first bump on the head
October 29, 2007 at 1:38 am (weekends, what bad mommies we are)
We’ve been busy. Seems like a lot going on with everything.
Still no bites on the house. We’re listing it with a realtor tomorrow. I think it’s tough to decide how much money we are willing to lose on this. But if we can get into a nice house in this market, maybe it’s all worth it. It’s a little stressful.
Andrew got his first black and blue mark today. Lois’ father was freaking out because we let him play on the hardwood and tile floors without having pillows surrounding him or a helmet and pads on him. No less than 2 minutes later, Andrew tries to stand up holding onto the table leg and WHAM! Right in the noggin.
Pop-pop spent the rest of the night chiding us about being uncaring mommies. Imagine what that’s going to look like tomorrow.
Today, we also got our first family photo in a while. It’s the only one we have where Andrew is not crying and we’re not covered in spit up.
Everything is well with us. Lois absolutely loves her job. We’re also kind of entertaining opening a business that may possibly be a franchise opportunity. Yes, let’s add more to our over-full plate. We’ll see.
Sorry we’ve had a lot of radio silence lately. I need to really focus on work and some other things. We are not forgetting all of our friends out there! We’re just playing a little catch up.
first halloween party
October 22, 2007 at 1:46 pm (holidays, photos)
Hope everyone is doing well. Just a quick update in pictures!
Saturday = The Halloween Party
I’m sure I’m going to get a few comments about this one. I should have taken a picture of Pooh guzzling Pumpkin Ale later that night.
The cotton candy addicts
Indiana Jones
Sunday
Paint a Pumpkin event for Juvenile Diabetes
friday at home
October 19, 2007 at 6:06 pm (day care, video)
Guess who’s daycare is closed because they have no water??
Guess who gets to hang out with the Tank today?!?!?
I brought the boy into the office this morning to show him off and brought home my work laptop and a gigantic file box of work to do today and this weekend. What have I gotten done so far (it’s 2 pm). NOTHING!!!
I am taking a little blog break for a few days. I will catch up with everyone, I promise. I just feel like I have a lot going on and I need to get a handle on work and life.
In the meantime, here’s a video of the boy playing the piano. The donor is a pianist, so maybe he will have some musical talent. (It’s not going to come from Lois’ family)
Also, what’s up with this sitting position? He just started doing it.
I used to sit with both legs back like that. And I have a long history of messed up knees and hips. However, it probably wasn’t that sitting position that was the root of my problems. Here’s an interesting tidbit about me – I was born without formed hip sockets and spent the first 2 years of my life in casts and braces.
Anyway, I hope he doesn’t keep sitting that way. I think he’s doing it right now because it’s easier to go into a crawl from that position. Who knows.
Hope everyone has a great weekend. We have a Halloween party tomorrow and pumpkin painting on Saturday. Andrew and I are going to dress up together and hopefully I will get a picture of us in costume without him crying.
Breakfast with Al
October 17, 2007 at 6:42 pm (1)
I attended a “networking” type thing this morning that was a charity fundraising breakfast event.
So I had breakfast with…
AL R*KER!!
Ok, so it was me and about 400 other people. He was very funny and I even met him, he signed books for me. He seems like a really awesome guy and I even had a moment where I thought I should be watching The T*day Show and not Good M*rning America (I *heart* Diane and Robin).
As for us, not much going on. Work is busy, still not one person interested in the condo. I am starting to feel stressed and in need of a vacation, but not possible right now.
On another note, I had a freak out moment when I got home the other night. Our little guy was sleeping on the floor. Cute, isn’t he?!!?
All of a sudden, I looked at him and thought he didn’t look so much like a baby. He looked like a little boy! I almost totally freaked out that I am missing this whole baby thing being at work all the time.
When did he get so big? How can I slow down this time/growth thing??
survived day one!
October 16, 2007 at 1:02 am (cranky baby, day care)
Andrew survived the first day of daycare!
Here’s the BEFORE picture:
BTW – that’s a size 12 shirt that his belly is hanging out of.
And here’s the AFTER pic:
Looks like he’s had a few too many.
The staff said he was very good and only fussed once. I got to pick him up today – which will probably not happen too much considering I work an hour away – so I didn’t know to ask many questions. I asked if he was a pain in the butt, they said no, I said okay and we were good to go.
I got home and Lois asked me “how many bottles did he take? when did he nap? how many other infants were in the room? where’s the sheet that they give you at the end of the day with all of his info on it? yadda yadda yadda.”
Sheet? info? bottles? I was obviously the wrong mommy to do the Day One pickup.
- – -
Anyway, it’s not that we are ecstatic to dump the poor kid off to daycare. Ok, maybe we are a little happy about it. But it’s not because we’re bad mommies (the jury is still out on that) but that this kid needs more stimulation. He has constant needs that being home alone with Momma L all day will only send Momma L to the place with the padded walls quicker.
I have been thinking a lot about the boy and how we felt like we were making the right decision for him. Lois’ mother seems to be very upset that we don’t let her watch him all the time when Lois is at work.
I really think he needs more interaction and socialization. Being at Mema’s is being coddled and held and sung to every second.
Andrew is a “spirited” child (credit to K on that one). And I do think that right now, being in daycare 2 days a week may actually be good for him.
Very recently, a friend of mine who has a 18 month old said “you guys have it so rough with him. That just sucks.” I haven’t been able to get that out of my mind since he said it. Did he expect me to agree with him?
Sucks? Rough?
Andrew cries a lot. And he’s very, very loud. He’s impatient and pissed off a lot. When he’s mad, he’s mad. When he’s happy, he’s happy. He is a vibrant, expressive child. But he is a wonderful, amazing, beautiful child.
Yes, it’s a little frustrating that going places with him has been difficult since Day One because he has inconsolable meltdowns. The meltdowns have definitely diminished since the Zantac started. And yes, he needs to be entertained, but he’s been much better in the past week now that he’s crawling and can get to more stuff without help.
We don’t have it rough. This doesn’t suck. And this comment is coming from the person who has a child who has had 6 ear infections, RSV, pneumonia (twice), tubes in his ears, etc.
We have this healthy, beautiful amazing little boy who is just wondrous and adventurous and full of fire! I don’t think we have it rough at all.
I think this kid is going to test us. I think he’s going to bring us to the brink of sanity and also bring us to levels of joy we never thought possible.
baby laughter
October 15, 2007 at 2:47 am (video)
I love his laugh. I can’t get enough of it.
Not sure why the video is so fuzzy but here’s the Meatball playing with Mema (Lois’ mom). Check out his face at the end when the phone rings!
The weekend flew by. No more bites on the house. No work was done on it. No job work was accomplished this weekend. No blogs were caught up on this weekend. I’m exhausted. Back to the grind tomorrow.
wahoo!!
October 12, 2007 at 4:38 pm (Job, day care)
Lois got a part-time job that sounds perfect for her! She is so excited to get out of the house. She is so excited about the job and the environment!
Even more exciting is that someone is going to start day care 2 days per week!!!
Starting on Monday, the meatball will be in day care with his best buddy, K*n.
The mommies cannot wait!
Trust me, we are not totally ignorant to everything that is day care. We do understand that having to get a kid out the door at 7 am is going to be a real pain, but this kid needs so much constant attention, that we just can’t wait to let him be in a different environment 2 days a week. He needs it!
- – -
I apologize for being behind on my blog reading. Work has been so crazy again and I have had a long, long week. I’m just feeling especially drained lately. Hopefully this weekend will rejuvinate.
In the house news, we have not had one person come look at the condo, plus the house we liked in the new location has an offer on it. sigh.
48 hours
October 11, 2007 at 2:59 am (a mobile meatball)
The meatball has been crawling for less than 48 hours.
And I wouldn’t even call it crawling.
But in that time, he’s learned to get all the way across the living room. And in less than 48 hours of crawling, he’s already discovered this:
And yes, he is trying to stand up. We are going to be in trouble.
happy 8 months
October 8, 2007 at 11:06 pm (milestones, screaming babies, sick)
Andrew is 8 months old today! And he’s really worked to keep us on our toes, especially this weekend!
The boy is okay, but we were at the E.R. at 11:45 pm on Friday night (not inside the ER, just the parking lot) and spent the afternoon today with the little meatball at the pediatrician.
Let me explain.
Andrew seemed to have recovered fine from his 103.6 fever last Tues and Wed. The doctors just had us rotate between Motr*n and Tylen*l and he was fine by Wed. afternoon.
Then Thursday came and he got little spots/rash thing from head to toe. And he was miserable. He’s always been fussy, but he seemed to be super fussy.
And he’s always been a good sleeper. We put him down at 9 pm and he rolls over to sleep and doesn’t wake until 6:30 am. Starting Thursday night, he wouldn’t go down until about 11 or 11:30 and he kept waking up all night.
Actually, for the first time ever on Thursday night, Andrew sat up from a lying down position in his crib. I was outside his room on the computer and I heard this clicking noise.
I looking in, flicking on the light to discover, this:
He was pulling down his mobile. Needless to say, we spent the next 30 minutes lowering the crib for the 2nd time.
Then, on Friday night, he was playing on the floor in the bedroom. Lo had just vacuumed and I was repairing the broken closet. All of a sudden, he started screaming bloody murder and Lo flipped out. We quickly discovered that Momma L. is not going to be helpful in case of an emergency.
Lo ran away from him and screamed “Oh My God – something’s wrong! Oh My God – he’s choking!!!”
He was choking and screaming and throwing himself backwards. He was making that noise when something won’t go down the throat, but it won’t come up either. I ran into the room, put him upside down and looked to see if he had swallowed something. We weren’t convinced he didn’t swallow something and I all of a sudden convinced myself that I must have dropped a screw on the floor. I thought, “OMG this kid could have a metal wood screw in his throat.”
We looked at each other and decided to take him to the ER which is only 5 minutes away. In the car, I called JR* our best friend who is a pediatric nurse. She was in So.Cal. visiting her dad so she wasn’t pissed that we called her at 11:30 pm. I think she thought we were a little nuts.
“Do you really think he swallowed something? Is he crying? Crying is good. Is he struggling for air? Would you feel better if he had an x-ray?”
When we got to the ER parking lot and looked in the window at the interesting group in the ER waiting area, we allowed ourselves some time to regroup. We took him out of the car and held him. He was fine. He smelled like puke and had a runny nose, but he was totally fine. He even seemed a little pissed that we had dragged him out so late at night. After 10 minutes, we convinced ourselves he was fine and took him home without going into the ER. Then, we had him sleep in bed with us!
We are pretty convinced that he choked on his own puke because Lo had just moved the vacuum out of his reach and he gets super pissed when you take something away from him.
Saturday, he was actually okay.
Sunday, he was MISERABLE. He screamed most of the day. Lo went out for about 2 hours to see Harold (who is home from the hospital) and Andrew did nothing but scream. He wanted to be picked up, he wanted back down, he wanted the bottle, he didn’t want the bottle. he wanted to go outside, he didn’t want to be outside anymore. He just screamed and screamed and screamed. I checked for incoming teeth, nothing. Checked for temp. Nothing. I finally threw him in the car and took him shopping. The car ride calmed him down for a little while. I was beside myself and understood how he makes Lo crazy all day long.
I tried to go to work today. I left home before 11 and by 1:30, Lo called and said she was going to take him to the pediatrician.
Why?
He’s so miserable. He hasn’t taken the bottle in days (maybe 1 or 2 a day versus his normal 5). He’s tilting his head to the side a lot. He’s still got that rash a little. He’s been screaming for 2.5 hours straight.
We were watched K* for Suz, so I left work to help out with the pediatrician trip. We went to the doctor convincing ourselves that it was the right thing to do. We’re not totally neurotic, right?!?!?!
He checked out fine. Lungs. check. Throat. check. Ears. Check. Eyes. Check. Belly. Back. Legs. Hands. Fine. Fine. Fine. Fine. The kid is totally fine.
When the doc left the room, I said to Lo “you know, I really think we should put him back on the Zant*c. He’s screaming like he used to scream months ago.”
Lo just looked at me. “You know, you are absolutely right.”
When the doc came back, we mentioned that we had taken the boy off the Zantac. He looked and us and said “you know, the fever last week probably re-aggravated his reflux”
hmmm….there you go.
So, we’re putting the poor kid back on Zant*c and hope of all hopes that the problem is reflux. We joked in the car that we had almost hoped that the doctor found an ear infection or something. We wanted them to tell us that something was actually wrong and that we don’t just have this kid that screams all the time.
We’re all home now, waiting for the Y*nkee game to start (I am still holding out hope). And he seems okay after some Tylen*l we gave him earlier.
Oh, and we put him on the scale today.
21 lbs. What a meatball.
- – - – -
Edited to add:
He did it. It’s not graceful or pretty, but he did it.
He did something resembling crawling tonight. He’s been moving around a lot lately, but it never seemed to be in one direction other than backwards or sideways. Nor did he ever seem to move with any understanding of what he was doing.
It’s all over now.
We never really had to childproof the house too much with K*n around, but Andrew is a kid that is into everything and he’s already causing destruction.
It’s all over now. Nothing is safe anymore.
