We got those vaccinations that I referred to last time (thanks for the advice, Cousin Vik!) on Thursday. Alex was pretty pissed off for a minute or so, and then he was fine, so that was a lot less painful all around than I’d been expecting.

Today we went to lunch and then to do some shopping. We’re going to an Easter barbecue at Aunt Alba and Uncle Brian’s house, and it’s getting more and more sunny around here, so while we were out we got Alex some cool Sesame Street shades at Babies’R'Us. Here he is getting ready to go to the grocery store with us later this afternoon.

He did a great job today. After Mom gave him his bath this evening, he was social smiling up a storm.

Here’s a picture Michelle took while I was still asleep Wednesday morning. Usually one of us is holding Alex and trying to get him to go to sleep; this time around he was putting me to sleep, and enjoying the role reversal.

“I think I finally got him to sleep, Mom!”

Have a great Easter!

This week I practiced some mad infant massage skillz to get the kid to sleep.

Alex did a lot of bathing this week. We’d had some issues getting him comfortable in the tub, but when dad headed back to work mom was left handling bathing chores on her own and she’s totally an expert at it now. Here’s Alex, thinking “What? Haven’t you ever seen a kid in a bath before?”

See what I mean? Just look how relaxed Alex is in this shot. Michelle is a total pro bather!

Because Alex had a lot of baths, he spent a lot of time in bath-themed loungewear. Michelle loves putting Alex in one of his extensive collection of bathrobes once he’s out of the tub. Here he is in his dog-themed bathrobe.

Alex is smiling more and more often! He smiles most often in the morning, when Dad’s already gone to work. I hope the two events aren’t related. Here he is with bed head and his pooch bib.

When I got home the other day Michelle had Alex dressed in this striped romper and hoodie combo that was the cutest thing ever. She got some good shots of him being jovial in the outfit…

…but that doesn’t change the fact that he told you not to come around here anymore, ever. He’s going to have to regulate.

Michelle has Alex bunking with this … I don’t know what the hell it is, actually. It’s my doll, I guess, from when I was a yout, but I don’t know if he’s a pale person, or an egg, or a peanut, or … ? Anyway, Alex has been sharing his pillow with this guy for the last few days, and here he is telling Humpty Dumpty all his secrets.

Mom, help a brutha out–what is this thing?

Whatever it is, he and Alex are thick as thieves.

I love coming home from work to Michelle and Alex.

You know that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Bellocq holds the idol he just stole from Indiana Jones over his head as an icon of authority, before he commands the Hutus to perforate Harrison Ford with their evil blowdarts?

I’m totally about to do that move with Alex here. Too bad the old camera ran out of batteries.

This week we have Alex’s first vaccinations. None of us are looking forward to that… otherwise, everything’s going very well.

Aunt Karen and Uncle Doug came down from Washington state for the weekend, and they brought Grandma Carlson and her friend Joan. Michelle and I dropped Alex off at the compound Saturday morning, and they baby-sat him while we ran errands. We came back Saturday evening for dinner and to visit with the family. We don’t have enough photos of Alex with grandma and grandpa, and we’ve had some requests, so we made sure to take some.

Jeff and Doug had an arm candy competition, and here they are showing off for the camera.

With Alex among us this was the first four generation family get-together I’ve been around in about 30 years. Here’s four generations of Pease.

Everyone came over to our house on Sunday for a visit. Here’s Karen holding Alex. What colour would you say his hair is?

Karen brought one of her famous custom ducky bath towels down for Alex, and today Michelle gave him a bath and wrapped him in it. He digs it!

Finally, Michelle put Alex in the same bathrobe we took a photo of him in exactly one month ago. Here they are, side by side. He’s growing like a weed!

I’ve converted Alex’s page to a blog, so you can leave comments and browse in a pleasing Web 3.0 environment. Huzzah for the 2000s! If you’d like to send email, I’m at dpease at dpease.com.

I’ve got a lot more updates–Alex met great grandma Carlson this weekend, and my cousin Vikki sent the most amazing lineage of the Snugli chair pictured in the last update–but for now, just a couple. Alex has started smiling a lot! Mom got a bunch of great pictures of him smiling yesterday morning, but most of them are really dark since we’re trying to keep the flash out of his eyes. Here’s the best lit of them.

Alex and Dad are reading Getting Out: Your Guide to Leaving America at this family meeting. As a family, we’re considering all our options! Alex has a lot of opinions on the subject of the current socio-political climate in the USA but he wanted me to keep them private to avoid antagonizing anyone.

Here I abuse ImageReady’s animation feature and get all old-skool web animated GIF on you, dear reader. Mom tells Alex that he’s eating too much, and he has to keep working out to burn it off. Here’s Alex being a good boy and listening to his mother.

Alex is six weeks old today!

Alex is borrowing uncle Jeff and aunt Phet’s Snugli chair. I can’t even find one on the internet to link to but this thing is pretty cool. It’s got a rocking component and Alex is usually pretty happy to hang out in it for a while.

"You should have seen the fish, Dad–it was this big!"

Sorry for the delayed updates. A lot’s been going on. Here’s Alex in what he called an "athletic self-defense pose", showing me how to put my dukes up.

"If you have to get rough, use the tiger uppercut, Dad…"

"…but only chumps get rough. Give ‘em the evil eye and they’ll back way the hell off, no matter what kind of baby animal you have on your jumper."

Alex got a package from his grandparents in China with some really cool clothes in it. Here he is in his pig-themed … uh, overall? (See the hooves and ears?) It says "I ♥ Y P" on the front of it… Yifeng Pease, maybe? Alex’s Chinese relatives call him Yifeng. Maybe Chinese clothiers do too.