RIP Mr. Salinger

Yesterday the author who inspired us to name our boy Holden died at the age of 91. In honor of Holden's namesake, I give you some of my favorite quotes from Catcher in the Rye--many of them great bits of advice, if you ask me.

All morons hate it when you call them a moron. ~Ch. 6

It's really too bad that so much crumby stuff is a lot of fun sometimes. ~Ch. 9

It's no fun to be yellow. Maybe I'm not all yellow. I don't know. I think maybe I'm just partly yellow and partly the type that doesn't give much of a damn if they lose their gloves. ~Ch. 13

Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell. ~Ch. 15

It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to. ~Ch. 21

Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody. ~Ch. 26

VIDEO: Holden Groovin'

OK, I'm going to admit right up front that I'm totally stealing this method of making Holden laugh from Bryna. She's been dancing and rapping with Holden, and he just gets all silly and giggly every time. However, we can't always get it on tape because he sees the camera and instantly stops laughing or giggling and stares at the camera. So this time, I set up a "secret" camera that Holden didn't know about and got some of his silly dancing on tape. He went on like this for about 10 minutes, but I thought that no one would probably watch that entire video (so here's a short clip).

Warning: Daddy may not have the greatest rhythm in the world, but it's good enough for my little buddy.

Holden's first overnight visitor

This is a bit of a belated post, so my apologies to our friend for posting this so late, but a few weeks ago our good friend Becca made the trip from DC to meet Holden, becoming his first overnight visitor (after grandma C., that is, who spent the night here on his first day home).

The trip had been planned months ago while Holden was still just a Short Stranger, so Becca was taking quite a risk. What if the Short Stranger had turned out to be a real problem child? Luckily, though, Holden behaved like a gentleman, and after a few early moments of trepidation, he quickly warmed up to her and the two had a great time together. It probably helped that Becca came bearing gifts, including a lovely handmade knitted hat that you can see him wearing below.
Becca's only regret, I'm guessing, is that she happened to book her trip on what was the coldest weekend of the winter so far. All was made better, though, by a trip to her favorite St. Louis donut shop, "World's Fair Donuts," with quite possibly one of the best shopkeepers here in St. Louis. Because she's quite the fan, Becca couldn't resist getting her picture taken with her:

Mmmm, donuts! Yum!

where did all the baby Bjorns go?

I can't remember if we mentioned this before, but we got like 4 Baby Bjorns as gifts before Holden was born. We got them at showers, at work, and from friends -- we kept getting this as a gift, that it almost became comical (esp. when I got one from the docents at work as a gift just a week or two after getting 2 from other people at work). We, of course, kept one, but returned the others to Target ... and I never spent much time thinking about them or wondering where they might go -- UNTIL TODAY!

If you ever wanted to know where returned baby items go, there seems to be a once-a-year "clearance" where they lay them all out ... and I found our returned Bjorns today sitting there on that shelf. Yes, there were 3, the exact number we returned to that Target! Call me crazy if you wish, but I'm convinced these are them!

p.s. If you are on the market for a Chocolate Brown Baby Bjorn, the Hampton Target store has them on clearance for like $40 each (a steal of a deal!). And be sure to thank us for returning them to the market.

The Week in Pictures

Just wanted to drop in a quick update on this past week, and I thought I would do it photojournalism-style. So here's what's been up this past week:

So last weekend, Holden was super happy baby (as always), playing with daddy ...

... then Holden attended the Museum ground-breaking (got to meet some VIPs and see a cake shaped like the art museum) ...... he fell asleep at the coffee shop (which is always great) ...

... but got really upset at the Mexican restaurant (but we made the outing anyway, which actually went pretty well for our first trip to a restaurant with the boy -- I guess he didn't like the service or something).All ended well, and he went to his first Baby Shower today and behaved like an angel (no photos, though, unfortunately).

Brave new world?

This week the New York Times published a study that kind of freaked me out a bit as a new parent. According to "If Your Kids are Awake, They're Probably Online," children between the ages of 8 and 18 spend an average of 7 1/2 hours a day using a smart phone, computer, TV, or other electronic device. And apparently, that does not include the hour and a half they spend texting, and half-hour they spend talking on the phone. (And actually, the very fact that they spend more time texting than talking on their phone is a bit shocking on its own, but that's a different subject). The article goes on to explain that kids are actually packing in an average of 11 hours of media content into their day since they tend to multi-task their technology. Whoa.

Notably, the heaviest users (16+ hours a day) had a C average or lower, and reported feeling lonely and sad. (Perhaps because they surely aren't sleeping much!)

My first reaction to this study was the impulse to shelter little Holden from such devices; to try to nurture him by getting him outside as much as possible, and to take him to museums, and zoos, and parks. But then I realized that this stuff is ubiquitous and unavoidable--and even quite fun. In fact, I'm a little ashamed to admit that I came across this article while I was on my iPhone...while I was breastfeeding. And even though we try to keep Holden from seeing too much TV, I've realized that he's already watched both of his parents tinker away on their laptops endlessly. Our parents' generation never had to contend with the myriad devices out there today. For us as kids, the VCR was the greatest invention ever. I'm not quite sure how we'll tackle this new parenting terrain, but the very fact that it is such a different world than when we were little is food for thought.

Snugglesaurus

Cats vs. Baby: Ex-Utero Edition

So if you followed the blog when I was pregnant, you may be wondering whatever happened to our situation with the cats. First of all, our cat Tim stopped peeing a looong time ago, so we didn't have to call on the ex-president for help, after all.

In fact, it turns out that so far our worries had been all for naught. For the first four or so weeks, the cats politely avoided the little screaming beast that had interrupted their peaceful lives, and since then they've resumed what we call the cuddle offensive. Fred, especially, has decided that no lap is too small for both baby and cat:
Their only complaint that we can see, anyway, is that they protest to the fact that we've started locking them in the basement at night. But we can live with extra meows; and besides, in general they seem to take their aggression out on each other more than us. Apparently our basement is just a little too small for the three of them to be able to spend the night together peacefully.

Incidentally, Holden's started noticing the cats and following them around with his eyes. So it's only a matter of weeks before he's grabbing their tails! Thus will begin the next chapter of "cats vs. baby."

Bjorn Baby, Bjorn!

It's no secret that I'm not a big fan of the popular Moby wrap -- it just does not suit me. Nothing that starts with a 50-foot piece of cloth is going to end well after being endlessly wrapped and tied around by body (not to mention getting baby inside and settled). While it is possible that my patience is very short with the Moby-thing, I have resorted to the MUCH better secondary option: the Bjorn! Yes, I am referring to the best baby carrier on the market. It's not just manly and cool, but has been featured in such classic Golden-Globe-winning films as "The Hangover." I also found out that the Baby Bjorn is twice as popular as the Moby wrap (so I have lots of company sharing my perspective).

Of course, we've not been able to put Holden into the Bjorn yet since he has been so small. But now that he's been on a real growth kick these past couple of weeks and he's getting vastly improved head control, I thought I would give it a try this past weekend (with lots of pent up excitement and anticipation).

Keeping my fingers crossed (figuratively), I quickly strapped on the Bjorn and snapped everything into place -- yes, I used the work "quickly" to describe this process, which I would never use with the Moby wrap. It all fit perfectly, with little directions needed. And I picked up Holden and slid him in ... again, with little struggle or puzzlement about what fold to wrap around him or how to adjust yards of cloth to get it all just right. And, for a first time, he seemed to like it (a little bit of fussing would be expected with any new carrier). And the second time I placed Holden in the Bjorn on Sunday, he really liked it -- so much that I was able to carry him around while doing some laundry and cleaning up some of his toys and stuff. He got to see everything I did, and I narrated every step of the way (... it's never too early to teach the boy how to do laundy, right?).

Hopefully, after some more practice with the Bjorn (and some more growing), Holden will be able to enjoy afternoons walking around, going to the store, etc. etc. ... all in the Bjorn. And then he and I can both say goodbye to the Moby -- well, at least when Bryna's not around ; )

More of Mr. Giggles*

H stands for Holden, and for happy happy happy:

*Click here for the original Mr. Giggles post.

Sideshow Babies at 1904 St. Louis World's Fair

From the world outside of Holden (ie. DaddyTypes blog), I found this interesting historical tidbit from the History Detectives about the practice of exhibiting preemie babies as sideshows at fairs and carnivals. My first thought was, "Did they do this at the St. Louis World's Fair?" Of course they did! In fact, I found out that at least 50% of the preemie babies in the St. Louis exhibit died due to some disease (most likely related to the practice of publicly displaying severely premature babies and charging 15-25 cents for people to gawk at them, but also due to the fact that the profit-seeking business in charge of displaying them had no knowledge of infant care or any type of medical care). And after the catastrophe at the St. Louis fair, doctors started to think more about premature infant care ... and more proper display (since they kept doing this as Worlds Fairs for several more decades, but just put a piece a glass between the viewers and the babies).

I'm glad things have changed ... although maybe we should have charged $1 for people to peek through the window in the Special Care nursery to see our little baby shaking under the light table -- we could have started that college fund a bit earlier ; )

new video post

Just wanted to post a recent video of Holden using the Boppy for "tummy time." He continues to really like the camera (future actor?).

Sleep: Part 1 of many on the topic

As you can imagine, like any new parent, Mike and I are obsessed with the topic of sleep: when, how long, and just how a baby gets his or her zzzzs. I used to think the elusive goal for parents was to get their kids to "sleep through the night," which--depending on the definition--could mean anywhere between 5 hours (the medical definition of the term, apparently) and 8 hours. I've since learned that it is also important to get them to learn to fall asleep on their own, in their own bed. Since Holden's a mere two and a half months old, this is not something we need to deal with yet, but eventually, we'll have to stop putting him down asleep, after we've already nursed him or rocked him. And the very thought of this, so soon after this little guy entered the world and gave us fits for the first 4 weeks, gives me a headache. Though we may have to eventually go to the "cry it out" method of sleep training popularized by Richard Ferber, we're trying our best to avoid this route.

So right now, we've started a bedtime routine that seems to work rather well: first a diaper and clothing change, followed by a period in which we talk about our day, and then a song, a book, nursing or bottle feeding, then bed. And yes, sigh, this almost always involves rocking him to sleep. But through this process we've also discovered something else. Holden really does like to talk about his day. Yeah, sure, he doesn't make sense at this point in the game, but for some reason after we change his clothes, he really loves to coo his heart out. And that moment is one of the best in the day for us.

But even better than that is the fact that the routine seems to work: on most nights he only wakes up once for a feeding before morning time. In other words, there have been quite a few times now that he's slept "through the night" (5 hours). We count ourselves extremely lucky in this regard--he started this general pattern on his own about a month ago, with little work on our part. If you had asked us in November if this could happen we would have laughed at the thought. In fact, the only thing I think we did to help this process along was that we introduced him to the crib within a week of him coming home (not that I'm against any other method of parenting--it's just what worked best for us).

At the moment, though, he's not going to bed until about 10:30 pm. So we're working on that. And hopefully, there will be a day that he'll want to go to sleep in his bed on his own. Stay tuned...

And naps, by the way, are another topic entirely! (Good night sleeper? Bad napper!)

And suddenly, bath time became fun

For the first two months of Holden's life, there were few things he hated more than taking a bath. And when I say hate, I mean HATE. Even the sponge bath sessions before his umbilical cord fell off were defined by screaming fits. In one of the first sessions in the actual tub, he paused from his crying long enough to, ugh, well, poop in the tub, which made the whole affair even more traumatic for Mike and me (yeah, it's gross, I know). We came to dread this whole chore so much that we would only bathe Holden twice a week--the minimum the books suggested for the winter months.

Then suddenly, at around 2 months, this began to happen:

Yup, Holden decided he actually likes baths. Funny thing is--I read in one of our books that babies would "begin enjoying baths" at around 8 or 9 weeks, but I never really believed it because I knew so many other friends whose babies enjoyed taking baths from the very beginning. I just thought that we had the weird baby who hated to be naked (he used to HATE diaper changes too), or that he had some strange fear of water. Thankfully, neither is the case.

Of course Mike and I both have our theories as to why he now likes his bath time. He stopped really fussing when we started draping a warm wet towel over him to keep him a little bit warmer, so I'm convinced this had something to do with it.

Mike, meanwhile, swears it has to do with the ambiance. Every time Holden has smiled during bath time we've had jazz music on. And perhaps he has a point on this one, because notably, jazz was playing when little Holden was born!

good morning, Holden

So, there is certainly one fact that has become clear in the Murawski-Campbell house: daddy is a lighter sleeper than mommy (no new discovery to those that know us). I think this is great (and you can all call me crazy ... not gonna bother me). OK, so I might be the one who wakes up first when little Holden stirs at night -- but nowadays he seems to be gaining an ability to put himself back to sleep. At least once a night (often more), Holden awakes due to the curse of hunger, and I am the one who changes him in advance of that 3am or 6am meal. Poop and pee are no match for me (and some Pampers ... soon to be Bum Genius ... magic).

Aside from the diaper changings, when little Holden wakes up in the morning -- usually when the sunshine comes through his blinds, but also often after daddy wakes up himself to go to work -- I frequently get to be the person who gets to say "Good Morning, Holden!", and my day begins just about the best way possible (seriously, see photographic evidence below). Holden is about the cheeriest baby in the morning, and almost always greets me with a huge smile in the morning. So, I'm cool with being a light sleeper and the first one up in the morning if it means I get to see the boy's morning grin.

Get that thumb!

Although Holden has been into his hands for a while, he's just recently become especially obsessed with his thumb. If only he could figure out what to do with it...

Tummy time on the boppy pillow

Or maybe you can just call it an excuse to post more cute pictures of Holden, just a couple days short of 10 weeks here:

Over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go

Last weekend Holden had his first trip to the Lake of the Ozarks, a resort area about 3 hours away from St. Louis where the paternal grandparents live half-time (where it was much colder than it looks here), and much fun was had by all. Since Holden is a growing boy and has finally outgrown those newborn outfits, Mike and I had a good time finding him some new clothes at the outlets, and Holden enjoyed hanging with the g-parents checking out their digs, which features a full-length mirror in the dining room--a very big deal in his world. And he did great on the trip there and trip back, sleeping the whole way in his cozy new teddy bear snow suit.

The only hiccup in the whole affair was that we underestimated how many diapers to bring, and only realized this Saturday night, mere minutes before the 11 pm store closing. Man this kid is one digesting machine! Now that Holden's packed on some weight, we're hoping to start trying out some bum genius cloth diapers, or "smart butt" diapers as Mike likes to call them--with the hopes that they'll hold more than the disposables we're currently using. And as an added bonus: they're made locally, in St. Louis! Stay tuned--I'm sure we'll have much to blog about on that topic.

The big 2 month appointment

On Monday we "celebrated" Holden's 2-month birthday with a trip to the doctor's office, where the poor little guy was subjected to one cruel act of torture after another, although it may have been equally as traumatizing to the parents. The good news, which I'll get to in a moment, is that Holden is doing just great and is growing just as the little guy should be. But first, a run down of the trauma:

After trudging through the frigid temperatures and waiting just a wee-bit too long in the office, the nurse had us strip him down to his diapers, stretch him out to measure him, and weigh him on a cold scale. This made Holden realize that 1) he doesn't like being cold; and 2) "hey I'm hungry!" This meant that I had to nurse him while we waited for the doctor to arrive. And once she did, Holden did not enjoy being forced to stop eating, and so after attempting to calm him down in other ways, I had to nurse him while the doctor did the check-up. (You can see how this was difficult for the parents, too, right?) A screaming baby, by the way, doesn't do well at showing his neck strength and other awesome skills...

Anyway, after the check-up, Holden got his 2 month shots, one on each leg...and if we thought he had been angry before...well...!



After finally nursing him again, bundling him up, and strapping him into his car seat, Holden finally calmed down. In fact, as these pictures demonstrate, he was downright happy to be done with the whole experience. I think we looked much worse for wear than he did!


As far as his stats go, he went from 7 lbs, 10 oz at 1 month, to 9 lbs, 14 oz, at 2 months, which is a slightly better than average gain! (And just that one feeding short of 10 lbs.) Once in the 7th percentile, he is now a proud member of the 10th percentile club (though his head circumference is in the 25th percentile, oddly enough). Yes he sure packs on the pounds. Small but scrappy as we like to say.