Last night I cried while feeding my son. Well, technically I got more misty-eyed than anything else, but that’s splitting hairs. It wasn’t because of the market, it wasn’t because of politics, but instead as I looked at my kid guzzling his bottle with reckless abandon, he reached up and put his tiny hand on mine and stroked it. He did it with purpose and not just out of reflex. He knows I’m in a weird place emotionally and heard me sigh deeply. He responded in a way that could not have been more appropriate or more helpful.
I’m convinced that most of the clichés in the world have been invented by parents. Phrases are so often overused, most to the point of being rendered meaningless, phrases that you don’t really understand until you have a kid of your own. “They grow up so fast, so enjoy it now!” is not an empty sentiment. 105 days ago I was a self-absorbed jerkwad who would get six types of angry if my morning routine was delayed. Now I’m only a slightly better self-absorbed jerkwad of a father who secretly hopes the kid will wake up while I’m still at home so I can catch a smile before I start my commute. In 105 days we’ve seen him transform completely, learning how to roll over, starting to become (very) verbal, recognize (and hug!) his reflection and even reach for and hold objects. It feels like a week ago we were still having heart-to-heart conversations in his hospital cart.
I blinked and he never stopped growing up. I got distracted by the momentum of working life and thought that the saying “seeing things through the eyes of a child” was crap, but it’s not. This is why I cried. Because watching him watch me and witnessing him learn how to respond to the emotional needs of someone else was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
Spicy (Curried) Pumpkin Soup - Ushering in autumn one bowl at a time. I ended up probably tripling the amount of curry I used, but I make my own curry blend so perhaps it’s just more subtle than a store-bought one. I also toasted the coriander before I ground it. Andrew, here you go.
Well, I was going to write a real post, but then I almost choked on my tea when I read this. And now my mood for the day is shot.
In relation to our wonderful government’s proposed idea of a Wall Street bailout:
“It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.” [source]
At least try to make us believe you know what you’re doing.
Liam decided that he disliked the URL at which his photos were kept. There were too many keys to type and his little fingers got tired. So he worked super hard to put up liamfaust.com so that his grandparents could view updated photos of him without complaining that they “can’t see them without their glasses and why is everything on this computer so small anyway?!”
Dad, on the other hand, did not want to give him unlimited access to the computer in case he might discover the black hole that is YouTube. So we compromised. He insisted that it be done in Flash (yuck) and I insisted it be automated. So now anytime I update my Flickr account with a photo of him, it’ll show up at liamfaust.com.
Despite my lectures on accessibility, extolling the virtues of standards-compliant sites, he wanted to go big. I let him because he really can make my life hell if he wants to. He uses vomiting as a weapon, and I’m here to tell you it is quite effective.
So it’s big, hefty (bandwidth-intensive), but he’s happy. And there’s a lighter version at liamfaust.com/simple in case full screen ain’t your bag.
Maybe now the kid will be distracted for awhile and get off my case about setting up an Etsy shop for him. Supposedly he and Jonas are going in on some business venture.
“Fascination” by The Faint - Though not usually my style, I’m digging this album. If New Wave mated with self-conscious indie rock and had notions of pop-chord progressions, this would be the love child. Or something like that. Think Hard-Fi (on their “Stars of CCTV” album) playing Jimmy Eat World songs, and with less British pretentiousness.
Kung-fu photo shoot - Badass Chase Jarvis posts in-depth info on a recent project he shot for a TV network. Still images and video included. All are amazing.
BMW’s possible iSetta mini car - The initial preview here makes it look like a character from a Pixar movie. But I dig it. Much sexier than the Smart Cars.
Horrible production & lighting due to Ike’s effect on our city (but more on that later), but this is a fairly typical day in the life of Liam. Or at least a Sunday spent hanging around the house with no power and access to the internet to do his work.
“Love Lockdown” single from Kanye West - This is a big departure for him. No rapping. Muttered, autotuned lyrics. But Kanye likes to surprise people and this is a big 360 from the lead-off single from his last album. It’s really grown on me. I still wish he’d move away from using the T-Pain autotune crap though. If you can’t sing, hire someone to do it right and don’t cheat.
DVS Skate & Create - A contest where four teams of skaters, photographers & videographers are locked in a warehouse for nine days and told to create visuals, and the DVS team came away as the winner. Truly stunning work. The lighting in this video is sumptuous. [via]
I know I previously stated that things were getting better with Liam. It wasn’t a lie. Things are, by all measures, much improved. But we in the Faust household don’t rest on our laurels when life gets comfy. Mainly because we’re not sure if we have laurels, or what the hell a laurel even is. Moving on…
Now that his days are more restful, I figured he’d have time in the evenings to help me out, you know, to earn his keep. Breast milk ain’t cheap after all. So last night I put him to work helping me finish up a freelance project, and I have to say that I was impressed. Excusing the excessive drool on the keyboard (what do I care? It was The Wife™’s laptop anyway), he did a great job of validating my CSS files. I told him to let me know if there were any major errors, and I assume that since he never spoke up that things were good to push live on the server. I see a bright future for this kid, despite his lack of home row usage.
With The Wife™ returning to work this week we all could use some distractions to keep our minds occupied. We’ve even employed Jonas to watch the kid during the day, figuring that everything should turn out okay. I mean, what’s the worst he’s ever don…oh crap. Wait. This is the beast that eats everything. Shoot. Well, rough call on that one. My bad.
Anyway, assuming everyone is alive and not wrapped in a cocoon of slobber err didn’t rupture their stomachs from eating all the diapers is fine when I get home, I want to run some ideas by him. I was thinking he could help me run some HDMI cables through the wall since Lord knows I’m not small enough to fit in places like that.
You know, the more I think about this, how was Jonas planning on changing the kid’s diaper anyway? Man I dropped the ball on this one…
Preview of the new Gym Class Heroes album - One of the few bands that I’ve truly enjoyed everything they’ve done. And from listening to the album preview, it looks like I’ll be picking this one up next Tuesday with a quickness.
Beer on draught at home - After a year of collecting old parts I was able to finally put a simple single tap keg system at home. Last night I tasted the porter that I put on carbonation a few days ago and was blown away. I’ll never go back to bottling again.
Last week, on the suggestion of our pediatrician and our pro-bono, on-call, phone support family doc, we moved Liam to his nursery to sleep in his own crib. At two months of age, we knew it was time, but worried it might be too sudden change for him and thus erase any sort of progress we had made in getting him to sleep soundly at night. We were pleasantly wrong.
On the same advice, we also decided to embark on the journey of simultaneously teaching him how to put himself to sleep instead of needing us to rock him to drowsiness for 45 minutes after every feeding (and then waiting with held-breath like someone diffusing a bomb when you put him down, praying he doesn’t wake back up). This part did not go so smoothly.
“…well hello, I was wondering when you would come to hold me so I could make your arms go numb again! NOW PICK ME UP.”
The first night it took three hours. We went up every 5-10 minutes, avoided eye contact or speaking and simply calmed him. This was not the issue, as he could sense your presence and look at you like, “well hello, I was wondering when you would come to hold me so I could make your arms go numb again! NOW PICK ME UP.” Despite the puffy, red eyes and the crying, he eventually submitted to slumber and we made it through the first night. And slowly, but surely, The Wife™ got him onto a schedule…a magical schedule…a schedule where he not only sleeps fairly well at night, but also takes these things called “naps” during the day. So instead of his days consisting of 9 hours of sleeping/15 hours shrieking, we’re at a much more balanced 15 hours sleeping/9 hours eating, smiling and watching The Dog™ wag his tail and try to sit on him. Thank goodness he’s already learned to keep an eye on the furry one.
What has emerged from the past week is something I never knew existed: a kid who seems to enjoy things. Long after feedings (with no signs of gas) he smiles for extended periods of time. He coos and squawks with glee. And sure, he may still have his cranky periods, but we’re letting him slide on those. After all, he does take after his father. And scotch doesn’t fix baby’s bad moods (yet).
So we’re happily moving along now, in a pattern that seems much more manageable. And the best gift of all is something I will hold on to for the rest of my life. I replay it in my head during the day and it makes me smile, giddy to return home to see him just as a child on Christmas morning returning home to play with that new toy. When I get to wake him up after a nap, I tiptoe into his nursery and he’s there all swaddled-up and cozy. He looks up at me and as I go to pick him up he stretches his arms wide to match the equally impressive grin on his face. He’s happy to be rested, to be awake.
If there’s the unofficial rule of “one year to give a wedding gift,” then there should be a rule of “six months to send out baby announcements.” Or at least that’s what I tell myself for being two months into my kid’s life before finishing it.
Before he was born I was stoked about the idea. I spent time researching, but all that I found is that mostannouncementslooksimilar: a Pottery Barn style with stripes, script fonts, monograms, photos in a grid structure. Most photos are black and white and usually include one of the following: baby in a basket (sleeping), baby in someone’s hands (sleeping), baby with angel wings (still sleeping) or baby on a bed (you guessed it). Which are great. Most are beautifully shot photos. I’ve even printed up designs just like this for friends to help them out. But it just didn’t seem to fit with our family, because let’s face it, a lot of babies really look the same at that age. So how do you inject personality into something like this?
I ended up taking a frivolous approach strictly to be different. I also realized that diapers might be more important than fancy paper, so the budget would have to be non-existent. It became more of an exercise in creative problem solving than anything else. And it turned out that I was able to produce the final product (minus postage) for ~$0.90 USD a pop. Not bad!
A breakdown for a quantity of 50:
Main design - I decided that the bulk would be designed around a cost-efficient 4x6 print. Instead of just doing a photo, I created a 4x6, 300dpi layout that included all the custom illustration and whatnot. I outputted it as a high-quality JPG. Now they could be “professionally printed” but could still be done for 15 cents each. I used Flickr for the first time as a printhouse and was more than pleased with their color reproduction. Approximate cost: $12 including shipping.
Card - A photo by itself would have not been enough, but custom paper would have been expensive (let alone stock heavy enough to act as a card). I decided that I’d sacrifice my manly ego and head to the scrapbooking store at my local mall. They have aisles filled with trendy papers, some of which come in card stock weight. And duplexed with a differing pattern on the opposite side. Bingo. At a 4x6 layout, I figured out I could get three cards per 12x12 sheet. 12 sheets at $0.79 each (plus I had a coupon, which is only sorta kinda cheating) made the approximate cost for this part about $15.
Seal - The configuration I worked out required some sort of seal once I folded them. I picked up some brown stationary seals at the store for about two bucks.
Monogram - The brown seal turned out to look plain by itself, so I asked to borrow my sister-in-law’s stamp set (she’s the scrapbooker in the family). This was free and solved my problem.
Envelopes - Since I was able to color match most of the externals with the actual printed design, I needed orange A6 envelopes which I couldn’t find locally. I grabbed them online for about $13. They were a little brighter than I expected but still worked fine.
After about seven or eight hours of scoring, folding, trimming, gluing, sealing and addressing they were out the door. The final bill was close to $45, and I could have definitely saved some money had I been able to find stuff locally. I also “splurged” on higher-priced prints to ensure better reproduction.
So that’s it. I figured I’d share the general idea on how to cut corners since a few people had asked me about it.
