Introducing Gallant

We finally decided upon a blog name for our second child.  We wanted a word that began with G to match his first name.  (Smiley's real name also begins with S.)

We decided not to use Giddy, Grimy, Groovy, Grubby, or Guy--all of which were somewhat accurate but did not satisfactorily capture the hopes we have for our son.  We decided upon Gallant, wishing him courage and virtue.

Gallant is a very easy baby.  He enjoys good health, nurses well, usually lets us sleep at night 90 minutes between feedings, rarely spits up three times in one day, has yet to suffer a diaper rash, and when fussy is eventually consolable.

(For the non-parents out there, the "eventually" in the last phrase is important.  At 1:40 am this morning he needed to poop but couldn't do so yet, which was making him very upset.  After a bit of fussing and shrieking I eventually discovered he would be content if on my lap, rocking, with a pinky in his mouth and my other hand moving his legs a lot.)

We are also quite fortunate that both Smiley and Gallant usually sleep through each other's noise.  Whew.

Our photographs are at the moment up-to-date, although I am quite behind with processing video.  Which is a bit ironic, since Gallant looks exactly like Smiley did, except for chubbier thighs.  So you could just look at the old Smiley photographs.  But I'll still be a dutiful father and also share new photos.

Smiley at two days:


Gallant at two days:


Smiley at six weeks:


Gallant at six weeks:


Smiley is enjoying being a big brother.  More about that later.  Time to change a diaper.

Watch Those Hands, Winnie

Someone was not quite thoughtful enough about a Bear of Little Brains.

It is a cute onesie.



But until his pants slid down the cartoon looked like Pooh is doing something inappropriate.

Smiley's first dentist appointment

Last Thursday was Smiley's first dentist appointment.  He loved it.

Recall that he visited the dentist in April just to make sure it was a good dentist (unlike the bad dentist in Finding Nemo).  So he was not afraid.  He even already knew what the buttons on the chairs did.

He got to wear sunglasses inside.  That was a fun thing, breaking a normal rule.




He got to hold two mirrors, a tiny one and a big one. Mirrors are fun.

Biting the film for the two x-rays made him nervous, but he followed directions. When he saw the x-rays he agreed that taking pictures of "the inside and the outside too" was very special.

Having his teeth scraped was tedious, but he was agreeable.



The little "shop vac" was the best part. He likes using our shop vac, especially to blow leaves. A mouth-sized one was silly!



What is even better than a tiny shop vac? When there is also a tiny water squirter! Squirting water is great fun. Being squirted is almost as nice.



And at the end of the visit he got his teeth painted with a paintbrush! That was the most silly. Paintbrushes are for paper, right?