11 weeks old

Great-grandma Helena Thiessen's 84th birthday party.  Seamus = 11 weeks old

So far, Seamus and Luke are the only babies of the next generation to carry on the Thiessen name.

Seamus at Luke's swim lessons.  He's figured out that there's toys on the stroller, but has yet to figure out if they're friends or foes.  That cow is especially suspicious.

At 11 weeks old Seamus weighs 14lb, 13oz.  Already I tire of carrying his awkward car seat and instead haul his stroller everywhere in the van so that I can clip him right into it and roll him around.  He's seen his hands, and is amazed by them, but hasn't spent hours observing them yet.  Seamus has been sleeping through the night for two and a half weeks now:  from 10:30ish to 6am!  He likes to be wrapped tight and always moving.  The bouncy seat is a huge hit with him.  His daytimes are flexible, which is good because our daytime schedule changes frequently.  But so far he's been taking a long nap every afternoon when Luke does (usually around 3 hours).  Mostly he sleeps in the swing, but today he has had all his naps in the playpen!

In some ways Seamus is way easier to handle than Luke was simply because he's not at all colicky.  Other times I feel like two hands is nowhere near enough for two boys.  Although Seamus is not very demanding, I like to hold him as much as possible and that can sometimes make for very stressful situations when Luke needs tackling and my hands are already full.  Seamus is smiling and laughing and having gurgly conversations with everyone who holds him.  Most of the time he sounds just like R2D2.

He got his first vaccinations yesterday and howled as if he mourned not only his own pain, but all the injustice in the world.  The nurse made a comment like, "Some babies are really pampered and don't know what pain is until they get their first shots." Frankly, I don't think it's a bad thing, as she implied, to know little or nothing of pain when you are two and a half months old, and I am only sorry that I was the one to first introduce him to the notion.

This sweet boy has only one auntie left to meet, in his immediate family.  He is very excited to meet the extended family out in California, but we have yet to set a date for a trip.  Maybe next February?  Wow, he will already be almost 10 months old!  Well, we will just have to wait and see.  For now, Seamus is learning all about prairie summers, gasping in the wind, roasting in the air as thick as risen dough, and cooling off in summer evening thunderstorms.  This baby will have the best of both worlds, and hopefully will love them each as much as Derek and I do.  Along with the people who live there.