Conan Wrassles the Serpent

One of Conan's favorite toys is his stuffed rainbow snake. I get a kick out of watching him wrestle with it, not only because it's cute as can be but because one of the key parts of the movie Conan the Barbarian is when Conan wrestles a giant serpent*. Of course, my little guy takes on the serpent WAY better than Schwarzenegger. Especially in ducky jammies.

*How weird is it that I can't find a picture of that on the internet? VERY WEIRD.

Chloe Skywalker

Conan has a new cousin! Chloe was born at 4 am on Friday, April 24th. She weighed 6lbs, 6oz. It was an extremely fast short labor, just 1.5 hours! Mom, Dad and Baby are all doing great.

And yes, this means that Conan has two cousins, and they are both named Chloe. It's such a great name!

Spring! Bees! Rhubarb!

Spring finally is here. I've gotten peas, lettuces, radishes, brussel sprouts, kale, green onions, spinach, pak choi and beans planted. The beans were starts that really needed to go in the ground, but I'm afraid they got a bit shocked by a hard frost last night. Everything else is doing great though. The lawn has been mowed twice now already, its growing super fast.
Mason Bees are loving the nesting block we put up for them. They found it and started nesting almost immdeiately after I hung it up. We've actually had the block for a couple of years but never managed to find a spot to hang it up. The sunny side of the woodshed seems to really be a hit. Mason bees are a shiny black stingless native NW bee that are the best polinators around. They lay their eggs in crevices with a supply of pollen and then wall them in with mud. The larvae will hatch next spring and do it all again. It's really fun to watch them working, flying in and out of the nesting holes - busy as bees, one might say. The nesting block has paper tube liners so we can pull them out next spring and put in fresh ones for the bees to use. We can also move the whole block to a sheltered spot to keep the bees safe through the winter.
A couple weeks ago Dave brought over several rhubarb starts and planted them in various spots around the yard. They are doing great - we're going to have a lot of rhubarb this summer and in years to come, which is terrific: my rhubarb-chardonnay and rhubarb-ginger jams both got rave reviews last year. :)

Blue Eyed Boy

What beautiful eyes my boy has! Of course, it is still possible for his eyes to darken, for up to three years after birth, although most babies' eye color "sets" between 6 and 12 months. But Conan's eyes seem to be getting lighter & clearer, not darker.

Great Grandma Joy turns 80!

The family surprised her with a birthday celebration during the Easter gathering. Mom made a delicious chocolate cake and Jess made her fabulous lemon tart, and we had balloons and candles and even a tiara for the birthday girl. It was a great day. Conan loved playing with all his aunties & uncles, grandma Debbie, grandpa Dennis, and of course great grandma herself. He really loves her, he always smiles and giggles when he sees her. He also thought the balloons were extremely interesting, especially a pink one, he got all wide-eyed and hooted and cooed intently whenever he saw it. We brought it home for him. :)

Triple Cute

Guess who discovered his feet? Toes are chewy.
We got a battery-powered swing for $25 off craigslist. It's "big kid" swing - he loves to sit upright in it. He is DONE with the baby swing that we had borrowed from Brian & Abby, which he used to love - but he does not want to lay down in a cradle anymore! It's amazing how much he's grown & changed in just a few months...

So much playing can really wear a baby out though. Time for a ride in the mobile bed, aka the stroller. :)
Oh, and notice the bibs? The faucet is ON. When he's not drooling, he's blowing spit bubbles and raspberries. It's pretty cute, he bubbles when he's happy.

Jump Baby Jump!

Conan is big enough now to enjoy going in the doorway jumper. I have to pad it out with blankets to keep his skinny little self centered in it, but once he's situated he loves it. He doesn't exactly jump yet, but he is all about being held upright and seeing what happens when he throws his weight around. That goes for being held in my arms, too. He's a physically precocious kid: he rolled over from his back to his front for the first time this week. He hasn't repeated that feat yet, but I've seen him working on it so I'm sure he'll soon be doing it all the time. Which is exciting but also means we have to be much more watchfull when he's on the changing table, or playing with his baby gym. He's on the move!

He's also gaining weight better, we had a checkup this week and he's up to 12 lbs. 13oz. He's taking larger and larger feedings, and spacing them out a bit more too. Hopefully this will lead to increased sleep at night. He pretty regularly only wakes up twice per night now, but occasionally we still have 3 or 4 waking nights, which really kill mama & papa. Combined with the fact that Conan seems to firmly beleive that the day starts at 5 am (weekends? what are weekends?), we're feeling pretty sleep deprived. Everyone says that at three months is when babies start sleeping, so we're really hoping to get some better sleep soon. Please!