Our Double Life

Months before Luca saw daylight, we signed him up for daycare. We were delighted with ourselves for being so decisive, and felt even better about getting in line when we found out that the first spot wouldn't open until February. Signing up baby-to-be was a piece of cake.

The only conundrum was what do to in the meantime? Since T is in school and my employers were game, we decided to split childcare. We envisioned me having Luca in the morning, and T having him in the afternoon. Reality has required a more fluid approach and a lot more baby time in my office, but it's worked well enough that when the spot opened in February we took a pass.

Since I started back to work, Luca has strolled the halls of Carlson and has attended more meetings than I can count. As it turns out, having a baby is a real icebreaker, especially a vocal one like Luca. He looks around a table and squawks at whoever talked last. And around the office, he's earned the nickname "Baby Prozac." Now he's just got to get on the payroll...

Luca at 8 Months

At 8 months, Luca is a chatty, content little bundle. He hasn't yet produced any recognizable words but he laughs and babbles all day long. That seems to be where all his energy is going because so far, he has shown little inclination toward self-propelled movement. Even intensive training in T's crawling boot camp hasn't gotten any results.

Though he occasionally exhibits some stranger danger, Luca is a friendly baby and just this week learned to wave "hello." He particularly likes other kids, whether in photos or in real life. As a matter of fact, photo birth announcements and Valentine's Day cards now double as his favorite toy/snack.

He also still eats like a champ, and has graduated to finger foods. Granted, only one of every ten cereal puffs ends up in his mouth...but he'll get the hang of it eventually.

Snow Emergency

There is a fresh blanket of snow on the ground, saving us from the sight of receding ice patches. While a peek at the grass underneath was a treat, we weren't fooled into thinking that winter could be done with us. After all, March is usually our snowiest month, and we have a baby who was made for winter.



Right before the snow began to fall, a bit of California came to town. By some strange chance, one of my high school classmates was in Minneapolis to screen his Merlot documentary and thanks to the wonders of Facebook we found out about it in time to get tickets. Rudy's movie is entertaining whether or not you went to St. Helena High (though a cameo from my geometry teacher was a personal highlight) and it, along with a visit from Papa and Gigi, managed to give us a healthy California fix.

Adventures in Babysitting

We ran into a Luca-sitting emergency this week. Luckily for him, Auntie Sara, Mattie and Ben Casey came to the rescue and spent Thursday morning keeping him happy, fed and entertained. From the photographs they sent, it is clear that Luca enjoyed himself at Johnson 5 Headquarters. And that he wants to eat Ben's toes.

Luca at 7 Months

There's no other way to put it. At 7 months, Luca is perfect.

He continues to struggle a little with sleep, but his sweetness takes the edge off of our own sleep deprivation. And because he seems to want to stay awake in order to play and learn more, we can't really fault him. Aside from his 2 a.m. cries, he's incredibly easy going about everything from the Minnesota cold to spending time with me at the office.

Developmentally, this month has been about refining his skills - dexterity, sitting, eating. He LOVES eating. He also loves other little ones and had his first playdate on Superbowl Sunday.



He must know I'm talking about him because he's waking up from his nap right now. I'll wrap this one up with some thoughts from T...

A couple fatherly observations of our 7-month-old wondermight:

He has a keen sense for danger.
Evidence: When very tired, even when seemingly asleep in our arms, the little guy senses when the threshold is crossed between our dining room and bedrooms. He knows that his crib is approaching and to alert us all of the terrible inevitable future, his head immediately shoots up, eyes wide open, and he begins to sound the unhappy alarm.

He is developing mad ball skills.
Evidence: Ok, actually he has only three motor skills that I can discern: 1) he can take things from the ground and bring them to his drool-hole, 2) he can bang things together, and 3) my personal favorite, he can drop/fling things. He hasn't quite figured out that he can open his hands and spread his fingers to drop something with which he has tired; instead, he has discovered that if he swings his arms frantically, often the thing(s) crammed between his fingers will go flying and he will have thus dropped the boring whatever(s). What kills us about this skill is that the only trajectory he has figured out for his arm-flailing begins with his hands spread out even with his shoulders and ends with a flapping motion in which he brings his hands crashing down directly into his crotch and then immediately back up again. He repeats this crotch-bashing until his toy(s) finally go flying out of his sticky fingers.
Point guard, Gophers, 2026

Superbowl Sunday

We're ready for Luca's first superbowl. Next year will be even better, when the Vikings will surely be playing for all the marbles. GO PURPLE!

Everybody Dance Now

This weekend, the De La Salle cheering legend known to us as "Aunt Nic" brought her college cheer team home to perform at the winter cheer competition. Her team showcased their skills and left no doubt that Nic is the star of the squad.





And speaking of performances, Luca got his first taste of rock'n'roll today at Rock the Cradle. Though the event was geared toward the thousands of minis swarming the Childrens Theatre, the music satisfied little ones and parents alike. Luca certainly enjoyed it.

(Luca & Jeremy Messersmith)

Hair and Now

Last week's deep freeze let up just in time for T to take a quick weekend trip to Vegas. Though we missed him terribly, we fared well and had the pleasant distraction of Baby Backer's shower on Saturday. Luca was both the only baby and the only boy in attendance, and was quite a hit.

In style news, the little man has been rocking a pretty ridiculous hairdo for the last several weeks - long up top and on the sides. At some point it might need a trim, but at this point it does anything but diminish his cuteness.

And the best actor in a terribly filmed home movie goes to...

We are sitting watching the Golden Globes, thankful for the miracle of getting to see Slumdog Millionaire a couple of weeks ago. The miracle is in being given the time to go to the movies, which we figure we'll get to do about twice a year for the next little while. That is, until Luca's old enough for kid movies at which point we'll become animated movie afficionados, for better or for worse.

For now we have full-time, at-home entertainment, with most of our time spent trying to get a laugh out of the little prince.

Luca at 6 Months

There's some truth behind this slightly embarrassing photo. We've always found Luca's baby fingers and toes to be edibly cute, and at 6 months the temptation seems to have spread to his head - and all 18 1/4 lbs and 27 3/4 inches of him.

The only bad news to report is that Luca still hasn't mastered sleep. That aside, he is such a great baby. Snapping, clapping and blowing raspberries all get a giggle out of him, and we have come to interpret his biting of noses and chins as a sign of affection. He is sitting up well and doing barrel rolls whenever given enough room and motivation (a bright toy).

This month he moved beyond rice cereal and is now eating applesauce, banana, prune, and sweet potato. And his first tooth has broken through - this time we mean it!

Christmas

Luca's first Christmas was great from start to finish. In the morning, we woke to find evidence of Santa's visit - a wooden sled under the tree. After taking the little marshmallow for a spin, we headed over to the Marsdens' for a cup of Christmas coffee. Then we spent a relaxing rest of the day at Papa and Gigi's. We missed those we didn't get to celebrate with in person, and hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Christmas Eve

White Christmas

We are fresh home from a pre-Christmas holiday in Park City - and looking at the U.S. weather map, we're lucky to have made it home. In fact, Omi was nearly stranded in Salt Lake City but last we heard was headed home thanks to her winning ways and a kind-hearted customer service agent.

Our Luca brought his Minnesota hardiness to the mountains and seems to have grown a few degrees cuter during our vacation. He found the house to be well-equipped for babies (thanks Dodsons & Racciattis!) and no doubt left some drool behind on a new favorite toy.





While we were gone, a snow elf named Chris stopped by and cleared our sidewalk and walkway of the several inches of snow that accumulated while we were away. Luca's first Christmas is sure to be a white one, and though he's still too little to take notice, we're looking forward to Santa's first visit.

Luca, meet Cereal

Our cool customer had his first experience with food-from-a-spoon this weekend.



In other exciting news, T is almost done with finals and will soon on be on winter break. Gigi has been spending some quality time with Luca in the meanwhile, helping us through this busy stretch and bonding with the little man.

To get in the holiday spirit we saw A Christmas Carol with the Hegstroms. As T says, it was totally awesome. What is not so awesome? A forecasted high tomorrow of NEGATIVE 2.

Luca Claus

Winter has arrived, and with it, the pretty white stuff. With our holiday spirit in tow we went down to Java Jack's, the local coffee shop which doubles as a seasonal purveyor of Christmas trees, and picked out Luca's first tree. He seems to enjoy decorating almost as much as his mother does.