One Month Down... a Lifetime to Go!

Somehow, it's been a month (actually 5 weeks, but who's counting) since Benji was born. He's changed a lot in that time... He now weighs in at 9 lbs. 4 oz (!), has grown an inch and 3/4 in length, and keeps his eyes open a lot more. His parents have learned a lot too - like balancing a sleeping baby on one's chest while putting up a blog post - and we're getting close to establishing a rhythm (albeit one that changes every other day or so!). Most excitingly (is that a word?), Benji is now fitting in to the vast majority of his 0-3 clothes so his mama is having fun dressing him every morning. His dad is more excited, however, about the ability to carry Benji in the bjorn (picture to follow).

Below are some pics to show you how much he's grown - and as you all requested, with his eyes wide open. Note that these were taken about 2 hours apart even though he's in different outfits... we do a lot of laundry :-)

Benji's One Month Birthday

It's hard to believe -- but Benji has now been with us for an entire month.  He still sleeps alot, seems to be crying a bit less (knock on wood...), and he's eating a whole lot more.  He has his 1-month doctor's appointment later this week.

In our first multi-media video post, you can see Benji trying out tummy time! He's still a little shaky, but he's slowly starting to hold his head up high!

Benji celebrated the big day with Uncle Alan, Aunt Renee, and Cousin Ez at the annual MOTH (Mom's on the Hill) picnic.  It was quite an event!  Benji wasn't all that aware of his birthday -- but we got some great pics anyway.   Click on the link below to see some pics of the big event. (Most are of Ez -- who is quite photogenic these days!)

MOTH Picnic

Nervous Nelly Parents and Benj Continues to Pack on the Pounds... Um, Ounces

So most of our loyal readers are aware of Benjamin's "screaming issues," and nervous nellies that we are, we decided to take him back to the doc to make sure all was a-ok.

Benji is, of course, fine, and the doc (who kept talking generally about "first time parents") suggested that we feed him more (now keep in mind we were already feeding him more than the nurse practitioner suggested last week) to see if that stops the screaming. Allegedly, babies can't eat too much - ah to be young again ;)

So we're trying the feeding on demand, and we'll see what happens! We have our one month appointment next week so that will be a good follow up. He was also weighed and is now up to 7 lbs 12.6 ozs (+5.6 from last week and +11.6 since birth). He's approaching the 8 pound minimum that will allow him to go into the Baby Bjorn (which very much excites his dad!).

Here's a pic of Benji sleeping outside Eastern Market this am. His mom was quite pleased as she got to sit outside and read the entire front section of the Washington Post for the first time in about 27 days (but who's counting!?)!

By Popular Demand

For those of you who have been asking for more pics, here are a few...

The first couple with the Capitol are from last Sunday evening - we walked down to the rehearsal for the NSO Memorial Day concert.

The rest - a series of Benjamin close ups - were taken by Gram (Carol, Chrissie's mom) while Benji slept in his car seat.

You might notice that he's looking a little pudgy these days - he's up to 7 pounds, 7 ounces - a full 6 ounces more than his birth weight and 10 ounces more than last week. This means the every 2 hour force feeding is over, and we can let him sleep at night if he wishes. The latter is excellent news for mom and dad in particular!

A few pics for Benjamin's fans

This is the picture of a growing baby (we think and hope)!

Two days ago, Benji didn't fit in the boppy. Now, with a little folding of the pillow, he can sit in it (not that he likes it!). His newborn clothes are also starting to be a little snug, and we've been trying on some 0-3 outfits (with different levels of success!). This, of course, is all anecdotal, we go back to the doc on Thursday for the big weigh-in!

Name that Zibel!

Ok -- so, some people say that all newborns look alike.  We think that little Benji actually bears a striking resemblance to his cousin Ezra.  Can you decide which baby is which?  

Zibel No. 1:  EZ or BZ?

What about this one?

Anyone know who this baby is?

And how bout Zibel No. 4?

One hint is that there are two pictures of little Benji.  And two pictures of Ezra.  Submit your responses to danchrissie@gmail.com, or post your guess in the comments.  Results will be posted later in the week.

Metro Rides, Baths, and Silly Faces

A few new milestones in little B's life.  Yesterday, we gave him his very first bath.  It wasn't quite the spa/relaxing experience that he undoubtedly expected, but it was very functional.  

And then today, we took our urban baby on his very first metro ride.  He was a big fan of the "doors closing, please stand clear of the doors" chime.  So much so, that when his mommy hopped on the train, Benji and Dad got left behind!  But we all survived... 

Benji's Bath and Metro Ride

Out and About

Benji spent the end of last week with various grand-parental units. He took his first ride in his new wheels, visited his first new york-style pizzeria, and accompanied friends Mac and Ollie to Stanton Park (ok, really he watched them play on the see-saw, but his eyes might have been closed too...).

All this activity has left Benji a little light in the belly, but his parents have him on a rigorous feeding schedule that barely leaves them time to eat!

To see the pics of all this fun, click below:

Benji Meets the Fam and Starts to Explore the World

Holy poop!

So on day five of little Benjamin's life, he went on his first non-Doctor's related excursion.  Babies r Us!! So exciting for the little guy.  He did great! We had a bit of trouble figuring out how to hook his carseat into the shopping cart -- but we made do!

After our shopping, we all grabbed lunch.  And then -- well, let's just say Chrissie learned a little lesson in projectile pooping.   But it was ok -- thankfully her instinctual reaction was to close her mouth, not open it. Otherwise, we're doing great.  Benjamin is becoming more awake, and is a little more aware of his surroundings.   He continues to eat every three hours, but we're having fun with the new addition to our family.

It Really was THE time!

It was a little surprising when Chrissie's water broke last Thursday at 2 am and 12 hours later we had a son!

We're not sure there are any loyal readers out there who haven't heard the news, but just in case, Benjamin Noah Zibel entered the world last Thursday, May 7, at 2:07 pm. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 1 oz and was 20 inches long.

We have been home since Saturday and are doing well. Here are some pics from Benjamin's first few days with us.

Introducing...

The Time has Come...

Ok, not THE time, but we're getting close. Without giving y'all too much information, suffice to say that Chrissie's body is readying itself, and we're thinking the little guy may make his appearance a wee-bit early.

So we're proposing a friendly little contest... Fill out the polls on the side about the babe's specs.

That's it. And watch this space (and your inboxes) for updates!

All Work and No Play?

Ok, so we keep listing all the stuff we're getting done around the house in preparation for the babe. It turns out we've been taking some time here and there for ourselves and our friends too!

Yesterday, Saturday, we took a quick day trip to go visit Chris, Ashley, Alanna, and Carter. We bummed around in the beautiful weather, ate some food, and then headed home. It was great to see them. The pictures below will be particular exciting for those of you who want to look at Chrissie's belly. While she is totally convinced that the camera adds MORE than 10 pounds, Dan thinks they are pretty accurate (which was a wee bit depressing to Chrissie). Click on the one photo below to link to the album in picassa.

Visiting Chris/Ash and the babes

We also need to post one special pic here, with a shout out to Ashley, for finding to the time to make Baby Z an awesome quilt. The picture does not do it justice, but there's little monkeys and bananas on it :-)





The first week in April (which yes, seems like a really long time ago) Adam, Merri, and Halsey came to visit. We spent Saturday walking around with the masses at the Cherry Blossom Festival. Then, on Sunday, Dan had a great time at the park after we had a fantabulous brunch at Matchbox. Click on the pic below to view the album.

Adam, Merri, and Halsey Visit - Cherry Blossoms Galore

Movin' Right Along

Sorry for the LONG delay in between posts, but we've been busy... For those of you keeping score at home, we're starting week 36 in the great countdown to 40 so things are getting serious.

Over the past month, we've gotten lots of "stuff," redone the woodwork in the baby's room, had a ceiling fan installed for the little guy, re-tiled the radiator box, had the room painted a fabulous blue, AND gotten all of the furniture in to the room. We're still arranging and getting organized, but we wanted to share some preliminary pics...







We also splurged on ourselves (not EVERYTHING is about the babe, right?) and had our patio redone. Last week we started planting veggies and like. Pictures to follow soon.

Dan also mulched our "tree box" out front this weekend (though we haven't yet done our front yard planting) and added a new highlight for 2009:



Finally, we had our birthing class today so now we're ready for everything and anything (yeah... right!).

Stay tuned for more updates and pics which should be coming soon.

Brunch for the Babe (Well, His Parents)

We had a small brunch with a few of our closest friends last weekend to celebrate the impending birth of the little guy. It was co-ed in nature, but we're pretty sure the guys had a good time anyway, and their presence assured that no "shower games" would be played. It was a good opportunity to see our friends and help the babe get some "necessities" for life outside the womb. Courtney and Grady came in from Michigan (and Travis was missed by all), so between him and the other 5 kids in our living room, we were able to see what we were in for at all different stages....

Here are some pics of the kids:

D.C. Shower - Kids

Pics of the rest of the brunch to come later in the week.

Coming soon: an update on all our house projects.

Another Friend for Baby J-Z!

Babies, babies everywhere! Just as two of the babe's favorite friends left town (Chris, Ashley, Alanna, and Carter officially moved to Philly this weekend), another is found. Cam and Eleanor has their little girl, Lyra, this weekend (they are the one's whose blog we link to on the right hand side below)! We were lucky enough to visit them at home this afternoon. See Dan and Lyra getting properly acquainted below.

"Do you look pregnant?" "Do you have a big belly?" "Are you huge?"

These are the questions those of you who are not local have asked me over the past few weeks, and I have struggled to answer them... it's kind of subjective.

So I leave you this evidence:
Three people offered me their respective seats on the metro this morning, despite me being bundled up in a winter jacket

(I guess that answers that question!)

Add'l Pics from Oliver & Alanna's Wedding

I got to take a picture with the groom (thanks to Oliver for passing this along)!



And here's one of me (sans shawl - the hot flashes are back!) and Dan that our friend Missy took.

Oliver & Alanna Got Hitched!

So we spent last weekend in not-so-sunny or warm northern California. The wedding was in Santa Cruz on Sunday. We then spent Monday day/night in San Francisco, having fabulous dim sum for dinner and finally seeing the movie, Frost/Nixon - the combination of the two made for a great date night. We highly recommend the movie and the dim sum.

But I digress... we were there for Oliver and Alanna's wedding, which was a lot of fun. Most importantly, they had a blast. They also made it into the NYT's wedding announcements. See some pics below.

(2009) Oliver & Alanna's wedding weekend

Back to life, back to reality this weekend where we have made real progress on getting the babe's room in order. We have sold our futon and are zeroing in on paint colors and the like. Stay tuned for an update soon.

Our Visit with One of Baby Z's Friends

Baby Z has no idea how many friends he already has (even if he still is in utero)!

This past weekend, we went to visit Carter - one half of Chris & Ashley's twins who you've all heard about. Alanna, the female half, is hopefully coming home later this week.

Anyway, it was great to see Carter at home (after 2 visits at the hospital) AND we got to hold him. It was lots of fun!

Chrissie gets a turn first (after he FINALLY woke up!)....




And then Dan!



Dan got to hold him for awhile, but then Chrissie got tired and hungry so we had to leave.

By Popular Demand

Despite having pledged not to fall victim to the infamous belly shot, the moms (grand-moms, actually) have spoken. So, we're posting a belly shot. Don't get used to it though, this will not become a regular habit. As of today, baby JZ is 25 weeks EGA (estimated gestational age). And the mama to be is starting to show it (though proud to say only 18 pounds heavier!). So enjoy the shot below.



In other news, we are making progress on all the various "to-dos" that need to be accomplished in the next 15 weeks. We have put up all new wood work in what will be the baby's room, have an electrician (hopefully) coming this week to put in an overhead light, and have even registered for all the things the little one will "need" when he enters the world.

We're taking next weekend off from baby prep as we journey to California for Oliver and Alanna's wedding in what should be Chrissie's last plane ride for the foreseeable future. Look for pics late in the month as we are close to picking a crib, colors, and have pretty much finalized the "theme" of the room.

Inauguration Day in the Nation's Capitol

A snapshot (and snapshots) of our day...

7:15 am - We leave our house to start the trek to the "Silver gate," where we are assigned to enter with our mall standing tickets.




8:00 am - After a brisk walk with more people than we've ever seen on the street at this hour, we find the end of the line, which is a good 10 blocks away from where the gate is (note - we have no idea where we are at this point, except that it's the back of the line). See Dan's pics below of the crowd.




10:15ish am - Three hours after leaving our house, we can just see the gate (in the distance in the pic below), but no one's moving. We are surrounded by at least 20,000 people all holding silver tickets... No one is doing crowd control - when we ask Capitol Police what the deal is, they say, as far as we know, we'll keep letting people in (despite the fact that no one has moved).



10:30 am - It's do or die time. We either accept maybe not getting in, maybe not seeing or hearing anything, and maybe getting trampled when there's a mutiny (which there was - when people "stormed the silver line barricades") OR we walk home and watch on TV...

11:15 am - A picture is worth a thousand words...



All in all, we were glad we got to experience the masses, and while we would have liked to have been out on the Mall, we're glad we got to see and hear (not to mention be warm, have a bathroom, and not get trampled).

And, we're glad that we didn't travel hundreds of miles or wait 80 years to finally see a black man Inaugurated. THOSE are the folks we felt really sorry for.  

Even from our comfy vantage point at home, Dan was still able to get some great photos of Aretha and President Obama. (These pics should be a commercial for HD TV!)





Several of Chrissie's colleagues - and many others - had similar issues with their blue and purple tickets. This drama has been reported both on CNN and in the Washington Post.

Finally, we also spent the afternoon with our nephew Ezra, who also was VERY excited about President Obama (or playing with Aunt Chrissie, we're not sure which).

It's a....

Below are family-friendly pictures, but we are happy to report that we did indeed see some external genitalia Monday morning so... It's a boy!

Dan is proud to say he saw "it" before the sonographer confirmed its presence. Chrissie is proud to say that all the "old wives' tales" that imply boy, like being all baby in the front and craving mad protein, held (Dan keeps telling her those are stupid).

The pics below are from the ultrasound, probably our last glimpse until the big day.

The face - still looking a little alien like - is below. (We have some concerns about the size of his nose...)



Here's one of him waving.



These two are "full body" if you will - the greyish dot is the heart, which was beating at a healthy clip.

Aloha!

Greetings from... Well, D.C. We're back from Hawaii, a little tan, a little tired, but at the same time, quite rested. Below is the link to our photos.

Hawaii 2008

In addition, we're also hoping to upload a slide show and "movie" of the pics with music, but we're having some technical difficulties.

One of our resolutions for the new year is to be more active bloggers. Look for pics of baby Z-J later this week!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

I think this speaks for itself.  Santa and his helper.

UPDATE: Chrissie would like to add that she does not look SO pregnant in person. It's a bad angle.

Pardon the interruption

Sorry for the long delay between our postings... it's been a crazy few weeks. Where to begin?

While its no longer breaking news generally, there's exciting news in the blogosphere. Our kitchen is renovated, we've cooked up a storm, but now... there's a very different sort of bun in the oven. That's right! On or about May 24, 2009 -- our blog will be getting a new staff writer. The writing skills may take some time to develop -- but we're convinced that we're making a good new addition to the blog. Photos are below.


Above, you can see the baby waving! The other photos show other angles of the little tyke.

As for other developments from the past few weeks -- stay tuned! There's more to come. But no more babies!

Reflections from Our Election Day in "Real" America

We spent election day volunteering at a precinct in Manassas, VA. We'll keep the exact location between us so as not to further embarrass the folks we're about to mock, but suffice to say that while Mark Warner was elected to the Senate with about 63 percent of the statewide vote, his opponent, Jim Gilmore, beat him 51-49 in our precinct. McCain also won 63ish to 35 percent over Obama in our precinct, compared to 51-48 statewide, so there's the context.

The Background
Several weeks ago, Dan volunteered to do voter protection anywhere he was needed in VA. Once he got assigned, Chrissie arranged to be at the same place as well to hand out sample ballots and the like. Our experience in real America started Monday night, when it took us about 3 times as long as it should have to get out there due to Obama's rally (which we did not attend). At 9:15, VERY hungry, and somewhat in the middle of no where, we put our liberal, moral compasses aside (not to mention our culinary judgment) and ate at Cracker Barrel. It was nasty. But we checked into our hotel in time to see Obama's rally on tv and then went to sleep so that we could get up to be at our polling place at 5:45.

The day's best quotes:

"Which would you rather get hit in the face with - a coconut or a pineapple?"
This from a 17ish year old boy who looked liked he might bring a bomb to a school and who Chrissie really thought was going to throw one or the other at Dan or the other lawyer that was stationed with us. (Turns out, he was just a kid with issues...)

"So I just vote for the dark one?"
We were giving out Democratic sample ballots, which like their Republican counterparts, list all the names on the ballot, but bolds the candidate that is the member of that party and should be voted for. Totally innocently, someone looked at the ballot and said the above quote. Once he went inside, we had a little laugh between us.

"Only to use it as toilet paper."
We offered a woman a Democratic sample ballot, and our Republican counterpart offered her theirs. When she looked at what we were offering, she said she'd only take one to use it as toilet paper. To her credit, when she came out of the polling place, she didn't quite apologize, but had clearly realized she had been rude and started on a rant about how she was a fiscally conservative Republican and that the religious right had ruined her party. Regardless of how she may have voted, Democrats and Republicans alike could agree that using these sample ballots as toilet paper may not be the smartest move (that is, it would not be very comfy for one's rear end).


"I hope the Bradley effect is strong"
This was said by a Republican voter to our Republican counterpart. No further explanation needed.

"No, we're part of the silent minority."

A middle aged white woman said this after being offered a Democratic sample ballot. We spent the day trying to figure out what she meant...

"If you don't pay taxes, own property, (fill in other ridiculous, possible racist comment here), you shouldn't be allowed to vote."
This was said by our last Republican counterpart at the end of the day. Note that this man was also one of those "excited" by the pick of Sarah Palin.