Andrea's Weblog

We're moving!

2006-03-04T08:49:00.000-05:00

Well, the weblog at least is moving, to our own domain: http://frickchen.auroralux.net/.

Links and Favorite Links

2006-02-20T16:18:00.000-05:00

Here are some updated links that I should share:
Main Photo Page
Elizabeth's Gallery
Frank's Blog

And as long as I'm doing a post on links, here are some of my parenting favorites:
Ask Dr. Sears for parenting advice
La Leche League for breastfeeding support
Attachment Parenting International to learn about our parenting style
Mama Toto - who knew there were so many ways to wear a baby?
The Baby Wearer more info on how to wear a baby
Peppermint where to find slings to buy
Mothering Magazine a magazine I read cover to cover
Soft Cloth Bunz see how far cloth diapering has come - no pins here!

Future Olympian?

2006-02-20T15:53:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth isn't much of a TV watcher. She's in love with Elmo (Melmo) and has a bunch of Elmo toys, but has never seen the show. I keep meaning to Tivo an episode of Sesame Street, but it never seems to happen. I figure it's a slippery slope. Once she realizes that they make TV for kids, she'll demand to watch TV. By the way, this same rule applies to bubble gum machines and rides outside of the grocery store. The longer I can prevent her from knowing that it's something more than just to look at, the less likely I'll have to drag her kicking and screaming from the grocery store. Anyhow, we've all heard that TV rots your brain, so I figured that it would be best to avoid it during her first two years of life when her brain is growing more rapidly than it ever will again.

Elizabeth will happily do her own thing while I'm watching a show, that is until she caught sight of the Olympic Opening Ceremony. She crawled up in my lap and sat there for 10 minutes watching the show. When it came to the parade of nations, it would go something like this: a group of athletes would appear behind the sign for their country, the announcers would say, for example, China! (French pronunciation), China! (English pronunciation), China! (Italian pronunciation) and Elizabeth would say Ni-na! (Elizabeth pronunciation). It went on like this for several countries. This does not end her participation in the 2006 Olympics. She also spent a lot of time cheering for downhill skiers and snowboarders("Yayy!! Wheeee!!"). When we were watching the pairs figure skating she started gesturing to me, and I finally realized that she wanted me to pick her up and twirl her around like they were doing on TV. We spent a while perfecting our spins. and I think she may be ready for the 2022 Winter Games.

Runny Noses

2006-02-19T14:13:00.000-05:00

I think this is only the second time Elizabeth has gotten sick. She's
got a runny nose and cough accompanied by lots of drool. I can't
figure out if the drool is because she is teething again or if it's a
side-effect from keeping her mouth open to breathe. For the last 3
days her face has been covered by drool and clear snot.

Elizabeth has been using several methods of snot removal: rub nose on
mom's shirt, consent to being wiped with kleenex, put your hand on
your mouth/nose area and wipe upward into hair.

I've spent the last several days with shiny patches of dried snot on
my shirts. (I'm going to have to make an amendment to the "never wear
white" rule of motherhood. I don't think the snot shows up nearly as
well on my white shirts.) I'm also thinking of making her wear a
sweatband on her head so when she wipes her own nose, hopefully, the
band would absorb it before it gets in her hair. She's been sporting
some pretty spikey looks. We're working on getting her to blow her
nose, but it's difficult to get a toddler to do something when she
doesn't want to do it. This also goes for taking medicine. She likes
the Tylenol Cough and Cold --I mean she took it the other day without
a problem--but suddenly she refuses to take it. She decided she would
rather blow bubbles in the spoon of bright red medicine, which of
course covered my white shirt and her in red. This morning I gave her
the tiny measuring cup and let her drink it herself, which seemed to
work. I had to accompany it by lots of "awwwww look at the little
cup." I was also reminded of the Mary Poppin's song "just a spoonful
of sugar helps the medicine go down." Hmmm... maybe I could try some
honey?

She hasn't been interested in eating much, but at least she can nurse
to get some nourishment and antibodies. She probably has a sensitive
tummy from all the drool/snot she's been swallowing. The plus side in
all this is that since she's been nursing so much, I'm back to having
cleavage!

Kissing Butt

2006-02-12T18:40:00.000-05:00

We kiss boo-boos around here. Elizabeth falls down on her hands,
cries boo-boo, I kiss her hands, it's all better. It's great that one
kiss can stop the tears in a millisecond. I just had to explain to
her that not all boo-boos are kissable. For example, her diaper rash,
although it is a boo-boo, does NOT get kissed. Air kiss maybe, but we
don't kiss butts.

Clip-Clop

2006-02-12T14:55:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth was in the closet the other day playing with our shoes. It
didn't take her long to find a nice pair of high heels. She put them
on in the closet and walked a few steps in them and then onto the
tile floor of our bathroom. The look on her face when the loud clip-
clop pierced the air was one of sheer delight. Mom's high heels are
awesome!

18 Months

2006-02-01T17:10:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Elizabeth's 18 month check-up. She is 35 inches tall
and 23.8 pounds. That makes her a full 3 inches taller than an
average 18-month-old according to the charts. Crazy! She's still
slightly below average in weight though, so you can imagine how tall
and skinny she is.

Last weekend at a baby shower for Frank's cousin, Elizabeth was
fascinated with baby Wyatt. She kept trying to pick him up and carry
him around, but 6 month old Wyatt must be in the upper percentiles
for weight (that's the polite way of saying he's quite chubby),
because I'm sure he weighed more than Elizabeth. She settled on
hugging him for about 5 minutes while he clung to her hair. Later she
found one of his toys and started searching all over the house for
him saying "baby?"

She's talking up a storm. Have I said that before? It's just so
amazing to hear her thought process. The other night Frank took a
picture of her and she pointed at the camera saying "mi-wuh," or
mirror, because she wanted to see the screen on the back of the
digital camera. She's also started telling me when she has a stinky
diaper. She'll point at her diaper and say "kinky." Some other words
she says are "ni-no" - cappuccino, "cheers," and one of her favorites
"na-na!" - nurse!

She's also exhibited an interest in sitting on the potty. It's way
too early to start any sort of potty training, or to be PC, Potty
Learning. She can't even take her pants off by herself yet. (Imagine
shopping when she figures that out.) But, I did get her a little
potty of her own so when she demands to sit on the toilet like me she
won't fall in. She hauled it out to the kitchen around lunch time
today, pointed at it and said "more!" It took me a second to realize
she wanted to use it as a bowl. We definitely have a long way to go
with the potty concept.

Shopping with a Toddler

2006-02-01T12:28:00.000-05:00

Shopping with a toddler is like shopping with a traveling circus -
you never know what to expect and you always attract a crowd. Last
weekend Elizabeth and I headed to Columbia, SC for a much-needed
clothes shopping expedition. It seems that my "mom" clothes (the ones
I buy on sale at Target so I don't get upset when someone dumps
babyfood on me) are looking too frumpy to be seen in public. So, we
headed to a mall that had some nice stores.

I strapped Elizabeth into her umbrella stroller and hit store #1. As
soon as the stroller stopped, she demanded out. She wanted to play
with the seat belt buckles, latching them, asking me to unlatch them,
then latching them again. As I was paying, another shopper was
chatting with Elizabeth and Elizabeth decided to show the woman that
she can take her own shirt off now. I looked down as she was tugging
it over her head and the shopper was smiling at her and saying "ooh
you can take your shirt off!" I had to try and explain to her that
despite the fact that I had just taken my shirt off (in the fitting
room) that it was not acceptable for her to take off hers, despite
her smiling audience.

In an attempt to distract her from the buckles and shirt, we went to
Starbucks. The cashier handed her a huge Starbucks logo sticker,
which she proudly wore on her shirt. She sipped her hot cocoa as we
strolled along. Usually I feel that I get my money out of the $1
kiddie cocoas, but this day it took her all of 5 minutes to decide
she was done with it. I stopped in front of Ann Taylor Loft to take
it away from her. Somehow as she handed it to me it fell to the
ground, lid flying and cocoa spilling all over the floor. I had
several napkins which clearly weren't going to cut it. I started to
push the stroller toward Ann Taylor, only to notice I was leaving a
trail of cocoa. I noticed a jewelry booth in the middle of the mall a
few yards away and pushed the stroller there to see if they could
call a janitor. I decided not to stand by the mess waiting for the
janitor to come. The embarrassment would be too great, plus, I was
still on Elizabeth time. The mess was big enough that people would
likely see it before stepping in it anyhow. So we went into Ann
Taylor to shop around, and I told them a janitor was on the way.
There must have been some confusion as to who was called or if the
janitor was coming, because I looked out and saw mall security and
another mall employee standing around the mess on walkie-talkies
having a not-so-quiet conversation about the situation. I wanted to
blend in with the innocent shoppers, but that was impossible since I
was pushing around a kid covered in cocoa and wearing a huge
Starbucks sticker. It definitely wouldn't have taken a detective to
identify the guilty party.

Proper Alignment

2006-01-18T15:20:00.000-05:00

I took Elizabeth in to a chiropractor to get her alignment checked.
It was just a routine check recommended by her Grandi Mac, because if
there are any problems, they are a lot easier to fix when they're
this young.

I found a chiropractor who was recommended by a friend and it turns
out that kids 12 and under are free. The chiropractor was really
great with Elizabeth, but Elizabeth was a little skeptical of the
whole situation. I think she became a bit wary when she almost got
clocked by the door when the doctor entered the room. The doctor had
to pull out all the tricks to get Elizabeth to cooperate. It looked
to me that Elizabeth got a good back rub out of the deal.

I'm very glad I took her in because she did need some work on her
lower back. The doctor used a spring loaded thumper (https://
www.chirocity.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2613) and
tapped her lower back into alignment. She checked to see if
Elizabeth's legs were the same length and also checked to see if her
lower back was curved to the left or right. Apparently, there is a
very simple check for this. She pulled the top of Elizabeth's diaper
down to reveal the top of her butt crack. Next she squeezed her
little cheeks together . If it makes a straight line, her back is
fine, but if it curves either to the left or right, her back is
curved. Who knew?

Shoes

2006-01-18T14:58:00.000-05:00

There's nothing like a pair of shoes to bring out the girlie-girl in
Elizabeth. Elizabeth has several pairs of shoes and several pairs of
slippers. Lately she has been demanding to wear one patent leather
shoe and one sneaker. That's all that will do. I've given in to her
when we're here at the house, but I draw the line when it comes to
wearing mismatched shoes in public. The last few times we've left the
house, she's thrown a tantrum because her shoes matched. One day she
figured that if I wasn't going to let HER wear mismatched shoes then
maybe I could sport the mismatched shoes. She demanded that I put a
dress shoe on my right foot and my usual clog on my left foot. When I
didn't cooperate . . . TANTRUM.

Oh, and it's either barefoot or shoes and socks. If I take off her
shoes, she demands that her socks come off too.

When we do make it out of the house with shoes on, she makes sure
that people take note of her shoes. People will say "Hi Elizabeth"
and she'll point to her shoes "shoe, shoe!" and then points to her
hair, "hair, hair." First her shoes because she likes shoes and
second to her hair because people usually complement her curly hair.

So maybe she's only half girlie-girl since she wears a sneaker. But,
if things progress at this rate, I have no doubt that she will give
Imelda Marcos ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/
1173911.stm ) a run for the money.

Toddler Tantrums

2006-01-14T16:43:00.000-05:00

Over the holidays Grandi Mac, Elizabeth and I set out on a shopping
expedition. I think we waited a bit too long for Elizabeth's liking
to decide to go eat some lunch. We ended up at Mellow Mushroom, a sit-
down pizza place in downtown Augusta. The waiter brought Elizabeth a
cup of water with a lid on it, which she promptly pried off, but
continued to play with--that is until she spilled it all over the
floor. They promptly mopped it up and put up a wet floor sign. I took
Elizabeth's cold, wet pants off and left her in her cloth diaper.

The meal seemed to deteriorate from there. Elizabeth was fussy and
when she found entertainment in sitting under the high chair I let
her do her thing. The next thing I know she's squatting down in the
middle of the floor and a pool of pee is forming underneath her (much
to the amusement of the other diners who noticed). Fortunately, each
table has napkin dispensers, so I was able to take a stack of them
and cover up the puddle. She must have looked up and seen that the
sign said "wet floor" and taken it as a order.

At this point we hadn't yet gotten our food. I looked to Grandi Mac
and said, "do you think we can get it to go?" I had no diapers on me
since her diaper was less than a half hour old and I had felt a
solid mass in her diaper and was afraid it would roll out at any
moment and cause further embarrassment.

I dashed to the car and did a diaper change while Grandi Mac got our
lunch packed up. As soon as the car started rolling she fell fast
asleep. I ate my lunch in the car, sitting in the garage at our house
while she continued to sleep blissfully unaware of how embarrassing
toddlers can be.

Bow!

2006-01-14T16:25:00.000-05:00

I'm constantly surprised by how much Elizabeth knows. The other day
we watched a documentary on Seabiscuit. I had mistakenly ordered it
instead of Seabiscuit the movie from Netflix. It was mostly just
talking heads, but there were a few exciting horse race scenes, so I
pointed out to her that they were horses. The following week she and
her grandpa were looking through a National Geographic magazine
together. He asked her where the horse was and she pointed at the
postage stamp-sized horse in the black and white photo. I was
surprised that she could make the leap between the "live" horses on
TV and this little tiny one on paper. It's also not an animal that
we've talked about before. She also told me that the little yellow
half-moon thing that is on the seconds hand of her monkey clock is a
"na-na." She knows what real bananas look like and again she was able
to make the leap.

She's also started pretending. The highlight of her pretend play so
far is when she took the plastic monkey from the barrel of monkeys
game, pulled up my shirt, found the monkey's face, put him to my boob
and started making smacking noises.

As Elizabeth would say "bow!" As in "Wow!" As in "Elizabeth, look at
the moon". . . "Bow!"

Odd Jobs

2006-01-12T18:12:00.000-05:00

Since her Aunt Kirsty brags about this, I guess I should too.
Elizabeth has had her own chore for the past several months. It is
her job to feet the cats and Finley. Every morning I fill the scoop
with a cup of cat food and she trots over and dumps it in their bowl.
The first few times she did this, there was some spillage, but the
cats didn't mind taking care of it. Then I give her Finley's bowl and
she walks it over and places it down right next to the water bowl.
Sometimes it takes a few tries to get it positioned "just so" next to
the water bowl. She also acts as quality control by tasting a few
kibbles of food before giving it to the animals.

Since she's been doing so well at following directions, I figured she
could help me out of a predicament. We've all been there. Sitting on
the pot with no toilet paper to be found. This problem was
exacerbated by the fact that she kept flushing the toilet for me
while I was still sitting on it. I decided it was time for her first
mission. I said "Elizabeth, go to the other bathroom and get me some
toilet paper." She trotted off and returned with the tiniest scrap of
toilet paper I've ever seen. (Definitely not an over-achiever.) I
praised her, but said "OK now get me a big piece of toilet paper" and
gestured with my hands to show how big. She trotted off again only to
return with another tiny scrap, only slightly bigger than the first.
Oh well, it was worth a try.

Daintier than me

2006-01-06T09:20:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth has finally become a good eater. I was growing tired of
preparing food for her that she barely touched. There's still no
convincing her to eat when she doesn't want to, but I've noticed that
she and Finley have the same tendency to eat in spurts. Elizabeth
still never turns down a dog food kibble. Ugh.

It's great that she feeds herself now too. She's taken a dainty
approach to spoon holding. She holds it using two fingers and a thumb
at the very end of the handle. Sometimes she even sticks her pinky out.

Happy 2006

2006-01-05T15:31:00.000-05:00

We survived the holidays and I've run out of excuses for not devoting some time to my blog. I really shouldn't put it that way. It's more like I can finally put off laundry and other things that I should be doing because out last visitor left yesterday and we aren't expecting anyone any time soon.

This holiday season was more hectic than usual. I can't really figure out why. Elizabeth can entertain herself for quite awhile by herself now. I don't have to keep both eyes on her all the time--my well-trained ears are usually sufficient. I got heavily involved in making calendars for the family. Since I couldn't find any macintosh-friendly clipart or calendar programs I decided I could do better making them by myself. It was hard work picking out all the pictures and designing the backgrounds. I discovered that I my Photoshop and InDesign skills needed some brushing up.

I'm so thankful that I could do most of my shopping on-line. It took a lot out of me to get all my errands done between naps. Elizabeth is down to one nap a day, which is usually an hour and a half --that is unless she falls asleep for 5 minutes in the car. In that case, there's no way to convince her that she's only slept for 5 minutes and she refuses to take a real nap no matter how tired she gets. That makes for what we call a "grump-tastic" day.

Christmas with Elizabeth was so great. We had my family - Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Kirsty and Uncle Foof down from Maryland. Since grandpa "couldn't get a flight in" the following day, he arrived the day before. The rest of the family thinks he just wanted to ensure that he got his "playdate with Elizabeth" the only thing on his Christmas list. Frank's mom arrived a few days after Christmas and stayed through New Years. Elizabeth had plenty of presents to open and really caught on to the whole unwrapping thing. She wanted to unwrap each gift and play with it right away. She kept getting frustrated when we couldn't get the toy out of the packaging fast enough. When did they start using millions of twist ties and plastic packaging that you have to hack your way through? Elizabeth wanted to play with each gift as she opened it. She couldn't just look at it and move on. We had a hard time convincing her to open more gifts.

Amazingly, our live Christmas tree was barely touched. There were a few incidents with a cinnamon-scented ornament and one that wasn't cinnamon, but looked the same. Finley has some treats that are cinnamon flavored, so we couldn't really be mad at his mistake.

I should say to all the people out there who received a Christmas card from us. No, Finley is not a stuffed dog. We spent way too much time trying to get the perfect photo. This photo of our fine teenage puppy should put all questions as to whether or not he is real to rest. (Yes, that is a boner.)

I'll be posting more stories from the last month in the coming week.

New Word

2005-11-17T13:16:00.000-05:00

We can add "bimbo" to the list of words Elizabeth can say. Finley has a cloth doll that used to be Elizabeth's. We lovingly refer to it as Finley's bimbo because she's wearing a miniskirt and is wearing lipstick. (Picture a cloth version of this.) Frank and I have been betting how long it will take Finley to get her skirt off and so far he's disappointed us. Anyhow, I asked Elizabeth to get Finley's bimbo and she says "bimbe." I say "bim-bo." She says "bimbo." I sure am proud.

Boo Boos

2005-11-17T12:42:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I got a boo-boo. A big boo-boo. An inch and a half long
piece of glass went through my toe diagonally and into a second toe.
The glass had apparently come off the lip of a new pyrex bowl. I
collapsed on the floor while Frank (who was luckily right there)
fished out the glass. I wasn't freaking out, but Elizabeth could
clearly see something was wrong. She started freaking out and
couldn't decide if she wanted to come near me or run and hide. I
tried explaining to her that mommy has a boo-boo and would she like
to kiss it. I know, why would anyone want to kiss someone's foot -
let alone a bloody foot? I was attempting to let her know that I was
ok, but she just shook her head "no." She calmed down once she saw me
get back up on my feet, but she still won't kiss my boo-boo.

Big Gulp

2005-11-17T12:20:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth hasn't been a very big eater. I usually try to give her
adult food that she can eat and occasionally offer her a jar of baby
food. Sometimes she eats, sometimes she doesn't. One one of the baby
food days, I opened up a jar and put it on the table in front of her
while I went to get a spoon. When I got back, she was busy drinking
the jar of baby food. She didn't put it down- or even stop for a
breather - until the jar was almost empty. She went through two jars
in this manner. This works fine for me, and she seems to love it, so
I guess we'll continue gulping baby food.

Cleanest Dryer in Town

2005-11-09T17:34:00.000-05:00

You may wonder how we ended up with the cleanest dryer in town. Well,
it all started with pumpkin seeds. It turns out that Elizabeth loves
roasted pumpkin seeds. I knew it would be trouble passing through,
but she really loved them. I didn't realize that she wasn't chewing
them up until I saw several pumpkin seed marbles roll out of her
diaper. Several diarrhea diapers followed the marbles.

As you may know, Elizabeth uses cloth diapers. The normal procedure
is to shake the diaper in the toilet and put it in the diaper pail.
Since these diapers didn't appear to be worth flushing, they just
went into the pail. Eventually these diapers were washed and ended up
in the dryer. It wasn't until I opened the dryer to retrieve them
that I realized that a turd had made it's way into the dryer. The
dryer was filled with poo skid marks and a crusty blob of poo clung
to one of the tumbling blades. I groaned and started spraying the
inside of the dryer with disinfectant.

Unfortunately the blob was at the top of the inside of the dryer,
making it difficult to reach. Since the inside of the dryer wouldn't
turn by hand, I had to turn it on and try and get the turd to stop at
the bottom of the dryer. It took several tries before this happened.
This is when Frank decided to see what was keeping us. (I say us
because Elizabeth was in the laundry room with me. She had just
discovered the switch on the door that turns the dryer light on and
off and was happily turning it on and off for me.) Frank shows up and
asks what's going on. I just look at him trying to think of a nice
way of saying "I'm trying to get a turd to stop on the bottom, " but
ended up saying just that. All we could do was laugh at ourselves.

I can't say that cleaning up skidmarks from the dryer is how I want
to spend my evenings, so from now on I will be shaking off every
diaper - no matter how innocent it appears!

New Shoes

2005-11-04T11:12:00.001-05:00

I need to take Elizabeth shoe shopping. We noticed her first pair of
walking shoes is a bit small, I didn't realize how small till I tried
a new pair on her and she was 1.5 sizes larger since July! Since
we're not into foot-binding, I'd better head over to Stride Rite!

15 Month Check-up

2005-11-04T11:12:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth went in for her 15 month check-up on Monday. I almost
forgot about the appointment because we had a surprise visitor for
the weekend. Frank and my sister Kirsten conspired to surprise me for
my 30th birthday, so Friday night Frank showed up at the house with
Kirsten all the way from Baltimore. I was definitely surprised, and
when Elizabeth woke up the next morning, I think she was surprised
too. We also had Frank's friend Kevin visiting from California, but I
think he was mostly here for our annual Halloween bash.

Anyhow, Elizabeth weighs in at 23.5 pounds and 33.5 inches. That
keeps her in the 55th percentile for weight and off the charts in
height. (I guess I say height now instead of length since she's
walking.) The nurse originally measured her at 31 inches then tried
to convince me that was fine because that puts her in the 55th
percentile for height and weight. It's fine since she's in the same
percentile for both--nevermind the fact that she was that height at
her last check-up and therefore (by her calculations) hadn't grown at
all. I just stood there and smiled at her strange form of logic. I
mentioned this to the doctor and she sighed and called the nurse back
to re-measure.

Another nurse came in to give Elizabeth her shots. She warned me that
the measles shot is very painful. Amazingly, Elizabeth didn't cry for
her shots. This is the second time in a row. The nurse said she's
never had a baby who didn't cry for his measles shot. It was a
different story, however, when Kirsten and I tried to get her back
into her dress. The shot didn't bother her, but she refused to let us
put her dress on her and started crying. Shoes and tights were fine,
but NO DRESS!

As far as other milestones go, Elizabeth has learned how to speak
martian--at least that's what it sounds like. She's started combining
strings of consonants in rapid succession so it sounds like she's
speaking a different language. It's hard to describe this transition,
but before she would get stuck on individual sounds "ba-be, na-na..."
Now it sounds more like "matu pika bingie." She sounds so earnest
that I can't help thinking "why can't I understand her?"

Elizabeth is still nursing- especially days when we're sitting around
the house. (I say that like I lounge around all day- ha!) We're going
to let her self-wean, which should happen in the next year. She
benefits so much from breast milk, both physically and emotionally, I
don't see why I should forcefully wean her. She usually just nurses
to sleep and nurses a lot in the morning - especially if she wakes up
on the wrong side of the bed. I tend to encourage the morning nursing
so I can get a cup of coffee and prepare for the day while I'm not
running around after her. She'll also nurse at night, which since she
sleeps with us isn't a problem.

Tumbling Toddlers

2005-10-13T10:36:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth and I organized a post La Leche League meeting trip to
Chick-Fil-A with a bunch of the other moms and kids. We popped into
the bathroom there and as we were leaving Boom! Down Elizabeth went--
right on her face. I hurriedly picked her up and started trying to
stop the blood flowing from her mouth. I couldn't tell exactly what
she did to herself because there was so much blood. My mind is
whirring "How do I know if she needs stitches? Where do I take her?
Are all her teeth there?..." It didn't help matters that the paper
towels would only come out one at a time, so I was furiously trying
to get a big enough wad to apply some pressure. I walked out to the
counter to get some ice for her and some young guy asks me to fill
out an incident report. I told him that there's no way I'm filling
anything out now-I really just need some ice.

The bleeding stopped and ice packs kept being delivered to the table
followed by some ice cream. I guess word spread and everyone wanted
to help her feel better. At some point we went back to the bathroom
to wash up and also clean up the blood from the bathroom floor and sink.

Elizabeth didn't seem too phased by the experience. She barely let me
finish lunch before she managed to wiggle free and go to the indoor
playground.

Fortunately, she had just started understanding the concept of boo-
boos the previous night. (She pinched her finger in the baby gate
when Finley decided to close it.) When I asked her where her boo-boo
was she kept giving me her hand to kiss. Eventually, she figured out
it was her lip that was her new boo-boo. Boo-boos can move?

For now she has a big fat lower lip, but it hasn't stopped her from
nursing or any of her other hobbies. I guess this was my toddler
first aid training initiation.

Just Another Day

2005-10-12T06:40:00.000-05:00

Today as we were driving to an appointment Elizabeth started acting
like she was going to throw up. I quickly draped a cloth diaper over
her chest before the light turned green. Sure enough, I heard her
throw up and looked back and noticed that she had flung the diaper
across the car. I pulled into the closest parking lot and tried to
catch as much as I could in my hand. Then I had to wipe the rest up
with wet-wipes. This must have been quite entertaining for the folks
eating inside the restaurant.

I'm not sure what was bothering her, but she must have felt better.
She offered a round of applause for an ambulance as it sped by us. I
guess she enjoyed the show.

When to Stop

2005-10-09T09:32:00.000-05:00

When do you stop burping babies? When do they learn to pop their own
ears on airplanes? When do you NOT have to worry about them sleeping
on their stomachs?

All the parenting books and articles are very specific about what we
should be doing, but they never tell you when you can stop doing
these things.

Aunt Kirsten's Photos

2005-09-30T07:58:00.000-05:00

I don't think I mentioned that Elizabeth's Aunt Kirsten is also posting photos to auroralux. She took some of Elizabeth swimming last weekend. Kirsten's Photos

Yesterday, Elizabeth spotted the swimming suit coming out of the washing machine and insisted on "going swimming." At first I couldn't figure out what she wanted. She thrust the suit at me then collapsed on the floor crying. I started putting it on her, but she said "nah." So I pretended to put it on myself and she said "nah." Since Finley was there, I pretended to put it on him too, but she was still crying. I finally took her clothes off her and put the suit on her and she seemed satisfied. I guess she wasn't fooled when I tried to put it on over her clothes. Doesn't everybody know you can't swim with shoes on? I don't think our bathtub was nearly as fun as the pool, but it seemed to side track her enough from teething aches that she became more pleasant company.

Photos

2005-09-30T07:41:00.000-05:00

Is anyone else but me disturbed by the fact that my pregnant belly shots have the most hits in our auroralux gallery? Last count, the belly shots had 111 hits! Elizabeth's first week - the first photos of her- only got 48 hits.

As I looked back on the photos yesterday, I do realize that it is shocking that I was actually able to walk with that enormous belly. And I can't believe I ever felt guilty for quitting work the week before she was born and relaxing around the house. I was HUGE and 111 people have witnessed it!

The Photos

Conversations with Elmo

2005-09-28T12:14:00.000-05:00

We just got back from our first long car trip as a family. We drove
almost 12 hours up to DC to Schuyler and Heidi's wedding. We left
home at 3:45 am to ensure that Elizabeth would sleep for a good bit.
It wasn't till we were on the road that I started trying to figure
out when I would get to sleep. I had this picture in my head of us
napping in the hotel room before venturing out to the rehearsal
dinner. Then I realized that we were going to use up all her naps in
the car on the way there and there was no chance she would nap on
demand later in the day. I had to get myself to doze while she was
napping, which I was somewhat successful at doing.

Elizabeth's awake hours were spent eating raisins and talking playing
with her Elmo phone. (A new purchase especially for this trip.) We
kept Elmo updated on our trip in our numerous phone "conversations"
with him. They would usually go something like "Hello? Elmo? Yeah,
we're still driving. No, I don't know how much longer it's going to
be. Yeah, Elizabeth is behaving. She's never been to North Carolina
before. OK, good talking with you. Love you. Bye-bye." Somehow I
never pictured myself having such conversations with Elmo.

The trip was quite smooth and only got rough at the end when I
decided to go through DC rather than take the beltway. Elizabeth was
pretty sick of sitting in the car at that point and let out a squawk
every time the car stopped -- just to let us know that if the car was
no longer moving she wanted to get out.

Elizabeth really enjoyed riding in her stroller in the city. She
figured out how to climb in it herself and anytime she heard mention
of stroller or walk, she was dashing to her stroller. Before leaving
town we stopped at the National Zoo. She is finally at the age where
she can appreciate seeing the different animals. She was even
captivated in the reptile house by the snakes hiding everywhere. The
only thing she wasn't too sure about were the gorillas, but one of
them snuck up on her from behind. She seemed to relax a little when
she realized that he was just eating popcorn from the ledge and
wasn't after her.

Little Girl

2005-09-13T14:14:00.000-05:00

It's probably time for an Elizabeth update...

First of all, she's talking. It seems like as soon as she learned to
walk, she focused all her energy on learning to communicate. She
started with "bye-bye" and jumped right to "thankyou" or as she says
"Tah Kah." She has her own way of consistently saying about 7 words
now. Her favorite thing to do is to point to something and say "dah?"
This is how I learned that the shirt I wore yesterday had 12 bicycles
on it. She pointed at each one and said "dah." I replied "bicycle"
and she would point to the next one and repeat the process.

She also enjoys warning me about hot things. We walked out to the
mailbox and after each step she would bend down and touch the
driveway and say "hah." "Yes, Elizabeth the driveway is hot. Yep,
still hot there too...and there." It was a long trip to the mailbox.
She will also use some signs I taught her, but I've only taught her a
few because she's such a good talker. She'll sign when she wants
down, up or to nurse.

She's stopped waddling around like a toddler and can walk equally
well forward and backward. This she proved by walking backwards
across the entire downstairs till she hit the wall. We have Finley to
thank for her excellent balance; he's constantly brushing by her
causing her to check her footing.

The last few weeks her molars have been cutting through. It's funny
to see her shove food back between them on the side where both top
and bottom have come through. Her one cheek will be puffed out with
food as she figures out how to use her new-found chompers.

Elizabeth is also picky about using a grown-up cup instead of a sippy
cup. She loves fishing out the ice with her hand. Then she and
Finley, our other teether, fight over the ice that falls on the
floor. There's nothing like seeing an ice cube in Finley's mouth then
turning around and seeing the same ice cube in Elizabeth's.

All in a Days Work

2005-09-13T13:51:00.000-05:00

I'll be the first to admit that I haven't posted in awhile. To give
you an idea why, let me just run through the events of yesterday
morning.
7:45 Elizabeth and I emerge from the bedroom in time to witness
Coozie barfing up a fur ball
7:50 Clean up cat barf
7:55 Start coffee
8:00 Pick up Elizabeth to change her diaper. Smell dirty diaper, but
too late to notice that it's seeping out of the diaper onto my pjs.
8:05 Clean up Elizabeth
8:10 Come back downstairs to see pile of fresh dog poo in the living
room.
8:15 Clean up dog poo and put dog outside.
8:25 Enjoy a sip of coffee
8:30 Make myself presentable enough to go on a walk with neighbor

Yesterday morning wasn't typical, thankfully, but it just shows what
can happen when everyone gangs up on me at once. Caper chose her
moment later in the day. Lisa was heading out the front door and we
saw Caper sitting in her usual window, but suddenly we realized she
was on the outside of the screen. We hurriedly ushered her inside
while she was willing.

Despite days like yesterday, I'm finally at the stage where I can
take care of big projects around the house without worrying that
Elizabeth will disappear and find something to mortally injure
herself with before I turn around. I guess we've childproofed to the
point that she's fairly safe. She's also past the stage where
everything goes in her mouth. She also loves playing with Finley, so
where one goes, so goes the other--much easier to track them down! I
decided it was time to paint the living room since the builder-grade
paint has proven unwashable. (Unwashable meaning if you try to wipe
the wall the paint will come off.) I've also rearranged the living
room to accommodate tricycle parking.

Blast Radius

2005-09-04T13:14:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth decided to conduct a scientific experiment at the Evan's
Diner this morning to determine the blast radius of a coffee creamer.
The only problem is that she didn't warn us beforehand. I was holding
her in my lap and Frank was across the booth. Suddenly there was a
loud POP and I was spattered with a cold substance. Frank and I
looked at Elizabeth with stunned expressions. There Elizabeth sat,
equally stunned, with the bottom end of a coffee creamer container
still clenched in her teeth. She had apparently chomped down on the
bottom so hard that the top burst open, spewing it's contents across
the restaurant.

Frank and I spent the rest of breakfast dabbing up dots of milk and
quietly surveying the shirts of the customers in our vicinity. It's
interesting because cream doesn't run, the little droplets of cream
just stayed where they landed, similar to how mud behaves.

For those of you who are curious, we determined the blast radius was
about 6 feet. Having known people who have stomped on ketchup
packets, I would say that Elizabeth's display with creamer was much
more impressive.

Naturally Curly

2005-08-12T17:10:00.000-05:00

Someone in the bookstore today asked me if Elizabeth's hair is
naturally curly. I said yes. Later I started thinking about what a
strange question that was, and what it would take to actually curl
her hair. It takes enough energy to distract her long enough to put a
pony tail in her hair--I can only imagine using a curling iron on
her, or getting her to keep curlers in. Doesn't sound like much fun
for either of us.

How to Embarrass your Mom

2005-08-12T17:01:00.000-05:00

Wait till your mom is on the phone and then disappear. Hide in the
bathroom and when she comes to find you, flush the toilet. Listen to
her explain to her friend on the phone that she wasn't really using
the toilet while talking to her .

Human Milk for Human Babies

2005-08-10T15:53:00.000-05:00

. . . and tiger babies? You have to see it to believe it. A woman in
Thailand breastfed two tiger cubs. I guess they couldn't find another tiger mom to pump for
them?

I can't help feeling sorry for the woman's 7 month old who had to tandem
nurse with a tiger!

Sadly, another story reports that they couldn't digest the milk and died of dehydration, but will be stuffed and put on display at the zoo.

The Story

Baby Tricks

2005-08-08T14:03:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth was holding a ball in each hand, so I decided to tease her by handing her a third ball. I was thinking that she would drop one of her balls and take my ball. Instead, she opened her mouth so I could put the ball in there.

I think Finley must have been working with her on that trick.

Don't take monkeys from a baby

2005-08-08T13:55:00.000-05:00

We have an unusual cycle going around in our household lately. Elizabeth willl be playing with one of her toys, let's say a monkey, and then decide that Finley should play too. She'll hand it to Finley at which time I will yell at Finley for chewing on Elizabeth's toy. I'll hand the toy back to Elizabeth and then Elizabeth will proceed to give it back to Finley.

There are also times when Elizabeth starts screaming and I have to come and rescue a toy from Finley. I think the poor pooch is understandably confused as to where the line is drawn with regard to Elizabeth's toys.

Peanut Butter

2005-08-05T10:05:00.000-05:00

One of the cool things about turning one is that Elizabeth can
finally, officially eat peanut butter! I've been looking forward to
her sharing my morning ritual of eating peanut butter toast with her.
With the amount of peanut butter we go through in this house, I'm
sure she's already gotten her fingers into some before this milestone
date.

The only problem I've encountered is that PB is so darned sticky.
It's like paste. It didn't take her long to realize that when she
puts her sippy cup down on a PB cracker, the cracker will
miraculously stick to the sippy cup. After repeating this trick
several times, you can imagine what the cracker looks like. She's
also discovered that PB crackers will stick to your arms and that
Caper, our fluffy cat, doesn't particularly care for PB in her fur,
but Finley seems to love anything with a hint of PB- Elizabeth's face
and hands included-and doesn't mind being petted with PB fingers.

Since she's still a vegetarian, I'm looking at PB as a protein
source, so I would like her to actually get some in her mouth now and
then. I tried making cracker sandwiches, but she just disassembled
them and proceeded to get peanut butter all over the house. Is there
anything that she can eat with peanut butter that won't get it all
over the place or will Finley permanently keep his dream job of PB
Cleanup Patrol?

Teething Game

2005-08-03T15:16:00.000-05:00

We have two teething youngsters in our house. Can you guess who has been caught chewing items on the list below (Elizabeth, Finley or both)?

1 Dog bones

2 Dog food

3 Books

4 Cordless phone antenna

5 Cell phone

6 Pacifier

7 Pen

8 Wooden blocks

9 Shoes

10 Sippy cup

11 Cork coaster

12 Rubber duckies

13 Ice teething ring

14 Hair bows

15 Spoons

16 Teething biscuit

17 Toothbrushes

Fun to be One

2005-08-02T10:40:00.000-05:00

365 days and over 2,500 dirty diapers later and Elizabeth is 1 year old. Our 8 pound 2 oz baby is now a toddler ("one who walks in short tottering steps"). At her checkup today she weighed in at just over 21 pounds and is 31.25 inches. She's still in the 95th percentile for height and she's creeping up in the weight department.

It seems like each one of those 365 days has been filled with something new- be it teething, tottering, discovering the kitties... I can't believe I wanted to go back to work after she was born!

We decided to start off her birthday celebrations right and threw her a party at our neighborhood clubhouse. Kids could run around all they wanted and we wouldn't have to worry about something getting broken-it was great. In honor of our year of the monkey baby, we chose a monkey theme, complete with pin the banana on the monkey. We grilled out burgers and hotdogs. Well, actually Frank was outside at the grill with a flock of kids around him all attracted to the dangers of fire and heat. We also had two pinatas-one each for kids and adults. For those of you who are curious, plastic mini-bottles of alcohol are not unbreakable when batted around in pinatas.

Elizabeth got a little overwhelmed when it came time for cake (especially after just waking up from a surprise nap). She's never had 18 kids and 16 adults all staring at her singing, so I can understand why she froze up and just stared at the cake. She refused to even take a bite of her special baby carrot cake, carefully baked in the shape of a monkey head. Oh well. Next year she'll be begging for cake.

Walking!

2005-07-21T17:01:00.000-05:00

After holding onto anything and everything for weeks, Elizabeth finally
decided to start walking. I had decided that it must be psychological
when I saw her walking along the length of a limp leash stretched
across the room. The leash was absolutely no support. Literally
overnight she must have gotten over it because she suddenly started
walking. There wasn't even a period of "step, step, crash into mom's
arms." She went straight from couch surfing to walking for most of the
day yesterday.

To celebrate this new phase of life (according to her grandpa the
phases are crawling, walking, getting a driver's license) we went shoe
shopping. Her Robeez have done their job, and I was just waiting for
her to finally walk so I could replace them. I guess I'm picky about
shoes. After seeing a few toddlers (is she officially a toddler now?)
thumping around on fashionable shoes I decided it was important to get
her foot measured and buy shoes designed for walking. She is now
sporting some Stride Rite high top style shoes. At first she didn't
want to take her old shoes off, but by the end of the shoe fitting, she
was prancing around the store quite proud of herself. There's nothing
like a nice new pair of shoes to make a girl happy!

Illinois

2005-07-21T07:48:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth's first girls-only vacation to the midwest to meet her Great
Grandma Poffenberger was great. I was worried about flying alone with
her, but she decided to sleep on both flights each way. The Benadryl I
gave her for her ears helped with that on the longer flights. She had
her own seat on one flight, but the others she had to stay on my lap. I
was just praying that the person sitting next to us wouldn't be one of
those people who turns her nose at breastfeeding in public. But how can
anyone complain if the baby is quiet?

We met up with Grandma and Aunt Kirsty in Chicago-Midway and drove 2
hours across the corn and soybean fields to Polo, IL
http://www.poloil.net/ It's hard to tell what Elizabeth expected when
we told her we were going to visit a nursing home-she probably thought
it was a dream come true. She probably wasn't too disappointed when we
arrived, because there are a lot of parallels between her life and her
Great Grandma's. Until we wheeled her into the nursing home she thought
that you had to grow up and learn to eat by yourself and walk on your
own, but they make strollers, diapers and bibs big enough for adults.

Between visits to the nursing home we took some hikes at the Pines
(where we were staying in a log cabin), shopped at Farm and Fleet, ate
Butter Burgers (an actual menu item) and had our traditional DQ
Blizzards. Elizabeth's Grandma taught her about curlers and her Aunt
taught her about jumping on the bed and off of swings. I think we all
had a great time!

What's mine is mine

2005-07-08T16:30:00.000-05:00

What's yours is mine too. At least that seems to be the attitude among
the ankle biters of the house-both fuzzy and furry. It's amazing how
the same toys fascinate both teething babies. They have no concept of
whose toys are whose, and Elizabeth has no concept of dog germs.

It's been a tough week with Elizabeth getting over her ear infection,
but still teething. At least that's what I hope it is. She's been
extremely clingy and nursing a lot. She'll also pitch a fit if she
doesn't get what she wants. It's hard when I have no idea what that
is-like my cup of ice in the holder on the back of her stroller. (I'm
realizing that there is an art to distracting babies from what they
think they want.)

Frank was out of town and I realized that I was the only one around who
understood what I was saying. Although, to be fair, Elizabeth is
learning a lot of words. She'll stand up when you ask her to and will
touch her ears, eyes, nose and hair upon request.

Tomorrow is our girls trip to Illinois. I'm packing a pharmacy of
medicine for Elizabeth. She's still on antibiotics for her ears and
eyes. Then there's Benadryl - the secret weapon for making babies sleep
on the plane- at least I hope!

Fuzzy Georgia Peach

2005-07-01T15:22:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth took her first steps last Friday, a week ago, but hasn't made
any more attempts. Now come to find out, she has an ear infection. I
guess I wouldn't want to try something as monumental as walking if my
balance were off.

We only found out about the ear infection because I took her in for
pink eye. Her eyes were red-rimmed for the last day or so, but this
morning she had serious eye boogers. It took me several minutes to try
and get her little eye open using a warm washcloth. She was quite
concerned that her eye wasn't functioning properly.

She's also full of drool because she's still trying to get her canine
teeth in. The doctor also said that her molars are moving up so her
back gums are swollen too. I can't believe I've taken her to the doctor
twice to get her ears checked, but it's only been teething and now this
time I take her in for something else entirely and it turns out she has
an ear infection. Go figure. (Hopefully it'll clear up before our
flight to Illinois next weekend to meet her Great Grandma and hang out
with Grandma and Aunt Kirsty.)

As if all this weren't enough going on, she's also started to sprout
arm and leg hair. She's turning into a fuzzy Georgia peach just in time
for peach season!

Dog People vs. Baby People

2005-06-23T07:18:00.000-05:00

I've noticed an interesting phenomenon now that we have a dog ... and
we tend to walk the dog and the baby at the same time. It seems that
Finley gets (me) more waves from men, but Elizabeth gets "oh how cute"
looks from women. I can't count the number of waves we've gotten from
guys in pick-ups, while Elizabeth has him beat in the mini-van
category.

The other day when we were all out walking, we saw another family that
could have been us - husband, wife, baby girl Elizabeth's age in jog
stroller. The husband says "how old is she." I started to say 10 months
when I noticed he was looking at Finley and not Elizabeth. Usually when
you run into other babies in the neighborhood you ask how old so you
can start lining up playmates, but Finley has totally confused that
process!

Crawling Blind

2005-06-22T07:26:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth has finally decided that hats are cool, which is great because I hate seeing her squinting while we take our walks. I put a floppy sun hat on her yesterday and she entertained herself by pulling it down over her face and crawling around blindly. She would run into a wall, stop, take the hat off and look up at her obstacle and laugh. Unfortunately, Finley thinks hats are fun too and kept shatching it off her head, which Elizabeth didn't like at all.

When crawling is this much fun, why learn to walk? All her furry siblings seem to get along fine on all fours.

No Chick Peas on Saturdays

2005-06-18T06:31:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday we had company over for dinner. While we were wining and
dining, Elizabeth was happily feasting on chick peas. I kept giving her
more because she was sitting so quietly and she had finely found some
real food she likes.

The next morning we were picking her up from the church nursery and the
woman says in a hushed voice that Elizabeth has been very gassey and
gingerly puts her back in my arms—almost like she was handing over a
ticking time bomb. Chick peas are still her favorite so we'll just have
to keep in mind the aftereffects.

The Week of the Canines

2005-06-14T13:51:00.000-05:00

Last week is a blur. A blur of poo, pee, overturned water bowls and
slobber. Finley's first week here coincided with Elizabeth cutting her
canine teeth. Well, they actually haven't appeared yet, but her gums
are all swollen. Between that and housebreaking Finley, there were
times I wanted to pull my hair out.

The good news is that Elizabeth and Finley are getting along great.
They're learning to share their toys and even their drinks. Yes,
Elizabeth has taken a liking to overturning and playing in his water
bowl, and Finley's favorite chew toy is a sippy cup. Trying to explain
to Elizabeth that Finley's water is yucky doesn't seem to be working
any better than telling her not to eat his food. She thinks it's pretty
handy that mom has started leaving her finger-sized snacks she can
reach. Now that she knows she gets in trouble, she'll crawl over there
and shove as many kibbles in her mouth as possible before I catch her.
Why does she eat dog food but refuse to eat carrots?

I'm at a loss on how to explain the difference between dog germs and
people germs. Frank sums it up by saying "Elizabeth, Finley licks his
balls." This hasn't stopped her from giving Finley kisses though. She
bends over and licks his nose. I guess they do have a special
relationship since she's never given her parents any of these kisses!

Animal House

2005-06-07T16:49:00.000-05:00

I have no idea what I'm in store for, but last weekend I consented to
getting a new puppy. We had planned on getting a dog when Elizabeth
could help take care of him, but it didn't turn out that way. Our
friends bred their standard poodles and had a cute litter of 10 week
old puppies. They planned on breeding them again, but we found out on
Saturday that the plan had changed; this will be their only litter.
Frank was all for adopting one.

I don't think I would trust very many people to pick out a dog for us,
but Wayne and Patti told us that Red would be a great dog for us.
Poodles don't shed and they're very smart. Timing was on Frank's side
because our neighbor had an attempted burglary (most likely teenagers
picking on their daughter) the other day, so I was already thinking
about how nice it would be to have a dog someday. We went over to meet
the little guy and the next day we brought him home.

Needless to say, my routine has completely changed- again. I had no
idea that he wouldn't know how to walk on a leash and wouldn't bound
out of the house as soon as the door opened. I spent the first day
trying to figure out how to carry the baby and the dog out of the house
so neither one would get in trouble as I turned my back to fetch the
other one. I'm glad nobody was filming this calamity. Fortunately, he
is a fast learner and doesn't need to be carried anymore. Our cats are
lucky because he is strangely calm and has spent most of the day today
resting by the front door. So far, he seems to be tolerated by the
cats, but not accepted.

Finlay and Elizabeth get along great. He has really taken to her and
would love nothing more for her to slow down enough so he could take a
nap with her. He loves to give her kisses and even licked the snot off
her nose. How sweet. He really enjoyed licking her little pony tail
yesterday. She doesn't seem to care and just crawls away when he gets
to stifling. He has only barked once or twice which startled all of us
and I've only had to clean up one accident and we just started house
training him. So far so good!

First Flight

2005-06-07T16:30:00.000-05:00

We spent Memorial Day weekend visiting Elizabeth's grandparents, Aunt
and Uncle in Bel Air, MD. Her Great Uncle Boog and Great Aunt Kathy
also drove all the way up from Richmond, VA to meet her. There was
surprisingly little information online about flying with an infant.
There were no magic steps to stress-free flight, no cry-free flying
advice-there was hardly anything. What I did manage to glean from the
web was that babies can't pop their ears and to make sure they're
sucking on something during take-off and more importantly landing. Oh,
and pray that your baby doesn't have a messy diaper because there are
no changing areas. Nobody said, for example, that if there is a spare
seat on a plane and you do manage to get your carseat onboard and baby
strapped in that the baby will be in prime position to kick the seat in
front of her. So on the one flight where we did take the seat on-board,
Elizabeth only lasted 20 minutes in it. Then I was stuck sitting in the
middle seat nursing a baby with a bulky carseat on my right side. I
think we would have rather had the empty seat between us as we did on
one of the flights up. She actually slept for the entire duration of
both return flights - I guess the family wore her out!

Next trip will be to Polo, IL in July to meet Elizabeth's great
grandma. Since Frank won't be coming, hopefully Elizabeth will behave
as well as she did on this trip!

Sorta Walking

2005-05-24T08:13:00.000-05:00

Question: if one hand is holding a block and the other hand is holding
a weeble, which hand is holding me up? I'm sure this is what's going
through Elizabeth's mind when she gets so distracted with playing that
she doesn't notice when she takes her hands off her support wall. When
she notices this, she usually gets so excited she falls down.

Last Sunday she took some steps on a walker. In the morning, she would
only take one step, but then we showed her the walker that afternoon
and she took off walking across the whole house on her first attempt.
It was cute how proud of herself she was. The cats looked on in
bewilderment (how did she figure out how to walk on her hind legs?) At
times the walker would get so far ahead of her that she almost looked
horizontal, but in most cases she was able to right herself without
doing a face plant.

Photo Link

2005-05-21T12:33:00.000-05:00

Here's a link to photos:
Elizabeth's Gallery

Out-smarting a nine month old

2005-05-21T12:29:00.000-05:00

The other night Elizabeth was in the bath and I was showing her how to use her fishing net to catch the plastic fish. After my demonstration, I handed the net to Eiizabeth and said "now you try to catch the fish." She proceeded to pick up a fish -with her hand- and plop it in the net.

She's also started copying us, which is a scary thing, because now we have to really be careful what kind of role models we are. She'll sit down with a book and "read" out loud to herself in her high-pitched voice. It's neat that she recognizes that we use a different voice to read aloud than we do in normal conversation. Elizabeth is real good at smooches now. She's also a master of the fake cough. Frank coughs, Elizabeth coughs and coughs again to be sure we heard. Maybe she thinks it means something like kisses do.

Nine Months

2005-05-05T12:37:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth has gained 2 pounds and 2.5 inches in the past 3 months, bringing her up to 30 inches long and 19 pounds. She's off the charts in length, but in the 50th percentile for weight. I view this as physical evidence of why dressing this long lean crawling machine is so difficult! At least when she's wearing her cloth diapers, they fill her out a bit more since they're thicker.

Sharing

2005-05-05T12:29:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth seems to be learning how to share. The other day she was eating a cracker and stuck it in my mouth for me to have a bite too. We went back and forth for awhile with me pretending that her cracker was the tastiest thing to ever pass my lips. She also tried this with some cheese I stuck in her mouth. She spit it out of her mouth and put it in mine. I guess she didn't want to waste it.

She's still putting a lot of things in her mouth. When we go outside, I'm constantly taking pieces of mulch, dirt and sticks out of her mouth and hands. We came inside and about 15 minutes later she wanted to nurse. I sat at the computer nursing her, but there was a very sharp sensation. I thought it might have been the fact that I was trying to type and her new teeth were getting me. It wasn't until she was finished that I noticed her mouth clenched shut, which usually means something is in there. I stuck my finger in there and fished out a 1 cm piece of dry, sharp leaf from the roof of her mouth. No wonder nursing was so uncomfortable!

9 months to take it off

2005-04-28T07:30:00.000-05:00

They say that it took 9 months to put all the weight on, so it should take 9 months to take it off. I guess I'm still about 8 pounds away from where I want to be, but things are looking up. I got my first construction worker whistle since being pregnant! I have no idea why someone would whistle at a mom pushing a stroller into Target, but I'll take what I can get!

Chasing after a toddler will melt away the remaining pounds, I'm sure.

It has become clear to me that there are many clothes that I will never be able to wear again. I think my hips are just wider. I have gradually been slipping back into more of my pre-pregnancy clothes, but a lot of my tight T-Shirts don't fit right (maybe because of bigger boobs). My feet are back to their original size - wheew - but I'm thinking of getting my wedding ring enlarged because there's a serious dent around my finger where it is still swollen.

All in all, it's definitely a small price to pay!

Tour de Georgia

2005-04-28T07:28:00.000-05:00

Some of the worlds best cyclists came to conquer Georgia in the third Tour de Georgia this past week, and the McPhersons were there to watch. Here's an abridged version for those of you who don't follow cycling: Elizabeth looked cute in her team CSC onesie, we got lots of autographs from famous cyclists, we got snow Brasstown Bald.

The fun started on Monday when Lance Armstrong held his press conference announcing his retirement. Elizabeth and I went into the hotel where it was being held and commenced a stake out for a Lance autograph. As we were waiting around, American Bobby Julich (who in the last year became an Olympic Bronze medalist and the first American to win Paris-Niece) sauntered over to a table of Augusta brochures. Realizing who it was, I whipped out the team CSC onesie I made for Elizabeth and asked him to sign it, which he did. We still waited for Lance, mostly because there were only 4 others there waiting with us. I freed Elizabeth, who was sick of sitting in her unmoving stroller, and let her crawl around. I watched as Lance's coach, Johan Bruneel headed our way. Suddenly Elizabeth darted out and I said "Elizabeth, don't trip Mr. Bruneel!" Johan, who it turns out has a fifteen month old, stopped to chat with us. I couldn't think of a darn thing to ask him about his job, but did manage to ask what our chances for getting an autograph were. He said Lance would be sneaking in a back door, so Elizabeth and I left and headed to the team presentation ceremony. Somehow Elizabeth managed to fall asleep there while I was ringing a cowbell in her ear.

Tuesday the race kicked off downtown. As we walked around, the cyclists were signing in and warming up. There was also a bunch of media there. We managed to get autographs from our favorite OLN commentators Phil Ligget, Frankie Andreu and Bob Roll. Elizabeth and I stumbled upon the CSC team car and filled her onesie with more autographs. We also got autographs from Levi Leipheimer and Jonathan Vaughters. Woo hoo!

The rest of the week I spent making another onesie for her to wear (couldn't get the autographed one dirty!) and decking out the stroller and making signs. On Friday we headed to the finish in Dalonega, about 3.5 hours away. We made it just in time for the finish after being caught in the pouring rain. Elizabeth was so zonked after cheering with us that she slept in her stroller while me and Frank ate a romantic dinner.

Back at the hotel we checked the weather (50's) and set our alarm for 6 am. In the morning we headed out to the finish on Brasstown Bald, the highest point in Georgia. We had to take our time driving because poor Elizabeth kept getting carsick. There was nothing we could do but put a bib on her.

They only allow 100 cars in the parking lot near the top of the mountain, so while Elizabeth and I waited in line to park, Frank took off up the mountain to push the stroller up the 3+ mile 13% average slope. (Elizabeth and I were going to hop on a shuttle if we couldn't park.) As luck would have it, we were car number 100 and we drove up the mountain, waving at Frank as we passed him. At the top, we were greeted by 30 degree weather, for which we were not prepared. I put Elizabeth in her PJs and pretty much any layers I could find for her. She hopped in her sling and we climbed up the rest of the mountain. I don't know if climbing was easier last year when I was pregnant, but at least this year I could breathe better. We ended up getting the same spot as last year, and our same neighbors greeted us from either side. It was like a big reunion. It was so cold that when Frank showed up, we decided to head down to the car to keep warm. It turns out it was -15 degrees with the windchill. We sat in the car watching snowflakes for a few hours before venturing out. It was hard work keeping Elizabeth occupied when her main goal was sinking her teeth into the steering wheel. We were so cold that we climbed the mountain with the goal of retrieving our chairs so we could stand closer to the car. Warmed by the climb and sheltered from the wind by the mountain, we decided to stay on the mountain and wait for the cyclists.

Elizabeth quickly discovered that it was quite cozy nursing and took a nap. Before the cyclists arrived, Elizabeth and I headed up to the top of the mountain to the bathrooms. Unfortunately, the real toilets were out of order and we had to use the port a potties. Having left the sling in the car, there was no way to try and hold her while peeing in the port a potty. A nice older lady, bundled in two blankets offered to hold her. I thought through the chances of this woman abducting her and decided the chance was slim. Even if she did try, 1) everyone in line knew it was my baby 2) she couldn't run very fast 3) there were people with radios everywhere and only one way off the mountain. So after the quickest pee ever, Elizabeth headed back down to watch the race.

And what a race it was! All the big names were in a breakaway at the front of the pack. Elizabeth cheered "yaaaayy." I yelled. Frank took pictures. It was great. But almost as great were the seat heaters we turned on in the car when we made it back. Next year we'll be prepared.

For more race info watch OLN's Cyclism Sunday this Sunday or go to cyclingnews.com.

Everybody Clap Your Hands

2005-04-13T14:30:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth started clapping her hands together when she hears music. It's pretty cute to watch her decide which "music" warrants a clap or two. Sometimes when I draw out a word or two she'll start clapping, or when a song catches her ear. She won't clap to poetry or rhymes, so it must just be the sing-song voice.

Today we were singing Ace of Base together. (Frank loaded our music library on our home computer and I was reliving my High School days.) Yes, she was singing- in a high-pitched slurry style while clapping her hands. I'm sure Frank will have play list of songs that he deems more appropriate for her musical indoctrination, but I have to be able to sing them with her.

One Step Ahead

2005-04-13T14:23:00.000-05:00

Is it possible to be one step ahead of a baby who thinks she has free reign of the house? I'm not certain that it is. For instance, I thought we had the cats' food bowl out of reach. That is, until she swiped it off the desk and overturned it onto the open window sill. I guess the kitties will be dining alfresco today. I also hadn't realized that she would be strong enough to knock over our speaker tower. As I watched her navigate around the TV, she bent down to try and push a button on the DVD player and her butt knocked the speaker over (creating a gouge in the wall).

I've spent more time childproofing than I can add up. Those little childproof latches for cabinet doors are a pain to install. You have to drill in two screws for the receiver side and two for the latch on the door. In a perfect world, there would be a template to follow so everything would line up properly, but every cabinet is different and the doors aren't perfectly aligned on each one. I didn't expect this task would prove so frustrating, especially to someone who takes pride in her "handywoman" skills.

I haven't figured out how to keep her out of our sliding door cabinet where the radio lives. Yesterday I was listening to NPR and she turned the channel to a rock station and turned up the volume! I bought a childproofing kit for sliding doors but it won't work on these doors.

Then there are the stairs. Last week she decided to conquer the stairs. I was eating breakfast and looked up only to see her at eye-level climbing the stairs. On her first go, she climbed 2/3 of the way and then came back down 1/3 of the way. I couldn't believe it. I have since made two trips to the baby store trying to find a gate that will work at the foot or our stairs.

She is clearly becoming more and more mobile. She's switched from the groundhog style (crawl, pull up on something, see something on other side of table, crawl to it, pull up, repeat) to cruising. Cruising is the official term for walking around objects while using them for support. The first time I witnessed her do this, I was sitting on the potty and she walked around the toilet to experiment with the flusher. Fortunately, she didn't figure out how to flush the toilet (yet). It's so fun watching her explore her world!

Path of Destruction

2005-04-01T10:36:00.000-05:00

Last week I got the flu. I had more aches than I did after childbirth. I woke up one morning and could barely carry Elizabeth around. Fortunately, I got a 9:15 appointment with the doctor who gave me a miracle drug called Tamiflu. It basically stops the flu from reproducing inside you.

Not only was I sick, but I was depressed that I would not be able to curl up on the couch for a day and nap. I had to figure out how to keep tabs on Elizabeth with minimal effort. I had no idea that sick days were such a luxury back before Elizabeth. I think Elizabeth must have sensed that I wasn't feeling well, or she wasn't feeling well herself, because for two days in a row we had a 2 hour morning nap and a 3 hour afternoon nap. It was great! The next day I was much better and could function a lot better. I credit breastfeeding for her not getting the flu, since my antibodies were passed to her.

This past week Elizabeth has more than made up for her restful week. She's pulling herself up on anything and everything. Her favorite activities are: pulling magazines off the bookshelf, dumping our bin of paper recycling, going after the plants, crawling after the kitties, playing with the curtain rod she took off the door, and opening her drawer and dumping its contents. I call it her path of destruction. From what I've read, you're not supposed to follow her around picking stuff up, because they like the sense of accomplishment. So that's my new excuse for having a messy house.

Bananas

2005-04-01T10:19:00.000-05:00

Why is it that Elizabeth can grab a banana and happily start gnawing on the stem of it, but when I open the banana and offer her some of it, she makes a horrible face and spits it out? She is constantly eating bark and whatever she can get in her mouth. Frank said that maybe I should taste some bark before making a big deal about how gross it is.

It's just strange that she can tolerate such junk in her mouth-especially when she can have home-made organic baby food. Yep, as if I don't have enough to do around here, I've taken it upon myself to make baby food. I was reading that since babies binge eat (eat only applesauce for a day) that they may be exposed to more pesticides. Picture yourself eating jars and jars of applesauce. Supposedly, they haven't necessarily tested that quantity of pesticides on babies. I'm definitely not going to go to any extremes here, but I figured I would give home made baby food a try. It's supposed to be cheaper as well. So far, I've had a fun time using my little blender wand to make veggie purees. Then you just pour it into ice cube trays and keep the cubes in the fridge. I must say that my peas are a lot better than Gerbers. Gerbers have that over-cooked cafeteria flavor. Yuck!

Motherhood

2005-03-21T10:37:00.000-05:00

They say to take it one day at a time. The other day, I felt like I was taking it hour by hour. I started out the day vacuuming out the gas fireplace. It was filled with a bunch of fake coals that Elizabeth took a liking to. We got tired of saying "Elizabeth, get out of the fireplace."

After our morning playtime, it was shower/bath time. I plug the drain on the tub and she plays with her rubber duckies while I shower. It wasn't long before I looked down and rubber duckies weren't the only thing floating in the water. It seems that she decided to have her morning poo a little early. Luckily, the toilet is right next to the tub so I just scooped it up and flushed it, but then our shower had to start over from the beginning.

Elizabeth also started crawling forward last week, so she can get into a lot of things in a short amount of time. By lunchtime, I was ready to get out of the house and decided to take Elizabeth out to lunch. She loves being out of the house people watching. We headed out and Elizabeth immediately fell asleep in the car. When we arrived at Chile's she was still asleep, so I turned off the engine but kept the radio on and sat in the car till she woke up. After lunch, we got back in the car and turned the key. Nothing. I realized that it was possible that I had drained the battery sitting there for 25 mins. When I noticed that the seat heater button was still on, I realized that had to be the case.

I haven't described what kind of day it was outside; it was cold, damp, and overcast-definitely a seat heater kind of day. (Mid-thirties may not be that cold to you northerners reading this, but the previous weekend it was in the seventies here.) Anyhow, luckily, Frank was at work and immediately set out to our rescue. I had already decided it was too cold to walk around shopping, but ended up bundling Elizabeth up and heading down to Target to buy jumper cables. It didn't take long for our knight in shining armor to arrive bearing hot coffee beverages. He jump started the car and we were all on our way.

Speaking My Language

2005-03-10T10:05:00.000-05:00

We've heard that most babies say Da Da first, but with Elizabeth that was not the case. I think she was just holding out for the right moment. That moment came when her daddy carried her into church last Sunday and sat down with her on his lap. She looked at him and started saying "da da." Since that moment, no matter what I do, she won't say dada for me, but it never fails, when Frank comes home and picks her up she'll say it. Does she understand that this is a word reserved for Frank?

We noticed this week that she knows the kitties names. I'll say Coozie in conversation and she'll start looking around for her. She also understands the word "No," as in NO eating the plant, NO tipping over the cat's water bowl, NO chewing on the dishwasher door. When I say NO she's looked up at me and stopped doing whatever she was doing. Let's see how long that lasts!

Chompers

2005-03-07T08:27:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth's top teeth have finally made an appearance. The second one poked its way through yesterday morning. She's already realized how handy these new teeth are. She can grind her little zwiebacks to make a sticky saliva paste. She can grind her teeth (which I can't stand), but her favorite trick is using them to help her stand up. What she does is scoot over to the couch, stretch out her arms and grab the cushion with her fingers which usually end up slipping so she sinks her teeth into the cushion. Once the teeth are firmly planted she can pull herself up to a standing position. This is a great trick except when she tries to use it on the toilet --ewwww!

Sorry Popeye

2005-03-07T08:19:00.000-05:00

From the jar of babyfood: "Feeding from the jar is not recommended since baby saliva will come in contact with the food and the food may become watery and less appealing to baby." Gee thanks Gerber.

Elizabeth's tastebuds seem to be getting used to the taste of various foods. She's made it through all the fruits they sell and a lot of the veggies. One thing she will not be eating again is creamed spinach. Spinach is infamous for sticking to your teeth in tiny pieces. Imagine all these little fine pieces stuck all over a baby. By all over I mean face, hands, hair, ears... You can wipe the baby down, but the little flecks keep showing up on the baby--on you. So I hate to tell popeye this, but spinach is banned from our house- at least for little Lizzy.

Stuck in Reverse

2005-03-03T09:04:00.000-05:00

Baby wrestling should be an olympic sport. There are times I feel like taking a bow after a successful diaper change. I have to keep reminding myself that I am almost 8 times bigger than this little wiggle worm. We were on vacation last week and had many wonderful meals out at restaurants. Elizabeth was awesome, but it was a workout to keep her corraled and off the floor. We had to keep switching her from arm to arm, parent to parent when the fun of the high chair or zwieback cracker wore off. Several people came up to us and asked "is she always this good?"

We haven't made any more progress toward crawling; instead, she seems focused on standing. If you try to sit her down, she refuses to bend her legs. I'll hold her hands to sit her down, but she'll keep her legs straight and plant her feet as you try to sit her down and doesn't usually give in till she's reclined at a 30 degree angle to the floor. Today we were practicing standing alone and she stood for a few seconds, using her arms for balance. Last week she pulled herself up to a standing position on the side of the tub but immediately fell on her bum.

She likes scooting around on the floor and gets around quite well crawling in reverse, that is, until her feet get tangled up. Somehow she manages to get into enough trouble without crawling. Our poor fern is not going to last long- between both the cats and Elizabeth picking off leaves. Some days I worry that she'll think her name is "No!"

There's a First Time for Everything

2005-02-14T11:18:00.000-05:00

I hate to have two posts in a row that should carry the warning "do not read while eating", but this is what motherhood is about.

Elizabeth has been so regular with her morning poo that you could set a clock by her. You can imagine my surprise when she missed two morning poos in a row. After she missed one, I was carrying around a spare outfit, after two days went by, I was and carrying around two spare outfits and a stockpile of wet wipes. Given some of her recent explosive diapers, I was prepared for the worst.

You can imagine my surprise when I checked her diaper last night (day 2 of no poo) to find .... a single turd. It seems that a month of eating solid foods finally resulted in solid poo. It took the poor girl two days to produce it!

Now I'm having second thoughts on using cloth diapers. Scraping turds off into the toilet with a spatula may be more than I can handle. I'm hoping that if she stays regular, I can put her in a disposable diaper for that time of day. We'll just have to see how it goes.

Snot Sucker

2005-02-09T18:18:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth had a runny nose the other week and was having a hard time
sleeping. At midnight, we left Frank in the bedroom downstairs and I
went upstairs to rock her in the recliner. She just wouldn't settle and
became more agitated when she couldn't breath.

I realized the bulb snot sucker was down on my bedside table. As I
pondered whether to drag a screaming Elizabeth downstairs and wake up
Frank I remembered what I'd read online about alternative snot removal
methods. The Swedes have some high tech device that you hook up to your
vacuum. At the opposite end of the spectrum are the snot suckers. This
is what moms without bulb suckers do, and it is exactly what it sounds
like: putting your mouth over the baby's nose and giving a quick suck.

When I read about it of course I was as grossed out as you are right
now reading this, but after dealing with baby poo, it isn't nearly the
grossest. Besides, everyone has had a loogie in her mouth at one time
or another. So, I decided to give it a try. I took her into the
bathroom, laid her down and gave her a quick suck on the nose, spit it
in the sink and rinsed my mouth. The result was better than the bulb
sucker! Instead of crying more, she immediately quieted (in surprise)
then stayed quiet when she realized she could breathe. It proved way
more effective than any bulb sucker.

I guess I need to add this to the list of things I never thought I
would do as a parent.

Eating Used to be Easy

2005-02-07T18:59:00.000-05:00

Not too long ago I remember thinking "won't it be nice when she's
eating solid food?" NOT. I've figured out that it adds at least an hour
to our daily routine. Can you believe it? Giving her a boob every few
hours was easy. Now we generate dishes, dirty clothes and bibs. These
take time to clean, which combined with the actual time eating adds up.

Eating has been taking longer now that my daughter is fascinated by
spoons. Yes, spoons. This past weekend she held onto her spoon for an
hour, luckily she dropped and forgot about it before we had to get out
of the car and into public view. Today I got smart and gave her a spoon
to play with while I whipped out another with which to feed her. It
seemed to work, but my spoon was competing with hers for "mouth time."

Nursing also has it's difficulties. It seems that Elizabeth has honed
in on Caper's (our cat) bell. Caper likes to come check on Elizabeth
when she's nursing, so when she strolls by, Elizabeth's head jerks up
looking for the cat that belongs to the noise. It took me awhile to
figure out what was more important than nursing, but then I realized
she was just trying to spot Caper.

Elizabeth is now into everything, and gets angry when she doesn't get
to gnaw on what she wants to. Today I actually found myself saying,
"here, have a hanger" so I could finish my last few bites of lunch."

Oh no! as I write this, Elizabeth has just figured out how to get one
knee under her in the crawling pose. Until now, her upper body has been
in the crawling pose while her legs remain in a lotus position. Now I
know why someone in the store a few months ago told me that I'll miss
them when their this age.

Six Months Old

2005-02-01T08:50:00.000-05:00

27.5 inches, 17 pounds

Elizabeth turned 6 months last Sunday, so I took her for her checkup
yesterday. She's doing great and is in the 75th percentile for length.
I can't believe she grew an inch and a half since her 4 month checkup.
No wonder her clothes are so tight. All her onesies are ballet-necks
(low scoop neck) on her because they're pulled so tightly. I'm starting
to get smart and buy clothes that are a few sizes too big - not so she
looks like a baggy-pants rapper, but who cares if you have to roll up
the sleeves?

I was getting sad over the weekend as I disassembeled her cradle and
boxed up a bunch of outgrown clothes. She was that tiny only a few
weeks ago! Time goes by so fast, but it's also hard to remember what we
did without her.

Boogers on the Loose

2005-02-01T08:39:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth is far from being able to blow her own nose. So what happens
to all the boogers that her little nose creates? Sometimes I manage to
get her with a tissue and snatch the booger as she exhales. Most of
them probably end up meshed in my shirt as she nuzzles me. I find them
every so often (just another thing I need to check for before I'm seen
in public). She woke up the other morning and I took her to the
changing table where I stumbled upon a booger goldmine. A bunch of
boogers made a mass exodus during the night and ended up clumped in her
hair. This is a whole other version of bed head!

Confessions of a Baby Food Eater

2005-01-24T21:42:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth is eating cereal just about every day now. It's taken me
awhile to get the hang of feeding her. One of her first feedings
occurred before we were headed out to meet someone for lunch. I
thought we're both ready to go a bit early, so I have time to feed her
some cereal. When the first cereal-covered hand reached out for my
shirt, I realized the error of my ways. Both of us ended up with
complete wardrobe changes before we were suitable for public. I've
gotten smarter now-she puts on a big bib, and I put on my apron.

After she eats, the clean-up process begins. I wipe her (and anything
else that was within range) with a rag. It never fails though, when
her face dries, the cereal magically reappears. She ends up having
what looks like a snot-crusted nose and face. It's lovely.

How did cereal get to be so gluey? If you happen to let any cereal dry
on something, it is unmovable until you douse it with water. It is so
sticky I would seriously consider using it in place of
glue. Why don't schools use this instead of the kind
made of animal hooves?--you can eat this kind no problem.

So far, Elizabeth's menu consists of: rice cereal, cereal with
applesauce, and cereal with bananas. I've been sampling her baby food
and have decided that baby food has a bad wrap. It's actually pretty
good. I have to confess that when she doesn't finish her helping, I
do. Now I doubt this will continue when she reaches the vegetable or
meat phase, but the fruit is pretty good. In fact, I bet it would be
good in a smoothie. I'll let you know...

Ma Ma!

2005-01-24T21:23:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth found out how to get my attention yesterday. She started
saying the "ma ma ma ma ma" sound. Of course, I dropped everything to
go over and encourage this sound. I guess it will be awhile before she
figures out that sound is my name. I tried to get the point across by
pointing to each cat, saying the cats' names and pointing to me and
saying mama. I think it will be a long time before this clicks.

I started the Pantley No Cry Sleep Method last week. Basically, this
entails getting into a routine that involves winding down for nap and
bedtimes. She slept for 1.25 hours this morning, so we might be making
progress. When she starts looking/acting sleepy, I take her back to our
bedroom, swaddle her in a blankie, nurse her, and put her in bed
half-way asleep. I used to have to get her real sleepy before she would
consent to being put down, but now she's getting less picky. Since
she's teething, I don't have high hopes that she will be consistent.

Oh yeah... she's teething again. Her front top teeth should be coming
through any day now. I took her to the doctor last week just to be sure
she really was teething because she kept tugging on her left ear. (The
nerves that run around the ear and teeth are somehow connected.) I
panicked when her ear was covered with scratch marks from her tugging
at it. She had all the typical teething signs: drool, irritability,
gnawing on the table, sucking her fingers, irritability, diarrhea,
irritability... While I'll be glad when this is over, I'm scared for my
nipples--she'll have a set of very sharp teeth.

Link to Photos

2005-01-07T09:45:00.000-05:00

I realized that I didn't ever make a good link to the photos. Frank has been doing a great job capturing life in the McPherson household.

Elizabeth's Website

5 Month Milestones

2005-01-07T09:40:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's almost been a month since my last entry. Well,
then again I can. Things have been quite busy with the holidays and
company. This hasn't prevented Elizabeth from reaching several more
milestones.

Elizabeth is no longer occupied by silly things like fans and lights.
Now when I sit at the keyboard, she wants to hit the keys like I do,
but her typing skills need some work. This makes computer time more of
a challenge.

She is now able to communicate what she wants. For example, when I'm
shopping she invariably decides that gnawing on my shopping list is
what she wants to do. If she doesn't get the list then she'll cry until
I can distract her with something else. I've given in one too many
times and had to decipher a wet and torn list.

She is now sitting up on her own. I don't know when this happened; it
seemed like overnight. We were on head bonk patrol for awhile, but now
she rarely tips over, unless she's going after a toy. Apparently, this
is how they learn to crawl. From the sitting position, they lunge for a
toy on their knees. I'm still trying to convince the kitties to give
her crawling lessons.

We are still having our extensive night time nursing sessions. For
about five days I held and bounced her back to sleep if it had been
less than 3 hours since her last meal. At the end of this, she was
still waking every couple hours and I was exhausted having to fully
wake up each time to calm her. I turned to the internet and discovered
that this is normal, which makes me feel a lot better. I think that
Elizabeth has just made it her goal to be an only child for as long as
possible. As long as she nurses every few hours around the clock, my
fertility won't return.

Elizabeth got a new car seat for Christmas, so were adjusting to not
being able to bring her carseat into the store when she falls asleep in
the car. Her poor feet were touching the back seat of the car since she
had maxed out on the length allowed in the seat. Now we run errands
after her morning nap and try and return before she gets sleepy for her
late afternoon nap. Now that we don't have the seat that we can bring
into stores I either have to carry her, sling her, or bring some
antibacterial wipes and sterilize the shopping cart as best I can.
Definitely makes things more complicated.

For Christmas, Elizabeth also got to have cereal for the first time. I
wasn't going to introduce her to this until 6 months, but she exhibited
all the signs of being ready for it. Her first meal was a success as
she lunged enthusiastically for the spoon (to the delight of her
grandparents, aunt and uncle). She really enjoyed it. She was enjoying
it so much the other day that when some splatted on her high chair tray
she lunged forward to lick it off with her tongue. The diapers that
result from her cereal consumption make me wish I had put it off as
long as possible. The last few times we've been out in public (wearing
a disposable diaper) in the morning hours, she's had an explosive
diaper warranting a complete change of clothes. Thankfully, the cloth
diapers have never leaked on us.

This week Elizabeth has been fussier than usual, so I'm preparing for
another round of teething. She's due to get her top front teeth. I'm a
little afraid of what this will mean for nursing. She's accidently
bitten me once or twice and last night she nipped me through the shirt
I was wearing. I think she was trying to latch on through my shirt
which I explained to her doesn't work. Those new teeth are sharp!

The night nurser

2004-12-10T18:04:00.000-05:00

It's been a long week. We had to have an intervention with Elizabeth.
When she was teething, she got to nurse whenever she wanted. She nursed
a lot at night and both of us would drift off to sleep. Now she's still
waking up every hour and a half or two hours wanting to nurse. One
theory is that she's trying to get the fattiest milk, which is produced
between 2 am and 6 am. That may be the case, but sleepy moms are not
good moms. They do terrible things like lock their babies in cars.
Earlier in the week, when I had a bad cold, I wanted to nap so badly
that when she fell asleep in the car, I pulled over into the Kroger
parking lot and tried to catch some z's in the backseat with her.
Unfortunately, she woke up.

So we decided to have an intervention. If she cries 3 hours or fewer
after eating, she gets picked up and rocked back to sleep or I shove
the binky in her mouth. I do mean shove. She seals her mouth shut and I
literally have to pry her little lips apart. I have to try and find her
little mouth in the dark, but once it's in she's quiet and falls
asleep. One night she shrieked a bit and I discovered I was ramming the
binky in her eye. Oops!

So far, the intervention has been working with less than a minute of
crying each time. They usually say it takes several nights to retrain
babies, so only time will tell.

I realized how desperate for sleep I am when I found myself looking
forward to my 2 hour dentist appointment to get cavities filled. I
thought 2 hours to sit there and do nothing! Would it be possible to
sleep through the procedure? Maybe I should have asked them to knock me
out?

4 Month Checkup

2004-12-03T14:38:00.000-05:00

Length 25.75 inches
Weight 13 pounds 8 ounces

Yesterday, Elizabeth went in for her 4 month checkup. I knew she was
getting long, since she is outgrowing her 3-6 month onesies. (I would
cut the feet off, but that seems unfair to the future McPhersons who
might get to wear them.) The nurse first measured her at 27 inches. I
started freaking out because her infant carseat is only rated to 26
inches and we weren't planning on getting her a carseat till Christmas.

It's interesting how they plot her length, weight and head
circumference on the growth charts. (The growth charts show the curves
length/age along with the percentile.) It is most important that they
stay roughly along the same curve, rather than have any sudden jumps up
or down. Elizabeth has been going along the 90th percentile curve in
length, but this 27 inches was a huge spike. After double checking at
the doctor's request, it was determined that she is 25.75 inches.
(Whew!) For those of you who are interested, she is in the 65th
percentile for head circumference. She is definitely long and lean.

Elizabeth also had 3 shots in her thighs. I feel bad for the woman with
the job of jabbing all the little babies, but the woman said she knew
it was for their own good. I was surprised when Elizabeth managed to
smile at the woman afterwards. I guess she was just thankful it was
over with -she was probably also amused with the daffy duck band-aids
covering her legs.

scooter butt

2004-12-03T07:43:00.000-05:00

Back in the good old days you could put an Elizabeth down and she would
stay put. It will never be the same... she's figured out how to arch
her back while on her stomach and push back with her arms to propel
herself backwards off the play mat and onto the wood floors. Once she's
on the nice smooth floors, she can scootch wherever she wants- at least
until she backs into a wall or under the couch.

To foil her plan of scooting around while I took care of stuff around
the house, I placed her down on her back. Not to be held up, she
immediately learned to roll over onto her tummy and then proceeded with
her scootching around the living room. What an exciting day!

She seems quite pleased with herself and keeps looking up at me to see
if I'm watching, which of course I am.

Breakthrough!

2004-11-23T11:16:00.000-05:00

It's been 2 hours since my last post, but I made an astonishing
discovery. You can suddenly see another tooth popping through her lower
gums!

I'm happy that the last two unrestful nights have been twice as
productive as I originally thought.

Teething

2004-11-23T09:19:00.000-05:00

Well, we went from pre-teething directly into teeth crowning. I didn't
notice until Frank pointed it out last night that she's getting her two
bottom teeth. I had been checking her top gums and hadn't even
considered that the bottom teeth are the first to come. After all,
don't you usually lose your top teeth first? The last two nights she's
been waking up every hour or two. As I type she's still sleeping and
it's 9 am. She's never slept so late!

She's starting to realize that she can move her body to be where she
wants. She'll go after toys on her play mat and end up facing a
completely different direction as she rotates around the mat. It won't
be long before she's rolling over from her back to tummy - you can see
her practicing this move. The only stumbling block is how to keep the
arms out of the way.

We're trying to help her practice sitting up, which she's doing fairly
well. She was sitting up in her stroller at a craft fair last week
holding onto the tray on the front of the stroller. Maybe holding on
isn't the correct way to describe how she latched on to the tray with
her gums and gnawed at the tray. At least the tray has a convenient cup
holder in which the drool could collect.

Since she enjoys sitting up so much, we got her an activity center.
It's like a walker, but without the wheels and with more toys. She got
to try them all out in the store and we ended up picking the Einstein
Discover and Play
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002U1SFE/ref=pd_ecc_rvi_1/
002-5137592-6584053). We were planning on getting her one for
Christmas, but she really seems to want to be upright and have things
she can gnaw on, so I didn't want to wait. (Plus, it will keep her busy
while I prepare for the holidays.) It's so neat seeing her learn how to
operate each gadget on the toy. Of course, she went directly for the
one that makes the most noise.

Update: Elizabeth is awake now and you can actually see some results of
her teething effort. A tooth has broken through during the night! (How
many more teeth does she get?) She is in a good mood talking and
laughing so maybe it'll be a better day.

Moms aren't Perfect

2004-11-20T19:13:00.000-05:00

I've never locked myself out of my car; I might have locked myself out
of my house once though. That all changed on Tuesday. Elizabeth and I
had just pulled up to a fast food restaurant. I unbuckled her from her
seat and started putting the sling on myself. Since I didn't have a
free hand, I went ahead and locked the car and put the key in my purse.
Suddenly, I hear a car start next to me and the woman starts pulling
out of the spot, so I hurriedly shut the door. Yep, with my keys in my
purse on the car seat and Elizabeth still IN THE CAR! I stood there in
shock for a few moments trying to open the door-it wasn't completely
closed, just enough to latch it. That didn't work, so I ran into the
restaurant and went directly to the cashier saying "I need to use a
phone it's an emergency, I locked my baby in the car." Before I said
the bit about the baby, I could tell the woman was like "yeah,
emergency like you broke a nail or something?"

First I called Frank at work (5 minutes away), but he didn't have the
spare key on him, but said he was on his way. Then I ran out to the car
to check on her. I was afraid someone would try to kidnap her if I left
her alone, which thinking back on it was kind of strange. I came back
in and they said they called the police. Since we were right next door
to the station, that made the best sense. Frank arrived and thankfully
remained calm and didn't tell me what an idiot I was for locking our
baby in the car. We stood there watching Elizabeth in her car seat
playing with Mr. Chickie Chick.

The officer arrived after what seemed like hours (10 minutes in real
time) and said the locksmith was on the way. Finally, the locksmith
showed up and stepped out of his truck jimmy in hand. He immediately
started trying to pry up the weather strip around the window, but it
didn't take him long to tell us that he couldn't do it. We would have
to break a window, or he could scratch up the side of the car trying to
reach the unlock button using a long coat hanger. Meanwhile, Mr.
Chickie Chick is gradually slipping out of reach, sliding off the car
seat. I knew it would only be minutes before she would he would be gone
and the crying would start.

Since home was only 15 mins away, we decided to go home for the key.
The officer offered to drive because it would be faster, so Frank
hopped in the back of the squad car and they took off. They sped home
and were back in 15 mins. That was probably the longest 15 minutes of
my life as I stood outside the car helpless as she cried. I couldn't
decide if it was more of a comfort for her to see me, or if she was
crying more because she could see me and was trying to say "come on
mom, I want Mr. Chickie Chick."

I was so relieved when Frank hit the unlock button and I got to take
Elizabeth in my arms and give her a big hug. She was sweaty from
crying, but she forgave me almost immediately with a cute little smile.

This situation never would have occurred if I had a third arm, but it
doesn't look like I'll be getting one anytime soon, so I will never hit
the lock button unless we're both clear of the car.

Tales of Teething

2004-11-10T14:12:00.000-05:00

What drools, fusses, coughs, poops a lot and wakes up every hour all night long? A teething baby! So the fun begins as we enter "pre-teething." I didn't expect this teething thing to start so soon, so I had no idea what was wrong with her until I spoke with my mom. After mom said she might be teething, I looked it up and she had every symptom. I went to the store and bought anything I could find to help her out- teething rings, stuff to make homemade apple juice popsicles...tylenol. I also took her to the doctor to be sure she didn't have an ear infection of something else bothering her. She weighed 13 pounds 2 oz.

This marks yet another phase in Elizabeth's growth. And I do mean growth. We were at a breastfeeding support group and there were a bunch of little ones there. Elizabeth was the same size (lengthwise) as a five and a half month old there. No wonder the 3-6 month clothes she has are getting small on her already! She hasn't pudged out though, so she still can't fit into the 3-6 month pants yet. I've tried to buy a lot of dresses and "onesies" without feet. It's terrible for a girl so young to have so many fashion dilemmas.

She's also entertaining herself for longer periods. She can survive a 30 minute car ride - awake- and entertaining herself with Mr. Chickie Chick. Whew!

Her personality is starting to be more evident. She smiles all the time and we even got a few giggles from her. Her first giggle occured when she first saw Frank's friend Kevin. Kevin isn't funny looking at all, so I'm not sure what she was struck her as funny. Then there's the attention-getting raspberry noise. What's a baby to do with all this extra drool but make bubbles and noises?

Learning

2004-10-22T15:19:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth is definitely getting biggerâI think she's up to 12 pounds if
our bathroom scale is correct. She's outgrown a lot of the 0-3 month
size outfits, mostly because she's too long. What's strange is the tags
in these tiny little outfits are not proportionally small. It would be
like you or I walking around with a tag the size of our palm sticking
out of our shirt. I guess if they made the tags any smaller, the
grandmas picking out baby clothes couldn't read them. I also had to do
a quick order of diaper covers for her cloth diapers. It's definitely
not a good thing when they no longer have adequate coverage.

Elizabeth is noticing more about her surroundings. She's caught several
glimpses of Coozie, our black and white cat. I'm surprised that it's
taken so long for her to notice Coozie, since babies are supposed to be
attracted to high contrast toys black and white toys are supposed to be
ideal.

It's amazing to see Elizabeth learning. It's fun watching the series of
steps it takes to accomplish a new task.

Using hands: First step putting hands together. Then bring hands to
mouth and suck on them, try to pull out your tongue, experiment with
gag reflex. Next, learn to put something in the hands then bring it to
the mouth. Toys aren't the only things that are fun to grab. It's fun
to grab at mommie's salad bowl during dinner.

Rolling over (woo hoo!): While on your tummy, practice holding your
head up until you can lift it as high as possible. Then thrust it over
to one side. Since it's your heaviest part, the rest of your body will
follow. Then wiggle your legs and try to look up at the ceiling to get
yourself on your back.

We're also learning to communicate with each other better. She's
started arching her back and sticking her chest out as a signal that
she wants to be picked up. She'll also stop crying when she realizes
that I'm headed upstairs to sit in the recliner to nurse her-the crying
will start again if I take a side-trip to the toilet first.

I can't wait to see what her next steps are going to be!

stay @ home mom

2004-10-21T11:59:00.000-05:00

Well, for now I've decided to stay at home with Elizabeth. I just
couldn't bear to leave her in any of the daycares we toured. There's
the uninviting daycare with the huge "no trespassing" signs on the
windows and a warning letter on the door for people who pay late. Then
there's the daycare with the front door left wide open. The daycare
with the best vibe has a 4 month waiting list.

I've gone into the office a few times to go over some things with the
assistant I hired and brought Elizabeth. She never made a peep at all
and was happy as can be in her sling. She was even quiet when we all
went out to lunch afterward, but I found out later she was working on a
surprise for me.

We're using the "travel system" stroller, where the car seat attaches
on top of the stroller. I went to put Elizabeth in the car after lunch
and noticed brown stains on her car seat. There was so much poop
leaking out of her diaper that it flowed through the hole where the
buckles go through the seat and pooled in the stroller beneath the
seat. I had no idea that someone so small could poop so much-it was
amazing. It took a day to launder her carseat cover as well as her
stroller cover.

It'll be nice to be around for the big moments in the coming months.

2 Months Old

2004-10-06T11:03:00.000-05:00

10.5 pounds, 23.5 inches

Elizabeth had her two month check-up last Thursday and she's doing
great. I was a bit worried about her weight, because I know two other
babies her age who have reportedly plumped up. Elizabeth is long and
skinny. She's too tall for most of the 0-3 month size clothes, but she
doesn't really fill out the next size up. All the leg holes are about
twice as big as her little legs.

She's really learned a lot in the past few weeks. I really hadn't
realized how helpless babies are when they're born, but they really
can't do anything but lie there and fling their little arms and legs
around. They can't see very well, can't control their limbs, don't know
which direction sounds come from, can't move where they want to go...
Elizabeth is now smiling, trying to talk, and grasping toys and putting
them in her mouth. I've learned that her smile only indicates what mood
she's in at that exact moment. In a blink it can change to a frown as
she suddenly realizes she's hungry.

I'm wondering when she'll learn to blow her own nose. She has a little
case of the sniffles, so our morning routine involves using the mini
turkey baster bulb to suction out her nose. I now wonder if all those
people who say they've been abducted by aliens who inserted things into
their brains through their noses aren't just having flash-backs from
infancy.

Babywearers

2004-09-28T08:07:00.000-05:00

Elizabeth has had a lot of firsts in the past week. She went to her
first bar, first wine tasting and first trip to the dentist. For all of
these firsts, she didn't care where she was as long as she was in her
baby sling, which we now refer to as her womb with a view.

It's amazing that the sling hasn't caught on with more parents. People
are always marveling at it like it's something new, which is strange to
me because the baby sling predates all the modern plastic contraptions.
What's more basic than just tying the baby to yourself with a piece of
cloth? In Africa I saw a 5 year old carrying a 2 day old this way.

There's actually a term for this activity: babywearing. It's a little
hard to think of Elizabeth as an accessory, but term does fit. So,
Elizabeth gets worn a lot. The dentist was amazed at how well-behaved
she was in her sling as I got my teeth cleaned. She only made one peep
at the wine tasting, but I couldn't blame her after seeing the dirty
diaper she had.

At first I worried about using the sling too much-will she grow tired
of it? will she be to dependent on it? Then I did some research on
babywearing and found that because they are attached to you rather
than watching you from afar, the studies say they'll become more
independent later in life. So, Io feel a little less guilty for owning two babyslings.

Here's a link to a picture of the sling:
Sling Pictures

Tubby Butt

2004-09-16T12:06:00.000-05:00

There are several things I wish I'd known before launching into
parenthood. I wish I'd read more on parenting so I wouldn't have to
cram it all in while nursing Elizabeth. I wish I knew that some babies
don't take naps during the day. The main thing I wish I knew is that I
would have to buy a whole new post-partem wardrobe.

I knew the 45 lbs I gained wouldn't disappear overnight, but I figured
I would fit into my early pregnancy outfits. Wrong! I've since learned
from two sources that women gain a lot through the butt and thighs to
store up for breast feeding. (Why didn't these sources speak up
sooner?.) This explains why I can't fit into any pre-pregnancy or early
pregnancy clothes. So how long will it take for the fat in my thighs to
make its way into cute chubby baby thighs on Elizabeth? I don't really
know the answer and can't really wait around in my sweat pants to find
out.

My doctor also confirmed that the swelling in my hands and fees should
be gone by now, so they'll probably stay the size they are now. My feet
have grown just enough so that I can't fit in any of my old shoes. A
shoe salesman informed me that one of his customers grew a shoe size
with each baby. I guess she keeps him in business.

Luckily, Elizabeth is a good shopper and has ventured to the mall
several times as I search for bargains. Our trips to the mall haven't
been as quick as they used to be. After all, there are more people to
shop for, more stores to hit. I would much rather be spending money on
cute baby clothes, but right now she has more clothes that fit than me.

Photos

2004-09-04T02:38:00.000-05:00

Sorry I forgot to post the link to these photos sooner!

http://homepage.mac.com/fhmiv/PhotoAlbum27.html

Baby Bows

2004-09-03T17:06:00.000-05:00

So one of the reasons we didn't find out the sex of the baby is so we
wouldn't get bombarded with too much girlie pink stuff. I didn't think
I cared if anyone knew she was a boy or girl based on the color she was
wearing. Does it really matter if they're a boy or girl at this age?
Will people treat her differently if they know she's a girl?So why then
did I find myself in Walmart buying a package of clip on bows?

One reason is that they are like a clip-on personality. You attach such
a silly thing to her head and suddenly she looks so cute and happy.
It's like when you put a dog in one of those costumes and say "he just
loves wearing reindeer horns, doesn't he look so proud of himself."

I also figure "if you've got it, flaunt it." She's definitely got hair,
so why not make the other 5 week olds jealous.

Another reason is that the cuter she looks, the more attention she
gets, the less attention I get. Believe me, when I don't have time to
dry my hair and end up slapping on a ball capâI don't want the
attention. Before I paid for the bows, I slapped one on her in the
store. I turned around to look at the toothpaste and when I turned back
around, an old man was making googlie eyes at her.

I guess if she attracts too many old men with her bows, I might have to
reconsider the bow thing...

We're Learning

2004-08-31T16:03:00.000-05:00

I think my stress level is finally decreasing. Up until the last week,
I've been so afraid that she'll start crying at any moment and we won't
be able to console her. It sounds silly, but I really have a hard time
grasping the fact that there are really only 3 main reasons why babies
cry. They are either: hungry, have a dirty diaper, or need sleep. The
confusing thing is that the alert noise for all three of these is the
same. As Frank says, It's like having a car with only one warning
light.

The big moment when my nervousness went away was when I took Elizabeth
by my office to meet my coworkers. I arrived carrying a sleeping infant
and everyone crowded around eager to see her and tickle her little
toes. Suddenly the innocent babe turned into a crying machine. As I
tried to console her (while still trying to carry on conversations with
various people) I noticed that the circle that was once within arms
reach of her had expanded as far away as it could. If the walls of the
room had not held them in, I'm sure they would have fled to the other
end of the building. Frank thinks we planned it in order for my
coworkers to see that I'm not at home taking it easy munching bon-bons
by the pool. I realized that as a parent, you can only do so much to
prevent embarrassing incidents like these, but the baby is a separate
person with her own agenda you can't control.

It's been a big help to learn how Elizabeth works. We've learned that
if we put her in a baby sling, she'll usually go right to sleep. (We
never go anywhere without the sling anymore.) She also likes being
swaddled very tightly when she's tired. She seems to really like being
in a womb-like environment. This shouldn't really surprise usâsince she
was a week late, I figured she must like it in there.

Every day is a new adventure around here. Now, a good day consists of
getting to shower and brush my teeth before noon. On a great day, I can
check my email. I've started taking her in the shower with me, just so
I can shower in peace without worrying about dashing out to insert a
pacifier. She seems to enjoy the water, but has a hard time
understanding why she can't eat in the shower. . .

The Milk Machine

2004-08-19T10:24:00.000-05:00

I always knew that I would breastfeed, but somehow I never thought
about what it entails. Elizabeth's happiness and well-being seem
contingent on my ability to whip out a breast at a moments notice. I'm
permanently on-call. For at least the next 6 months, she'll be at arms
reach (unless I use the breast pump). I'm happy to be able to nurture
her in this way, but at first this was a scary realization.

So, I've been doing some reading to make sure we're doing it all right.
Fortunately, Elizabeth's uncle found a book on breastfeeding at a
thrift store which provided some interesting information. (It would
seem strange that an 18 year old would think to buy a breastfeeding
book, but he grew up with two older sisters.) I was relieved to read
that after the first month her feedings will drop from 8â10 a day down
to 6â8 and then to 3â5 a day at three monthsâthat is unless she's going
through a growth spurt, at which time feedings will increase. Soon we
will know all the good breastfeeding sites in the county and plan our
shopping trips accordingly. Yesterday, we sat at the chick-fil-a inside
our grocery store. Elizabeth decided to wake up hungry half way through
our grocery store tripâluckily I could bring our cart into the
restaurant. We're practicing being discreet.

The book stresses how relaxation is key to good milk production. In
fact, it's ok to take a tranquilizer or have a cocktail before
nursingâdid I mention this book was published in 1972? Beer is also ok
to drink, which I'd been hearing from various people, but the book
explained that it's the vitamin B in brewer's yeast that aids milk
production. I can't say we'll be having happy hour around here in the
evenings, but a pint of home brew may be just the thing!

First Week Home

2004-08-10T09:45:00.000-05:00

We've learned a lot this first week home. I think I've been swinging
between being extremely happy to thinking how am I going to manage?
It's been a lot of trial and error in figuring out what Elizabeth
wants, what she thinks she wants and what she needs. For example, she
always wants to eatâespecially when she's tired. The baby books say
we're supposed to feed on demand, but having a newborn permanently
attached to me is just not practical. We've researched a few techniques
to cope with this that seem promising.

Another thing we've learned is that it's even more challenging to trim
a newborn's fingernails than it is to trim the cats. I also need to be
careful what I eatâit seems that the amount of garlic I consume has a
direct correlation in the number of diapers we change. We're also
honing our pacifier-catching reflexes. Through practice, I've managed
to cut down on the number of times it falls on the floor to about 4 a
day.

By the way, the cats are showing more interest in Elizabeth, peeking at
her when she starts to cry, walking across my lap while I'm
breastfeeding. The next step is to train them to help keep Elizabeth's
pacifier in her mouth.

On Thursday, Elizabeth will get to meet her Aunt and Uncle. Hopefully
the car ride to the airport by ourselves won't be too stressful.
Hopefully it will coincide with nap time!

We're Home!

2004-08-05T09:13:00.000-05:00

On Sunday Elizabeth was released from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
and got her own private room, which she shared with her parents. We
were very happy to be able to hold her whenever we wanted, provided the
nurses weren't in there sticking her. I wish I could say that our first
night together was wonderful, but she decided to suck on the IV in her
arm, causing a nasty scene. She spent an hour with her dad and the
nurses, dad attempting to comfort her as the nurses poked and prodded
for a place to stick her new IV.

She started out on oxygen, several different IV solutions, chest
electrodes, a feeding tube and a sensor on her foot. Over her time in
the hospital, they weaned her off each of these things. Each day she
met the challenge the doctors set for herâmost spectacular was how well
she took to breast feeding. She seemed to know that if she didn't do
well with that, the feeding tube and IV would have to go back in.

We moved into the hospital thinking we would be there for 3 nights, but
after one night the doctor said she could go home. The doctor told us
she could go off her IV antibiotics early and go on oral antibiotics.

So, now we're home, Grandi Mac and the Fricke grandparents have left
and we're trying to get into a routine that involves as many night-time
naps as possible. The kitties aren't sure about the new arrival and
have been sniffing Elizabeth's things and watching her from afar, still
trying to determine what kind, if any, threat she poses.

Life has Changed!

2004-07-31T16:48:00.000-05:00

Well, like everyone said it would, life has changed a lot since Thursday. After 29 hours of labor, Elizabeth appeared, but was immediately whisked away from us because she inhaled meconium. (Meconium is the baby's first poo, and is a sticky tar-like substance.) It was so strange for Frank and I to be sitting in the hospital room alone after such a life-changing event.

The doctors at our hospital did their best at sucking out the meconium, but they determined she needed to go to a different hospital with better facilities. They brought her by for us to hold for a couple precious minutes. When we began talking to her she immediately relaxed and opened her eyes for a peek at her parents. Her right arm was completely covered in tape to cover her IV, but that didn't stop her from using it to pull out the tube going down her throat. Apparently, she was letting all the staff know that she was not happy with all the tubes in her.

We reluctantly handed her over to the transport team and she immediately started crying. I think that was the hardest moment so far.

Frank and I were completely exhausted after missing 2 nights sleep, so we tried to catch some z's. Around noon, my doctor said I could get out of the hospital, and within 12 hours of birth, I had my discharge papers in hand. While I rested, Frank and the Fricke grandparents went over to see Elizabeth. Then, as soon as I could leave, I went over to see her too.

She was all hooked up to a bunch of machines, with tubes coming out of her foot, belly button, hand, mouth, nose. She was in a room full of babies with much bigger problems. The doctors had already told us Elizabeth's odds of recovering completely are basically 100 percent. The babies surrounding her are both premies—we were shocked to hear that one is already a month and a half old, but can still fit in your palms.

The top priority yesterday was sorting out the breast pump, which took the whole day. Today they extibated her (they took out the tube going to her lungs) so we finally got to hold her. She's doing better every day and they're weaning her off the oxygen. We're just waiting for her little lungs to heal!

Here are some photos:

http://homepage.mac.com/frickchen/PhotoAlbum22.html

It's a girl!

2004-07-29T02:58:00.000-05:00

Frank and Andrea are delighted to announce the birth of their daughter

Elizabeth Lee McPherson
Born at 2:55 A.M. on July 29, 2004
In Augusta GA
She weighs 8.24 oz., has dark hair, and is pink, wrinkly, and beautiful.

Congratulations Frank and Andrea!

Welcome home Elizabeth Lee!

Contractions

2004-07-28T02:05:00.000-05:00

Well, it seems that with only 7 hours to go before they induce me, Baby M is on the way. Maybe the dinner of eggplant parmesan worked. Figures that the most nonsensical wives tale for starting labor is the one that worked (or just happened to be the last one we tried).

Stay tuned...

STILL here

2004-07-26T08:37:00.000-05:00

When is this baby going to come?

We've been on pins and needles for a week now—buying groceries a day at
a time, only starting projects we can finish in a few hours, not making
any social plans or any plans at all really... I don't know how much
longer I can handle things being so up in the air.

I'm having a hard time figuring out what to do with myself in the absence of a routine. Last week I thought I was cleaning the bathrooms one last time for company, but since that was a week ago, I had to whip out the scrub brush again yesterday. I also thought I could get away without doing any more laundry, but I realized that all the underwear that fits me was dirty. (I only have a couple pairs that I would allow a health care professional to see me in.)

I've read that some women carry past their due dates because they have
some mental block due to fear or something in their past. Do I have
some unresolved issue that needs to surface? Maybe I should go check
the nursery one more time or make sure we have everything packed for
the hospital.

We've also had some debate in our household as to who is late. Is it me
or the baby? It seems science hasn't reached a decision either way. We
are either waiting on the baby to secrete a hormone telling me it's
ready or we're waiting on my body to say it's time.

We still have 2 more days before we go to be induced and the waiting
game is over, but I'm still hoping the baby will see fit to come
sooner. Come on Baby M!

Latest Belly Shot

2004-07-23T08:27:00.000-05:00

Latest Belly Shot

Hanging in There

2004-07-23T07:50:00.000-05:00

Yep, still here. Still waiting. I'm monitoring every little pang,
twitch, or itch as if it could turn into labor. I've scanned websites,
memorizing the first signs of labor, which seems to be quite useless
since it's different for each woman.

It's funny how people always ask "when are you due?" It's always a
future event. There is no guidance for those of us who go beyond our
due date. Yesterday, I left a couple cashiers speechless when I told
them my due date was the day before. It's just hard to comprehend going
beyond a due date.

All of the baby books stop at week 40 without any warning that it could
go on longer. No wonder I'm swinging between emotional extremities,
ranging from excitement to frustration. Judging from the sympathetic
looks I've been receiving, I'm also starting to look like someone who
is ready to burst.

I know, I know what about the numbers I posted that show the strong
odds for going beyond a due date? I guess I was hoping that since Frank
was born a month early and all 3 kids on my side of the family were
born on-time that we had genetics on our side. Pah!

I was thinking of starting up a post-due date support group, but who
would want to chat with a bunch of grumpy women? Instead I think I'll
spend my time straightening the house, doing my yoga, walking up and
down the street and taking Frank to lunch. I'm sure in a few days, I'll
be glad I had this time to myself because it'll be another 18 years
before I can be so selfish.

I'll keep you posted!

The Waiting Game

2004-07-21T09:24:00.000-05:00

Week 40, 180 pounds

At what I hope was my last checkup on Monday the doctor said that the
baby's head is "down there" and effacement is going well, but no
dilation. I was a bit discouraged about that before I read that you
don't have to dilate before labor startsâthat is the point of labor.
She had me schedule a check-up for Friday so we can check the baby
before the weekend. So, right now I'm analyzing every little twinge or
pang I feel.

I can definitely tell that the baby is down there because I have to pee
every 10 minutes. Yesterday I decided to go on a long walk, which is
supposed to help bring on labor. At about the half-way mark on my loop
I really had to pee, but the only thing I could do was keep walking. I
seriously considered flagging down the UPS truck to hitch a ride back
to the top of the neighborhood, but decided I had to tough it out.
Luckily I made it and didn't burst. Today I'm thinking that it might be
safer to do my walking in the mall.

We also discussed being induced next Wednesday, so at least we know
that the end is in site. The information I've read shows that when a
baby is overdue, a cesarean is more likely because, among several
reasons, the baby is bigger. But what is overdue? I told the doctor
that since a lot of first time moms deliver during the week after their
due date, that I would like to give the baby that extra week. Inducing
labor has it's own risks that I would like to avoid.

So, here we are, July 21st. Time for baby M to make an appearance.
We've made it through to vote in the GA election day yesterday, and the
Tour de France is making its way up Alp d'Huez as I write. I've told
the baby that I'll start charging rent after today, but Frank told me
that it's my responsibility to get him out of there. Any advice on how
to speed this up would be appreciated...

I've been home from work this week, I figure that when I get nesting
urges, I don't want to waste it on the office when our house could
definitely use some attention. Right now I'm trying to figure out this
cloth diaper thing. The diapers arrived in the mail and I want to try
out the different folding options, but it's hard without a model and
the cats won't exactly cooperate. (Coozie has been too busy eating
through saran wrap to nibble on a corn muffin(?!?).) Apparently, the
first step is boiling the diapers on the stove to soften the fabric....
sounds like a fun day!

Cats under the Cradle

2004-07-15T11:38:00.000-05:00

I think we're all ready for the baby: we've got the carseat in the car,
hospital bags packed, and the cradle set up in our bedroom. We had to
rig an alarm on the cradle so we'll be able to catch the cats if they
attempt to get in the cradle. So far they seem content to rest under
the cradle. I wonder about a cradle that doesn't look comfy enough to
attract a cat for a cat nap, but it's for the best. I know there are a
bunch of things I have forgotten to buy â like wet-wipes, but I'm sure
we'll make do.

I have to keep reminding myself that statistics aren't on my side as
far as delivering before my due date. I did some research hoping to
find some relief, but didn't get any. I found a break-down of which
weeks babies are born and it seems most likely that I will deliver a
few days after my due dateâespecially since it's our first.

Before 37 weeks: 4%
37 weeks: 5%
38-39 weeks: 10%
39-40 weeks: 20%
40-41 weeks: 35%
41-42 weeks: 20%
Over 42 weeks: 10%

So, I guess we still have a long wait, which won't be fun in our 101
degree weather. I'm still going into work in the mornings because I
can't see sitting around at home waiting and thinking that any little
twinge or tingle could be labor.

I was glad to talk to Kristin yesterday and hear that there is light at
the end of the tunnel. Kristin, my college roommate, had James on July
5 (4 days late). After a long labor, she and James are doing great!

Planning for the Day

2004-07-14T14:34:00.000-05:00

For almost 9 months I've been on a countdown to July 21st. So much so, that I haven't spent much time thinking beyond that date, but now that it's only a week away there's no avoiding it. The majority of the time I get excited thinking about meeting the baby and starting our family. Then I'll have thoughts like "will we have to wait 18 years to enjoy a night on the town? will we still get to travel and explore the world as much we have? do I know how to take care of a baby?" I'm sure we'll cross those hurdles one at a time and adapt to our new lifestyle.

I feel like after this past weekend we are ready for the baby to come. In fact, we have told the baby that he can have all the space he wants and doesn't need to be cramped up in there anymore. He can come on out! We've also told the baby that he's missing out on a great Tour de France - wouldn't you like to be out here watching it with us?

People have asked me if I want to have a girl or boy. Until I read an article yesterday saying girls are more likely to be born after their due date, I didn't really care. Now maybe I'm rooting for a boy.

I also did some reading on the trend of scheduled induction. Basically, (if the pregnancy is going well) you can schedule your baby to be induced on your day of choosing, provided it is convenient for the doctor. It seems like in today's world people like to have everything planned—they want to know when to book airline tickets, when to stop working, when to stock up the fridge, order the champagne... Having a set date on the family calendar minimizes interference that a birth can cause in everyone's lives. We are free to have the baby when it's convenient for us.

We're all for modern technology in our house, but there seems to be a point where nature should just take it's course. We're a definite minority in that we don't know what were having or when we're having it. It seems like everyone else knows that little Johnny will be joining their family on July 15, and with the new ultrasound technology, which is basically a photo of your baby in the womb, they know what little Johnny is going to look like too.

The funny thing is that I am the type of person who likes to plan ahead, yet I have no interest in knowing anything more about my baby than I already do. I'm looking forward to the biggest surprise we've ever gotten.