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July 30 Better Days...and Advice Solicted!Well, after my sad post the other day, I figured I ought to post a midweek update, since things are looking up. First of all, after several bad days, Theo has had two good days in a row! A minimum of fussiness...it has been PURE HEAVEN! It's funny—just when I reach what I think is as far down as I can go emotionally, we get a good day, and I feel equipped to deal again. I guess that's the way life is supposed to work, eh? Anyway, the last two days have been a much-needed refresher.
So, why the change? Well, I'm not sure. If the fussiness was from teething, then maybe Theo's gums are feeling better. But it could also be the formula. We've been supplementing with Baby's Only for five days now, and I'm pleased to report that it's the best results we've had so far! Theo has some eczema on his arms and legs, which I'm not crazy about, but no excessive spitting up, no "scary" diapers, and the extreme fussiness has improved drastically. Maybe it just took his little system a few days to get used to it?? He's very gassy (ha ha, sorry for the gross details!), but he doesn't seem terribly troubled by that. He's kind of taking it in stride and making "happy music!" Anyway, I'm scared to even hope that we might have FINALLY found a workable solution, but???? So far, so good. We shall see how he does over the next week or so. The difference in this formula from all the others is the lack of corn syrup solids, so maybe that is what was bugging him in all the others. Hard to say. I'll just be overjoyed if it works!
So now the advice part. As many of you know, Theo has been sleeping in his Pack and Play in our living room...and Chris and I camp nightly on the floor down there. (Yes, yes, we've gotten flak about not sleeping in our bed, but we're cool with it. It's kind of fun, actually--it's like a little three-person camping trip every night! For so long, we were just absolutely exhausted by the time Theo finally went to sleep that we couldn't even think about moving him upstairs--we'd just collapse down there. And now it's just habit.) Anyway, we got to thinking that since Theo is almost 4 months old, we probably ought to start transitioning him to his crib (and us back into our room). So, we've been trying to put Theo down in his crib whenever he seems sleepy during the day, just to get him used to it. Alas, he never sleeps--he seems to enjoy looking at everything in his room instead. But that's not the real problem. The last two times I've put him in his crib, he has in short order rolled over and wedged himself into a corner, with a foot or a hand stuck between the mattress and the crib wall and his face buried in the crib mattress. Obviously, this alarms me. I don't want him to smother, nor do I want him to break his hand or foot because he gets them stuck and then can't get them out, and we're sleeping and don't hear him. We bought a safety-approved crib so things like this wouldn't be so likely to happen, but Theo seems to be "outsmarting" the safety-ness of it. So, other mamas, what did you do to solve this problem? How did you make sure your baby didn't roll over and bury his face in the middle of the night? Theo isn't always so good about flipping himself back over when he has rolled onto his tummy.
Any advice is welcome. At this point, my answer is to leave him in the Pack and Play and continue "camping."  July 27 Week 16: The Good, the Bad, and the EczemaWell, the title of this post pretty much says it all! Another week of lots of ups and downs. On the up side, when Theo is happy and feeling well, he is just the neatest little fellow on the planet! (Okay, I'm a little biased, but he is really neat!) He's stringing multiple sound combinations together now into long baby-babble sentences. And when he wakes up in the morning, he's like a little ray of sunshine in his Pack 'n Play. I hear him in there gurgling and smacking his lips, and when I peek over the edge and he catches sight of me, his whole face lights up in a huge smile. It melts my heart every time, without fail!
Theo has two new favorite games. The first one is "If I Make My Body Stiff as a Board, I Can Slide Out of Anyone's Grip." This also extends to his stroller and his car seat. He has figured out that if he straightens his entire body out, he can start to slide out the bottom. Alas, he doesn't realize that the stroller manufacturers are too smart to fall for that trick, so he won't actually slide out. But he keeps trying.
His second favorite new game is "I Can Scoot Anywhere on My Back." Last week he made it halfway across his room. This week, I put him in his crib to try to get him to take a nap. (Ha! Yeah right! He is so done with naps! I keep trying to get him to take them, and he is resisting big time!) He was lying in his little baby wedge, babbling away at his animals on his mobile, when it suddenly got very quiet in his room. I tiptoed in to survey the scene and found him scrunched in a corner of his crib, with his foot wedged above the bumper, happy as a clam. He had scooted to the end of the crib and turned his body 90 degrees to get in such a position. I was not quite as happy as he was. Being semi-paranoid, I'm now worrying about whether he'll get somehow stuck in his crib in the middle of the night, and he'll hurt himself without me knowing it. Haven't figured out how to remedy this situation yet. In the meantime, he's quite pleased with his new trick, and there are a couple pictures of it in this week's album.
Gigantor has also gotten a bit too tall for his infant car seat, so he now uses the accompanying jog stroller like a big boy! (Usually you switch them to that at six months old, but Theo's quite tall, so we had to switch him a bit early.)
Thursday we stopped by the nursing home to see Grandma Ruth (Theo's great-grandma). He was a good boy this time, so we were able to stay about an hour, which Grandma really enjoyed. Theo even gave her one of his super-special Theo smiles that I think are so darn cute!!
Friday afternoon we had cause to celebrate—Chris's second reader finished his thesis. She made only minimal edits and is ready to sign off on it. So, it is 99.9% finished!! He is set to turn it in on August 15th, I believe. YAHOO!!!
 Anyway, we drove to Sac State to pick up his second reader's comments on Friday morning, and then headed up to Citrus Heights to meet our Sac State friends for lunch. And Theo was a perfectly happy boy until we got to the restaurant, where all hell broke loose with him. Well, okay, it wasn't that bad...but it certainly wasn't pleasant. We were such a large group that we sat outside, but it was extremely hot even in the shade. So Theo was hot, uncomfortable, and probably a bit overstimulated. And after about an hour, he let us know it BIG time. He was squalling away—I took him in the bathroom to cool him off and change him, and he screamed in there for several minutes too. I finally got him calmed down and went back out to join the group and eat my lunch, but he started screaming again the minute I got back to the table. So, I gave up and took him back inside...after he spit up all over me on the way in. I left my lunch untouched and Chris barely ate any of his, so there was $30 down the drain. As I waited for Chris to pay our part of the bill, Theo pooped all over me. Literally. I had a huge blob of baby poop on the front of my pants. When Chris finished paying, I went and changed Theo (again!) and brought him back out to Chris. I then headed back into the bathroom to clean myself up...but the minute I started to, I could hear screaming all the way through the heavy, closed bathroom door...unmistakable Theo screaming. So, I gave up and went back out to the lobby, poop still all over me.At that point we were both so frustrated that we decided to step into the mall there to walk around. Theo normally loves the mall—we take him walking there a lot because it's air conditioned and he seems to enjoy looking around at the people and various things. Not today, I'm afraid. He was good for about five minutes, then started screaming again. And so we left. And went home for a long evening with a very fussy boy. And here I am, eight hours later, and still sitting here in poop-covered pants. I could've changed them, but what's the point? I'm covered in spit-up all day every day anyway, so I might as well just make it through until bed.
So why the grumpy boy? Well, maybe heat or lack of a nap or overstimulation...but there's another wildcard. My milk supply hasn't improved any, and we are now officially out of stored breast milk, so we're forced to give Theo formula when I can't produce for him. We tried yet another formula—GoodStart Soy this time, because we heard it's much less harsh than some of the others. The good news is, it clearly didn't constipate Theo (witness the poop all over my pants). The bad news is, he was so, so fussy today, and we can't help but think it's probably more than a coincidence. He has also been writhing and arching his back all day, which he usually does when his tummy is bothering him. And his eczema has flared up again on his arms. Okay, no more GoodStart for now. Back to Baby's Only, which he spits up all over the place, but at least he doesn't seem so darned uncomfortable on it.
Okay, I try to keep this blog cheerful, but I need to get this off my chest once and for all. I absolutely hate this!!!! I absolutely hate, more than just about anything in the world, that I am now forced to feed my son something that makes him uncomfortable. But I have no choice. As far as I can tell, my supply is running about 12 to 15 ounces per day short of what Theo eats—that's three full feedings! So do I starve my son for three of his normal daily feedings? Or do I give him some formula? Obviously, I give him some formula. His weight percentile is dropping (not dangerously—he is still just slightly below average in weight—but it is steadily dropping), so I don't think starving him for those three feedings a day is the answer. And so, I make him miserable. What a lovely feeling for a mother to have...I am making my son miserable. But I'm doing it either way—I'm making him miserable if I starve him, and I'm making him miserable if I give him formula. I literally can't win. And the worst part is, it's not me who's not winning—it's poor Theo! When I have to give him formula, I mix the formula with breastmilk at a max ratio of 50/50, so at least it's not a full formula feeding to shock his little system, but what else can I do? And this, my friends, is why I cry pretty much every night. I hate hurting my son, and I feel like there's nothing I can do about it. I have tried every "up your breast-milk production" trick in the book, and nothing is working. I just wish I could find one formula to supplement that he would be able to digest well...just one! At this point, I wouldn't even care if it was extremely pricey. But no...so far, nothing works. I even finally decided to step outside the Kaiser-directed box and try rice cereal with him. Our pediatrician recommended we wait until six months, but we were at our wits' end, trying to find something he could digest. And rice cereal isn't really very nutritious (more empty calories, as I understand it), but at least a little bit per day would fill his tummy somewhat. The good news is he seemed to like it (see the pictures in this week's album). The bad news is he was horribly uncomfortable all night after eating it. He woke us up practically every hour fussing in his sleep, and then noisily passing gas. I think it just made him horribly gassy. Poor guy! The only thing that is saving me from feeling like an utter failure is that I know in my heart I am doing 150% to try to help Theo with this...and I still can't. But what more can I do? At least I know that I have tried my very, very best.
Okay, thanks for indulging my weepy paragraph. I just needed to vent. And since it's our blog, I figured I could do that.
Now back to our regularly scheduled cheer....On Saturday, we drove down to San Jose to spend the weekend with Chris's family. Theo slept all the way down in the car, which was wonderful. (It's a 2 1/2-hour drive.) He was also cheerful for much of the day, which is always a happy thing! He was fussy for a bit at night—which didn't surprise us because he didn't take a nap other than his snooze in the car in the morning. I think he rattled poor Grandma Norma, though—she suggested that we might want to take him to the Emergency Room to find out what was wrong with him. I had to laugh a bit, imagining the ER docs looking at us as if we were nuts for bringing a colicky baby in!! It was just Theo being Theo, but I don't think Grandma Norma was quite prepared for that.
Before we hit the road Sunday, we stopped to visit longtime family friends, Wes and Judy Harrison. Their son, Bruce, was my first friend in California. We lived next door to the Harrisons, and Bruce and I played together all the time as kids! So, we had a nice lunch with Wes and Judy, and Theo fell in looooove with their kitties. (He particularly seemed to enjoy Dale, who is apparently the more people-oriented of the two kitties. It was really good to catch up with the Harrisons, and we even got a tour of my childhood home from the woman who bought it from my parents, way back in 1986! A lot of work my Dad did on the house/yard was still intact, which was neat to see. I think the coolest thing to see, though, were the words "Cathy & Bruce" written on the garage wall. Apparently I wrote that in pencil as a kid, though I don't remember doing it. I left my mark!
Unfortunately, Theo got pretty cranky, so we had to cut our visit a little bit short. He seemed overtired and won't often go to sleep in a strange place, so we figured it would be best to buckle him in his car seat and hit the road. He fell asleep within five minutes...but only slept for 30. And since then, he has been fussy. Pretty much for the last six hours. Needless to say, I'm quite tired at the moment! (I have mastered the art of typing while nursing, which is how I'm able to write this post right now.) Why is he fussy today? Not sure. I wrote the first part of this blog post on Friday (culminating in the weepy "I hate this" paragraph), and since then, we have been supplementing with Baby's Only. I am crossing my fingers that the fussiness isn't due to that formula, but I honestly can't say. What I can say is that the eczema on his arms isn't getting any better, and he seems to have a case of the baby "runs." And he's quite fussy. I am just hoping beyond hope that it has nothing to do with Baby's Only, because we are quite literally out of options. And so begins another week of feeding stress and woes....
People tell me that the toddler stage will be hard. I have no doubt that they are right, but my god—can it be much harder than this? Theo will keep me on my toes, I'm sure, but at least hopefully I won't feel like I'm either starving my son or making him uncomfortable.
Anyway, as usual I've babbled on long enough, so I shall wrap up this post for now. Enjoy your week, and send good vibes our way that Theo will be able to tolerate Baby's Only. I'll be a nerd and invoke the great Star Wars and say, "Help me, Baby's Only...you're my only hope!" (Okay, Chris is rubbing off on me. I can't believe I just quoted Star Wars. I've officially reached geek status.) July 22 Four-Month Well-Baby CheckWell, we may have to find a new nickname for Gigantor—we both overestimated on our weight guesses! Theo weighs 14 lbs pretty much on the nose (14 lbs 0.3 oz, if you want to be technical about it), which puts him in the 47th percentile—slightly below average. His head circumference is 41.9 cm, which puts him in the 52nd percentile—slightly above average. However, Gigantor is still a fitting moniker if we're talking about height—Theo is 25.25 inches long. He has passed the two-feet mark! This puts him in the 77th percentile. So I guess our boy is tall and of slightly below average weight. This is kind of funny because everyone who sees him thinks he's huge! And in fact, he has an ENORMOUS appetite—his pediatrician was a bit surprised to hear how much he eats! But he must have his Daddy's metabolism (lucky kid!!) because all that food isn't making him overweight. (And hey, all that eating is helping his Mama lose a pound or two a week, so that's always nice!)
He came through his well-baby check with flying colors. He again rolled over for the doctor, which pleased her immensely. And he tries to stand (supported, of course) on his little legs, which also pleased her.
We had a long discussion about the feeding woes, and basically we're at status quo of what I mentioned in the last blog post—I am still to stay off dairy and to try to nurse Theo as often as possible to get my milk supply up. And when I run out of milk, which has been happening daily, we have no choice but to try a bit of formula. So far so good with our newest try—Baby's Only Organic Soy formula. But, we have only given him tiny amounts so far, so it remains to be seen how he will do. I read an article about a woman whose child was unable to tolerate the corn syrup solids present in virtually all formulas, and I got to thinking that maybe that's why Theo hasn't been able to tolerate any of them well. Baby's Only is the only formula that we have been able to find that doesn't contain corn syrup, so we're giving it a try. Our pediatrician's advice was to try it and watch carefully to see how he does. She'd love it if I could breastfeed exclusively, but since I'm still running short, she agreed that a formula is needed until my production is improved. So, I'm supposed to nurse Theo as much as possible, and when the milk runs out and he's still hungry, give him a bit of formula to tide him over.
She also recommended delaying solids until he's at least six months old, even though he didn't show any definite allergies. She thinks he'll do better at digesting solids if we wait until his digestive system is a little more mature.
So that's the scoop on the appointment. Theo was a big, brave boy for his two shots—he gets the other two in about two weeks. (We're staggering them to avoid overloading his system all at once.)
Hope you're all having a good week! July 20 Week 15: Happier Baby Equals Happier Parents!Ahhh, this week has been much better than last week. We're pretty sure Theo is teething, but he has good days and bad...and this week consisted of far more good days than bad. Thank goodness!
We got some interesting answers about Theo's supposed food allergies. According to a blood test his pediatrician ordered this week, he has none. Well, none that are showing up on the blood test. She is quite perplexed (as are we) because a couple problems Theo has are classic food-allergy signs. So, according to our pediatrician, there are a couple possibilites. One, the blood test isn't always completely accurate. And two, Theo might be sensitive to foods without having a classic allergy response to them. So the upshot is that I am still to keep dairy out of my diet (because removing it made such a huge difference for him—even if he's not technically allergic after all, the doctor said he clearly doesn't tolerate it well). But, we can feel free to try formulas since we know he's supposedly not seriously allergic to anything in them.
So far, we have yet to find a formula that Theo tolerates well, but it's good to know that he's supposedly not outright allergic to them. For the time being, I plan to continue breastfeeding, since he does best on that, and perhaps try formula on occasion, when I run out of milk (which has been known to happen, since Gigantor has a voracious appetite!). The whole breastfeeding thing still isn't going well for me (lots of pain), but unless I find something that Theo does equally well on, I just can't agree to switch him over to something that I know bothers him. Alas, this is a constant point of discussion between Chris and I—he doesn't like seeing me in pain and would rather we use more formula, but I'm too stubborn to mess with Theo's comfort by giving him much formula. And so we go around and around...
But on another topic, what fun Theo has become! I am cautiously optimistic that his colicky days are nearing an end. Our little man is a relatively happy fellow now! He still screams bloody murder right before bed, but usually only for 20 minutes or so, which is a major improvement over days past. And for the most part, he is a very happy, curious little guy. His great joys in life this week are sucking on his fist, cooing at anything and everything, and scooting himself across the floor on his back, as if he's doing the backstroke across the carpet. (You'll see a couple scooting pictures in this week's album.)
Theo's favorite place to be is on the floor, where he can practice trying to roll himself from his back to his belly (a skill which he is trying to master, but has not yet succeeded at). So, I spend much time each day saying, "Luna, do not lick the baby!!" I'm glad that she loves him so much (and he thinks she's pretty darn funny, too), but given that I know where her mouth has been, I'd really prefer she didn't spend so much time licking him!
 This was a quiet week for us—we stuck around the house most of the week. However, Auntie Lynnie, Uncle Charles, and Theo's cousins babysat him on Saturday so Chris and I could go to a movie and lunch. We saw Mamma Mia, which I loved! Chris enjoyed it too, but it's really more of a "girl" movie, so I think I was a bigger fan that he was. The movie stays very true to the stage musical, so I was happy about that. It's a must-see for any big ABBA fan. I think it's better as a stage musical, but the movie was lots of fun, too. And it was nice to have a "date" with the hubby!
 Auntie Jeanette came for a visit on Sunday, which was an especially nice break because Sunday was a grumpy day for Theo. He woke up on the wrong side of the bed and stayed that way for most of the day. So it was nice to get to hang out with a friend instead of just staring at a cranky baby all day! He was pretty calm while Jeanette was here, so we were all able to enjoy her visit.
As you'll also see in the pictures for this week, Theo has found a new giraffe to love. He's fickle, that boy of ours....
In non-Theo news, Chris's thesis has been approved by his first reader!! Now the second reader just needs to take a quick pass through it, and then he needs to edit it for typos and such and gather all the signatures. At this point, he is scheduled to be officially finished with his M.A. on August 15th! YAHOO FOR CHRIS!!!!
Okay, the boy is very crabby (Theo, not Chris), so I must wrap this up before all hell breaks loose. Stay tuned for a midweek post about Gigantor's 4-month well baby check appointment. My money says he'll tip the scale at 15 pounds, but Chris is betting on 14 pounds, 7 ounces.
July 13 Week 14: Cranky Baby Equals Exhausted ParentsWhat a week this has been! Theo seems to have fallen back into a pattern of being very grouchy in the evenings! We had a couple nights of him squalling for the better part of three hours, which was exhausting. And disappointing, since his nightly Reigns of Terror had become almost nonexistent in the past few weeks. However, we may have finally figured out the culprit for this sudden change in behavior. Teething! At least, that's our guess. After one particularly exhausting night, Chris did some research on fussiness in babies of Theo's age and discovered that he fits the profile of a teething baby quite well. (Note several pictures in this week's album where he is attempting to eat his fist or one of his wrist rattles.) Particularly the fact that he suddenly hates pacifiers (he was never a huge fan of them, but he'd take them sometimes...particularly when he was sleepy) and is quite squirmy and grouchy about eating. Turns out that teething babies have discomfort when they try to suck...which explains his sudden distaste for pacifiers and the fact that he's been very fussy about feeding at some points.
Enter my Mom, who clued me in on the wonders of Baby Orajel. I put some on Theo's gums last night, and voila! He went from fussing, to making a lovely "ick" face at the taste of the Orajel (see the picture in this week's album—it's priceless!), to being calm and happy. I don't know whether it was the Orajel that did it or whether he was just having a good night, but it was much appreciated by his exhausted parents! Last night was the first night I've not gone to bed in tears all week, which was a very welcome change.
And actually, the timing was great. We had a few friends over last night for Game Night, and I was worried that our entire evening would be spent trying to calm fussy Theo. But no—he was a little prince! He sat in his high chair and babbled happily at his musical duck (playing the music over and over and over until Dave was about to die!) while we played Foodie Fight (a sort of food-and-wine Trivial Pursuit type of game) and Risk. Turns out I was a dismal failure at both games, but at least my tacos turned out pretty decent!! Risk is surprisingly fun. I didn't think world domination would be of much interest to me, but I had a lot of fun protecting my North American strongholds from Kim, who dominated South and Central America and kept trying to move in on my territory. Meanwhile, Chris spread himself thinly across the Middle East and held valiantly to his Australian stronghold, while Dave amassed an impressive army in Greenland (because he thought that Greenland was where "the hot chicks" were) and Africa and eventually went on to win the game, followed closely by Amber (who had impressive control over Europe by the end of the game) and Kim, with her South American domination. Suzanne, alas, was almost as bad as me at Risk. She held onto part of Asia, but was never able to dominate.
It was a quiet week other than that. I have two books going to the printer shortly, so I've been working as much as possible every day...which generally works out (ha ha, no pun intended!) to be about six hours per day. Not too shabby...thanks in large part to Theo's long morning naps. The afternoon nap is questionable, at best, but the morning nap is pretty constant, thank goodness.
One really fun thing has been watching Theo learn to play with toys. In the span of about a week, he has gone from occasionally managing to grab a toy to being able to grasp them pretty consistently and actually focusing on them. He loves his musical duck and can make it play songs (several pictures of the duck appear in this week's album). I don't think he really knows how he does it, but he can grasp it and punch at it enough that it will play its song over...and over...and over...and over.... I may go to my grave with that song stuck in my head! He is also a very big fan of his crazy little lion toy, which everyone seems to think is a spider. (It does have oddly spindly legs, giving it a kind of spidery look, I must say.) And he's a big fan of his wrist rattles—one is a small cow, and one is a small pig. He loves them mostly because he can try to chew on them, I think, but whatever...he loves them, so I'm happy.
This playing with toys is turning out to be a real blessing. I can sit Theo in his swing in the den while I work, and he will generally occupy himself with a toy or two for a good half hour or so, giving me a chance to work. When he can sit up by himself, we have an Exersaucer thing that I think (hope!!) he will really like. It has lots of fun activities on it. However, he may develop complex relationships with the animals on the Exersaucer, I suppose, given the love-hate relationship he has with some of his other animals. This week Chris took the drastic step of removing the beloved giraffe from the downstairs swing because Theo kept scowling at it and wouldn't go to sleep for his nap because the giraffe was apparently irritating him for some reason. He also got in a spat with the zebra, so you'll see one picture in the album where the swing's tray is pulled up, which was our solution when Theo started berating the zebra in angry baby gibberish. (And don't worry—I reattached the giraffe when Chris wasn't looking. I felt sorry for him, cast off like yesterday's news. And Theo seems pleased to see his good friend back. I think they have made up.)
Alas, the other down side to the week has been that the feeding woes continue. Theo is eating more than ever, and for some reason, my milk supply is plummeting. (My hair is also falling out all over the place, so my hunch is that it's some sort of nutrition deficiency. But I can't figure out what. I eat three healthy meals a day and snacks whenever I'm hungry, so I'm not sure what the sudden problem is.) We tried supplementing with Neocate, that ridiculously expensive, super hypoallergenic formula, and I'm not thrilled with the results. It's definitely the least of the evils so far, in terms of formula, but it's still not a great solution. Theo broke out in some eczema on his arms and legs right around the time we started him on it, and it flared up when we had him exclusively on Neocate for a few days, while I tried to bank some milk in our freezer. It also had unpleasant digestive side effects for him, resulting in a fair amount of fussiness. And lots and lots of spit-up, which Chris absolutely hates. (For some reason, he hates spit-up. He can deal with diapers and all other manner of kid gunk, but spit-up just grosses him out to no end.)
I've started trying to nurse Theo again, as nursing supposedly brings up your milk supply much better than pumping milk. And a lot of people told me that nursing gets easier after the baby is three months old. (More motor control on the baby's part, etc.) Well, I've come to the conclusion that Theo and I still don't nurse well. I don't know whether it's Theo or me, but somehow we just don't work well when nursing. I'm pushing through it, since I need to get him fed somehow for the next few months, until he can start on solids, but man...it is painful and not going well. It's going to be a looooooong three months, I think, until he can start on rice cereal and thus rely less on breast milk.
Interestingly enough, we went to a picnic for the Bradley/birth community today, and there was a La Leche League leader there. I told Chris, "I'm going to go pick her brain and see if she can help me figure out some of these nursing problems." So I went to talk to her...and realized that I went to high school with her and her husband! Crazy small world, given that we're living 150 miles from where we all went to high school. Anyway, she was able to give me some useful tips, so hopefully that will help.
The Bradley picnic was fun—we got to catch up with our Bradley instructor, Ciana, who was there with her two children, Cade and Josie. It was a warm day out, but there was lots of shade and Theo did well. Chris promised me lunch at our favorite sushi place downtown after the picnic, but it turned out to be closed. Oh well, it was nice to get out for a day, anyway....
Anyway, enjoy this week's album! Next week should be a quiet one, too, though Auntie Lynnanne is babysitting Theo next Saturday so Chris and I can go on a "date" to see Mamma Mia at the movies. Can't wait!!! July 06 Week 13: Three Months Old!Theo is three months old, as of Saturday the 5th! In some ways it seems like it has flown by; in other ways, it seems like we've had him forever.
It has been a relatively quiet week around here. I think Chris and I are still a bit exhausted from our jaunt to Texas. Well, that and the fact that Mr. Theo has not been sleeping well since we got back. He slept great in Texas, but ever since we got back, he has been waking up a lot. Last night was almost every hour, which means I'm rather worthless and exhausted today.
 But we squeezed in some fun outings, too. On Wednesday, Theo and I went to the zoo and met up with our friends Katherine and John (18 months), Janeane and Emma (21 months), and Rebecca and Ethan and Wyatt (5-year-old twins). We managed to get one group photo of the nine of us—it's in this week's album. I always love the zoo, and it was nice to get to spend the morning with everyone. Theo and I stopped by Chris's office on the way home and met him for lunch at Jamba and to pay a quick visit to Chris's coworkers.
We spent the 4th of July with Kim and Dave at their house, as well as Suzanne and Dave's Mom, Candace. And there, I lost my husband forever. Chris is now in love with another woman—a four-week-old kitten named Lola. See this week's album for pictures. Chris went wild over her. I think he's in looooooove!
We left before the others went in search of fireworks, but we stayed for a few hours and chatted and had a BBQ pork throwdown. (If you haven't seen Bobby Flay's Throwdown on Food Network, you're missing it! If Chris ever leaves me for Lola, I might leave him for Bobby Flay. Or Johnny Depp. Or Colin Firth. Oh, so many choices...  ) In another ongoing love story, our son is a bit of a player, I think. This week he was flirting shamelessly with the dog and cat on the top of his upstairs swing. He hasn't yet made up with the giraffe, and he's still making eyes at the zebra. See this week's album for pictures of Theo making goo-goo eyes at the dog and cat.
Saturday and Sunday were pretty mellow. Frankly, Chris and I were too tired to do much of anything, so we just cleaned up some stuff around the house. My Mom came over for spaghetti on Saturday night, and then babysat Theo so Chris and I could go out for dessert. We went to Nugget (anyone want to guess who chose that as our date destination?!) and got sorbet, and Chris made the mistake of challenging me to a Scrabble match. (We have a little handheld electronic Scrabble game. Chris is determined to beat me, but so far has only done so once...and only by a couple points. He refuses to realize that I am an unbeatable Scrabble force...and quite modest, to boot!! Ha ha—sorry, have to brag where I can! He beats me much of the time at Trivial Pursuit and gloats shamelessly, so I must do the same about my Scrabble victories.) At any rate, things got a bit tense when it appeared that Chris was going to possibly beat me...but on my penultimate play, I scored a 42-point word by hitting a Triple Word Score square, thus taking the game in the final moments. For the record, "lusher" is indeed a word, according to the official Scrabble dictionary. It means "more lush than." So there, Chris!!
Sunday we got a surprise visit from my sister and her family. Charles, Lynnie, Sam, Tyler, Noelle, and Stevie were trying to go to a furniture store near our house, so they stopped by for a visit, which was very cool! We don't get to see them as often as we'd like because they live about 45 minutes away. Theo was a bit grouchy, but he seemed to find a companion in his cousin, Tyler, to whom he took a great liking. I think there was some male bonding going on there....
Anyway, hope you all have a good week!
July 01 Week 12: Don't Mess with Texas!Well, we’re back from our great Texas adventure! And what an adventure it was.... I think I got a little overzealous with the amount of pictures in this week’s album, but what the heck. We have a fun new camera to play with, so we took a lot of pictures! I need to learn how to really use it, though. These are mostly just point-and-shoot pix. But still some neat ones, I think.
Anyway, traveling with a three-month-old was generally smoother than we expected. We had a few bumps, but nothing too taxing. We flew out Wednesday late afternoon, which we were dreading because it’s Theo’s fussy time. We had booked the tickets months ago, before realizing that the boy gets crabby in the late afternoon/early evening. At the time I made the reservation, he was still in the womb! But he did surprisingly well for most of the flight. He squalled for the last 45 minutes, but I think his ears were bothering him. Chris’s were killing him, so I suspect maybe Theo’s were hurting, too. (I never have that problem, thank goodness, so I don’t know what it’s like.)
We flew ExpressJet, which uses small commuter-type planes. Ours had a capacity of 50, and all the seats were full. We were in the very back row, right next to the bathroom (ew!), with seats that didn’t recline. But, it was still a pretty pleasant flight. ExpressJet did a good job of getting everyone loaded and unloaded quickly, which was a big plus. Overall, I think they’re a pretty decent little airline. And cheap! And our flight to San Antonio was nonstop! So no complaints about them....
Actually, getting the rental car was the most irritating part of the entire five days. After getting off the plane with a squalling infant, we collected our bags and headed to Thrifty. I had scored a rental car for half the price of at the other rental agencies, so I was pleased with my bargain. I shouldn’t have been. I see now why Thrifty was half the price. I had ordered an intermediate car, but they gave us a minivan. I decided I was not a fan of said minivan. One, I felt like I was driving a land yacht. I’m used to a little Subaru! Two, the gas mileage wasn’t too great, and with gas prices what they are, I was looking forward to a relatively fuel-efficient car. Three, the minivan was rather dirty and scummy, despite being relatively new. And last but not least, the godawful car seat! I ordered an infant car seat from Thrifty. The first one they gave me was filthy and had the canopy broken off. So I asked for a different one, and they handed me one with only half a buckle, so there was no way I could strap Theo in. (No way anyone could strap any baby in with half a buckle—I don’t know what they were thinking!) And a busted canopy on that one, too. So I asked for yet another one, and it turned out that those were the only two they had. So, I got the filthy one. And I’m not just being fussy here...there was a dead cockroach in the base of the car seat! Double ew!!!!
We finally got in (after I kicked the stroller and Chris swore up a blue streak at the stupid car seat!), started up the minivan (which we dubbed the “Ton of Crappy,” given that it was a Chrysler “Town and Country”), only to find a warning light on the dashboard that we couldn’t identify. The Thrifty people didn’t know what it meant either, but we decided to just go to the hotel and come back in the morning to exchange the bloody beast if it was really a problem. (Turns out it meant there was a low tire. Chris put air in all the tires, but the darn light stayed on. And the "Change Oil Now" warning came on at the end of the trip. You'd think Thrity would take care of these things before renting out a van, wouldn't you?!)
I knew I had reserved a room at a lower-end airport Marriott that got a good review on TripAdvisor, but I couldn’t remember which chain. Anyone who has stayed at Marriott in the last few years probably knows that they have Courtyard by Marriott, TownPlace Suites by Marriott, Residence Inn by Marriott, and a few others. I figured we were probably at the nearby Courtyard Airport by Marriott, so we headed there. Um, no. It turns out we were booked at the TownPlace Suites on the other side of the freeway. The San Antonio freeway system is pretty much all under construction right now, so we opted not to fight our way to the TownPlace. Theo was still screaming, it was hot and very late, we were exhausted and hadn’t eaten in 12 hours, and the Courtyard was there and had rooms. They were nice enough to give us a room and cancel our reservation at the TownPlace, which I appreciated very much. However, the Courtyard turned out to be a bit shabby. I’ve certainly stayed in worse, but most of you know I’m a bit of a clean freak...and so the mildew growing in the shower didn’t thrill me at all. But, it was relatively clean and a place to sleep, so we stayed.
The last straw was the food. ExpressJet actually feeds you, but I couldn’t eat any of it because it all had dairy in it. No worries, I thought—I’d get something after we got off the plane. But the darn rental car took so long that almost everything was closed. Except a McDonald’s next to the hotel. No problem! McDonald’s generally has two dairy-free items—a chicken sandwich and, oddly enough, the hot apple pies. So we went through the drive through and got chicken sandwiches and apple pies. (Chris is being a stubborn fool and doing this dairy-free diet with me. I keep telling him I don’t mind if he eats dairy...it really doesn’t bother me in the least! But he’s determined to stick it out with me, for some reason. Which is actually very sweet, but I keep thinking, “Wow, you’re nicer than I would be!”) We got back to the room, only to find that the chicken sandwiches are made differently in Texas. They have cheese and are on a different bun. I picked the cheese off, but couldn’t eat the bun, since a lot of buns have dairy products in them. I ate a bit of the patty, but it was kind of odd-tasting, so I tossed the rest and decided to just eat my pie. Only they forgot the pie!!!
But, my sleep being what it is, I woke up after two hours and couldn’t go back to sleep! I was hungry and my mind kept racing, and I just couldn’t sleep. And so, I was a walking zombie the next day.
But, the trip got better from there. Thursday morning we wandered along the Riverwalk, which is quite pretty (lots of pix in this week’s album). We also went to the Alamo, which is smaller than I expected but still very neat to see. And then we got into the Ton of Crappy and headed up to Temple, which is about 2 1/2 hours north of San Antonio. (It’s about an hour past Austin.)
Theo did well most days despite the sticky heat and the changes to his routine. He had some cranky times, but I suspect a couple of them were dairy-related. Without going into gross detail, I shall just say that there is a very obvious change in his diaper contents when he has had an allergic reaction to something. The day after the McDonald’s debacle, we had an “allergic diaper,” if you want to call it that. I have a feeling the breading on the chicken might’ve contained dairy. A lot of breading does, I’ve discovered. And one day later in the trip, I ordered shrimp fajitas with no cheese, no sour cream, and corn tortillas instead of flour...all of which should’ve made them fine for me to eat. But I figured out halfway through that the shrimp were sautéed in butter. But I hadn’t eaten all day because I couldn’t eat anything at the breakfast buffet at the hotel (the eggs were already gone when we got there, and they were the only dairy-free item) and I had a bad case of the shakes, so I finished the fajitas...and we paid the price the next day. Theo was a grumpy beast, and his diaper later revealed the reason why. I’m almost sure it was the darn fajitas.
It’s frustrating to try to eat out because nearly everything contains dairy of some sort. Either it’s cooked in butter or it has a lot of bread (most breads contain dairy). It’s easy to order things with no cheese, sour cream, etc., but it’s really, really hard to avoid the hidden dairy. I guess I should just be glad the poor little guy only had two allergy problems over the five days we were there.
Anyway, we had a good time in Temple. Chris’s parents and sister, brother-in-law, and nephew met us there, and we all stayed at the Residence Inn. It was neat for Chris’s family to get to spend some more time with Theo, since they haven’t gotten to see him too often yet, and we also got to spend some time with Nicky (Theo’s cousin who is one month older than he is).
We were in Temple for Chris’s cousin’s wedding. The wedding was gorgeous—probably one of the prettiest I’ve been to! (Well, I’m always partial to my own wedding, of course, for obvious reasons! But if I ignore my own wedding, this one was one of the prettiest I’ve been to.) It was held in Salado, Texas, which is not far from Temple. The ceremony was held on this little “island” under huge, beautiful trees (oaks, mostly, I think). The wedding party got to the island by coming across a wooden bridge, and all of the guests were seated on little hills on the “mainland.” It was actually a small, intimate place, but the little “island” part was just really neat. The trees kept it shady and relatively cool, which was nice. And it was just green and beautiful!
Stefanie (Chris’s cousin) looked beautiful, as did the bridal party. And it was nice to finally get to meet Trey, her husband. I’ve heard a lot about him, but never met him. I also got to meet Hannah, who is marrying Stefanie’s brother, Scott, next May. She and Trey both seem really, really nice! (For those of you who were at our wedding and who don’t already know Scott, he was one of Chris’s groomsman. Billy was the best man—he got married just five days before I went into labor with Theo. It was my last big outing as a pregnant woman! Scott was the other groomsman, and he is marrying his longtime girlfriend, Hannah, on May 23, 2009.)
And it was nice to get to spend some time with Aunt Barbara and Uncle David. Theo is named after Aunt Barbara’s father, so I was glad she got to meet him! The only sad part of the occasion was that Chris’s grandma, Dot, passed away last month and thus couldn’t be there. (She was married to Ted, who we named Theo after.)
I got to see a bit of Temple, too, which was nice. We went out to Lake Belton, which was one of my favorite things to see. It’s just quiet and nice out there...I liked it a lot. I put a couple pictures of that lake in the album for this week.
Chris and I left Temple on Sunday and headed back to San Antonio. The drive went well with Theo...until we got to San Antonio. We decided to eat along the Riverwalk. Big mistake—it was very crowded and hot that night! Theo was grumpy, so we decided to head to our hotel after dinner. But when we got Theo into the minivan, he just suddenly started screaming bloody murder for no apparent reason. We stopped and fed him, we changed him, we held him...we tried everything! Nothing worked—he was just ballistic. So we finally just drove on to the hotel with him screaming so forcefully that he was choking himself—it was awful! But, he calmed down once we got to the hotel, and he fell deeply asleep.
The only other chaos came the next morning. We checked out of the car, and Chris decided to make use of a luggage cart to take our bags out to the Ton of Crappy. A good idea in theory, but not so great in execution. A disabled man was loading his van and blocking the ramp from the sidewalk to the parking lot, so Chris left the luggage cart on a flat area and walked over to the Ton of Crappy, where I was standing with Theo in my arms. He started to say, “I’m going to move the van closer to the luggage cart,” but then we saw out the corner of our eyes the luggage cart picking up speed as it made a break for the parking lot. I guess it was trying to escape! There it was, careening down the sidewalk at a crazy angle, and we couldn’t get to it in time. I stood helplessly with Theo in my arms and watched as Chris ran toward it...too late! The stupid thing careened off the sidewalk and crashed in a spectacular heap into a puddle of muck in the parking lot, getting all our bags rather filthy. Luckily, nothing broke, but oooooh, Chris was mad!!! In retrospect we’re laughing about it, but it wasn’t too funny right at that moment!
Two more things to add to this post. First of all, my grandma has apparently made a rather miraculous recovery! I was pretty sure she might not even survive until I got back from Texas, but she is suddenly doing much, much better. She has regained clear speech, my Mom says, and she has quite a few times of lucidity. (She still gets confused on things sometimes, but overall she’s much more lucid, according to my Mom. I haven’t yet seen her, since we just got home, so I can’t say myself.)
Second, Theo’s love affair with the giraffe has taken an interesting turn. Yesterday, I put him in his beloved swing when we got home. I expected him to start flirting with the giraffe, but instead he stared intently at the zebra for 10 minutes until he fell asleep...utterly ignoring his lady love, the yellow giraffe! Poor, poor giraffe. Suddenly my son is two-timing her for no apparent reason. It will be interesting to see how this progresses.... Anyway, this post is horribly long, so I’ll shut up now. Hope you’ve all been well! I must say, I’m glad to be home, although I enjoyed the trip! |
Nonetheless, it was nearing midnight, Theo had now been squalling for about two hours (he hated the rental car shuttle, too, and he was hot and sticky and overtired), and we needed to get to the hotel. So I took the gross car seat and fought with installing it in the stupid minivan.
I was seriously ready to cry over the stupid pie at that point. Which is utterly silly, so I just decided to go to bed hungry. Theo finally calmed down and fell asleep once we were in the hotel room, so he was down for the count. We crawled into bed and fell asleep.
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