the fleeting smile

Now look at this swarthy little scoundrel...



...after capturing last night's melt-down, I thought it would be only fair to attempt to document Ida's smile...



...however, it is very difficult to catch, as you see. As slippery to capture as Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster, two of her father's other obsessions.

one unhappy crab

Experts say that six weeks is one point of maximum fussiness.

Ida = very busy + Ella's new look

Word is that Ida is now "social smiling," but it is very difficult to catch on camera. Her moods are ephemeral. In the meantime, there's been some clamor to see Ella in her new capris (given to her by Ida's Aunt Grace), which are leading her back to her pre-pregnancy jeans and are actually quite fetching:



Also, Ella got her first haircut in about a year! And please note Ida's hot little yellow dress. It's gotten warm in PDX.



Yesterday we went to visit Ida's old and big friend Madison Jaye. You may remember her from an earlier episode.



Now who would try to give Ida the nickname "Little Baby Elvis"?

"Soothie"

Ida may be experiencing a "growth spurt." She likes to eat all the time.

Today she got a new pacifier called a "Soothie" which she is taking for a test drive. Check it out! But beware: if you fear graphic content or undersea invertebrates, these moving images may be disturbing:

All Action

Ida's been busy sending powerful energy toward her Cousin Phoebe, who's in the hospital:



Phoebe had surgery on an infection in her back and hopefully will be going home soon. We love you, Phoebs!



Also, today we attended the "bris" of Eli Gross, one of Ida's young friends. Here he is:


At a bris, Jewish people could tell you, the baby boy is circumcised, right in front of everyone. Whoa! No wonder he looks a little peaked. He's all right, though. Fit as a fiddle. And also there was a huge amount of food, some brought all the way from Connecticut. They let everyone chant.

Finally, on the developmental front: it's still unclear whether Ida can see colors. She sure is surrounded by them, though.



Her Aunt Margaret has commented that Ida has abnormally large cheeks. This is an interesting insight. What do people think? How about Margaret's cheeks?

Hand-Me-Downs vs. a Hair Challenge

One of the great benefits of being the youngest cousin (at this point) is hand-me-downs...one item of Elsie's wardrobe that I (Pete) have long coveted is her little red jacket. Fortunately, she outgrew it. Here's Elsie at about one month, in said jacket:



Elsie weighed over ten pounds at that point! Ida's pushing ten, but not there yet. Still, an interesting comparison:



When will Elsie outgrow the legwarmers, we wonder?

You may notice, comparing those photos above, that Elsie has much less hair than does Ida. In a recent post, Arthur has stated that:

Lastly, Elsie has become quite upset about all the "tri-hawk" comments and she's very jealous too of her cousin Ida's robust coiffe. So Maggie added some Rogaine to her breast milk and look what happened! Oh yeah, who's got the hairiest baby now PDX?

Quite tricky! But Ida has taken the tonic of the hot springs and redoubled her efforts:



There are moments, also, when the question of her parentage is completely rent asunder:



Finally, as she gains control of her arms, Ida has begun to pull at her hair--perhaps this is the beginning of Trichotillomania, and we will have to learn to love her bald?

Ida vs. the Great Basin, a kind of vacation

Ida is one month old, so we decided to take a trip down south to the high desert and the alkaline lakes. And the hot springs, something that Ella (Ida's mother) desires and in which pregnant women cannot indulge. Ella isn't pregnant anymore. Here's a view of the landscape of Summer Lake from Winter Ridge:



Outside our rented ranchero house was this horse. Believe it or not, it was hollow, and birds lived in there! Ida was fascinated by it.



As she was by this strange assemblage of folk art, no doubt created by death hippies:





The Summer Lake hot springs has this whole pool of hot water, housed in one of the most ancient buildings in Lake County. Ida can be seen in her little carrier in the background, just sitting there watching the lights shining through the tin roof.



We had our own private "grotto" of hot springs. Ella really desired to get Ida into the hot water, but this is as close as she got:

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Ida was excited that we were accompanied by the intrepid trout-man Hugh Hochman (remember him from day one?) Sponsord by Nissan trucks, Ross reels and Scott fly rods, he helped us stalk the trout of the Ana River and also took us on a rugged vertical journey toward the source of the mysterious Sycan. Professor Hochman is not known for his tenderness toward children, but he did say several kind things to Ida.



And then we were traveling again, which sometimes calmed Ida and sometimes made her a little crabby.

Ida begins to have some expressions

Here is one of them; she is proud because her hair is fluffy. She just had a bath.



In the morning, we're heading out on some Eastern Oregon hot springs adventure and will be back Tuesday night. With documentation, no doubt.

Ida vs. Ella's cleavage

She won't share it with anyone...

Ida vs. Scientology

A few insightful readers have wondered if Ida is a Scientologist. Like, "I've never seen a baby have that much hair, unless the baby was a Scientologist." Well, no. Ida is not into that stuff. Furthermore, she does not actually look like Suri Cruise; and moreover, Suri wears a wig.

The Deaf Test vs. Ida!

Well, today was the day, and I didn't get the time wrong, either. Ida isn't deaf! She can hear out of both ears, in fact. They had to make her look like an astronaut to determine this:



Of course, if she were deaf we would love her as much and even more than we do now.

Furthermore, I've been researching Ida's developmental book and it seems that about now she is beginning to claim control of her arms--to think that this whole month's worth of punches to my nose and scratches to my face were actually under the control of someone else. Like Satan, maybe.

Girls Left to Their Own Devices

A glimpse into some of the cute activities those fine swarthies Ella and Ida get up to when I leave them alone:



Some say she has her mother's looks and her father's brains. Alas. At least she's got the looks!* Anyway, she is still working on the books.



Tomorrow we hope not to miss the hearing appointment again unless I make a similar mistake as last time and think it's at 3 when it's at 2. Will Ida be deaf in her left ear forever and irritate everyone by turning her head that way?

*She does have some acne on her forehead, but it will allegedly clear up on its own.

Strollers vs. Popsicles, Fathers vs. Daughters

Ella says: While we have had many visits by fellow Portlanders, we've been too delirious to document these events until yesterday. Witness this father-daughter moment with Jon Alexander and Madison Jaye:



Pete says: Jon and Madison ("MJ") were quite an inspiration. Jon is a dermatologist, and fed Madison some yams. It was very sunny and Jon said he was going to put on some sunblock then said he was just kidding. We went strolling and I got an orange push-up, Jon got a Heath bar, and Ella got a three-colored Jolly Rancher popsicle. Jon said "Jolly Rancher" is a term for gay cowboy. Then, later when we were strolling, a woman with a jog stroller went off into a lawn to pass us by and Jon said to her, "Hey, it's not a race," and she was like, "Well, I have a child getting out of school at Holy Family right now" and Jon was like, "So maybe it is a race; you're winning!" and she was like, "Whatever." No one gets your sense of humor, Jon.

some early nicknames

"Idy-pants" (Ella, only), "Grunty the Mitten-wearing Pig," "IdaMae" (Sung-Ji, only)

Rock on, Arthur Bradford

Arthur Bradford is a great person. Without him, I'd have never met Ida's mother, Ella. Therefore, no Arthur, no Ida. Check him out!



His public blog, diaper bandit, chronicles the life and times of Cousin Elsie. It's excellent reading.

Arthur is kind of a celebrity, but there's been some confusion as to what he looks like. The internets can do that to a person. Anyway, that's Arthur up above with the guitar. This picture is not Arthur:



Neither is this one:

Mother's Day II

Another beautiful day for mothers in Portland. Today I was riding my bike around our fancy neighborhood at about 11 AM and saw two large cats walking across a yard. Upon closer inspection, I saw that they were raccoons! And one of the raccoons was a mother raccoon. It was sweet and wild. Speaking of sweet and wild, Uncle Arthur has some very fine ruminations on mothers and on their relative hotness right here.



Beautiful, aren't they?

Like her father, Ida has signed a somewhat lucrative endorsement deal with Nike.



And isn't Father's Day coming up? Ichi doesn't care. His behavior has gone from poor to very poor.

Mother's Day I

What would we do without mothers? More specifically, what would Ida do without Ella? One present that Ella is getting is a new picture over there on the right--she's not pregnant anymore, as she's pointed out.

One of the major obsessions of this blog is documenting the friendship between Ella Rutledge Vining and Ida Akiko Rock. Here's a nice picture from the early days:



Faithful readers will have noted how this relationship has developed. Part of the attraction is biological, and part of it may have to do with the fact that both are swarthies (their feelings about the husband/father, an albino, are variable). Here's a more recent shot of these two, Ella wearing her "brest friend" and Ida relaxing upon it:



It is really something to see the awe and devotion with which Ida gazes at Ella, her mother. In this picture it is documented; imagine that you are Ella and Ida is looking up at you like this. What better Mother's Day present?

Co-Sleeping Is Not Allowed at Our House

These guys are just taking a little nap. They're friends.

Ida vs. the Bottle + a bonus

Now that we're at 3.5 weeks, we're going to try to start introducing the bottle, to allow me to feed Ida, to let Ella range more freely, and to prepare for the day when Dr. Vining goes back out there saving lives. Ida and I will have some times, then! But that's a ways off. Here's what it looked like:



I was not as incredulous or wigged out as my expression suggests. She drank 3.5 ounces of milk, pumped out of Ella using electricity; it went very well, but we're not getting over-confident. We know that early success often leads to later trials. Even Elsie had her struggles. Here's a close up of what it looked like, as if you were me and those were your hands and you were holding Ida while she drank:



Finally, the promised bonus. Some (Aunt Margaret) have wondered if Ida has a chin, and whether this chin could be documented.



Future investigation: is Ida starting to develop the dreaded cradle c(r)ap?

Friends, strolling

All around the verdant neighborhood of Eastmoreland, gossips whisper behind curtains, whole softball teams are distracted, and young boys begin to cry as these beauties stroll past.



So far, Ida is keeping the roots of her hair in her head by sleeping with an expression of fierce concentrataion:



See, she does not always look demonic like in that hiccoughing photo that Ella doesn't like...

Hiccoughs, again

Growth spurt in full evidence on Nehalem...

A Phenomenon on the Blogosphere!

Ida is just a little girl living in America's northwest. She's no celebrity--we don't think so, and she doesn't have a celebrity attitude. Most of the time. But the blogosphere is so weird, man. Because one of Ida's notable features is her hair, there's been a nationwide reaction--over sixty submissions, most from people we do not know--of people sending baby photos of themselves, trying to topple Ida from her "hairiest baby of all time" status. Here's a couple examples.



This (above) is Janet Vail of Fortuna, California. Ms. Vail reports that she'd always been told that she was born with a lot of hair, then it all fell out; upon a careful examination of the photographic record, however, the "bald stage" is nowhere in evidence! What does this portend for our Ida?

Meanwhile, here is Becky Kluth, a Colorado native, with her own entry:



By the way, this "contest" is over, and more photos won't be posted. Many fans have been sending photos to headquarters, trying to make an "appearance." It really is easy to have your own blog, friends.

The Tale of the Scale

A triumph! Today was a crucial weigh-in for Ida. She aced it, weighing in at a whopping 8 lbs. 5 oz! As you can see, she's putting on weight. This is due not only to Ella's diligence and wakefulness, but to a huge appetite:



Here she is with her friend, Ichi, who has also been accused of being less than svelte. Is that the kind of household we run?