Krees goes Dutch Kiwi!

That not-so-fresh feeling

This is one smart kid. He likes a warm bath so much, he'll do ANYTHING to get another one right after the first!

This post was written while listening to the Michigan Radio stream.

Shameless indie band plug - Orpheum Bell

I have to put in a completely shameless plug for my best friend's band's new CD and upcoming shows -- and not just because she sent us what may be one of the world's most awesome and exhaustive care packages (rivaled only by those sent by my other best friend and my own mother).

Orpheum Bell's new CD is finally up on the web.  There are a few songs playable in their entirety on their MySpace site. (Warning: the page will automatically start playing some music, so consider yourself forewarned if you're at work and your speaker volume is turned up to 11.)

You can also hear 2 minutes of each and every song on CD Baby, which is where you can order a physical copy of the CD from the web if you are so inclined.

If you want to own a small piece of the action, they're also now on ITunes.  (Merrill recommends "Something From Above" if you're in the market for a single track.)

Better yet, for those of you in Michigan, they have a handful of upcoming shows, all listed on MySpace, including one at the Ark on Tuesday September 18th.  You can't go wrong because it's a benefit for Food Gatherers - admission price is an item of nonperishable food.  (If perishable is more your thing, take Merrill a cupcake and she'll sneak you in the back door. Or take her an extra dry double macchiato and tell her it's from Krees.)

Look who's one month old today!

Happy one month birthday, Aldus!

The writing of this post was interrupted by a terrible crying jag by the birthday boy - and the pleasant discovery that this fleecy swaddling thing actually works!

First bottle feeding

One of our baby books advises introducing a bottle to the baby at around 3-4 weeks. We'd hate for Aldus to show up at the babysitter's when I return to work in August and refuse the bottle. So this week we also tried having Charles feed Aldus with mixed results.

The first attempt didn't go very well.

The second attempt - with breastmilk and a proper bottle - proved much more successful!

This post was written while listening to my son snore away in his sling.

Grand days out

Aldus has had some good outings lately!

Friday before last (15 June) he went to Groningen to have his passport photos taken. He'd been awake and not crying most of the day, and he fulfilled my prediction that he would be good and sleepy for the late afternoon trip. Not only did we get the passport photos, but we also got an early sushi dinner while we were there. Ahhh - maguro, I have missed you! Dinner included a first semi-public feeding for Aldus (I wouldn't call it fully public since there wasn't anyone else in the restaurant at the time who could have seen us except the wait staff) and a first diaper change out of the house. The restaurant didn't have a changing table in the restroom, so we made quite good use of the Bugaboo and superbly awesome diaper backpack. (Thanks again, Knitters!)

Last Thursday (21 June) we took Aldus to the U.S. embassy in Amsterdam to register his birth and apply for a passport and social security number. I was worried about the reported 12 week wait for passport processing since we have plans to go to Copenhagen in August with Erik & Julie (woo hoo!!!). But apparently the embassies send applications to a different processing center, and we can expect his passport in only two to three weeks (woo hoo again!). While in Amsterdam we also got a great lunch at a little Italian deli on Pieter Cornelisz. Hooftstraat.We also bought ourselves a new Nespresso machine since we didn't bring our old one here with us. Aldus was so good and quiet the whole time we walked around Amsterdam, but he had some issues in the car ride home thanks to hunger and dirty diapers. A couple more semi-public feedings in the car (stopped, of course, so he could be out of the car seat) and diaper changes (thanks again to the amazing backpack) and he was good to go.

And last but not least, last Friday night he went to his first PARTY! The kid's a chick magnet, and the single guys at the party were jealous of all the attention he was getting from the female Russian contingent. I'm afraid we stayed out a bit too late, though, and the entire ride home was a big scream-fest. I don't think he was happy that he was put into the car seat after being held so nicely by different people, and then somewhere along the ride home he got hungry. It wasn't pretty, and we think these periodic screaming bouts are contributing to the terrible hormone-induced acne he has right now. More importantly, I hope he's not getting the notion that the car seat is a bad place to be.

No good pics from these outings, unfortunately, so I'll leave you with a photo from a recent outing into the backyard!

This post was written while listening to Glenn Gould play the Goldberg Variations.

First Third World

What kind of First World country is this that has managed to reclaim land from the sea and keep it out of areas lying lower than sea level for hundreds of years - but can't put screens on their windows to keep the flies out?!? Do you know how aggravating it is to have both hands tied up nursing a baby, to have flies crawling all over your legs and not be able to swat at them or shoo them away? Grrrrr!

Crybaby

Okay, so maybe...just maybe...Aldus might not be perfect. Sometimes he cries. For no apparent reason at all. And sometimes for lengthy stretches of time. It's not pretty.

This post was written while listening to "Free to Be" from the Wynton Marsalis Quartet's The Magic Hour.

Aldus FAQ!

1. Where did you get the name Aldus? 1. It's just a name we like. It sounds nice. It's masculine. It's unique enough that there won't be five other Alduses in his first grade class, but not so unique as to be Shangobunni unique. 2. He has the same name as Aldus Manutius, whom you can read about here on Wikipedia. We like that he'll share his name with someone who fostered the spread of information and literature.
2. How do you pronounce Kwangsup? The first syllable, Kwang, has a soft a like "swan." (Not a hard a like "gang.") The second syllable, sup, is like "supper." Or like "Wassup?" Ha!
3. Does "Kwangsup" have a meaning?
• "sup" is the syllable Aldus shares with others of his generation of the family. His male siblings and cousins (and possibly though not necessarily the females) will all have "sup" in their names. It was chosen by his great-grandparents, and the particular Chinese character for it means "harmony" or "flame."
• "Kwang" is the syllable that's all his own. It was, among other possible names, suggested by his grandparents at the recommendation of Prof. Wanki Paik of Korea University who knows a lot about Aldus's family's history. The particular Chinese character for "Kwang" means something along the lines of bright, shiny, broad, glory, scenery or always shining. We chose it over the other suggestions because we liked the sound of it, the meaning, and frankly the mid-range difficulty of writing the Chinese character.
4. Whom does he look like? See below.
5. Will he have Dutch citizenship or dual citizenship? The short answer is no. Although we would prefer the latter, he will only have American citizenship, and we will need to take him to the American consulate in the Hague to get him registered for that. See my "Baby without a country" post for the longer explanation.

This post was written while hoping more milk comes in and while listening to the oscillating fan because it's so FREAKIN' hot today.

Retraction

That wasn't very nice what I said about Aldus's gas in the last post. Charles is my hero after looking after a crying Aldus from probably 3:30 to 4:30 / 4:45 this morning and letting me sleep.

Photo update

The verdict is in! Aldus has:

• my eyes (HUGE, with an eyelid fold, and currently blue, although they will likely turn brown)
• Charles's nose
• Charles's mouth (corners downturned like when he was a baby)
• our cheeks (it's a toss-up)
• my ears (non-sloping earlobes)
• my fingernails (skinny)
• Charles's gas (ha! Charles will beg to differ)

And here's a little taste of Aldus's first three days with his grandparents:

You'll notice a trend...

...He's always being held.

And how's Maui dealing with all of this? We'd be lying if we didn't say he felt starved for attention. But he's otherwise coping beautifully.

Mama said knock you out!

The daddy-long-legs are staging a comeback. When we moved into this house last August, we probably killed about a half-dozen to a dozen of them a day for two weeks before the "infestation" started to subside. I figured it was due to our killing spree, but perhaps it was just autumn taking its own toll. Now that summer has sprung in Diever, it seems they're coming back with a vengeance. I got three of them in the shower this morning alone. Yuck!

Completely unrelated, it's funny the things that happen to you as a parent without your realizing it. I have, oddly and naturally, begun to refer to myself as "Mama" when talking to Aldus. Not "Mommy" or "Mom" as I would have supposed. Not even "Omma" (Korean for mother), which is how I try to consciously refer to myself so that Aldus will call me that. I haven't the faintest idea where "Mama" came from.

This post was written while listening to the dryer spin (a much more frequent occurrence now) and watching Maui chase flies.

Meet the Grandparents

Charles used to joke that his parents like me better than they like him. But I've just been usurped.

Aldus's harabuhji and halmoni arrived Saturday from North Carolina. They call him by his Korean name, Kwangsup, and they are smitten! Even Dr. Yun has been holding him for hours on end, commenting on how strong Aldus is to hold his head up so well already, how when he's awake he looks all around the ceiling, how he seemed to be able to start tracking them both with his eyes yesterday, and how sometimes in his sleep Aldus touches his own face and sometimes he doesn't.

Mrs. Yun held Aldus after dinner yesterday. She sang to him San Toki and another Korean song about a butterfly, plus Jesus Loves Me and Peace Like A River. Aldus just gazed up her and smiled a little. I hope it wasn't gas.

Happy Birthday, Maui!

Maui turns three today! Yay! Yes, hard to believe that when we got him he was about the same size as Aldus.

Charles asked if we should give him something special to eat today. But seriously -- how much more special can we get than the ground beef, egg yolk, muesli and veggie meatballs we feed him every day already? Charles suggested maybe fresh chicken, but I don't think Ger's daughter would be too happy if she came back from Australia and discovered that we'd fed one of her chickens to the dog.

A lot of people have asked how Maui's doing with the new baby. Quite well, thank you! He was so exhausted from the couple days he spent at camp when Aldus was born, that he pretty much ignored the baby and tried to sleep through the crying. He's still trying to sleep through the crying. But he's curious about Aldus and will sometimes come over to give him a little kiss. And he does seem a little starved for attention, often coming over and putting his head in our laps or bringing his rope toy to us to play. And so far we've only had one incident involving a dirty diaper that may or may not lead to more trouble further down the road. Keep your fingers crossed for us on that one.

This post was written while listening to Charles play with a wooden toy xylophone handed down to us from a neighbor.