J. Michael Andresen

I get the 6-9 am shift with Max while Katie sleeps. He often takes one nap during that period, and I get a little reading done. This past week I read Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground and Somerset Maugham's The Moon and Sixpence . I might consider doing more productive things (washing dishes or cleaning some of Max's interminable spit-up cloths), but Max is very sly. He senses if I am not sitting next to him while he naps. I don't know if he does this by smell or by cracking open his eyes every now and again. If I leave him while he naps, he wakes up within ten or fifteen minutes in order to gently explain his disapproval to me. If I sit with him and rock his bouncy chair (maybe that's how he knows that I'm there), he will nap for 45 minutes or an hour. Here's Max in his favorite napping spot, the vibrating bouncy chair: My favorite photos of Max are the close-ups: So cute!

Liz was the game mistress at the baby shower. Above, she is holding the celebrity baby quiz, with celebrity pictures (along with a picture of my father and Katie's mother) on one side, and pictures of celebrity babies (along with baby pictures of Katie and me). The coup de grace, however, was her Baby Androeke Prognostication Quiz , which was modeled on the prognostication quizzes that I've run over the past couple years. Baby Androeke is the best amalgam of Katie's and my last names that we considered doing (for 30 or 40 nanoseconds) instead of choosing one name or the other for Max. Sixteen people entered the quiz, with a prize promised for the winner. Baby Androeke Prognostication Quiz Question 1. Only 5% of babies are born on their due date. 50% are born within a week of that date, and 90% are born within two weeks of that date. Baby Androeke will be born: a. before the due date (April 19) b. on the due date c. between April 20 and April 23 d. after April

Katie's good friends Liz and Beth threw us a wonderful co-ed baby shower back in February. We were in "stealth mode" until birth with regard to blogging about the baby, so I didn't blog about it at the time. But a big thanks now to everyone who came and gave us all the wonderful gifts! A surfeit of beautifully wrapped presents! Michael and Katie embarrassed by everyone being so nice (of course, embarrassment does not prevent Michael from simultaneously dishing himself some food): Maria evades bedtime in order to help unwrap: Michael fondles the "My Breast Friend" nursing pillow while Katie is not looking: Thanks to all the wonderful people!

In quick succession, the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup and the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA Championship. That means that the 2009 Prognostication Quiz passes the halfway mark! The answer to Question 7 is E. Another Eastern Conference Team , and the answer to Question 8 is C. Los Angeles Lakers . Penguin peeps Ted Matthew Ben Liz Marcus Sarah Jeff C. Laker lasses & laddies Zoe Ben Grant Pamela Jeff B. Peter M. Megan Eric Cameron Greg Notable performances The big change on the leader board is that Ted and Zoe (a couple in real life) have clawed their way to the top. Ted predicted the Penguins triumph, while Zoe was rooting for the Lakers. Now they share the overall lead with 5 points. I hope that they don't stay together at the top, since they also happened to choose exactly the same tiebreaker (aww, how cute!) - 59.0 inches of snow in Minnesota. Some separation may happen already in the question 9. Zoe is predicting that Tiger will win the US Open this coming weeke

Max was not a very fussy baby for his first eight weeks. He would complain sometimes when we weren't holding him (he thought we were being tortuously unfair when we tried to have him sleep in his cradle), but he was very easy to comfort just by holding him or feeding him. In the past week he's been incredibly fussy. This is, interestingly, right on time according to all the baby books. He now will burst into hysterical screaming with no warning whatsoever. He will also cry for long periods of time despite being held, cooed at, sung to, bounced, rocked, cradled, swaddled, unswaddled, swung, vibrated, or (Katie's specialty) dancing to bad 80's music. Max sucking his thumb (for the first time that we noticed): In orange stripes: Lest you worry, the baby does actually smile occasionaly: Check out our fashion shorts for a day outside in the warm weather! Here's a close-up of the baby's hot outfit: And finally, Mom and Baby get to go outside!

Katie and I had our second anniversary yesterday. We celebrated over the weekend with dinner at Heartland, our favorite fancy restaurant. I have an anniversary surprise for Katie that I'm posting here. In November of 2006, I lost my camera. Years later I found it again, and downloaded what was on the disk. I found this nice piece of performance art that I painted into the wall of the bedroom of the house I owned in Brooklyn Park before I moved in with Katie. We had been dating for six months when the performance piece took place and were three months from my proposal of marriage :

Thanks to all our wonderful local friends who helped us out by bringing food and holding Max for a while! Heidi Madeleine Rachel Beth Liz and Jeff Jenny Ryan Ted Zoe Christy Gabe Courtney Beth Heather Ryan Heather

Max has been blessed with lots of visitors who want to hold him! We've taken lots of pictures. I've organized them genetically. (Percentages indicate shared identity by descent , not by state.) Sharing 25% of Max's DNA (via Katie) June (maternal grandmother) Tom (maternal grandfather) Laura (maternal aunt) Sharing 25% of Max's DNA (via Michael) Cherie (paternal grandmother) Larry (paternal grandfather) Missy (paternal aunt) Tina (paternal aunt) Jeremiah (paternal uncle) Sharing 6.25% of Max's DNA Becky (paternal first cousin once removed) Sharing 0% of Max's DNA (but still family!) Kathy (maternal great aunt)