Hey! Where'd those two months go?

Depending on how you're counting, Zienna turned two months old either last Friday or this past Wednesday. I opt for the first option, since it's four weeks from the day she was born and...well, four weeks is a month, basically. Kelly insists on using the latter method of calculation, since Zienna was born on the 26th day of the month. Since Moms tend to be more concerned about the minutiae surrounding births and weddings—heck, that's why the Lifetime cable network exists—we'll go with Wednesday.

Once we'd concluded that Zienna had indeed turned two months old—and agreed upon when—the realization that she'd reached that milestone already absolutely took me by surprise. Clichéd as it sounds, it really does seem like yesterday (or a few days ago at most) that we were at the hospital waiting for Zienna's arrival. Maybe it's the fact that I've been home every day since, and alone with her for going on three weeks—sort of like how you don't really notice how your children change, while others who see them only occasionally do—but the time's gone by really fast. Much faster than I remember with Zoë or even Zach, even though he was our firstborn.

Ultimately, this feeling that time has passed quickly is a good thing, because what it tells me is that I've experienced each day (or at least most of them) fully with Zienna and not given longer increments of time much thought—which, incidentally, has also helped while waiting for the house to be completed so we can move out of this dumpy apartment. And yet, I still really can't believe it it's been two months.

To mark the big event, Zienna got a little surprise on Thursday. If you're thinking birthday cake or maybe an Ovaltine-spiked baby bottle, guess again. Neither sugar nor gifts was involved. Nope. Instead, she got shots—four of them, to be exact—courtesy of her new pediatrician, who was at least civil enough to adorn her with some lovely Roadrunner-emblazoned bandages afterwards. Not quite the lollipop or stickers the older kids would have received, but then "treat" pickings are slim when you're two months old.

Everything went well at her checkup, and based on her new measurements, the Center for Disease Control's growth charts say she's not only getting taller but thinning out, too—although I'm not buying it. Yes, the increase in her height is noticeable, as the reach of both her arms and legs is quickly outgrowing the confines of her bassinet. But just as obvious is the change in her weight, both in the increased load when you carry her and also in her tummy and chin(s). Just look at that picture!

Since birth, Zienna's grown nearly four inches, going from from 20 inches (slightly below 75th percentile) to 23-3/4 inches (roughly 75th). Meanwhile, her weight has increased from 8 pounds, 10 ounces (90th percentile) to 12 pounds, 12 ounces (down to roughly 70th percentile). Mommy's obviously making some good milk, and plenty of it, even if Z Number Three may be the only one of our kids not destined to play basketball!

In the last couple of weeks, Zienna's acne cleared up, her eyes became much more expressive and curious, she's smiled constantly, and she's begun cooing, gurgling, and even, it seems, turn-taking, although that's not typical this early. This kid LOVES attention, and even upon waking up, all it takes is an attentive face brought close to hers to get her smiling, "talking" and so excited that she nearly bounces herself off the mattress. And her new thing, which I find absolutely adorable, is studying her hands—first one, then the other, and then the first one again—for seemingly endless periods of time. It's fascinating to watch, and right on schedule with what the "What to Expect" folks said to expect.

Sadly, I never really spent much quality time with Zach or Zoë at this stage—in part because of the hours I was working, but also out of my fear of infants—so I'm really loving this and finding myself amazed by it. In turn, I'm trying to share my joy with the older kids, and they appear to be enjoying it, too. They both adore Zienna, and they get jealous of one another if they feel they aren't getting enough holding, feeding, or play time with her. I'd worried that given their ages, they, and especially Zach, would want nothing to do with Zienna, or even resent her. Nothing could be further from the truth, which is wonderful.

I've yet to find so much as one other at-home dad in Redding (though I hear rumors they exist), and I'm going through several shirts a day because I've yet to master the "don't set the baby on your shoulder without a burp rag" routine. But other than that, things are going great from this outpost. I'm already looking forward to the special relationship Zienna and I will undoubtedly share. And while I regret that I let the other Z Kids' infancy slip by without more actively participating in it, I'm trying to use my newfound appreciation for parenting to make me a better dad not just for Zienna, but for all three kids. Perhaps for the first time since Kelly encouraged me to be a full-time parent, I'm recognizing truly what a privilege it is being able to do so, and an immensely rewarding one at that.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've gotta run. Because proving that real life is stranger than fiction, Zienna just barfed all over my shoulder. One of these days I'll remember the burp rag. Maybe. Or maybe not. After all, there are much more important things with which to concern one's self, as I'm learning.

June photos are up, just in time for July's...

If you're reading this, then obviously your power's on. If your keyboard's not too hot to touch–granted, a riskier assumption–then you might want to mosey on over to the new-and-improved Hamiltonzone photo gallery. There you'll find June 2006 pictures posted better late than never and ready for your viewing pleasure.

These aren't just retreads from Zienna's galleries of last month, either. No, siree. This collection features the other two Z Kids (Remember them?), along with Zienna's "greatest hits" from June as well. And remember, Hamiltonzone galleries now feature the new "page by page" zip files which ease your ability to download high-resolution copies for printing. Just part of the quality service we pledge to offer you, our viewing public.





I'll be trying to get video up in the near future, although it likely won't be until after our move–especially if temperatures up here stay above 110 or, heaven forbid, we lose power. But in the meantime, enjoy the pics, and if there's anything else you want to see or have suggestions to improve what's there, please let me know.

Stay cool, and beware of sizzling keyboards!

The waiting is the hardest part—but so worth it

After months of waiting, Kelly and I experienced something this morning I once thought we'd never get to do. We drove up to the house for about the millionth time, did a pre-move-in walkthrough with the project manager and our real estate agent, and learned—finally—the house's "official" completion date. The day we'll become homeowners, a status that seemed unattainable just several months ago.

Drum roll, please.

After initially being told the house would be finished in October, we found that it will be completed on August 12.

Gulp. That's, um, 23 days. Yikes.

Mind you, our mortgage approval is still pending, even if the bank is telling us it's down to pass the appraisal and we're good to go. And of course, we're living in an apartment, meaning we need to give at least thirty day's notice to our landlord. So even if we gave notice today, we'd have some overlap, and we're not going to give notice until we get word on the mortgage.

But it's getting so close we can smell it. And above all, there's the beauty that, after moving 14 times in the 19 years we've been married and twice in the last eight months, this should be our last move for the foreseeable future. Did I just type that? Somebody pinch me, please.

Still, it's a good thing I cut my nails this morning. I don't normally bite on them, but it's likely going to be a crazy few weeks ahead. Pack, unpack, try to decorate with our limited and beat-up furniture, get ready for the start of school a week or so later...wow. But it's all good. And long-awaited.

Standing in the kitchen today as we went over things, I struggled not to picture myself preparing food while gazing out into the great room, and beyond into the backyard, upon friends and family members gathered in the house. It was a lovely vision, and I easily could have become lost in it, except...

SNAP! Back to reality. Talk of escrow, rent backs, and other such things made me realize that, for a few more days at least, I have to hold back. At least a little. Kelly and I don't anticipate any problems, based on what we've been told by the bank. But until we get that stamp of approval—and the 360-payment obligation to go with it—I feel the need to resist attaching myself emotionally to the house. Because anything's possible, much as I hate to admit it or face up to it.

So, it'll be a welcome distraction when Terry, his wife, Rhonda, and their daughters, Dana and Emma, come into town this weekend for a visit. Yes, we'll take them to see the house, and yes, I'll undoubtedly slip into "can't wait until we can have them up for a visit here" mode. But in the back of my mind, there will be a little voice reminding me to hold on. Go slow. And hold back. Just in case.

And, I'm trying to figure out whether, once we're approved, things are going to go ridiculously fast ("Hurry! We need to pack so we can move again!"), or painfully slow ("Geez, can't we just get into the house already?"). I imagine it will be a little—or more likely, a lot—of both.

Those of you who own homes are probably laughing at me by now. But I don't care. C'mon, I've never been through this. And all I know is, it felt so good walking through that ever-closer-to-being-completed house this morning that, no matter how agonizing the wait, it's gonna be one heck of a glorious day when we finally put the key in the lock, turn it, and walk through a doorway we can call "ours."

Or, at least "ours and the bank's." But as my father-in-law, Dale, pointed out recently, it'll sure be nice to throw out the boxes we've moved so many times once and for all. In fact, I don't want to even see a box inside the house once we're settled in.

A box-less house? Now that is a glorious vision, indeed.

Take Two: How about some baby pictures?

Apologies for the incomplete email that went out a few minutes ago announcing this update. This one is complete. But my struggles with Blogger continue—grrr!). —Scott

I realize I haven't posted any baby pictures in awhile. Sorry about that, so here you go:



Wasn't exactly what you had in mind? I had a feeling. But I had to share it regardless. That poor kid! The faces say it all. Thanks to Kelly for bringing that priceless photo to my attention.

Anyway, I really do apologize for the time since I last posted photos. Zienna's presence has monopolized a good deal of time—some fun, some mundane (like diapers)—as have home-stretch commitments for the house purchase. And then, when Kelly returned to work last week...well, any "free" time I'd had before suddenly became anything but.

As a result, things like updating our web pages, posting photos and authoring blogs have become rather challenging. But I'm happy to say that through five-minute (and sometimes two-minute) increments of work, supplemented by a few late-night sessions, I've FINALLY completed the gallery page I'd been hoping to post for some time. If you'd care to take a look, you can view it here. Or, you can access the URL directly at:

http://www.thehamiltonzone.com/gallery/

What this means is that going forward, you'll no longer need to ask me or Kelly questions like, "What's that link again to see (insert description of photos you're looking for here)?" All you need to do is go to the gallery, locate the group of pictures you're looking for, and voila, you're in photo nirvana (especially if you're an grandparent, aunt, uncle or cousin).

I've tried to make the page as easy to navigate as possible by breaking it down in the following manner:

• Latest Updates: Located at the top of the page, this section provides direct links to the most-recently updated galleries.


• Gallery Sections Quick Links: Here you'll find quick links to the various main galleries (Zienna's Galleries, 2006 Galleries, etc.). Click on one, and you'll jump directly to that section without having to scroll manually down the page.


• Gallery Sections: These are the main galleries, broken down for easy navigation by topic. So far, there's Zienna, 2006, 2005, House, and Special Editions. Others will follow when time permits (or a new year starts—whichever comes first!).


• Sub-Galleries: Within each section, you'll see links to view the various galleries within it. For example, within the "2006" section, there are links to each month's galleries, including—as of today—May! (About time, hunh?)

Within the galleries themselves, I've made a major change that I hope will help those on dial-up connections who wish to download high-resolution photos for printing. Starting with the new galleries posted today (except for the house one, since I'm assuming no one will be downloading those), you'll see links on each page of each gallery providing direct download access to the larger, zipped versions of the photos.

For now, I've provided one download for an entire small gallery and page-by-page downloads for larger ones, such as May's. The latter solution is probably what I'll use for all downloads going forward. Please, if you're downloading zipped files, let me know what works for you—and what doesn't. Same goes for any of the changes made now or in the future!

Finally, with Zienna turning two months next month, I'll probably stop posting galleries dedicated entirely to her in the very near future. The other two Zs have been neglected enough—and been very good sports about it—so I want to focus on getting back to posting regular, timely galleries of the whole family. At the same time, I'll do my best to post shorter, more timely and topical blogs which will undoubtedly include updates on Zienna and how she's affecting our lives.

Between diapering, feeding and napping an infant, some occasional housecleaning, and uploading this stuff, it's a lot to juggle. And while I freely admit I'm not be the perfect baby-handler, I'll dare say that I'm a far cry better than that goof in the photo up above. That's for darned sure!

Lions and . . . bears are enough! Oh, my!

Let's just skip the tigers. Please? Read on...

When last I was caught bastardizing a "Wizard of Oz" quote from the wilderness outpost known as Redding, a bear had found its way into a tree in a backyard of a home half a mile from us. That event, which took place roughly two weeks ago, served as a reminder that while we may be living in a city of 80+ thousand, we're still pretty rural. So a bear climbed into a tree. Almost like dog bites man, right? Acknowledge it and get on with your day.

That would be fine advice I'd be only too happy to accept were it not for the fact that just a week later, on June 27, wild animals in local backyards were again making front-page news. In this go-round, the Department of Fish and Game was summoned after Lana Ferreira, a woman living two miles from us, reported that a mountain lion, pictured at right, was perched in a tree above her pool.

Ahem. A mountain lion. In her backyard. I was somewhat accustomed to this sort of thing back home, where it occurred with some regularity among the foothills, in neighborhoods where the yards were more or less chunks of wilderness--formerly the lions' stomping grounds--with fences thrown up around them. But this situation took place in a densely-populated subdivision, on flat land, some distance from the nearest hills. Perhaps someone forgot to remind Mr. Lion that his intended habitat is the mountains, and hence the reference to them in his name?

Officials initially doubted Mrs. Ferreira's story, stating that in these parts, mountain lion reports "often turn out to be from San Francisco Bay area transplants misidentifying bobcats or even large housecats." Large housecats, mountain lions...yeah, they pretty much look the same to us stupid Bay Area refugees. Give me a break. Regionalism in my very own adopted hometown paper--what nerve!

Fortunately--or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it--Mrs. Ferreira had snapped a picture of the cat while waiting for the arrival of the warden who, when faced with the evidence, had to admit that yes, this was in fact a mountain lion. Or a cougar. Or a puma. Or a panther. Or anything else you might want to call it. But most certainly not a large housecat.

That's somewhere between 150 and 250 pounds of wild, ferocious and no doubt hungry cat sitting in your backyard. And while mountain lions don't often attack humans, there have been, according to the paper, 13 verified attacks in the state since 1890, six of which were fatal. Which is exactly the reason I'd not have reacted in the manner of Mr. Ferreira, who, based on his actions, must have been caught up in the pre-release hoopla of Superman Returns. All he needed was a cape.

Unless Kelly tells me that, oh, by the way, one of the kids is out in the backyard with the mountain lion she spotted, I'm ducking from sight, grabbing her and the kids, and heading to the most remote part of the house. And I'm staying there until I know for sure that the cat is gone. But not Mr. Ferreira. As if to reward the couple's three-year-old Brittany Spaniel, Carson, whose barking first alerted the couple to the mountain lion's presence, this nut went outside to retrieve the dog. And as he did, the big cat leapt from the tree and departed. Good thing for Carson, a puny little forty-pound dog that wouldn't have stood a chance against a cat several times his weight. And for Mr. Ferreira, too, since he likely would have tried to protect the dog had the lion decided to pounce. Then things could have gotten really ugly.

So, another wildlife encounter is in the books, and I'm left for the second time in as many weeks pondering what might await us after we move next month. After all, we'll be in the hills, on the very edge of development, butting right up to wooded areas. Until now, plenty of animals have called our future home theirs. And they're likely to still, whether we like it or not.

And as we've seen, in these parts, anything seems possible. I mean, heck, first a bear, then a lion, and later the same week, a bald eagle, which was found right in front of our local post office. So what's next? Then again, maybe I'd better not tempt fate by asking. Unlikely as it seems, maybe that aforementioned tiger might find its way up here, too, hmmm? I shudder to think.

Meanwhile, now that I think about it, the ringleader of the band of cats that's been terrorizing our backyard every night is pretty big, from the glimpses I've caught of him. Maybe I'd better flip on the light tonight and see just how big he really is. Or not. Based on this news, I might not like what I find...

Z is for "Zach," "Zoë," "Zienna" . . . and "zits"

You'll have to accept my apologies for the lack of new Baby Z pictures over the past couple of weeks. Yes, we were quite busy, as we entered the "mortgage" phase of our home purchase (Yippee.). And yes, we encountered fairly major computer problems that sidelined me for a couple of days and, for a time, appeared to have destroyed a week's worth of pictures. But neither of those is the reason for the lack of photos. The reason is much simpler: It's zits.

No, Zach hasn't entered puberty early. Nor has Zoë suddenly suffered more than her occasional blemish. Surprisingly, the kid with the problematic papulae is Zienna. And that's why, in her best interest, you'll be seeing very few pictures from the fifth and sixth weeks of her life.

At birth, Zienna had, as many babies do, a few whiteheads scattered across her sweet face. I paid them little mind, assuming they'd clear up quickly, just as they had when Zach and Zoë were born with them. But as the weeks passed, red bumps joined the white ones, and then the mass of them began spreading to her chin, her neck, and even her ears. By last week, my sweet little girl's face resembled haphazardly-formed sandpaper.

Initially, I kept snapping pictures of Zienna in spite of the temporary challenge to her appearance. But I had to admit that these were pictures of a face that "only a mother (or father) could love." So I put the camera away, as visions of nightmare-inducing baby pictures in Zienna's senior yearbook filled my mind. In turn, that made me feel a bit guilty, but at least I knew my heart was in the right place.

When you see the pictures from the prior week, located here (from the batch that was nearly lost), you'll notice that Zienna's skin and hair were already taking on a rather oily sheen. Since birth, she'd had that staple of daytime-TV advertising, "combination skin"—part dry, part oily. But last week, oily won out. And as it did, so did baby acne, big-time.

According to online parenting resources, baby acne is very common and is defined as "a red pimply rash...(which) may break out on your baby's face during the third or fourth week of life. This rash seems to bother parents more than the baby. Usually no treatment is necessary other than gentle washing with a mild soap and water. It is caused by the stimulation of the baby's oil glands due to the increased hormones passed from the mother to baby at birth."

Knowing we—and Zienna—are not alone in our plight is only somewhat comforting. Yes, it will pass, but that doesn't take away the fear that strangers will see her face and either gasp in horror or assume that she's an escapee from a leper colony. But, I supposed that's what blankets were invented for.

In the end, I guess there's a bright side to all of this, as I've been showering Zienna with over-compensatory kisses—all over her face, including her rough cheeks—to prove this hasn't affected my feelings for her one bit. And, through the eyes of love, she is of course as beautiful as ever.

Still, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to the day when the word "acne" was a thing of the past around our house. Then again, with one kid rocketing toward puberty and two others following behind him, I supposed that's not going to happen for quite a long time!