laughing, strolling, & rolling

So what's up these days with our main man? Yes, you know ... Baby Awesome. Well, here it is in our patented photo essay format (popular with both the art-history-types and family-types):

Well, on Thanksgiving Day, little Holden began smiling at mommy and daddy (and I'm not talking the sleep smiling he's been doing for weeks, but some real smiles and even a giggle or two).
And, he's been taking short journeys in his stroller to the local Gelateria down the street, like this recent trip with Grandpa Campbell. The weather has been so warm in November, Holden's been able to get out way more than we ever thought he would.
And finally, the little bit made his first official roll from his stomach to his back today (although he had an "unofficial" roll over a week ago, but we think that was just blind luck). No pictures of the roll, but we'll snatch a video probably very soon.

Just for good measure -- to help balance out all the cuteness and milestones -- here's a picture of Holden doing what he does best ... crying! And notice that his onesie says on it "100% fun," which is ironic when he's crying like this. But he's still so darn cute.

What's Holden looking at?

First of all, to anyone who thinks we're lying when we say that Holden is EXTREMELY active for a 3-week-old, we'll post some videos showing his way-too-regular level of activity and curiosity (which usually leads to frustration due to his inability to crawl or talk yet ... although he is able to scoot and roll himself around in any way he can).

One of the things we've come to realize is that Holden absolutely loves to look around -- so much so that when we distract him from looking around, he gets really angry. But what is he looking at? Well, here's the question of the week.

Here's a short video clip of Holden's typical stare at certain objects in our house (he's really grown a liking to some random things he enjoys staring at intensely for long periods of time). Guess what Holden is looking at here (your choices follow the video):

Option 1: Lamp behind the couch.

Option 2: Painting by our friend Rachel Wagner.

Option 3: Ceiling fan.

Well, in this case, it was the mesmerizing ceiling fan (which is one of his favorite things to look at ... I mean, who's to argue with a 3-week-old). But he also enjoys looking outside during the day, and gazing out the window at the street lights in the alley at night.

And, of course, looking at daddy...

Those ears!

While both Mike and I think Holden is the cutest thing from head to toe, one of our favorite features on our little munchkin are his wonderful elfish ears. So much personality in these little dangling lobes! These I'll claim as a Campbell feature--I'll admit that underneath my thick brown hair I have quite the lobes myself, though not quite as wondrous as my dad's, which were nearly as cute as his sweet hairdo in his baby pictures (see previous post).

Without further ado, I present a few pictures in honor of these little lobes:

And obviously, Holden's partial to his own ears too:

If Holden had been a Halloween baby...

...this is what he would have worn for the holiday:

It glows in the dark! And incidentally, the reason he's been wearing it a lot over the past week is because its one of the few "newborn" sized outfits that actually fits our newborn (loosely). It's amazing how much the sizes range from company to company on these onesies! There must be some LONG legged newborns out there in the world.

He's starting to grow out of it now though, and out of the preemie diapers too. Finally those 5-packs of white onesies we got as gifts are coming in handy, especially since he can run through two outfits in one diaper changing. Oy. This little guy likes to pee when he's free.

"boy, he looks just like ________"

Holden went out for his first "outing" today, since it's still unseasonably warm for November (and we need to take advantage of every minute of it before it's freezing cold and rainy ... like next week). We strolled down to the Gelateria down the street, and said hi to owners Dana and Chris (who confirmed that their daughter Nora would be able to eat Holden, he's so small). But most importantly, now that we're a bit more out and about, people are saying the infamous phrase: "boy, he looks just like _______."

This post has been a long time in the making, as we've spent months collecting baby photos of ourselves and various family members to see where Holden is getting his dashing good looks. Here is the visual data, so you make the decision. Most agree (including me) that Holden looks most like a Campbell; furthermore, that he looks very much like his mommy. However, I'm more recently making the argument that Holden also looks a decent amount like my brother, and a little like me (although not much ... sniffle, sniffle). Let us know what you think.

Pictures of Holden during his first 9 days (above).
Baby photos of Bryna (above).
Baby photos of the Campbell boys/men (from left to right, we have Bryna's brothers Bob and Will followed by her dad, now Grandpa John).
And finally, the Murawski brothers (me on the far left, and two pics of my brother Mark in center and to the right).

Mostly, Holden looks like Holden ... and that's OK.

Week 1!

Yesterday at 10 pm, little Holden turned one-week old! There's so much we still have yet to learn about the little guy, but already we've come to know each other pretty well.

So in honor of his first-week birthday, I present 5 fun facts about Holden:

1) Holden will instantly quiet if we turn on the sink faucet. Apparently it sounded like running water in my uterus.

2) His little tush is so tiny he wears preemie diapers.

3) He is already sleeping in his crib. Sort of, anyway...

4) He is dead tired in the late afternoon... but not so much in the late night hours.

5) And...he likes to cross his legs like this, which explains so much about the kicks I felt in-utero:

What's in a name?

Us newby parentals are continuing to settle in to our schedule of no sleep, few meals, lack of showering, new found interest in daytime and late night TV, and almost no time outside of the house -- and it's worth every second of it! Holden is such a perfect little boy, and he's been doing really well settling in after his own traumatic birth experience (we always have to remember what the baby goes through during that process, worsened by that darn vacuum pump ... poor little fella).

So this brings me to one of the most common questions we've been getting: Why did you name him Holden? As I often do in my work as a museum educator, I'm going to leave that question out there and explore some responses people have had to this name (very constructivist of me, eh?).

Holden -- pronounced HOHL-den

1) Is it a family name?
Nope, or at least not that we know of. And I'm not sure why everyone assumes that your children's names have to be from family names.

2) Is he named after 1950s Academy-Award-winning actor William Holden?
Wrong again. In fact, Bryna and I had never heard of him until people started asking. However, we're very OK with any associations between our son and Hollywood's "Golden Boy" (also played Joe Gillis in the original Sunset Boulevard). For one thing, he was quite the dashing young man, and apparently quite the actor, too. And he's was born just across the river from us in O'Fallon, Illinois (fancy that). However, his career ended in tragic loneliness and alcoholism, so perhaps we'll steer clear of this name connection.

3) Is he named after the town of Holden, Missouri?
No way! This one was really from left field. This town of 2,500 residents is famous for ... well, nothing I could find. So, while we may drive through this town on the way from the Lake of the Ozarks to Kansas City one day, I think we'll keep his name free of any associations with this small dot on the map.

4) Is he named after the Australian GM-subsidiary car company Holden?
Random reference: yes. Connected to our son's name: no. But I wish. First of all, their logo/slogan (seen below) is "Holden. Go Better." I LOVE THAT, and need to print that on some onesies or something. Second, Holden automobiles were featured in many classic 1950s American films, including several Humphrey Bogart flicks, Hitchcock movies such as The Birds, and an Otto Preminger film featuring a sexy leading actor named ... wait for it ... William Holden.
4) Is he named after Holden Caufield, the narrator and protagonist of J.D. Salinger's 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye?
Ding, ding, ding ... we have a winner! Although, we did not entirely pick the name from this novel (which is one of my favorite's), after re-reading the entire novel out loud to our own little Holden while he was still in the womb, we both fell in love with the character (even with his imperfections and idiosyncrasies). And we liked the name because it was fairly unique and uncommon.
And I can now take this a step farther: the last name of Salinger's Holden Caufield links to the novel's famous rye-catcher metaphor, in which Holden wants to be the person responsible for catching carefree children playing in a field of rye from obliviously falling off a nearby cliff. A "caul" is a membrane that covers and protects embryos and remains on some babies after birth, so that, in "holding caul" in his rye field metaphor, Holden Caulfield wishes for all children to retain the pure, youthful ignorance they possessed before birth (before being brought into this world)—to, figuratively, retain their caul. Our own little Holden wanted nothing more than to "retain his caul" last week -- to the tune of 53 hours of pure resistance to entering this world and a smattering of post-birth rebelliousness.

People have also asked if anyone knew the name outside of Bryna and myself, and the answer technically is "yes." This past June, our friend Becca totally guessed the name, saying that she thought "Holden" from Salinger's novel would make a great name. I had to, of course, pretend I'd never heard of that novel and that I thought the name was not very interesting at all (while simultaneously panicking that she might see through my cover and peg us on the name, which we had almost completely decided on at that point). So, props to Becca!

Nothing would end this post better than a taste of pure Holden Caufield from Chapter 18 of Salinger's gem:

"The trouble with girls is, if they like a boy, no matter how big a bastard he is, they'll say he has an inferiority complex, and if they don't like him, no matter how nice a guy he is, or how big an inferiority complex he has, they'll say he's conceited."

Holden's new home

After two long nights in the bedroom with his parents, Holden has settled into his new nursery in fine fashion.

Holden (with Mike's help) has decided the animals that hang above him serve as his protectors--Thomas the owl, Sylvester the raccoon, and Henry the hedgehog (not pictured here):

No longer a stranger

Meet Holden, the new addition to the Campbell-Murawski household!

Our little guy was born at 10:01 pm on Nov. 4, after two and a half crazy days of an induced labor. It all started when Mr. Stranger misbehaved at the biophysical ultrasound test on Monday, 11/2, choosing not to "practice breathe" for the amount of time allotted. Because he was past due, our doc decided not to take chances and have me induced in a "slow process" that started with 12 hours of cervidal, a drug designed to soften the cervix, and then a pitocin drip. But Holden/Short Stranger was not ready to arrive quite yet. After two 8-hour rounds of pitocin that didn't really work, the docs broke my water on Wed. morning, and all went smoothly that day.

Or almost--after a quick period of active labor that progressed beautifully, it took 3 1/2 hours of pushing, plus a suction vacuum to get the little guy out. After all this hard work, our little boy arrived absolutely perfect, beautiful, sweet, and ittie bittie, only 6 lbs. 4 oz., 19 1/2 inches long.

The hard labor took a bit of a toll on the little guy, and on Friday night he had to stay an extra night due to jaundice and catch some rays in a billie-bed. But we're now home, happy, and getting to know each other.

Some pictures of the new member of our family:

Playing it cool under the billie-bed while he caught some rays on Friday night:

On the big ride home:
More to come soon!

Short Stranger Arrives!!!

Yesterday, November 4th, the Short Stranger finally arrived into this world, as Holden Michael. He is the most amazing thing ever ... and quite the cutie. Holden and mom are doing great. I'm making this quick post during a stop at home to pick-up some things -- but since there was no real wireless internet at the hospital, we have not been able to post anything since his birth last night. We'll follow-up very soon with several photos, updates, and more "witty" and "not-so-witty" thoughts on what this past week has been like (pretty much all of it spent at the hospital).
Yay!!!

40 week bump goes walking

This week's bump pictures come from one of our long walks in the MO Botanical gardens--the perfect remedy, so we're told, for the overdue baby.

A gorgeous day here finally, after two of the ugliest, wettest days of the season in STL: