but the postman has nothing to do with it. Just FYI:http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/piecemeal
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Smiling Pirate Baby?
Henry is so cute.
You may be asking yourself, "Is this just a picture of a cute baby, smiling?" I would have to answer, "No. This is a picture of a cute baby smiling after getting 11hours and 15 minutes of sleep at 2 months of age."
Boo Yah.
Of course from about 2am on, I woke up about every hour, at every sound I heard him make, thinking that he was finally awake and wanted to eat, but that didn't happen until later. I know now. And hopefully this trend will continue and mommy and daddy will get more sleep and alone time. Happy Half Birthday to me.
Oh, I forgot that I have more to brag about: yesterday was his 2 month check-up and he weighs 12lbs. 12oz (75%ile) 23 1/2" long (75%ile) and has a head circumference of 15 1/2" (45%ile). He had to get 2 shots yesterday and only only cried for a few seconds after each.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Henry's First Month
Besides having incredible parenting skills, we have been blessed with a good baby who eats and sleeps very well. Today for example:
7am - Wake up and eat.
10am - Eat again, then sleep.
11am - Go to the mall and come home.
2pm - Wake up, eat, play.
3pm - Go for a walk, and then fall asleep on that walk.
3:30pm - Go to the grocery store (still asleep).
5pm (present) - Still sleeping while mom blogs.
Mix in a bit of poopy diapers and a little bit of fussing/crying before eating time, and this kind of schedule gives mom no excuses for not blogging anytime in the past month. Needless to say, here I am ready to give an account of Henry's first month of life until I go to cook dinner/feed Henry again in about an hour.
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| Me at the hospital. I was breathing fine, just a little extra help after not sleeping for a while - oh, and having contractions. Note the bucket: I threw up twice in the last few hours before Henry came; but, it was a relatively easy labor. |
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| Eric has been an absolutely fantastic dad from the very first second Henry came out - despite the frightened look on his face. |
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| We are sitting in our nice big rocking chair here just a few days after we brought him home. |
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| Little newborn Henry. |
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| Here is baby Henry, Tebowing. |
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| Henry loves to do the Furrowed Brow look. |
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| Eric being a good daddy, again. |
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| Annie and Henry seem to get along very well. |
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| Mimi holding Henry at the hospital. We picked her up from the airport at around 7pm, Wednesday night; I went into labor around midnight that same night and had him on Thursday. We were so lucky and grateful that she was able to be here with us for the first two weeks - she was so helpful. |
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| Last weekend Gammie, Uncle Jonathan, Aunt Andrea, and Cousins Dallin and Will were in town for a visit. |
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| First family picture after church: Henry at 1 month old. He was wearing his "Sunday Star Wars" shirt. |
Well, we went to the doctors for his 1 month visit on Monday, and he weighed in at 10lbs 1oz, 22 1/2 inches long, his head circumference was in the 30th percentile, and he recited the alphabet and counted to 100. He's doing great, we love him so much, and are so grateful to have him in our lives.
If anyone wants to send him an e-mail for him to read at a future date, let me know and I'll send his e-mail over to you.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Eric Forsyth through the airwaves
I visited KUNC studios (NPR station) and recorded a little interview with Wendy Wham in December. She cut it down to a nice little feature and aired it during their music slot this week. It's up on their website so you can listen to it here. \
Good times. Good times.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Henry Spencer Forsyth
Raw pic from Jaime's iPhone about an hour after Hal arrived on the scene, January 12, 2012. Just a little bundle o' awesomeness.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Friday, December 16, 2011
Father thoughts v.1
People look at me bright eyed and ask "How long until...?" I tell them January 14th and their eyes get wider as they either exhale or inhale dramatically and say something along the lines of "Eee! are you excited?"
Nope. What's to be excited about?
Theirs is a rhetorical question, of course (at least it should be). I find myself falling into an awkward social rut of responding to this reaction/question with some facade of humility and something along the lines of "I have no idea of what I'm doing, but yep, very excited."
Truth is, I've been thinking of this impending due date for quite a while and I should have some inkling of an idea what I'm doing, even if there is a lot of truth to to cliche wisdom like "Your life is about to completely change" and "Your first kid is just practice, nobody knows what they are doing."
On a less-important practical level, I helped change my baby brother's diapers when I was 11 and 12 years old. Jaime has enrolled us in hours and hours of baby/new parent classes offered at the hospital. I've been reading the books and gobbling up resources and info online.
On a deeper level, the passing of my own father in 2009 forced me into a more serious reflection of what kind of dad I want to be and what things in my own life can be sourced back to the way I was raised. My ecclesiastical education constantly stresses and reinforces the simplest yet wisest of principles that inevitably lead to your own brand good parenting. And I've been hearing and reading about it since I was a kid, not just in my adult years.
Jaime and I waited over 5 years between getting married and having a kid. We've spent a lot of time together, shared a lot of adventures and dated our faces off.
There's a lot more of all of this to come, my "training" has only begun, but I do feel like this kid is a very natural next step. So yes, I'm "excited" and optimistically looking forward to the challenges and adventures.
I think I force out the words "I have no idea what I'm doing" as some sort of backwards humble-brag to myself and nod to the "the more you know, the more you know you don't know" philosophy. I spend quite a bit of time introspectively cutting through the clutter of parenting tactics and boiling down to the most basic of principles I would like to govern happiness and love in our home. Here's my first stab at writing them down. I realize this list is likely naive and idealistic. I don't care. That said, this list is bound to evolve. These are the things we'll learn through doing and witnessing, more than being told and formally taught:
- We'll be nice people.
- The world does not revolve around you, but if you're nice enough people may think you're the greatest person in their world. Remember that kind words really do make people feel better, so be that person that says nice things, and it helps if you mean it. Complimenting is easy, free and quick. And do nice things. Give time, effort and charity even when they aren't easy, free or quick - because you're grateful for what you have. Be anonymous. Learn the ironically selfish benefits of warm fuzzies early and replicate the actions that lead to the symptoms as much as you can. Do your part to make the world more civil and understanding. Be nice.
- We'll learn to love learning.
- Or at least strongly avoid any resemblance of an aversion to learning new things). Geek out on at least one thing at a time any given year/season of life. A geek is not socially inept (that's a nerd, btw). A geek simply combines intelligence and passion on a particular topic. This can be reading. This can be colors, gardening, or geography. It can be drums or geo-caching. This will obviously evolve and be different for a 3 year old than it is for a 15 year old, but the point is, learning is cool. Learning is not scary.
- We'll be confident because we know who we are.
- Whether this is on the bicycle at 3 or 4 years old, a long hike with dad at 8 years old or asking out a girl at 16 years old, we'll believe in ourselves because our family has our back and we're Forsyths. We have divine origins and ambitions and can keep a simple and enabling eternal perspective. We'll learn and remember that hard work yields enviable results. Tough life milestones are scary and we may want to find ways to circumnavigate them, but we won't expect special treatment and we'll fight feelings of entitlement if when they creep in. We'll build confidence and independence through a series of victories over life's challenges - both those we volunteered for (e.g. learning a new instrument or sport) and those that force themselves upon us (e.g. middle school in general).
What would be on your little list? Note, the principle should be boiled down to a pithy practice, even if you expound with a sub-bullet like I have. Yes, I want my kids to learn to love and appreciate the outdoors, be independent, learn music, etc. but this isn't that list. This is my attempt to bridle the specific dreams and not live their lives for them in advance. Trying to keep it broad, wise practices and principles
Again, I have no idea of what I'm doing, but yep, very excited.
2011 Zeitgeist
I already posted my own personal recap of 2011, but I left out the world events that stuck with me, as I felt those were more appropriate for a separate post. Leave it to Google to sum up the search terms that capture the zeitgeist of 2011. Makes this much easier (lazier of me, yes, but easier).
This world is just insanely fascinating when you slow down and reflect. I'm so glad I live in a time when these online resources make it so easy to glimpse into what real people are going through all over the planet (with a little bit of media literacy you can weed out the controlled biased info from unfiltered). Remember when the best year-end recap we had was a measly print issue of TIME magazine's corporate controlled year in review? I know Google is extremely "corporate" but at least this is based on real people's searches and I think it was put together very well. I forgive the ton of Google+ plugs in there, since it still comes out as a great little video in its own right, marketing motives aside. And that's marketing at its best, I think. The same reason why VW's little Vader Passat ad was so widely shared this year as well. Most people could care less about the Passat, but they made a great little video that held up on its own - and guess what? VW brand affinity and Passat sales are doing great, I think. Love it.
Posted via email from eric forsyth's posting place
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