J. Michael Andresen

I wrote earlier about how I've been reading early epic poetry to Max to lull him to sleep. Katie took video of me reading to him recently! Here is the text, for those who want to read along. (In the scene, the wily deity Phoebus Apollo is aiding and inciting Hector and his Trojans to kill a bunch of Greeks): As long as Phoebus bore unmoved the shield, Sat doubtful conquest hovering o'er the field; But when aloft he shakes it in the skies, Shouts in their ears, and lightens in their eyes, Deep horror seizes every Grecian breast, Their force is humbled, and their fear confess'd. So flies a herd of oxen, scatter'd wide, No swain to guard them, and no day to guide, When two fell lions from the mountain come, And spread the carnage through the shady gloom. Impending Phoebus pours around them fear, And Troy and Hector thunder in the rear. Heaps fall on heaps: the slaughter Hector leads, First great Arcesilas, then Stichius bleeds; One to the bold Boeotians ever dear, And one...

I posted a Top Ten list of good reasons to shave your beard after having a baby. As a special treat, I also arranged to have Katie's sister take video of the unveiling to Katie. This was the first time Katie ever saw me without the beard. While Katie was experiencing a major freak-out, Max enjoyed his first cheek-to-cheek contact with Daddy: My mother has also recently learned how to leave comments on my blog posts. On my Top Ten list , she said it reminded her of shaving her cat. I feel that might need further explanation. In the summer of 2006, my mother was living with me in Brooklyn Park. I signed up for the "Energy Saver" plan with the electric company, which gave me savings in my electricity rate in return for letting them apply a rolling blackout to my air conditioning unit during peak times of the day. Little did I know how big an effect that would have on the internal temperature of the house! It was very difficult to keep room temperature. Yet I was too stubbor...

The Wall Street Journal got the first interview with Gil Kerlikowske , our new Drug Czar. I think it is very hopeful! I feel quite passionately that we should legalize drugs, and I am very excited that the Obama administration is at least moving in the right direction, starting to treat drug use as a public health issue rather than just as a criminal law issue. (Giving clean needles to drug users greatly reduces spreading of HIV, but it also abets the criminal act of injecting an illicit drug. I think the public health aspect is overwhelmingly more important, since the crime is victimless.)

I thought Max taking a bath would make a fun video. Katie's running commentary turns out to be much more entertaining than anything Max is doing. Watch where her mind wanders after I told her (at 4:48) that she could stop recording: Hopefully that's less disturbing than the recent video of my own bath time .

I have been a bit distracted of late with my recent experiment in fatherhood . I've been so busy blogging about Max that the Prognostication Quiz dipped a bit on my priority list. Grant thought that the most pressing issue of 2008 was the financial crisis, and thus thought that The Wall Street Journal might pick up some Pulitzers for their writing. Instead, the big winner was the New York Times, lead by the 2008 award for breaking news reporting for its in-depth coverage of the Eliot Spitzer debacle. The Wall Street Journal was shut out . That means that the answer to Question 6 on the 2009 Prognostication Quiz is A. A whopping 23 (of 43) entrants picked The Times. At the top of the leaderboard, previous leader Tina guessed B, which allowed four people (Pete C., Ted, Zoe, and Stephanie) to catch up to her four points. Zoe is particularly impressive in this bunch, having recovered from her 0-for-2 start by reeling off a dizzying 4-for-4 run. Katie, Gloria, Leanne, Jeremiah, Heath...

Picking Maxwell's name came down in the end to a printed spreadsheet that I carried around in my pocket that summarized the desultory discussions that Katie and I had on how to name our son (click for a larger image): The spreadsheet idea was inspired by the process by which Liz and Jeff chose their son's name. They got into a heated secret ballot after discussing their spreadsheet with lots of pros and cons for each name. My list includes the one statistic of rank within the top 1000 on the US Social Security rolls. (I wanted a name that was not in the top 100.) Then I tried to list people that the names might remind us or other people of, based on Google searches. In the end, I picked my top names that had not been vetoed (in order: Arthur, Griffin, Vincent, Maxwell, Darwin, Franklin, Abraham, Harrison, Chester) and Katie picked hers (not in order: Henry, Vincent, George, Maxwell, Otto). The intersection had just two names (Vincent, Maxwell), and in the end (when the baby wa...

Katie and I debated whether we would get a baby swing for Max. We'd heard cautions against the temptations of leaving the baby sleeping in the swing for hours. We decided we wanted to hold Max as much as possible during the day, and we've kept to that so far. (Max is actually happier being manhandled into a baby wrap and bounced around on bony arms and shoulders than he is lying peacefully in his cradle!) But we bought a swing eventually to help in helping in the transition period into sleep. Here's a video of Max being adorable in his swing: And here's a video from Max's perspective:

A newborn has five different states of alertness , the most enjoyable of which is "active alert," during which the baby is the most interactive. These are the times when Max explores the world around him before retreating back into eat/sleep/grow mode (which takes a lot of work). Though brief, the periods of active alert are my favorite, as Max will play a little bit. (He's still generally unresponsive.) Here's a video of some quality active alert time (at three weeks old) where I gave him some plastic rings to hold onto with his impressive grip reflex: Here are some videos of two-week-old Max being prodded by daddy: Max from different perspectives: And a couple of "bodily function" videos to close. First hiccuping: And then sneezing: So cute!

Top Ten Reasons to Shave Your Beard when your Son is Born 10. Determine if your razor really does shave as close as his bottom. 9. Share in baby's first sport: Will your face outrace his head? 8. Double your wife's discomfort by convincing her that two strangers now live in her house. 7. Show your wife how you got the nickname "Babyface." 6. Emulate the model father on the Baby Bjorn packaging: 5. Avoid calendars by by using whisker length to determine when paternity leave is over. 4. Two words: Grip Reflex. 3. Determine whether baby really does have daddy's chin. 2. Avoid mid-life crisis by convincing self that you are fifteen years younger. And the number one reason to shave your beard when your son is born . . . 1. Rub noses with your beautiful baby without simultaneously brushing his teeth.