Happy Birthday, Simon!

Today is Simon's 4th birthday. Look closely at the photo above to see if you can spot Simon. This is how he is spending his special day: hiding his head under a blanket while being sat on by his brother and telling the world to kiss his tail. Cheers.

Road Trip

10:01 AM. Depart for Sun Prairie

10:06 AM. Unscheduled stop at McDonald's

10:07 AM. Syed enters McDonald's. Syed Brian: waaahhh. waaaaahhhhhh. waahh.

10:09 AM. Charlie: I'm starving. I hope the large human brings me some scrambled eggs. Simon: I can't see! I can't see! I have to climb on the medium-sized human with long hair to look out the window. Syed Brian: Waaahhh. Waahh. Monica: Calm down. Big Syed will be back shortly and we'll leave again.

10:13 AM. Simon: I've got to poop!!!! Syed Brian: WAAAHHH. WAAAAAAAHHHHHH. I HATE THESE PEOPLE WHO PUT ME IN THIS SEAT! Charlie: I'm still starving - does anyone care? Monica: I said CALM DOWN! THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN! YOU ARE HAVING A GOOD TIME!

10:15 AM. Syed returns to car, enters above scene. Simon: I'VE GOT TO POOP! LET ME OUT OR I'LL POOP ON THE FLOOR OF THE CAR! Charlie: Let me at the big human - he has food - I can smell it. MUST. HAVE. FOOD. Syed Brian: WAAAHHH. WAAAAHHHH. THEY FORGOT THAT I'M HERE. WAAHHH. WAAAHH. Monica: We need to go. Now. Simon: I'm pooping! You people didn't listen to me. Clean your floor mats. That should teach you to ignore a dachshund.

10:16 AM. Car departs. Syed: WAIT! I must check the order. Monica: I can't pull back in - there's a car behind me. Syed: CANADIAN BACON!!!! NO!!! MORONS! I said cheese and egg, NO MEAT. Syed Brian: WAAAHHHH. WAAAHHH. MOVE THE CAR NOW OR I WILL NEVER LOVE YOU. Simon and Charlie: Sniff, sniff, sniff. EGGS!!!! Monica: We're not going back. Syed: YES, we are. Monica: NO, we're not.

10:18 AM. At stop light. Syed: IDIOTS! How hard is it to make an egg mcmuffin without meat?!? Forget it - we're going home. It's not *!&*% worth it. Syed Brian: Waahhh. waahh. Monica: I won't eat. We'll throw away the egg mc muffins. Syed: NO. You will be cranky and I'm not dealing with it. IDIOTS - I SAID NO MEAT!

10:20 AM. Monica: Do you want to call the corporate office of McDonald's? Syed: Only you do such things when onions are involved. I'm rational. Just eat the egg mc muffin. Monica: No. We're throwing it away. Just remember that I love you. Did you hear me?!? I said I LOVE YOU.

10:23 AM. Syed Brian: waah. waaahh. Simon: What's wrong with the humans? They're in a bad mood. Charlie: I don't care. I just had scrambled eggs.

10:25 AM. The offending egg mc muffins are disposed of. Road Trip resumes. Monica: Thank you for the Diet Coke - I need the caffeine.

10:29 AM. Charlie: I'm thirsty. I think I'll try to drink out of the medium-sized human's drink. She seems to be enjoying it. Monica: CHARLIE! NO! Syed: CHARLIE! NO! Simon: He's thirsty - back off! Syed Brian: These people are crazy.

10:32 AM. (cannot post on the Internet - inappropriate when Syed Brian can read)

10:48 AM. Calm enters the car.

12:57 PM. Arrival at destination.

Morals of the Story: Order breakfast sandwiches that do not contain any type of meat whatsoever so that McDonald's is not confused. Listen to Simon when he says he has to poop. Bring beverages for Charlie. Set aside A LOT of money for Syed Brian's therapy.

LOOK! UP THERE!

IT'S A BIRD!!!
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NO, IT'S A PLANE!!!

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WAIT, IT'S SUPER BABY!!!

It's also another topic for therapy.

(special thanks to Simon for allowing Syed Brian to borrow his cape)

A Boy's Best Friends

Simon and Charlie really do like Syed Brian and vice versa. You can just tell by how excited all of them look in this picture. Simon and Charlie are clearly thrilled to be near Syed Brian. And Syed Brian can hardly contain his excitement. It's not every day that your mom and dad prop you upright so that it looks like your neck disappears while two dogs flank you as they patiently await a piece of cheese. He is such a lucky boy. We make sure we tell him that every day.

Oops.

Apparently Syed Brian has been working on his kicking skills when we haven't been watching. He succeeded in kicking the scoop of formula this afternoon as Syed was making him his bottle. You can see the resulting powder-covered Syeds above. One of the powder-covered Syeds was happier than the other...you can guess which one. (Hint: the happy one is eating)

For Uncle Brad

Based on Uncle Brad's comments from the first video we posted, we felt obligated to share this video, too. Perhaps little Syed's "talent" will someday be recognized.

Nine Weeks

Dear Syed Brian (Vol. 1 Iss. 2)

You have now been gracious enough to allow me to be your mother for a second month and I am thankful for it. This month has brought so many changes and you look and act like a different baby. No longer are you a blob...you are now a real baby!!!! You have much better control of your head and are able to look around much easier. You decided that this was the month in which you would start to smile. Your dad and I were extremely excited to see you smile as it made us think that the sleepless nights and stressful days might be worth it after all. It also convinced us that perhaps we should go into comedy because there can only be one reason that you smile at us: we must be hysterically funny. The pediatrician dashed our hopes of a comedic future and calmly stated that you were expected to smile this month and that it really had nothing to do with us. You managed to meet all of the expected milestones in this month including lifting your head while on your tummy, smiling, starting to coo, and startling when you hear loud noises. An added bonus with your milestones: you met them by the time you were 6.5 weeks rather than the expected 8 weeks. The fact that you seem so advanced is undoubtedly related to the genetic gifts bestowed upon you by your father and me. (We have to take some credit now because it won't be very long before all of the credit will be yours and yours alone, just as it should be.) One thing that you can absolutely take credit for is the growth spurt that you went on this month. You have jumped from the 50th percentile for height to the 97th percentile - in less than 6 weeks! Your weight is still hanging out around the 50th percentile. However, the most stunning achievement is in the growth of your head: it went from the 70th percentile to over the 100th percentile. Because of this, your father and I are working diligently on your intellectual development: with a cranium the size of yours, there must be a large brain inside that needs to develop. So, we've been working on multiplication tables and the periodic table of elements this month. Next month we'll be reviewing Fibonacci numbers and medicinal chemistry. This month marked another significant milestone in your life: you started sleeping in your own room! While you have always slept in your own bed, you moved into your very own room where Simon and Charlie don't disturb you as much. You like having your own space and you are sleeping for longer periods of time now that you are in your crib. The entire household is relieved and grateful for sleep that lasts longer. As you have been more alert his month, Simon and Charlie have been more excited to have you in the house. There is a slight glimmer of hope in their eyes that you might actually serve a purpose for them someday. In fact, Simon is so hopeful that this is a possibility that he pushes his toys toward you now in hopes that one day you'll pick up his toy and throw it for him. Charlie, on the other hand, is extremely hopeful that you will start to share food with him so he tries to take your bottle and pick up any leftovers from your bib. So far, his efforts have been without success. I am starting to see some familiar tendencies in your behavior...it appears you might be "strong-willed." I believe that "strong-willed" is nicer than saying that you seem to be bull-headed and stubborn at times. There have been several occasions this month where you have clenched your fists, arched your back, set your jaw, and proceeded to scream. Usually this occurs when you don't want to go to sleep at night. Unfortunately, you always seem to give in and fall asleep...your eyelids betray you every single night despite your best efforts. You are also starting to learn how to fake crying. Once in a while you will give a pathetic cry or two (without tears) and stick out your bottom lip. You then open your eyes briefly to see if I'm looking at you and responding in an appropriate manner. If I do not respond as you think I should, you repeat the process. When I still don't respond, you immediately revert to being your usual happy self. One final skill that you acquired this month that is worth mentioning is your ability to pull hair. You LOVE to pull mom's hair, and it is even more fun if you're screaming when you do it! Also, just to make sure that daddy doesn't feel left out, you pull his hair, too. Since you can't reach the hair on his head, you prefer his chest hair. The first time you pulled your dad's hair, you caught him off guard. He was half asleep and had taken off his t-shirt because you spit up on it. You then proceeded to grab two fistfuls of his chest hair and pulled it as hard as you could...I'm not sure who was yelling louder, you or your father...the only difference was that his voice was a little deeper than yours. This month, you continue to like cuddles, sleeping, eating, playing on your mat, pushing the chime ball, and looking at the frog over your car seat. You still do not like baths or having your clothes changed. You are also tired of cold weather and are ready for the spring. Your father and I have treasured getting to establish our family with you - it's the three of us and we couldn't be happier or more content. We're still the luckiest people in the world and are excited to see you grow and learn. Until next month...Love, Mom

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

You'll just have to imagine that Syed Brian was wearing his lucky charm shirt...he really does wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day even though he chose not to get dressed up for the occasion. He had other priorities this afternoon/evening that superceded St. Patrick's Day. Perhaps he will be more willing to celebrate Easter. I imagine that he likes bunnies more than leprechauns...who wouldn't prefer hunting the Easter Bunny's eggs to finding a leprechaun's pot of gold? It's probably time for a lesson in economics because the last time I checked, gold is worth more than Easter eggs. However, with the current state of the economy, Easter eggs may have better staying power, so maybe he is wiser than I think.

The Way We Were

(Cue Violin...)

Simon: Do you remember how life used to be?

Charlie: You mean when we lived with only two humans and there was an even ratio of humans to dachshunds?

Simon: Yes. And the dingo bones were endless as were the number of walks we got to take.

Charlie: And we got to have humans attend to our every whim. It was a magical time, truly magnificent.

Simon: But the new human doesn't even take the time to play with us. He won't throw us our toys, he won't play tug of war, and he certainly doesn't give us dingo bones. He invaded our house! He interrupts our sleep, he doesn't have the decency to share his toys, and he won't share his food. He doesn't talk to us, he doesn't pet us, and he is pretty much worthless as far as I can tell. We need to find new humans that don't have a miniature human being lying around doing nothing. I say we plot our escape.

Charlie: Don't be stupid. I've been on the streets and, trust me, we still have a pretty decent life. We still have the humans fooled into paying some attention to us. And we still get scrambled eggs for breakfast at least twice a week. Besides, it's cold outside. Perhaps when it's warmer and we can sun ourselves on the pavement we can make a break for it.

Simon: You're right. Let's hide in the living room. Maybe they'll miss us. If they don't come to find us, at least we get to lay in the sun.

When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth...

...it might have looked like this: peaceful one moment, terrifying the next.







I am fairly certain he will resent me for this later (and he might need some therapy, too).

Sunday Afternoon (Continued)

Some more video...capped off with more spitting up. Apparently, that last ounce wasn't needed although he just HAD to have it...

Sunday Afternoon

Here's some brief video of Syed from earlier today. It's not the greatest, but you can get an idea of how we spend our Sundays - looking around, making some noises, moving arms, and, of course, spitting up.

With a Face Like This...

He just reminded us that it is all worthwhile.

Let Sleeping Babies Lie

After a grueling morning of tummy time and looking at a rattle, it was time for lunch and a nap. The quilt Syed Brian is sleeping under also serves as a place for us to play each day. An interesting tidbit about the quilt - St. Jude fabric was used to make it. Proceeds from the purchase of the St. Jude's material benefits the St. Jude's Children's Hospital. Children's hospitals have a special place in our hearts and we think it is a pretty unique quilt. The quilt was made especially for little Syed by our friend, Pam. We all enjoy it and after a long morning of playing, the baby, the dogs, and mom get to take a nap.

Return to O'Hare

It may be hard to believe, but little Syed has been a frequent visitor to O'Hare, logging more than 50,000 miles in the air, all before he took his first breath of air. Last week, he returned to O'Hare. For the first time, he was able to see what the airport looked like as opposed to only hearing the muffled sounds of it. Grandma Fay was on hand to provide his first taste of 'airport food' aka formula in a bottle freshly prepared for his consumption. He quite liked the airport cuisine if the burp at the end of the end of it was any indication. The best part of the visit to O'Hare: meeting his Uncle Brad for the first time. Little Syed tried hard to make a good impression on his uncle, even sporting madras plaid pants for the occasion as he knows his uncle has a penchant for such attire. We'll post more pictures from Uncle Brad's visit later.