While I know I'm long overdue for an update, I'm in the midst of final projects, papers, and exams at school. This has rendered me pretty useless in the blogging department. But I feel the need to crawl out of my cave today with a very different kind of post.
Normally, I try to keep this place filled with funny stories about my experiences as a first time parent. With the intense joy that comes with the title of "mommy," however, I realize that a similar well of sadness exists for many couples in America who are faced with the possibility that they will never have children or will need to spend tens of thousands of dollars in even trying to build a family. Perhaps this realization hits harder for me because I know one such couple. Our good friends Larry and Keiko found out last year that Keiko suffers from premature ovarian failure. She is only 27 years old, and already she has been told she will most likely never be able to carry her own children. You can read more about their experience in her blog, Hannah Wept, Sarah Laughed .
I would ask that you watch this video she and Larry made from her most recent post entitled "What IF". For those of you with children, try to put yourself in this young woman's shoes. She is no different than any of us, yet the stigma that comes with the diagnosis of infertility raises many questions of self-worth and what it means to be a "woman."
I invite you to take it one step further. Share this video with everyone you know. Post it on your Facebook status, Twitter update, or (if you're a total techno-geek) your Google Buzz.
As Keiko discusses many times in her blog, there is a shame that comes with infertility. Often, even an IF couple's closest friends are unaware of the couple's fight to build a family. By passing this video on to everyone you know, you may be helping the people in your life who secretly struggle with this diagnosis on a daily basis. Let them know it's okay to show their faces, to admit to the world that they can't have children the "old fashioned way," and that they have a support system of friends and family who don't think any less of them because of this. While none of us can change the diagnosis, we can help by promoting awareness for their cause and by making attempts to at least understand the wide range of emotional ups and downs that come with it.
I feel the need to quote the old adage, "Knowledge is power." By educating yourself about this struggle that affects one out of every 8 couples in the U.S., you can empower yourself to be a better listener, a better friend, and a better source of support for these couples when they need it most.
Larry and Keiko - we love you. We know that you will someday be the most amazing parents. And no matter how your children come into your lives, they will be the luckiest, most cherished little people in this world.
Howdy y'all! Let's kick this post off with a big shout out to Mother Nature for doing such a fine job this week. After yet another weekend drowned in rain (and a damp basement floor), the skies cleared on Wednesday and by yesterday, temperatures were hovering close to 80 degrees. With similar sunshine and slightly cooler temperatures a couple of weeks ago, we've really been taking advantage of the added daylight and getting outside as much as possible. Here's a picture of Eily riding in style during one of our jaunts out to Tyler.
The picture needs a little explanation to be completely appreciated. First, the arm perched up on the side there. Yeah, that's where she "rests" it while she's riding in the stroller. Next we have the fully extended legs. You can't quite see the one reaching out in front of her, but she hardly ever rests it on the little footrest, even though she can reach. Finally, we have the cupholder-turned-footrest off to the left of the photo. Normally, this tray would flip up and snap in place in front of her, but because she's so short the only thing it succeeds in doing is blocking her view. So we let it hang to the side. Eily is innovative enough to have noticed the advantage this poses by using it as a place to stretch and rest her foot on. So not only is this a funny snapshot from a moment during our walk, this is also how she looked during ALL of the moments of our walk. We got many chuckles from passersby that day.
But I digress. We have many important things to discuss today! And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...
(drumroll)
....Eily had her 9 month well baby appointment on Friday! That's right folks, believe or not our little sprout hit nine months on Tuesday. As Jesse put it, "She's now been on the outside for as long as she was on the inside." (Now, now, all you ladies who've done this before, let's not get technical on him and tell him you're really pregnant for ten months. Oh, and then add ten more days on top of that since she decided to stick around that much longer before being born.) I'm not sure about other moms out there, but I love these regular appointments. Eily's quite a ham and loves to "show off" at the doctor's office, babbling and flirting with anyone who looks at her. The staff is great, I've never waited more than five minutes from the time we sign in to the time we're brought into the exam room, and our two pediatricians are absolutely phenomenal. Even the vaccination at the end of each visit doesn't cause too much drama for Eily. She's turning out to be one tough little chica...but more on that later.
First, let's get our stats in order here. The official weights and measures (with comparison to 6 month stats from January in parentheses) are:
Height: 26.5" (+1.25") Weight: 17lbs 5.5oz (+ 4lbs 3oz) (+2lbs 3oz since Feb weight check) Head Circumference: 17.5" (+1")
The pediatrician was very happy with her growth, particularly since she's on the upward swing and getting close to the 25th percentile for weight again. She's at the 25th percentile for height, as well, but her head is slightly above average at just over the 50th percentile. No concerns there, she just needs all that space for that big brain she's developing!
In other news on the Eily front, we officially have forward momentum. She started crawling forward two weeks ago and has not looked back since. This has made my friend Casey's job much harder on Tuesdays and Thursdays, since her little girl Ava is all over the place as well. Casey, you get a shout out for chasing after the two of them at once!
Along with the crawling has come some creative corralling of our little quadruped. I particularly like laundry day now since it offers me two laundry baskets full of clean clothes that I can strategically place at opposite ends of the living room to keep her from escaping. Add a giant IKEA bag full of toys, the couch, the futon, and her exersaucer, and there you are - instant baby cage play yard.
The only trouble is, in the two weeks since she started crawling, she's gotten better. These days she likes to crawl through the bottom of her exersaucer or push the baskets out of the way. Thankfully, Nic has very generously offered up Liam's play yard for our use. We'll be picking it up tomorrow when we see the Shillidays at the annual Easter Egg Brawl Hunt hosted by Debbie and Gary. (That entire day is going to warrant it's own post...be on the lookout!)
Okay, it's almost 1 a.m. and I am rambling here. I'm going to wrap things up for now by mentioning a few quick updates and then leaving you with two videos. First, Jesse successfully installed the plumbing for the kitchen on his own last week. Nic's dad, Bud (shout out to Bud, woot!), moved the gas line for us a couple of weeks ago; so we were all set for the inspector to come look at all the rough work on Thursday. Long story short, we passed with flying colors and can officially move on to the insulation/drywall stage. After Jesse cuts a giant hole in the side of the house for the new door, that is.
Second quickie: I'm still very much interested in pursuing communicative disorders (fancy title for the speech therapy degree) at school and will be meeting with an advisor this Thursday to start planning out my courses. The only hard part is that the major is restrictive, meaning I have to take a bunch of core classes before even being accepted into the major. Kind of a PITA, but I'm willing to deal with it. I don't have any worries that I won't be accepted, so it's not like the courses will be a waste of time.
And third: the race is over. Eily is babbling all the time these days. She says many many things, including: yaya, baba, lala, blabla (very impressive), and *sigh* dada. That's it. No mama. Not even a "muh". Nothing. I try to console myself by saying she's saving the best for last.
Okay, I'm done blabbing away. It's even worse when I'm tired, making my writing this at one in the morning particularly dangerous. Anywho, here are the two promised videos given as your reward for suffering through all of this. I think you'll like these, although the first is a bit long (7 mins). I blame the cameraman, aka Jesse.
And this one I took today when Jesse fell asleep on the futon this afternoon. I turned around and saw Eily doing this and thought it was hilarious. Enjoy and have a Happy Easter/Happy Passover/Happy Spring Sunday tomorrow!
On a completely unrelated note to the usual posts you find here, I thought I would share some big news in my academic pursuits. (I didn't want to clutter up the Eily update with this rambling.)
So here it is:
I recently told Jesse about my plans to change majors. Okay, before I get blasted here, let me explain. I am currently an Anthropology major. (For those who aren't quite sure what this means, it is, in simple terms "the study of humans.") My real passion, however, was to pursue the specialized field of Linguistic Anthropology. Unfortunately, West Chester has a fantastic department for all of the branches of Anthropology except Linguistic. In truth, the program there is pretty non-existent. Not to mention, a degree in the humanities, no matter how advanced (think PhD here) does little to guarantee me steady employment after graduation. With the current job market, the odds of landing a gig in academia are on par with me running into David Bowie on the street in NYC. Not completely impossible, but very improbable.
I started thinking about what a background in linguistics could be used for in the real world, and that's when lightening struck. Speech Pathology. Think of the speech therapists in schools who assist children with impediments like a lisp. Speech pathology covers not only this arena, but a much wider and varied set of individuals and impediments, as well. I could assist people who have had strokes, or children born with cleft palates. I could work in a school system or a hospital, or even a private practice. No matter what path I choose, I could be making a significant impact on the quality of life for many people. How do you ignore the reward potential in something like that?
After a bit of research, I found out two very important things. 1) Speech Pathology is highly specialized and very few universities in the U.S. have SP programs. 2) West Chester DOES have both undergraduate and graduate SP programs.
Taking both of these into account, I feel like it's just meant to be. I wouldn't have to transfer schools and could still make good use of the scholarship I have to attend WCU. I may have to extend my schooling by a semester or two to accommodate the classes I hadn't anticipated needing, but I think it is a worthwhile sacrifice to pursue something my heart is telling me to do.
So that's my BIG news. I'm really excited about the prospect of doing something to help others and just had to share.
I'm not sure about the rest of you, but here in PA the sun shines brilliantly and the smell of spring tickles my nostrils every time I open the door to let one of the three cats in or out. This happens an average of seventy-five times a day, giving me plenty of opportunity to observe the effects of the sun's crossing of the equator at 2:35 a.m. EST yesterday. Welcome Spring!
Eily is already in love with the new weather patterns. We've journeyed outside for several hours everyday this past week with destinations like the swings at the local park, trail walks at Tyler State Park, and a lovely 5 mile hike along the Delaware River Canal tow path yesterday. Jesse is ready for kayaking season as well, basking in the high waters that came on last week after all the rain. As I type, he's out paddling in his yellow kayak along the Tohickon Creek. I'm hoping to get out and enjoy the sun before the rain hits again tomorrow - as soon as Eily wakes up, we'll probably hit the tow path again.
Since it's so beautiful out there, I'm sure you can't blame me for wanting to get away from this computer as quickly as possible. So instead of a bunch of babbling from me, I'll leave you with four fun videos instead. (None of these are the promised video from last week - for some reason YouTube is having an issue with that particular one. I hope these make up for it!)
First things first - I can officially remove the "World's Worst Mommy" crown for the time being. I caught Eily on video pulling herself up on the coffee table:
And here she is after learning to pull up in her crib (much to my distress!):
This was taken a few minutes later, after I lowered her mattress considerably. So much for making it impossible for her to stand.
And the last one is just to show you E's personality. (Pardon the glaring typo in the video title. I tried to edit, but it's not sticking.) She LOVES to play this game:
I hope these were as enjoyable to watch as they were to film. Happy Spring everyone!
**Note - this post WAS written on Saturday afternoon. However, the power went out in the middle of my composition, and was not back before we left for an overnight adventure at the Hartman house. I won't even begin to get into the chaos we came home to last night, after the power had been restored...let's just say we've had to turn off 4 different circuits in our electric panel in the basement. I'll post more about that as soon as we have some clarification as to what's happening there.
Here I sit on a rainy Saturday, feeling a little unmotivated to do much of anything. Which is bad. Very bad. I haven't posted in over a month (tsk! tsk!), and there is certainly plenty to talk about. The trouble is, this is the end of my Spring Break, and boy did I need every second of it! Before things go from relatively calm back to the oh-my-god-there's-not-enough-time-in-the-day-or-days-in-the-week insanity that is my life, I should really fill you all in on how things are going around here. *Big sigh* So here goes...
First and foremost, let's have our Eily update, shall we? (That way those of you who have no interest in the Big J's can hurry this up and move on with your day without having to stop to read a novel. And don't bother with, That's not me. I am just as interested in the Big J's as I am in little E. We're used to being second-rate entertainment compared to her, so there's no need to try to make us feel better. We accepted the truth long ago.)
As I began pulling together my list of items to include in today's post - believe it or not, there is a method to my ramblings - I had right at the top: "Eily is almost crawling and trying to pull herself up." As of yesterday, however, I've had to amend that. While she still isn't crawling, she is indeed pulling herself up to a stand. Great. Just when I thought it was bad enough keeping up with her backwards belly scoot, I've suddenly become "Paranoid Mommy Extraordinaire", feeling the need to be by her side every waking second as she attempts to scale the furniture. Not that I'm unhappy to see her reach such an important milestone, of course. It's just...well...life is about to get a lot more challenging. Let's face it, keeping an eye on a relatively immobile baby while trying to get some work done is nothing compared to keeping tabs on one that suddenly knows how to get to the dvd player and push enough buttons to successfully lock the damn thing and make it impossible for mommy to get it to play properly ever again. Kids and technology - I tell you, it's scary. She could probably defrag my computer already....whatever that means.
Anyway, that's the big news. She pulled herself up no less than five times yesterday. You'd think I'd have captured it on video at least once, right? Well, much like her first solid food, I've managed to miss out on the opportunity every time. Now just where did I put my "Worst Mommy in the World" crown? I know it's here somewhere.... Fear not! While I don't have video proof of her actually pulling up, I do have some footage from earlier in the week when she was weight training for the big event by pulling her exersaucer around. In case you're wondering, it weighs 300 pounds.
And while this next clip was taken before the fated "pull-to-stand," it demonstrates how ready she is to start cruising. (It's also proof that she does, in fact, cry every now and then. I know some of you don't believe it, but it's true. She can't be perfect all of the time.)
Moving further back in our time warp to last week, we had a much anticipated visit from Auntie Kiki. I, for one, wish she would just move here and become our live-in nanny. I had a lot less mommy-guilt knowing Eily had someone to play with while I worked. Not to mention, Kiara makes a mean dinner. She didn't let the hot plate and microwave scare her off; somehow, she still managed to whip together a gourmet meal for us every night. Oh, and did I also mention that I didn't do the dishes once while she was here? Not that I didn't protest and try to convince her to let me do them. I have to admit, though, having a week off from bending over the tub was pretty darn nice. So for that, Kiara, I owe you many many thanks!!
The day Kiara left was also the day our friend Jim came over to help Jesse put the new electrical wiring in the kitchen. He essentially saved us $5000 - since this is what it would have cost to pay a professional to do the job. Instead, we spent $500 on supplies plus a few bucks for beer and pizza. Not a bad deal if you ask me. So here's a combined video of the work done in the kitchen and Eily saying goodbye to Auntie Kiki after spending the week together.
The video only shows about half of the work the guys did that day. Jim and Jesse spent from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. rewiring the entire kitchen, putting in the recessed lighting units, and connecting everything to the circuit box in the basement. Jim told us to expect the electrical underwriter to be nit-picky and give us a bunch of stuff to fix, but when he showed up here on Wednesday, he gave us the all clear to move forward. Look out plumbing, here we come!
In all honesty, that's pretty much all the excitement I have to share this time around. The month of February was mostly filled with lots of snow, schoolwork, and a trip to CT for my nephew's first birthday. (Guess who forgot to bring her camera for the big event? You guessed it! I'll take that "World's Worst Auntie" crown and put it on top of my "World's Worst Mommy" one. Thanks!)
Oh, but how could I forget - there was one exceptionally note-worthy event in February. You should all sit down for this. Are you sitting? Okay, here goes.
Jesse. Remembered. My. Birthday.
I know, I can't believe it either! No, actually I can. Between the crap I gave him for fogetting last year and just about every one of our friends giving him reminders, there was no way he could forget this time around. In his defense, everyone told me that when they reminded him about the big day, he already had plans. So really, he remembered on his own. I was treated to a yummy (and rather swanky) brunch at a nearby inn, followed by a manicure and full-body massage at a local spa. Can you say pampered? It was a great birthday, and he has hereby been absolved of his past forgetfulness.
I have a few other things to share here, though there's not much of a story behind them. So let's just call this the hodge-podge collage of pictures from the past month, starting with "Funny Things We Do To Eily's Hair."
We like to call this one "Medusa"
Here's her faux hawk
And this is what I mean by having to chase her around when she backward scoots on her belly. She ends up stuck underneath the furniture and even, as in this case, her toys.
And last but not least, here's a video we took last night while hanging out after her bath. There's really nothing too exciting about it, but it gives a pretty good idea of what a regular old night is like at our house. (I know you're all dying to know what that's like, right?)****
****I'll have to give you all a rain check on this one. (Haha, get it? Rain Check?! Because our power went out due to the "rain." Laugh, or I will never ever come back and post the video you're all missing out on.) I'll be sure to put it up as soon as we can get things squared away with the desktop, where the video is currently stored.
So, unless you live in a cave somewhere, you've probably heard about all the snow that's blasted the Mid-Atlantic region over the past week. Some of you lucky readers may even have felt its frigid wrath. Those of you in New England who somehow managed to escape the snow TWICE....I'm not speaking to you for the time being. (Insert angry emoticon with his tongue sticking out.) I know, I know. I grew up in New England, lived in upstate NY for 5 years and even yearn to return to the Capital Region someday. But I must admit, in the nearly 5 years since we moved to Pennsylvania, I've become soft. One big snowfall per winter, with the average accumulation of no more than 6 inches, has become my norm. Like most humans, I want answers when unexplained phenomena such as this occur. I crave a reason for all of this crazy weather. To put my mind at ease, I've decided the blame rests fully on Punxsutawney Phil'sshoulders shadow. Stupid rodent....
I plan to inundate you all with videos in today's post since we've actually taken and downloaded quite a few in the past couple of weeks. In honor of the weather, the first clip I'll share with you was taken yesterday evening, as the very wet and heavy snow literally poured down on us.
Alright, I feel I've whined and complained enough. Let's move onto something a bit less depressing. It's time to cheer up by reminiscing about the recent visit of Jesse's sister Kiara (aka Auntie Kiki) and her boyfriend Brendan (Uncle B). Since everyone is so spread out, we weren't able to celebrate Christmas with these kids until the last weekend of January. They made the trip down from Rochester and showered Eily with her third round of Christmas presents. Auntie Kiki went a little overboard, but Eily didn't seem to mind. Here's the bag of gifts she received...I would estimate it to be approximately three times the size of Eily.
The weekend was action-packed, complete with a trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art where we witnessed some pretty interesting sights. Eily particularly enjoyed a temporary installation in the Modern section called Days by Bruce Nauman. This was a sound installation in which you walk the length of a large room and listen to different recordings of various people reciting the days of the week out of order and at various pitches, volumes and speeds. The cacophonous din begins to blend into a rhythmic drone as you process the lenght of the hall. Eily started yelling in the middle of the room, adding her own bit of music to the piece (an addition I think only enhanced it, to be honest).
She was also very interested in the Philagrafika installation - especially the animated video by Tabaimo in which a large hand arranges furniture in a dollhouse that eventually becomes overrun by an octopus, falls apart, and reveals human organs beneath its exterior. This may be a bit too "out there" for some, but Eily found the whole thing highly entertaining. Our viewing was accompanied by shrieks and squeals of delight from our little critic.
Another one of Eily's recently achieved milestones is her recognition of visually amusing events. In other words, we don't have to tickle her anymore to get her to laugh. If she sees something funny, she'll let you know what she thinks. Witness her amusement here as she watched Fionn playing with the plastic ring from the top of a water jug.
I just cannot get enough of that laugh. She laughs so much now, about everything. I don't care what kind of day you're having - if you hear that little giggle of hers, it makes everything seem right with the world.
Another milestone we've failed to adequately capture on video is her newfound verbal skill. She woke up this past Saturday morning and decided to start shouting: "Yahyahyahyahbahdahyahyah!" for the rest of the day. This new ability is pretty exciting for her. In fact, she refuses to fall asleep at nap time because she would much rather talk to herself.
Speaking of naps, Eily has taken to falling asleep on her stomach - much to my fear. The nervous mother in me totally comes out when I walk into her room and see her like this:
I asked the pediatrician what I could do to get her to stop this, but he has assured me (on two occasions now) that if she can roll into this position, she can roll out of it. In other words, stop being a nervous mom.
Which reminds me, I totally forgot to update you all on her weight check! If you remember my Mini Me post from last month, Eily was considerably smaller than most babies her age. After making the switch to formula and upping her solid food intake a bit, she managed to gain two whole pounds in one month! That's more than the previous 3 months weight gain combined! Here's a recent pic of her exploration with food. The blueberries were a hit, though they were a bit on the messy side. She even managed to give herself a blueberry fu manchu.
Her pediatrician was very happy with her progress and has absolutely no concerns about her growth now. She's also pushing herself up onto her arms a lot these days and appears to want to get up onto her knees as well. Perhaps she will crawl someday after all?
Okay, you're probably wondering when this one's going to end. But seriously, I don't update all that often these days, so this one has to carry you through until I find time in March to write again. Besides, I've only got the kitchen update, and then I'm calling it a day.
So here it is. The video pretty much speaks for itself, but here's a quick rundown of our progress. Jesse has a friend named Jesse (making it very confusing when the three of us are in the same room) who is a contractor. He offered to take a look at our plans and gave Jesse (mine) some great advice on how to proceed. We've officially obtained a building and plumbing permit for the work, which thankfully does not need to be done by any licensed individuals. It all just needs to pass inspection before we finish everything. This video contains yet another interesting (but good) find.
And here are a couple of photos with all of the plaster from the walls and ceiling removed.
Finally, here's one last video for you to enjoy. Eily has started making this silly face where she smooshes her lips together and breathes really fast in and out of her nose. It's hilarious to watch, and I got her doing it on video this morning. (Be sure to give a listen to David Bowie in the background. Eily already loves him almost as much as I do.)
Alright, I think it's time to call it quits for this post. I've exhausted everyone, including poor Eily.
Here's a little something to help you get over the hump today.
Eily spent some time in the jumperoo at Casey and Ava's house last week and was eager to share her new talent with us here at home. We took this video a couple of nights ago as she bounced in her doorway jumper. (Pardon the clutter....the house is very much under construction right now!)
In addition, here's a look at some of the work going on in the kitchen at the moment. Oh, and remember that second layer of linoleum I showed you last week? Well guess what? Jesse found a THIRD layer (featured in this video). These people were seriously linoleum happy freaks.
Here's a look at what was hiding beneath all that disgusting flooring:
Believe it or not, the wood is in decent condition and totally worth refinishing. This is great for two reasons. 1) I was hoping for hardwood throughout the house. 2) It will be sooooooo much cheaper than tiling!
It's back to work for me now. There's lots to do before Auntie Kiki and Uncle Brendan visit this weekend! Eily is very excited about this, as you can see:
Sorry...just a little Cure playing on my internal stereo. Ahem...down to business.
This week marked my triumphant return to the classroom. Despite the long commute (1+ hour each way), I've found West Chester University to be a good fit for me. The professors I've encountered so far are, for lack of a better term, crazy. In case you don't know me that well, I like crazy. I love walking into a classroom and not knowing what to expect. Take my sociology professor, for example. Dr. Wadley (second in the list...yes, the one that could easily pass for a GQ model) entered our class the first day and never once handed out a syllabus. Instead, we had an intriguing, in-depth discussion on why we all assumed he was our professor when none of us had seen him before. For all we knew, he could have been some crazy guy from the street who just happened to walk into our class and start talking. Within minutes, he took us out of the classroom to the student union and asked us to write down 25 assumptions we made about whatever we saw around us. Then we were free to go. Ummmm, right. So this told me zilch about the course or what I should expect from it. I loved that first class. It left me with so many questions.
Anyway, this is but one example of the eccentricity I have already experienced. Another professor, Dr. Passwaters (fifth one down....the third on the list, Dr. Nicastro is my Theology & Science professor), sounds and even looks a bit like Andy Rooney. He has a very dry sense of humor...but I guess you would need to when you're teaching a physics course on the structure of the universe. Then there's my linguistics professor, Dr. Aronow (I can't seem to find a pic of her anywhere). Our first two classes have been far more interesting than the first time I took linguistics at UCONN many years ago. Instead of jumping in with the very convoluted rules of language acquisition, she showed us one of my favorite NOVA specials about the little girl, Genie, who never learned to talk due to extreme social isolation and abuse. I had seen the special years ago, but it was much harder to watch being on the opposite side of parenthood now. Aside from the heartbreaking aspect of the documentary, however, our viewing instilled in me an intense desire to really take the whole study of language acquisition (and therefore, this course) seriously.
Okay, so enough of the dry, scholarly nerd speak. Let's move on to the stuff you've all been waiting for: Eily updates!
Eily spent her first two full days away from me while I was at school this week. My friend Casey, whom I met online while I was pregnant, graciously agreed to watch her for me on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The exciting part about this, aside from avoiding day care germs, is that Eily has a playmate - Ava. Although Ava was born ten weeks premature, her adjusted age is close to Eily's, which means they are hitting the same milestones at roughly the same time. If you're interested in seeing some pics of the two of them together, check out Casey's most recent blog entry.
As a follow-up to my last post, I will mention that we did switch Eily to formula full time, and the change has been quite noticeable. I think in the past three weeks she's gained over a pound! Pretty amazing when you consider she gained barely half of that over two months before. I won't have an official weight until Feb 5th, but I'm sure the pediatrician will be happy with what he sees.
Next on the list (sorry, it's another long one this week): KITCHEN DEMOLITION HAS BEGUN!!!! To be honest, that sentence doesn't do justice to the state of our kitchen at the moment. In fact, according to housing codes, our house doesn't have a kitchen anymore. The sink and stove have been removed, therefore demoting the kitchen to just another room. Let's take a look at some before and after pics, shall we?
Here we have the sink/cabinets...
And here we have the empty shell they left behind...
The disgustingly stained/scratched linoleum floor (complete with Fionn chasing the paper I was using to pack up the dishes)...
And half of it removed. (I did this in a fit of anger a few weeks ago. Thankfully it needed to be done anyway.)
Notice the layer of linoleum that was beneath the cabinets and subfloor...yes, we have two layers of linoleum and subflooring to rip up. Lucky us.
In case you can't tell, that is genuine faux stone linoleum...which is a fancy way of saying really ugly.
The stove is gone...
And the ugly ceiling tiles are gone as well...
Jesse's been a very busy boy. The next step? Get some professionals in here to look at the electrical, plumbing, and gas lines before we redo the floor. In case you're curious, here's a look at what the kitchen should look like when we're done (minus the crazy green walls):
Until then, I'm stuck cooking dinner on a hot plate and doing dishes in the bath tub. Good times.
Right, I've probably missed something major here, but I think I've taken up all the attention span I can with this one post. Tune in next time for...I can't even begin to imagine what. I'm sure it will be interesting though!
Eily turned 6 months old on December 30 (where the heck has the time gone?!), so I couldn't wait to go to her well-baby visit at the pediatrician to get her updated stats. I know she's tiny - still very comfortably fitting into 3-6 month clothing with room to grow - and I wasn't expecting a huge increase in her weight, but even I was surprised at how little she actually gained in the two months since her last appointment. Here is a comparison of her stats from the two checkups:
4 month checkup - Oct 27, 2009 Height - 24.5 inches Weight - 12lbs 8.5oz Head circumference - 15.75 inches
6 month checkup - Jan 5, 2010 Height - 25.25 inches (.75 inch growth) Weight - 13lbs 3.5 oz (11oz growth) Head circumference - 16.5 inches (.75 inch growth)
In short, she is a teeny little peanut, in the 50th percentile for height and only the 5th percentile for weight. Head circumference is right on target. Despite the doc's concern about her low weight, I'm pretty certain she's healthy and has very fortunately inherited my fast metabolism. I was once told my metabolism is "like a hummingbird on speed." That should give you a pretty good idea of what I mean by fast.
Just for a visual example of her size, here's a pic of Eily sitting next to our cat, Smokey. At 6 months old, she's still the smaller of the two!
I told the pedi how much this pint-size powerhouse can pack away in one sitting, but he has encouraged me to feed her even more to see if she will gain more weight. So now we're letting her eat until she visibly shows me she is full. I kid you not when I say this child can eat the same amount of food as me in one sitting...and she does it three times a day (in addition to nursing 5-6 times)! Where on earth does she fit it all? It's obvious she eats more food than the size of her stomach at this point. I'm convinced one of her legs is hollow, and she packs all the extra food away in there.
I say I'm not overly concerned about her large appetite/slow growth for a few reasons. First, I have compared her weight gain at each visit with my own as recorded by my mom in my baby book. Eily and I have almost identical weights so far. At a year old, I was perfectly healthy but weighed only 16lbs. This leads me to believe that her size is simply part of her genetic makeup. Second, as I said, she is hitting all of her milestones right on cue. This would be a great time for me to update you on those! So, in no particular order, here are some of Eily's newest parlor tricks:
- Sitting up unsupported for long periods of time (1+ hours) - Feeding herself cheerios, puffies, and small chunks of banana - Rolling over very easily now...though she still prefers to be on her back if she's laying down - A lot more screechy yelling, especially if one of the cats happens to be in sight...not quite babbling with consonants just yet - Easily transitioning items from one hand to the other, reaching, grabbing, visibly cluing me in to whatever it is she wants (i.e. toys, food, etc) - Laughing at things that are actually funny (i.e. the Baby Einstein puppets when she watches them on TV) - Hugs and kisses - these are the best! She is such a little snuggler, and nothing is better than the feeling of her wrapping her arms around my neck as soon as I pick her up or sucking on my cheek to imitate me after I give her kisses.
See? No need to worry. She's a strong, developmentally on target little thing, even if she is small.
While looking at my own baby stats recently, I made an interesting discovery. I stumbled across some pictures of myself at around 3-6 months old, and guess what? I can finally say that Eily resembles me when I was a baby! She still has a lot of Jesse's qualities, but I think you're starting to see a lot more of me in there as well. Here's a side-by-side comparison. Judge for yourselves.
Thoughts? Opinions?
On another (possibly TMI) note, I've made the difficult decision that it may be time to wean Eily and switch to formula. While I'm sure she's healthy, I do have some doubts about my milk supply. Couple that with the fact that I start school again in two weeks and will have no time to pump between classes, and I think my supply is going to get even lower. In the best interest of helping her gain some weight, I think it's time to make the switch. It's sooner than I would have liked - I was hoping to make it to a year - but I feel like we made a pretty good run of it. I'm a little sad about the idea, but I'm trying not to let myself feel like a failure - six(+) months is still a good length of time to nurse, and I was surprised I even made it this long!
Well, that's the update for now. The posts may start to come less frequently when school starts. I'm enrolled full-time to keep my scholarship, and I'll still be working part-time from home. That leaves just enough time to interact with Eily, pushing this blog to the back burner, at least for the spring. I'll try to update as much as I can, but please be forgiving if the wait is a bit longer than normal!
And what shall I leave you with today? How about a video we took of Eily laughing up a storm a couple of nights ago. Her laugh is the best! Enjoy!
You know, when I ended the last post by saying I'd update with any additions to our Christmas agenda, I was really referring to things like "Oh yeah, forgot to mention we're stopping to visit some of Jesse's cousins in NJ on the way to CT over the weekend" or something along those lines. What I did not foresee was a complete reworking of our ENTIRE Christmas agenda.
Many of you have already seen some posts on Facebook, but for those who have been living under a rock for the past two years and have no idea what Facebook is, I'll update you as well. We spent Christmas morning in the ER. Don't worry, the baby is fine. Jesse, on the other hand, woke up in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve with some pretty severe eye pain. Having had a corneal abrasion over the summer, we figured it was the same thing acting up again. Why? Who knows...but it hurt like heck, at least as far as I could tell. Being the trooper that he is (read: typical guy), he opted to try to sleep it out.
Flash forward, to 3 a.m. The pain was getting worse, to the point where I woke up to Jesse rocking at the end of the bed and trying not to claw out his own eye. It was time to call the opthalmologist...only trouble was it was bleeping Christmas Eve. We left a voicemail on what seemed to be the emergency line, and hung up. The next few hours consisted of much tossing and turning and very little sleep. We got up around 7:30, called the doctor again and left another voicemail. Thinking it unlikely we would get a response any time soon (it was Christmas morning, after all), we opted to just head to the ER. At the very least, they could call in a doctor to see Jesse if they felt it was necessary.
Eily was great while we hung out in the waiting room. Cooing and giggling the whole time. One old guy thought she was so cute, he took her picture, which she just loved. Two hours later, and a complete flushing out of his eye with a liter of....something, we were sent home with the instructions to see the specialist as soon as possible. If only it were so easy. We couldn't' even get a call back from their emergency line. Instead of stressing, we went home and had Eily's first Christmas morning opening presents (wrapping paper was the biggest hit...I should have just wrapped a bunch of wrapping paper in a wad and let her go to town). We still made our appearance at the Nog At Noon celebration with our friend Nathan. But by the afternoon, Jesse was beat and in a lot of pain. We headed home, where he promptly collapsed into bed in misery and fell asleep. When he finally woke, we had a lovely dinner of steamed clams and shrimp cocktail...in the dark. The lights hurt his eyes too much, so we kept the mood lighting to a maximum. Trying hard to keep his eyes closed, he was like a blind person, feeling around the table for everything. I'm just glad we opted for finger foods instead of filet. An accidentally amputated finger wasn't really something I felt like adding to the list.
I'll skip the details of getting in contact with the opthalmologist, but needless to say, she couldn't see us until late this evening. Strike #1 in the weekend plans. The drive to CT takes approximately 4.5 hours, so leaving anytime past 3 in the afternoon is pointless. We opted to postpone departure until tomorrow morning. The nice part about this is the opportunity we were afforded to spend a little bit longer at Jesse's cousin Steve's house. We saw family we haven't seen in years, and everyone just adored Eily (who was good as gold the whole time).
We got to the doctor's office around 7:30 tonight, and, in a nutshell, the cornea is scratched again. No idea how it happened, but this time it's really bad. She was surprised Jesse wasn't complaining a lot more (he's a tough guy). And here comes Strike #2: the abrasion is severe enough to warrant her seeing him every day for the next few days. Apparently the risk of infection is pretty severe with one this size, and there's no sense in risking it by letting it go unattended. So that means she needs to see him tomorrow, which in turn means departure time gets pushed back further.
After leaving the office with my boyfriend pirate with a sweet eye patch, Jesse and I talked about the pros and cons of driving to CT with all that's going on. The doctor appointment tomorrow morning was scheduled for 7:30 a.m., but it's located an hour in the complete opposite direction from our intended travel route. Coupling that with the fact that Jesse really felt miserable again today after spending time out of his cave trying to be social, we decided that maybe it would just be best to stay home. Strike #3. You're out!
So here I sit, 11p.m. the night after Christmas, updating you all on what could have been a pretty crappy Christmas. In all honesty, we've really made the most of it. Eily had fun, we took some super cute videos of her (to be posted after editing), and we got to see at least a few of the people on our list. I'm still not sure what Jesse did to make Santa CLAWS so angry, and I'm not sure I want to know. We have a few theories, but in the interest of keeping this blog family-friendly, I'll politely keep them to myself.
For those who look forward to Santa's visit each year, I hope he treated you all a lot better than poor Jesse.
