Happy New Year!

I could write all about everything that happened this year but it was all completely and forever eclipsed by the arrival of Sophia. We marvel every day at her gorgeous monkey face and pudgy cheeks and chubby belly and all the neck wrinkles and the 3 chins and the beautiful skin and the big fat hands and doughy wrists and the big gummy grins with the dimples and the giggles and goos and oohs! and the wiggling and snuggling and the crazy hair tuft and the elfish hair on her ears. I can't count the number of times we look at each other and say how much we love her. Everyone said that everything would change once we had a child and it most definitely has. She is lovely and charming and calm and funny and she smells so absolutely amazing that I want to bottle it up to remember later. We are hopelessly in love with this little being who has graced us with her presence. So, to the powers that be: thank you so very much for this humbling and fantabulous gift.

Here's to a even better 2006.

Cat Urping

I want one of these for my birthday: Cuidado! Vomito de Gato!

Bovine Bulletin

I just pumped 14.5 ounces in one 10 minute sitting! That is a record.

Moo.

In other news, I took an Omega3 capsule this morning and I've been burping fish smells all morning. Happy Friday!

Best links of 2005

Go check out kottke.org.

This one made me giggle: 7 Habits of Highly Successful People

Poor Sophie

Well, she was absolutely miserable yesterday. She had a bit of a fever and I'm sure her legs were sore from the shots. And her belly was sore from the cauterizing. I'm glad I took the day off from work yesterday because all she wanted was to be held. There were a couple of times when I tried to put her down and she was just not having it. As Aaron said, yesterday was the worst day of her life so far. Poor baby.

She seems a bit more like herself today - smiling and talking.

Appointment Update

Well, Sophie had her 2 month doctor's appointment today. She weighs 14 pounds (95%) and is 24 inches (90%) long. She also had her belly button cauterized by some sort of solution (silver nitrate, says Aaron) because she had a little stump from her umbilical cord poking out. She was giggly and wiggly and smiley until the shots and Aaron was holding her while the nurse came in for the pokes. That's when the screaming started. We both got tears in our eyes because it is heart-wrenching to hear that she's hurting. The nurse said we could stay in the room as long as we wanted. So I tried to nurse her but she was still too upset. So I got up and rocked her while Aaron went to make the next appointments (next week for the belly button and 2 months for the next check-up). She promptly fell asleep.

We mentioned the barfing but he wasn't concerned about it. He also thinks we just need to burp her more (I tend not to burp her when I nurse her in bed) and probably the over-stimulation from Christmas was one factor. She hasn't barfed since yesterday morning for those who are keeping score.

Yes, I'm sure this is boring for anybody else but us. However, let it be on the record that we have a charming, lovely baby who is quite chubby and long. The doctor said that if she ends up sleeping through the night at some point and she misses a couple of feedings we shouldn't worry because she's gaining weight very nicely (meaning she's very chubby).

Aaron is putting the finishing touches on his thesis ("Selfatopes and their Inner Normal Fans") and then it's on to the grad school applications. The first one is due Monday. The writing of the personal statement essay is going to be like pulling teeth from a lion. My husband? Hates to write essays.

Skateboard Punk Rocker

Sophie's new dress:

I ordered it from Kokoleo*. Yes, I know I have more clothes for her than she needs. But c'mon! How frickin' fabulous is that dress? It's a size 12 months so it will be a while before she's rocking out. Aaron thinks she needs red striped tights to wear with it. She's also going to need some Doc boots.

*Kokoleo is offering 15% off if you put "I Love Kokoleo" in the field when ordering. Now through July.

Still Barfing

Now, when I say barfing, I'm not talking about continuous barfing. She has only barfed 7 times in the last 3 days (yes, 3 more times at home for those who are counting). She's happy and smiley and she's still peeing and pooping normally. And she wants to eat right after she barfs. So it's not a stomach flu and she's not dehydrated. Anyway, we have her two month pediatrician appointment tomorrow so we'll see what he says then. We've both become quite used to being covered in projectile vomit. Ah, the joys of parenting.

But we don't mind the barf because look how cute she is:

A tale of barf

Well, we're home again. It was fun despite Sophie projectile vomiting 4 different times. We had luckily packed 5 different outfits for her and she went through all of them. We even washed one and she re-wore that before puking on it... Despite all the barfing, she was in a good mood. We're not sure what caused it because there was no fever and she ate a lot and slept. Maybe it was the over-stimulation from all the people and the tv and the radio and the music and the talking and the bouncing. We'll see if anything happens now that we are home.

Before barfing:

She's now snoozing while I type and listen to Lynard Skynard's greatest hits. She was all worked up listening to "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" and now she's asleep. "Freebird!"

If you click on the photo above, there are a lot more photos from the weekend.

Merry Xmas!

We will be heading up to my parents' house tomorrow morning for the non-Christmas festivities. It is a non-family Christmas this year which means that next year is the official family Christmas at Christmas time. We should all be heading to spend Christmas with our spouse's families this year but we didn't want to fly to California with a 2 month old. So, our official family Christmas this year will be mid-January. Anyhoo, it worked out that just my younger sister and her husband weren't going to be around this year so pretty much everyone else will be up there. But we aren't going to celebrate Christmas because it only works if everyone is there. Confusing? Yes. It gets more confusing: my older sister's kids also celebrate Hanukkah so Christmas is only celebrated up at my mom's house. Only not this Christmas. So we've told the kids that Santa is only going to bring a couple of stocking items on Sunday and then he knows to come back in January with the rest of the presents. Or something like that. Yes, we have that much pull with Santa - 'Um, December is not going to work for us - could you come back in January? Thanks.' We are all going to bring a sock for Santa to fill on Sunday. I think Sophie's sock will be a bit tiny for these purposes but it will be cute.

Today is a half day at work and then I head home to start baking some goodies. I hope you all have a lovely holiday weekend - whatever you celebrate and whomever you worship. I'm sure I'll have pictures for you after the weekend.

Happy Two Months!

Sophie is officially two months old today! Woo! She's still adorable and we are completely in love. She's started talking more - lots of "Goo!" and "Ow!" and "Oh!". Lots of smiles and giggles. She's still in love with her giraffe buddy - she can sit and talk to him for hours. Lots of waving her arms because it hits his legs and makes them jingle. And then she talks and goos and laughs because it's her hand hitting his legs and making them jingle! Yesterday she managed to grab one of the legs but it may have been by accident. She was just holding on and swinging her arm back and forth.

She has outgrown a lot of her newborn-3 month clothing. We've moved on to the 3-6 month clothes because of her length. The arms of most of the outfits have to be rolled up but her legs are so long that we might be on to the 6 month outfits before too long.

This is week one of me being back at work while Aaron stays home with Sophie. I'm exhausted. And I've only been working half days. Well, today is a full day, but it is the first one. I realized how little sleep I'd been coping with but work is fairly demanding and I need to get more. There were a lot of projects that they decided to just hold off on until I got back. So lots of meetings lately. Aaron and Sophie are best buddies. Except when he's had to try to get her to take the bottle. Crying and struggling and one grumpy baby. We were using level 2 nipples but he tried a level 3 nipple this morning and she downed the bottle and promptly took a nap.

We have a new playmat that she's started to notice a bit more. It has a big mirror and little jungle animals hanging above her. She loves the baby in the mirror and giggles and waves her arms at that baby a lot. There are lots of textures and crinkles and jingles on this mat.

She's still a great baby and very good natured for the most part. There are the usual meltdowns but we've become pretty good at calming her down. She's still sleeping pretty well at night with at least one 5 hour stretch starting around 7-8pm. (note to self: SLEEP during this time. the dishes, movies, tv, projects can wait)

Dearest Sophie Scrunchkin Monkey: we love you to bits.

Showering, etc.

I LOATHE the act of showering. Mainly the beginning where I have to get undressed and thus become quite cold and the end where I'm all warm from the shower and I have to get out and freeze and then deal with my hair. I really like the middle part where I'm in the hot water and I can smell the shampoo and the soap and it's steamy and lovely. But it's a complete struggle to get myself to actually go through with it. I also don't shampoo my hair every day because it's long and thick and it takes forever to dry. Also because it's not good to shampoo your hair every day. I shampoo it maybe once a week. Other days I don't do anything or I just use conditioner. But the not wetting it part is because I just don't have the patience to stand there and get it completely dry. Which is why I'm at work with wet hair. In the middle of winter. And even though I try to convince myself that I should just shower the night before so that my hair is dry in the morning - I've never been able to get myself out of my comfy pajamas and into the shower once I'm home from work.

Holy Invasion!

So, we received the pheromone moth traps today and as I was unwrapping them and setting them up, I felt flapping near my face. I looked up from what I was doing and I was completely surrounded by moths!! AAGH! They were literally coming out of the woodwork. Aaron ran into the kitchen to see what all the yelling was about and he helped me swat them away and tape one of the traps to the wall. EEK. Most of them are now stuck to the glue on the trap, thankfully. BLECH. URK. GAG.

Update: I just realized that I was being swarmed by HORNY moths! UUURG! That makes it so much worse.

Work

Well, today actually went okay. Although Aaron had a tougher time at home because she was not taking the bottle. He dropped me off and picked me up today so that we could show her off to the people at work who haven't met her yet. Lots of ooohing and aahhing. She slept through all of it so we just kept her in the car seat. Today and tomorrow are for catching up with the temp who covered my position while I was out. We recapped in about an hour - so the rest of the time I visited with people and set up meetings to go over things later this week. As well as read through all my mail and all the notes the temp took while I was gone. I also managed to pump once and it went well. I used the IT group's storage closet because it is the only office without windows or glass walls. The door locks and all the servers make a lot of noise so the pumping isn't so obvious. I even wore my stain and water-resistant pants so the dripped milk just wiped right off. Perfect. This week will also be a good return week because we are getting all the gift baskets and snacks from our vendors. Lots of chocolate and cheese/cracker baskets.

Anyhoo, time to bond with my baby.

Back to Work

Tomorrow I have to start working again. Luckily the first three days will be 1/2 days so that I can get used to things. This is going to be hard. Sophie is more completely adorable each day and it will be very difficult to be away from her. She's 'talking' more and more. Lots of "Goo!" and "Oh" and "Ow". We're trying to get her to say "Otto" and "Aargh". Mostly it is "Goo". She loves to chat with us while she's on her changing table. She definitely recognizes her name because she gets a big grin when we say "Sophie!" or "Sophia!" She's been waking up grinning and cooing as well. She's such a cutie-pie. Sometimes it is hard to take.

So, yeah, tomorrow is going to suck. It will be nice to see everyone again, but no one there is as cute as my little daughter. She'll be at home with her Daddy and I'm afraid that she's going to like him more than me.

Sleet and Freezing Rain

in addition to about 3 inches of snow. And Aaron has an exam today at 10:30 am. UMass is closed until 10 am which means he still has his exam... Which means he has to deal with the driveway (because I can't work the snow blower) as well as finish off his thesis work. We have a lot of grumpiness around here.

Sophie woke up on the wrong side of the bed and was quite cranky earlier but now she seems to be fairly happy talking to her giraffe buddy.

We did get the snow tires put on yesterday, so at least we have that going for us. I dropped the car off in the morning and then walked home because it was going to be at least 3 hours before they could get to my car. And the temperature was about 15 degrees. Yikes! I was not very prepared for that. The walk was about 2 miles by Aaron's calculations. Thankfully, Aaron walked back to get the car in the afternoon. For a California boy, he sure knows how to bundle up.

Anyhoo, we ordered pheromone traps for the moths and I've looked through all of our grain/flour/cereal/pasta, etc. and don't see any signs of them in there. Hopefully the traps will get rid of the rest of them. We've both gotten really good at clapping them out of the air. And Otto has been quite helpful as well.

This weekend is all about working on the Christmas cards that finally arrived yesterday.

Brrr!

It hit negative temperatures last night and Sophie and I are holed up inside while Aaron is off to his last day of classes. I made a "Daddy's Little Scrunchkin" onesie for Aaron's birthday and she promptly peed on it. At least he got to see her in it before that.

I'm a bit pooped and feeling like I might be coming down with something. And I have to start work next week so that is weighing me down as well. At least the first few days are half days. And Aaron will be taking over the childcare duties so I don't have to worry about bringing her to day care.

Our house has a bit of a moth problem. Little tiny moths are EVERYWHERE. We can't seem to find where they are hatching and it is getting very annoying. Any suggestions?

Oh gross. I did a quick Google search and apparently we have Meal Moths. Great.

Good Night, and Good Luck

Was absolutely fantabulous. You should really see it as soon as you can. Very poignant in the context of today's media as well.

Happy Birthday!

To my handsome husband. 33! We were talking yesterday about how neither of us feel like we are in our mid 30s. And how we feel too young to have a baby. But then there's Sophie and she's amazing. It's been such a complete whirlwind since we found out I was pregnant. You have been more than supportive of me through the whole process.

You are my rock. I know that sounds cheesy, but it's true. I feel confident and safe knowing that you are in my corner. We complement each other so well that I can't remember what it was like before we met. You are funny and kind and completely, utterly gullible. You are the father I knew you'd be - gentle and caring and absolutely in love with our little daughter.

Happy Birthday. I love you.

Stretch

click on the photo for more.

Weekend

We had another good sleep night last night. Although she is now cranky - the baby? She does not wake up well. She also gets quite cranky when she's hungry. That comes from my side of the family. We become monsters when the blood sugar drops. We stayed up a bit last night watching the first season of 'Joan of Arcadia' on DVD (thanks Kym!). I was always trying to get Aaron to watch the show while it was still on.

My mom is coming today to watch the Sophster while Aaron and I go out on a date to see a movie and maybe grab a quick something to eat. 'Cause Aaron's 33rd birthday is Monday and we won't be able to go out then because he has stupid school and a stupid test that day. Anyhoo, I'm excited because we're going to see "Good Night, and Good Luck" - we've both been wanting to see this for a while.

Also? My mom wants to bond with Sophie for a while. Hopefully Sophie will be good and take the bottle and not barf or fuss too much. And Aaron and I get to walk into town and hold hands and enjoy a movie.

Sophie was a lot of fun yesterday. We had her on the changing table and she was talking to us - imitating what we were 'saying' and we were imitating her back. Lots of "Oooh" and "Goo" and "Oh". It was hilarious and it went on for a lot longer than normal. I even checked her diaper at one point and it was full of poop so I said: "Ew!" and she said "Ew" right after me. Very funny. She is adorable.

Snow Update

We woke up to lots of snow and it's still coming down. UMass is closed today as well as pretty much everything else around here. Except his advisor's school and that means he still has to meet her later this afternoon. Hopefully most of the roads will be cleared off by then. It's supposed to taper off around noon or so.

And a Sophie update - she slept for 5 1/2 hours and then another 4 hour stretch after that! It could have been the bath we gave her last night or the long adventure out or maybe she's just finally settling in at night. Cross your fingers that this continues! We watched 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith' during the first stretch. Not the best movie, but it was enjoyable. I wonder if Jennifer Aniston has ever watched it.

Uh oh, Snow!

After reading snazzykat's blog, I realized we are getting a big snowstorm tomorrow morning. And, because we have a baby and our minds are like jelly with the babyness of it all, we have waited to get our snow tires put on. [Mom: DON'T freak out]. So, I had my 6 week OB appointment this afternoon and we tried calling all the tire places in and around town today to see if we could come in. We were basically laughed at by everybody. I even tried the - but we have a 6 week old baby! Please help us! 'HA HA HA!'

We do have all-weather tires on the car but they don't work quite as well as the mighty snow tires. [And Mom, before you worry too much, we drove across country and into the blizzard that was Massachusetts that winter on old all weather tires. The ones we have now are brand-new. So, no worries. Also, Sophie and I will be home and Aaron will be the one driving around to get to school and back. Unless they cancel classes.] Yeah! We get to get up and listen to cancellations! Or rather, get on the internet and look for cancellations because who listens to the radio anymore, anyway?

Sophie was pretty good while were were out on the town. We also stopped by Jiffy Lube to get an oil change and new wiper blades. She slept through that and then I fed her in the car before heading into the OB office. While Aaron was attempting to burp her in the car, she got a very odd look on her face and promptly barfed all over him, his nice scarf and jacket. She also splashed my new wrinkle/spill/nuclear attack-proof pants. Which I promptly wiped off. My scarf-less, jacket-less husband was not pleased when I pointed this out to him.

She started getting a bit fussy in the waiting room before the appointment as she had just barfed all the food I had tried to give her so they let me nurse her in one of the exam rooms before the appointment.

Appointment went well. My blood pressure is still high so it's up to me to try and adjust my diet and exercise levels to see if I can get it to go down before I resort to medication. Oh yeah, and we got the green light for sex! Woo! Oh c'mon, you knew we've had sex before, right? ;)

I'll attempt to get photos of the snow tomorrow. I have to hang some suet feeders, so I should be out there in the frozen tundra briefly, anyway.

Daddy Songs

[making cheerleading gestures with her hands]

Sophia!
She's our girl!
She can poop a naked squirrel!

Aaron: "Did I just sing 'She can poop a naked squirrel?'"

And:

A spoonful of Sophie makes everything cuter
Everything cuter, er
Everything cuter
Oh, a spoonful of Sophie makes everything cuter
In the most delightful way!

Cavities

They ended up drilling three cavities yesterday. The first two without novocaine because they weren't very deep. The third one started out without novocaine and then OUCH. So, I got the shot. We were talking about Sophie and it came up that I had had natural childbirth and the dentist laughed: "Then you don't need novocaine!" Yeah, ha ha, very funny.

I ended up being gone for about 4 hours while Aaron was home with the Sophster. They did pretty well again with the milk in the bottle. Yesterday was also a banner day for pumping - 14 ounces in two sittings! Usually it's a stretch to get 4 ounces in one sitting, so this was great.

And she slept for another 4+ hour stretch last night. We are still working out the sleeping arrangement because Aaron doesn't like the Amby. He thinks she looks squished in there and that her head is at an uncomfortable angle. So she ended up in the Papasan for a while. She is still getting pretty stuffed up and it makes her VERY grunty and snurffley and grumpy. So now we are thinking we are going to bring the Pack-n-Play up to the office so that she is in a slightly different room and maybe we can sleep through some of the noises.

We might walk into town today to run some errands. However, it is pretty cold out there so I might wimp out.

Sleep, where art thou?

Why can't I fall asleep when the baby is sleeping? I've always been a bit of a bad sleeper. Aaron falls asleep almost instantly and it's something that has always bugged me. To the point where I'll occasionally wake him up just so I'm not the only one sitting there in the dark. Yes, I'm a bit evil.

Sophie did really well at stamp night. She was calm and alert most of the time and everyone took turns holding her. She has no problem being passed around, luckily. There was also a big puppy there who was fascinated with her but she had no problem with him, either. She had a couple of screaming fits in the car ride there (as soon as we got off the highway) and then on the way back (before we got on the highway). So she was pretty tired when we got home. She ended up sleeping for a good 5 hour stretch once she fell asleep. And, again, I didn't try to sleep at the same time. I need to start doing that because I'm going to have to be at work at 8 am and so far we are just getting up at that point.

This afternoon I have a dentist appointment at which they are going to fill the cavities they discovered this summer. At their suggestion, I put off getting them filled until after Sophie's arrival. So, ugh.

Anyhoo, it is quiet now since we are all pretty tired. Or at least Aaron and I are. Sophie seems pretty chipper.

Morning Update

Well, we ending up getting her to bed around 9:30 for about 4 hours.

So we could watch 'War of the Worlds' - which actually wasn't that bad even though it had Tom Cruise in it. Why does he always sound stuffed up? He needs to get his sinuses looked at. A MUCH better movie was 'Murderball', which is about quad rugby players. Excellent documentary. Highly, highly recommend. Very inspiring. We also watched 'March of the Penguins' this weekend and it was also good. A bit heartbreaking in parts but amazing, nonetheless.

Tonight Sophie and I will be venturing out for Sophie's first stamp night with the ladies. It will be interesting to see how she does as that tends to be a more cranky time for her.

In other news, a big snow storm is headed in our direction for late tonight and tomorrow morning. It's tracking more along the coast so we may only get an inch or so, but they've been wrong about these things before.

Weekend

Well that was a lazyish weekend. We did manage to cart ourselves down to Target so that I could buy, among other goodies, some pants that would fit my 'transitioning back to my normal size' booty. Sophie was great. As long as the shopping cart kept moving. So Aaron did circles around the store with Sophie while I looked for pants.

We also managed two nights in a row with her going to sleep around 8pm and staying asleep for about 4 hours or more. Too bad we didn't know this was going to happen in advance or we would have napped with her. I kept thinking she was going to wake up any minute so I stayed up. And then she slept and slept. Tonight is another story.

Gotta go.

TGIF

Not that that matters when you aren't working, but...it's nice to know a weekend is coming. Aaron didn't have class today so we walked into town while it is still fairly nice out. It was sunny and in the 50s - not raining and not snowing. Snow predictions for tonight and early next week.

We also managed to give Sophie her first real bath. We had waited because her belly button area hasn't healed but I called the pediatrician this morning and they gave the go-ahead. And there was screaming initially but she ended up seeming to like it. Or at least she wasn't screaming because she was trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

In other news, I made 'Chicken with Peanut and Chili Sauce' in the slow cooker and it was also yummy. The chicken was hard to get out of the pot because it was falling off the bones.

Aaron was supposed to work on his thesis today but he kept getting sidetracked by the baby. Who was good this morning and has been melting down since we got back from the walk. We gave her a bottle (her first) yesterday and I think she liked the easy access to the breastmilk. Or I could just be taking things personally. I went grocery shopping while Aaron stayed home with Sophie and the bottle and things went fairly well. Since it looks like I have to start work again on the 19th - we need to get her used to the bottle. Baby steps at first, though. I'm starting to realize that I can't stay home with her forever. And that she might like the bottle better than me. This makes me very, very sad.

She is probably also going through her 6 week growth spurt and is cranky because of that. But it's hard not to take things personally when she cries while she's trying to nurse.

I mean, just look at her:

(click on the photo for more)