Goodday Sunshine

Munchie plays in the sun...



She's currently on her back making baby pterodactyl noises again. That means she's happy...

Ugh

From Muckraking Mom --

Before I was a mother, I considered myself pretty hard boiled. Now I'm mush. When I see a headline like I did today in the Denver Post, something about a man getting sentenced for "microwaving an infant"--well, sorry, I just can't read any further than that. I'll never know--and don't want to know--what happened.

Needless, I did NOT go try to find the actual article and am pleased she didn't link it...

Vi-deo

A little long, and not very well-edited, but not bad for my first attempt with a real camera -- with SOUND!!!



Right now Munchie is on the floor making these strange squealing noises that means she's happy. Smartie calls them the "baby pterodactyl" cries.

And we have confirmation -- she is teething. Last night we had someone over to watch her while I took Smartie out for his birthday. She said the white spots are most definitely teeth starting to pop - especially on her left side. So, yes, she's really too young, and they usually come in on the bottom middle first, but like everything else, it seems the baby likes to do things early and different.

Hope to have a video this weekend of her standing...she's getting good at it.

Gotta run, Baby Pterodactyl calls...

Morning puzzle

One of these two smells like poop. Guess which one?


You guessed it!

Resistance is futile

If you cut them, they will grow back stronger...

Stupid fingernails...

Are we teething?

Munchie has two spots, one on each side of the mouth on the bottom, that are little white dots. But they are towards the back, not the front, where the first teeth usually come in.

She has become more poopy (runny, too) in the last two days, and wants to chew everything, especially her thumb. Then again, she's been doing that for a while, and although she's drooling like no one's business, that might just be the reflux, since she's having another spitty phase. And today she just doesn't want to eat -- it's 11 am and she's only had 9 ounces. By now she's usually closer to 12 at least.

Teething or not, she really loves the cold ring...

Yay! And ARRrrrrr!

Veggie Booty has returned, and I am eating a handful right now!

I was crushed when they recalled the product due to salmonella contamination. It was the tail end of my first trimester, and booty was the only food that tasted good to me, besides lemons and limes.

We bought a bag Saturday and looked for a sell by date to determine it was good to go, but didn't find one on the box. However, I've checked the list, and I've got good booty...

Is Veggie Booty safe to eat?

Yes! And here is how you can tell:

* Check that your bag of Veggie Booty "sell by date" is in 2008 or greater
* You will recognize the new bags as they do not have any pictures of bones in the front upper right and left hand corners
* All ingredients are from US sources only
* All seasonings are going through a much more stringent testing process now and we can tell you that all tests have been negative on our new seasoning for salmonella and e-coli

Just Chilling

Weekend over

Very long and very short, and very, very full...

The downside -- I still haven't seen a movie since December (The Golden Compass, actually) as my movie date fell through. And our sitter fell through for dinner, as well as all of our backups, so my day out of the house turned into dinner at home. But I got to drink from a few fantastic bottles of wine, Smartie grilled a superb steak, wonderful people came over to drink (some bringing wonderful drinks!), and Munchie went to bed promptly at 7pm and stayed asleep until I woke her at 11:00 for a diaper change and bottle (after being a bit of a cranky puss all day). So all in all, a great birthday.

Plus, the sushi I missed is being taken care of on Wednesday, when we go out for Smartie's birthday instead.

Munchie still had a case of the crankies on Easter, possibly from just being tired of being dragged out of the house every darn day. Or maybe it was us putting her in a bib (she's got spitup and drool galore these days).

But Munchie seemed a little appeased when she got her own Easter Basket, and got us to take her pants off and let her play around in just a onesie for the afternoon. She has a new rattle she adores, and is pleased to be able to finally grab things when she tries, and even get them into her mouth on the first or second try...


For fun, I decided to let her try to suck a piece of lemon, expecting one of these faces. Instead, she licked at it with no reaction whatsoever. I guess that's what happens when you eat 3 lemons/limes a day while pregnant. Go weird cravings!

Happy Easter!

Happy Spring!

No posts today -- It's my birthday...
Enjoy a picture of the Munch instead.

hurry hurry

I need to get as much cleaned as possible while Munchie naps. I refuse to clean the house tomorrow, as it's my birthday. But my aunt is coming over to baby-sit, so I don't want her to know the filth we live in. I have papers all over the place -- kind of odd since I work on the nets.

Here's a pic from last week when I was out of town to tide everyone over.

A Tale of Two Bus Rides

Yesterday, Munchie took her first ride on a city bus. I took the SUV stroller out for a test drive with public transit.

Verdict? Very nice for me getting to the bus, getting around downtown, and getting home. And Munchie thought on the bus was very comfortable, and slept in both directions.

However, nearly impossible to get on the bus or off the bus without assistance. Didn't quite fit into any seat spaces, even the extra access ones, meaning I had to try and wedge my legs or straddle the stroller, neither of which were very comfortable.

Today, we had a meeting in Northeast, and we decided to try the umbrella stroller. Munchie loved being able to sit up and see what was going on, enough so that she almost forgot to fuss everytime the bus stopped for a red light (I didn't have a chance to feed her before we left, and since it was about 30 minutes earlier than she usually eats, I thought I could make it to the coffee shop before she caught on. Didn't work.)

The umbrella is easy to pick up and get on a bus, and takes up much less room. She can see out the window, talk to the other riders, and if she fusses at a light you can roll her a tiny bit to calm her back down. It's a lot harder to sleep in, although she did manage a 30 minute nap at the coffee shop, although it didn't look very comfortable. But it's also a lot easier to get her in an out of the straps, which allowed her to sit on my lap on the way home when she had another super fussy bought (yeah, I knew she was sitting in poop, but I wanted to get her home before I changed her so I didn't have to do it on the bathroom floor. I didn't realize it was quite so..well, pasty).


All in all, the umbrella means I have to tote my own bags and I need to scale down to not overload myself, but makes for a much better ride for everyone. As you can see, I think she likes it better, too.

Just slow down already!

Munchie is having a growth spurt moment again -- she's eaten 7 times already, won't sleep, cries, all the usual.

I've been trying to tell her she doesn't need to grow so fast, but she won't listen.

Her new trick? She's decided that she's ready to start trying to roll over from back to front. She's already almost got it down on her changing table, since it has curves she can brace against (and didn't that almost turn into a disaster...).

Now, she's doing her best to flip herself on the floor.


Speaking of changing -- Pampers swaddlers size two are awful. I've had to change her 6 times already today, and she woke up at 3:45am because she was soaking, demanding a feeding as well. I need to go get a pack of the regular size twos we were using before (I think they were Huggies) if I ever want to sleep again.

More Vi-deo

Munchie had been getting kind of bored and wanted to have more independence, so today I let her try out her exersaucer...

Do Not Want

If I came home with a cold, I'm going to be super-peeved.

I'd better just be really tired...

Happy St. Patrick's Day - Updated

And yes, she has shamrock feet...


But she tuckered out quickly...

UPDATE: Ok, awake and ready to go again!

Home Again

I finally found cherry blossoms before I left.

I woke up at 7:30 Sunday morning and decided to pack up and go to the airport early. I knew I couldn't make the 8:30 flight to Minneapolis, but thought I could get there early enough to get first in line for standby for the 12:30 flight.

Once I talked to the ticketer, though, he told me there was absolutely no way I was getting on the 12:30 flight -- it was hugely overbooked. When I started to walk away he said, "But the 8:30 is loading right now. I just put your name on the list. Run!"

It was 8:15. I headed through security very quickly (have I mentioned how bad Reagan's security folks are? I'm pretty sure I was traveling with chapstick and purell in my purse and they totally missed it), and got to the gate with the door still open and a couple of people still lined up in the tunnel. I considered myself the luckies person in the world as I buckled my belt and we quickly took off.

35 minutes later we were about to meet the unluckiest person...

A boy who was traveling with a sports team had what we later found out was an epileptic seizure. A call went out over the intercom asking for any medical personnel to please come to the front of the plane, and two women seated in front of me took off. They put him on an IV, and we quickly landed in Pittsburgh, where the boy and his group were removed from the plane. Unfortunately, it took over an hour for the plane to be restocked with new medical equipment, regassed, have the equipment all rechecked, and have all the witness statement forms filled out.

I still made it home before I would have if I had gotten the 12:30, but not by much. then again, I made it home way before I would have if I had taken my original flight.

A couple of things disturbed me about the medical emergency. The nurses in front of me discussed the fact that one of them ended up with blood on her hands because there was only one pair of gloves. And they had to section off where the boy was because of blood on the seat (and no, I have no idea why putting in the IV was so bloody). They also said that the alcohol pads they used for antiseptic must have been years old, they were so dry.

The other was the fact that his coach was up in first class, had no idea anything was going on until they started to announce we were landing in Pittsburgh, and had no idea his player had any sort of health problems. I will always remember from here on out to make sure Munchie has a card with any health problems on her if she ever travels without a parent.

Oh, and the little girl right behind me kept throwing up, but that's another story...

This is the Baby that I miss

Smartie says she hasn't aged since I left. I say she has. What do you think? (Note, she's wearing the same outfit in both pics)
Monday

Today

I swear, at the very least, her hair grew...

DC more

I thought I was lost last night when I found the Washington Monument -- turns out I was nearly where I was supposed to be.


My session isn't until 1:30, so I thought I'd enjoy my day and relax a bit before I head to CAP. Soon I'm going to start walking over there and look for breakfast as I go, enjoy some coffee, read a bit.

I'm disturbingly excited to go home tomorrow, as much as I'm enjoying it out here (it's over 50 degrees already!). I called Munchie last night, and she talked to me for a while, but then she started to get fussy so I had to hang up before she started crying. But I'll be seeing her soon.

Tomorrow, I think I'll go straight to the airport. And it's good I'm not heading home today, since Dulles was closed for a while for a "security breach" (Note: would add in link, but it must not have been a big enough deal to actually make real news, just the Saturday morning local tv news). I'm not leaving via Dulles, I'm flying home from Reagan, but I still expect things to go a little slower.

Then again, I seem to remember last year thinking that Reagan blew folks right through security check faster and with less scrutiny than any airport I'd ever been in. Now Lansing, they take their security seriously. They actually kicked a woman out of line because her moisturizer was 5 oz instead of 4.

DC Friday

Sometimes it's nice to be on your own. The time change isn't that big of a deal, since no one out here seems to go into the office until 10, so I was able to get up early, go to the fitness room, get some lobby coffee, grab a shower and check through the email and such. I'll probably go into the office shortly, hopefully finding some breakfast on the way.

But I miss the Munchie. Here's a picture of her from Monday I've been saving for desperate times.



I miss her terribly. I also miss my toothbrush, which I forgot to pack. When I went to the lobby to request a replacement, I tried to tell them someone obviously snuck into my carry-on while I was on the plane and stole it.

I think they've heard that excuse before.

Today -- heavy on tech planning, then probably heading over to help out with NOI as folks start arriving. Either that, or I'll grab some takeout sushi (not vegetarian) and come back to my hotel and read (if you click that link, it's pretty amusing -- I didn't know what we were having yet, and you can tell I was really hoping for a girl already). I have an absolutely abysmal review copy of a book I owe feedback on in a few weeks. I'm honestly thinking about recommending they not publish -- it's just that bad.

Off for more coffee now...

DC and other fancy things

My hotel is conviniently located across the street from my office. This means I don't have to stray from Connecticut street until at least sometime late tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning I will go into the office, and in the evening I'll be starting to meet with the folks coming in for NOI training. My session isn't until 1 pm on Saturday, but I'm being offered dinner, and I've learned not to pass that sort of thing up when I'm traveling -- especially when eating seems to fall low on the list of priorities most of the DC folks have. Our wine bar today offered cubes of cheese, small bits of bread, and exactly one pickle and olive per person at the table.

For those of you curious about how I'm coping with leaving the Munchie for this long, I will have you know I only called her twice, and I only spent 15 minutes showing my seatmate on the plane all of her pictures.

Come on...the woman ASKED to see them!

Three Months Old

Three months ago today I was going through 30 hours of labor...

Three months ago today they started doing surgery and my painkillers weren't work...

Three months ago today was the best day of my life...



Happy three months old, Munchie...


(Enjoy the photos -- Munchie is going to grandma and grandpa's tonight since I leave for DC in the morning, and we may have a picture drought.)

Omaha pictures

Click here

Busy busy busy

Lots of conference calls, huge amounts of CIM stuff, prepping for DC, and just realized my headache may have something to do with the fact that I haven't eaten yet today.

So here's Violet playing on her new quilt to tide everyone over until I can do a real update. I'm going to make some lunch now, since it's only.....2:30.

I should have known

I never got my Ciresi onesie.

Best of luck, Ciresi...

Ok, now you're just being dumb...

Mitch says:

Whenever a profession sets up “credendials”, especially credentials administered by the government, the purpose is very rarely to promote a better professional service; it’s to constrict the supply of those professionals.

Mitch -

When you go to court, do you look for a lawyer who has passed the bar, or do you just grab that guy from down the street because he seems to talk real good?

When your children need surgery or break a bone, do you take them to the hospital, or just grab the knife or try to set it yourself?

When you fly somewhere, do you actually go to an airport, or find a person who has passed their pilots license test, or just stick your arm out and try to hail a plane?

Some parents are smart and qualified enough to school their children at home. A test is just to ensure those parents are the ones who do the teaching, not just any person who picks up a book and says "I'm teaching now."

There's no place like home...

Munchie had a fantastic trip down to Omaha (as did her parents). She got to see all of her family, play with her cousin Chloe, see the fishies at the aquarium at the Henry Dorly Zoo, hang out with Grandpa TONS, got a big stuffed Pop, new clothes from Grandma, and a fun new book from her Grandma Debbie and Grandpa.

Munchie watching fishies at the zoo

She also solidified her standing as best baby ever by hardly fussing, even when we kept waking her over and over again to meet people, rather than letting her have her usual naps and bedtimes, and sleeping both ways in the car without waking or crying.

Now, if she can just get that naughty kitty to give her back her toys, things should be a-ok...


We'll post all of her Omaha pics as soon as flickr starts uploading my photo's...there appears to be something wrong with the site right now.

On my way to where the air is sweet...

There is one down side to going to Omaha this weekend. I ordered two batches of "Sesame Street Old School," so Munchie can see what the world was like before that nasty brat Elmo came along. I'm trying very hard to teach her right now that Elmo is for pooping on. He may adorn her diapers, but I will not let that fuzzy beast into my house in any other form.

I said I wouldn't let her watch TV, but the colors on the screen fascinate her. So we will do some limited tv time while she works out her legs and arms. If she couchpotatos it, it's being turned off, I promise.

Taking off in a couple of hours, so trying to pack and wrap up some work stuff while keeping her awake as much as possible in the hopes that she'll sleep in the car. Right now, Nico's babysitting. Don't worry, she's registered in infant CPR, but she charges a ton in kittykibble.

12 weeks old

Today, Munchie is 12 weeks old. She's about to start trying 3 month nipples (Target was out and I tried her with a 6 month, but she nearly drowned. That mother who told me they weren't that different was nuts.), and she's on her last day of size 1 diapers.

Unfortunately, she's also developed a horrible habit of self-mutilation. Overnight she seems to have turned from the Gerber Baby to Freddy Krueger. I've been filing her nails, but she's taken huge nicks out of her forehead, ones that bleed profusely, and long scratches down her cheeks.

This morning I tried to clip her nails for the first time, and got a pinky done. When I moved on to the next finger I must have got some skin and pinched. First she looked up at me, eyes round with shock. Then her face crumpled, her lower lip popped out, and she wailed and wailed like I haven't heard her since she got her shots. I didn't have the heart to try again.

If any Omaha folks are reading, if I bring her clippers will you do her nails on Saturday? I'm afraid to touch her again...

On the food front she seems to have gotten the spit up slightly back under control, and is consistently eating about 24 ounces a day. We got worried last night that since she was snacking so much she was going to wake up overnight, but instead she slept until 5:30 and had to be woken up for breakfast.

No doubt all of this will fall apart when we leave tomorrow and she's uprooted again, but it's worth it to see family.

In Memory of Gary Gygax

Smartie asked me to post this....

Favre retires?

I don't know what to say.

Oh, yeah I do.

Ha HA!

Let's talk formula...

A commenter asked me to not buy formula at Sam's Club because of its association with Wal-Mart and lack of a living wage for employees. I think that's a pretty fair request, and was something I struggled with before when I was told to go to Wal-Mart because they offered the cheapest formula without needing a membership (turns out that wasn't true, it was no cheaper there than at Target, and more expensive than Target's special.).

Formula is a difficult thing to put a price on. I would love to switch to a new brand, or maybe a generic because of the prices, but with Munchie already having a spit up problem, the last thing I want to do is switch to something new that might irritate it.

Currently, we go through approximately 40 powder ounces a week (not all of it makes it in her, of course -- some ends up in spit up, others in unfinished bottles that go bad, etc.) or two regular sized containers at about $22 dollars each. That's $44 dollars a week.

Now we have picked up formula that should last nearly a week for $30, saving us at least $10 a week. All together, that's over $500 a year, or the equivalent of 2 payments into her 529 account.

So I guess the question is where you have to draw the line on your needs over that of the employees. When I nickel and dime it out, it seems like paying the extra is the right thing to do, and not much of a hit. When I look at it long term though, it's a much larger deal, and could be a semester's worth of books in college.

All of this is a moot point for now, since we have enough to last us until late April at the earliest, but something for me to weigh out and consider next time. As for now, I just know the baby is hungry and wants a bottle immediately.

My baby's more hip than me...

For those of you who come to this page, versus read via RSS or email updates, I want to point out a new addition to the sidebar.

Yep, Munchie's twittering. And she's going to try and keep her doings as updated as she can considering, well, she's a baby.

Can her first cell phone be far behind?


(You can also follow her account here...)

Pooped

Marty Party wiped Munchie out...

She did an excellent job in her first big noisy crowd. One crying jag that was relieve by us getting down on the floor in the quiet until she calmed down, then around to meet people slowly. By the end of the evening she was fast asleep in her uncle's arms amidst all the chaos.

She slept all night, and even made it until nearly 7 am when I woke her up because I started to get nervous. Unfortunately Sunday was a pukey day, with lots of spit up and clothes changing, and she slept so much during the car ride and shopping that she ended up in bed before she'd eaten her fill, meaning she woke up at 4 am.

Of course she did, it was my night.

We'll see if her schedule gets worked back out, but there's really very little point, since we are heading to Omaha Thursday. Munchie has her own CD of lullabies to listen to in the car, and hopefully she will sleep a good portion of that ride, although I supposed that means she'll be up most of the night. Better a baby up all night than a baby screaming through a 7 hour car ride, I assume.

We co-slept Saturday morning with Daddy, which seems to involve him hanging off the end of the bed, terrified he may roll on her. That was pretty much the end of that. And she slept so late Sunday and Monday that there was no need.

And yes, I do sort of miss it already.

FORMULA WATCH -- Sam's Club has Similac for 36 oz power for 30 bucks. Cheapest I've ever found previously was 30 oz for 30 bucks, which was at Target and was a special with special containers. If you know where I can find cheaper, please let me know -- although we just stocked up on 6 canisters and should be set until she's about 5 months old...