Stronner is 7 weeks old today, and he’s showing it with his increasing heft and longer periods of alertness.  He’s spending longer stretches awake during the day and spicing up his routine with more trips out of the house, including a trip to the Ballard farmer’s market yesterday where he met many admirers.  He also participated in his first business meeting last week, when I inadvertently forgot to mute my phone after weighing in on a conference call.  Everyone was quite impressed with his communication style!

Just wanted to share a few more different looks from Stronner!

Fiona went in for her second chemo treatment today – so far she’s handling it quite well. She’s been hanging out with Stronner all afternoon with no sign of nausea.  We’re sure she’ll be feeling fatigue over the next few days though.  In anticipation of losing her hair, she got a short haircut, as you can see in the pictures here.  Stronner is looking forward to Fiona growing her long curly hair back, as by then he’ll be able to get a proper grip on it!

Stronner’s definitely getting more lively – you can see from these pictures that he’s exploring a wider range of facial expressions.  In particular he seems to be establishing an early grasp of ironic amusement, which bodes well for us as parents, right?

Stronner is just starting to figure out how to coo and smile.  A few times a day he’ll surprise us with another sign of his developing awareness!

Today Stronner is 4 weeks old.  Hard to believe he’s been here a month already!  He’s certainly changing though – he’s starting to eat bigger meals and feels like he’s been putting on weight at a more rapid pace.  He also seems to be content being held less of the time – he’s started napping in his little reclining bouncy chair.  He’s starting to get more interactive, too!

Fiona had a very early and very long day at the hospital yesterday for her first chemo treatment, so Stronner was stuck with my care-taking for about 18 hours through the  night and day, until a little after 5pm.  After subjecting him to a miserable blustery and cold walk with the dogs (I may be just a dad but even I knew I shouldn’t leave him at home alone), I put him through the further indignation of posing for a couple pictures in his bassinet while he still had his cap on.  Fortunately Stronner tends to humor me, as long as he isn’t starving or carrying a sewer in his drawers.

As for Fiona, she definitely suffered from some nausea after she got home, but was eventually able to eat a bit.  Granny Rona was with her throughout the day and has been helping her manage her symptoms and keep track of her various medications, and Auntie Brooke came down to relieve me so I could get bit of rest . . . and so Stronner could get a break from me!