sunday, april 27 entry my poor little boy. he just had his first real throw-up. and i just had my first real being-thrown-up-on. he has a terrible cough and runny nose, stemming from his ear infection, and he was coughing really hard - and then blech! all into my lap. i figured he wasn't done, and so i leaned him over my pants (to protect the carpet, of course), and blech again! but only a drop got onto the carpet. the yuckiest part was carrying him into the bathroom and washing off his feet, which were covered, but he thought it was fun to kick in the sink. before the puking, he was clingy and fussy - now he plays happily in the floor beside me. his tummy must be feeling better. i wish he could shake this cough. i'm pretty certain that it's the drainage in his throat and chest, running down into his stomach, that is making him cough and choke and feel bad in general. for now, though, all is well. he is pulling all the cords and tapes out of our camcorder bag and putting them back in again. must be fun. oh, and don't forget taking all the cds out of their holder:
"what? were these in order or something?"
we got a little bit of cabin fever yesterday after being inside all day, so we decided to go out last night. of course, "going out" for us means a cheap dinner and a trip to wal-mart, which is actually fun for us. so we loaded up the babe and drove south to the booming metropolis of murfreesboro. we ate at a small mexican restaurant, and owen was perfect. he sat and played in his seat, cooed and gurgled and played with his pacifier. he had a small bottle while we were there. he was wonderful. same thing in wal-mart. we carried him for a while, and then he rode in the front of the cart like a big boy! he can't sit up on his own yet without support, so the front of the cart is a stretch for him, but he likes to sit up there and look around. we bought the usual diapers and wipes and basic toiletries, and home again around 10PM. when we got home, we changed owen's diaper, kissed him goodnight, and laid him in his bed wide awake. not another peep from him! i have been working with him extensively at nights to teach him to transition into sleep without a bottle, and mostly on his own. it is working. the first night he cried off and on for a while, but i kept setting the timer for 5 minutes. after 5 minutes i went in, kissed him, repositioned him if he had wiggled around, popped in the binky and left. he wasn't so much crying as giving his "i'm annoyed" fuss, and he finally fell asleep. every night since then has been wonderful. i feed him, cuddle and rock him, and if he's not asleep, i still lay him down. and he goes to sleep on his own. i can see a huge improvement in his night-time waking. most times when he cries in the middle of the night, we pat his back and put in his binky and he goes right back to sleep. he's learning, and it is wonderful!
finally, here are some pictures we took last night before we went out.
friday, april 25 entry guess who is going to a dodgers game in july? that’s right, me. one of my california agents has season tickets – stadium club box level, at that. we are going to dine at the stadium club, have dodger dogs, and watch the dodgers play ball. i believe the san diego padres will be in town that night. the agent referred to them as the “evil padres” so i’m guessing there’s some sort of california rivalry there. sounds like fancy fun to me!
we have discovered that our washer is a horrible piece of machinery. for weeks we’ve been finding rust stains on clean laundry. we couldn’t figure out if it was the washer or dryer messing them up, but the stains don’t come out, and all three of us have lost several pieces of clothing to the rust. we have now decided that it is the washer ruining our clothes. looks like someone’s getting a new washing machine! sad, because other than the rust, ours is perfectly fine. we purchased the set used for under $500, so it was quite a deal for us. that was 4 years ago, and they are still going strong. but the rust is down in the parts somewhere, and must be coming up into the barrel when it fills with water. owen had one new outfit that i washed prior to his wearing it, and it came out ruined, never even worn! and both pairs of keith’s good dress pants have now been ruined. so we have to get a new machine.
last night The Boy crawled across the living room without falling or lunging. he was going super slow, so i think he was actually focusing on really crawling, and not falling – and he did it! i was so proud. he is starting to feel a bit better now that he has been on the antibiotics a couple of days. he was tugging at his ears last night, but not necessarily fussing or whining. i put a heating pad under his sheet and turned it on low, and he has been sleeping on that for the past two nights. i think the heat helps his ears. the first night i laid him in there, he immediately scooched his entire body up onto the warmth. baby like!
i have a funny owen story. i have a basket of pillar candles on the floor that are purely for decoration, and for whatever reason, he loves to crawl over there and take the candles out of the basket. we don’t let him, because he wants to chew on them, plus he breaks the wicks, making them unusable. the other night he was playing in the floor with his little ring stacker, and he had all the rings spread out around him. he kept reaching for those candles, and keith and i kept telling him no. so he’d go back to his rings, and then reach for the candles again. at one point, he eyed us, then picked up his red ring, and set it in the basket. when he set it in there, he picked up a candle and took it out. he kept a sneaky eye on keith and i the whole time, like “i wonder if they’ll notice if i just trade this – i’ll put my toy in here and take this candle out...” it was so funny. it’s amazing to see his mind work like that, to see him reasoning and making decisions. needless to say, i took the candle away from him anyway, at which point he tried to grab his red ring back out of the basket. i guess if he couldn’t trade, then he wanted his toy back.
next weekend is my business trip to chicago. keith had requested to be off that weekend so he could watch owen, but they’ve scheduled him to work anyway, stupid jerks. i guess dante’ will have to stay home and watch owen. honestly, i don’t have a clue what we’ll do.
tuesday, april 22 entry this seems so odd to me, not to mention devestatingly sad. scott peterson, alleged murderer of his wife and unborn son, laci and conner peterson, is being charged with two counts of capital murder. two, meaning that conner, as a fetus, is counted as a murder. meaning that in california, if laci had decided on december 23 or 24, God forbid, that she had wanted rid of her son, she could have had an abortion and it would have been legal. but because scott peterson decided to kill the baby, it's murder. not that i don't wholeheartedly agree that it is most definitely murder, and if he is proven guilty, i hope he pays the ultimate penalty. but isn't it strange how contradictory our laws are? a similar thing happened here in tennessee last year. it just strikes me as bizarre legislation. regardless, the story is heartbreaking.
on another thread entirely, it would seem that owen's current illness isn't new - it is the leftover remnants of his ear infection from several weeks back. keith took him to the doctor today because he has a wet cough and runny nose, puffy eyes, and he cries a little when he coughs, like it hurts his throat. we thought maybe a cold, maybe allergies - again, no fever, no ear pulling. the doctor (who, by the way, checked his ears at his 6-month appointment last week and declared him just fine) put him on a stronger antibiotic that will hopefully knock out the infection. poor little man. he hasn't been especially grumpy, but kind of clingy, and not sleeping very well at all. last night i was feeding him dinner (mashed fresh avacados, tropical fruit blend, rice cereal), and he started gagging. i thought maybe it was the avacado, which he has only had once before. i stopped giving it to him thinking he must not like the taste, but then he started gagging on the fruit. he gagged and choked and his face turned red. his eyes were squirting tears and he started banging on his highchair tray. he scared me to death! i yanked him out of his highchair and started pounding him on the back and swiping his mouth out with my hand. in retrospect, i remember from cpr training that it is better not to hit someone on the back when they're choking - but i was in panic-mommy-mode, so i pounded away. he wasn't actually choking or gagging on food, just snot and drainage from his runny nose. he definitely freaked me out, though, and he scared himself a little, too. so that was the end of solids last night. we'll try again later, but he mostly just wants a warm bottle and a cuddle.
only one more day of insurance classes left. i take my exam next tuesday. there is so much information to learn. i remember most of it from when i took my licensing exam in arkansas several years ago. i let it lapse because i got out of insurance for two years, but now i've got to get re-licensed. our instructor does his best to keep it interesting, but really, how interesting can you make 24 hours of insurance?
seems that our best friends have their own website now, so visit a lot so they'll update a lot! maybe not in the next few days since they're moving out of state on thursday, but after that, we expect regular updates, betsy and alex!
sunday, april 20 entry we've been waiting for our tax refund check so that we can spend a little bit of money on owen. he has outgrown the length on his infant carseat, and is almost past the weight limit as well, so he's been needing a new carseat. also, i saw this awesome exersaucer in a toys'r'us catalog a few months back, and we decided that we'd get it for him when we got our tax refund. the one he has now, we bought used off of ebay, and it is really pitiful. it's in fine condition except that it is missing all but two of the toys on top. the one we picked out is convertible, so that when he outgrows the seat, we can remove it and it turns into a little play station with music and toys for a toddler. it is fancy! not only does the seat turn 180 degrees, it also slides right to left up and down the toy. he can move all over. and when he moves his feet, he steps on big piano keys that play notes. it's super cool.
so yesterday the check came, and we went to the store and bought the new exersaucer, and the new carseat. we got the manly eddie bauer charcoal seat, very posh. we also ended up getting another toy on clearance - only $24 down from $50. it is a big station that he can crawl into and push all kinds of levers and buttons, and it has a track through it where you drop balls in. it is also convertible for when he gets older. so this baby is set! i took some pictures of his new exersaucer here. he seems to love it.
the funny thing is, we were checking out, with a total bill of almost $240, and he was playing with a wind-up rabbit from the front counter that cost $0.99, and was laughing his head off. babies, go figure.
owen got up super early yesterday, so we thought we'd get up and go garage-saling. we've only done this once before, and we ended up finding tons of baby clothes (this was before he was born). we thought we'd see if we could be as lucky. we actually found a few good sales with lots of little boy clothes. i tried to get bigger ones, at least over 12 months, because he's growing so fast and he needs bigger clothes. we also got him a talking elmo doll that is in perfect condition, and some books. but i have to say that the find of the day was for me - the dirty dancing soundtrack cassette - for only a quarter! oh how it takes me back. hearing 'hungry eyes' and 'she's like the wind'... takes me back to junior high. the movie came out in 1987, so that means i was 8 at the time, but the songs played forever, and i think i've seen that movie about a million times. Nobody puts Baby in a corner!
wednesday, april 16 entry keith just called me at work to tell me that owen minded for the first time. we have been kind of using the word 'no' when he gets into things he shouldn't, or grabs glasses off our faces, that kind of thing, but we figured he was too young to know what we were talking about. but he knows other words, like ba-ba, or mama or dada, and he definitely knows his own name, so we thought maybe 'no' would sink in. and apparently it has. owen was headed towards one of my fake plants today (one that he has previously ripped to shreds on several occasions), and keith told him no. he was up on his hands and knees, and he started rocking back and forth and giving his angry squeal. he headed towards it again, and keith told him no! this time he started whining and crying, and then he headed towards the plant again. keith said, "owen! no!" and owen looked at him, then turned around and crawled off in the other direction. how about that! tuesday, april 15 entry so. freaking. hot.
our air conditioning is kaput, and the part we need had to be ordered. hopefully it will be fixed by tomorrow. it's been in the 80's during the day, and the house is so stuffy and muggy. not even a decent breeze to cool things off! oh how i hope it's fixed by tomorrow.
owen had his six-month check-up today, along with his six-month vaccinations. three shots this time, instead of the usual four or five. he did so good during his shots. he really only whimpered - none of the screaming hysterics of the last round of vaccinations. another victory for the binky! he is 27 inches long, which puts him in the 75th percentile for boys his age. he weighs just a touch under 19 pounds, which means that he has actually lost weight now that he's mobile. but he's still in the 75th percentile for weight, as well. the doctor said he's a tank, which we already knew. she checked his hand-eye coordination and motor skills, and his leg and neck strength, and he is above and beyond where he should be developmentally. she said his hand-eye coordination, especially the skill of passing an object back and forth, hand to hand, is extremely developed for a baby his age (that's my boy!). apparently this is the skill that will help him learn to stand (pulling hand over hand), so she said to look for him to stand earlier than usual. she was also highly impressed with his crawling, and said that most babies don't crawl until 7 to 9 months. he isn't sitting up on his own yet, which had worried me slightly, but she said he won't sit up on his own until 7 or 8 months. so we're almost there! and she said what every other doctor and nurse has said since he was born - "he's so busy!" i always hear what a "busy" baby he is - meaning into everything, watching everything, chattering, checking out his surroundings. they always warn me that he'll be a handful when he gets up and moving because he likes to stay busy. i can already tell this is going to be true.
so we left the doctor's office with a slightly bandaged baby, headed to wal-mart to pick up a few things, and then home, where he now naps quietly. interestingly, he has decided that he enjoys sleeping on his side. his nini sent him a little stuffed bunny from the gap, and he seems to be obsessed with it. he sleeps with it now, and will lay in his crib and hold it for almost an hour on a good day. we also had to break down and give him his own remote control, which is never far away - it even travels with us on outings. we took the batteries out and sanitized it as best we could, because he chews all over it. he couldn't keep his little mitts of ours, so now he has his own. what a male, already in control of the remote.
and on a very happy note, tomorrow i begin my summer tanning sessions. i can't stand these pasty white legs another day. bronze goddess, here i come. or as my husband would say, skin cancer, here i come.
monday, april 14 entry i love this. no need to make a big statement about hollywood; we all know how they feel and we all know how i feel (and yes, the picture was touched up a bit. courtesy of jim treacher. funny stuff.).
on a sidenote, i thought i would point out that no, i am not as smart as i used to be, and yes, i do wish my brains hadn't gone to crap. this revelation came to me when i thought about taking up writing again (not my blogging, but deep, meaningful writing). robin calls it "baby brain." me thinks me has it.
friday, april 11 entry happy six months, owen!
click here for owen's six month letter and several adorable pictures of our boy.
and a few more gratuitous shots of owen, doing his baby thing:
now, on a different note entirely, i thought i would post this link, which is an excellent explanation of the american flag over saddam's face incident. you know, this one:
you just never know what makes up the fabric of a person's life, and why they do the things they do. good story.
thursday, april 10 entry i had to wait to post today until i regained my composure after last night's upset on american idol. i just didn't see that coming. a little part of me died last night. well, at least a little part of me was sad last night. it is almost as bad as when roger got voted off survivor: the outback.
onto something more interesting, i have finally posted the pictures from juli's visit:
here is a picture of some asian snacks we saw at the international market. just thought it was ironic that they were called julie's love letters, and i was there with my friend juli. somehow it's not as interesting now as it was that day:
but this, on the other hand, is just funny:
and here are the shots of owen in his summer attire at the farmer's market. notice how he's kind of flipping the bird in that first one? classic.
i found out yesterday that i may be scheduled for a business trip to california in the near future. i've been working on my itinerary, and if it gets approved, i'll be visiting san diego, los angeles, glendale, and oxnard, to name a few. keith's grandparents live in san diego (hi fosters!), so we've talked about the possiblity of owen and him joining me. since my ticket, the rental car, and the hotel room would be paid for, we'd only have to spring for his airline ticket. i'm thinking of flying into san diego for a day or two, and then flying up to los angeles for the rest of the week. i have several agents to visit along the west coast, and i can hit several of them in one trip. i've never been to california, so i think i'd have a good time. anyway, that's still in the works.
meanwhile my chicago trip is coming up in about three weeks. we're still trying to work the logistics of who will watch owen while i'm gone. the trip is a saturday/sunday/monday, which means he can't go to his sitter's - she's not open on the weekends. and besides, keith usually works evenings. i'm not sure how we'll work it out, but i can't cancel my trip. i'm going up for an insurance convention, and it's already been paid for - several hundred for the convention, a couple hundred for the airline ticket, and a few more hundred for my own room at the embassy suites in chicago. i'm a little bit excited, but i'm going to miss my boy like crazy, i can already tell. the other two girls that are going with me are both in their twenties, like me, but both are single. i guess i'll be the only one getting homesick for a husband and a baby!
today owen drank from his sippy cup all by himself! we've been trying to teach him for months now, and it usually just frustrates him, but today for some reason he caught on. he held it himself and guzzled. the only problem is that he treats it like a bottle - where he doesn't stop between drinks. he was practically gasping for air by the time he finished the juice. but he only dribbled a little onto his clothes, so he's learning.
speaking of learning, i sure wish he'd learn to sleep through the night. he was doing great for a while, only getting up once, but suddenly he has started getting keith up two or three times a night. normally by six months, babies should be sleeping through the night, and if they're still getting up to eat, it's out of habit and not need. so the question is, how do we break that habit? i know my poor husband could use a full night of sleep, and i'd take one, too.
wednesday, april 09 entry in my desperate attempts to make yet another can of tuna seem sufferable, i stumbled across a jar of relish in our fridge at work. you can already see where this is going, right? i tried to open it, and it was all sticky and sealed shut. i think to myself, this relish must be super old - at which time the jar lid pops open. so what do i do? dump a big blob of it in my tuna. it was definitely funny colored. and now i've ingested it, and we will see if i live or die.
monday night was the coolest. i took owen with me to the elms’ concert, which also included sanctus real and switchfoot. i was worried that it would be too loud for him, so i bought him so baby earplugs which were fluorescent orange. we got there about 930PM, and once it started, it wasn’t loud at all. in fact, towards the end of the elms’ set, owen started to nod off, so between the earplugs and the decent acoustics in the renaissance ballroom, it couldn’t have been loud for him. he likes music, so i knew he’d enjoy the bands, but i didn’t think about the lights – there were spotlights of every color dancing around, and he was spellbound. and he was, of course, the only baby there, so he got a lot of attention, which he loves. the elms played a great set, and of course i had the chance to talk to them afterwards. i gave them two shinelikestars cds and i was able to meet the wife of the drummer, who was super nice. they just got married a few months ago, and she never gets to travel with him, so i thought it was neat that she made the trip to nashville.
last night was the third day/4HIM concert, but i couldn’t get into that one. while we were at the hotel monday night, i saw the audio adrenaline bus. i think it was empty, but it was running, and i took owen over there so he could check it out. i always enjoy brushes with fame. keith is pretty much buried in it at the hotel this week. everyone in the industry is there.
i was thinking this morning that i miss being pregnant. it’s still a little early for another one, but i don’t think we’ll wait too much longer. i mentioned to keith that i missed being pregnant and he pretty much laughed in my face. he only remembers those last few weeks when i was miserable and complaining and out of patience and crying. it’s true, i got a little antsy there at the end. but i do miss it. i probably have enough to do with just owen around! but i won’t be happy without a brood.
i can’t believe that in three days, my baby will be half a year old! i can’t imagine where 6 months went. he is such a big boy! healthy, happy, growing and changing every single day. he morphs right in front of my eyes! i don’t think i could possibly love him anymore than i do already. of course, i always say that, and i always end up loving him more the next time i see him. if i had one complaint about him, it would be that he isn’t selective enough about the people he likes. i mean, come on, let’s set some guidelines here! not just everyone is good enough to deserve that shiny special baby smile, but he isn’t picky at all. hrm, he’s his father’s son!
speaking of keith, he is off today! which means we will spend the evening as a family, something we rarely do nowadays. we will watch american idol tonight. i am nervous for rickey and carmen. after i put owen to bed last night, i phoned in my vote for rickey several times! and i’m not ashamed of it! i’m an adult! and i love american idol!
monday, april 07 entry i'm back at work today after being off friday, and it looks like i was missed! i have stacks of things to catch up on. that's okay with me, i'd much rather stay busy. when i left this morning, juli was snoozing away. keith will be taking her to the airport in a couple of hours. we had a nice time hanging out this weekend. i always enjoy her company. we saw the glitz and glamour that is nashville, did some shopping, took a few naps, just relaxed. owen took to her right away, and she was able to hold him and play with him, even put him to sleep for a nap once. i was so glad he was feeling better by the time she flew in. it would have been really difficult to enjoy her visit if he had still been sick with the ear infection. he still has a few more days of antibiotics left, but he's feeling 100% better. in fact, he's even closer to crawling now then ever. he now gets up on his hands and knees, rocks back and forth, and then uses his legs to lunge forward at a toy or at one of the dogs, whatever he wants to get his hands on. he's rocket-propelled!
i took some pictures of him, and of juli, and all the fun things we did this weekend. i was going to post them, but our camera battery is totally dead. i will have to recharge it before i can post. i was kind of bummed about it, too, because i wanted to take a picture of owen's diaper blow-out last night. it was just so amazing, i thought the internet audience would be wowed.
this is dove awards week at the renaissance, and keith is busy hobknobbing with the semi-rich and quasi-famous. 4HIM, third day, newsboys, switchfoot, the elms, and many many more are in town for this week's festivities. the elms are holding a closed show tonight at the hotel, mostly for radio folk, but there were a few passes handed out. i was one of the lucky ones, and i received two passes to attend. the concert is at 930PM. i am quite excited. i haven't decided whether or not i'm going to take owen. the last elms' concert we attended was super loud, but it was in a club. this one is in the renaissance ballroom, and it's only a 6-song set. i'll have to see what keith thinks. and speaking of the elms, i got a package in the mail this last week containing an autographed real-life drum head from them. apparently i won a drawing. i was excited for a few minutes, then i wondered what i was going to do with it. but then i went back to being excited.
i got owen a pet this weekend. a hermit crab. he lives in a bright orange shell. they had tons of them at the mall, and i bought a little one with a little aquarium thing for him to live in. when we were at the mall, owen loved watching them crawl around in their pretty shells. now that the crab is at home, owen pretty much doesn't care about him. i think in a few more months he will think it's pretty cool, but for now he has moved on to more interesting things, like paper and magazines. he loves to rip up and chew on anything paper. yesterday in church he was chewing on our bulletin, and i took it away from him because i was afraid some of it would tear off and he would choke. he started screaming! we inserted a stuffed animal in his mouth, one that he usually enjoys chewing on, but it was no good. then we plugged in the binky, again to no avail. so i just gave him a new bulletin to chew on, and when that one got soggy, another new one. he loves his paper.
now i better get some mortgage insurance underwritten before i get buried in it. pictures to follow.
wednesday, april 02 entry at last, owen is feeling so much better. he still has about 8 days of antibiotics left, but his behavior is pretty much back to normal. he still seems to have some nasal and chest congestion, but nothing a little tylenol doesn't clear up. what a relief, the alien monster who was inhabiting his body has left.
in the meanwhile, keith and i have both come down with some sort of viral infection. sore throats, body aches, chest and nasal congestion, fever - yesterday after work i was sure i had strep throat. i had a fever of 103 last night, and this morning it was 101. i visited the doctor and the strep test was negative, so he concluded it was a virus that will have to run its course. it seems to be doing so already, however; i feel about a zillion times better than last night, and i expect to feel even better tomorrow. keith seems to be about a day behind me, so he will feel better tomorrow, too.
i visited the eye surgeon today to see about my cataracts. he agreed that my vision is deteriorating rapidly; however, he disagreed that i would need cataract surgery. he told me that after the surgery, the replacement lens that they attach will not focus at different distances, like the human lens. i would still need reading glasses. he said he thinks he can find a way to get me into contacts to extend the life of my own natural lens. it was about a 3-hour ordeal to tell me that, though, with all the tests and flicking of lenses back and forth and lights shining in my eyes and dilation. and through it all sat little owen, patiently waiting. he did have one little fit, but that ended quickly, and he did have a major poop blow-out while we were waiting on the doctor to come in, but other than that, he was an angel. i can't believe how well he did.
i caught him in his trying-to-crawl routine tonight. he's not quite there yet, but he really wants to just take off. the pictures are here, but be forewarned that they look pretty grainy because it was dark in the room. his other new trick is "talking" - he has started to mimic the rhythm of adult speak. when he cries, instead of constant wails and drawn-out vowels, he is incorporating "la-ba-ya-de" and so on. i think it won't be too much longer before he starts the "ma-ma-ma-ma" and "ba-ba-ba-ba" sounds, even though he may not associate them with their meanings just yet. actually, i take that back; he definitely knows ba-ba.
tomorrow is the big day when juli arrives! i have a few activities planned around the great city of nashville to keep her entertained. i can't wait to see her! safe flight, jules.
