Good dads

A conversation with Jack’s daycare provider yesterday:

“Jack’s dad came to visit him today.  It was so cute: he called and asked if it was okay to stop by to see him.”

“Oh!  That’s funny, he didn’t mention it to me.  How awesome!  He’s been working late and most nights gets home after Jack is already in bed.  We all miss eachother a ton.”

“I explained to my son, ‘See, that’s what daddies do; they come and visit you any time they can.’”

“Yup, that’s what good daddies do.  Joe is awesome.”

Help a baby out

Quite some time ago I found Allison’s blog through Annika.  Allison’s son Evan is a few months younger than Jack, and their situation really struck me – I immediately sent a small donation (me=broke, but I gave what I could) and sent it in, and I have been following their story since.  You can go read about Evan’s condition and their struggle with insurance companies on Allison’s blog, and if you are moved to help them, go here and enter to win one of two quilts made to raise funds for the family.

Evan’s surgery is scheduled for September.  I encourage you all, if you can, to help a baby and his parents out!  Even if you can’t send a donation, you can offer an encouraging word.

Not Eczema

We took Jack to the pediatrician yesterday to get his skin checked out.  The good news: he doesn’t have eczema.  The NP said his skin is probably just irritated from the bubble bath we use.  I thought all this time that the bubble bath was fine since it’s herbal/not chemical but I guess I was wrong.  We ran out of the bubble bath recently anyway so we’ll see if his skin recovers without its use.  I’ve been applying aquaphor after baths for quite some time but it doesn’t seem to be helping; I just bought some Eucerin lotion to add to our routine.  The NP had no other useful suggestions but she did give me samples of things I won’t use.  Anyone need some Boudreaux’s Butt Paste samples (can’t be used with cloth)?

I’d like to take a moment to complain about our pediatrician’s office.  I have had issues with them in the past giving me wrong information about breastfeeding, and yesterday this NP straight out lied to me when I asked her if we could test him for food allergies (she said such a test does not exist).  She is probably right about the bubble bath being problematic, but it is extremely difficult to trust anything these people say when they lie and give out incorrect information.  Not only that, but I am always treated like I am worrying about nothing and shouldn’t even be there.  Pricks.

The pediatrician’s office also notified us that they are moving to the next town north, which is completely inconvenient.  We will most likely start going to a different pediatrician now (which we have avoided doing up until now because our current office is next door to us, and the nurse who administers immunizations rocks).  There is an office close to my work and their doctors come highly recommended, so hopefully we will have a better experience there.

For now, we are avoiding everything in the legume family (unfortunately, that includes soy), but it seems Jack is okay with dairy and wheat (although I’m still being cautious).

I had the NP weigh Jack since I was figuring he was getting too big for the infant carrier his daycare provider uses, and yup!  He is 25 lbs!  Gosh!

In Limbo

Decisions need to be made.  We want desperately to move out of our current apartment; it is just not a good fit for our family.  We’ve hated it from the beginning and always said we’d get out at the first opportunity.  Unfortunately, Joe is working 9 hour days with a long commute until September or so.  Jack is asleep most nights by the time he gets home.  If we were to move south, closer to my place of work, it would be further from his and the long days are already getting to him.  All of the affordable house rentals are close to my work, though, unless we find a private renter (which, of course, is difficult as they are private!).  Craigslist in our area is useless.  I don’t want another crappy college-kid apartment.

To further complicate matters, we have no idea what we’ll be doing in 6 months.  Like I said, Joe is only working until September since he is a seasonal employee.  If we stay in the area, chances are good that he would work the same position again next summer.  BUT we don’t want to commit to a year long lease and then have to move if Joe gets a job out of the area.

We thought we would just stay put until he found a permanent job, but since we need to look for a new daycare (our fifth in a year!) anyway…I don’t know.  We’re at a loss.  I am generally not one to sit and contemplate.  I am a decision maker!  I take action!  I have no idea what to do right now.

I want something stable for us, but mostly for Jack.  I hate the fact that he’s moved daycares so many times in his short life.  I had hoped we could find ONE place for the majority of his growing years.  I still hold hope that such a situation is possible…I just don’t know how to go about finding it.

At this point, all I can do is laugh

Joe claims to have bad luck.  He picks up every penny he sees because the one time he didn’t, he had the worst day of his life.  Even with all the penny collecting, he is screwed by the universe on a regular basis. I might have inherited this bad luck when we married.   Does luck work that way?  I don’t know because I don’t believe in “luck.”  Things happen and it doesn’t matter who you are, it’s all random, yada yada.

I’m sure you’re wondering by now why the hell I’m babbling on about luck.  Well, I guess it’s time I broke the news to you.  I’ll try to go gently, as Jack’s daycare provider tried to do when she informed me today that she is going back to school in August.  Yes, dear readers, apparently the third time was NOT a charm.  Either that, or Joe passed up a fucking penny on his way to work today.

Quite the talker

Jack is obsessed with the cat.

“Cat, cat, cat” he repeats as he points to Wicket.  (It sounds guttural and comes out like “gat.”)

“Cat…” he considers with his finger placed on his lip.

“Cat!” he claims in high-pitch.

He’s talking a lot now.  I don’t know what the heck he is saying most of the time, but I have picked out duck, cat, yeah, and possibly book (in addition to mama and dada) and his various copycat noises.  Yesterday he was “woofing” and “meowing” and today he was “ooohing.”  I knew we’d have a vocal kid, but wow!

Wear sunblock!

I’m not crazy about the sun, or the outdoors in general (thinking about our tanning culture gives me a headache). When I do go outdoors, I wear a 45+ SPF sunblock. I’ve been pretty diligent about using sunblock with Jack but Joe has not been as good about it. It drives me NUTS, especially since his father died of melanoma and both my mom and grandma have had skin cancer removed from their faces. Our family should be on top of this, damn it!

I doubt it’s much of a surprise to anyone to hear that many people do not wear enough sunblock. But it is quite shocking to find out that most sunblocks do not contain the proper ingredients to ward off cancer-causing UVA rays. And even I, an extremely sun-cautious individual, did not realize that it takes a good 20-30 minutes before sunblock is even effective.

Let’s be better about the sunblock, okay? Better yet, stay in the shade!

Rear-Facing

I have been thinking a lot about how long to keep Jack rear-facing in his car seat (since it is safer to keep him rear-facing for as long as possible).  Joe and I had a rather extensive talk about it this weekend, and we came away with the decision to keep Jack rear-facing until he starts complaining.

Thanks to Colleen over at My Baby & More, I have found a more definitive answer to the rear-facing question.  Our Evenflo Triumph convertible car seat can remain rear-facing until Jack reaches 30 lbs.  My son is a big boy, so I doubt we will even reach age 2 rear-facing but we’ll go as long as we can!

Playing with the cat

Can you handle the cuteness?

More on food

We went to B&N this weekend and spent a ridiculous amount of money on books. I normally do not step foot in a book store for this reason because I cannot help myself when it comes to the printed word. I won’t even tell you how many blogs I have bookmarked!

I finally got a couple of reference books on solids. Our Dr. Sears collection has now expanded to include The Nutrition Book. While I don’t always enjoy their style of writing, there is great content and they know their stuff.

The second book I bought was First Meals by Annabel Karmel. For those of you familiar with the DK travel books, this is a different genre for the publishers but consistent with their usual style. The book has a simple, straight-forward explanation of nutrition and how to offer a balanced diet, quite a few recipes that can be adapted and aren’t too complicated, and a beautiful presentation. While the suggested age ranges for introducing particular foods is off (e.g. cow’s milk prior to 12 months), the informed parent can work around it.  (Note: I’m pretty anal about introducing foods at the suggested times; I like to play it safe and try to avoid allergy issues as much as possible.)  Mostly I just like the variety of food suggestions because I’d like to move out of my America-centric box.

By the way, Jack has suddenly gotten crazy over solids. He’s been eating half jars at daycare and I’ve now started offering food in the morning and evening, as well. He is totally digging it. It’s like a switch was flipped! Must be a growth spurt or something.

Strollin’

I wrote that Father’s Day post Friday night while waiting for Joe to get home from work so that we could take off for the weekend.  We had a great trip, but I am exhausted after traveling 12 hours in two days.  I’ll have to write a post later this week to show y’all what we did for Joe for Father’s Day – it was the perfect gift.

While out of town this weekend, we stopped by Babies R Us to check out strollers.  Right now we have the Graco stroller that comes in a travel system with the SnugRide carseat.  It worked great with the infant carseat, but long ago we moved on from that…now I want something different!  Something light, with smooth rolling so that I can push it with one hand, easy to fold and store, and something with REAL tires.  I fear this does not exist.

For real tires, it seems that we are locked into a jogging stroller.  That is fine, except that they tend to be bulky, heavy, and not the easiest to fold.  Not only that, but to make it easier to turn, I’d like one with a swiveling front wheel, which is not on all jogging strollers.  Needless to say, I didn’t find anything that was exactly what I want.

If I am willing to forgo the nice tires, it seems that my best option is an umbrella stroller – at least it would be super compact, super light, and cheap enough to make up for the fact that it’s not perfect.

Did I mention that I don’t want to spend a fortune?  Any input?

Joe the Father

I knew Joe would be a great dad. He is fun, funny, smart, talks to kids like they are real people, and will do just about anything for anyone. He struggled for a while with the idea of having a child because he worried it wouldn’t be fair to bring a new person into this crazy world – he wondered who he was to make that kind of decision. Now, of course you can’t ask an unborn person whether or not they want to be brought into the world, but it’s endearing to me that he didn’t take on the responsibilities of parenthood lightly.

So I knew all of that going in. It got better when I got pregnant – Joe took on so much responsibility around the house and I never had to ask him to do his part. He took care of me, provided unending emotional support, and was an amazing birth coach. He has been a cornerstone to my success with breastfeeding, as well.

Joe has never scoffed at changing a diaper, giving a bottle, or getting up early in the morning (or in the middle of the night) to tend to our baby. He is a master swaddler. He reads books to, bathes, walks with, plays with, rocks to sleep, and teaches Jack. The games he plays are amazingly creative – from very early on, he began asking Jack, “Where’s your mustache? There it is! Where’s your soul patch? There it is! Where’s your fumanchu? There it is!” and providing commentary on the types of people who have such facial hair. Joe took a voice class last year and has since spent many nights singing “Nino Precioso” while calming Jackie to get him to sleep.

I could not ask for a better father for our son. I am so very lucky to have such a wonderful partner in parenting. I hope Jack grows up to be just like him.

Happy Father’s Day (click the picture to view a slideshow).

Oh my back

Wednesday night I stopped by the grocery store on the way home from work.  I just thought I’d grab a few things, so I didn’t grab a cart and I chose to carry Jack.  Unfortunately I didn’t have my Ergo with me, so 20 minutes in found me balancing Jack on my left hip and holding a basket full of groceries with my right hand.  Of course, he starts lunging for things on the shelves, or dragging my keys from my purse, and screwing with my balance.  We finished our shopping without any mishaps, but I woke up yesterday morning with a pulled muscle on the left side of my back.

Let it be known that kids are hazardous to your health.

Nearing a year

Jack is eleven months old today! Only one month until his first birthday. Are you freaked out? ‘Cause I totally am. Where did the time go? This time last year I was impatiently awaiting the birth of my son, sore and sleep deprived from the 36 lbs. of extra weight I was carrying around. Now look at me – planning a birthday party for my awesome little guy.

This age is pretty awesome. Jack is starting to leave behind babyhood in favor of being a real little kid, who has ideas and can act on them. He is moving constantly – crawling, standing, cruising, climbing, walking while holding our hands. More and more, he lets go of furniture without realizing it and will stand on his own two feet. It’s only a matter of time before he’ll be off walking all by himself.

Jack has a mind of his own, for sure. He seems to be entering the notorious terrible twos early. If we take something from him, he will stiffen up, flail his little arms, and start crying immediately. If we lay him down to change his diaper and he has other ideas…well, he stiffens up, kicks and throw his legs down OVER AND OVER again throughout the entire diaper changing session…I don’t doubt his passion or dedication to the role, that’s for sure.

On the flip side, he is now quite the jokester and his memory is astounding. The other day he started crawling around with a shoelace, pausing every minute or so to cackle excitedly. At first I thought he was just being looney and then I realized he was trying to play with the cat. When Blue actually went after the trailing shoelace, Jack thought it was the greatest thing ever! It was so adorable to watch, and amazing because he has only witnessed me playing with the cat like this once, weeks ago. He also thinks it’s hilarious to give a head-butt or bury his face in our necks to “eat” us (of course, we taught him how to do that), and of course peek-a-boo is a fantastic pastime.

Speaking of eating, he is digging the solids more and more. His favorite foods are avocado, sweet potatoes, and banana. His eyes light up when I break out the banana and he starts clacking his tongue. He’s pretty good with chunky foods now – he bites right off of the banana and does great. I’m currently trying to get more finger foods to give him (would love ideas) since he seems to favor them over the canned jars of (organic) baby food, probably because he can feed himself. Quite the independent little man.

It’s probably not clear in these pictures, but it looks like Jack’s eyes have finally settled on a color. He still does have some of that baby-blue fringing going on, but for the most part they are woodsy brown color (unlike Joe’s maple-syrup color). I suppose they could change further. We will see!

I’m looking forward to the next year. I can’t wait to hear Jack break out into sentences (as opposed to copying our speech or randomly deciding he can say words – duck, cat/kitty, yeah!, mama/dada). His current baby babble is pretty damned cute, though. He recently started changing the sound of his voice and sometimes babbles in high pitch, which is totally cute. Whatever else comes along, I’m sure it will be interesting and fun, too, as long as Jackie keeps smiling.

Gated

At long last, the extra-wide (and extra-tall) baby gate is here!  I was giddy when I arrived home to see the box.  I immediately installed the wondrous contraption and watched as Jack played the innocent inmate.

I love the gate.  No more chasing after a determined baby who has broken through the previous makeshift barricade of boxes.  No more worrying about him getting to the cats’ water dish or food bowls or litter box before we could catch him.  That little sucker is fast!

In case you also have a wide space to block off, and live in an apartment where you cannot drill holes to mount a sweet gate with doors and such, I got this pressure-mounted one at the bullseye store for $30.  Pretty good deal, and the only 50″ wide one I could find that wasn’t mesh (which our cats would claw through in no time).

There are a few downsides to this gate:

• The height is almost up to my hip, which makes it difficult to climb over.
• It is also difficult for the cats to get over (doesn’t mean they won’t try, though – can’t wait to see the fat one try).
• It’s difficult to install with the baby RIGHT THERE trying to get through it because little fingers can get smashed as the gates expand.
• Now that he knows he can’t get past the gate, he is even more interested in turning the computer off and on.

All in all, though, it totally rocks.