Call already!

The Baby’s 9-month appointment was yesterday. It went well for the most part. He’s developing normally and has reached all the milestones expected of a 9-month old. He did, however, have low hemoglobin, which means he could be anemic. I don’t know because I’m still waiting for the test results. I HATE WAITING!! Actually, I’m a pretty patient person, but things have been slow at work and I’m sitting around worrying. And I keep Googling things.

Step.Away.From.The.Search.Engine.

The doctor did say that his hemoglobin could be low because he is fighting a cold (Who, The Baby? Sick? Nah!). Hopefully that is just the problem. At least one benefit of my milk supply tanking is that formula is rich in iron, so The Baby is really benefiting from that now. I told the doctor that he’s been getting plenty (more than three quarters) of his liquid diet from formula for the last two weeks and he said it could take longer than that for dietary changes to take effect.

Thursday 13… things I’m sooo ready for:

1. Warm weather. I hate bundling up.
2. Vacation (Savannah, GA and Tybee Island in June – woot!)
3. Friday (tomorrow – yeah!)
4. Mental stimulation (my job description changed from creative to boring)
5. A new wardrobe. Not that I’m going to buy one, but everything I have is so blah.
6. Working out. Did I say that?! I miss riding my bike and doing my Firm DVD. It’s too cold for the first and hard to find time to do the second. I’m lazy in the morning and don’t want to work out after 8:30 p.m.
7. Dinner. I’m hungry and it’s only 4 p.m. Crap. I didn’t pull anything from the freezer.
8. The Baby’s bath… it’s bath night! He just loves playing in the tub and I love watching him!
9. A weekday off of work. And being sick or having a sick child doesn’t count! I would love to take a day off and go shopping. Just me. I would eat junk food and Starbucks all day.
10. A new president. I’m so sick of all the candidate bashing and it’s just the f-ing primaries!
11. The Baby to say, “mama”
12. Or “dada”
13. The doctor to call with the lab results of The Baby’s test.

Nine Month Checkup

The Baby’s nine-month check up is today, even though he’s just a week shy of being 10 months old. I always feel a little nervous about these appointments. Will they find something wrong? Will they wonder why I didn’t make an appointment for the cold he has? Will they start to notice that he’s in for sick visits every other week and think that I’m just a worry wart? Will they roll their eyes if I express concern over vaccines? Will they see the bruises on his knees and wonder if we watch him closely enough? Will they think I’m making up that he doesn’t eat a lot since he is gaining weight?

As you can see, I am indeed a worry wart. I’m constantly thinking that people won’t take what I say or ask seriously. I second guess myself. It’s awful. I hope The Baby gets his dad’s optimism and positive attitude. Spending your life waiting for the ball to drop can be somewhat exhausting. Thank goodness I have my husband to balance me out. Anyway, fingers crossed that all goes well today!

By the way, I totally think I jinxed myself a few weeks ago when I commented that I didn’t expect The Baby to go from purees to eating steak and potatoes. That’s exactly what he’s done. He refuses baby cereals and all pureed food – homemade, stage 1, 2, 3, it doesn’t matter. He’s had it with the spoon, unless, of course, it’s yogurt on the spoon – YoBaby = baby crack. He will, however, eat off of a fork. Sometimes I think he's just messing with me.

The Baby only tolerates real people food these days. Last night he had a small chunk of potato, a half of a baby carrot (if that) and about three bites of kielbasa (and two oz of yogurt). He loves meatloaf and chicken and tolerates green beans well. I worry that he doesn't get enough. Considering how small we must chop his food, and how time consuming it is for him to feed himself, a meal might only be two green beans and a few shreds of chicken. It just doesn’t add up to much.

Cute Alert: The Baby has learned to give me five. Hehehehe.

Cute Alert II: While reading someone’s Blogger profile, my hubby pointed out a spelling mistake. I had to tell what WAHM was.

OMG, U2 3-D was awesome!

If you live near an Imax theater I recommend it highly! It was very much like being at a concert; people at the movie were even cheering and singing like they were there. My husband thought it was like being a fly, buzzing around the band and through the audience. That’s pretty accurate. It’s neat being on the stage. You see all their hidden drinks, instruments, props, cheats sheets taped to the floor, even roadies. The only complaint that I could find is that sometimes I wish the camera would have slowed down for a little bit and focused longer on a member of the band. Just when you were getting into watching The Edge, they switched over to Bono. Also, when did Adam Clayton become so good-looking? He’s one of those people that actually look better with age.

Anyway, it was so nice to go out for a while. We’ve been to a few parties and on some dates, but we always take The Baby to my parent’s house. Just a couple weeks ago we went to a party. It entailed packing up The Baby, his crib, his clothes, milk, food, my pump and stuff for us to spend the night (so we don’t have to wake The Baby and drive home after 11 p.m.). It was literally like packing for a weekend away to get out for 3.5 hours. On Friday my parents came over to our house, it was so much easier. We just left and had fun. It’s still nice to have my parents close by and available.

From the Pump Room:
Here’s a good interview the authors of The Milk Memos. Just click on "Enter Salon" in the upper right corner.
www.salon.com

Haiku Friday and U2

Happy B-day to my husband. He's 33 today.

To celebrate, we're going to dinner with The Baby and my parents. Afterward, hubby and I are going to go to the Imax theater to see the movie U2-3D. I'm ridiculously excited to see it. When I was in college I saw them in concert three times, once in the front row! My friend and I had nose-bleed seats and band security came over and told us that we couldn't sit where we were and asked me where I wanted to sit. I said the front row, and ta-da!, he gave us tickets! It was great!

I'm trying something new, Haiku Friday. Hope you like it.



Little boy, strong will
He sees me walking away
And screams in protest

One arm up, reaching
I turn to reassure him
And hug him to me

Small fists full of hair
He holds on in his own way
I pull him closer

He squeals, and is off
Crawls where his mind propels him
But looks back and smiles

White noise and middle-of-the-night fun

For the past nine months we’ve been able to rely on one thing to calm The Baby down: white noise, namely radio/TV static. In the throws of a crying jag (he was VERY colicky), we cranked the fuzz and The Baby calmed down almost immediately. I remember a time when he was about 1.5 months old, I was in the den with the TV blaring static for well over an hour. I couldn’t even turn the volume down for 30 seconds or crying would ensue. My head hurt, I was emotionally numb, and the static began to feel like a soundtrack to a really shitty day. I think my right eye was twitching. I’m not sure. It’s the closest I’ve ever felt to being completely mentally incompetent.

Whoa… Anyway, static had always been the answer. The Baby never accepted a paci, scoffed at the womb sounds bear (sorry, grandma!), and broke out of swaddles. We depended on the static. Now, sadly, it doesn’t work. When he cries out in the middle of the night (the only time we really need it now), we can no longer crank the static, pat his back and get him back to sleep. If he wakes up crying, by the time we get to him, he is usually already in full crawl position or – worse – he’s standing. Static has zero effect on a partially- or fully-standing baby. It’s also very hard to get a baby who doesn’t want to lie back down into a position where sleep is possible, much less probable.

Luckily, The Baby doesn’t wake up often at night and stay up for more than a minute, maybe once or twice a week. I’m trying to get him use to a lovey to help calm him down when he does wake, but so far no real luck. This morning he woke up crying at 1:30 a.m. I tried to tuck his lovey into his arms (after strong-arming him off of all fours) and he went from crying to screaming at the mere sight of the thing. He’s on to me. I also have one of those aquarium rain forest crib soothers. No real luck with that either, though he likes it while he's awake.

If you would have told me eight months ago when I was slipping off the gentle slope of sanity that I’d long for the day when I could crank a steady stream of crackling, hissing and popping full blast, I’d have laughed. Either that or I’d have fallen on the floor in a fetal position. That was a very iffy day for me.


ALSO, totally, off topic, but do you guys know that there is a country song called, “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk”? LOL… yikes!

Baby boy clothes

I don’t mean to complain, I really don’t, but boys get the shaft in the clothing department. I don’t care if they are 2 or 70, boys and men just don’t have the same variety in clothing, not in color or style. Little girls in 12- and 18-month clothes (my 9 month old is fast approaching 18 months in size) have a whole variety of primary and pastel-colored clothes to choose from. My problem isn’t so much with the tops. The Baby has a variety of onsies and shirts, though if he got something once in a while without a ball, car or dinosaur on it I’d be happy. The bottoms are the problem. My kid has 10 pairs of pants in varying shades of blue. He also has heather gray sweat pants that match nothing, make him look 5 years older and 10 pounds heavier than he is, but end up in the rotation for the sake of variety. If I see black, brown or olive pants at a decent price, I’m on it! Since he’s been over the size of 6 months, it’s been a challenge.

My husband, bless his heart, gets The Baby ready every weekday and takes him to daycare. Though I no longer do a morning pump, we had factored that in with having to style my hair, put on makeup and shave 80% of my body and figured he just had more time in the morning. I usually try to lay out his clothes the night before so that The Baby matches I feel helpful.

One thing that I’ve learned to do, is buy 5-packs of Gerber’s plain white long-sleeve onsies. They match everything. It makes mornings easier for everyone involved. I leave a pair at daycare and pack one in the diaper bag for emergencies. Now that The Baby is doing more than laying around drinking all day, they get a little messy looking. I still love them. Plus, The Baby looks great in white: like an angel, with scratches and bruises. Another great match-anything item would be jeans, but Daddy refuses. They are too hard to pull over The Baby’s ample hips. Since Daddy dresses, Daddy decides. I’m just saying.

Anyway, I had to laugh when I saw The Baby this morning. He had on a green plaid shirt and olive-drab sweat pants. The greens didn’t really match, but it’s the closest match that we can get for the shirt, except jeans, of course, but that’s not what struck me funny. All I could think of was the episode of Seinfeld where Elaine and Puddy were on a plane on either side of a guy in a green plaid shirt and she was referring to him as Vegetable Lasagna. From what I have learned since, she was calling him that because that’s what he was eating. I always thought it was a barb at his shirt, so that’s what I associate green plaid with. Tee-hee.

I'm Rich!

Well, it looks like I’m quiting my job. One Roger Michael Needham has willed me 1.5 million dollars. Woot! Woot!

Subject: Will Notification

PARTNER MANAGING WILLIAMS HENRY SOLICITORS
(Is he Williams Henry, or is he a partner in managing a person named Williams Henry? Also, didn’t I hear something once about not trusting people with two last names?)
EMAIL: williamshenry007@sify.com (even though the email you mailed it from was some poor SOB on Peoplepc??)

On behalf of the Trustees and Executor of the estate of Late Prof (I didn’t realize Late Prof was a title) Roger Michael Needham. I once again try to notify you as my earlier letter was returned undelivered.

I hereby (well, if he is hereby trying …) attempt to reach you again by this same email address on the WILL (Wow, my email’s on someone’s will?) . I wish to notify you that late Prof Roger Michael Needham made you a beneficiary to his WILL. He left the sum of Fifteen Million, One Hundred thousand (what did thousand do to not deserve to be capitalized too??) United States Dollars to you in the Condicile (not even a word) and last testament to his WILL (quit yelling WILL!).

This masound strange (masound strange? Is this like haz cheezeburger?) and unbelievable to you with the current upsurge in cyber crime and the likes, but it is for real and true Being a widely traveled man, he must have been in contact with you in the past or simply you were nominated to him by one of his numerous friends abroad who wished you good (Ahhh, that must be why I don’t remember having such an accomplished friend. I was nominated. Now it’s clear.).

Prof (Do you get the feeling that they aren’t sure if professor has one or two fs, so they are just abbreviating it? I mean, I do that sometimes) Roger Michael Needham, an engineer/Computer scientist who worked as Director, Microsoft Research limited,Cambridge before he died (oh, not after he died?) on 1st March in the year 2003 and was patron of the Royal Academy of Engineering and also member ofvarious societies andorganisations .

He was a very dedicated Christian who loved to give out (is give out like put out?). His great philanthropy earned him numerous awards during his life time one of which was the Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Late Roger Michael Needham died on the 1st March in the year 2003 at the age of 68 years, and his WILL is now ready for execution.According to him this money is to support humanitarian/philanthropic activities and to help the poor and the needy in our society. Please if I reach you as I am hopeful, endeavour to get back to me (nothing says I really don’t know English as well as endeavour to get back to me) as soon as possible to enable me conclude my job. I hope to hear from you in no distant time (Well, okay, maybe this sentence says it better.).


Note: You are advised to contact me through my secured email (the Peoplepc one or the sify one?)
address- williamshenry007@sify.com (007, LOL) In your response, please
provided the following information.
FULL NAMES AND ADDRESS, TELEPHONE AND FAX NUMBER, SEX, OCCUPATION
The requested information shall enable me authenticate the ones in the WILL and my file (I thought the will only contained my email address?).
You can reach me on phone immediately on your receipt of this email:williamshenry007@sify.com call now: +447045717958
I await your prompt response

Honestly, I can't believe people still fall for stuff like this!!!