And lest you think we lay in bed all day

We sleep in arms.



We ride on shoulders.
.


We watch the U.S. Open with Grammy.

We watch the PGA Tour Championship with Babba

And sometimes, but not nearly often enough, we take baths.

So, you know, we stay busy.

Family bed

We do not espouse the practice of co-sleeping. For one thing, we never get a good night's sleep with a kid in the bed. But sometimes it's just easier to allow Jack in rather than guiding him back to his room, and it's easier to get Sam to sleep if he is on someone's chest.

As such.

Notice the king-sized bed and the distribution of bodies. It's not my fault, though. The kids demand their mother.


When Grammy and Boppa were in town, they took to the family bed concept too.

Sam has comparatively small hands. Who knew?

Jack is still a fan.


A friend mentioned that she read that since older siblings always hear "no, I can't right now because I have to do 'x' for the baby" that one thing that can create equality is to "tell the baby" that you are going to do something with the older child. So we tried it. Katherine and I were going to the park with Jack, leaving Sam at home with the grandparents and Katherine said, "now Sam, we're going to the park with Jack. You have to stay here." And Jack started crying and said he wanted Sam to come with us. Total backfire.

On the other hand, Jack did turn to Katherine the other day and suggest that when we go to Africa we leave baby Sam behind.

Short Shrift

It's true. Second kids get the short end of the fawning attention stick. We sometimes forget that what's his name is even around.

We've taken far fewer pictures of Sam. We like to think we've gone for quality over quantity, though.

Tomorrow I'll post a few more photos of the new kid.

Sam seems to have found his voice

Screaming like a champ much of the evening. Earlier tonight, Jack was trying to watch TV and got very frustrated at his loud brother who was interrupting a gripping episode of Diego.

Diego did, by the way, save the baby dinosaurs in the end in a time-traveling twist, even with the crying baby in the background.

Nap Time

That's the time that I really shine as a father.

Jack and Sam

Sam spent the first few days sleeping and not eating. He lost about 10% of his body weight. 7% is okay at Sibley hospital, but anything more and they start to worry that the baby is not eating, so losing weight and energy, no energy means sleeping all the time, sleeping all the time means no eating...and so on.

Anyway, so we started to supplement with pumped milk in a bottle. We start Sam on that, then move to the real stuff. It worked and he's now a breastfeeding star.

Anyway, Jack thinks it's pretty funny when Sam opens one eye, as babies are sometimes wont to do.

"He looks like a pirate!" said Jack. Then he proceeded to demonstrate.

Jack has been pretty good with the transition so far. He seems to like Sam, but he's having trouble with the concept that mommy is "fragile."

Yesterday, Jack suggested that laying on his bed might calm a fussy Sam.

When that didn't work, Jack thought that Sam needed a pillow...and maybe laying down with him might help. But that didn't work either, so Jack got back up.

The end result:

A study in contrasts...

You may also notice that Jack pretty much is always in a gray t-shirt that is about 4 sizes too large. This, he has decided, is his new soccer jersey. Before I arrived in DC Katherine bought some new sneakers for Jack. These, he has decided, are his soccer shoes.

When we were in Minnesota we went to his cousin Ben's soccer game, where Ben wore a large jersey. Jack wants to be like Ben.

Expect the gray Kabekona t-shirt often. He wears little else.

Home

Hello...



Sam and Katherine are now home. It is raining. All is right with the world.

Deja Vu all over again

So on November 11, 2006, I flew from Vientiane to Bangkok a week before Jack was due. Having arrived at almost midnight, I was rudely awakened by Katherine early the next morning with news that she thought her water broke during the night. Thankfully, it was a false alarm.

I arrived in DC this morning at 06:00

At about 7:00 I was greeted upon my arrival at the apartment with a "Hello, I think my water broke."

False alarm again? This time, not so much.

So a mere 5 hours and 58 minutes after my flight from Johannesburg touched down at Dulles, Samuel Dietrich Nervig was born. Lucky that Katherine decided I had better take an earlier flight, or I would still be cooling my heels in Lusaka, waiting for my Saturday flight, or frantically trying to get on the Friday flight.

Either way, I wouldn't be here to see this...

Jack went to meet his baby brother. Jack liked him, but was a bit more interested in the gift he got from Sam -- a toy cash register.



But, Jack did roam the halls telling strangers about his new baby brother and dragging them into the room to see Sam, so I guess Jack is a fan.

Anyway, I basically went from a 24 hour flight home to the hospital. Now it's 9:31 pm and time for bed.