Announcing Rizkerson.com

It's hard to say goodbye to the old Hardly Born brand, but I think the time is right.

Sania is two weeks old today, and Reid is running out the final months of his third year of life. This blog, once mired in the minutiae of child-rearing, is now a chronicle of an entire family's life together.

Hardly Born was a concept at the beginning that was meant to signify how new and fresh the those first moments were. From the first time I sat down to read a story to the little bump in K's stomach to the miraculous delivery of our second child two weeks ago, in every way, our family was 'hardly born.' Now, we're all here, and who knows how long I'll keep this family chronicle going. But if there's news about the folks living in our little house, it'll show up here. At Rizkerson.com.

Spam

We've had some Spam attacks on Hardly Born and Redux, so comments have been temporarily disabled. I've got to figure our exactly how much time I want to spend setting up some comment moderation versus holding my beautiful baby girl and reading stories to Reid.

In the meantime, gaze upon her beauty!

Sania Update

[Cross-posted from the ever-popular Hardly Born Redux]

Sania has been a tremendously fun baby lately, so we've all been hanging out, working on a schedule, trying to catch some sleep (mostly K) and chronicling her staggering ability to ingest breastmilk. She's something else.

Some status reports, for fellow parents, grandparents and other folks who track the baby-check-in items:

Nursing: Like a champ. She hits the K-tap every two hours, three if her mom's lucky, and she makes cute little noises while she eats as if she couldn't possibly have enough of this delicious stuff.

Sleeping: She naps well. Spending her time in utero around Reid probably prepared her for a level of background noise equivalent to an airport or construction site. At night, we're not exactly living the life of Reilly, but her longest stretch of night sleep is about four hours. Not bad for 10 days old.

Big Strong Muscles: She holds her head up and makes this face like, 'what is supporting my head?' It's a riot.

Plumbing: Reid had some reflux when he was young, though I don't remember exactly when it came on. Sania has maybe burped up a little breast milk twice, so vomiting and reflux don't appear --yet-- to be an issue. She goes through the requisite number of diapers and everything seems to be working. She has bowel movements like a musket-blast, so watch out.

Cute: Totally. Check it out.

Sania and Reid, and the Mad Blogger Revealed!

A nice weekend of hanging out with friends and family, visiting with folks and handing around the lovely Ms. Sania to everyone willing to hold her and gaze upon her splendor. Reid is getting more acquainted to the idea of having a little sister around. He frequently asks Sania if she's okay, checks on her when she cries in the Pack and Play, and tells her, 'no worry, sister, big brother here.'

And of course, he loves a chance to ham it up for the cameras.



And this whole time, you thought my dad was writing the blog? Reid just likes writing in the third person, like French Royalty.

Sleep, Eat, Poop, Repeat

Sania has settled into a comfortable routine. Her days and nights are a little confused, but we're harnessing the power of visiting friends and relatives to turn her nocturnal reversal on its ear and force her to be awake and receive guests during the daylight hours, ensuring that she'll eventually get this whole daytime/nightime business straightened out.

I'm sure I could bore you with our schedule, but suffice it to say, K and the baby are doing really well (knock on wood) with the breastfeeding, even if the baby has a tendency to eat herself full then end up looking like the image below.

Reid has had some funny conversations with K about the breastfeeding. Nothing has thrown him like the rapidly-decaying umbilical cord on her stomach. But the other day, K was settling in to feed the baby and Reid asked what she was doing. She explained that the baby gets milk from mommy, and Reid looked at where Sania was getting ready to eat and said, "From your eyeball?"

Later, during what amounts to the same conversation, the body part Reid named in reference to the breast was elbow.

I have to figure out what Reid is learning the names of body parts. Something is off somewhere.

Anyhow, look for some big changes on the blog in the next week or so.

A Moment's Peace

[Cross-posted from the soon-to-be-combined into a new, super-blog Hardly Born Redux.]

Being a Brother, Having a Sister

[Crossposted from Hardly Born Redux.

As I write this, Sania is in the other room, sleeping soundly. And that means K is sleeping somewhere, too.

The nights since Sania came home haven't been terrible, but then again, your faithful correspondent doesn't lactate. Sania has her days and nights a little confused. Actually, what she has them shifted slightly. Her 'night' seems to start around 6 am, after a marathon all-night session of feeding on a normal newborn daytime schedule of every two hours or so. This does not amuse Sania's mother. I wake up, mumble things, promise to bear the next child and fall back to sleep. At least once on each of the last two nights, I have awaken to offer moral support, burp the baby, get her back to sleep, but this is really K's show.

So, at 6 or so, Sania is ready to bunk down for the night, taking one of her longest sleeps at this point. So does her mom.

Reid has been doing really well with the sister. He asked abut her as soon as I picked him up today at his daycare. When she cries, he says, "It's okay sister, I'm here," and gives her a kiss. Many of our friends and relatives have followed the reliable but new-age-y advice to bring Reid a gift when showing up with something for the new little one. As a result, Reid thinks having a sister is the greatest thing that has happened to him since the first time he saw "Toy Story."

More photos below. Enjoy.

Sania Update

We're hoping to bring little Sania home from the hospital tomorrow, as she was born Sunday. A big birthday-hello to Reid and Sania's Aunt Candy and our friend Larry all celebrated their birthday's on April 16th.

We had a nice big feast of kabobs and shish tawook tonight at the hospital, and then Reid had to be bribed to come home because the hospital is the new super-fun-place.

Daddy is in charge of running Reid interference, with able assistance from Grammie and Paw-Paw, and things are going as well as could be expected, but I think we'll all be happy to be back together under one roof.

Thanks for everybody's good wishes. We're very excited for the new little addition. Here's the first family portrait.

[Cross-posted from Hardly Born Redux...]

Setting what I'm sure will be a life-long policy of not following anyone else's timeline, her mother and I are proud to present Sania Leigh Henderson Rizk.





Sania was born today, Sunday, April 16, 2006, at 4:11 PM Eastern Daylight Time. She weighed in at 8 pounds, 8 ounces and was 20 and 3/4 inches long.

School, Life, Brotherhood

Schoolwise, things are really going much better. I'm sad about this in a small way because Reid's comfortably transitioning into this new school, and we've already committed to a real-deal Montessori school in the fall.

Someone asked the other day why we think it's important to send him to the Montessori school. (This usually happens in reference to the enormous cost of the school.) I haven't talked about it with K, but I'm certain I will. I mean, we discussed at the time that we both wanted him to go, and there was a lot of hand-wringing and budgetary analysis before we decided to lock it in. But why we felt this way? We both just did.

For myself, I think the main thing is that I want to give him the best chance at everything. I'm sure he's smart, and I know enough from living with him that he'd be smart if he stayed at this school, or the last school, or goes to the Montessori school. But I want to make sure that if I can't be there all the time, then someone should who's really thinking about the way to make him a better person and student all around. That's what I believe these folks are really going to do. Sure, part of it is guilt -- show me a parent who doesn't feel guilt about working instead of magically find the way to be home with their child all the time -- but I really want him to be happy with what he'll be doing for the next 15 years of his life. From my own experience in Montessori, I think that's what you get from this. You understand what school is all about.
All that said, we're gradually transitioning well into the new school. It's still a little difficult. He clearly doesn't have the reason to cry that he did at the last school. He's already more at ease going there and inside the school. He doesn't want to cry when you drop him off. He says he won't cry, and he tried not to, but he usually breaks down right as I'm leaving. It's much better than before, but know that I sit outside the school each morning and white-knuckle the steering wheel for a few seconds before I calm down enough to drive to work.

Reid still isn't a big brother, though he's clearly ready when his sister is. But she clearly isn't.