Boogers

Who ever thought a nose so little could have so many boogers? Baby boogers freak me out. They're stringy and what looks like a tiny booger can turn into a huge slime-ball out of nowhere.

Somehow baby boogers is a topic that has come up multiple times between myself and some of the moms I chat with. Turns out there are many methods moms use to evict boogers from their baby's noses.

My favorite method is dad removal. This is where I wait until Tom is alone with the baby and hopefully takes care of the booger without me ever knowing.

The next and only other acceptable form of booger retrieval is the little bulb sucker thing. You know what I mean... This thing:


It's usually not too gross and removes the booger so I don't have to see it. Henry never seems to enjoy having this bulb shoved up his nose, but I'm sure breathing better makes it worth while.

Now. I had no idea there was a third form of retrieval. One mom brought this to my attention and I threw up in my mouth a little bit. Basically its a long tube that one end goes in the babys nose and the other end in someone's mouth ( I say someone because that someone would never be me ). The person then sucks into the tube like a straw and sucks the boogers out. Check it out:


Gross. Sick. Unacceptable.

Why would anyone choose to do this when the bulb thing works fine? What the hell is the point?

Someone please explain this nonsense to me.

First Weekend Alone! ( with just Hen and Dad )

With the exception of a day here and there, I haven't been apart from Stef and Henry for more than 48 hours! To make this weekend even more interesting I have never had Henry by myself for more than a few hours! I am not really worried but I am going to miss the heck out of Stef while she is with her family for the weekend in Chicago. I am also cheating a little bit by spending some time with my parents and brothers but even if I wasn't I am pretty comfortable with the little guy alone unless Demon Baby shows up...

However, as lonely as Henry and I will be without Stef, we already can't wait for her to come back!

Hot Mess

Our precious little bundle of joy has gone off the charts today. He has gone bat shit, balls to the wall, inconsolably crazy. No bottle, nap, hugs, or playing with Leon his monkey can calm him down.

Instead of feeling sorry for myself as I usually do, I really just feel bad for him. Something obviously is chapping his ass so bad that he can hardly breathe between screams.

Yikes.

Guys Night Guys Night!

Sometimes I feel like the first 30 seconds or so of this video....

Guy's Night
You, Me and Dupreeat MOVIECLIPS.com

Not entirely the way it is but getting a night out with the guys is a rare but welcome and neccessary event. Same thing goes for gals night for Stef too ;)
As much time as I love spending with my family there is nothing quite like erasing the work day that just ended with some cold suds, get a little euphoric over some old stories, and talk about dude stuff. An old buddy was in town and the weather was nice so it felt pretty good to be sitting in a cafe in my old neighborhood catching up on stories, the whereabouts of friends and enemies, and getting way to drunk off of four pretty weak beers. The metro ride home sucks but I have to say I had a huge smile on my face when I came home to bath time with Henry and he gave me a smile of greeting that no friend has ever given me.

Good Weekend

I've come to appreciate the weekends through a different lens now that Hen is here. This weekend was no different as we carried on a pretty normal routine. Henry never did quite drop the demon baby thing as Sunday turned to Monday with repeated wake ups and fussy sessions robbing us of valuable early week sleep ( you know the kind that sets the stage for the whole week? ). Regardless, we made the best of it and had a lot of fun. We typically run errands, go grocery shopping for the awesome meal we are going to make for dinner, hosting the occasional visitor, or just relax in each other's pleasant company. In this case I was excited as I am in the market for a new computer and was pretty excited for a new gadget! It is funny what excites me these days. It is in these pretty normal weekend things that I grow to know Stef better and better and we learn to love each other more than we thought we could. Even if the little dude is acting like a prima donna and refuses to be ignored for more than 5 seconds. I think the only time Stef and I got to hold a conversation for more than the said five minutes was when Hen was in baby sleep town and couldn't care if we took a few minutes to talk amongst ourselves.

SO, Lesson is! Take the time you do have with each other when you can, make the best of it and enjoy, because its those bonds we build together that will get us through the hard times we come across. I couldn't have a better partner and love in my life than Stef so I count my lucky stars everyday we wake up next to each other.

( the picture reminds me of the tropical vacation we are taking this summer...so pumped it hurts! )

Demon Baby

Sometimes Hen takes on an alter ego Stef and I refer to only as Demon Baby, and we say it only in whispers in hopes that saying his name will keep his spirit at bay. In previous posts I have mentioned how I am sleeping well but every now and then this alternate being takes over our almost 5 month old son's body and makes our life suck big time.

The last two full days and nights were a good example. It usually starts with a day where he is crabby and refuses to eat well, or stay calm for more than a few minutes. Following that, that evening putting him to bed is nearly impossible, he wakes up every three hours, and regardless of lack of sleep is up ready to take on the world at 5 am. The next day mirrors the first but with less sleeping and that night usually culminates with him going down for the count around 7. This process usually resets his system for a week but you just never know when Demon Baby will rear his cute but super annoying head.

One of the respites we used to have for our wacky but semi predictable infant cycle was putting him in his car seat and either going shopping or running errands while he crashed. Well that doesn't work any more which a major bummer. Stef and I were getting bagels this morning and were waiting out a crabby fest reminiscing over his former ways when all of a sudden he became quiet. We smiled thinking he went to sleep and we could proceed with our Saturday morning routine in peace. I cautiously snuck over to see and I snatched this picture thinking would be in baby sleepy land....Demon Baby wasn't going anywhere....

Jogging with Baby

Before I found out that I was pregnant, I was an avid jogger. I often found myself running 6-8 miles at a time just for fun. This being the case, I was excited to be one of those moms who had an awesome jogging stroller and ran with their baby every day to get back into shape. Now, I'm not sure if that mom exists out there but let me tell you why jogging with baby is not quite a reality for me.

It all begins with height. I'm short. 5 feet tall to be exact. Every running stroller created out there has Michael Jordan in mind. I can barely see over our jogging stroller let alone jog with it comfortably. In order to hold on to the handles, my arms must be at a 45 degree angle upwards. I'm not sure if you've tried to run with your arms raised before, but it's not cool. or fun. or productive. My arms fall asleep about 5 minutes in our jog which I've started to get use to, but still doesn't make for a comfortable run.

Next, the stroller's size. Who would have thought that something made to move with ease could be so clunky. We have the absolute best of the best jogging stroller. We have a "BOB Ironman." We were told that BOB strollers are the absolute cream of the crop. I believe this, but why oh why does the best jogging stroller have to be the size of a small SUV? If I could, I would take our umbrella stroller running if I thought it was safe.




As a fitness buff, and running lover, and a stay at home mom, why aren't there more compact yet safe jogging strollers? I'd love a jogging stroller I could fit in the trunk of our Ford Mustang and run with without my upper body falling asleep.

I guess a mom can dream.

Sludge Attempt

I mean rice cereal.

We got the OK yesterday at Henry's 4 month appointment to try to start solids. The doctor recommended
starting with rice cereal, and once he has that down, switching to fruits, then veggies, then meats.

Little did I know that I would be much more excited to start rice cereal than Henry would be.

First of all, there are 900 varieties of rice cereal. How are you supposed to know what kind to use? I suppose it's similar to formula where you just have to pick, but I found this ridiculously overwhelming. I, of course, picked the rice cereal with the prettiest packaging. Earth's Best Organic Whole Grain Rice Cereal sounded the most promising. It also boasts pictures of babies farming in cloth diapers. Obviously the promise of Henry being able to farm after eating rice cereal sold me immediately. The package also promises "No GEI." I had no idea what the hec GEI is, but if there wasn't any in Henry's rice cereal, that was good enough for me.

Curiousity got the best of me and I googled GEI. After coming across GEI consultants, and various other non-baby related results, I googled "no GEI." This yeilded results of parents wondering the same thing I was wondering. What is GEI? Finally I came across this very granola answer:

"No GEI is a kind of password, it seems, for those in the know. It means No Genetically Modified Ingredients. This is important for families who have histories of food allergies, because the advent of GEI in foods have, some scientists are arguing, contributed or perhaps even caused the outrageously high rate of food allergies we've seen in this country in the last decade or so."

So as usual, another baby product promising to turn my child into some kind of superhuman.

Anyways, I came home and poured some formula into the flaky rice cereal and made a liquidy paste. I began to prepare Henry for his first real food by talking in a high pitched voice and making him smile a bunch. Luckily, I had thought to put a bib on him, because little did I know how messy this would become. See below:

Moral of this long rice cereal story, is that Henry seemed confused and unamused by rice cereal. Most of it ended up on his bib rather than in his belly, but we will keep trying until we have a solids eating baby.

Is that normal?

Could these actually be normal 4 month old noises?

I swear the neighbors must think we are killing a cat over here.

Things I am going to do/NOT do when I am a grandparent : Series

Steph and I are incredibly lucky that BOTH of our parents are around and in good health. That is a luxury that we didn't have growing up that I am pumped and hopeful Henry will have it. Steph's paternal grandparents had passed away before she was born and I lost my paternal grandmother at an age such that I can't recall her memory. However, we both had good experiences with our living grandparents and they played an important role in our lives.....so along comes little Henry. Both parents thank God, and both sets of grandparents UH OH. You want to talk about baby crazy? Within minutes of his birth they were all there in the delivery room as loving and as supportive as can be....but a few days later some new monsters emerged ( story for another time ) ....hence the first story/post in this new series - Things I am going to do/NOT do when I am a grandparent.


1 ) Harangue My Child About the Sex/Name/ANYTHING about the the Baby :


In the weeks and months leading up to Henry's birth our parents were a little baby crazy ( mine a little worse ). Questions were flying around like a White House press conference ( which I am aware is their way of showing concern )...but the volume grew beyond my ability to respond and in some cases made us feel a little uncomfortable. In one instance it upset Steph and I when we found out Henry was going to be a boy but we were looking forward to surprising my parents until their constant pestering took the fun out of it and we caved. We told them to buy a baseball instead of a softball in order to put an end to the 18 calls in one hour, every hour for an entire afternoon.




Honestly, the best way to show concern is asking how we are doing as parents and prospective parents. We recognze you have had years with us ( and we have become boring to you all of a sudden ) and you are excited about the new addition but we need to be talked to like adults and not human hosts of your alien culture. It actually was my mom who was one of the first ( out of most friends and family ) to ask how I was doing when we were about 4 months pregnant. The relief almost made me misty as I was tired and a little stressed to that point and just needed to have my emotions stroked for a little while. SO the advice and take away is this, when that day comes when you are about to be a grandparent, realize that your soon to be parent is going to feel like they are hosting a press conference every hour, so act like a distinguished and respectful journalist and ask 1 or 2 really good questions every now and then. You can make it up to us by watching the baby so we can go to dinner more if you dont' want to play by these rules....hopefully by then we will have given up to the fact you have turned our well being into that of the baby's.