Oscar's adventures in holiday madness

So we just got back from 9 days of traveling with Oscar in Texas. It was awesome to spend so much time with family, and I am so relieved to be back home. I know Oscar felt the same way because he was a totally chill baby for the first 6 days, but the last couple of days he started getting pretty cranky - just like his dad. And once he finally made it back into our house he went from a fussbucket to a little ball of squealing delight. He obviously recognized his home and was super excited to be back. Pretty interesting how much babies understand about the world around them. And how frustrating it must be to have such useless little bodies to interact with the world...

So I just wanted to capture a few of the more awesome memories from the trip for posterity's sake.

Decision to ride the bus

With Oscar, Andria and I entered the transportation debate. We had already heard horror stories of flying with kids - and experienced a few horror stories ourselves! But Oscar had avoided most of the horror stories we'd heard in so many other respects. So we debated briefly whether to drive to the airport rather than take the bus - which is what we normally do. For a long time we discussed which would be the more convenient option, before finally settling on the fact that we want Oscar to feel like riding the bus is a normal thing. And we don't want to teach him that convenience should drive your decisions. So with that we took the 1 hour bus to the airport, stood in line for over an hour, went through security for another hour, and finally took a 2 hour flight to Austin. It went surprisingly well. He even slept most of the way on the plane. On the way home he slept the entire flight - fell asleep just after boarding, slept through that, slept through taxi, slept through takeoff, slept through the 2 hour flight, slept through the landing. I mean - whoa kid! If that won't wake you up, you've got the makings of a professional sleeper.

Super helpful mom

My mom (Oscar's baba) was super helpful. My parents and Andria, Oscar, and I rented a very small house in East Austin to share. On night one, my mom took a trip to the bathroom with her walker that woke up Oscar and led to the worst night of sleep of the entire trip. But the next night, I spotted mom hugging the wall to get to the bathroom - looking like spiderman - and silent as could be. Super helpful for everyone's sanity, but certainly a challenge for mom - thanks mom! Of course, she was repaid for her troubles because every morning she and my pop (Oscar's grandpa) got to play with Oscar during his most smiley and happy time of the day - the early morning. It was a special time for everyone and I'm so glad my parents had the opportunity to get some alone time with Oscar.

The love of Sidda

So one of the best parts of taking Oscar to see family was all the love and affection that he got showered with. And while I'm not trying to short change anyone - especially his various grandparents - his cousin Sidda took the cake for loving on Oscar the most. As Twila put it - Sidda is baby crazy. But she was so tender and caring and protective that I was honestly totally comfortable with Sidda taking charge and watching over Oscar. This girl will rake it in as a baby sitter or nanny when she gets to that point. I think it will cause Twila a measure of existential despair until Sidda turns about 30 years old. Until then, Sidda's baby love is a lurking hazard...

What other people notice (No blinking/Surprise/Straight baby!)

It was also interesting to hear what other people find fascinating about your baby. I mean - we see Oscar every day, so we take a lot of things for granted. But the rest of the family sees him so rarely that they get to comment on what sets your baby apart. One of the common refrains was that Oscar never blinks. And while I had not noticed it, it is true! The boy will stare at your round eyed for amazing lengths of time without blinking. Not the most amazing super power, but we'll take it! Another item of discussion was Oscar's "surprised" look. This we had noticed of course, because it makes him a darned cute baby. But it was definitely a topic of conversation as well. The third item most talked about was Oscar's propensity to remain straight. And while I hadn't paid it too much mind, compared to his cousin Ward, it was pretty awesome. Oscar apparently has no interest in bending at the waist. I mean, what is the point exactly? No matter how hard we would try to get him to sit in our lap or recline in a baby sling, the boy would shoot his pelvis out and straighten his back like he was on a board. This made baby wrangling a more challenging affair. Oh yeah - let's not forget the two most obvious observation - the boy has a huge head and the boy knows how to talk!

Staring at cousin Ward

And Oscar got to meet his cousin Ward - born 4 days earlier. It was really interesting to get to compare the two kiddos. Ward was born first, but was gestationally 2 weeks behind Oscar. Basically, Oscar's cells started dividing 2 weeks earlier than Ward's. And when you are only 4+ months old, 2 weeks makes a huge difference. Ward was also more introverted. I started playing with him, because he was sitting in the family circle pretty passive. But as I started engaging with him, he got really excited and we started talking to each other. This is quite the contrast with Oscar- clearly extroverted. If somebody is not playing with him, Oscar will often belt out a squeal of delight that has the magical power to attract all girls and women within a 60 foot radius. It even works on some men. I'm really looking forward to watching these two grow up together. They'll see each other next for a camping trip in March.

Learning to unwrap presents (everything goes into the mouth!)

So of course Oscar got presents. But he was a little young to be as focused on the presents as his cousin Roscoe. But we did find a way for him to participate that was cute as hell. We started unwrapping a gift for him and then let him grip onto the wrapping paper. He would then start ripping the paper off and inserting it directly into his mouth - where all things belong. It was super cute and quite soggy! To the extent that Oscar even bothered to look at the actual present that he received, it was mostly to see if that too would be a good candidate for putting in his mouth!

Confronting the reality of relatives and gifting

Speaking of gifting, having this early-life run through of holiday gifting was a good training exercise for me. I've always been a bit of a humbug about Xmas in particular. And I know that I'll be letting go of that with Oscar now. But there is an interesting dynamic at play with especially grandparents and gifting. There is no collaboration between parents and grandparents when it comes to the gifting experience. The grandparents are going to get whatever they damn well please for their grandson. And mostly, the gifts are super nice and awesome. But I dread the day when someone decides to get Oscar an X-box, when we don't even want him watching TV. I'm sure that gift-giver will be showered with unconditional love. But I'll be the poor bastard that has to take the gift away from Oscar later. Definitely not looking forward to that potential nightmare!

Shy Andria around the uncles

Another thing that got me was a new found shyness of Andria around the uncles. First off, it was super cool that they all came over to Stacey's in Dallas the evening before second Xmas - that's right - we has 2 Xmases. Double the fun and double the trouble! But Andria has been a typical Boulder granola mom. She has rarely if ever "covered up" while nursing Oscar. After all, it's the natural way of things, right? But around all of her uncles, or maybe it was because we had entered the Texas sphere of social rectitude, things suddenly got different. All of the sudden, Andria decided that modesty was the better part of valor and covered up while feeding. I mean, I get it - these are her uncles. But on the other hand, Andria has no problem yanking out a boob at a bar in Boulder to keep Oscar well fed.

Rolling conspiracy

There was also a conspiracy over the holidays. Just before we left, I was informed by Andria that Oscar had started rolling himself over. Yes, these are the small victories that you celebrate as a new parent. But I had not seen it. First our day care providers informed Andria that it happened. Then Andria saw it one day - while I was right there, but not looking. So I had yet to see my son roll over. It didn't strike me as that life-altering of an accomplishment, but everyone else got really excited, so I guess I got caught up in the momentum. And then I started getting all of these uninvited comments from relatives about how good Oscar was at rolling over. What the heck! I had a good talk w/ Chris and we both had the same basic reaction - that it sucks to be the bread winner to keep the family in a happy financial place only to have all of these significant moments in your child's life pass you by. So rather than accept that I'm a neglectful father married to my job, I decided that all of my relatives were in a conspiracy to make me feel bad, and my only option was guerrilla warfare. I made some really great revenge plans, and then part way through the week, lo-and-behold, I saw Oscar roll over! This was very lucky for all my relatives who were part of the conspiracy. Now, secure in the knowledge that I had seen my son roll over before all of them, I was in a magnanimous mood and forgave them their trespasses, putting all revenge plans on hold.

There are so many other things that I could write about. But time is precious and I want to post this for posterity. Maybe Andria will add her own list of the cool stuff from her perspective. Now I've got to go find awesome photos to accompany this blog post.

 And it's always worth ending a blog post with an oral exam!