Lance is really changing. I mean, he's been changing since he was born, but he's quickly turning into a little boy. He loves eating, he's super active, he grabs onto everything and puts it into his mouth with accuracy. He can make his squeaky toys squeak, he splashes in the bath, and he will grab your earrings, glasses, hair, necklace or anything else hanging off of you and he won't let go without a fight.
We've noticed that LJ will sleep in a little later (8:30am!) if we put him to bed a little later. No, he doesn't sleep through the night, but he consistently only wakes up once, no more than twice a night. It isn't bad at all. I haven't been pumping before bed anymore, which means Leighton doesn't do a feeding anymore. I absolutely hate pumping. I have to sit there waiting, hoping for more ounces. Plus Leighton is interning at Kaiser, which means getting up early, so I don't mind doing the night shift so that he can sleep a bit more. He claims he misses it, but I'm not convinced. He's still the one who wakes up when LJ cries.
Overall, life is better than imagined. All of my friends seem to be having babies, which means more baby friendly events, more support and even more stuff in common. My first niece is due in 7 weeks and we are all so excited. Yuki helps me with Lance during the day, and Karl helps Leighton in the evening. I am still working part time from home, spending most of my time with this amazing son of mine. The weather continues to be weirdly sunny so we've been taking long walks in the neighborhood, often stopping in a shop or two to buy gifts. We have a beautiful Christmas tree and bulging stockings for everyone in the house. Santa came a little early and got me the new iPhone and DJ got the coolest video gaming system ever--Kinect. We're all smiles around here, looking forward to sharing our joy with all those we love during the holiday season. Love, love, love!
Yuki and Karl play with their favorite nephew.
He loves jumping!
Naima and Lance love hanging out.
Cousin Michele comes for a VERY short visit, but gets to meet Lance.
The Miller family at sunset.
Enzo Shaw Kucera finally ends Occupy Rebecca.
Judah Kailash SatheWarner, another cutie born to a Caribbean dad!
Three new babies on Take 2, our women's volleyball team
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. What could be better than massive amounts of food, friends, family, love and thankfulness? Well, I'll tell you--doing it three times! Our first Thanksgiving was with Leighton's cousins, The Millers. They always celebrate the Wednesday before, so it has served as a great way to stretch our stomachs for the day-of events. This Thanksgiving featured jerk turkey, Judy's amazing sides and a long lost cousin! Only a Ford could have a long lost cousin--Leighton found Laura Ford on Facebook and she came to the celebration. We missed Rexland who is off at Hampton University in Virginia. Rexland is usually the king of desserts, but Judy did plenty of baking to make up for his absence. And DJ did plenty of eating (12 pieces of fried chicken wings).
Donald, Olive, Hollie, Henry and Laura pose with food.
Aunt Olive and Aunt Hollie get their Baby Lance time.
Thanksgiving number 2 was another spectacular event. Eleanor and Sam have moved home and instantly hosted Thanksgiving. Sam and I rotisseried a turkey, and Sam, Eleanor and Drew made incredible sides. We got to hang out all day in front of the fire chatting and playing games. It was the perfect Thanksgiving day. To my delight, we went on the traditional BB walk up Claremont Canyon. The view was spectacular (and Eleanor carried Lance the whole way!) It was really wonderful not being in charge of all the food or hosting.
Hello beautiful! (oh and Sam too)
So many loving arms.
Feast number 2!
That night we walked over to the Brosgart's to see Mickey, Chip's family, and to eat some of the famous Moore apple pie. Chip's brother has a baby girl just 2 days older than Lance. They had a good time getting to know each other.
Lance and Lettie getting to know each other
Uncle Mickey gets some LJ loving.
Our third Thanksgiving featured the Brosgart leftovers. Carol and Joe lovingly included us in the family Stinson trip. DJ got to hang out with Damani and Nikko, Leighton and I got long hot tubs and me, Katie and the boys had a lovely walk on the beach. DJ announced that when he is a millionaire he's going to get a house at Stinson too. It was so much fun spending time with Teddy and Felix. All of the babies are in different phases, but all are so huggable. And even with three babies there were always eager hands, which was a wonderful break for us parents.
Carol fed the masses gourmet meals. It was a 5 star event every time!
Mama Ruby and Felix in the hot tub.
The basketball game; Mickey stacked the teams, but we held our own.
Myrna had either LJ or Felix in her arms at all times.
Lance Julian and Teddy
Feeding time on the love seat.
Lance Julian has been showing so much interest in food that we thought Thanksgiving weekend would be the perfect time to give him his first meal. He started with sweet potatoes and breast milk. He did pretty well for his first time eating and of course we caught it on video. Since then, he's had avocado, carrots and oatmeal. This morning was his first real poop diaper, GROSS!
I have so much to be thankful for. I'm extremely thankful for Leighton who says he married me because I'm nice. I am so thankful a baby has finally come into my life and he couldn't be more perfect. I am thankful for the Millers who welcomed me into their home the first time they met me and continue to make space for me and my friends. I am thankful for my wonderful friends who take care of me and even do all of the clean up since my hands are usually full. I am thankful for Carol and Joe who have stepped in as surrogate grandparents since my selfish parents decided to abandon us (live the dream, mom and dad, but you taught me the power of guilt and I will use it against you!) I am thankful that I have the coolest parents alive who are models of health, love, and generosity. I am thankful for my sweet brother, his fabulous new wife and their healthy Genmai. I am thankful for my roommates who take care of this house, my son and our stuff as if it is their own. I am thankful that I get to work part-time from home and spend all day with Lance Julian. Life is good.
I'm also thankful that my best friend's baby gets along so well with my baby. Generation II in effect.
Naima LOVES kissing "beh beh"
Lance Julian seems to like it too.
hugs
I'm putting lots of videos up on my YouTube channel. Just search for "MamaBBFord".
Lance had his 4 month check up. He's still the cutest baby they've ever seen. He is 15 pounds, 27 inches long, holding up his head like a champ, grabbing for toys, googling all the time, and as Dr. Bolden said, "he never stops moving!" That's our boy.
Prince Julian the Great.
We celebrated Papa Leighton's 39th birthday. We continued the Miller family tradition with a wonderful "cakewalk". The cakewalk was invented by Cousin Oliver Miller, here is his story.
The "real" cakewalk actually goes back to slavery days in the US. There were various get-togethers and celebrations called prize-walks, or chalk-line walks, or walk-arounds. Sometimes these were dances and sometimes they were "styling" contests in which couples walked or marched around a room or down a line and the couple that were best-dressed, or who walked or marched the most stylishly, or who could walk with a pail of water on their head without spilling any, won the contest. Maybe there was a prize, maybe there wasn't. If they happened to be competing for a cake it was a cakewalk.
Oliver wanted something more exciting at birthday parties than just singing and eating a cake. He wanted dancing to be involved. He was thinking about the soul train double line where people dance their way down the middle--something that gets everyone to participate. He also wanted the birthday boy/girl to be sitting in a throne being the center of attention and to have the cake actually presented to them by folks moving in style.
Hence the "cakewalk" which isn't a cakewalk in the historical sense, but brings to mind and plays off of a long vanished African-American tradition. Basically the idea is for everyone to participate and show off, for the birthday boy/girl to get to be the center of attention for more then just the little birthday song, and a way to get everyone dancing.
Oliver picked the music. The old-timey first song is a perfect one for getting everyone up-- macking, styling, vogueing, marching, boogying, shuffling, walking or as the Jamaican's say "shake leg". The second song is Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday, which continues the African-American theme.
Cousin Oliver, you are brilliant! It's my new favorite birthday tradition. Having all of our friends and family dance for us at the party is pretty much the best thing ever. I'm working on a highlights video.
Cousin Donald asked, "Is being pregnant a prerequisite to being your friend?"
Naima and Maura
The birthday boy with Cousin Judy.
Aunt Yuki got Lance a duck costume for Halloween. We decided he could be Leighton's Rubber Ducky. We continued celebrating new BB-Ford Family traditions with our "Halloween Burn". We moved all of the cars out of the driveway, Leighton pulled the fire pit up front with some chairs, and we had a campfire right there in the front yard. We ate a delicious dinner of BBQ'd rotisserie chicken and roasted vegetables with a side of Halloween candy, we sipped cousin Bob Marr's Zinfandel, and frightened all the little children.
Rubber Ducky, you're the one,
You make bathtime lots of fun!
Yukitaka finally meets Lance.
Josh and Satchel get to meet LJ at the Cal game.
Karl cuddling his babies.
Sam and Leighton got into their singing at MacKenzie's Karaoke birthday.
Everyone still wants to know what we call our new baby. Well, mostly we call him "baby". There are still folks who call him "Roasty", totally appropriate. Froy calls him "Little L", which has a nice ring (he is the king of nick names). I call him Lancey sometimes. Charity, Yolanda and the Brosgarts seem to favor "LJ". Odavia calls him "Chulo". DJ said that "Lance Julian" is a pretty awesome name, so he's sticking with it. The Kaiser doctors and nurses call him "Lance". Other's asked if it's okay to stick with "Julian". There is no right answer. Until he can talk and make his preference known, you have my permission to call him whatever you like!
Lance Julian and Teddy meet.
It has been a busy few weeks. Lance is now: rolling over, taking consistent naps, laughing, grabbing, ripping, and chewing on everything. He has gotten really good with his hands, so we now play with toys! My former school, The Berkeley School, gave me a ton of great baby toys that we are finally using. He loves rings, rattles, and his "nipple toy". It is literally a blue plastic ball with 12 nipples sticking out of it, each with a unique texture. He chews the hell out of that toy! Thanks, Tanya!
Erin and Alexis hang with LJ.
Tor and Drea get some QT
Not only is my little Lion growing and getting more and more fun by the minute, but my favorite brother got married! The wedding was amazing and meant that we had so many fun family and friends in town and many awesome events to attend. We also managed to get Leighton's cousin Julian and his wife Krystal, work visas to be the wedding photographers. That meant they finally got to visit us, (Julian's first time in the US), they got to meet Little Lance and they did a BB-Ford family photo shoot (hence the beautiful pictures you see at the beginning and end of the blog).
Leighton, Julian and Krystal enjoy the amazing Thai feast Bert made for us at Sabuy Sabuy II for the "rehearsal dinner"
