Caring for Baby Number 2

Well, it's been three months since the newest member of my clan showed up! As I expected, there are few milestones to speak of up to this point, which is why you haven't seen any "Baby Lukas Milestone" posts show up yet. And yet, we've had several observations in raising a second child that are definitely noteworthy because of how different it was from the first!

The differences can be attributed to two general categories: differences in the actual kids and differences due to experience. I'll first address the differences in the kids.

The first notable difference between Fifi and Lukas is that Lukas is slightly more amenable to drinking milk straight from the source, which makes feeding more convenient sometimes, such as on the road or in the middle of the night. However, Cherry's supply is about double of Lukas' demand, so she ends up pumping about five or six times a day anyway (our freezer is about to overflow with stored milk!)

As smart as Fifi is, Lukas seems to be even more aware and interactive than Fifi was at this point in life. In his first month, he was quite capable of flipping over from his tummy onto his back, though he seems to have lost this skill from about month 2 on, possibly due to his 100% weight gain since birth. However, he responds to our expressions more than I remember Fifi doing.

Up until recently, Lukas seemed to be more laid back than Fifi was - we could leave him alone for a while and he wouldn't fuss too much. I think this had more to do with the fact that Fifi had three adults (Cherry, Grandma Huang, and me) revolving around her for the first six months and as a result, rarely had to be by herself, whereas with Lukas, he only has Cherry and me, and our attention is split between him and big sister Fifi.

Speaking of attention split, Fifi had a pretty rough period about a month ago where she was clearly upset at the reduction in attention. To this day, she still is a little harder to work with than she was before little brother was born. She certainly enjoys playing with him, but she clearly wants to attract attention to herself sometimes.

The bigger differences in caring for Lukas are attributed to us, rather than Lukas himself. With Fifi, we (and I won't pull punches here, Cherry especially) were hyper-paranoid about making sure everything is perfect all the time. This time around, a lot of that has been dialed back substantially. Bottle washing, which used to take upwards of two hours a day of our time, is now reduced to about half an hour a day. In addition, with Fifi running around making a racket, it's simply not feasible to keep the house quiet all day, though we still try to keep it down so Lukas gets enough sleep. Diaper changes are less frequent - thanks to A+D ointment, Lukas' bottom has never had any diaper rash and so we are less concerned about making sure his diaper is dry as a result. With Fifi, we (and especially Grandma) were always overbundling her - she didn't even get to wear short sleeves until she was about 3 months old! With Lukas, he's usually dressed far lighter. Cherry also was constantly checking on Fifi's temperature for the first year or so to make sure she didn't have a fever. Aside from a period early on when Fifi herself had gotten a cold and we wanted to make sure Lukas didn't catch it, we haven't checked Lukas' temperature at all! In general, there's less anxiety this time around, and, as a result, the experience has been more pleasant.

It's a lesson that all new parents refuse to learn. I would say that we still expend more than average energy and time (especially when giving Lukas baths), but the lesson learned is that babies are more robust than we make them out to be, and once you realize that, you can take it easy and enjoy your time playing with the baby rather than worrying about him!

Field Trip!!!

Who doesn't love a good field trip? Field trips, of course, range quite widely in terms of quality. When I was a kid, most field trips were to, say, the city dump or something like that. We were lucky to go on a snorkeling trip upstate. On the other end of the spectrum, my sister got some real first-class field trips to Costa Rica, Broadway, and Washington D.C....

As an adult, we still get to go on field trips from time to time. Avid readers may recall the airboat trip I went on with several colleagues a few months back, but those are more like graduation parties than field trips, which in theory should have some educational value relevant to the subject matter of the class. So, more recently, I had a chance to go on a more textbook field trip when one of my colleagues, Randy, announced that Embraer had flown their test flight EMB Legacy 500, which uses a lot of our products, to town. A bunch of us hopped in our cars and drove over promptly to Embraer's (incredibly posh) customer sales office next to the airport!

The nice office building - a far cry from the barracks we work in !

The hangar and a couple of Phenoms

After passing through the nice office, we went outside to see the test plane itself:

It can be yours for just $20 million!

As avionics engineers, we were most interested in seeing the radio suite. The sales manager on site thought we were talking about the control heads for the radios - I think they were a little surprised when we said, no we want to see the actual boxes in the electronics bay!

Modern all-glass cockpit

Avionics test rack. The interior of the plane is much nicer than we thought it would be, for a flight test experimental aircraft!

$20 million dollar plane with decked out leather and wood accent interior - but all we can think about are these black boxes!

After we got our fill of the plane (and the heat), we headed back inside to visit the showroom, where a mock up of the similar EMB 450 was on display to show us what the "real" interior would be like when you bought one:

Some models of the Legacy series

Mock up cockpit

Captain Grant at the sidestick!

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the admittedly up-scale interior, complete with multiple entertainment centers, fold-down seating, and dining set for up to about 10 passengers. A few of my co-workers did get some photos, though, so if I get any I'll update the post to show them off!

Not bad for a grown-up field trip!

Congratulations Chris!

It's been a long time since I've blogged - in fact, I have quite a lot to write about! But it's been even longer since the Tri-Fecta - Chris, Kaveh, and I, have been together in one place at one time. That was rectified on this years Star Wars Day (May 4th), when we all gathered in the St. Petersburg area to celebrate Chris's marriage to his girlfriend of several years, Carrie!

It's hard to believe that I've known Chris for thirteen years. I still remember the day we met at the Theta Tau engineering fraternity recruiting party back in Spring of 2001. We took Statics together that semester and I spent many evenings at his apartment doing homework for that class. That summer, we met Kaveh in Circuits I, spawning the Tri-Fecta.  I'll never forget sitting outside the Marston Science Library checking out the girls at Turlington Hall every day. I look back fondly on the several nights we stayed up late watching anime and playing video games. I remember all the parties and clubbing nights over the next several years, consoling each other after our respective failed relationships, being mistaken for being a couple on more than one occasion! (Seriously!)

I ended up settling down earlier than Chris or Kaveh, although both have gotten awfully close in these last 7 or 8 years after graduating from the University of Florida. It seemed like it would be a while yet before either of those two crazy guys would settle down. And then I met Carrie, who (according to the couple) met at a kickball game in St. Petersburg, when they came by to visit us on my daughter's one-month celebration. Immediately, we thought there was something different about Carrie. Her parents actually own a house near our house, so we got to know each other (and her family, too) a bit over the last several years. I can say without reservation that I could not be happier for Chris that she is now his wife!

My date for the evening (Mommy stayed at home to take care of Lukas)

Killing some time before the ceremony

Kaveh, the Best Man

Here Comes the Bride (curse my small-sensored point-and-shoot!)

Exchanging vows

The event not only provided an opportunity for the first reunion of the Tri-Fecta in over five years, but also a chance to see some other friends and schoolmates, some that I hadn't seen in a decade!

My old roommate George - we'd seen each other about three years back at another wedding, incidentally

Fifi socializes with Kaveh's aunt

Schoolmates AP and Antu

The first dance

Fifi takes over the floor!

And then there was one...!

It was a great night, and I was able to attend and see everyone!

Congratulations, Chris!

I leave now with a grainy, but adorable, video of Fifi dancing: