Pout

Another perfect pout

Little paper-pusher

Looking like quite the little bureaucrat, behind his perfectly organized desk, Alex has taken to the activity center handed-down from his cousin Mari. At this stage, the activity center is a good reminder that he's still very little. His feet don't yet touch the ground.

He's very manipulative

Lately, it seems like Alex has a discovered his hands. He'll hold a set of keys while he's on the changing table; he'll push away his bottle when he's had enough sauce; he'll even pull the cords on his swing to make the marquee light up.
Further evidence of the power of manipulation.

Sign-a-song with Dawn

He's four months old already, and it's high-time to enroll Alex in school. Well, at least a class anyway.

Today was the first day of his Sign-a-song workshop, where little babies and their parents/caregivers go to sing and dance in the context of sign-language instruction.

Alex was cool throughout the 45 minutes as he absorbed the beats and the harmonies and the movements of the moment.

Dawn was pretty cool too. In fact, both seem psyched to return for the workshop's remaining 9 weeks.

Remaining Horizontal

More big news on the horizontal front. Alex is now sleeping without waking for a moment. From 9pm to 7am, he's been counting continuous z's.

While we'd like to chalk up this new up behavior to Alex's perfect and improving disposition, it's really about something much more basic: light-blocking window blinds. Apparently some people thrive in the dark.

Bubby's Brunch

Sunday was a blur. including a long walk to Dumbo, a brunch at Bubby's with Lisa & Pat, Mike & Lisa (Caroline and Lexa too) and Brad & Yfat and Alison's departure to Florida for a business trip.

The brunch was a big group and big blast. Nobody cried very much. Alex did, but only a little.

Alex's long wknd of partying

It was a weekend filled with parties and dining-out for adults and babies alike.

Lisa Zindel was in town fresh from her recently announced engagement to Pat Whitworth. And that sparked a shabbat dinner at our place on Friday, a little celebration at Union-Smith Cafe on Saturday night and a huge brunch at Bubby's in Dumbo on Sunday morning. Alex attended all of them and played toast master.

Early bedtimes, be damned.

Relaxed & Rosy-cheeked

Sunday brought our first family trip in our new car. It was a quick jump down to Philly to hang out with Great-grandmom Fran. Arnie & Rona were also in the mix, rounding out the family mini-renunion. They had just returned from Punta Cana where life was easy and digestion was not. Here's a photo of Arnie looking very relaxed from the warmth and activity in the Caribbean.

It was Alex, though, who won the prize for rosy-cheeks.

A Drunken Baby, Indeed.

After entertaining guests on Saturday from noon to night and then drinking way too much milk, Alex was a drunken baby indeed.

He promptly passed out at about 9pm, as the time-lapse photos indicate. ;~)

Saturday brought partying

Saturday was a big day of entertaining. We had brunch for eleven in the morning, and cousin Andrea over for dinner.

Alexis & Valerie came in from New Jersey, Mike & Lisa (and baby Jordan) drove down from the Upper East Side and Ian & Deb walked over from President St. (with Lili).

Not that he had much control over the day, but Alex seemed pretty comfortable about the whole afair. By the end of the night, he was riding on his dad's shoulders.

Sleeping through the Night

Our most exciting moments of the Florida vacation were doubtlessly in bed. No--not what you're thinking.

Alex started sleeping through the night!

In one fell-swoop, on Saturday night, he graduated from uninterrupted sleep of 4- to 5-hours to a full 8- or 9-hour night's sleep. And he's repeated that performance every night since then. Truth in advertising: we still wake up to plant a pacifier in his grill. But that's a 10-second exercise... not a 60-minute feeding.

Cool, right?

Made in the Shade

Turnberry Isle was really good for three basic things: Corporate Events, Golf and Relaxing by the Pool.

Of these options, the youngest of our crowd was really limited to hanging out poolside.

So, slathered with baby sunscreen and bouncing on his parents' knees, Alex experienced his first moments of chilling out in the sun (or actually in the shade). It seemed like he quickly got used to wearing nearly no clothing and feeling comfortably warm. On the other hand, his parents were eagerly anticipating his formal introduction to the swimming pool. Swimming would have made the days a little more interesting.

King Size Bed for a Half-Pint

We stayed at a conference center, Turnberry Isle in Aventura on Monday and Tuesday night. The room was pretty fabulous for a number of reasons.

While it included a crib for our friend Alex, prior to its arrival, he found the King size bed to be a suitable place to lay his bones.

Design District Tour

On this, our first vacation as a family of three, we spent a little more than 48 hours in Miami (followed about another 48 hours at a conference center-resort facility in Aventura -- 15 miles north of the city). One of the highlights of our visit was our Monday afternoon walk through Miami's Design District.

It was good destination for touring with a newborn, because it was empty on on Monday... and one of us was welcome to cry as much as he needed to.

The place reminded us of the area in Buenos Aires that we stayed most recently, Paleremo Viejo, because it was a bastion for hip Latin, design-oriented culture. The only big difference was that nobody actually *lives* in the Design District, so it had a sterility to it.

Two of the cooler architectural sites in the district involved moving interior design into an explicitly exterior environment.

In the first case, the Living Room Building included an over-sized sculpted living room attached to the corner facade of a building.

In the second case, we stumbled across vacant lot that had been built up to house an immaculately landscaped Lounge, complete with permenant outside lounge furniture and populated with manicured bamboo plantings.

Miami walking tours

Stating the obvious: traveling as a family of three is a more work than as a couple. As we toured South Beach on foot, Alex frequently piped in with his pithy observations. They were often punctuated with complaints, which to the uninitiated would sound like despair. In the case of these photos, it was was far from desparate circumstances... the brim of his hat just needed to be pulled up above his eyes.

Baby imitating little boy

There's somethime of a look in Alex's eyes over the past couple of days. It's a look of clarity.

He's got a long way to go before he's a little boy... but he's looking more and more the part