The Wee Bonnie Lad

Isn't he cute? (bad pictures though...)

On Crying Children And First Anniversaries

It's been an interesting few days at the Birn compound. Stuart has learned how to manipulate his mother in the evenings. Janna feeds him, makes sure he has a clean diaper and puts him to bed. Within a couple of minutes Stuart is screaming for attention, refusing to sleep without mom holding him. This has gotten worse in the past few days, as he's been screaming for Janna almost immediately. We've both had just about enough of it and last night we let him cry himself to sleep. Needless to say, Stuart was furious at this turn of events but after 10 minutes of livid crying he calmed himself down and went to sleep for five hours.
As we can see above, Stuart is getting his first taste of discipline. It had to happen though, we can't have a baby manipulating his mother all night long. The fact of the matter is that he wasn't hungry, his diaper wasn't dirty, he wasn't sick and there wasn't a giant spider crawling on him so he had no need to have his mother around. He was demanding attention and we won't stand for that when it's time to go to sleep. God has given us Stuart in order that we might raise him to be a good Christian adult and in order for us to raise up a good Christian adult we have to teach him self control and self discipline. It begins when their babies, even at 15 days old. If he learns how to control his anger when he's a baby, he'll have a much better time controlling it when he's older. He's manipulative, all babies are. He knows exactly what he's doing and we won't stand for this.
It will take awhile for us to teach Stuart how to control himself, but it begins by not responding to his sinful, manipulative behavior today. Not only was he attempting to manipulate his mother, he displayed uncontrolled anger and we have to work to stamp these sins out now. It's our duty as Christian parents to do this and while it was tough for Janna to listen to Stuart cry, it was for the best. Really it was best for both of them, not only is it teaching Stuart how to control himself, it's teaching Janna that he is able to do it. God has entrusted us with this little one, we can't sin against the Lord by allowing our son to grow up thinking his demands must be met at all times. I won't stand for a self centered little brat and we can stamp this sort of stuff out now. In the end, we are doing what's best for Stuart and we are doing what God expects us to do for him. We love our son to much not to teach him these lessons.
Getting to more fun events, today is our anniversary. We had celebrated at Tre Cugini on Friday but we decided to make a nice dinner tonight to. It helps that D&W had two for one ribeyes on Saturday. So with those two for one ribeyes, we made Steak au Poivre and matchstick potatoes. It was simply wonderful. Ribeyes have a robust steak flavor, someone different from a NY Strip, perhaps, dare I say more robust. Our au Poivre sauce was rich and delicious. It was a wonderful meal prepared for a wonderful wife.
And here we have a happy picture of our son. Don't mistake things, Stuart is a good boy most of the time and he's usually in a happy mood as he is here. He has his moments though and it is our Christian duty to teach him how to not have those moments. It is a life long process of course but in disciplining him now, we hope to not have to discipline him more when he's a little older. He really is a good little boy though and he's been a great blessing in our lives. Just think, a year ago we were just getting married, now we have a two and a half week old boy. God has blessed us greatly.

General Amusements

Stuart is adapting to life here on Union Ave. We've gotten him into a fairly good routine, he's only getting up about once a night. Give him another couple weeks and we'll stop responding to him at night but that's another matter.
Janna and I decided to enjoy another one of our world famous Italian picnics. This time around we had prosciutto di parma, porketta, filsette oldani salami, soperassata calbresse, mixed spiced olives and fresh mozzarella cheese. All purchased at G.B. Russo and Son. Janna an I enjoyed our feast, with plenty left over for snacking.
Stuart was not amused that his mother wouldn't allow him to have any of our feast. I was more than willing to give him some porketta but Janna wouldn't allow it. Poor kid.

Stuart did get to enjoy some baby rice cereal, in fact we started him on this stuff earlier this week. I frankly think it's disgusting but he seems to think it is a gourmet treat. If he's a really good boy he'll get pears or peaches next week. The excitement never ends when you're two weeks old.


Ok, that picture is huge. In any event, Janna and I will be celebrating our first anniversary this weekend and in celebration of this we went to Tre Cugini for dinner last night. We were able to eat outside, which was simply wonderful. We started with the traditional antipasti plate of assorted meats and cheeses and as always it was great. Janna got the gnocchi, pillows of potato pasta in a delicious cheesy sauce. I got the saltimbocca, perfectly cooked it was like velvet. For desert, Janna got sfogliata, which to no ones surprise was a chocolate lovers dream. I got fragole, strawberries in a cream sauce with liquor. Both were quite excellent.
Stuart stayed with his grandparents when we were at Tre Cugini. We got a good report from Mark and Joy, he slept the whole time. It appears that he's just getting up again and we can expect great dramatics when the boy is required to wake up. Gee, I wonder which side he got waking up dramatics from? Janna. I say nothing.

Checkmate!

I received the following email from my wife about 45 minutes ago:

"You are a complete jerk - did you think I wouldn't figure out that ourgoing up to the cottage would preclude our going to Festival? You'revery clever, and have once again outmaneuvered me. Well-played, myfriend. Well-played.

Bah."

Sweet victory. Sweet, sweet victory!

Stuart Is Home

It was time to take Stuart home this morning and Janna got him all ready to leave the hospital. The outfit was from Janna's sisters, the winds of war and gentle breeze. The hat is from my folks, or so Janna seems to think.
We managed to figure out how to use the car seat, which was quite a little production. He looks as though he's been folded up into the thing. In any event, he's taking a look at his new home and likes what he sees.
And of course he has to meet his older brother Seamus. Stuart was very interested in Seamus and watched him very intently. He seemed amused by his presence.
Seamus was nervous of the new arrival at first but now he's very interested in his little brother. He of course sniffed him out and such. We were a little worried about what his reaction to be, we thought he might be so excited that he would jump all over little Stuart. But we forget sometimes, Seamus is a good boy and has been very nice to the baby.
And here we have a picture of the three men of the Birn household. No doubt this is the first of many pictures to be taken of the three of us. Stuart likes his new home and we are certainly glad he is here.

So Stuart Arrives

Stuart was born yesterday at 7:11pm via emergency C-Section. Since everyone I've talked to has asked, he weights 6 lbs 11oz. I don't know why everyone cares but they do. In any event, Janna is fine and so far as I know she's sleeping over at St. Mary's.
Apparently they knocked Janna out, so she didn't actually see Stuart after he was born. I was the first to visit with him and thankfully a nurse was kind enough to take the above picture. Notice the look of terror on the boy's face while looking at me.
And here we have a picture of the lovely family, though let's all be honest that Janna looks completely out of it. Poor thing. In any event, all is well and in that we have been blessed. The scripture passage from our wedding was quite appropriate. Psalm 46:1 reads "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." In any event, we would appreciate your prayers for a quick recovery for Janna.

An Amusing E-Mail

Seamus has taken to sleeping on the floor in our room at night. It's a welcome change for everyone but Janna. I have no problem having the dog in the room at night, if anything I know that if some criminal sneaks into the house Seamus will be right there to defend me. He won't defend Janna but at least I'll be protected. The dog is more than welcome to sleep on the floor in our room, and in a year or two perhaps he'll sleep in Stuart's room if the child so requests. Children aren't welcome in our room but sweet little Irish Terrier's are.

In any event, I received the following e-mail from Janna yesterday, tis very amusing:

So your ridiculous animal when bananas when you left today. He kept running all over up stairs, coming into our room to nudge me, going back to the top of the stairs, coming back to nudge me again, running crying back to the top of the stairs, more nudging (cold nose, btw),then changing it up and running to the window (which he has figured outis the ultimate window of despair, in that he can watch you leave from it), and generally freaking out. When your car was out of sight he began his usual frantic pacing of the upstairs, clearly worried about what would happen now, as if this weren't normal. He finally calmed down 5 minutes later and is currently dozing on his blanket and giving me dirty looks anytime I dare come into the room. I'm telling you, this animal thinks that room is his now and he's gradually going to take it over.

Anyway, you have a perfectly ridiculous animal. But at least said animal is very fond of you.