Thursday, 18 August 2005 (Day 8)

What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet...

The real challenge it seemed was not raising him, but giving him a name. We didn't talk too much about names before the birth, as we figured we wanted to get to know him a little better before giving him one. But we had no idea how distressed those around us were going to get by not naming him instantly. The phone was essentially ringing off the hook with the question "Does he have a name yet?", to the point where we began saying that that we would not announce the name until he was a month old. While this eased the external pressure a bit, it did not make the actual naming any easier. We went through a variety of possibilities, but none of them really grabbed us. Basically we wanted him to tell us his name and were not stressed about it ourselves, so we patiently waited and watched, just happy to have such a wonderful child in our lives. The next set of photos capture some of his personality over the first week of his life.

Rose Marie and Bill came to visit on Day 3. They were quite happy to meet him, and soon began researching homes to buy in Fairbanks.

Proud grandparents, wondering what to call him...

Grandma: "Maybe his name is written in invisible ink, made visible by washing?"

It's another 15 years until he needs a name for a driver's license.

While we tried many names on for size over the first week after birth, only one really stuck with us both as being right.

We went to the doctor on Day 5 for a baby check up. I put him up on the examining table and told the doctor to pay close attention to him so that he doesn't roll off. The doctor found this strange, as I explained that from Day 3 we found him rolling over in his play pen. Just as he was about to express some doubt, the little boy rolled over on the table and had to be blocked from falling off. No more doubts were expressed. Usually he only turns over on his side, but sometimes his momentum carries him onto his belly. With some determined squirming, he can right himself again.

In fact, Kristin and I were surprised by a number of his physical feats. From the first days, he was able to lift his head off our chests and look both directions, usually ending in a head butt back into our chest. When lying in his crib, he could not only rollover, but also lift up his head or his feet. After a while, he also began lifting his upper body a bit with his arms, while thrusting his feet. When he does this in bed while lying on my chest, he is able to scootch himself from my belly to my neck, where he like to rest his head. Even if he starts falling off to the side, he seems to find a way to keep going sideways in the direction he wants. So it's not quite crawling, but it's definitely motion in purposeful direction. All this activity seemed to confirm what Kristin said all during the pregnancy -- this baby likes to spin and turn and see what's going on.

The first week he slept mostly on my chest instead of a crib. When he wakes up, he likes to crawl up my chest, pushing with his feet and pulling with his hands.

This was not a posed shot. After nursing him in the middle of the night, Kristin laid him on his back while she went to the bathroom. She returned to find him asleep like this.

Watch him turn his head -- 3MB

Watch him crawl -- 3MB
Watch him crawl again -- 9MB
Still crawling -- 3MB
and crawling -- 4MB


The view at my new office -- 2MB

We took all this turning and crawling to be the sign we were looking for -- him telling us his name. Action Jackson was a close second and Shuweiwei, Sugarbum Oreo, Sherlock O., and Smeagl distant runner ups, but in the end what seemed most natural was something else. But whatever his name, this sweet, observant, active little boy is still the joy of our lives.

Meet the Nolans: Kristin, Matt, and Turner Scott.

Sunday, 21 August 05 (Day 11)

I had apparently forgotten to mention earlier a few mandatory numbers describing the baby:
- birth weight: 7 pounds 14 oz
- weght on leaving the hospital: 7 pounds 8 oz
- weight 4 days later: 8 pounds 2 oz
- length at birth: 1.77 feet and 1.5 inches...