Béla's two months old, and several firsts

The weekend after Jeremi's parents left, we had a small fondue party for my birthday. I didn't really want a party, as I wasn't feeling all that great about turning 30, and I was tired after all the travelling. In the end, he convinced me that just a few close friends, and something easy to prepare, like fondue, wouldn't be too much. I'm really glad he did convince me, as it was a really nice evening, and it was nice to have a little celebration of this milestone. I feel like it sort of got ignored in all the excitement over the baby, and it was nice to have a little party that wasn't entirely about him. Here are Valentina, Miroslava, Calin, and Susanne.
Now the title of this post promised you some firsts: and here you have it, Béla's first outfit with pants! Again, I'm including a few pictures because he's so darn cute in all of them. I liked this one because it shows how fat his neck is getting. (It's even fatter now, and I have to really keep on top of cleaning it, as breastmilk drips in there and slowly starts to turn into cheese...)
This outfit was sent with Paul and Betty Ann from Jeremi's brother and his wife, Nick and Cathy. It's adorable, and features a blushing frog with arms outstretched, and says "i love you this much". A happy-faced yawn...
A goofy, lopsided smile...
...and finally a look straight at the camera. Just so you can enjoy more than one facet of his cuteness.
Another big first was his first bottle. I waited longer than is generally recommended, until about 8.5 weeks, but he had some trouble latching at first, and I didn't want to mess up breastfeeding due to the much-threatened "nipple confusion". I also hadn't gotten around to trying out the breast pump that Karen gave me yet, and I was a bit nervous that it would hurt. (Getting breastfeeding going was more painful that I had expected, and I didn't want to go through that again.)

Of course the pump didn't hurt, and of course he took the bottle like a pro, as seen below. However, seeing him eating away from me for the first time, even if it was my milk, did hurt a little. I'm better about it now though, and we're trying to get into a routine where I pump one bottle a day, so Jeremi can feed him in the evening when he gets home from work. The pumping part is going okay, but we're not really good about having the bottle warmed up in time, so he either gets a not-very-warm bottle, which doesn't seem to bother him, or I cheat and feed him a bit while Jeremi's getting the bottle warmed up. I also seem to produce more milk that I know what to do with, and our tiny little freezer is getting filled up with excess milk rather quickly. I know, not the worst problem to have!
And with Béla's two month birthday, came Jeremi's first day back at work. This meant that his beard had to get tamed. Before:
And after:
Of course he still has that ridiculous tuft at the top of his forehead, as his hair is growing back after needing staples there a few months back. It looks worse when he has his hair in a ponytail, I think, though he claims that people don't notice it unless I point it out. However, once I do point it out, people tend to find it hysterically funny.

Jeremi's first day back at work also meant my first whole day with just Béla and me. Thankfully, he was the easiest baby ever, to ease me into the routine. And when Jeremi came home he found me reading on the couch, with both Béla and Aeris asleep on me. Not a bad way to end the afternoon!
That night we celebrated his second birthday with a lovely supper of salad niçoise, cheese we brought back from Paris, and some freshly baked bread. And we finally opened the bottle of "Sandbanks" wine, which is grown in the county just south of Belleville, and which was a gift from the Gariepys at our wedding. I was saving it for a special occasion, and then I got pregnant, so we've been saving it for well over a year now. It was well worth the wait!
The next big landmark was Béla's first Halloween! Unfortunately it's not widely celebrated here, and I didn't have a good occasion to justify making him a costume (and making him wear a costume), but luckily Paul and Betty Ann brought this adorable Halloween sleeper complete with black cat hat. (For those of you who were confused, and thought that this was a picture of Aeris, it's actually a picture of the baby cleverly disguised as a cat.)And another view so you can see the hat a bit better:
And while we didn't have a real Halloween party to go to, our friend Brent (who's from Lethbridge) hosted a Halloween boo-runch, where he could go and show off his cute outfit. After that, we went to my colleague Dietrich's place, as he'd offered us some toys that his boys had outgrown, and which they were happy to part with. All of the excitement left Béla a very tired cat by the time we got home.

Among the toys we picked up from Dietrich was this sort of mobile, which hangs over the baby when he's lying on his back, and which has dangling objects that he can reach up and bat at or grab. (There's probably a name for this in English, but I don't know talk to people about these things in English very often.) Here he is enjoying it, or at least enjoying chewing on his hand, on his activity mat from Ikea. (The quilt that's covering him is the one that Mrs. Gariepy made for him as well.) Though we don't have photographic evidence of it yet, he's getting pretty good at getting his fingers through the rings that are hanging down when he grabs at them, though he's not always so successful at keeping his thumb on the outside for a true "grasp". I'm sure it's just a matter of time though!
And finally, in other news, yesterday we got a package from our friends Brandy and Bruce in Victoria! It came wrapped in a vintage map of Vancouver Island, which was pretty cool. (So cool in fact, that German customs just had to open it up to see what was inside, and helpfully rewrapped it with their customs tape, after enclosing a pamphlet about the rules and regulations for shipments from non EU countries. Thanks, Zollamt!)
Inside the package was a mug that I had when I was a kid, which says "look who's hiding in my cup" on the side...
...and which has a little pink dog inside! We had two of them, one with a pink dog, and one with a blue bird (which broke, I think), and I loved them. This one made it with me to Montreal, then Halifax, and then Victoria. When our household in Victoria was dissolved through garage sale, Craig's list, and giving things away, this mug ended up with Brandy and Bruce. (Brandy helped organize the liquidation.) Since we now have a little one in the house, she thought it was time to send it back, wrapped in a receiving blanket, with a map of Canada enclosed, so he could enjoy it. Here's the little dog inside:
Thanks for the package guys! It was a great pick-me-up after a long day.