Innies and Outties

To catch up from last week, we have not yet finished the retaining wall project because we still don't have the 3rd step. I'm really annoyed by this point. The aggregate for the stairs and the upper walkway can't be put in until we place that last step. Plus we can't place the capstones on the one side either. And we won't be getting the rest of the plants and the delivery of the mulch until we are done completely with the rock work. We planted a whole bunch of (mostly) drought tolerant plants on the side that is finished. I've even been watering them vigilantly!

The Manling's doctor visit turned out to be anti-climactic. The Doctor said that the sleeping, or lack of it, is common at this stage, and the fever and diarrhea are sometimes associated with teething. The puking was most likely due to him eating too much, too fast. I felt like an over-protective mother, but the good part was that the Manling had a non-harpoon visit, so perhaps he will not associate the office with pain.

The top left front tooth that had been ruining my life finally erupted on the 24th, and things have been settling down. We still have someone in the house who believes that they are nocturnal, more so than the cats. No names shall be mentioned, but he just had a 9-month well-baby doctor visit. The doctor said that developmentally he is on track. Physically, he is slightly anemic and underweight compared to formula-fed babies. Wouldn't you think that that means this is the normal state? I would think that formula-fed babies should therefore be considered super-non-anemic (is there a word for that?) and over-weight. No wonder we are a nation of obese! He is a tall, skinny dude- 95th percentile in height and 20th percentile for weight. We only discovered he was anemic after I expressed concern that I wasn'’t feeding him the right types of food to fulfill his nutritional needs and asked if he needed a multi-vitamin. A short wait for a blood test revealed his deficiency and now he gets a daily vitamin with iron. Iron produces the loveliest black poops.

The Manling started eating organic non-cheerios, strips of whole-grain bread and banana puffs in the past week. I would say that of every 4 bits, 2 go to the dog, 1 falls down into his chair, and the 4th makes it into his mouth. Watching him gum things is quite comical. The expressions he makes remind me of a toothless old man.

The crawling stage is, honestly, not very fun and very exhausting to chase him around the house. Especially since we have not yet fully babyproofed it. I'm thinking I should just move with the Manling into an unfurnished house for a while. His favorite targets are the dog's big rubber bone (which goes immediately into the Manling's mouth), the cats, any electrical cords, and the dvds and xbox games. My favorite thing he does lately is his reaction to Mark coming home from work. The dog will hear the car door slam and race towards the front door. The Manling takes this cue to indicate his beloved Daddy is coming in soon and lunges towards the dooras well, shrieking and cooing. I believe the dog and he are competing to see who will be acknowledged first.

He has still decided that he doesn't need to sleep anymore. Naps have become a struggle: he fights going to sleep and drops off for only 15 - 20 minutes before sitting up at the end of his crib crying to get out. If I gave him a tin cup, I'm sure he'd drag it against the bars like the old prison movies. And at night.... a bigger fight to fall asleep, and then up 1-3x for generally 30-60 minutes. Occasionally he will sleep right through just to throw me off guard. I'm trying to add in a 3rd meal of solids to see if that will help with the sleep.

To celebrate the Manling's 38th week, where he has had equal time on the outside as on the inside, we went camping. The doctor said that babies do better at altitude than adults do, so we drove up to West Chicago Creek campground outside of Idaho Springs. Mark and I hadn't been camping since 2004 so it was great to get away, and it was the dog's first camping trip as well - the cats had a lovely dog-free romp through the house with extra water and food left out for them. The camp was set in a pine and aspen forest so the scenery was excellent.

Mark tried to light the campfire but doesn't possess that gene. He had a pillar of smoke suitable for passing Indian signals, but no flame. I emerged from setting up the inside of the tent and within 2 minutes had a cheerful little blaze. We had traditional "camping food" i.e. Hamburger Helper Lasagna, turkey- and regular burgers, smores (even the Manling who bit into them like they were crack), and turned in early. No sleep, of course, because the ground was excessively hard, the Manling was squirmy, and the camp host had freaked us out by telling us that both beasr and mountain lions had been spotted there within the last week! The stars were amazing to see; it's interesting how you forget how many there are when you live in an urban area. The next day we took a short hike up to St Mary's Glacier.

Oh, I had forgotten to mention that 2 weekends ago, my friend J. had come out for a short visit/job interview. He was just offered the job, and his wife, C. recently had a phone interview with a local school district. It looks like they will be moving out here. I can't wait!

And in further friend news: my friends J and B just had a baby girl, A, on the 9th. They live only about 10 blocks away and B will be a SAHM. I will have a partner in crime soon! M and J, another couple, just announced that they are expecting a baby in January of 2007. The Manling and I hung out with S, who said that she and C are planning to start trying to conceive in the next 6 months or so.It's going to be Baby Central around these parts!

I felt very crampy and emotional today and am hoping that I am regaining my menstrual cycle. I mean, I don't want it to come back, but I need it to return so we can try for another nocturnal creature. I was telling S today that I really want to have child #2 soon, but would like to be pregnant without having to have sex. I wish my libido would come back as well! We reminisced about how I hated being pregnant and laughed about how now I'm a baby addict.

I really need to figure out how to upload pictures to this thing. I am 99% finished with my felted messenger/diaper bag. I sewed a key loop, a wallet pocket, and a brocade lining into the bag, and assembled it with the strap. It's really a fine, fine prototype of the bag I want to create. I have nothing else to crochet right now. I finished J's baby girl's skull hoodie, and S's and B's baby girls' hats, and I am not starting anything for Luanne's baby until she finds out the gender.

Last but not least, last Thursday after the doctor appointment that was so anticlimactic, I experienced something very climactic. I went to see Tapes n Tapes at the Larimer Lounge with Cold War Kids and Figurines. I only caught the last song of the Cold War Kids set, but they sounded awesome. I later checked out some of their mp3s online and am kicking myself for not picking up their album at the show. Figurines played a short but sweet set. I initially didn't care too much for them , but found myself singing and humming a few of their songs days later. The main event, Tapes n Tapes proved themselves to be everything the internet hasd hyed them up to be. I was blown away by the strength of their songs live. I got my hands on a physical copy of The Loon, which I have yet to open - saving it for an especially depressing day, and listening to the tracks I've been "previewing" from various music blogs. It was amazing to see such a great show at such a small venue, and it was all ages. I hope the hordes of youths I saw were equally impressed. I'm going to attempt to see TnT again when they return in a few months with the Futureheads.

Wally World

The Manling has got crawling down now. He zooms all around the house, especially after the pets. It's amazing. Those front teeth, and I do believe both are coming in, have still not appeared. We can see these huge puffy gums and on one side the little white serrations are nearly through. He has been experiencing a variety of strange physical conditions the last week. He got over that high fever mentioned previously after the second day. He has had a slight fever on and off again this past week. He has a runny nose. He has a cough. He has been waking up in the middle of the night. He has thrown up a few times after eating. I am taking him to the doctor this afternoon to get him checked out.

Last week Mark took a week of vacation. We had initially planned to go Back East to see our various families, but decided to stay home and work on our house. We got 4 pallets of flagstone steppers, flagstone wall pieces, and aggregate to build a retaining wall, flagstone stairs, and 2 walkways. Mark had thought we could do all that in 3-4 days tops. We ended up working about 8 hours a day for 8 days straight. It was really great to work so hard, amazingly enough. I think that the hard labor brought us closer together - "team building" as they'd say in retail. Mark did all of the digging and prep work and I fit together all the stones for the wall and walkways.

The only crappy part is that the stone company kind of screwed us. They seemed pretty inept:

• Delivered large flagstone pieces versus the cheaper and smaller steppers we'd ordered. This, however, was nice because we could reduce the "seams" between stones for the stroller on the walkway.
• Delivered only 2 of the 3 stair steps. We have the top step rigged up with a large but uneven piece of flagstone which I am convinced someone will take a header over.
• Sold our aggregate and delivered it to someone else so we had to purchase it from another company which had a cheaper delivery but a more expensive product.
  

Secret Squirrel

The Manling is still working on perfecting the crawling. He wriggles, he rolls, he staggers, but he does not do a distinct crawl consistently. This is absolutely fine by me.

He came down with a fever over 102 degrees earlier this week. I at first thought it was just our record-setting heat, but slowly it dawned on me that his head was practically glowing. I took his temperature using my as-yet-to-be-used-for-its-rightful-purpose basal thermometer, as well as the ear thermometer that I can't get to switch from Celcius. Luckily, however, I have a college education in science so I can convert at the drop of a hat. A day and a night of Motrin, AKA Liquid Sleep, plus cool baths, cool washcloths, and lots of breastfeeding and the fever went away.

It occurred to me that maybe the copious amounts of drool, the fever, and my mom saying that his recent pictures all show him smiling with his mouth askew meant that he might be teething again. I pried his mouth open to see red puffy gums and the faintest glimmer of a upper front tooth buried inside. I was told oce that squirrels can lock their jaws when they bite, so if you get bitten by a squirrel, you generally have to break their jaw to get them off you. I don't know if it's true or not, but I was reminded of this as I tried to get that look into the Manling's mouth.

I did some frantic research on-line about fevers, emergency rooms, and teething before the fever had gone down. I find it intersting that some doctors say teething can cause a fever and some say that a fever is just a coincidence and is really a sign of some other ailment at the time. The Manling had no fevers during the first wham, bam, thank you ma'am set of teething. A second characteristic that may or may not be asssociated with teething is diarrhea. None the first time, but after the fever went away, I was gifted with a hearty 5-wipe poop. I'm thinking that these signs might indicate we are going to see some teeth soon.

Mark has decided not to go for the very-fasr-away job. I'm very relieved by that. But now of course I feel guilty for not contributing financially. I don't want to leave the Manling. Hell, I've got insomnia just thinking about who will watch him for one evening for my birthday, nevermind trying to get a job and find daycare. Luckily, it has not come to that point yet.

Administration

I was just looking at some previous posts to see what/if I needed to update anything for my phalanx of loyal readers (haha). I noticed I had some comments. Wow, I thought. Someone actually reads this drivel and cared enough to comment.

Um, no. Not exactly. I had generic comments from sites that just led to spam sites, and, my favorite, 3 whole lists of pronogrpahy. Yep, spelled wrong to avoid any hits.

So now comment verification is on. Dummies.

Never Send To Know For Whom The Bell Tolls; It Tolls for Thee

Mark has recently gotten to join an elite tier, or so I'll describe it, at work where he is next in line to the throne. I mean, this group is the only pool from which general managers for his retail big box company will be culled.

There is one store opening currently, and this is diametrically across town from us. Across town sounds cosy, like a short jaunt, or a brief drive. This drive, in reality, would be approximately 30 miles, with a Mapquest-generated driving time of 35 minutes. This is the best-case scenario. The store is on the very southeast fringe of the metro area, and he would have to drive on two very congested highways, one of which is a toll road. I'm estimating about 45 minutes to an hour each way which would take him away from the house about 12 hours a day. And the toll is $2 each way, so it will cost an extra $1000 per year to drive to work. Mark says that the company also says that you must stay in a particular store for a minimum of two years, unless there is a "considerable" benefit to the district.

He really thinks it will be beneficial to his career to put in an application for this opening. I hate the idea of it, but he says that unless he is promoted, we won't be able to afford to live on just his income alone. I want him to do what's best for him in all capacities. I want him to enjoy his job. I want him to be home enough to see the Manling growing up. I would even go back to work part-time in order for him to be able to be at home more. I feel trapped between two bad alternatives here. I hope that we get a good sceanrio here.

In other news, we have embarked on the quest to improve the front patch of dirt. We are not going on a vacation in two weeks, but are staying home and building a retaining wall, new stairs, and a flagstone walkway! What fun! Mark has been just itching to get started on making the front look less the Oklahoma Dust Bowl, and more like the front yards of the rest of our neighborhood. We made a deal that we would do the front yard improvements, and then start on the kitchen remodel.

I had an electrician come over to quote out running electricity to the garage, installing some ceiling fans, and putting a second(!) outlet in the Manling's room. I also asked him to do a rough quote on the electrical work involved with the kitchen remodel.

I got the quotes back today and I am quite surprised at how much it will cost for this one aspect of the job. I can see our home equity from the refinancing trickling away. I just have to keep telling myself that it will make the house more comfortable to live in as well as raise the value upon resale. I just dread getting the plumbing estimate, the windows plus their installation estimate, and the cabinets plus installation estimate. What really worries me is the "incidentals" on top of those.

Happily though, the Manling is a great, thriving, happy baby. Tomorrow he will be offically 8 months old. How quickly time flies! He has been growing and devloping like mad this month. Some new foods for him were beef, chicken, turkey, barley, apricots, and lentils, among others. He continues to eat everything wonderfully, except he shows a reluctance to cooked carrots still. He must pick up my dislike for them.

He has not crawled yet, but is desparately trying to do so. He started out the month by doing push-ups like the downward facing dog yoga position as you may recall. He balance soley on his big toes, which over the course of the month turned red, lost some skin, and are developing the first sighns of callusing. He has progressed to getting on all fours and rocking back and forth. And he has figured out that rolling over will increase his mobilty, reach, and viewpoints and will tumble over as needed. The boycott was ended about two weeks ago. He spins and shoves himself backwards and wriggles, but no crawling. I am not pushing him because I know it is only a matter of time before I will need to babyproof the house.

This month we discovered the Manling loves the water. Since the bathtub has become functional again, he no longer bathes in the kitchen sink. The extra room in the tub allows him to splash, eat bubbles, and play with his duck. He puts his mouth and chin in the water and doesn't mind when I pour water over his head. One sad thing, though, is that we were doing bubble baths regularly and have had to cut back on the suds because the soap was inflaming his uncut boy parts. We bought a small wading pool and he flopped around in it. We went to D's pool and bobbed around in there for several hours. He definitely enjoyed himself. I did too, despite having to buy a new swimsuit top since my previously too large bikini now looks like the smallest of pasties!