Mon 29 Jun 2009
These days, pretty much any picture we take of Seth is guaranteed to be at least partly blurry. I usually take about a dozen of any given pose, and just hope that I’ll find one in which his face is in focus. Asking his entire body to be still is asking way too much.
Sun 28 Jun 2009
Posted by Todd under visit
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A couple weeks ago, we all went on a trip down to California! (1)
We flew down to San Francisco on Friday, June 12th. San Francisco is a couple hours further away than the Santa Rosa airport, but the tickets were 60% cheaper and we figured it would be a good deal even with renting a car to drive up. It actually ended up being about the same amount each way (the car was expensive!), but at least we got the benefits of an extra 5 hours of travel including leaving our house at 5:10am getting to see the Golden Gate Bridge and eat burritos in the Mission district.
Everyone was very excited to see us when we arrived. Gale and Aria picked us up at the car rental agency where we dropped off our car, and they couldn’t believe how big Seth has been getting. Skyler and Carter came running out of the house as soon as we showed up, and couldn’t wait to surround Seth with toys.
Betsy’s parents also came down - they had driven down from north of Seattle, starting back on Wednesday, and they came into town a few hours after we got there.
In the evening, we all went out to a local park where a band was playing some rock/blues/country music. Being back in a small town again was fun, as everyone at the park seemed to know each other, and Gale kept running into people who she needed to show off Seth to. We were pretty tired after a long day of travel, and collapsed as soon as we got back home.
On Saturday, we packed up some food and headed out to a local winery where the farmer’s market was set up. We met a large group of friends and had a big breakfast picnic under the trees on the grass while browsing through the market. I picked out a gorgeous walla-walla onion and some green garlic for Sunday’s dinner, and grabbed some stone fruits for Betsy to make dessert with. Kids were running around playing and Gale got in some extra cuddle time with Seth.
Around noon, we met up with Ethan in town. It was Betsy’s parents first chance to meet Ethan, and they really hit it off. We went to a local restaurant for lunch, and by random luck, Ethan’s parents happened to be eating at the same restaurant. They spent time with us and held Seth while we ate, and we all got a chance to catch up with each other.
That evening, we returned to the house for Cuisine Night, a regularly-occurring potluck organized around a different region’s cuisine every time. This week was Thai night, and there was a huge amount of amazing food served up. There was also a huge amount of amazing people in the house, and I was a little worried that Seth would get overwhelmed with all of the excitement and people and noise and smells. Seth did great, though, charming everyone and having fun.
On Sunday, we attended Ethan’s church, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then headed over to Ethan’s graduation party. We got to meet a good number of relatives and friends and well-wishers, and watched a slide show of Ethan growing up.
Seth was starting to get a little cranky, so we took advantage of the fact that Betsy’s parents had a hotel room in town. We retreated there and the three of us took a nap together while Betsy’s parents went out and did a little more sight-seeing. When they came back, Grandpa got a little bit of extra play time with Seth.
In the evening, Gale’s mother and great-aunt came over to visit, and I cooked a big pile of Greek food for everyone. It was a pretty relaxed evening, compared to the big parties of the last few days, and it was nice for everyone to just get to hang out and chat a little bit. Of course, we had to get an updated picture with Ethan, Aria, Betsy, me, and Seth.
On Monday morning, we said our goodbyes, and I flew back to Seattle so I could get back to work. Betsy, Seth and her parents took the more leisurely route, driving up Hwy 101 through the redwoods and along the Oregon coast, getting back home on Wednesday.
The trip was a lot of fun, and we can’t wait to come back down and eat mission burritos visit everyone again!
Even more pictures are available here.
Wed 24 Jun 2009
Posted by blog under Monthiversary, life with Seth
1 Comment
Dear Son,
We can hardly believe you are six months old! But Boy, you are growing and learning new things every day, so we guess it only makes sense. You are becoming more and more mobile every day! You love to roll over, and scoot backwards, and climb up our tummies when we’re holding you…You also are trying to get the hang of crawling; you make yourself into a mountain shape by sticking your bum way up in the air, and push your head into the surface you’re on. As soon as you learn that your head needs to be held up during all of this, you’ll be tearing around like crazy.
You really are a happy baby! You smile really easily, and we’ve found a few tricks to hear your wonderful laugh (usually raspberries about the face and neck). You love when Dada comes home in the afternoons, and practically leap out of Mommy’s arms to get at him. You also really like grabbing at EVERYTHING, especially if it’s something you can stuff in your mouth. Watching Mommy brush her teeth, looking at yourself in the mirror, looking at books, bath time, and the ever exciting squealing, talking and bouncing, are also favorite pastimes. You have developed a game in which you wave around a toy or washcloth a few times, then drop it, then we lower you down to pick it up yourself. Then repeat the process a dozen times. We have experimented, and it’s not as fun (for you nor us!) when we pick up the item for you.
You’re *almost* ready for solid foods, and if the fascination you have watching us eat is any indication, you’re going to be quite the eater. At your six month check up, you were 17 lbs 9 oz and 29 inches. Wow! You’ll be towering over us both in no time!
Sadly, you seem to have outgrown being walked to sleep by Dada, but enjoy being sung or nursed to sleep, or lying quietly between us and reading a few books before bedtime. You’re not a big fan of your car seat, and you sometimes get frustrated with not being able to crawl yet. You also occasionally get upset when one of us leaves the room. But on recent family events, and our trip to California (post forthcoming!), you did really well with crowds, and being held by lots of people — you must know how much you are loved!
We are so enjoying watching and helping you grow and explore the world, and are looking forward to what your next six months hold. Happy six monthiversary, Baby Seth!
All our love,
Mommy and Daddy
Mon 22 Jun 2009
Posted by Todd under life changes
[2] Comments
Before Seth was born, I pictured my life as a father being somewhere in the Bill Cosby or maybe Paul Reiser model. Sure, there would be spit-ups and diaper blow-outs early on, then maybe a baseball would break a neighbor’s window or someone would get caught fibbin’, and in later seasons some first girl troubles or trying to make the high school track team - in short, it certainly wasn’t going to be easy, but I’d get a chance to say something witty and/or profound, we’d share a hug, and everything would be wrapped up neatly in the space of 22 minutes. I may not be exactly what one would call “hip” (never have been), but I’d have my unique and likable style and generally be considered to have it all put together in my own idiosyncratic way.
Well, maybe I didn’t watch close enough, but I sure don’t remember the episode where Clare Huxtable comes down with bronchitis and is in bed most of the day, where Theo is teething and hyperactive and jumping and whining and drooling and spitting up all over Cliff’s sweaters, and where that episode just kept going, and going, and going…
Fatherhood isn’t just about dealing with the little disasters that blow up in your face when you least expect them - it’s about dealing with the long, drawn-out issues that keep blowing up in your face exactly the same way and all you can do is smile and take another. It’s an endurance event, not a sprint - or, rather, it’s an endurance event that keeps tossing sprints at you but expecting you to keep running when you’re done with each one.
In many ways, I’ve had it easy as a father so far. Seth has been officially certified by all relevant local, state and international boards as the World’s Most Beautiful Baby, and as such, he’s an absolute joy to spend time with. We’ve been incredibly lucky with how well he sleeps. He’s very good tempered, and really only fusses when he’s hungry or when he’s frustrated by the limits of his own arms and legs to explore the world around him. And above all, I have an amazing wife who is similarly certified as the World’s Best Mother (tied with my own).
This year, though, Father’s Day took one look at how lucky I’ve had it, and said that if I was going to celebrate this holiday, I was going to have to earn it. So just as I was starting to get my feet back underneath me from my recent illness, and still running at about 70% energy, sickness knocked Betsy down for the count and left me as the sole parent in charge. And Seth just wanted to explore and bite and pull and yank and chew on everything he could, all day long, with a “no naps over 10 minutes long” policy.
But that’s what you gotta do. The end credits don’t roll until everyone in the house is fast asleep, and the opening music starts up again way too early every day. We earn our right to be called a Father by picking up the rattle for the 100th time no matter how sore our back is, by working hard at work and then even harder at home day after day, and by just putting it all together with sweat, love, and yes, the occasional witty remark (even if it’s just to a baby who doesn’t understand yet).
Happy Father’s Day to Kyle, Jason, Gabe, Dave, Doug, Jake, Scott, Bobby, Zack, Casey, Jeff, Eric, Frank, (soon) Corey, (hopefully soon) Aaron, to anyone who I am forgetting to name in my half-asleep state, and above all, to the best father-in-law and to the most amazing father a guy could ask for.
And happy Father’s Day to Betsy, who is not a father, but she does everything I just mentioned above solo every day I’m at work, and pretty much every holiday belongs to her for that.
Sun 31 May 2009
We spent Friday afternoon and Saturday in Cashmere, WA, attending my cousin Meera’s wedding and enjoying our annual family reunion. This summer event is usually a camping trip, but this year, we rented a house out in a secluded part of the valley, and everyone stayed together.
I had a fantastic time during the time we spent there, and I wish we could have stayed for another week. It has been really great over the past few years to reconnect with my cousins, either online or in our face-to-face time. We all grew up together as a pretty tight-knit group, playing dress-up and putting on plays and rough-housing with each other, but as we hit our teenage years, the gaps in our age and interests felt more obvious. As we’ve each started our own families and become adults, I feel closer and closer to them every time we visit, and I’m really lucky to have a great and diverse family to hang out with.
Here are some pictures - a few more are located here.
Sun 24 May 2009
Posted by Todd under Monthiversary
No Comments
Dear Baby Boy, Sweetheart, Seth Leppard, Sugar Pie,
Five months! Can you believe it? The night after we brought you home, we got 3 inches of snow in our front yard… now, Dad is wearing shorts, Mom is getting sunburns, and we’re grilling pizzas in the backyard. You’ve been with our family through two full seasons and we’re about to start a third. We can’t wait to see you playing in the grass and enjoying the beautiful summers in the northwest.
You are getting a lot more vocal, always telling us important news such as “ob ob ob ob ob ob ob” and “craaaaaaaaaaaawww!” We haven’t yet figured out what those mean, but they seem to be pretty exciting in your world. Your legs and arms are a constant blur of energy and movement, which is a lot of fun when we want to play with you, but not as much fun when we’re trying to change your diaper or put you into your jammies for sleep time. You’re even a good mover in your sleep - you used to just sleep quietly in between Mom & Dad, but now you are always rotating and shifting and rolling around, and we’ll wake up to find you perpendicular to us, cuddled up right next to one of us, or doing some sleep-flailing of your arms, smacking us in the face as we try to snooze. You still haven’t mastered rolling over, but you can do it successfully about 10% of the time. You’ve been “kissing” us back a lot too - when we swoop in for a smooch, you’ll grab part of our face and press your wide open mouth into our cheeks or necks or ears or whatever you can get a hold of.
You’re a lot more aware of the world around you - you’ll respond to music when it’s playing, and we’ve even taken you to a couple of concerts already. You also like paying attention to the TV when Mom & Dad are trying to watch a movie, something we’re not too excited about, as it means we’ll have to start making sure our movies are baby-safe before too long. You are fascinated by watching us eat, and stare at every bite we take. You’ll sit still for a little bit when we try to read a book to you, but I suspect that you just like being held and talked to, and that the book in front of you doesn’t mean a whole lot yet. You definitely like being the center of attention, and while you put up with having other people around, you really want us to devote all of our attention to you.
You’ve moved from being obsessed with sucking on things to being obsessed with chewing on them. You’d gnaw on a knuckle for hours on end if we let you. Your favorite toy right now is your monkey, which has a lot of interesting surfaces to chew on, but you also really like your star-shaped chew toy that vibrates when you chomp down.
You are still the most wonderful marvelous little boy the world has ever seen, and we are just crazy about you!
Love,
Mom & Dad
Mon 18 May 2009
Posted by Betsy under life with Seth
1 Comment
We took Seth to his first concert yesterday! Chris Ballew of Presidents of the United States of America (which was one of his mom’s first concerts, by the way) plays kids music under the name Caspar Baby Pants, and it’s really fun. Seth seemed to enjoy it, and even danced a little bit (which he does a lot of these days anyway). This song is especially catchy:
In unrelated news, I got some yarn with which to knit myself a sweater. As I was winding a single skein into a ball, I noticed how big it was getting, and thought it would rival Seth’s head in size (heck! it almost rivals my head!):
“That is one big ball of yarn, Mom”
And you, Seth, are one cute baby.
Tue 5 May 2009
Video of Seth, around 3-4 months:
Seth - 3 months from Eel Fang on Vimeo.
The music is Stevie Wonder, “You and I”, official 2nd favorite musician of the Eelfang family.
Wed 29 Apr 2009
Posted by Todd under decisions, emotions
[9] Comments
Who needs money when you look this cool?
We knew what we were getting into was going to be a challenge. Seattle is one of the most expensive cities in which to live in the U.S., and while I make a fairly good living, it’s still pretty firmly in the middle-class range. Trying to support a family of 3 (or more, someday) and pay a mortgage, all on a single-income - it wasn’t going to be easy.
We did all the calculations, though, and as long as we continued to live a pretty frugal lifestyle - eating at home, borrowing movies from the library, riding the bus to work - it looked like everything would work. We’d be starting with a healthy cushion which we’d have to dig into a bit, but as my earning potential continued to rise, we’d get back into the positive fairly quickly:
Insert: Simple Line Graph, with the y axis labeled “net worth” and the x axis labeled “time.” The line starts at a pleasingly high point on the y axis, dipping slightly before starting to rise again in a jaunty manner. The overall effect is not unlike a lazy summer smile.
Then things got a little more complicated. We found out that our path to becoming a family was going to involve a lot more people than just the two of us and an obstetrician. As some of the institutions helping facilitate that process require compensation, we were also going to be starting with a much smaller cushion than expected, as well.
We did the calculations and projections again, and with some much-needed assistance from our families, it looked like we’d just be able to pull it off. It was going to be tight - very tight - but we could tighten our belt a notch or two further, Betsy might be able to put in a few hours here and there working from home for the farm, and I had a good job with a strong company with reasonable salary increases on the horizon. If push came to shove, we just sell our house and go back to apartment living for a year or two.
Insert: Graph #2. This line starts at lower altitude than the first, and immediately swoops down rapidly in a dizzying dive. The line skitters and screeches across the bottom, throwing off sparks and smoke, before being wrestled back up by the heroic crew. The line, a little battered and beaten but flying steady, exits the right side of the graph at a reasonable level.
Then as the process unfolded, expenses from the agency came in ways that we weren’t anticipated. Dings here and there to the pocketbook that started to add up quickly. The starting cushion was deflating at an alarming pace.
And then the economy crashed, and suddenly, “the reasonable salary increases on the horizon” that I had been expecting started slipping further and further over the horizon and out of sight. Layoffs were happening all around me and the valuable marketable skills I was developing became just another commodity in a buyer’s market. Finally, my company announced that they were instituting salary cuts across the board for all of the employees still left standing.
Insert: Graph #3 - the line is floating low, just above the rooftops of the city below, when it gets snagged against a radio tower and OH THE HUMANITY
So, we’re at a point right now where we’re looking at our options. Terms like mortgage adjustments, short sale, and other such fine instruments of financial torture are being tossed around pretty regularly and we’re doing a lot of research into our options. We’re continually looking at ways to shave a few dollars off of our monthly spending, but at this point, any further cuts would be no longer cutting off fat but shaving pretty near the bone. If we seem a bit frazzled now and then over the next few months, this’ll be why.
But the one thought I keep returning to is this: nothing truly valuable is at risk. We will always be well-fed, we will remain warm and dry and sheltered, and we will all remain deeply in love with each other, and have the love and support of our families. We might end up losing some of the investment we’ve made in this particular piece of real estate, and I might not have this particular piece of land to have backyard grilling sessions on, but we’ll always have each other, and we’ll make our way in the world in the best way we know how.
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