I had too many pictures for one post. Also, too much cuteness for one day!


flying superbaby!

Spider-Max, Spider-Max
Does whatever a Spider-Max does
Can he swing from a web?
No he can't, he's a baby
Look out! Here comes the Spider-Max.



Note by the way his leaping / web-shooting pose. You can't pay for this kind of geeky entertainment.

We've finally gotten Max's sleep schedule somewhat under control -- around 8:15-8:30pm we give him a late feeding in a darkened bedroom, with some lullaby music playing, and he's almost always bundled and asleep by 9pm. We use some cool little ghost lamps from IKEA as nightlights, which we also use to check on him while he's sleeping. They cast a fun glow on the room.





In loudest cry, in darkest night, no bedtime will escape my sight. Let those who worship waking's might, beware my power, green lantern's light.

And for those of you geeky enough to be following the run-up to the Darkest Night arc in the GL comics, here's a look at the power of the Blue Lanterns. Note how he's wheedling up closer & closer. I don't trust those guys.

I am taking the month of March off to take care of Max, thanks to my employer's very generous paternity leave package. This is something Jen and I planned back before Max was born. I had started to worry about all this time off, because my job has been really intense for the last few weeks. I realized, though, that was a pretty good reason in itself to take the time -- to stay centered on my son & family instead of letting myself get sucked too far back into the work vortex, and waking up after a year feeling like I'd missed something.

Anyway, so much for the thoughtful reflection. Let's get back to the main attraction -- more photos and videos of Max! Here is the next exciting adventure of Superbaby. While he was previously felled by a red sun, he is now ready to fly and soar.

Getting ready for takeoff:


Video of the flight:


And coming down for a landing:


It's a bit hard to tell here but I'm lying on the floor, lifting Max straight up in the air with one hand and taking the video/photo with the other.

Our upstairs bathroom has a heat lamp in it. We thought it was kind of pointless and kept meaning to have our electrician (the excellent Tosone Electric) take it out. But we have now discovered that the warmth of the heat lamp and the ticking of its timer, combined with running water in the sink and bouncing him back and forth, is one of the few things that can get Max to sleep at night. Because the little creature is not sleeping so hot.

What do you think of when you picture a baby? I always had images in my mind of something cute and asleep, like this:

Which in retrospect reflects an endearing naivete at best. All my friends warned me about the lack-of-sleep problem, but I don't think I quite realized how far it goes. The reality (at least for the past 4 or 5 days) has been Max waking up every 2 hours or so throughout the night, crying for any one of a number of reasons -- sometimes diaper, sometimes crazy hunger even though Jen just fed him for like 45 minutes just a little while before, and sometimes for no obvious reason.

So we end up bouncing him around, patting his butt, using the heat lamp, and eventually getting him to fall asleep. Now putting him *down* to sleep is a whole different matter and is not working so well -- Max is not a self-soother yet. Sometimes we co-sleep, but sometimes even that doesn't work and I end up sitting on the couch, holding him up to my chest talking or singing until the warmth/heartbeat/vocal cord vibrations/whatever put him to sleep in the early early morning. Imagine this kind of thing night after night:


Oops, sorry about that. I've been watching a lot of Venture Brothers on the DVR at 3 AM so that and the crying baby kind of run together after a while.

Anyway, hopefully this will pass soon. Max is a pain, but not nearly as bad as what we've heard about from our friends who have had colicky babies. Maybe he's having a growth spurt; maybe he's annoyed that it's 26 degrees outside and drafty in the house; maybe he's just a a stubborn little cuss like his parents. But I have faith that someday we'll get back to sleepytime Max: