California Hippie Mom

I definitely fit right in here in the bay area. My lease on the CR-V was nearing its end and I wouldn't be able to keep it under mileage this semester since my commute is so far. So, yesterday Lance, RJ, and I went to our local Honda dealer to see what kind of deal I could get on a Civic. I liked Lance's Civic and it would be better on gas than the CR-V, it's a really good little car known to last, and we can afford to buy one and still save up more for a house. So, the only sticking point was color - since I refuse to get an ugly non-color like black, white, gray, silver, or that beige metallic that is mysteriously popular these days. Whatever happened to nice bright car colors?

I wanted a red one, but they didn't have one, and we walked around the whole lot, new and pre-owned to find some semblance of a color. There was a denim blue one, but it wasn't the right trim. And then, while perusing the certified pre-owned lot, I saw the cute little 2006 opal blue hybrid that only had about 3000 miles on it. I wasn't planning on buying a hybrid, since they are considerably more expensive and the tax write-off and gas savings aren't usually worth the extra money. But, the environmental hippie in me basically started drooling - so we went to run the numbers, just to see. Shortly after starting this process, RJ decided that he had enough of car shopping and he was hungry. So, the hippie mom in me kicked in and I breastfed him right there while making the deal. We actually got a pretty good deal. I cleared out my CR-V right there and drove my happy hippie-mobile right off the lot, same day!

RJ even had his turn at the wheel!



Lance and I now have His and Hers Civics, which makes our garage really cute.

Like Mother, Like daughter

The kitchen is a dangerous place. After all, it is the room where you use fire every day (if you have a gas stove like us at least). It also is the place where many sharp implements are found; including one fantastic tool called a V-slicer (also known as a mandolin by some manufacturers), which makes cooking dishes like scalloped or au gratin potatoes a hell of a lot easier.

The V-slicer also has a wonderful safety feature called the food holder that pierces and holds the potato (or whatever you're slicing). This works great, but not when you're starting to slice an oblong vegetable like a carrot or a large russet potato. So, what you do instead is slice the potato not quite halfway, very carefully of course and then put the holder on for the rest of the potato.

However if you're anything like my mother or I, you're doing this while:
1.) rushing to get the potatoes in the oven
2.) trying to hold a conversation with someone (usually a guest in your home)
3.) pretending that you don't have a klutzy bone in your body

And then you delay dinner further by cutting a large chunk of your thumb (Mom) or pinky finger (me) off and needing to wrap the damaged appendage in about 100 ft of gauze and surgical tape. Yep, we're both missing chunks of our fingers from the same accident a few months apart from one another. Thankfully, no stitches were required for either of us despite losing a sizeable chunk of skin.









It was really only a matter of time until I lost part of a finger though - Gramma Ho! Ho! is also missing part of her finger due to a cactus-induced infection when she was younger. So, Amy, you better watch your fingers - this seems to be genetic!!!

I'm two months old, smiling, and conversations with Blue Dog

RJ sleeps his fair share of the average for his age which is around 16.5 hours. Some days it is less, other days more, but so far not more than four or five hours consecutively. But what does he do in the time that he's awake (and not eating)?

He has his mobile with the interesting zebra. He seems to enjoy swinging in his, well, swing that Grandma D got him which also has a mobile that has bouncing leaves.

At this stage there are two things RJ is working on:

- language/social development
- motor control

So, to that end some things that we do to foster his development are:

- provide a running commentary on what we're doing.
- ask questions such as; "Who's the best football team around?" then give RJ a chance to coo and then say, "yes, that's right, the Steelers!"
- read aloud, right now RJ is learning about character animation and developmental psychology in addition to the wacky world of Dr. Suess and other children's book authors
- sing; Lance claims that "The Humpty Dance" seems to be a favorite so far followed by my made-up "Go to sleep little RJ go to sleep" song

It seems to be working. RJ is two months old and he's doing more cool stuff by the day. My personal favorites are his cooing and the smiling, which he's been doing for that last couple of weeks. I finally captured these on the camera to share.And for those of you who are thinking, but hey, I can't HEAR him coo in this images, click on the smiley picture below and you'll be linked to more pictures of RJ and a video of him cooing. One other thing that he's been doing is not only "talking" and smiling at people like momma and daddy, but also to his toys that have faces. For example, he had quite the conversation with Blue Dog while I was folding his laundry the other day and even reached out to touch Blue Dog (on purpose)! This is the first time I've noticed an actual controlled reach for something other than my nipples (yes, he finds it necessary to grab and squeeze them prior to eating), so kudos to Aunt Amy and Uncle Luke for picking the toy that he specifically reached for. Of course my picture only got his touching Blue Dog, and not all the cute expressions and exclamations, but I'll be better about snapping pictures next time. He also enjoys "talking" to Stuffed Monkey and the rainforest creatures on his bouncer and swing and play mat.

Happy Anniversary to Us

Four years ago last week, we got married on a pretty sunny day in Buffalo. We celebrated by leaving our cutie pie with a babysitter and going out for some yummy sushi. We went to Kawa Sushi in Livermore, which was as yummy as the first time we went for my birthday last year. They make a fantastic caterpillar roll!

As much as I love our little boy, and kept seeing his little face in my head, it was very nice to get a break and get through a whole meal together with Lance with no interruptions or eating in shifts! We plan on continuing the celebration when we treat ourselves to a Napa wine tour in a limo on Labor Day when Izzy and Jaime come to town.

RJ seems to like his babysitter, Erika, who is one of my former students and currently a research assistant of mine. When we came home, he was smiling and cooing with her, which is a great sign since she'll be watching RJ when we're on the wine tour also.

RJ's First Family Visits and Clogged Milk Ducts

When RJ and I were in Buffalo, RJ got the opportunity to meet his relatives for the first time.







He even went to his first bar; 'Ponies' in Middleport.

In addition to the wedding, Lance and I also rented a car and drove down to Pittsburgh from Buffalo to take RJ to meet members of his family and our friends Carl and Lisa. It was a whirlwind trip, but well worth it for us to show off our cute little boy some more.

It was also on this leg of our trip that I discovered the agony that is a clogged milk duct. Although given my feeding behavior, it's not surprising that this happened. I fed RJ regularly AND pumped after almost every feed for a week - so my milk supply was up. Then at the wedding, I pumped, but not as often or for as long as I probably should have. Then I slept that night and obviously didn't get up every three hours to pump. Then when I did get back to RJ, I didn't pump after feeding him AND I fed him pumped breast milk from a bottle when we were on the road because he drinks a bottle faster than the breast (and didn't pump because we were in the car). So I had all this milk coming in and it wasn't all getting out. So, our first night in Pittsburgh, my one breast decided that it had enough of this and started getting lumpy and sore - the symptoms of a clogged duct. My shower the next morning and massaging it helped, but didn't unclog it, and so I dealt with the pain all day long, which was only temporarily relieved while I was nursing. Then at the end of the day we got to a store to get some Advil and we got back to Lance's Aunt and Uncle's house, where I discovered the joy that is a heating pad. By morning the clog was a memory, and my breast was not lumpy and sore anymore. And of course, now I know what to do if this happens again.

RJ's First Wedding (Amy & Luke's Wedding)

On July 28, RJ attended his first wedding - his Aunt Amy's. Not only did RJ attend, but he was also part of the wedding party along with his mommy, who was the matron of honor, and his daddy, who was a groomsman. His official title was "baby groomsman". This is a completely made-up role that basically meant that Grammie Carola made RJ a cute little red and white outfit (Amy's wedding color was red) and involved my cousin Sarah, the Jr. Bridesmaid pulling a decorated red wagon with RJ and his car seat down the aisle. Made-up or not, this had to be the cutest thing ever, particularly because he was an angel and slept through the whole ordeal - even when Sarah had to go off-roading with the wagon to get him to his nanny. This really only reiterates the fact that RJ really is a very chill little baby.
RJ also discovered what planning a wedding was like - particularly the three days in a row of shopping and errands with my mom, sister, and I. Like any good member of the male species, RJ slept through his visits to various stores and rides in the car. As angelic as he was during this wedding planning, I would like to point out that while he was great with all our running around, it was not free as RJ was pretty awake (and fussy) at night. We were taking shifts taking care of RJ between feeds at night to help with my general sleep deprivation and ability to function. This basically meant that I would feed him every three hours, but when he was done eating, he'd go to either Grammie or Aunt Amy for burping, diaper change, and getting to sleep. We did this because otherwise, I'd only get an hour of sleep or so every three hours by the time he would go down, and would be useless the rest of the day. RJ particularly liked to be awake (and fussy) during Aunt Amy's 12-3 shift. This was fitting in a way because he *might* have been paying her back for having to go shopping all day long. : ) This led to Amy's wanting to burn the onesie he wore one of those sleepless nights, which said, "Party in my Crib, 2am". I think it got easier as we got more settled though.

The wedding itself was a lot of fun. My mom set up a nanny (her friend's daughter, who is a professional nanny) for RJ from noon until midnight. This allowed Lance and I to actually participate in the wedding and the requisite primping for it and to enjoy the reception, while still having RJ around. The nanny took care of RJ right at the wedding and reception, which was really nice because we could scoop him up and show him off when we wanted to, and also take him back when we wanted to have some time to ourselves. This allowed us to dance for the first time in quite a while. The reception was a lot of fun - the music was great and both families really got into it! Even though the Bride and Groom typically start off the dancing for the evening, at this reception, Luke's niece and nephew, Gracie (flower girl) and August (ring bearer) started dancing during dinner, providing some fantastic dinner entertainment. Gramma Ho!Ho! joined in on the "locomotion" and my Uncle Bob even got so into dancing that he ended up on the floor. I'm sure he was sore the next day, but at the time he got right back up and continued dancing! Amy and Luke seemed to really enjoy their time on the dance floor as well.



Another plus was that I was able to enjoy the top shelf bar at the wedding - my first drinks since September! This was very exciting and I was thrilled that I amassed enough pumped breast milk for the whole wedding and night after.

And lastly, since we had booked an extra room at a B&B down the street in case anyone needed it, and no one did, Lance and I got our first full night sleep together since RJ was born. My mom wanted to watch RJ overnight, since it was her last night with him for a while, there was plenty of pumped breast milk, and we were not about to argue with getting a full night sleep! So Grammie Carola left the wedding with RJ and we traveled the one minute down the road to our night of good sleep! The B&B was unique in that it was also a llama farm. So when we got up in the morning, we were shown through the llama barn and got to see the llamas up close.

All in all, we had a terrific time and wish Amy and Luke the best in their marriage!

RJ's First Airplane Rides

Exactly one week after scaring the bejesus out of us with his surgery, RJ and I embarked on what would be his first airplane ride. Most people are still relaxing and cuddling at home with their little bundles of joy when they are 4 weeks old - and most people who have spent the last week in Children's Hospital are definitely still relaxing at home. I instead was carrying my little recovering bundle of joy and pounds of his baby paraphernalia through airport security and getting very bored with the, "how old is your baby?" "oh my! why are you traveling?" "he's so tiny, what does he weigh?" and "what's his? her? name?" questions from everyone from the TSA security people that make you take off your shoes to the random person sitting three rows up on the plane. Now I know that RJ is absolutely adorable and it's only natural that he attracts the attention of everyone, but dealing with the attention for 9 hours gets old fast.

I was incredibly nervous about flying with RJ by myself not only because I didn't want to be that person on the plane with the inconsolable screaming kid, but also because I worried that he would start vomiting again or that he'd having painful ear popping (after all, my ears ALWAYS clog and pop during decent). Luckily RJ was an angel and he didn't even spit up! He actually slept for the most part when he wasn't eating. He even fell asleep in the middle of our takeoff!

So, what did we learn about traveling with a baby?

1.) Babies require lots of crap. For a two week stint, we checked 3 suitcases and a pack-n-play, carried on one monster sized diaper bag, which also housed my laptop, a large backpack, my purse, and the snugli. Then we gate checked the stroller, and the carseat with its base.

2.) Babies under the age of 2 can ride on your lap in the airplane at no extra charge - you just have to call the airline ahead of time to add the lap infant to your booked seat.

3.) If you think airport security is a pain in the ass already, just try and hand the nice TSA guy your folded up stroller while holding the baby and balancing the laptop, outside of it's nice backpack home, all while trying to take off your shoes while you have a line of people behind you.

4.) Despite the tight security that we all now enjoy, it's remarkably easy to get a lap infant through the security checkpoint for domestic flights. No birth certificate is required, so I could've been carrying anyone's baby. That's a scary thought.

5.) Trying to feed a baby under a blanket is a complete pain the ass. While I didn't get any complaints when the blanket repeatedly fell off, it's good to know (after the fact) that federal law protects breastfeeding, with or without the blanket in all 50 states. I plan on just whipping out the boob next time. Anyone who is uncomfortable with seeing my nipple for 30 seconds or seeing sideboob when my kid eats can suck it.

6.) There is a really no perfect place to sit with a lap infant while flying coach. The aisle is good when you have to get up to change the baby or pee, and it's even better if no one else in the row needs to get up. However, the window is better for breastfeeding because you're less exposed and you don't have to worry about your arm or the baby's head getting smacked by the drink cart. Sitting at the back of plane is also not ideal because that's where all the people waiting for the bathroom hang out and lean into your row when they try to pass one another going in opposite directions. Sometimes these people are completely oblivious that they're taking up valuable space from the baby and sometimes they try to sneak a peak at a boob while passing by.

7.) Everyone LOVES babies - every flight attendant stopped by my seat to see the "tiny little baby" and I got at least 5 offers to hold RJ if I needed to pee. I however, really wasn't comfortable with this and choose to pee while holding RJ in the snugli. It really isn't any more difficult than peeing while having a big pregnant belly! The return flight with Lance was clearly a lot easier since I could pee by myself.