babymoon with Joaquin before I return to work next month. I have the fortune of having visited Rome many times before. But this is the first with an infant in tow. Joaquin took two days to adjust to the nine hour time change and to two teenage aunties but is now settled into his happy 5 month old self.

Today we took a lovely walk around the Aventino. The Aventino is a very, very, old hill that has views of the Circo Maximo, Caracalla baths and the entire city. It was a neighborhood for the plebian folks in the Rome Republican times around 450 B.C. The Aventino's proximity to the Palentine hill and its elegant patrician homes led the neighborhood to become gentrified in the first century A.D. Gentrification is an age old problem I guess. What did Sophocles have to say about that?
Our walk took us by the Circo Maximo with its spectacular view of the Palantine (home to Romulus founder of Rome, Augusta the first emperor to reside on the hill.) We walked by a very old rose garden but it was closed. Chiuso. Somehow Daniel and I have a fond spot for all the restaurants, sites, and shops that are irregularly and frequently chiuso.
Next we visited Parco Savello a walled garden of orange trees that I had never been to before.

We circled back home through the now posh Aventino neighborhood where the sounds of bird chirping replaced the din of diesel cars and motorscooters.

Aww

These last weeks have been quite blissful. I want to record it. Joaquin smiles and laughs. He contently sucks his fingers. He kicks his socks off at every opportunity. He holds his toys and is pleased with himself for doing so. Yes we are thoroughly enjoying this 4 month old stage. I can't tell you how cute I think he is. I never thought my baby would compare with San Diego's baby panda. But he does.

Where's Joaquin?

Can you find Joaquin in this photo?

This is a picture from Tuesday of the lovely mamas group I am a part of. I arrived a little late this past Tuesday so the babies were all just waking up from naps. Luckily I missed the pre-nap bawling since I was recovering from a headache from the previous night's Vote Solar Equinox Fundraiser. The mamas group has gotten more and more fun as the babies have more tricks to share and less rocking and shushing is needed.

In the picture from left to right: Clio, Rishi, Vitality, Joaquin, Serenity, Orion, Kamari

Perfectly Joaquin

Who is Joaquin Rafael Eyzaguirre Sherwood? No one knows yet. Perhaps I see a glimmer of his future personality. For example, he is very focused on his task at hand, most often chewing his hand. And the world around him doesn't matter. He hardly flinches at a door slammed, doesn't mind sunlight in his eyes and can sleep through live rock bands. In that way he reminds me of Daniel. Daniel can productivity design solar power arrays at the dining room table while Joaquin and I sing and dance around the room. He just tunes us out. He also seems pleased with himself when he accomplishes a little goal. Like pulling a felt monkey off his playmat or rolling from tummy to back. Those are only guesses. We'll see. Daniel wonders if he'll be opinionated like me.

Last week I learned that I must work on recognizing that Joaquin is who he is. To be honest to myself, I have been a little disappointed that Joaquin is not a placid, observant baby. As I read in the Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg "During nine months of pregnancy, virtually all parents come to have an image of the baby they're expecting... This is especially true of older mums and dads who ... have waited to their thirities or forties to start a family". I thought if I meet Joaquin's needs- which I am proud to say I do well- then he would just be a quiet, cute observer that I tote along to the pleasant rhythm of my childless days. Hogg writes about this too: "successful women who leave thriving careers to become mothers... think that you can impose your management skills onto your baby, and you may be surprised, dissappointed, or angry when your infant doesn't cooperate. You're having a moment of denial, luv, believing that life with Baby will continue to be just as it was before he arrived." Okay I am not alone.

In real life, Joaquin is an active little boy. He is always trying to do something. Grab for a toy, chew his fingers, stand in my lap, rub his face for a nap. He's all snips and snails and puppy dog tails. That's what little boys are made of. And he is so cute doing it all. He is a wonderful baby. A sleeper any parent would dream of- he goes for naps like a family dog and knows that the dark if for sleeping. So I have decided that I must recognize that he is and will always be prefectly Joaquin and I am going to love and set my expectations appropriately for that. Because what a lame parent I would be if I set my expectations for a baby that never fussed, went along with all my wants and when he didn't cooperate, I called that failure. Yes, let's try to nip that in bud in Joaquin's infancy.

But I will also confess before I came to this Zen moment, I took the quiz in the Hogg book for what kind of baby do I have. I made Daniel take it too for a more objective opinion. (HA!) I was so worried that I would have the Grumpy or Touchy baby. But Joaquin turns out not to be an Angel baby, no shock there. He is a Textbook baby with a few characteristics of the Spirited baby and a few of the Angel. Whew.

Joaquin Rolls Over

Joaquin will be 4 months old next week. Today he rolled over for the first time. I thought he would roll from back to tummy as he has been rolling onto his side for several weeks now. However today when I placed him on his playmat, he pushed himself up into a mini-push. This is the classic cute baby pose.

Then he pushed off a bit with his feet and as his head is so heavy (his head was in the 85% for size at his two month check-up), he rolled right over onto his tummy.
He played for several more hours on his playmat this afternoon but has yet to repeat his new trick.

The other baby news is that he now happily sleeps in a portable crib at the foot of our bed. He loved sleeping in our bed for the first few months. I loved it to. When he was a newborn, he first fell asleep on either Daniel or my chest. In a few weeks, he was sleeping snuggled under our arms like a baby bird. Then I began to roll him over to his own place in the bed after each nightly nursing. By three months, he didn't like to be disturbed in his sleeping by an arm or the head of his parents. So we got him a cute portable crib. In a few months, when he's waking less and the SIDS most dangerous time is over, I'll move him into his own room. I am liking this easy natural sleeping progression. But I realize I am lucky and Joaquin is a sleeper. Plus, after my mom mentioned that perhaps he should go to bed and naps on his own, I have been laying him down after a song wrapped in his blanket. After a few rustlings and yelps, much like my old dog Wiley circling his bed for a snooze, he goes right to sleep.