14 weeks: Giggles, Bathtime, Random Cuteness

Baby boy is 14 weeks old! Yikes, where has the time gone?!  He remains a pure joy; we really hit the jackpot with this one, he is so good.  He is a smiley, happy boy, easy to make happy (feed me, pay attention to me, let me sleep). Last night he slept from 8pm to 6am. THANK YOU JESUS. Like his Mama, he is a crankpot when he wakes up, befuddled and red-faced.  We need some time to make peace with the fact that we are awake, dammit.
 

With Mepher, post-nap. 

I. Giggles:
We laugh a lot 'round these parts.  When FRK laughs, he is overcome, and he forgets to breathe (which is apparently genetic, because his father laughs the same way).  When I laugh, I guffaw- I can't help it. A few years back Nan was in a musical, and she claims she could hear my guffaw out of an audience of hundreds. I've tried to suppress it, because it can be loud; as is often the case, it just makes the urge to laugh even stronger.  So I just let it flow. 


When Mepher and I are together, we giggle a lot.  Add Bunting to the mix, and it is a non-stop party. 

Even grocery shopping is fun

Bunting has begun to giggle. 

I KNOW. It's just too much.  I have yet to capture it on video, because as soon as he sees the camera he looks at it and stops. Have you ever seen the Warner Bros cartoon about the vaudeville singing frog, who refuses to perform when the audience shows up? 

Bunting has those tendencies, for sure. We refer to it as Phineas Frog Syndrome. (note: the Warner Bros frog is officially named Michigan J. Frog.  But we prefer our version). The original Phineas Frog was our friend Livvy, whom my sister nannied as a baby and toddler. She would chat up a storm, do something or say something incredibly cute, until someone new entered the room, and then she would clam up and remain stone faced, and refuse to do it again.  The moment the person left, she would turn it on again.

Anyway, he laughs. It is devastatingly cute.  The first person to make him giggle was our friend Pilar. Here is documentation of the big event. His expression belies the fact that he and Pilar were having a great time:

Move on, nothing to see here

I will persevere, and as God is my witness (apologies to Scarlett O'Hara) I will capture on video this kid laughing.  

II. Bath time:

In the meantime, here's some footage of our waterbaby having a grand old time:

III. Random Cuteness:
Sucking on hands and fingers remains a highly preferred activity. The drool spigot has been turned on, between his fondness for peeing when his diaper is off and the drooling it is rather damp around here.

Would you like to see a chubby baby in a flap hat and a stripey shirt?  Of course you would. 

Oh, you are also interested in brown cords and a rugby shirt?  Funny you should ask! 

Coming to a theater near you: Eat, Sleep, Play 

Gardening, Restaurants, Naughty Cows and Namesakes

The fun continues here in the P-K household. Our boy is 12 weeks old, and with every passing day is increasingly more of a 'person' and less of a larval infant.  His personality is on full display nowadays- he is smiley and opinionated, and hates to be ignored. He has a wide array of hilarious expressions, such as...

smiling

Disbelief and/or Gas

Shocked and appalled

Milk drunk

Positive control of the hands has at last been achieved, and most of his waking minutes they are in his mouth.  

I. Gardening:

Here he is watching me while I work in the garden. It has been woefully neglected, between being pregnant and having a newborn, I haven't touched it since about August. 
href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/fritzandsueann/4426527478/" title="Watching mama garden by Fruganzee, on Flickr">

II. Restaurants: 

We made our maiden trip to a restaurant when he was just 3 days old, and he continues to be an angel when we eat out. We are taking advantage of the fact that he is small and incapable of locomotion of any sort. We are aware that these days are numbered. 

Chinese food with Mepher and Josh

Pho with Jennifer 

III. Naughty Cows: 

Mamaji and Papa T have cows. Specifically a breed called Limousin. They look like so: 

They are quite pretty, as far as cows go.  FRK refers to them as the world's biggest dogs. They live a pretty elysian life. 

Last weekend we spent the night at their beautiful ranch that abuts the Elkhorn Slough. This is the view from the guest room: 

Gorgeous, no?  See the broken fence rails there? One of the cows decided that life was too short to be denied the lush greens on the other side of the fence (aka the backyard).  So she just took her giant head and bashed her way through.  Two of the cows stayed on their side of the fence, but the rogue cow munched her way through the yard. She was eventually herded back where she belongs. 

Now that he is a mature fellow of 12 weeks, Bunting and Papa T got down to business and had some quality male bonding: 

Elkhorn is a kid's paradise slash amusement park; tons of space to run around, cows, frogs, chickens, a pond, various power tools, a dog, and of course doting grandparents. This was the first of many overnights to come, I am sure. 

IV. Namesakes: 

It's old news by now that Smith Andrew Peng Kraft was named in honor of his great-grandfather Smith and his grandfather Peng. However I don't think we've ever posted photos of these much beloved men. 

Harvey Jacob "Snuffy" Smith, Jr. 

Andy Peng