While Lisa was taking a nap this afternoon, I went about finding ways to entertain Mathias. We ended up in front of the Christmas tree, with me holding him closely enough to it that he could grab branches with both of his hands. Continuously playing with the needles and staring at the ornaments, he appeared completely fascinated it, making me wonder how he’ll approach next year’s version when he has a better understanding of the fact that, uh, there’s a tree in the house for some reason.
Of course, the first time I shifted my attention even slightly he managed to pull a branch into his mouth, but that issue was rectified quickly.

We spent some extra money and got a Balsam Fir this year. It’s a gorgeous tree with soft needles and a very pleasant smell. At 7 1/2 feet, it has just two inches of clearance in our sunroom.

$75 didn’t just buy us a tree. It bought us the use of a 10×10 foot plot of land that’s been nurturing it since I was a junior in college almost a decade ago. It bought us the time spent in a nursery, and associated care, before being planted in that plot as a seedling. It may have bought us fertilizer, or maybe the use of irrigation equipment. It bought us the labor to cut it down, and the transportation down from Hinckley. And, finally, it bought us the labor to give it a fresh cut and wrap it up for car transport.

$75. I almost feel like we got away with something.

Saturday evening in Madison. I’m kind of losing track of time; I had to look up the day to make sure I knew what day it was. One day sick, two on holiday, and now the weekend. I tend to start losing track of what day it is on whatever day three away from work may be, so at least I’m consistent.

I’m still kind of sick. Whatever I had on Wednesday has slowly transformed itself to a slow, hacking cough. Argh.

Thanksgiving in Two Rivers was good. We’d planned on driving across Wisconsin Wednesday evening, but between me being sick, the weather and last-minute funeral preparations, we didn’t do the drive until Thanksgiving proper. We were out of the metro early enough that we weren’t able to listen to Turkey Confidential–unfortunate, as it was becoming a tradition of sorts–but instead got in some audiobook listening in and caught the first half of the Packer game.

My parents’ first reaction to Mathias was surprise at how much he’d grown, followed by about 24 hours of continuous fawning. At one point Mathias spent probably 45 minutes suspended on a comforter between my dad’s legs, apparently loving it. Less than a day later Mathias was in a shopping cart at Wal-Mart pushed by a very proud grandfather, a grandfather already completely intent on spoiling his grandson.

In other words, the visit with my parents went well.

Mainly due to me being a) sick, and b) horrible at communication in general, we were barely able to link up with Ben and Beth while in Two Rivers. We did get to hang out for a few hours, though, sitting in our hotel room along the lake, talking in hushed inside voices as to not disturb the sleeping baby nearby.

After departing Wal-Mart on Friday, Lisa, Mathias and I headed down to Madison on what from that point forward would basically be a funeral trip with detours. Most of the drive was on US-151, a highway I once frequented back what seems to be a lifetime ago. It was probably the first time in over a decade I’d driven it, and with the bypasses and so-called improvements that had taken shape over the intervening years, it bore little resemblance to the drive I remembered.

Madison had a dusting of snow when we arrived, albeit a more modest one than we’d seen along the lake. Much of today was spent out and about as the mom and grandmom took care of errands for the coming days. The funeral will be an extremely proper Polish Catholic two-day affair, which apparently caused some clothing concerns for Lisa and Ann. (The extent of my preparations consisted of making sure my ties weren’t wrinkled and polishing my shoes.) Anyway, we head down to Indiana tomorrow.

We got to see Robin and Andy for a few hours this evening, which we used to have dinner at Dotty Dumpling’s Dowry before catching No Country For Old Men at the new Sundance Cinema here in Madison. Dinner was good, and the movie was great. As usual, Robin and Andy seem to have about five million things going on–I always feel lazy after talking to them–but overall are doing well.

Well, we have to be on the road to Valpo in a nine hours, so I’m going to hit it. More later.

A bit of baby news from last night… For the first time, Mathias slept through the entire night without waking up!

More sleep for the family appears to be on the horizon, especially for mom. That’s good, as she both needs and deserves it.

With both Lisa and Mathias battling a virus this week, I stayed home yesterday morning to provide support, and as a result had the privilege of watching Mathias sit himself up for the first time.

Lisa was out for a few hours, and I was hanging around in the living room with the little one, him resting in the dip in my lap. He was in a bit of a grabbing mode, so I put out my two pointer fingers for him to grab. That he did, and after a couple of moments leaned his head forward a bit and then, as if he’d already done it countless times before, just pulled himself up and forward.

I was astonished. “Holy crap, little man, did you just pull yourself up?” He smiled and giggled a bit. I let him sit up for 30 seconds or so, and then gently rested him back down on my legs. Putting my fingers out, he grabbed them like little handle bars, and after another pause lifted himself up a second time. In all, we repeated him sitting up five or six times.

At first I figured this was something Lisa had already seen, another small item I’d missed as a working parent. When Lisa got home, I asked her how long he’d been doing that, and she gave me a look that made it clear that she hadn’t. “How long he’s been doing what?” she asked.

“Sitting up.”

“He hasn’t done that before.” Pause. “Why do you always get to see these things first?” As it happens, I’d been the first to watch him turn over as well.

I picked up Mathias, walked over to the couch and set the two of us down as we’d been sitting earlier. I put out my fingers, and with Lisa watching, he did his baby equivalent of a pull-up. That was an improvement over rolling over, which Lisa still hasn’t seen him do without assistance.

And now the paranoid mom theories have begun. Lisa seems to have convinced herself that Mathias only wants to try this stuff when dad’s around. I think it’s just coincidental, or maybe just the result of me playing with him in different ways than his mom, rather than any preference on his part. Standing and first words are the big ticket items in baby development, and with the time those two spend around each other during the week, I bet she’ll get to see those first.

Today was Mathias’ four-month birthday, so here are some new photos of the little guy.

I’m crossed a dangerous line this evening, picking up coffee at Starbucks at 10:15 this evening. What can I say, I’ve had a long day (and, incidentally, should really be working/studying right now). The Starbucks I stopped at by the U had something like 300 Somalis milling about in it, about half of them speaking in loud and very animated fashions. There were only three people in the store who didn’t seem to be Somali natives–I was one, and the other two were behind the counter.

I fucking love Minneapolis.

Anyway, day one of daycare for Mathias–an ongoing mutual babysitting agreement between Lisa and her friend Aimee, really–went fairly well today. Mathias managed to pull on some heartstrings when I dropped him off–Aimee was holding him and talking to him, but he kept looking at me–but I managed to get out of there without him crying and without me cracking up. (I’m too busy to crack up. Pass the coffee!) Lisa’s turn at babysitting Aimee’s one-year-old this afternoon sounds like it went fairly well, too, although it’s pretty clear we have some serious childproofing to do this coming weekend.

Work was, uh, interesting. One big project finished and another big project got set to begin, with the transition between the two getting a twist worthy of a Hitchcockian comedy. (No, not that one. It’s just a metaphor, people.) Tonight, as expected, was spent with some fellow MBA students as we worked on our group project. It’s going pretty well, but there’s a lot left to do.

After my midterm on Thursday, the next few weeks look like this: A visit from one of Lisa’s friends for a couple of days this weekend, a possible trip out of town the following weekend, the class project due the week after that, TURKEY PARTY 2007, and then finals for class.

Huh, time to start thinking about J-Term. Hmm.

Okay, time to study. More later.

Well, tomorrow’s a big day. Lisa got a new job that’ll give her 15 hours of outside-the-house, grown-up interaction each week, starting Tuesday morning at 7:30. Lisa and a close (and trusted) friend of hers set up a babysitting-sharing agreement that kicks off tomorrow morning as well, which means I get to deliver the little one to North Minneapolis around 8:30 before high-tailing it to work. Generally speaking it seems to be a good arrangement, except for the fact Lisa’s friend’s house is in the opposite direction of my job. I expect to spend about an hour on the road tomorrow morning, which may or may not give me some sympathy for the exurb freaks complaining about their commutes.

Tomorrow night brings working with classmates at Carlson on a group project we need to get wrapped up. Wednesday night will be spent studying for the midterm.

I’m busy. Did I mention I’m busy? I’m busy!

A few days ago Mathias embarked on one heck of a growth spurt. We’ve seen a couple of small spurts before, but nothing like this. He literally grew out of many of his newborn clothes over the course of two to three days. We’ve started rotating in his nicer “guests are here” clothing just to make sure he gets to wear everything at least once or twice. When we got a small gift of clothing over the weekend, we checked the size, saw 6-9 months, and practically broke into song and dance as a result.

Mathias has been up a lot at night the past few days, too, chowing down as much as possible. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s doubled his food intake over the past week. The rate of transformation has been amazing. As with most things we’ve experienced with him so far, the spurt is exciting, but it’s a bit sad at the same time. He’s not a big baby by any means, but as of this week he’s no longer a small one, either. I’m not complaining, but all the clichés about kids growing up fast… Well, so far they seem to be true.

It’ll be interesting to see what the next few weeks bring.

Well, pretty quiet around here as of late. I’ve been busy, and this coming week looks like it’ll continue the trend.

Aside from me accidentally sabotaging a 150-person game of diversity bingo, orientation at Carlson went well. Due to baby, family and job, I’m starting with only one course my first semester, but hope to ramp things up as my education progresses.

Mathias has embarked upon quite a growth spurt over the past week. It’s amazing the amount of milk and formula he’s consuming. He’s grown quite a bit, too. Sometime over the past 10 days I’ve lost the ability to reach around his body with the ends of my fingers touching. He’s still a little baby, but not nearly as small as he used to be.

As of today, he’s also started grabbing things. That’s progress, of course, but may soon present us with additional challenges as well.

Well, I’m busy this evening, so back to work. I’m expecting to be tied up with work functions until at least 10:00 in the evening Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so I probably won’t be here again until the end of the week.

More later.

Mathias finally got to meet the other set of grandparents this past weekend. My mom and dad were only in town for about 24 hours, but they made the most of it. My dad only dropped his preferred nickname for his grandson once, and considering that nickname is Ralph, I’m glad it didn’t make much of an appearance. Regardless, both grandparents were happy, and lavished an inappropriate amount of praise on Lisa and I for “doing such a good job.”

As expected, there were a lot of photos, and of course presents for the baby. My dad decided Mathias must be a Tony Stewart fan–Tony Stewart drives car #20, and Mathias was born on the 20th–so there were a number of bright orange NASCAR gifts in the mix. We’ll have to make sure we have that #20 onesie along with us next time we travel across Wisconsin. If the car breaks down, we can wave Mathias in the air to get the attention of passing traffic.

As it happens, Stewart won his most recent race on Sunday. I’m not sure if that means anything. I just hope it doesn’t mean we have to start watching auto racing. (The last auto race I saw was, uh, animated.) I mean, seriously. There’s baseball on.

Speaking of baseball, I’m not paying attention to the Brewers. If I do, they’ll start to do poorly, and I don’t want that on my conscience.