This is Halloween! (Halloween, Halloween!)

I love Halloween. Love it. I can't say that I've gotten dressed up each of my 30 years on this planet, but if I had to guess, I'd say costumes figured in at least 2/3 of my All Hallow's Eves. The first costume I remember is Beast Man from He-man and the Masters of the Universe. You'd have to ask my mom why I chose this costume, because Beast Man was far from my favorite character. Maybe there was a sale? Let me know in the comments, Mom.

Anyway, I think I was 5, and I remember that I put on the costume and burst in on my younger brother while he was getting a bath. This would make him 18 months old, if I'm getting the year correct. The following sequence of events likely happened within the space of 30 seconds:
Matthew: (bursts through bathroom door) Raaawr!
Brett: (in bathtub) Aaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeeee!
Mom: Matthew! Get out of the bathroom!
Matthew: But Mom, I just wanted to show him my costume!
Brett: AAAA! Waaaaah!
Mom: Get out!
Matthew: (stomps out the door)

Just so you get the picture, this is what I burst through the door wearing:
It is kind of terrifying. I don't really blame my mom or brother for their reactions.

After that year, I hit the typical costume beats of a boy in the '80s and '90s. Skeleton, grim reaper, pirate, vampire. In high school I painted my face like The Crow at least one year, maybe two. If this hasn't been made clear yet, I should point it out: I was not cool.

I'm still not, so it should come as no surprise that long before Little G was actually born, I was planning her first Halloween costume. Thankfully, Hollie likes costumes at least as much as I do, if not more. (You should see the RiffRaff and Magenta we pulled off in college.) So since Little G was due on September 23, well in advance of Halloween, Hollie and I knew we would have to come up with something awesome. Now, when I say we, I really have to include my mom, since whatever DIY thing we came up with would likely require her sewing skills.

Some ridiculous ideas I had:

1: Chest burster from Alien, which would've required a makeover of her stroller to look like John Hurt, with his chest situated at her seat.
2: Tiny princess Leia, but bounty hunter or Endor version.
3. Baby Naomi Wildman from Star Trek: Voyager.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

So what did we end up with? I'll show you.
Tada!

You got it, right?

I mean, come on, it's obvious.

No? Need some help?

How about now?
Aw man. I love Halloween.

Geek: Know Your History

As the recent addition of a header to this blog makes clear, the G I'm solving for is geek, which is to say, me. As a statement of purpose, figuring out one's own life and the living thereof is maybe a bit self indulgent, but what blog isn't self-indulgent to some extent?

But before you can figure out where you're going, it's useful to learn where you've been. If not "you" in the specific sense, then "you" in the cultural sense. To that end, I present a brief history of geeks courtesy of a geeky marketing firm, Flowtown (hat tip to Janette for sending this to me):
It's a big picture, so make sure to click on it to blow it up.

It's a little reductive, and really doesn't give you any idea how we got from Geek who bites head off chickens to Geek who is essentially a nerd to Geek who is obsessive about any one of a number of cultures. But it's a neat way to think about how we identify ourselves as geeks these days.

To dig deeper into how that happened, I recommend American Nerd: The Story of My People. The author, Benjamin Nugent, spends a great deal of time parsing the evolution of geeks, nerds and dweebs from the mid-20th century onward. He focuses on a few geek subcultures, including gaming, LARPing, and speech and debate teams, largely because those were the activities he enjoyed as a kid. Nugent does mention the circus freak geeks, and how the term essentially meant "outcast" for a very long time. My dad initially balked at the notion of my self-identification as a geek, mostly because the word had that pejorative connotation throughout his childhood.

But if you think about a geek as someone who is simply passionate about a particular thing, then my dad would be hard-pressed not to identify as a Lincoln Geek, a wood Geek, or even a word Geek. (He did get pretty excited about I Write Like when I blogged about it in July.)

And passion is the important thing. Whether it's my cousin obsessing over the latest episode of Glee, my brother tinkering over mini-robots in his bedroom, or my wife gushing over old recordings of Sweeney Todd and My Fair Lady, it's that passion I want to pass on to my daughter.

So this is directed at you, Little G. There's a great big world with a whole lot of history and culture waiting for you. Find something to love and make it yours. (Although if you could pick something other than whoever follows in Justin Bieber's footsteps, your dad would appreciate it.)

Weeee! Charts! And Sleep!

Given that I was too busy posting pictures of my daughter in exploratory Star Trek mode on Monday, I didn't get the chance to engage in my favorite kind of post: data analysis.

On Monday, Little G went to the doctor for her 5-week check up. For the record, she was 36 days old at that check up. She received her second Hep-B vaccination, and got another weight and length measurement. At that time, she clocked in at 9 lbs, 3 oz and 22 inches. That's a gain of a whopping 2 lbs 2 oz since we brought her home, and 1 lb 6 oz since her last weigh-in, which explains why picking up her car seat has gotten progressively more difficult.

Here's a helpful chart to show where she is compared to the average:

I used www.infantchart.com to generate this, and though it's hard distinguish between the lines that early on the chart, she sits comfortably around the 42nd percentile. Solidly average. It also means she's been gaining weight at an average of 1.15 oz per day since her last weigh in. If that holds true, she's probably at 9 lbs 5.3 oz today.

As for length, the same site lets me check that, too.
Provided that 22 inches is an accurate measurement (which means she's either grown 1.5 inches since we brought her home, or somebody has been careless with the tape measure at some point along the way), that puts her around the 68th percentile. Not too shabby either.

In other milestone news, Little G has "slept through the night" two nights in a row. I use quotation marks because "night," in this case, is relative. Monday night we were able to put her down at midnight and she slept until 5:30 am. Last night she went down a little after 11 pm and slept until 5 am. It's not a full night's rest in my book, but it's a good stretch, and it's happening at night rather than mid-morning, so I'll take it.

Unfortunately, Hollie has a really bad chest cold, and it kept her up until 2 in the morning, so she wasn't able to take full advantage last night. We're hoping that gets better soon. The small amount of sleep she's been getting hasn't made getting better any easier.

I should mention that Little G is still not sleeping in her crib, as sleeping flat just seems to upset her. We read great reviews of this rocker/sleeper, and it seemed to be what she needed. We swaddle her tightly so she can't smack herself in the face, and this keeps her legs bunched up in a comfortable way while keeping her torso tilted. We got it on Sunday, and it's worked great 2 out of 3 nights so far. Of course, I'm probably jinxing Little G's sleep routine by bringing any of this up, but I hope this behavior continues.

General housekeeping notes: I've started a Twitter feed for the blog, which you can see in the right column. Follow me, if you're so inclined, and you'll see things like what we're listening to during daddy/daughter dance time, what shows I'm using to stay awake while trying to put her to sleep, and general miscellany about being a geeky dad. Even if you don't have a twitter account, you can bookmark and visit http://twitter.com/SolvingForG to see what I'm posting, or just visit the blog and read the last few tweets.

Lastly, if you're a regular reader, what sort of things are you interested in hearing about? I won't promise to post fewer charts, but if there's something I'm not mentioning that you'd like to see, let me know and I'll do my best to oblige, within reason. Respond in the comments below, or on Facebook. Thanks!

Generations

Life... the First Frontier.
These are the voyages of Little G. Her continuing mission:
To explore strange new worlds
To seek out new life and new civilizations
To boldly go where no one has gone before.

Picture all that being said aloud by Patrick Stewart. It's quite grand, don't you think? I'm partial to his narration, although I think I prefer the women's chorus singing the musical theme from the original series.

I should point out: this is not her Halloween costume. This is just your average weekend outfit. The real costume will be revealed in due course, and is sufficiently geeky.

In the meantime, here are more pictures!

Boldly yawning where no baby has yawned before!

Boldly navigating sales at Old Navy in her stroller, or as I like to call it, the runabout. (It works if you think of the house as DS9, and the car as The Defiant... ah forget it. This analogy has gone too far.)

She can't take much more of this, Captain!

Hey You With the Pretty Face, Welcome to the Human Race

I had every intention of posting this yesterday, but I wanted to take the time to wish my Little G a happy one-month birthday. The one-month mark is a tumultuous time in a child's life. Her body is going through a lot of changes. She's periodically cranky for no discernible reason. She occasionally lashes out physically. And she has facial acne that she can't control. It's a lot like being a teenager, oddly enough.

I wish I could say that a lot has happened in the last month, but it mostly feels like more of the same. Regular feedings, irregular naps, a bath every other day. We're stumbling into routines, most of which seem to be working. Oh, here's something new! She has hated every bath we've ever given her, until last night, when she just giggled and burbled her way through the whole process. It's only one time so far, but I hope it bodes well for the future of baths.

One thing I have been doing over the last week or so. When Hollie showers in the evening, and it's just me and the baby for a little while, I've cranked up iTunes and bounced her and sang along with whatever I've felt like listening to. The first time was last week, when we listened to The Beatles for about 40 minutes before her bath. I kept it upbeat, with songs like Octopus's Garden, Yellow Submarine, Penny Lane, When I'm Sixty-Four, Ob-la-di Ob-la-da, and Your Mother Should Know. (One of my personal favs, Maxwell's Silver Hammer, is upbeat, but more than a little creepy, so we'll save that for later). This was a lot of fun, especially When I'm Sixty-Four and Your Mother Should Know.

The vibration of my voice coupled with the bouncing must be pretty soothing, because she was out like a light after the first 30 minutes. She was so knocked out, we were able to trim her fingernails well for the first time. It's a lot easier when she's not squirming.

The next day, I loaded up a mixed up list of songs that I like to sing really loudly when I'm home by myself. Higher and Higher by Jackie Wilson, Mr. Blue Sky by ELO, Down on the Corner by CCR, and Kick Drum Heart by the Avett Brothers, among others. I didn't belt 'em out the way I usually do, and she didn't drop to sleep like she did the previous night, but it was still a good time.

Less successful lists? The Beach Boys and Michael Bublé . I think I bounce too fast to surf rock. And either she did not at all care for the smooth retro sounds of Michael Bublé , or she had a bad case of gas, because such squirming I have not seen before. Of course, she followed that up with the excellent bath, so maybe she was just grooving her way to contentment.

In closing, in lieu of smiles, which she hasn't quite figured out yet, this is my favorite expression.
Happy Birthday, Little G!

Milestones around my neck

I told myself early on that I wouldn't compare my daughter with others. That somehow, I would manage to avoid the pitfall of hearing folks say "Well, my kid was doing this at this age" and taking it too much to heart. But let's face it: if I'm the kind of guy who charts his daughter's weight in utero or looks at average U.S. infant size statistics, I'm probably going to continue to compare my daughter to other kids. And if I'm being honest, I probably assumed that any comparison I did wouldn't matter, because of course my kid would be better, faster, and farther along that any other child ever. Which is pretty silly.

All that said, it means when things don't progress in the way you've been told is normal, you get worried unnecessarily. For instance, it's perfectly normal--we've been told by nurses, doctors, and the Internet--for infants to lose 10% of their birth weight the day or two after they're born. In practical terms, most of this weight loss is accounted for by the expulsion of dense waste accumulated in the GI tract during gestation, with an ounce or two maybe due to moving around more or getting used to ingesting food rather than getting nutrition via the umbilical cord (Science!). On average, though, infants will get back up to their birth weight 10-14 days after they're born.

Cue my concern and the topic of this post. As you'll recall, Little G weighed 7 lbs 12 oz at birth. She left the hospital weighing 7 lbs 1 oz, (just under 9% loss). We went to the pediatrician's office for a weight check on Sept. 24, 12 days after she was born. And she weighed in at 7 lbs 6 oz. Practically speaking, this is nothing to worry about. Little G gets plenty to eat, she has more messy diapers than I can reliably keep track of, and is doing just fine. But those numbers nag at you. We didn't hit the average! Oh no! Is something wrong? Guilt, pain, concern! AUGH!

No. Nothing is wrong. She is happy. She is healthy. And I am just a nervous parent who's still getting used to the notion of caring for a living, breathing human life. Concern and worry are normal. Breathe, man, breathe. For the record, she had another weight check today, and she's at 7 lbs 13 oz. Good girl. Only took two to three days longer than average. (Dad can't help clinging to his statistics.)

In happier milestone news, Little G lost her umbilical cord yesterday. Look! A real belly button!
Average time to lose the umbilical stump: 10 to 21 days. Little G: 16 days. Way to split the numbers, little bean.

Superpowers: Redux

Little G is 11 days old today, and try as I might, I see little evidence of the superpowers that seemed so obvious in one of the earlier ultrasounds. Like many of the X-men, it's possible that we'll just need to wait until puberty for any of those powers to surface.

That said, I have noticed a few slightly more mundane traits that may eventually develop into full-blown superpowers. Hey, I'm a dad now, I can brag in whatever manner I choose. Here they are, from least helpful to most promising.

1. Super Pooper. I can think of no way that this could be beneficial later in life, but our daughter can evacuate her bowels like a champ. (Let me take this moment to apologize to the 13-year-old version of Little G if she ever reads this. Sorry, honey.) From day one, she has exceeded all expectations in this area. The nurses told us we might get one messy diaper and one wet diaper in the first 24 hours. We got three of the first and two of the second. As the days progressed, and the chart we were given settled on three messy diapers and six wet diapers per day, she's pretty much blown those numbers out of the water. At least we know she's eating well, right?

2. Preternatural awareness of a clean diaper. So far, she doesn't seem to mind messy diapers too much. She gets a little fussy now and again if we don't notice the mess, but I think a by product of power #1 is that she's learned to live with the mess a little longer than most babies. But whether she cares about a messy diaper is beside my current point. Awake or asleep, calm or crying, she exhibits an almost psychic awareness of the exact second a clean diaper is secured to her rump. How do I know this? Because 4 times out of 5, as soon as the clean diaper is on, she messes it right back up again. Seconds later. Before I've had a chance to pick her up off the changing table. Like power #1, I have no idea how this is helpful.

3. Abnormal infant strength and dexterity. Here's where it starts to get good. Little G has been rolling over from day one. Watching her do this in the bassinet at the hospital, I thought little of it. The nurses told us to lay her on her back (as is the custom nowadays, apparently), but when we did so, she'd routinely wriggle for a moment or two, then flip herself onto her side. I assumed this was normal, but the nurses were perplexed! Turns out, babies aren't supposed to develop the ability to flip in any direction until 2-3 months, and even then, it's usually front to back. Since we brought her home, we've watched it happen again and again. While she can flip both directions, she does tend to force herself onto her left side most often.

In tandem with this, since one of the precursors to body flipping is head and neck control, Little G is really close to holding her own head up. She regularly lifts her head off my shoulder when I'm burping her and holds it in place for a few seconds before falling back down again. She'll do the same thing when she's on her back, lifting her head up and forward for a few seconds, usually during a particularly intense stretch. According to this site, that's a 1-2 month kind of skill. At this rate, one might expect her to start crawling by two months and walking by six.

All that strength aside, her dexterity is sort of baffling, too. Infants are born with the ability to grasp with their hands. It's mostly instinctual. You put your finger in an open palm, and she'll grab it. She does that, no surprise. But as I mentioned in my last post, her toes regularly do the same thing. Granted, it's still probably instinctual, but when's the last time you saw an infant grab your finger with her foot? While they look sort of big, her feet really aren't all that large (which I'll get to in a minute). But her toes? Crazy long! And they move independently of one another! It's cool, and gives me hope for real super powers one day. Although hopefully with less hairiness.
4. Super averageness! A contradiction in terms? Maybe, but I'm including this so I can throw it in the faces of all those doctors who warned us of the impending arrival of Mega-Baby, even in the face of every test that confirmed she was normal. I'm looking at you two, sloppy ultrasound tech and overly cautious obstetrician. Let's crunch some numbers.

Average U.S. birthweight=7 lbs. 12 oz.
Little G's birthweight=7 lbs. 12 oz.
Average U.S. newborn length= 20 in.
Little G's newborn length=20.5 in. (although the pediatrician measured it 20 in. 5 days later)
Average newborn foot length= 3 in.
Little G's foot length= 3 in.

Seriously. It doesn't get more average than that. I have no idea whether she'll favor me or Hollie, how tall she'll eventually get, or what color her eyes will turn. But for right now, she's perfectly normal and perfectly perfect. And that's just super.