I wanted to post some pictures I've been meaning to share, but haven't found the time and while I'm at it I've included pictures from Christmas as well.
Macias (as you can see) is enjoying his meal time (this first photo was taken about a month ago). He's now sitting up on his own and very proud of himself. He is also rolling both ways and getting much more mobile.
"Yeah, so."
"Get me off this damn thing."
I used to wonder, in my new parent naivete, what the difference was between 'spit-up' and 'throw-up'. I would think, "How will I know when Macias is actually sick and not just a little too full?".
As I sit here in no pants, I am here to tell you that I have learned something today. So did my said pants, the play mat, the monkey stuffed animal, Macias's socks, pants, shirt and our guest bedspread.
It is not pretty in pink (his morning bottle was laced with amoxicillin for his ear infection) nor were the chunks of homemade sweet potato.
But, as the washer is cleaning up the remnants of the carnage I am grateful that I learned the difference and am the better for it. (I also learned that you can, in fact, squeeze them too hard while trying to clip their fingernails from behind).
My bad.
I've tried three times to post a cute video of Macias rolling over that I took last week but it won't work. Even my genius IT husband can't get it to work. I think I screwed something up with the actual video I took.
Anyway, now Macias has a double ear infection and does not want to perform. The pediatrician gave us lots of meds to get him doped up on and he weighed in at 18 lbs., 2 oz. yikes. He just turned 6 months on the 11th of December. 6 months!
Apparently word has gotten out in the streets of Okatie Park that feeding time at the Bonners is 6pm. This is what I saw as I opened the door to feed one of my cats. None of these cats are mine.
This
past weekend Morgan and I took a long weekend and went up to visit our mothers. We first stopped in Greenville, SC to stay with Pat and to attend 'Star Wars in Concert' (see Morgan's blog).
On Friday we went over to Charlotte for my mom's debut at the local craft fair. She has finally started her own business, 'Deborah's Kitchen Kreations', where she is selling her mustard that she has made for years. She also sold her lemon poppyseed cakes. We stayed up late furiously tying on tags and setting up early on Saturday. My mom opened at 8am and her friend Anita was there to help out. I went for the afternoon shift, but most of the traffic had already passed so we didn't make many sales when I was there. But, for her first time out she did great! She almost sold out of her 100 jars of mustard. It was a great success and start to her business.
Thanks Grandma Lynn for such a cute costume! We were very scary, as you can see.
We were a skeleton for school on Friday, too.
For all of you Robert Redford fans out there, he's shooting a new movie in Savannah, two blocks away from my office. They have closed part of the street and are blocking traffic. I have not spotted him, but if I do I will politely ask him to stop blocking my commute.
I might be stupid.
The can says: to make a six ounce bottle you first fill the bottle with 6 ounces of water and then put three unpacked, level scoops in the water. So, once you mix it up it's more like 6.5-7 ounces because of the addition of the powder.
Does this mean that they count a six ounce bottle to actually be 7 ounces of liquid?
I feel like I'm overfeeding Macias when we make his 7 ounce bottles.
We put 7 ounces of water in and then 3.5 scoops of formula. By the time it's all said and done it's about 8-8.5 ounces in the bottle. Does that count as a 7 or 8 ounce bottle?
This is so annoying.
Should I pour out liquid to 7 ounces once it's mixed up?
On another note, the nurse at his pediatrician's office said that adding 1 teaspoon of brown sugar to one of his bottles daily will help keep him regular (he's having trouble pooping sometimes and it comes out with a clay-like consistency). I have been putting a little more water in his bottles to help with this but we've started the brown sugar.
Has anyone heard of this and have you done it? I think the constipation might be from the formula. We switched from Similac's Advance formula to the Target brand of comparable formula. It's half as expensive and almost identical. I guess I know what isn't identical. Has anyone else had this problem with name brand vs. generic?
Thanks moms out there! (and dads if you care to share).
I've been trying to blog for a few days, but I just don't feel up to it. Nothing is moving me to write. Sure, there are things happening, doctors have been visited (Macias's 4 month check up with shots), tears have been shed (again, Macias's - he had a bit of a fever from this round of shots and he has also been battling some bouts of constipation - picture a soft serve machine and us pumping his legs, yeah, gross), and I feel as if I'm getting fatter by the day.
I think it's my mind telling me that I am now past the point of people looking forgivingly at my figure saying "she just had a baby" to thinking "did she put on weight?". I'm a lardo - no question. These last 8-10 pounds won't go anywhere. I went to the doctor for different symptoms, but came away finding that the pregnancy totally screwed up my thyroid. I just started medication and hopefully when it kicks in I'll have more energy, more appetite, and a better metabolism which will in turn help me lose weight. I really need to start exercising, too. I used to be so good about it, but now I just don't have the drive. Even my fat stomach can't make me exercise which is rare.
On the flip side, work has been good and Macias is getting cuter by the day. My favorite time of day now is when I wake him up at 9pm for his last feeding and after he eats, while I'm changing his diaper, he smiles and coos and talks to me. It's so hard to put him back in the crib. It's almost like he knows it's night because he whispers all of his sounds as opposed to his loud mouth during the day. He is such a joy.
I want to become a joy, too - I just need to shed my fat layer and I'll be all set...and have someone come clean my house.
Macias had his first laugh out loud tonight. It was by far the most precious thing I've heard. I can't wait for more - it's like crack (so I've heard).
After he laughed he looked at me and Morgan and I swear he said 'hi'. Of course he was just making/mimicking a sound, but the sound was 'hi'. So cute!
I went to the movies this afternoon to see Fame with one of my good friends while Morgan watched Macias.
Upon arriving at the theatre I bought my ticket and went to use the restroom. Before me stood 6 choices.
1. use the stall with the pubic hair on the seat
2. use the stall with the toilet paper holder completely open with toilet paper falling out
3. use the stall with urine on the seat
4. use the stall with tons of tiny pieces of toilet paper all over the floor and toilet
5. use the stall with no door
6. use the handicap stall and look like a jerk because every other stall is available and I'm not handicapped
Which one would you have chosen?
p.s. No, I didn't forget to tell you which one I used. Just know that I washed my hands very well afterwards.
Conversation earlier this evening:
Allison: my knees hurt when I go down stairs recently. I don't have as much strength in them anymore.
Morgan: Is it your extra 10 pounds?
Allison: glare... I've weighed this much before ("this much" being 130)
Morgan: Yeah, but you're older now.
Let's get this straight...did my husband just call me fat AND old? Yes, he did.
As Morgan posted on his blog we went up to Virginia and Maryland to visit family and attend my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary.
Macias did such a great job with traveling. He has been sleeping through the night for over a month now so thankfully he was practiced enough to keep it up while we were away. That made our vacation that much sweeter.
The day after we got back was my first day back to work and Macias' first day of daycare. I think it went well overall. Morgan and I went in together to drop him off on Monday just to make sure we knew what we needed to bring and get Morgan comfortable with everything since he is the one who drops him off in the morning and I pick him up in the afternoon.
Thankfully with my heart of stone I didn't have trouble leaving him, but I did feel bad for the teachers because he was crying when we left and none of the other children were crying. Oops.
My commute to work is about 45 minutes which always sucked at the end of the day, but now it's even worse because all I want to do is get to my little man as fast as possible and squeeze him. I miss him a lot during the day and I'm so happy it's the weekend.
My only concern for daycare is Macias' schedule. We have him on a good schedule where he eats, plays for a bit and then goes down for a nap and sleeps well. With 8-9 other babies in the room with him all at different ages (up to 1 year) making noise, crying, playing and music it's hard for him to take his full naps and his schedule is getting mixed up. I know it's only the first week and it will take some adjustment time and so far he's still sleeping through the night, but I am a control freak (if you didn't know that already) and its so difficult for me to relinquish it to people taking care of the most important human in my life. Breathe...
I've already sent two letters with Morgan in the mornings to reiterate schedule information. I know, I'm controlling and I'm sure they hate me now. Too bad.
Much to my relief I found that I haven't lost my "skills" at work. I was a little rusty when I had to sketch something for the first time, but it came back quickly. Phew!
Here are some photos of the past couple of weeks for your viewing pleasure:
Cousins: Wyeth holding Macias
Tiny feet
On the road
Cousins: Ben (my brother), Sierra, me and Taia blog post.
Some reasons why you haven't seen one lately:
1. I started work yesterday after having 3 months off for maternity leave
2. Macias, in hand, started Daycare yesterday
3. I've been out of town for the 10 days prior in Maryland and Virginia with Morgan and Macias visiting family
4. I got a flu shot (ok, that one's not really an excuse)
5. I have way too many photos to sort through from the vacation
To tide you over until I can post go to Morgan's blog and read about our trip and see photos there.
And it's time to pay the fiddler.
Tomorrow Morgan and I are going to tour the Daycare facility once again, but this time knowing that our baby will be a "grasshopper" (he will be placed in the grasshopper classroom/infant room).
My baby is a grasshopper...sniff, sniff. He has an actual classroom, and potential friends and two "teachers" and a cubby. A cubby!
Staying home with Macias this summer has been great. Every. Last. Minute. But, as they say, every good thing must come to an end. In two weeks time (after a vacation to Virginia) I will be going back to work and Macias will be starting daycare. It baffles me that he is already 12 weeks old, then again, it feels like an eternity since I had him and since I was at work. I can barely remember that I was pregnant for 9 months.
I love my job and my chosen profession and I always said that I would not give it up once I had children. It's a career, not a job. And I won't. Even if we could afford for me to stay home (which we can't) I would still choose to go back to work because it's what I want to do (besides being a mother). I'm somewhat excited to get back into the swing of things. Yes, I'll miss Macias, but I'm comforted by the fact that he'll probably learn more and get better social skills than he would staying home with me, boring old mom.
I may have some opportunity to do some work from home, but if I had him home I would still need someone to watch him so I could get my work done. I don't just want to shove him in the corner in the playpen and force him to come up with imaginary friends when he can have real ones at daycare.
So, yes, it will be hard. I'm not worried or concerned about the actual daycare place, everyone is very lovely and it feels like a great environment. I think I'm more worried about me, not letting him go, but about my work. I'm worried about getting back in to things and hoping that I haven't lost anything. I know it's only been 3 months, but that's the longest I've ever been away from my "skills". Here's hoping I still have them...or I may be forced to stay home with Macias and collect unemployment.
Morgan had his 2009 Fantasy Football draft today with his coworkers and friends at the Packet this afternoon. He is the Chairman so he put it all together and has for a few years now. He looks forward to this day all year.
So, in honor of this day, we dressed Macias in his Broncos onesie and took a photo shoot with Dad. Look at the proud papa...and his defiant son. Mace is already getting sick over his dad's expectations of being the Broncos' quarterback someday.
That's what the pediatrician says he is!!!
Macias went for his 2 month checkup today which included his first round of shots. He now weighs 11 pounds, 6 ounces (3 pounds heavier than his birth weight), he's 22 3/4" tall and overall he's in the 25th percentile, but proportionate so that's good.
The doctor says that he has great social skills (eye contact, smiling, cooing, etc.) and when he put Mace on his tummy he said he had the strength and control of a 4 month old with how great he can hold his head/body up on his arms and roll over.
He's eating well and sleeping through the night which the doctor was very happy to hear. He said that there aren't any concerns that he needed to talk to me about since I'm doing everything well and am up on my research. He even asked (jokingly) if I could come in and talk to some of his other parents about the sleeping through the night thing because they just don't get that at this age you don't have to feed them when they wake up at night.
He was very well behaved and he only cried for about 30 seconds when he was getting the shots.
I guess we grow 'em good.
*I realize that this post seems very self-congratulatory and conceited. I'm aware, just let me have this one shining moment...I'm sure things will change as quickly as I'm finished typing this post.
