dinner and sleep

My brother and his family visited last evening.
Justin and Nadine have a 6 month old boy. Pictured next to his cousin, Pascal
looked like he was ready for business school. He's not more than twelve pounds more than she, but that alone is enough to make him appear an age older.These pictures are rare in that they are the first pictures of Pascal and Tua.



True to form, Tua slept through the better part of the evening, waking only once to change positions.





Tonight, Bug and I set up some video conferencing software in the office so that we would be able to post live live feeds of Tua to distant lands, like Illinios This was very successful and we even managed to get some video fed to our family in the Midwest. It was Aunt Hannah's birthday today so Tua got to send her birthday wishes in person.


Bug and I would like to recommend Charlie's Laundry Detergent. Bug was searching for a truly free and clear laundry soap for Tua's delicates and found this product online. It's made in North Carolina and as far as we can tell, it's absence of fragrance is one of a kind. Clothes washed in Charlie's Laundry detergent are about as clean as you can get.

We're all pretty beat here at ShawHouse tonight. It's just before midnight EST and Tua is just finishing third supper. She doesn't seem to mind the repetition in the menu. There are no complaints from her. I can go for 21 days of peanut butter and jam without losing interest or taste for that matter. I guess that's why we learn to speak. At some point, we have to learn to ask for options. Right now we're simply enjoying the silent night.

bath salts

Bath time is rewarding for everyone involved. Tua loves the warm water against her skin and we love the sweet whimpers whe makes throughout the process. She never seems to mind the attention and we've discovered that there is something about the water that lulls her back into a mode that is much more suitable for sleep. Tonight, Bug and I were diplomatic about the timing of this particular bath. Well into the hour past her 2nd supper at which point she is usually sound asleep, she was not. The bath was the great compromise for the day. She agreed to sleep soundly for two hours if we agreed to bathe her in warm lavender water. Despite the fact that we skimped on the her water demand ( we used conventional soap), she went to sleep in prompt fashion following.

Parenting tip of the day....learn to work around the baby's schedule. If you have a baby that can work around yours, you might want to call your pediatrician. The scheduling routine is essential to an orderly household. Learn to do things that can be done while baby is sleeping. Boiling eggs, brushing your teeth, pouring yourself a glass of milk, are all tasks which point to your baby not sleeping enough. Filing your income taxes, tracking the trajectory of Mars, aquiring a throrough understanding of dark energy...these are tasks which point to baby sleeping too much. Bug seems to have it down. A month into the new motherhood experience, she has already managed to hollow out a semblance of a Monday through Friday schedule. Tua is definately learning from the best.

while you were sleeping

resting up for dinner


que pasa


too much of the photographer there, dad....





while bug sought some much needed rest this afternoon, we took advantage of the time and took some self portraits.

Why Amtrak is For Me

In from the cold without even a stir.

Tua loves to pile into her snug car seat and ride around town and country. If she's moving, she's content. Right now she's sleeping on my lap as I write tonight. I'm not moving but she seems to have gained some solace from the fact that I've spent the last half hour researching Easter travel plans. Right now we're deciding how to get from Vermont to Illinois without driving or flying. We're pretty big train people, at least I am. Bug doesn't mind as long as she's not in coach. Two years ago, we took a trip out west by rail and experienced the comforts of coach class between Chicago and Portland, Oregon. We met some pretty interesting people along the way, including a cartographer from Portland who knew our route so well that we didn't pass one town between Glacier National Park and the city of Portland without a sampling of local legend. On the other end of the spectrum, we sat across the aisle from a elderly woman with whom we chatted throughout the day as she stitched a handsome quilt (for her grandson in Cincinatti, she reminded us often). This tender image was tossed to the wind late at night when I rose to use the facilities and found our friend across the way rocking her head to what sounded like Aerosmith while she purused a certain magazine of questionable nature. I managed to recover myself back to sleep and figured I had imagined the whole thing when I woke the next morning. The grandmother was there sipping away at a warm coffee, reading the Tribune. Over breakfast, Bug looked up from her toast and asked if we might spend some extra dollars on our own quarters for the return journey. "You'll never believe what I saw last night" she said. We spent the rest of our train experience in the sanity of a private roomette.
If we take the train West from here, I'll guarantee the absence of any eccentric folk. Anyone leaving Vermont for the heartland of America surely has all of their marbles. Train travel from far flung reaches of America to the its centers is still one of the few connections we have to our past. I would not be surprised in the least if it were to make a comeback of some sort. For Tua anyway this trip will be like a drive in the country that never ends. Endless clickity-clack of the track across miles and miles of open and flat. In the event that we end up making the journey another way, I will update you with the why.

Pacific Nights

According to the Mayo Clinic, the use of the pacifier is subject to great indifference of late. A great host of researchers would have you believe that over-use of these handy devices increases the risk of ear infections. Tonight however, we have given our ears a measure of rest with the introduction of the pacifier. Tua has a sucking reflex that would put an Electrolux out of business. When she's not eating or sleeping she is most comfortable in motion. When those of us who would provide that motion are otherwise occupied with tasks that require more static energies, Tua must sit and watch. Tonight, as we sat eating our evening meal, she sat at the other end of the table and watched patiently for about two minutes. Bug and I are pretty low key at meals. We generally keep to topics of medium volume and temper and when it comes to the presentation of the meal itself, we are about as plain as day old milk. What followed was an all out wail of displeasure. It might well have been boredom that led to this but it was not easy to quell. Carrying from room to room seemed to quiet her slightly but it was not enough. I spied an unopened box of infant pacifiers on a nightstand during one of my fifty laps with her around the house so I picked it up and read the back. It read "Designed for infant use only. Boil before use. Keep out of reach of children." Our dinner had cooled to pre-meal temperature by this point so we decided it might be time to put the tool to use. At first, Tua perished all thought of having some foreign object in her mouth but after a minute or so, she began to toke away at the pacifier. Her quick puffs reminded me of a man I knew once who kept a lit pipe in his mouth all hours of the day, sucking away at the sweet leaf as he worked, ate and rested.
Anyroad, Tua sucked away at this pacifier for the better part of ten minutes at which point, she drifted off into a deep sleep. I reached down to remove it from her mouth and was amazed to find her still in her grip as I pulled it away from her.
It's just past 10 pm and the babe is asleep soundly, cuddled up in pink and yellow blankets. I would have taken a picture and added it to this post but Tua inherited my habit of a light sleep- she wakes up for flashes.

The Best of Times...The worst of times

Post Bath-- Cuddled in for the afternoon.



This is a pre-bath Tua, having just woken from a noon nap.

There's an amazing calm that enters the room when Tua slips into warm bathwater. She's happier than ever and so contented just to sit in the temperate 10 inches we've just poured. So far, Bug is the bath-master, posessing an ability to pour bath, undress baby, place baby into bath, wash baby, dry baby, etc in the course of only a few minutes time. I'm still learning how to adjust the temperature of the water to a perfect 78 degrees.
This evening, Tua went down for her 9:00 nap with not so much as a dull whimper. Her whimpers are getting pretty convincing. We're learning to distinguish between the "I'm not ready to sleep yet" and the more popular "why am I not being held?" We try to keep our ears tuned to the latter, as it can grow into a resounding wail if not attended to.
Note of the day: Lullabys come in many forms. I would say that this goes for all childrens music. We took a crash course on parenting a month or so ago. There were about fifteen couples, all in their mid twenties, all new to the experience. At the end of the day, we separated into two groups (fathers and mothers) and were asked to come up with lists of expectations (hopes, fears, doubts, etc). After a few minutes apart, we reunited and the lists were read. The mothers had filled their lists with excitement and anticipation. The fathers lists were quite opposite, filled with doubts and fears mostly relating to the apparent onslought of responsibility. I'll never forget that one common denominator amongst the men was the decided stance most of them had taken against bad childrens music. There were one or two comments made about the dangers of singing dinosaurs and the ill effects Sesame Street might have on young, impressionable minds. The consensus was, according to the men in the group, that the current offering of popular childens music in the country was very poor. Application: Bach works so far for us, as does Handel for that matter. Tua seems to prefer baroque but that may change. Jazz also works. She loves it. Tua was rocked asleep tonight listening to Pat Metheny. I shall turn in now myself and be lulled to sleep by the same.

New Years Eve Baby

day 2 more sleep before the return journey


day 2 --


Outside the Birthing Pavilion at Lebanon.
Highly recommended is this hospital.


Home at last....



A bit out of order, but this photo and the one following were taken on the 30th.






40 minutes into life


The Ferrell Clan won the award for furthest distance travelled



Heads up.....