Hot Off the Camera!

Check out our new Picasa album! Full of pics from our trip to Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, plus the visit by Grandpa John and Grandma Cheri Spitzer.

Reinforcements Arrive

Well -- quite the woolly weekend here at Rancho Spitzero / Casa Grossa. The Spitzer grandparents made it into town Thursday afternoon, fresh off their conquest of Italy. We celebrated by eating Laotian food. Ez now weighs about twice what he did when Grandma and Grandpa saw him last (a half-ounce shy of 11 lbs, last we checked!). It was touching to see grandparents and grandson reunited, and they lavished him and us with many gifts of Roman origin.

Friday I worked all damn day and begged people for money all evening (become a member here!). Saturday we breakfasted together and did a fair amount of sitting around, then we let the grandparents babysit while mom and dad went on a run together. This was the first joint exercise of its kind in ... oh, let's see ... a year. It was beautiful out, with the leaves changing in Lincoln Park, and we felt like a million bucks. We were phenomenally grateful for the chance to do it. But wait -- it gets better. That night, we actually went to a movie together! We had attempted to do this once before with baby in tow, the result being that I watched almost all of Tropic Thunder while Ash and Ezra haunted the lobby. Big fun. Anyway, this time we left the kid with the grandparents again and took in a flick all by ourselves. This was the longest Ash had ever been away from Ezra, the first time we had someone other than us feed him, and -- weirdest of all, to me -- the first time we drove together without Ez in the car seat. I kept checking the rearview to see if he was back there somewhere.

Today we embarked on Ezra's first walk in the woods. We headed out to Morton Arboretum to take in the fall colors. However it seems like we, and about 500,000 other Chicago families, mistimed the peak colors a tad, as most trees were still pretty green. But hey -- we like green. Anyway it was a beautiful day, we saw lovely foliage, we ate roasted corn and we saw gourds carved into cat shapes by middle-aged liberal women. Can't think of a better way to spend an afternoon.

The grandparents return to Ohio tomorrow, and back to the office for Papa. And now, to bed.

Much love,
Gabe, Ash and Ez

Adventures in Babysitting

It's amazing how quickly you can go from being a person who is annoyed by crying babies on airplanes to one who does the annoying. It's not a transition we were eager to make. Lucky for us, the kid decided to show us (and our neighboring passengers) some mercy on both flights -- from Boston to New York, and then on to Chicago. He slept almost the whole time.

The successful flight home followed a glorious weekend with a few rough patches thrown in. The wedding we attended (two friends of mine -- that is, Gabe's -- from college) was lovely. It was traditional and elegant, but not at all stuffy or overly formal. The groom's brother gave the Mother of All Wedding Toasts, the highlight of which was him presenting me, of all people, with a very special yarmulke -- it had in embossed silver letters: "McCain '08." He got it at a Beverly Hills bar mitzvah, where he describes seeing hundreds of orthodox Jews davening, with black "McCain '08" kippot bobbing up and down ...

It was great fun showing off the kiddo to all my old friends. He was a huge hit with the ladies, especially -- that's the bride's thumb he's holding in that pic.

The bride and groom sprung for babysitters for the rehearsal dinner, the ceremony, the reception -- basically everything. The sitter the first night was all of 14 years old. Not that she wasn't perfectly bright, but we wondered how much experience she had with a 2-month old. However, we strapped the bewildered 9th-grader into the Weego and fastened Ezra to her. We figured that, short of walking into a wall, there wasn't much she could do to hurt him. She did just fine, but the baby, um, did not. He got pretty pissed off almost every time we left him (we checked on him every half-hour or so). This trend continued the next day, when the babysitter (a geriatric gal who we were pretty sure has held an infant or two in her day) seemed a tad unhinged by Ezra's robust vocalizations. To be fair, Ez had been having a great week, but turned sort of sour friday afternoon. So it might not have been the best days to test out the babysitter routine.

When we were with him, though, he was a prince. Even though it probably bodes ill that he's not happy unless mom or dad is holding him, it feels gratifying to be able to pick him up and see him calm down. For weeks, it seemed like we had no power to console him at all. Now, at least, it feels like we can soothe him when we need to. Most of the time.

In other developmental news, all the trendlines are moving in the right direction in terms of head control, eye contact and smiliness. One new addition: gurgling. And the occasional spit bubble. I remember being really fascinated by spit and its many propoerties when I was a very little kid. I look forward to Ezra becoming a student of saliva in his own right.

This week has produced many, many adorable photos -- too many to post here. So we may put together another photo album and update the slideshow at the bottom of this page.

And lastly ... today's Poop Report: Like a firecracker in a can of spinach.

Much love,
Gabe, Ash and Ez

Island Living

Greetings from Martha's Vineyard - which the likes of us somehow managed to infiltrate! Ezra did fabulously well on the plane, bus and ferry. Aside from a few squawks, he slept and drew lots of compliments. As soon as we landed, visibly relieved passengers nearby said, "Wow, he was great." These are the same passengers who eyed us with terror as we boarded. Let's keep it up on the way home, little guy!

It's been a week of a lot of firsts for Ezra. First glimpse of the ocean, first time meeting his great uncle Thru, first time sleeping somewhere other than his bassinet.
He's slept through a lot of the scenery, unfortunately, but I'm sure in a year or two he'll be ready to build sand castles and dig up beach bugs.

But we've been missing Papa Gabe. It's sad to be separated by so many miles. I'm sure Ezra misses Daddy's rap lullabies and gentle diaper changes. (Daddy takes extra special care - Mama is all about slapping on a new diaper before he whizzes all over her.) In just a few days, Ezra's already made great strides holding his head up and definitely looks bigger. So Gabe will be impressed, I'm sure, with his son's progress! Tomorrow we'll be reunited, and then it's on to Pat and Christine's wedding. Fun times!

Love,
Ash, Ez (and Gabe, who's spending the day atoning)

Bi-Coastal

Yesterday I (Papa) dropped off Ash and Ezra at O’Hare for their cross-country odyssey. This was a difficult thing to do, to watch them roll off into the distance, all Dad-less and self-sufficient Nevertheless, I came home and rather enjoyed life without spit-up and poopy diapers and 3am wake-up calls. By this morning, I found that I really miss spit-up and poopy diapers and 3am wake-up calls. I also have found that every time I walk past his bassinet I look inside, expecting Ezra to be in there. This even happens, weirdly, when I walk to my car and look in the back where his car seat goes. Family separation does odd things to the brain.

Ash and Ez managed to make the Herculean trip with great deftness and grace. I’m told the kiddo handled the plane well (on mama’s lap the whole way), and managed to sleep through almost all of it. They negotiated the intermodal transfers to bus and ferry, and still: Ezra held up beautifully. I hear he finally melted down when he was in Grandma Andi’s car on the way from the ferry to their house on Martha’s Vineyard. But by then there were only Ash and Andi there to disturb -- and really, who cares about them? Ha, I kid. I feel pretty safe in saying I would have thrown a tantrum by then, too. So in all, it’s a huge relief that they made their journey without incident.

All the grandparents and an aunt or two have remarked on Ezra’s progress over the last few weeks. He really is filling out great -- was one ounce shy of the big Ten Pounds threshold when they left town yesterday morning … he probably hit 10 by dinner time.

He’s also begin to vocalize a tiny bit … not quite babbling, but something different from the usual cooing, moaning and grunting. I am convinced that he is saying his name … something like: “Egh-ruh.” He has said this several times over the last week, though seemingly only in my presence. Funny how that works. I like to think his first “word” came two weeks ago, when he clearly enunciated: “Egg-boo.” Though, again, I have no other witnesses to substantiate it. The definition of Egg-boo has been subject to debate in scholarly circles. It’s been posited that it’s derivative of a middle English term for “Dad, it is so awesome when you rub diaper rash balm into my butt cheeks.” I’ll check the OED.

Not much else to report for now. Ash is going to attempt to post a dispatch or two from out east, and I’ll head out to join them on Friday.

Egg-boo,
Gabe (sans Ash and Ez)

P.S. Today's Poop Report: Distant.