Good Gurdy it's halfway through May

And I haven't updated one tiny little bit! WHELL!! I shall do it now, because I am (im)patiently awaiting the arrival of the one coworker who can help me out on something. Yay!

Yesterday, we got our first lesson in "If she's being quiet, check on her." I put her in her walker and scooted her to the middle of the computer room floor. I proceeded to put away a few things and organize some stuff on the art supply organizer thingy. She had been happily chattering and banging around on her walker, and then she was silent for a few minutes. Upon realizing she was quiet, I turned around to see what she was doing.

She had her hand planted firmly in the potted Mother-in-Law's Tongue that is in the foyer (fancy!). She also had miracle gro dirt on her face, around her mouth (indicating she had tasted it and deemed it not yummy), and all over her hands and walker. Woo!



She had her first experience being babysat at home while we were over an hour away this past weekend. Aunt J came down to sit with her and all went well, apparently. Hey, Aunt J... did ya have to deal with any blowouts?? LOL! I hope not.

I never did mention the ear tubes surgery, did I? It went well. She was out of our sight for a total of about 12 minutes and then she cried and cried for half an hour. I am pretty sure it was only because she didn't understand why she felt all loopy, and it scared her a little. But we came home and she slept for a while and then she was her normal silly self.

I can't reach that banana puff

...so I'll just throw up on the playmat and smear it around until it's in my clothing, skin, eyes, and hair. All in 30 second's time as Mom puts away one book!

The house is very nearly de-cluttered completely. Just don't look in the garage or basement. Or tack-shed. Or... my closet. Ok so there is still plenty to get done. Leave me be, I need a break. I've decided, though, on what colors to paint a few of the walls, so... progress? Procrastination.

Little monster baby gets her ear tubes installed on Monday. Installed, pahhaha! Everything goes well, we'll be in and out in 2 hours, counting pre-op and recovery. I'm sure she will recover from anesthesia like a champ considering she is TWENTY POUNDS.

Product review: So far so good on the Febreze Flameless Luminary thing with the shades. The first one, Willow Tree Blossom or some such other ridiculous girly named scent, was overbearing at first, and then tapered to a pleasant, subtle aroma. Citrus Tree or whatever that one was... had to be exiled to the garage for the first three days until the initial scent dissipated some. And I hadn't yet turned it on! A+ I suppose!

The swimming lesson video!

FINALLY! :)

Tiny McFloaty

Well, I completely fail as a doting parent yet again. Saturday morning was AJ's first swim lesson, and I fully intended to bring along the video camera so we could all see her floating around like the little turd she is. But... I also had to drop the dog off at the vet before her lesson, so I had an infant and an ornery dog to contend with.

Alas, the camera was neglected and forgotten, sitting lonely on the foyer table, forlorn.

BUT, she has three more lessons in this session so we will get pics and a video of her prodigy swimming abilities eventually.

She did really well. She wasn't scared in the least and she smiled when S lifted her high up out of the water. She kicked when she was on her back, and she held her head up out of the water when she was on her belly. She floated BY HERSELF on the pool noodle and didn't freak out one bit when her face went momentarily submerged.

I believe she had a really great time. I look forward to this week's lesson.

Aunt J is awesome

A-Train's Aunt J (my sister) came down to visit for a few days. We have a running joke that she only comes down when she's hungry for a home cooked meal, or has laundry to do haha! I don't mind and besides, she usually vacuums and cleans up the kitchen while she's here, so SCORE!

And of course AJ loves it because she gets more attention.

Yesterday, J and I took off AJ's socks to try on her Easter shoes, and the dog ninja'ed in and stole one! He was quick and quiet and it was funny to see him run off with a teeny tiny little pink sock.

So the appointments are made for AJ's pre-op, surgery, and post-op. She will have her ear tubes put in on May 3rd. Hopefully there are no complications, but I will keep everyone posted.

I signed her up for swim classes at the YMCA. I guess it will be more like float classes considering she'll only be 7 months, but I want swimming to be one of those things that comes natural to her. I always knew how to swim and never had a fear of water, and I want the same for her. I'm sure we'll shoot a video of her first swim class. I got her a little watermelon swim suit and swim diapers. I kind of can't wait :)

Bee Ay En Ay En Ay ESS!

Bananas. She loves them. She also can't get enough of pears and sweet potatoes. She isn't too averse to "garden vegetables" (which, coincidentally, includes PEAS!! without her knowledge). So she's doing well with the solid foods. This evening, I plan to chop up a banana into tiny squishable pieces and letting her work on her fine motor skills for a while. I anticipate a sticky, banana-flavored face, so it will inevitably be bath night.

She sits up quite well these days, with only the occasional backwards fall. She's doing well at not overreacting and we always hesitate for a few seconds before rushing to comfort her, so that she doesn't decide to flip out immediately. She's not hurt, and I want her to learn to bounce right back :)

She's getting to the "mad" point when on her stomach and not able to reach her toys, so I think she'll start working out the mechanics of getting her knees under her to crawl, or pulling herself forward with her arms. Right now, she has learned that if she's on a blanket, she can pull the blanket toward her and the toys will come along too.

She is still sleeping fairly well, only waking up once to eat, and sometimes sleeping till about 5:30 am. Can't complain about that!! She is getting better about taking a long afternoon nap in her crib if we put her there and leave the room.

I can't believe she is nearly 7 months old! Her first plane right will be in June and she will be a burly 9 month old. Crazy.

Blah Blah Blah

Don't look at me, those are Adelaide's words. I have proof!

Squish Squash

We finally found something she won't spit back in our faces: squash. Woo! She ate nearly an entire little can of it on Saturday evening and then went to bed.

Last night she slept from 8pm to 4:45am. Niiiiiiiiice. I slept like the dayd.

Not much new going on. She sits up all by herself, as some of you saw in one of the YouTube videos. She loves to stand with one of us giving her a little support or hand to lean on. This morning she went berserk in her bouncy monkey chair jump-jump thing. I put her in it and she immediately began bouncing around like a wild-girl, feet leaving the ground and everything. I have to upload that video and then it'll be posted as well.

Gaah ignore any typos, apparently I can't type this morning. Stupid fingers.

-t

AJ and the Applesauce

As you regular followers know, we had an epic battle with the peas a couple of weeks ago. They were of the fail. Needless to say, it was hilarious. If you managed to miss the video, here it is:



Two nights ago, we decided to try something different. Applesauce. We were so excited because babies LOVE applesauce. Right?



Applesauce... fail.



Today, I picked her up from daycare and came home. She was in an extraordinarily good mood (which is saying something because this child seems to always be in a good mood, this was just over the top silliness), so I put her in her monkey jump chair and washed her bottles. Remarkably, every single bottle was present. Usually, we have at least one AWOL bottle.

After I was done washing all of her stuff, I took her into the den and plopped her into her walker (which by the way, her feet do not reach the floor in that thing yet) and had some work to do on the computer. I decided to try a new snack that would also help her work on her grasping skills. They are these little yogurt snack things that melt in babies' mouths. Here is the result:



Food is an adventure.

I am a horrible blogger!

Life has been a little hectic around here lately, and the blog is usually the first to suffer. I don't even know where I left off!

February 10th was the last entry!?!? Wow I fail so hard.

Well, I'm over the daycare thing. No big deal. Besides, every pacifier that makes it home is added to the arsenal is randomly depleted due to AJ flinging them everywhere anyway, so no loss! Binkies are like magical little beings that disappear only to reappear later in a spot that is unexplainable. For example, she was napping on the couch and at some point, the yellow paci disappeared. We check the cushions, the blankets, her clothes, under the furniture. Nothing. Two weeks later it showed up... in the middle of the floor! *puzzled*

The latest big news is that we finally decided to trade in the Wrangler. It was a long and arduous decision and an even longer and more arduous process finding the right vehicle. I looked at the Jeep Commander more than once and was convinced I should buy that one. Yet I had a nagging feeling that it wasn't right. I decided to go look at Nissan Pathfinders and Toyota 4Runners if for no other reason than to eliminate them from the list of possibilities. I fell in love with a 2010 4Runner. After the first dealership lost our business, I went elsewhere and got a gun metal gray one that I dubbed Gandalf. LOL!

It's good for us though because the 2010 can do everything a Wrangler can do but with more comfort and more interior space. Score!

Dad is in town which is awesome. He was supposed to fly in last Sunday, but ended up surprising me by getting in on Friday evening. S-Factor, Sistah, and my friend J were all in on the surprise. He flies out tomorrow but he said he plans to come back out again for a while in July. Can't wait! It's going to be nice to actually get to do some hikes this summer haha!

Speaking of being outside, we bundled AJ up in her pram and went for a couple of walks this past weekend. That was fun. She slept through the first one but looked all around at Garden of the Gods. She's so funny.

But alas, today she has a fever of 102.9. I don't think it has anything to do with being outside because she was seriously bundled up like Ralphie in Christmas Story haha! Just another infant fever. Poor thing.

Pics will be posted (either here or on FB) soon.

Much love!
-t

I really don't expect much

I think I'm pretty laid back when it comes to childcare. I know they can't pay attention to each infant every hour of the day, and I'm actually happy they don't. I feel babies need time where they must entertain themselves. I don't mind the days AJ spits up or has a blow out and comes home in strange pants, because I know the laundry gets done multiple times a day there.

However, I am not very thrilled by the idea of AJ coming home with someone else's pacifier. I don't know if it was a spare that has been sanitized because they couldn't find hers (two were in her car seat in the hall, and one was in her bottle carrier in the room), or if it was on the floor near her and they assumed it was hers.

It just gives me the willies. I know kids stick things in their mouths and she'll probably lick another kid's face later on down the road... but that's not something the day care can prevent. They CAN attempt to prevent the workers from randomly sticking some other kid's binky in my kids pie-hole.

Anyway, it's not that big of a deal, I just wanted to get that out.

The weekend was great. Unfortunately, we were so wrapped up in the game, we didn't take Superbowl pictures with all of our gear on. We will stage a photo shoot soon and post those pics here or on Facebook. I tend to update the blog during breaks at work, and I can't upload pics from here, which is why this blog has like none. Sorry!

A-Train is rolling over lately. Yesterday, she did it twice like she was "showing" me what she can do now. She would roll over and look up at me with this HUGE smile so of course I made a big show of it like she just won a gold medal in the Winter Olympics. She only rolls to the left so far. She's not an ambi-turner.

10 points to whomever can name what movie that last line is inspired by ;)

-t

Rollie Pollie Ollie

She rolls over now! Not consistently, and sometimes she needs a little help, but she's getting there.

I also have a couple of pics to share of her holding her own bottle for the duration of the six ounces she consumed. More later!

:)

-t

The worst has passed... for now

AJ is doing much MUCH better. The verdict was that she has an ear infection in each ear, and they were bad. She is on the kick butt antibiotics now until they run out and it is obvious they are helping. She is happy and smiley again, and she's sleeping better.

The downside of the kick butt antibiotics is that they cause the worst diaper rash on her little hiney :( So bad, in fact, that a blister on her bum is leaking fluid. She cried inconsolably when I changed her and put a fresh new diaper on. I put her on a waterproof mat yesterday for about an hour without a diaper just so she would be a little more comfortable. Of course, to her, this meant TIME TO PEE AND POOP ELEVENTY BILLION TIMES. hahaha But I think airing out the rash helps it heal faster and it was already looking better today.

My Mom, AJ's GrandMaMa, is in town and they are lovin' each others' company. A-Train smiles and giggles whenever GrandMaMa makes silly faces, and she has G-MaMa completely wrapped around her tiny little fingers. They're hanging out in the mornings while I work half days at work and they will also be chillin' together tomorrow evening when S and I go out for my BFF's birthday (Roller Derby WOO!).

It's nice having family in town :)

-t

Can't catch a break

When it rains it pours... cats and dogs.

I know that having a child in daycare means the child will catch whatever's going around, but it really gets under my skin to see the daycare worker do nothing to separate the child with a contagious respiratory cough from the rest of the kids. Now, I know you can't segregate the lil dude, but here's the kicker: He was climbing ON TOP of A-Train last week. So I knew it was inevitable. Luckily, that particular daycare worker is no longer employed there. The rest seem to have decent brains in their heads. This was also the same worker who let AJ sleep all day every time she worked.

That's another rant, maybe. Today blog post is an update on Tiny Hiney's condition.

She got The Cough starting on about Thursday. No big deal, it didn't seem that serious. She didn't sleep well, of course, because of the phlegm and snot-factory she had become. Naturally, Thursday and Friday nights were pretty sleepless. I knew not what I had in store for me.

Saturday morning, AJ was lying on her back on the floor. I was propped up next to her, getting ready for our weekend morning ritual of playing and some tummy time. Not this time.

She projectile vomited INTO MY MOUTH!!! *cue freakout dance* S-Factor took her while I showered and brushed my teeth since it was in my mouth, eyes, hair, down my shirt, etc. She threw up a couple of more times that morning, and twice in the evening. It was bad.

We took shifts Saturday night, hanging out with her all swaddled up on the couch. She slept fitfully, which means whoever was on shift slept fitfully, as well as anyone within earshot. In other words, even the dog got no sleep.

Sunday morning/afternoon, she was lethargic and just had zero energy. Didn't feel like eating much. I picked up some Pedialyte to help keep her hydrated. Her fever was around 99 both days (Saturday and Sunday).

Around 4 or 5 pm (right around the time for kickoff for the Saints/Vikings game), she started cooing, squealing, and blowing raspberries. We were thrilled! Our little personality was back! She was smiling and playing and even laughing. The bedtime routine went as per normal albeit a little later than usual (had to watch the Saints game!).

About half an hour after we put her to bed, she woke up and simply would not stop crying. It wasn't an ear-splitting wail, just that constant whine/cry when they feel really sick. S took the first shift so I could get some sleep. He even took her for a drive in the Jeep to try to get her to sleep. He says she took about a 2 hour nap so he was able to nap some too.

But then HE started feeling bad around 1 am. Dry scratchy hurty throat and headache. Great. Fantastic. It was time for my shift anyway, so he took some Nyquil and went to bed while I camped out with AJ on the couch.

No rest for the weary.

She still had a fever of about 99.5 this morning, which isn't enough to keep her out of daycare, so we dropped her off till we could get her a doctor's appointment. No dice. 45 minute after I dropped her off, they called to say she had a temperature of about 102. So S went to pick her up and her appointment is in half an hour or so.

Fun times.

Outbreak Monkey

I think we have a pandemic on our hands, and the outbreak monkey appears to be A-Train. She hasn't gotten sick, Thank GOD! Still keeping a close eye on her, but she seems ok.

Her hair is awesome today. The back is ratty looking as usual, even though it's not knotted up. The front has a spike and the top looks like a peacock plume. I didn't have time to take photos but if it still looks like that after daycare, pics are a must. Every time she moved her head, the plume would wave around like dandelion fluff.

I still have a ton of videos to upload and post, but it takes so long to do it that I never seem to have time. Time is a valuable commodity of late and I won't have any after work because I have 2 homework assignments due. What a week.

She's been attempting to sit up lately. She'll do little crunches when she's placed in her carseat or butterfly bouncy chair. She has also been holding her bottle for the most part. She hasn't quite mastered the process, and tends to place her hands on the top which pushes it down and out of her mouth. She also can't seem to tilt it so she needs assistance, but every once in a while she nails it and can hold it through the whole feeding.

Gave her a little rice cereal with a spoon yesterday. Her faces are classic and we'll post video of that hopefully soon. She's learning not to push it back out of her mouth, and she managed to eat more cereal than she ended up wearing which is a plus.

She seems to be everyone's favorite at the daycare. One of the teachers from the 4 year old class says she loves relieving the infant teachers for lunch because she gets to play with AJ. Her little smile is infectious, even to those who work with babies all day long. The new girl at daycare is funny and so far I like her. Every time I've picked AJ up from daycare since the new girl started, she was holding her, playing with her or rocking her.

A-Train can't help it that she's the most awesome!

-t

ER

I feel like the boy in The Velveteen Rabbit except I don't have to get rid of my favorite toys, I just can't play with them yet. I went to the ER this morning around 8:30 to get a $250 IV and some anti-nausea meds. $250 co-pay. Yuck.

S dropped me off and I stumbled into the ER after being checked for metals and what not. Gotta love metal detectors in a hospital. I was actually thankful for this later, but I'll get to that. He drove AJ down to my girl friend's house (our regular babysitter) and then he came back to sit with me.

Before he returned, I was put in a small check up room and my vitals were taken. While waiting to be placed into a triage room, a woman came in claiming her doctor was wrong, and he had said she was psychotic. She intended to sue him and needed someone to go to court with her. Here is where I was thankful for the metal detectors. I wanted to scream at her that 1) it's SUNDAY, wth is anyone going to be able to do TODAY and 2) could you please not be a psycho... go away and let people with real emergencies get seen. A couple with two small children were waiting for their children to be seen and it broke my heart to hear the little girl crying when they took her blood.

After all the IVs and meds and drive home, I made my way back upstairs to the guest room at home to sleep it off. I had been up since about 3 am and had no energy. I slept decent thanks to the meds and exhaustion. I was ready to be awake at about 3 pm and came downstairs, careful not to touch or breathe on anything. My head was pounding though so I took some Excedrin Tension and went back upstairs.

I read my book for a while and it made me want to cuddle with A-Train. It's about a missing girl and a tragedy in her little life. Sad! I called (lol yes called on the phone) S-Factor and said I wanted to hang out but was afraid I would get them sick. He convinced me to come down and quarantine myself on one end of the couch. So that's where I've been for the last couple of hours.

Despite all of the hours I slept today, i'm still worn out and ready for bed. If I feel like this in the morning, I'm staying home. Blah!

Here's hoping this bug skips AJ and S-Factor.

-t

GEAUX SAINTS!

Woohoo!! 45-14 WHO DAT!

Anyway, I haven't updated in a few days again. This time I have reasons. Work has been bonkers lately. Recompeting for contracts and "reducing forces." After Wednesday, we'll see if I still work on this contract. If not, I know of a small company that is eager to hire me within a few months.

So, I've promised pictures. I'll post the latest couple of pics here.

Here she is sleeping soundly during the Saints game.



Next up, sleeping soundly in her carseat, clinging to her binky.



Lastly, hanging out with Mom, watchin' some tube.

Ok Ok Ok!

Since I have gotten numerous requests from multiple people, I will take some more photos of the little one and upload those I've taken. I also have a few videos I intend to upload. Feel free to FedEx me some extra hours in my day LOL! Just kidding.

I am pretty swamped, but it's all good. School started again yesterday, and this semester is Drawing and Anatomies with a segment on Drawing for Animation. I get to use my new art desk that S-Factor got me for Christmas! YAY! He assembled it and set it up under the big bay window in the den. I'm excited.

I'm also working on a freelance project for a guy that does puns. It's a lot of fun. He mentioned he may work on a children's book and I would love to illustrate a children's book!

Aside from all of that, I am working like crazy at my day job. It's been madness, but it pays the bills lol.

Back to AJ since that is the reason you all frequent this blog :)

She's doing well. She has slept at least 8-9 hours every night since last Wednesday. We are loving it! We're also anxiously awaiting teething, but maybe we'll get lucky with that and she will be amicable. Fingers crossed.

She has graduated from blowing raspberries to a new fun thing to do: random squealing. It's cute but also a little ear-splitting. Lucky for us so far, she doesn't do the siren squeals that last 30 seconds. She does the quick, loud squeaks. She also does a lot of "AAAHH" and "OOOHHH". Like a tiny monkey.

Her primary source of nutrition has shifted from breastmilk to formula, though, and this makes me very sad. She is weaning herself, and as a result, I am not producing nearly enough to keep up. Even with one of the best electric pumps on the market, production is waning. All the Fenugreek and Mother's Milk tea in the world isn't helping at this stage. I know it's a natural course, and something I can't control, but it still hurts (both physically and emotionally!).

Such is parenthood!

Oh well. Everyone smile, our child is a happy one!

-t

The Weekend

It was a pretty good weekend for the most part. AJ slept well Friday night while we watched Terminator Salvation with our friend, the Matt Attack. (haha) We couldn't really take the movie very seriously though because Christian Bale always sounds like he needs a lozenge or a drink of water or something. But it was fun making goofy comments throughout the movie.

Saturday... what did we do Saturday...? OH! I went with my girl friend to view some potential locations for her wedding while S-Factor hung out with AJ. Apparently, A-Train was awake all but 30 minutes while I was gone. That worked out though because she again slept like a champ while S went out with his other Matt friend, and Matt Attack and I played a shoot 'em up game (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 <3). My favorite part was the level where we had to sneak around and get past the bad guys without being discovered. We were literally whispering while playing. ha!

Sunday was a good day, for sure. S, AJ, and I went to watch sorting practice at the rodeo arena on our street. AJ was looking at all of the cows and horses with a completely enthralled expression. It was pretty funny. We hung out there for about an hour and a half and then headed home to get a few things done before we went to see

AVATAR on IMAX 3D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (My friend babysat A-Train lol)

OMG this movie is so good. SO GOOD! And in 3D, it was mind-blowing. I seriously think it might be my new number two movie. (Nothing can bump The Princess Bride out of first place, sorry)

It's like Fern Gully meets Dances With Wolves, but on crack and acid and ecstasy. The CGI was incredible, the story was good, and even the acting was great. Sigourney Weaver was awesome as always, and I'm liking the new guy who also happened to play the robot-who-doesn't-know-he's-a-robot in Terminator Salvation. (We liked him in Terminator, just not Bale)

GO SEE THIS MOVIE!

-t

Mean Mommy!

AJ got her first 2 shots today. We decided to delay them slightly. I just feel that newborns and 1 month olds are too teeny (not that AJ was ever "teeny") for their bodies to handle the vaccines well. So, at 15 lbs 5 ounces, our chunkmonk got her first pokes. She was lying there minding her own business suckin' on her binky when all of a sudden she got stabbed! She couldn't believe it! She looked right at me and wailed! I had a bottle ready (had already fed her once before so didn't have enough breastmilk available), so I scooped her up, sat in the rocker they have available and popped the bottle in her mouth.

All was well in her world again. She's a tough cookie. By the time we got to daycare, she was ready to chill under the cube thing, hand on her knee.

Next month she'll get one more, and then the cocktail at 6 months, rather than at 4 months.

So let's hope the shots she got today doesn't make her sick!

I don't even know where to begin

I wasn't around much this past weekend/week. My grandfather passed this weekend, and I flew out to attend the services on Monday. The upside is that there was much more smiling and laughing than crying at the services. That shows that it was more of a celebration of Emory "Bill"'s life than a mourning of his death. He would appreciate that I believe.

AJ did well at home alone with her Daddy these last few days. I was worried it would be too crazy for S-Factor, but just like everything else, he handled it like a champ. I don't think I could have been so cool and collected feeding 2 horses, 2 dogs who have to be kept separate, a 4 month old, and myself.

I missed her a lot, but I will admit that getting 8 straight hours of sleep was a glorious thing. She slept for 9 1/2 hours last night, though, and since I was so tired and went to bed at 8pm, I got 8 1/2 hours. WOO!

She is such a good baby, and a good sleeper. I am terrified of even thinking about having another child because I just know the next one will be a holy terror. No one gets this lucky twice!

I plan to upload the videos we've taken over the last month or so, and I'll post the link either here or on Facebook. I'll keep you posted!

-t