Two Month Check-Up

Wow, does time fly?!  Two month check-up today, and the little man passed with flying colors!  We arrived at Ballard Peds with high hopes that his weight was good, height was "on pace," and head circumference was quasi-acceptable.  I'm proud to report that my son, little Parker Jackson Totten, is literally completely AVERAGE.  50th percentile in everything!  I love an average kid.  He's the best average you can find!

11 pounds and 13 ounces today, which is again, just a wee bit more than I weighed when I was born, and he's on the fast track to continual weight gain, which is excellent!  More importantly though, in the long run, is being of average height.  Did you know that I was a short kid?  True story.  So true in fact, that I used to complain and stress about it all the time as a child.  So convinced was Dianna Lee (mother dear) that I would eventually hit what the papers refer to as a "growth spurt" that she bet me $100 that I would be taller than 5'5" (her height) by the time I turned 14.  We signed a contract, on a post-it note.  I still have the post-it note.  I don't have the $100 that I won though.  It wasn't even close either, I think I was at least 3-4 inches shorter than she was.  Now, I don't expect Parker to be a giant or anything, but I really do hope he's tall enough to ensure that other kids won't be tempted to hang him on a coat hook in the 6th grade, perhaps by a kid like Joe French causing him to "lose his cool" when subsequent bullies tried to push him and spending numerous days / nights down at the potholes engaged in physical violence to protect his reputation....hypothetically.  It could all be avoided if he were a big enough kid that the other kids wanted to befriend instead of put in a trash can.  I'm just saying, he could live a simpler life - and isn't that all we can ask?!

Tough afternoon for Mrs. Tots and myself - the poor kid got his first round of immunizations today and I swear to you, the needle was bigger than his foot.  And, per previous posts, the kid's got my clown shoes for feet.  Anyway, we officially know what he sounds like when the cry indicates PAIN.  He was okay coming home and getting fed - but when I came home at 4pm today, Treva said she literally had him snuggling on her chest for four straight hours because every time she tried to put him down, the little man erupted in that same pained cry.  At 4pm, I got him and he's quite possibly the best cuddler in the world!  But not in a good mood today!  We let him sleep outside of his normal wake-time tonight over at Family Dinner w/ the Johnsons, only because he was literally wiped and in pain all day...the kid needed his rest!  I have bottle duty tonight - wish me luck!  With all the sleeping he did during the day today, there's an above average chance he won't be at all interested in a good night's sleep tonight!  And if that's the case, I wish Joe French was here to stay awake with him....

dwt.

Parker's first Ocean visit!

That's the ocean behind us, FYI

Growing up in sunny Camas, we had the chance to go to the Oregon Coast all the time as kids, and both Treva and I have great memories of visits and experiences enjoyed - hers at Fort Stevens, mine with the family bouncing between Seaside, Cannon Beach, and Manzanita.  This post is a bit overdue, but fun nonetheless - I took the week after Labor Day off and we packed up the family (including Beagle) and headed south.  If you're a loyal reader, you know we bookended the trip with Camas visits to see nephew Bam Bam and the rest of our closest to kin...now for some data points on the rest of the trip, Post 1.0 of the Seaside visit has arrived.  Yes, I'm wearing Microsoft logo gear in the majority of activities that become documented in my life...
We stayed that Huey Mansion, just a few blocks north of the promenade and a couple of blocks off the ocean.  So nice for Greg and Tiffany to open up Greg's parents place for our consumption for three days!  I made reservations for the Shilo Inn, beachfront.  let's run down the advantages to the Shilo Inn:

• Location, right next to the prom & beach.
• Wireless internet
• Allowed dogs
• Swimming Pool

Disadvantages to the Shilo Inn:

• We can't even imagine the feelings our shared-wall neighbors would have in the hotel during one of PJT's witching hours!! 
• Wireless internet - (a negative given Mrs. Totten was convinced it was "vacation")
• Tiny Tots is a really, really loud sleeper...sharing a room is less than desirable
• Olive the Beagle is an even louder sleeper...in her old age, she's taken up snoring and random yelping in her sleep (obviously due to dreams of chasing rabbits and the sort).  Again, less than desirable....
• No kitchenette, backyard, Vanity Fairs to read, etc. (the finer things in life)
• Location - I'm not sure being right next to the Promenade is a "good thing" per se...

The kid is in the pouch.  We didn't lose him.
But the dog?  No idea where she is at this point...

At the end of the day, the Swimming Pool couldn't out-muscle the convenience factor of getting to do laundry when we needed to, or have separate rooms for both Parker and Olive's beds.  Moreover, having a separate room even to feed Parker and put him down for naps was a gigantic bonus!  Chalk this one up as lesson number 2,134 I've put in the books since having Parker:  staying overnight places requires more "amenities" than you think it does.  So the answer?  Find better, more generous friends, who have alternatives to the Shilo Inn.

More beach talk in post 2.0 later this week, but only another couple of hours on this flight and I need to sneak some sleep in! 

dwt.

Discipline is key!

Do not think for a minute that a Wednesday night red-eye to Chicago for me and wine night for Treva means we're going to forgo the routine we're establishing with Tiny Tots!  Discipline is key around here, and it all starts with a schedule.  The man eats, then it's some serious wake-time.  And then, he shall sleep.  It's all good when it works.  But even if it doesn't, the schedule is the framework for which all activities will reside within!  If nothing but to set the precedent that we will not compromise THE FRAMEWORK!

Which is the beginning of a long line of deliberations and debates surely to take place in The 418 as Parker grows in age and boundary-pushing-curiosity.  So whenever you've got some negotiations happening from the bottom up (well, middle management since technically, Olive would be the entry level and she's not very good at articulating her position), it's crucially important to establish a unified front line to listen, provide empathy for said requests outside of the framework, and then systematically shoot down anything in the realm of ridiculousness.  That's best case scenario.  Worst case scenario?  A divided leadership team - Mrs. Tots on one side, yours truly meandering about on the other.  So who becomes the disciplinarian in this family unit, who fits the better good cop / bad cop role?  I have my thoughts....and it's not looking good for Tiny Tots....

I'm off to middle America while the rest of the world sleeps.  Be amazing all you interwebbers, use your powers for good.

dwt.

It's Wednesday!!

Only a short post today because it's been a crazy week, I've got a ton of things to take care of tonight, and Treva has me on a sleep schedule now.  Three key updates for tonight:

1. Parker's two month birthday, TODAY!  How incredible is that?!  Two months?!  Seriously?  Look for a traditional "getting old" post later this week...
2. Parker is becoming a trained assassin at his "wake-time" requirements.  He's so much fun, so expressive and happy during planned wake times now, it's pretty good stuff.  He sits there making all kinds of squeaks and peeps, looking all around the room, and his ability to find eye contact and keep it is better than two people on my team at Microsoft.  Awesome milestones with this new kid who can see and smile :).
3. Parker's favorite color is beige this week.

Announcements went out last week, and my apologies for not having better content up for those who are just seeing the blog for the first time...I should have planned for more entertaining and/or relevant posts this week.  I promise on our next kid, I'll be more prepared.  Until then, focus less on the writing and more on Master Parker...

dwt.

Work stinks....

It's Monday, I had to go into work today - and it was a LONGGGGGG day.  And I started thinking about my life and what has become of it.  While very blessed with my professional path and the opportunities I have developed since grad school, it is time to come clean - work just stinks.  I would much rather be at home watching Bourne Supremecy for the 15th time during wake-time after the lunch feeding, while sitting in sweat pants and some sort of logo-gear sweatshirt.  Having the past three days to hang out with Mrs. Totten and Parker...it's just not the same having to leave them for the day.

Speaking of blessings beyond belief, Treva and I celebrated seven glorious years of marriage together last night.  And although it seems like just yesterday that I convinced her to deal with me forever (over bottomless soup, salad, and breadsticks), we've had plenty to be thankful for over the past seven years....we talked a lot about our favorite memories, and there have been some good ones!  Some of my favorites, with stories a plenty for Parker J when he learns to read and comprehend classic bullet point presentation style:

• Buying the Bellevue house...and bringing Olive home to it
• Paris trips to visit the European half of FC Italy (The Johnsons)
• Moving out of the Bellevue house, taking advantage of every square inch of the storage POD, and then taking off for our three-week voyage to Italy, France while the Queen Anne house was going through Phase 1 and I just switched jobs.  Awesome reckless abandon there...sweet! 
• Speaking of, Hotel Pannoni!  Best Bed and Breakfast in King County!!  Yelp it!
• The night we bought our new car after Olive and I hoofed it from Contintental Garage in 117 degree heat...with no water...uphill the entire way...
• Vanessa (the neighbor) killing Sarah's hamster, Bear
• Friday nights at the Paragon
• Dwarf Pene.  Thank you Johnsons
• Hosting Jessica's birthday parties - we need more of those.  I hereby request Jessica celebrates more than one b-day party a year
• Chelan - 8 years and counting...
• The countless visits in Damian's travel schedule, filled with bourbon, sports-watching, and ping-pong matches.  Olive loves his visits as well, so will Parker!
• Treva quitting her job, going to school, getting a new job and liking her new job.  Crazy when that works out...
• Did I mention Parker Jackson Totten yet? 
• In Bellevue, after a late night out with friends and/or just ourselves, nothing beat fast food on the drive home.  We never do that anymore.  And we should.  I'm going to start again.  It's my FY'12 (Microsoft calendar) Resolution
• Our first co-ed soccer match, where I convinced Donna Goins to give me a shot and I didn't trip on or over myself in the entire game, earning a repeat invitation "so long as I paid season dues."  What great friends and good memories we have with our soccer group, love those guys!
• All construction phases...pain in the form of dust and validated personal checks

The good news is, it only took me 18 years to get Treva to go out with me and only seven years to do some amazing things (see above).  Imagine the stories we'll tell on our 80th anniversary, am I right?!

dwt. 

What a weekend!

On this beautifully windy Seattle Sunday night, we're reminded of what a quality life we live here on Team Totten!  After coming back into town on Thursday, I took Friday off and was able to have a nice relaxing day at home with the family.  We're working hard on keeping Parker on a schedule - and every day is a new experiment focused on measuring sleep / eating / wake-time to better predict nighttime sleep duration.  That's a long sentence that states:  we ARE going to get Master Fussbucket to sleep better at night. 

To be fair to Tiny Tots, he's not a bad sleeper, all things considered.  Only at night in fact is his pattern not exactly predictable at this point in time.  Interestingly enough, his biggest fun factor comes in the form of appearing completely exhausted directly after feedings during the day, struggling to stay awake, only to get wide-eyed and ready to listen to some alternative rock and drink some rootbeer as soon as we get him near his crib. 

Each day starts at 7am, when we're lucky...and it's all uphill from there!  Breakfast in the morning, followed by coffee and wake-time with me, and you can tell...Parker wants to change the world after that first feeding, the sky is the limit for this kid!  On Saturday, after the brunch feeding, Parker made his first trip to Ballard Avenue, pretty much one of five key milestones in his young life...Carte de la Oaxaca (as I call it) was his first touch-down spot in the tradition rich Scandinavian Heritage represented by the City of Ballard.  Pretty cool "first Ballard" story if you ask me.  My first trip to Ballard was to Fred Meyer.  Infinitely less impressive. 

Anyway, a solid lunch for us with the Huey's and Huhmenson and then....wait for it...FAMILY NAP TIME!  Saturdays are awesome.  I snuck a run in late afternoon and then I got my shower just before Tiny Tots got his bath!  One of our favorite things to do, clean that kid up!  He likes it too, we've discussed.  At nights during the weekend, Treva lets me take one night to get up during the mid-night feeding so she can sleep and I get to slap a bottle in that mouth.  Parker loves eating - almost as much from me.  With that said, it's pretty fun to feed him, you'd think he was starving by how he gets after the bottle.  Unfortunately for me, last night was not one of his best eating or sleeping nights, so multiple trips were required. 

All worth it though because Sunday's routine is almost as nice as Saturday's - Breakfast...Church...Coffee / Bagels....Football....More Football.  Today was particularly special as Queen Bee Amy was so kind to come over for a couple of hours at night so Mrs. Totten and I could enjoy our first dinner out and away since Parker was born.  He missed watching football with me and I missed the many chances we have to belch together after snacks.  We'll make up for both activities next week though, I promise. 

Much love,
dwt.

Time for a Construction Update!

I’m attaching some pictures of the ‘struction that continues to march on as the weather holds out and apparently, work remains.  I shall provide this update in a series of Pro’s and Con’s related to Phase 3.5 of The 418: 

Treva and Parker sitting in Treva's new walk-in closet

• Pro:  Team Totten has formally adopted Jordan, Brother Ryan, and Chad, all of whom have spent more time in my backyard this summer than Treva and I combined. 
• Con:  They are early risers – the relatives that won’t sleep in….

Facing North - you can see the staircase straight ahead

• Pro:  We’re going to get all new siding on the North and West sides of our house!
• Con:  We paid for all new siding just twelve months ago on the North and West sides of our house.

The back of our house - sweet sheeting....

• Pro:  There are so many support beams and straps being put in, this house wouldn’t be damaged in a Tsunami.
• Con:  The “time and materials” required to Tsunami-proof the house most definitely costs more than any insurance policy covering the damage that a Tsunami in Queen Anne could actually inflict.  Fact.

The view from McGraw - again...sweet sheeting....

• Pro:  My “rugged” deck, as so described by Chief Construction Officer Chris Schedler, has held up marvelously well under the weight of lumber, nails, and roofing materials.
• Con:  The entire yard appears “rugged” now, stacked high with waste and the results of weekly demolition projects.

Olive plays "King of Mountain" in the backyard

• Pro:  We’re going to get all new gutters for the house this fall!
• Con:  We got all new gutters for the house last fall!

  

  The view out front of our bedroom, big windows!

• Pro:  We were able to add insulation to some key outer walls that apparently, for the past 100 years, didn’t have insulation.
• Con:  We had to rip off several walls to get to where insulation should be placed…and the question naturally arises:  who in the world didn’t put any insulation in these walls for the past 100 years?!





Standing in our bedroom, looking at the bathroom



• Pro:  I’m still married.
• Con:  The project is not complete yet….

dwt.

Back in town, back to posting!!

I’m so sorry it has taken me so long to get an entry in – my commitment to excellence remains the same, and I shall blog every day for the next 20 days to make up for my almost two week hiatus.  I cannot vouch for the quality of the posts, but The People deserve more Tiny Tots and I shall deliver. 

Now, onto the goods.  Some quick updates since the last post:

• We have officially graduated from a Size NB diaper to Size 1.  Kind of a big deal.  Seeing much less spillage when the man “takes his talents to South Beach.”  Kind of a laundry saver.  Kind of a happier parental set as a result. 
• Parker has not figured out how to use the internet yet.  That I know about anyway. 
• 4 Sounders games are under his belt and we have determined he’s more of a lucky charm than a curse.  Two of the games have been afternoon sunners, so the man gets a little cranky in his pouch with the heat.  That’s easy enough to fix – take him out and get some breeze on him.  What’s not easy to fix?  The lack of any Sounder to reliably finish a freaking Penalty Kick.  I talk about this so frequently at Sounders games in fact, Parker has asked we give him sound cancelling head phones at the games….
• Parker’s cries are becoming more distinct now – we can tell the ones where he’s just flirting with his vocal cords vs. when he’s legitimately interested in punching somebody or something in the face.  We are seeing more of the former than the latter for the first time since we began deciphering the two, which is pretty neat. 
• Tiny Tots said his first word – it’s “Hi.”
• Olive the Beagle said her first word this week as well – it was “please ask the small noisemaker to leave my house at his earliest convenience.”

I was out of town for three days this week, my first trip since Parker was born.  It was very hard to be away, I suppose not surprising given how darned good looking the kid is, right?  Treva had her hands full the entire week but she carried on heroically and obviously continues to retain the belt as Parker’s “favorite.”  I’m coming on fast and furious though.  Today, I let Parker fall asleep on me not once, but twice (rules be damned) AND we watched a solid 30 minutes of the Charlie Sheen Roast.  I’ve got “the cool one” written all over me at this point – still can’t breastfeed though.  The laws of life are against me…

dwt.

Parker Jackson Totten...

...best kid EVER.  That's all, blog post concluded.

dwt.

To Camas we go!!



Home is where you feel the most comfortable....

A trip to Camas is always exciting - when it bookends a mid-week getaway to the Oregon Coast, it becomes exponentially more enjoyable.  This was our first trip down to Camas since Parker was born and frankly, we had no idea what to expect.  From the 2 hour and 35 minute journey, some things I learned:

• Olive did not seem comfortable sharing the backseat.  She was a combination of what I can only describe as beleaguered and cautious.  She has a face for both of those, it’s hard to explain.  Needless to say, she didn’t understand why Tiny Tots got a blanket and she didn’t.  
• Feedings every three hours means that by the time we get everything packed up, the kid has some awake time here in Seattle, we get on the road and gassed up….I’m forced, per the feeding schedule, to drive slightly over the speed limit down I-5.  This is the first time I have ever breached (okay…admitted to breaching) the holy limits recorded on the attractive and common black and white speed notifications posted along the corridor.  I did not feel good about it – but, I will sacrifice for my child.  The feeding schedule demands it, my child shall not starve. 
• Lots of stuff.  I’ve erased that last sentence and re-written it four times now.  Previous popular entries:  “lots of crap”….”too much crap”…”where did all this stuff come from”….”seriously, should I buy a van??”
• As soon as we made it...and we wanted to celebrate in the arms of loved ones...it's another feeding.  We're getting used to shorter salutations these days.

Clearly we made it, and Camas is still cool.  We stayed at Matt and Sarah's, and got to see what Parker will resemble in circa 18 months via his beautiful cousin Philip - or as I call him, "Bam-Bam."  We stayed in the nursery with Parker, which was a bad idea - the sleep was horrible, he did not have a good night.  It wasn't exactly a good omen for the rest of the trip.  The good news is, when he's not fussy and making all kinds of weird "I'm pissed off that nobody is holding me" noises....he's ridiculously cute.  You take the bad with the good, I'm told. 

First night we got in, headed over to Grandma Connie and Grandpa Bob's house for a good old fashioned family BBQ.  Lois Arlene was giving tours of her new palace, and she did better managing my taunts to finish her meal.  Bob built a pickle ball court - Matt and Stephen dominated the proceedings.  I'm positive that Matt does steroids...and Stephen, well, he lettered in pickle-ball in high school, so we knew what we were getting into there.  Old Man Terry was my partner - let's just say we're better at landscaping "sports" than pickle ball. 

Both Grandma's got to hold the baby boy, which is always fun - for him and for us.  It's neat to have everybody together on a random Monday night, very relaxing and fulfilling to have so many friendly faces and helping hands around.  It's great to see how Philip reacted to Parker, and particularly how he reacted when Sarah or Matt held Parker.  Whenever he gets his little brother / sister, he'll need to get used to that sight!  Also neat to just play with Philip - he's bigger than Parker, and you can letimately have a conversation with him.  Yes, there's a lot of grunting and pointing involved (from me), but he gets the "Go Do's" nicely.  What a fun way to start the vacation off!! 

Total relaxation, both of them...

Aunt Sarah not only helps Philip learn to read...she instructs him to smile at all times when reading.  good rule. 

dwt.

Six Weeks Old!

Six weeks down, only 17 years and 46 weeks left before the little guy flies the coup, if all goes according to the books I'm reading anyway.  We notice him changing all the time now, gaining weight and filling out this body of his, and he's getting stronger lungs as well...yikes.  Treva made the comment this morning that his cheeks are so big, his shoulders have to support most of the weight - it's true, see for yourself below...

Parker's gambling problem...

First official college football Saturday and not only did YOUR Washington State University Cougars absolutely dominate in their first game of the year, but Parker picked the spread correctly in four out of five other games.  Only Oregon let him down, which he only selected because his favorite tenny-runners are Air Jordan's.  His father, hates Oregon.  Minor family riff, I think lessons were learned (by the little man primarily).

In any case, after such a successful debut Parker has requested that instead of creating a college fund for him, we send checks addressed to "cash" every week to some trailer in Nevada owned by a guy named Big Dolla Danny.  The best part of football being back is that Treva gets to watch more sports.  And we can already tell that Parker is going to be a gigantic sports fan, so now it's two against one in the Totten household for the the remote control. 

Equally as fun and exciting as Parker helping me with one of my fantasy football drafts, we had a major update just this morning:  Parker couldn't fit into some newborn pajamas!  That is crazy!  We went from him not being able to fill out newborn diapers to now actually growing out of some newborn clothes!  The kid continues to grow - I put him at 11 lb's as of this morning, which is only four ounces less than I weighed when I was born.

A pretty fun week at the 418 - Grandma Totten came up to flirt with the little man for a day, Treva had her second PEPS group meeting, and I worked from home more than the office.  As a result of the latter, Parker contributed to his first Microsoft conference call, inadvertently of course.  But let the record show, the Totten men both firmly believe that the call to action for customer's to upgrade their SQL software to the latest version is lacking a compelling incentive.  My apologies to my colleagues who felt that his feedback specifically sounded too  "child-like" and a little "whiny"...

The house is coming along nicely, I will post some construction updates shortly.  The roof is on, and Treva had her first verbal altercation with the roofers, who did not seem to understand the request of "please try not to throw stuff from the roof onto every ounce of our neighbor's property."  We feel pretty bad for our neighbors - the house that basically overlooks our backyard has been on construction duty for awhile now as well, so we're definitely not alone.  Still, the neighbors on each immediate side, I'm guessing, have to be almost as tired of the pounding as we are...any ideas to make them feel our compassion, please tell me!  More pictures later on the progress.

Much love, have a fantastic Labor Day!
 

Who needs sleep?!

We call this one "Sleep" - one of us wants it,
the other is supposed to be doing it....

Parker Tots is stepping his sleep game up - sort of.  He still maintains he has a fundamental right to be awake when he wants to be awake, even if that's at 2am.  The past few nights have been good though - he loses his cool around 8-9pm and cannot be convinced to slumber...but after that, he's a rockstar through the night.  Waking once around 3am to feed and then again to start the day. 

The mornings are always a lot of fun, well once he convinces us to wake up ourselves.  I've come to realize he wants to start eating before the construction begins - he wants to make sure our roof-building crew doesn't try and sneak any of his breakfast, kind of like "first dibs" or something.  After his breakfast, he's pretty alert, gazing around and making baby faces.  Pretty fun time to hang out with him.  Until The Man calls and I have to go to lame city (AKA, work).  Which is so overrated...

Any wagers on if this pose is a daytime or nighttime position?!

Treva's been trying to keep him up a bit more during the day as well, longer wake times.  That works - sometimes.  It is indeed amazing how significant the struggle can be to keep the little man awake during some feeding sessions, but as soon as he's done and we're changing his diaper, he's wide awake.  Treva swears to me she's still breastfeeding - with that said, I continually check for empty cans of Red Bull in the recycling bin with Parker's fingertips on them....




A few other loose ends / updates to comment on:

• Still TBD on who he looks like - definitely has my nose and Grandpa Totten's chin dimple (from Grandma Totten's perspective especially).  He's got my clown shoe feet, and has some of the goopy stuff I used to get in my eyes in his right eye - so maybe more me than Treva at this point...
• He hasn't grown any chest hair yet - stay tuned.
• Fitting into his newborn clothes like a full-weighted newborn now!  Socks?  Too small!!  Diapers?  FILL THEM UP! 
• His favorite food is still milk, his favorite color is magenta. 

That's all for now - be happy, be healthy dear friends and family!

dwt.