It has come to our attention that Theo is quite the little mini-perfectionist. He spent the better part of this week getting furious that he can't crawl yet! For some odd reason, I haven't had much work to do this week (which does not bode well for next week, when I'll probably get slammed!), so I've been able to spend a lot of time playing with Theo. I put him on the floor and give him a toy, then put a couple other toys just out of reach. He immediately flips over onto his stomach and begins to try to make his way over to the just-out-of-reach toys. He'll try for a good five minutes, and then dissolve into angry, frustrated tears and wailing. He seems to be furious that he can't master crawling yet, even though he's only five months old! (In other news, he turned five months old on the 5th! Yay Theo!) So a lot of the pictures in this week's album are of Theo desperately trying to crawl. I should add that on Saturday night, he did accomplish two feats of strength: First, he managed to scoot on his belly to get a toy. It was only about 10 inches from him, and it was a long, laborious journey filled with much anguished wailing, but he managed it. Second, about half an hour later, I put him down on the floor while I moved the kitchen chairs to be able to vacuum under the table. Next thing I knew, he had rolled two full rolls to make it over to the vacuum cleaner, which he was happily playing with. We really need to think about doing some baby-proofing sooner rather than later, methinks.

Other than being crabby about his inability to crawl, Theo has been a pretty cheery little guy this week. Which is a good thing, since Chris had to spend a lot of time at the office, sitting in on interviews for a new editor. We did have one Leon day, though. And it was probably my fault, really. The pediatrician told me to periodically experiment with small amounts of dairy, because eventually Theo should be able to tolerate it, and the only way to find out when is to experiment a bit. So about a month ago, I had a cookie made with butter. And we had a bad Leon night. Blech. This week, I decided to try again, thinking, "Well, the small amount of butter in one cookie can't possibly upset him, can it?" Hmmm, I think maybe it can. Theo had been cheery for 3 1/2 days straight when I tried said cookie. I ate the cookie (which tasted fabulous, by the way!), nursed him a few hours later, and within a couple hours, he did a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde switch into a fussy, screaming little Leon. He was pretty awful for about three hours, and then calmed down and went to sleep. The next morning, he had a big patch of eczema on one shoulder that wasn't there before. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but it seems to me that perhaps the butter was the culprit. (I should point out that this was a decent-sized meal-replacement oats-and-grains-and-fruits cookie...not a small modest cookie like one would make at home.) So, I am led to believe that it's probably best to continue my extremely rigid avoidance of dairy for the time being. We'll experiment again in a few more weeks, when I feel up to another Leon night!

We had a lot of fun this week, since I didn't have to work much. We went to see Great-Grandma Ruth one day. I think she was rather surprised and amused by Theo's temper when he finishes a bottle and his mean, mean mama takes it away. He screams like it's the end of the world for about a minute, and then realizes he is indeed full and settles down. Stubborn little poop, that boy of mine....

We also went to visit Auntie Lynnie and got to see cousin Stevie, too. Theo had a ball with my sister—she had him laughing up a storm as we ate lunch! He also found her dog, Roxie, quite amusing. Which is good since no one finds Roxie amusing.  Poor Roxie—she's a Chihuahua, and an extremely yappy one. So she drives everyone nuts with her barking. But Theo thought she was just the funniest little thing ever! So she has a friend in Theo. Theo is a lover of all dogs, I'm finding. Yesterday I was holding him while Luna raced around the house in circles, trying to get me to feed her, and I looked at Theo to find a HUGE smile on his face as he watched Luna's antics. He just loves those crazy dogs...he laughs and smiles at them a lot!

In non-Theo news, we got our new furniture delivered! The desk looks great and creates a lot more space in the den, which was our intent. And the TV cabinet fits perfectly and looks really nice, too. The TV will be hooked up this week, when we switch from Dish Network to cable, and I'll have to take a picture of the new setup after that.

And, the biggest non-Theo news is that I have FINALLY done something I've meant to do for years: I'm taking a photography class! It's just a short four-session seminar, but the first meeting was Friday night. I absolutely loved it! I learned a lot even on the first night. The seminar is on outdoor portraiture, so I'll spend three hours each of the next two Saturdays in field workshops, taking portraits at the college's nature center. Next Saturday we use each other as models, but the following Saturday we have to bring models...so I'll be bringing Chris and Theo to pose for me. Then we have an evaluation class in October where we frame/mat our four best portraits that we've taken during the class duration and present them for critique. Almost everyone in the class has far more experience than I do, so I don't expect to get great critiques, but I'm just having fun learning about photography, which I have long meant to do. And frankly, it was fun to do something that didn't revolve around baby poop or breast feeding!  I'm taking the class with my friend Kim, so that makes it all the more enjoyable. She's my go-to person for camera advice, so it'll be fun to do this together. Now I REALLY wish I could've gotten into the Fall Colors photography workshop that I was originally eyeing, but alas it is full...and the first day is while we're in Portland, so I can't even try to add it. Oh well, I'll just have to find another good workshop next semester and take that.

Saturday was an errands day and became a cleaning day when Theo took an unexpected two-hour nap. I seized the opportunity to clean the house. Which sounds utterly pathetic unless you realize that I’m somewhat of a neat freak who actually enjoys getting to clean up the house. Not that I so much enjoy the act of cleaning itself...I just like the end product, so doing it makes me happy.

But Sunday was really a fun day. Chris, Theo, and I headed up to Empire Mine State Park in Grass Valley to try out my portraiture skills, and to just escape the heat and enjoy the park. (Grass Valley is in the Sierra foothills, so it was a mere 90 degrees; Sac was slated to be 100 degrees today. Ugh!) I’ve always wanted to go there, as I’ve heard it’s beautiful, but I just hadn’t ever made it up there. It is indeed beautiful and peaceful, and Theo was a little angel, so we had fun. I did discover that I’m horrible at taking direct-sunlight portraits, but I’ll ask the instructor of my class for some pointers next week and see whether I can figure out what I’m doing wrong. I did better with shade portraits this time, I think...Chris and Theo don’t look like Smurfs. So that’s a start. Anyway, day trips like that are something Chris and I used to do a lot, and I’ve really missed them since we had the baby. So it was a lot of fun to take a day and do that. You can see some pictures of the beautiful park in this week’s album.

Have a good week, everyone! Less than three weeks until we head to Portland—can’t wait!

Well, Theo’s big accomplishment this week is learning how to roll over in his sleep. These days, the mantra for sleeping is "back is best"—supposedly on the back is the safest way for babies to sleep to lessen the risk of SIDS. Which was all fine and dandy until this week, when Theo decided that he MUST be on his tummy, even while sleeping. He constantly tries to roll from back to tummy now—while on the floor, while in his stroller, while on the changing table, and now while sleeping. And he has become quite accomplished at it; it takes him only a couple seconds to flip over and push himself up on his forearms. (Needless to say, this makes changing his diaper an interesting challenge these days!) He even flipped onto his tummy on the bathroom floor and attempted to scoot away from me as I ran his bath. The image of his cute little naked bottom trying to wiggle away was adorable, so I grabbed the camera. Alas, I didn’t have time to fix the lighting settings on the camera before snapping the pix, so those pictures in the album are a little off on the coloring.

Anyway, the first night Theo kept flipping over at bedtime in his Pack and Play (where he's still sleeping at the moment), so Chris and I kept turning him back over. Theo would look at us, give an angry squawk, and then flip back over...and proceed to fuss and squall because he really doesn't like being on his tummy. (This is the odd part—he's determined to be on his tummy at all times, but then he fusses like crazy when he gets on it! And he can't flip himself back over very well yet, so he just gets all irate and we have to come rescue him.) We were rather nervous about the increased SIDS risk because when Theo was first born, we were told he was already at a slightly higher risk for SIDS, due to his neck vertebrae being twisted during his rough delivery. Supposedly that has since been corrected, but as you can imagine, it still makes us a bit nervous. (I should point out that the risk of SIDS is very, very minimal, so I’m probably just being ultra-paranoid here. But what can I say—I’m a worrywart!) So I did some research online and discovered that once your baby can roll over, all bets are off. If he wants to sleep on his tummy, really all you can do is make sure there are no blankets, sheets, toys, or anything else in the crib that he can bury his face in (until he’s a bit older). So, we have resigned ourselves to having a tummy-sleeper, and the last several nights have consisted of me getting woken up every couple hours when Theo fusses in his sleep because he doesn't like being on his tummy. I flip him onto his back without waking him, and within a couple minutes, he has flipped back onto his tummy...but at least he has usually fallen back into a deeper sleep and is no longer fussing...so I go back to sleep until the next round. He also somehow manages to rotate himself in his sleep and scoot around the Pack and Play, so I find him in all sorts of weird places when I wake up. There's only so far he can go in there, but he manages to get himself in every corner.

Needless to say, this has slowed down the transition to crib slightly. Theo got himself stuck in the crib again the other day, so I'm still not crazy about the idea of putting him in there at night. Partly because I don't want him to hurt himself, but partly because he seems to get into more predicaments in his crib, and that will mean more wake-up calls for me in the middle of the night to free the little booger from whatever scrape he has gotten himself into! And so, the Pack and Play continues its duty as the bed. And I long for the day that Theo can flip himself back over in his sleep so I can get more than two hours of sleep at a time!

So, on the rolling topic...question for other mamas or papas. It seems that most people’s kids start crawling around 7 or 8 months or thereabouts. However, Theo is already trying desperately to do it. He gets on his tummy and tries to scoot and pulls his knees up under him and tries to push off the floor with his feet. He’s not even quite five months old yet. So, I’m wondering, do they generally start “trying” to crawl this early, and then it just takes a few months for them to get it...or should I be expecting him to start doing it in the near future, do you think? Just curious what we might be in for. Of course all kids are different, but I can’t figure out whether he’s starting this a bit early, or whether it’s normal for kids to spend several months working up to it from when they start pushing off with their feet, trying to scoot, etc.

All in all, it has been a pretty good week for Theo. He's been quite fussy a few times, but I think it's teething. It's usually accompanied by much drooling, inserting of an entire fist in his mouth, and ear-pulling.

Theo got a couple visits with Grandma Diane this week: We met up with her Wednesday for lunch and a bit of a furniture-scouting mission (more on that in a moment), and she came along on Friday when I got a haircut, so she could watch Theo, and then we went to lunch. On a side note, I think Theo is making connections about food. I could be wrong on this, as I'm not sure how likely it is that a baby would put two and two together about this, but at lunch on Friday, Theo was sitting on my lap while I ate a tuna sandwich. He kept looking at my sandwich, and then turning his head to stare right at my chest and root a bit, making some sort of baby babble along the way. Do babies smell our food and equate that with their food, I wonder? Not sure. All I know is that the boy leaves no question about when he's interested in eating, so I'm quite sure he thought he ought to be eating too (despite the fact that he had just eaten—little glutton!!).

Thursday we joined Janeane and Emma for a stroll at the mall. It has been hot, hot, hot in Sacramento this week...much too hot to walk outside. We live about 10 minutes from a nice, big mall, so that makes for good strolling on the days when it's just too bloody hot to get outside. Theo gave me a big smile when I asked him if he wanted to go see his buddy Emma, and Emma seemed quite pleased to see "Baby Beo!"  Alas, Baby Beo was a bit fussy at the mall, but luckily, the mall is usually filled with stroller-pushing moms at that time of day, so I figured they've all been there too, and he probably wasn't bugging anyone.

Thursday night, Chris and I took the plunge and bought a new TV and a couple new furniture items. The new TV, as you may recall, was to be Chris's M.A. graduation present to himself. Then he hemmed and hawed and decided he didn't really need one, so we decided we wouldn't do it. But then his parents gave him a very nice graduation present in the form of some money toward said TV, so we decided to go ahead and do it. So, our new 32" flat-screen TV will be delivered next week. It was kind of a challenge to find the right size TV and a stand because our living room is quite small and with some odd space issues, but we also ended up finding a perfect TV stand in their clearance center, so we bought that, too. We were using a coffee table as a TV stand, but that makes the TV an enticing height for tiny hands that will soon be into everything! The new stand is about 3 feet tall, so it'll take Theo a while to be able to reach on top of it...and by then, hopefully he will be old enough to understand that the TV is a "don't touch" item. And, as long as we were paying for delivery, we also bought a desk that was on sale. Our den/office has become hopelessly crowded by Theo stuff. Since I work in there, it makes sense to have a baby swing and a few play items in there so Theo can amuse himself while I get some work done. But it makes for a VERY crowded room. So, I have downsized my giant desk for a much smaller one. My old one was also all open in the back, leaving many enticing cords and wires exposed. The new one is more solid, so I can tuck the cords behind it and hopefully keep them away from tiny hands!

Saturday Theo and I met Auntie Jeanette for coffee and then a stroll around a great discount store, Stupid Prices. (Weird name, but lots of good deals to be found there! I got a nice suede jacket for $17—originally $80! LOVE a bargain!) And Saturday afternoon, our friend Becky came over for a visit, which was a lot of fun.

Sunday we decided to take a day trip to some outlets about an hour from our house, which was sort of a flop. The weather finally cooled down, so it was nice to be out and able to walk around outside with Theo, but he was pretty cranky most of the day, so I can’t say it was overly relaxing. Ah well, c’est la vie.

Theo did do one absolutely adorable thing on Sunday that made up for the fussiness. We were driving home from the outlets, and we decided to stop in Davis for an early dinner. We suddenly heard Theo laughing in his car seat, so we looked back to discover that he was fast asleep...and giggling away in his sleep! It was so cute, and Chris got out the camera and managed to get a picture of him doing it (see this week’s album)! I wonder what he was dreaming about. Usually when he laughs out loud it’s at the dogs, so maybe he was dreaming about them? Not sure, but I thought it was incredibly endearing.

And tomorrow, Labor Day, we shall be laboring. We intend to clean out the closets in our house. We recently had our house reassessed and have discovered that we’ve lost a ton of money on it, just like everyone else in this area (and in a lot of the rest of the country, I’m sure). So, our “starter home” is likely to be our permanent home for quite some time, until we can dig out from under all this negative equity. And thus, we have resolved to make the most of our small space...thus reorganizing the den, cleaning the closets, etc. The good thing is, we love the house and the area, so at least we’re happily “stuck.” It’s going to get tight as we raise our family, but people make do with far less space, so it’ll all work out in the long run. If we have a second child someday, well...that’s what bunk beds are for, right?!

Happy week, all!

Wow, what a week for development! To anyone who has had a baby, this will all sound like old hat, but given that I haven't been around babies very much, it's absolutely fascinating to me! In fact, on reflecting on being a parent, I realized that two things stand out to me:

1.       It is far, far more exhausting than I imagined.

2.       No matter how seemingly minor the "leaps and bounds" are, they're absolutely incredible to witness in your child!

Anyway, it seems like Theo changes literally overnight. Here's a list of recent developments from just this week:

• Last week, his little legs were too short for his Exersaucer; this week his feet touch the bottom so he can stand on tiptoe!
• In the last three or four days, he has started trying to move to get toys. You can almost see the wheels turning in his brain: "If I roll to the left and then wiggle a bit, I can reach that lion toy!"
• Also in the last few days, he has been a rolling machine! It started the day Chris finished his M.A. degree (more on that in a moment). I was baking a from-scratch cake to celebrate the occasion, and Theo got bored sitting in his high chair holding the balloon (which fascinated him for a time), so I put him down on the carpet to play with his baby gym. I kept looking over to check on him, and he was repeated rolling from his back to his front, over and over.  He has rolled from his back to his front once before, but only once. All of a sudden, he was doing it over and over! Only problem is, he'd get stuck on his belly with one arm pinned under him, and that would annoy him. So, I kept having to go over and turn him back onto his back, at which time we would repeat the process. (Nevertheless, I got the cake baked and Theo managed to really tired himself out, which was wonderful!) That was Thursday, and by Friday he had mastered rolling back to front and slowly unpinning his arm. By Saturday, he was able to roll and quickly unpin his arm. Saturday night he added pushing up on his arms to the trick, and by Sunday morning, he was also pushing with his feet to attempt that "army crawl" that babies often start with. He's not getting much of anywhere yet, but I have a feeling that it won't be long before we have to purchase and install baby gates by the stairs!
• On Friday, he discovered texture/sound. It started with him scratching his fingernails on the Boppy (breastfeeding pillow). He seemed to like either the feeling or the sound of the scratching, so he kept doing it over and over, leaning forward and wiggling to be able to reach the Boppy and scratch it. And Saturday morning, while rolling around on the floor, he discovered that our faux suede-y couch is really neat-feeling, too. I now have little Theo finger tracks all over the suede-y material, down by the floor where he was repeatedly running his fingers over it. And Sunday afternoon, when we went shopping for a bit, he discovered that scratching the Baby Bjorn carrier makes a fun, amusing sound, too.
• Sorbet confounds him. We gave him a tiny taste of it on Friday night, and he looked alternately pleased by it and confused, either by the coldness or the sweet flavor. Lemon seemed to go over well, as did blood orange. Pineapple...not so much.

·    All this may sound mundane, but as I said, it fascinates me. I sometimes wish I had endless amounts of time to watch these developments. As it is, I'm lucky enough to work at home so that I can catch them out of the corner of my eye, take a break, and sit and watch them transpire.

Other fun Theo things:

• He loves his bath. In fact, it makes him so happy that we give him one every night, even though that's really probably unnecessary. He has figured out how to arch his back and then let his body come crashing down in his baby tub, creating a small tidal wave of soapy water. Big fun! He's also quite adept at passing gas in the tub, making some fun bubble creations. And this week, he managed to pee right in his mama's face while in the tub. Good times!
• He loves the Baby Bjorn carrier. He flirts happily with people as we pass them and they smile at him. However, he's not liking his stroller much these days. The Bjorn puts him more at eye level with people, and I think that may be part of what he likes—he can see a lot more than he can see from the low vantage point in the stroller.
• He loves the pug, and she loves him. He grabs her fur and pulls on her, and she just sits there placidly, letting him manhandle her. She's really a gem with him...which is a good thing, since she is being a pill with us! She keeps stealing and eating things. This week was three pacifiers and part of a peach. Makes for fun yard cleanup, let me tell you....                  

Anyway, now that I've rambled for a long time about Theo, let me move on to other things. First, the reason for this Star Wars allusion blog title (yes, I'm becoming more of a geek every day!): CHRIS FINISHED HIS MASTER'S DEGREE!!! Specifically, on Thursday. It was supposed to be Wednesday, but bureaucracy and red tape rule in the state university system (and probably every university, really), and so they denied his thesis because: 1) he listed his abstract in the table of contents, and 2) he had ONE blurred word from a printer glitch on ONE page of his thesis, way in the middle (it was still readable, just blurred). So, after lining up Grandma Diane to babysit Theo so we could go turn in the thesis and have a celebratory lunch on Wednesday, it turned out that Chris had to make the correction, reprint the two pages, and resubmit the thesis on Thursday, when it was accepted. (The really ridiculous part is actually aside from this: He paid $60 to have the thesis bound and put in the library, and now they may reject it because the title page uses 14-point font. But the template provided to him by Graduate Studies uses 14-point font! And nowhere on the web does it say that the template has an error, so he had no way of knowing that the font is supposed to be 12-point on the title page. Ahhh, red tape and silly rules...gotta love 'em.) Anyway, we had a nice lunch on Wednesday despite the disappointment, and when Chris got home on Thursday, Theo and I were waiting for him with a big balloon, a homemade cake (see pix in this week's album—yes, I know it's ugly; the center collapsed! But it's the thought that counts.), a card, and flowers. It was a small-scale celebration for six years of hard work finally completed, but we'll do more celebrating when we go to Portland next month. And Chris bought himself a little gift in honor of completion—an autographed set list and photograph from his current favorite band's recent tour. (We tried to see them in concert when I was pregnant, as they were opening for George Strait, but it figures—Sacramento was one of three cities on the tour to have a different opening act.) The picture/set list were up for auction for the Make-a-Wish foundation, which is a charity we both really like, so we figured it was a neat present for him and the money went to a good cause.

I had lunch with Janeane, Emma (Janeane's almost-two-year-old daughter), and Kim on Thursday. Theo was worn out from his morning rolling adventures, so he actually fell asleep in the restaurant, which was lovely—I was able to enjoy chatting with my friends while he took a nice nap. And after Janeane and Emma left, I stayed for a bit to pick Kim's brain about photography techniques. She showed me how to achieve the "focused subject, blurred background" type of effect I've been trying to shoot. I need to keep practicing with it so I can post some good examples, but I'm finding it tough to get quite right. However, it sure is fun to play around and see what our camera can do. After I get that technique down, I want to work on getting better action shots, since Theo is quite the mover! I did some practice work on them with pugs this week (a few examples in this week's album), but I've got more to work on.

Saturday our friends Roxann and Mike came to visit with their new son, Tico (born 7/7/08). What a cutie he is! He's very alert and very strong already! I think Theo was more intrigued by their dog, Cali, as he doesn't really notice other babies yet. Cali's pretty darn cute too, so I can see the appeal.  After Roxann and Mike and Tico left, I headed out with Luna to a pug meetup while Chris happily stayed home with Theo. Pug meetups are not his favorite thing in the world, so he was more than happy to hang out with the boy while Luna and I went to the meetup. I was sorry not to get to bring Theo, as he loves seeing animals, but I thought it was going to be too darned hot. As it turns out, the weather was quite pleasant, so he could've come. Oh well, maybe next month...he and his papa had fun hanging out, anyway.

Sunday was a quiet day for us in terms of no major events or outings, but we (and by "we," I mean mostly Chris) finished shampooing the carpets and steam-cleaning the hard floors. Chris is a cleaning machine now that he doesn't have the thesis hanging over his head, and I can't say I mind that! I'm a bit of a clean freak, but I just don't have time to raise Theo AND work full-time AND clean very often, so alas, my cleaning standards have had to slip. I still can't bear to live in a pigsty, but I've had to learn to live with the house in some disarray (which is nearly killing me, if I'm honest about it!). Needless to say, Chris's latest cleaning endeavors have been much appreciated by me! Obviously, since he works full-time too and helps out with Theo a great deal, he doesn't have any more time to clean than I do. So, whenever we get to it, it makes us ridiculously happy. Sigh...sad, the silly things we get pleasure out of some days!!  

As usual, I've rambled on for a ridiculously long time. I think I find this blogging rather therapeutic, really. I get to indulge the pleasure I get from writing every week! Sorry if that ends up meaning long-winded blog posts, y'all! You can always just skip to the pictures.  

It's been a busy week for the Small Fam! Monday we visited with Grandma Diane and went to a favorite local discount store, where I found a nifty new interactive "gym" thing for Theo on major discount. He loves it! Pictures are in this week's album.

On Tuesday, Theo and I went to lunch with our friend Rachel and her daughter, the lovely Lizzy Dodge, as well as Dr. Bell, my favorite prof. from Sac State, and his daughter, the lovely Lizzy Bell. (The Lizzies are informally known as Lizzy 1 and Lizzy 2 when we get together.) Theo was a little angel, which delighted me and surprised Dr. Bell, who had been warned about the possibility of Leon making an appearance. We got lucky and had a cheerful little lunch companion.

And then I ruined it. Theo needed two more four-month shots, so after lunch I took him to Kaiser for those shots. He hadn't had a reaction to shots any of the three previous times, but this time he ran a fever, spit up a lot, and was really fussy for about 24 hours. Poor little guy was not having a good time of it! He's doing a lot of teething these days, so I wonder if the teething/vaccine combo was just not fun for him. Which translated to no fun for Chris and me. Tuesday night, after his vaccines, I think Theo woke up about six times, despite having a dose of baby Tylenol.  Needless to say, we were quite tired on Wednesday!

Thursday, Auntie Lynnie and my nieces and nephew (Theo's cousins) were up to visit my Mom, so we went over and spent some time with them. Theo was very cheery, which was nice because usually he howls at my nieces, which is quite sad because they really like him, and they always think he hates them because he's generally crabby. But, he was in a good mood, so all was well. Auntie Briagha came to babysit Theo so Chris and I could have a date. All reports suggest that Theo was pretty good for Briagha—he had a few fussy bouts, but was generally a pretty cheerful guy. That kid knows how to work it, though. We came home from our date (dinner at Il Fornaio, a stroll around the mall, and sorbet at Nugget for dessert), and Theo was sitting quite happily on Briagha's lap, playing with a toy. Then he saw me, and out came the lip in a dreadful pout, and then "MMMAAAAAAAAADDDDD!" I have no doubt that had he not seen me, he would've quite happily kept playing with Auntie Briagha!

Friday Chris had to work most of the day, although it was supposed to be his day off, so Theo and I just puttered. I was trying to work, too, but Theo has suddenly decided that he's a big fan of being held. (This is quite a change for the boy who used to not like being held!) And he doesn't like sitting at the computer for some reason (flashing light from the screen, maybe??), so I can only get a bit of work done before moving into another room with him. Anyway, he was pretty needy and clingy and whiny that day for some reason, so I was feeling kind of blue myself. Very blue, in fact. And then I stumbled upon a trick that inspired the title of this week's blog post: Our son snorts when he laughs!! You know those people who laugh so hard they snort? That's our son! (I need to capture this on video. It’s too cute for words!) I was lifting him up in the air and playing "Theo's an airplane!" when he started to chortle and snort! This made me laugh, so I then snorted back at him, like a pig. Apparently he found this uproariously funny, because he kept cracking up and snorting every time I would snort! So I sat on the couch, happily snorting like a pig to make my son laugh. Oh dear, what has happened to me?!

I'm delighted to find that Theo has quite a little sense of humor. In addition to finding pig noises quite funny, he's also vastly amused by his bodily functions. (Gee, I wonder which one of us he got that from?! My very polite husband? I think not! I admit to finding bathroom humor quite funny myself!) He smiles and giggles when you say the word "poop" to him, as in "Did you poop?!" or, "My God, man, that's a funky poop!" He is also amused by passing gas in the bathtub. And, he finds almost anything Luna does quite amusing as well. Further, he likes the quacking duck sound Chris makes for him. And he finds it quite hilarious to spit out his pacifier.

Saturday we had a visit from friends Jen, Ken, and Elliott. Elliott is almost exactly one year older than Theo (I think their birthdays are something like 362 days apart), so it's neat to see a bit of what our son will be like in a year or so. Elliott is a fun, curious, energetic little guy! I don't think Chris and I quite realized what we're in for when Theo hits toddlerhood. Somehow, Elliott managed to find all the most fun things in our family room in short order—the stairs, light sockets, stove knobs, the cupboard with cleaning supplies in it...and then toddled out holding a large bottle of wine. In short, all the things any curious toddler would find. It was a good reminder for Chris and I that we'll need to babyproof one of these days! We also got to see that no matter how wiggly we think our son is while being changed, he'll get wigglier when he is old enough to want to run around! Ah, the fun we have in store for us....

Sunday we took it relatively easy and went to a book sale to benefit Folsom Feline Rescue. (No, we didn't come home with a cat!) I wish I had gotten a picture of Chris with Theo in the Baby Bjorn! Chris is now officially a Bjorn devotee...Theo loves being able to see and be close to his daddy, and Chris loved having his hands free to poke around in the books.

So we've officially had Theo on Baby's Only formula as a supplement for over two weeks, I think...and no ill effects other than the persistent eczema, which I'm beginning to think he may have no matter what. And so, it's official...we have finally found a formula that Theo can tolerate well. WHEW! I'm still primarily nursing him and plan to do so for quite a while, but it's very nice to have a formula he can tolerate for those times when he's just not full after he nurses from me. 

Last but very far from least, this coming Wednesday, Chris officially FINISHES HIS MASTER'S DEGREE!!!!!! We are celebrating by having Grandma Diane watch Theo for a couple hours while I go down to Sac State with Chris to get the final signature on his thesis and turn it in, and then we have a lunch date to commemorate the occasion.  The bigger "he's finished!" present is a trip to Portland at the end of next month, which we set up this weekend. We'll be visiting my aunt and uncle from Virginia (who will be in Portland for a couple days), hopefully visiting with Chris's friend, Tyler, and also doing some just-for-fun sightseeing.

 Enjoy your week, all!

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!!!!  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.

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!!!  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.

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!