London at sleep and at work

More pictures from our Berkeley adventure last week.

Man-child

London is going through a mysterious transition. It's been going on for a while now, and I suppose it will last for a little longer. He is a Transformer. When he stands up, he is more than three feet tall, and I look at him and think "Wow! My baby is gone. He grew up into this little boy." He is immense.

But then when he sits down he looks tiny. And I think, "Aww, my little baby is still a baby." Seriously, he looks like he might fit in a shoebox.

Same thing when he's laying down. When he stretches out he looks like he might have just come home from school and flopped on the bed. He's a monster. But when he curls up and tucks his arms and legs under and sticks his little heinie up in the air, he looks like a little baby burrito.

One of the things I've been doing every few weeks since London was born is measuring his thighbone with my fingers. If I stretch out my right thumb and pinky as far as they will go, they span eight inches exactly (this is a handy way to measure fossils--or furniture--when I've forgotten a tape measure). When London was brand new, his little thigh was only about three inches long. And it grew very slowly for a long time. But now his legs are growing like Inspector Gadget's. The other day he was taking a nap in my lap and I found that his thighbone is just a shade over eight inches. I know it's arbitrary, his developmental program doesn't know or care about how Dad measures him, but it still feels like a big transition for me. The longest bones in his body would no longer fit in the palm of my hand. He is escaping the tinyness of the baby stage, no matter what it looks like when he sits down.

But when he's tired, I can say, "Come on up to Daddy!" and he will run over, practically leap into my arms, and curl up just like he did when he was new. Sometimes he's asleep before I can get the bottle into his mouth. Every day ends that way, and sometimes I stay up way past my bedtime rocking him. Just because I can.

All right, time for some pictures.

London is learning to feed himself with a spoon. He likes to grab an empty baby food jar and pretend to eat out of it. I think he looks like Edward Norton in this picture.

We thought it would be funny to put one of my t-shirts on London. He was less than thrilled. Usually I fix red eye problems, but in this case I thought it was an accurate reflection of his mood. Here he reminds me of Hayden Christiansen playing Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. He has the same tortured, deranged expression. And the creepy eyes.

You always get lots of pictures of London sleeping, because they're easy to take. I hate using the flash, and without the flash I need him to stand still, which is not a condition you find an awake baby in.


We spent the last two days in Berkeley looking for a place to live--successfully, thank goodness. We stayed in a hotel and got some great pictures of London goofing off. More to come soon.