Taking another trip

Airplane trip #3 for the Big E...I wish I could say it was under happier circumstances, but we are going to say our final goodbyes to my grandmother. She passed last Saturday morning. Arrangements had to be made to transport her from Michigan to New Jersey. This will be trip #2 for Eliseo to see our New Jersey family. We are also planning a trip in the summer, he is getting to be a regular in that part of the country. Incidentally, we also have a super cool totally awesome vacation planned to a tropical destination, but I will write about that when I'm feeling a little more cheerful.  So, off to New Jersey we go.  I'm happy to have the opportunity to see all of my family again. We are a tight knit group. This time I will get to see family from both Mom and Dad's side. I plan on giving my arms a rest as everyone passes Eliseo around.

Update on the dailies: the growth spurt seems to have ceased momentarily. We did 4 days of white potato which went over well and today we started peaches. I decided to cook everything in one big pot, so it all kind of tastes the same...pears, peaches and asparagus. In retrospect, the asparagus would have been better in its own pot. Oh well. I also brought cauliflower, which will be up after the peaches. Still no reactions, although I'm still questionable on the pureed turkey.

Today E and I got our flu shots. This is actually his 2nd (first was at 6 month checkup). It hasn't made me feel sick yet, here's hoping I only have a sore arm. E seems to be fine so far too. We both are sporting Tweety Bird bandaids.  People go back and forth on whether to get a flu shot or not, but with E being so sick the other day I felt guilty when I thought it might be the flu, that I possibly could have prevented it. And, as we are finding out, whatever he gets, we get (illness wise). Im on my second cold this month.

Still no crawling but lots of rocking and floor time. For a couple of nights when he was sick, he was fighting sleep and rocking and rolling all over his crib. Call it foreshadowing, I can only imagine how hard bedtime will be when he is mobile.

He will be 9 months on Friday (O.M.G) so we have a checkup on February 11. I will post stats.

So there it is...all caught up!

Remembering Grammy

I'm sitting in Eliseo's room right now rocking him...he sometimes wakes up after I put him down at night. Usually I will just let him cry for a few minutes and he goes back to sleep, but every now and then, especially weekends, I like to pick him up and rock him back to sleep. Tonight is one of those nights. As I'm sitting here smelling the sweetness off baby, I'm thinking of my grandmother. She is only expected to live a few more days, but dementia stole the real Margaret Mikusi from us years ago.  These are some of my favorite memories that I've been thinking of:

1.  She always had perfect hair. She used to sleep with her head hanging off of the bed to preserve her curls. Now that's dedication.

2.  When I was a toddler, even at 3 or 4 years old, I used to play in her kitchen, which you stepped down into. It reminded me of a cave somehow.

3. Instead of pouring, she used to offer to "spill" me some milk.

4. My grandparents cellar (yes they had a real cellar, like the Wizard of Oz) was always stocked with big cans of Hi-C.

5. Her doctor always told her she needed to gain weight so she would make us milkshakes to drink with her.

6. She was the Palmetto bug's worst enemy. If she found one in her kitchen, the bottom of her slipper was the last thing they ever saw.

7. She gave great hugs.

8. She used the phrase "I'll give you a knuckle sandwich" when we misbehaved.

9. She used the play "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" at top volume on her record player.

10.  She was the sweetest, kindest lady ever to bless this world and would do anything for her family.

She will be dearly missed.

Pukey pukey the turkey!

Hmmm. We were doing so well. And I don't know if I can really blame the turkey. That's just what he happened to be eating at the time.

This morning I could not get my little guy to wake up! We had to be at daycare at 8 and at 7 he was still fast asleep. I picked him out of his crib and he ate, but he was definitely sleep eating. Dropped him off and Glenn picked him up this afternoon. He didn't take his usual snooze in the car on the way home, so it didn't surprise me when he took a nice long nap this afternoon from 2-5. He had been sniffling after getting back from daycare so I decided he must be getting another cold. Thus, I felt bad for him that he couldn't breathe while he was eating. So I took him out of his seat and held him in my lap...And then it happened. He puked up everything in his tummy. I mean I saw breakfast. Who knows, maybe even yesterday's dinner. And guess who got totally puked on? Rite of passage, one could say.  But then I got really nervous because a fever came on so suddenly and spiked to 101 in no time.  So what did this mom do (and I didn't puke when puked on)? I gave him some baby Tylenol, I got some down but when he gagged and threw a little back up, I didn't give him the rest of the dose. And it worked. His fever broke and he is comfortably sleeping up in his crib as I write this. Took his temp before bed and it came back at 98.8. Score another one for Mom.  So tomorrow, he gets to stay home with me.   :)

Fast and furious, whatever came is gone now. And hopefully stays away. And I threw away the rest of the turkey (only half a serving left anyway).

Gobble gobble the turkey!

Day 3 of turkey....success! Well, I had to change the recipe up a bit, but the goal was for him to eat it and he did. Here's the trick: 2 parts sweet potatoes, 1 part turkey, 1 part rice. Whatever works! Then we spent the rest of the night with more crawl practicing and lots of giggles while playing on the floor. We love the floor! Tomorrow is the final day of turkey intro, so Thursday we try something new. A white potato. And after 4 days of that I'm going to add some butter! Yes, my life is very exciting.

Why must babies grow?

I'm sitting here folding E's laundry and realizing that most tags say 9 mos and I'm wondering if he is going to be able to wear them again. How did these clothes shrink so much? I guess I'll be having to put away more 6 months clothes pretty soon, which breaks my heart!  It's cliché, but it is going by so fast. I don't take a second of life with Eliseo for granted. Its hard for me to even make plans without him sometimes. I don't like to have to get babysitters.  I've had my whole life to go out and be social, I'm really over it now. But at the same time, I thrive on my friendships and know I need to make time for them, so I do. And I'm glad I do, but I like it even better when we do things that I can bring E to :).

Ok. So...new developments.  We have graduated to a size 3 diaper. The difference between 1 and 2 didn't seem too big, but 2 to 3 was a big leap! I wasn't sure my baby's little butt would fit in that big old diaper, but it did. No more size 2s. And much more solid poop...yay. Important to note: too many orange foods = orange poop.

Also new is the introduction to turkey. Hmm, not going so well yet. The texture of pureed meat...yeah. Just as bad as it sounds. He's not so interested yet. Not that I blame him. 2 more days of trying and we'll see off he warms up to it. I've even mixed it with rice and sweet potatoes, that hasn't helped any. I may need to wait again until he can eat pieces of ground turkey.

Don't worry, I am happy that my baby is growing. Each day brings fun new adventures with him, I am just loving every minute that we are blessed with. I love my little man!

Got milk.

Notice this is a statement and not a question; yes I do got it! This is a topic I will probably only write about (in detail anyway) once.

I love nursing. Eliseo loves nursing. Together we make a mean nursing machine!  My initial goal was to breastfeed until he was a year old, but now I'm aiming for 18 months. As long as he doesn't bite when he gets teeth. I can't think of a more God-given way to feed my child; it amazes me! My body was made to know when he is hungry, how much he needs to eat, the right temperature the food needs to be, and best of all I never run out!

The good things:
- breastmilk provides just the right amount of fat, sugar, water and protein to make his body grow.

- breastmilk is easier for him to digest than formula.

-breastmilk fights disease:  asthma, obesity, diabetes, childhood leukemia, also respitory infections and SIDS.

-amazing bonding time.

-it's way less messy!

-you burn a bunch of calories!

-it's FREE!!!

The bad thing:

PUMPING!!!

Oh how I hate pumping. I have a love/hate relationship with my breast pump. I love it because it helps me with my supply and relieves me when Eliseo doesn't nurse. But I hate the actual pumping! Boooo! Oh well, I deal with it.

I'm proud to say that I've made it over 8 months, I hope to at least double that!

And now...a totally unrelated to the topic picture. Thank goodness for that!

When you don't feel like writing, post pictures!

What do you want to talk about?

I'm really at a loss about what to write about tonight! I guess I'm excited about a few things (it doesn't take much to tickle my fancy these days). Not much is different with Eliseo...waiting for the crawl, I'm trying to find a way to bribe him into joining me on the opposite side of the room but mainly he just ends up crying. Then I feel guilty.  He's been really into Snickers, much to her dismay. He lights up everytime he sees her. I'll be really mad if his first word is Snickers. He's growing a lot but I'm still waiting on a major milestone. It's bound to happen soon, right?

On the food front, tomorrow we introduce cantaloupe. I'm excited to see how he reacts, hopefully without an allergic reaction though! So far he hasn't had any reactions, it's been pretty easy. We are in a good flow for now. Mostly predictable but then he throws us for a loop. Lots of smiles though. We love those smiles.

YouTube challenged

Ok so. I am YouTube stupid and cant figure out how to get a video to play but I'm working on it. In the meantime enjoy some pics. Butternut squash an absolute hit.

Now what?

Day 4 of daycare this week and things kind of went downhill all week. This growth spurt is really screwing with my baby! No morning nap again today. I can only imagine how crabby he must have been for Janelle. He ate the double portion of oatmeal I sent and didn't finish his bottle so I know he had enough to eat today. Then when he got home I made him some lunch:zucchini with brown rice and he barely ate any of it. I wanted my pediatricians advice on his not napping this week and the nurse said maybe he just doesn't need it anymore. She recommended keeping him awake (what a joy that will be with a cranky baby) and trying one longer nap in the afternoon. Hmm. So I tried it, and again we were back to an hour crying in the crib with no nap. I know it takes a couple of weeks for him to learn a new behavior, but I'm afraid trying to get him to nap in the crib may make him like it less at bedtime. Bedtime is the one thing that we have down pat. Maybe I'll have him nap in the pack n play that is down in our bedroom. Ugh so we are back to trying to work out naptime.

I finally did get him to nap in his swing at around 4pm but it didn't last long. He had a minor meltdown as I finished up work, but once I was done the evening was pretty pleasant. Dinner was sweet potatoes and brown rice and a nursing session and then we played on the floor. Worked on sitting up...he can sit up by himself but he still throws himself back pretty hard so I have to be close by. Then I think the favorite part of my night...I nursed him around 730 and he feel asleep, then I fell asleep and we cuddled. I woke up around 9, brought him upstairs and put him in his jammies, nursed again and he's been out ever since. So we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

As far as the food, even though he's 8 months he still eats every 3 hours and nurses quite often.  The nurse says this is fine, that you can't really over feed him right now. Just let him eat until he's full. So I guess I'm going to need a lot more food around here! I've been incorporating grains to keep him fuller longer. She says keep doing what I'm doing.

So there it is...and I just love these legs and feet so thought I'd share!

Just when you think you figured it out

Hey y'all! I'm not from Texas but it sounded good.  The last few days Eliseo has been pretty fussy in the morning/ afternoon. I think I figured out the problem. Apparently he is starving. I brought him to day care on Wednesday and he hadn't taken a nap all morning for Janelle. I thought he would sleep well in the afternoon but no such luck. I fed him lunch and after his food was gone he was sitting there like a baby bird with his mouth wide open. I nursed him but that didn't make him tired enough to nap. So, he continued to be fussy. A few hours later I fed him dinner and he did the same thing. So I heated him up a second serving and he ate the whole thing! So today I doubled up on everything and he ate it all! I had enough food to last through the  weekend but he ate it all! So I made him a few more things tonight: Brown rice, oatmeal, apples and pears as mixers and the new introduction butternut squash. Can you say growth spurt?

Other than that, nothing new. He hasn't crawled yet but it will happen any day now. No teeth, maybe a "mama" soon...

Isn't January boring?

Mmmm hmmm, it really is. But after December craziness, boring isn't so bad. I just have far less to talk about. I'm really surprised at how easy it was to get Eliseo back into the groove. We had one tough night of adjusting, but other than that, bedtime has been a breeze. The only exception is he's been stirring a little right when I'm getting into bed at night. He is a floor away so I know he can't hear me, the only thing I can figure is that it gets quiet once I turn off the tv and that may be what wakes him. Usually he will just go back to sleep but sometimes I go rock him a little.
So what have we been doing? Pretty much laying low, I find if I leave the house I spend money and I'm still recovering from Christmas, so I've been trying to stay home and get the house in order. E and I have been spending a significant amount of time on the floor playing, one of these days he's going to take off crawling but it has happened yet.
Today I met with my running girls and brought Eliseo with me in the jogger. It was cold and windy, but I had him nice and bundled up. I was planning on running about 3 miles and walking in a fourth, but I got turned around on one of the trails and wound up inadvertently adding a mile onto my run. This did not make Eliseo happy. I had no other way to get back than to run, so I turned on the turbo jets. I didn't know if he was just cold, or tired of being bundled, or poopy, but he had a meltdown. Not good! I felt like a bad mommy. It's so heartbreaking to feel so powerless. So finally I called Donna to come pick me up, he wasn't gonna make it another mile and a half (or I wasn't). Finally my heart just couldn't take it anymore, I had to pick him up, even if it was cold and windy. At least I had a blanky to wrap him in. That's all he wanted, was to be held. My poor baby.
So that was the extent of our excitement. We lead very boring lives :).
Oh but worth mentioning....E had his 8 month "birthday" last Tuesday. I'm starting to think about his 1st bday party already ( yikes!). Looks like it will be 4/27, so mark your calendars!

Happy New Year!

Well, we did it, we actually left the house and stayed out past midnight! Glenn accepted an invitation to one of his fellow police officer's house which was just a few miles away from our house. They said we could bring the baby and since I didn't want to try and find a babysitter (and I wasn't drinking anyway, plus I kinda wanted to be with him) we put him in his jammies and headed on over. I thought Eliseo would fall asleep around 9 or 10 and that I would let him sleep in the car seat, or that we would just leave early. Oh no, he stated past midnight. Only my baby. I kept thinking that I was going to be sorry cuz his sleeping schedule was going to be screwed up, but it's already screwed up so oh well. It was a special occasion. And yes, I did pay for it tonight with an hour and a half of fussing. He'll be back to normal soon enough.  Today we just hung out as a family, went to the mall and ran a couple of errands. Did more housework and yet more laundry...yada yada.

So resolutions for 2013? I guess just the standard: try to take better care of myself. I guess back to running and to the gym. My gym has childcare available so I really have no excuse. And...Biggest Loser is coming back on! I love that show, it totally motivates me.

Alright peeps, it's late and I have work tomorrow. I hope you all have a happy and healthy 2013!