Friends and family... near and far

It's been over a week (or, almost half of Sean's life) since the last post... and a busy week at that! Our apologies to you blog addicts who have gone without a fix in a while! :)
Last week we spent lots of time with Sean's paternal grandparents, Pat and Jeff. As you might have read in the previous post, they flew out on Saturday, November 8, and spent the week here in DC staying right down the street at a local inn. It was great that they got to spend so much time with Sean, including almost daily walks, outings to local restaurants, and quality time napping on the futon. It's tough that they are so far away, but we made sure to install Skype on their computer so they can get their grandson fix via video whenever they want (and our little guy wants to accomodate them... he can be a busy young man!). For fun pictures of the Dombrink-Green family visit, see the Picasa page: Third Week (and, for more recent pics, see the Fourth Week album).
One of the things that keeps him busy is feeding-- I was asked, along with other new parents at the Breastfeeding Center, to estimate the total amount of hours I spent breastfeeding each day and my estimate right now is about 6-7. It does feel like a full-time job... not necessarily a bad thing, but like any new job it is challenging and rewarding. Overall, our guy is a great feeder and doing really well-- he weighed in at close to 10 pounds last Thursday. It's also our special bonding time, and I feel lucky that I have a parenting tool that is nourishing and comforting for our guy. Chris is absolutely part of the process as well-- including at night, when he is often the one to get Sean as he wakes up and bring him to our bed to feed (i.e. we all end up lying down and snuggling), then burping and cuddling with Sean before he goes back to sleep in his bassinet/play-yard. Speaking of sleeping, he's getting better every day and last night was his best night yet: he slept from 10-3 (so over 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep for us!), then 4-7:15 or so. As he gets bigger and older, he can sleep for longer and he's getting into more of a routine of sleeping for longer stretches in the night, etc. While he often sleeps through social engagements, I promise that he is often awake, alert and very fun to play with-- but crowd noises put him to sleep, so many don't get to see him awake!
Other recent Sean milestones:
- he lost his umbilical cord stump today
- during "tummy time" he seems to be able to lift his head, at least briefly, and get his butt up in the air in his version of a downward dog yoga pose
- he's become well read already... my guess is that he's heard at least a dozen books through at least once.
- he has now taken several rides on the Metro and loves the subway... movement + lights= very stimulated baby!
- while I know it might just be gas, he cracks a beautiful smile often in response to our smiles and conversation with him. He's a gorgeous guy!
Now that we are taking him out places (and he's overall easy to take around in the "purse that poops" phase, as a whole), we've gotten a chance to socialize lots with people here. This is great and will be especially important for me (for those who haven't guessed already, the big surprise here is that I am an extrovert-- and need lots of human interaction) as we transition into Chris returning to work 3 days per week. So far, it's been great, but I admit a bit exhausting-- I hand off Sean when Chris gets home and indulge in that shower I've been fantasizing about all day!
Being able to take Sean out and about means we can make sure to introduce him to key figures in his young life. He attended (and then slept through) the 5th Annual Squashluck (a potluck where everyone brings a dish made from some sort of squash.. AWESOME!) at Kate's on Saturday, where he got to meet the gorgeous (and huge, in comparison to Sean!) Charlie for the first time. Charlie is the 5-month old son of our good friends Lea and Wes. They are very important people to us, and Lea and I got to share the ups and downs of being pregnant at the same time, and then both having babies. Luckily, she went first and indulges me in all of my many many questions-- a really critical support and friendship for me in this latest adventure-- and good friends of ours overall for 10+ years. We are very sad that they are moving out of DC this month-- relocating to Gainesville, FL, where Lea has an exciting (and impressive) teaching position at the University of Florida law school starting next semester. I'm already scheming on when we will get to travel down to visit, and how to make sure we stay close and our young sons get to know each other in the coming years/decades.
Sean also got some quality time with his mother's sushi buddies including the recently engaged Mandy, Jen (whose presence back here in DC makes his mother VERY happy), Kate, and Maura-- pictured here.
We have more adventures ahead of us, including our first flight next week-- up to MA where we will spend a week for Thanksgiving and visit friends and family, including my Gramma's first viewing of her great grandson. Luckily it's not a long flight and it sounds like breastfeeding works as a great soother for babies.
Well, those are the highlights here in cold and windy DC (Sean didn't notice our first snowflakes yesterday). Since many of you are likely traveling next week, we wish you safe voyages and wonderful Thanksgiving celebrations, and hope to see many of you soon!