Official Weigh In

for Kaden, folks- not me. I'm not THAT sleep deprived. Though I must say, this post partum time is nice since everyone got used to seeing me pregnant, apparently I now look thin(er) than before, even though I plateaued at my pre-preg weight. Hee hee.

Anyway, this is about Kaden, right? El nino is doing very well and has lots of little news to share.

His 2 month well child visit went well (!), and K baby now weighs in at 11 lbs. Amazing, yes? He gained about 20% of his body weight in just 1 month! He's 22.25inches long (a gain of about 3 inches). This would explain why the newborn clothes don't fit anymore...

He also received 2 vaccines. The standard policy would've been to give him 6 - yes, six! After a lot of reading, JimDad and I decided to follow an alternate schedule to space them out. Especially considering some of the ingredients! And if I understand it right, the "dose" is the same for ages 0-6... This 'spacing' way, we have a few extra visits & copays, but Kaden only gets 2 shots at a time- and only one with aluminum. Kaden handled it like a pro- only crying for a few seconds until Jim picked him up. He's been fairly alert and happy since, which is good! I'm praying his good health continues...

And the happiest news? He's sleeping LONGER!!! We're up to four-five hour stretches the past 3-4 days. So if we're up for the midnight-ish feeding, then we only have to get up once- hurray!

There's also more bubbles (drooling), yakking and smiles- even a few giggles. And every now and then, a screech! Thankfully, those are few.

Happy 2nd (month) Birthday

This occasion was so big, I baked brownies. Seriously! Ok, so they were from a bag mix. That expired last month. They were still good enough that I ate 5 before anyone came home. Yeah, THAT'S why I don't bake much...

What you really want to know is, how big is our birthday boy? See for yourself:

Newborn.......................... August 17......................... September 17 !

More details than you probably care about...

Here Kaden is having fun on his surfboard - actually a "tummy time" activity mat, but the tummy photos weren't as cute. He's settling into a night routine, eating around 8pm, midnight, 3am, 6am, and then around 8am. So during the night, he goes 3-4 hours between eating and has been fairly good about sleeping in between.

During the day, not so much! Then he'll eat about every 2 hours- sometimes stretching it to 3 hours, sometimes wanting a snack after an hour. He's got LOTS of awake time during the day now- unfortunately, most of it is spend staring at me. He will take naps, from 20-90 minutes. He's also *starting* to agree to time by himself (i.e. not being held) as long as I am within view. He seems to like the bouncy chair and being outside- sometimes just being by a window is enough.

Tonight we visited our friends with the twins. It was a nice trade- their mom got to hold the baby, which she loved, and I got to roll around and giggle and play, which I love. The kids seemed to enjoy it too- Kaden spent some time watching the twins play (the little girl in particular). His attention span is shorter than theirs, of course, but still. And when we left, both Nick & Lexi gave him a soft kiss on the head, which was very sweet.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

It's time to start making Halloween costumes!! Nevermind any writing deadlines or filing Kaden's hospital records! People, we've got to narrow down our options and commit to a character already!

Favorite costumes from the past (all homemade)

Childhood:
- Clown (Mom still has this one)

- Knight (did I mention I was a tomboy?)

College Years:
- Oscar the Grouch, complete with a real (!) trash can, (clean) trash, Wormly & insults! Great for accolades, not so much for sitting down...

- Winnie the Pooh & company: we seriously had everyone from Tigger to Owl to Christopher Robin to Roo! The best part? No costume cost more than $12!

Adult Years:
um... I'm not sure what happened here, but the few times I/we dressed up it was fairly lame. Or routine. Pirate, cowgirl, etc.

But THIS year, I have a BABY. A very smallish child who CAN'T VETO any idea my overactive imagination comes up with! So as long as JimDad stays out of my way agrees, the sky's the limit! We may just have to host a party this year ;)

3 New Mom Illusions

1) Kaden LOVES to go for walks in his umbrella stroller. See?

Oh wait, I'm the one who loves it because he falls asleep. Right, the same reason "Puff the Magic Dragon" is our favorite song...

2) The other day I looked at the counter (the same scene I've seen for a few weeks now) and it suddenly struck me as an odd contradiction:

So we're not exclusively bf'ing, but some days are better than others. The days that we're home with no appointments or errands and I've got patience. Yeah, not too many of those. But we'll keep trying...

3) The other night, I'm half-asleep in bed when I hear a grunting sound. I turn towards what I think is my son, and- without my glasses- see a fuzzy version of this moving:

Suddenly, I'm wide awake and sitting upright! I seriously thought there was a small animal next to me... no, it was my boy in his normally adorable bear pjs. Geesh. I miss the hot pregnancy dreams!

Follow the Link-er

Hey peeps! (it is the middle of the night, cut me slack for the crazy talk okay?)

Amiga BlueDaisy has an interesante take on this whole slew of "Mommy Blogs" - which, I freely admit, is my newest obsession. Somewhat healthy, at least. The funny thing is, I was thinking along MUCH the same lines earlier today. Or was it yesterday?

My thought process was how connected / grounded these myriad of blogs make me feel. Not exactly an online community of sorts, as I tend to be a bit o' a hermit and don't exactly reach out and comment a lot (online verbage- 'lurker' - but that sounds way more creepier than I am. or than I hope I am!).

But since my days are now mostly one way conversations with a 10 pound 'boss', and since telephone conversations with friends are difficult as the boss likes to begin 'communicating' intensely when I am not addressing him... and strangely, most of my friends dislike being chatted at in a high pitched language where every word ends in 'y' or 'ie' (goodie, it's time for some foody)... and since I haven't mastered the whole get-out-and-explore-with-the-young-un... and since he is "in hate" with the car seat (to quote MidwestMom)... and since it's too hot to take ANY kind of walk (unless there's a tropical storm to bring us some breezy wind, but then we've got other important stuff to try and 'secure')... well, you get the idea.

See, the thing is- it seems like there's some neat local groups for moms, but it literally took me 5 weeks to make it to ONE meeting- and they're just once a month. So having a first kid and feeling incompetent one minute and like Supernanny's teacher the next... well, it becomes a lot more bearable when you're reading about a bunch of other intelligent, funny women going through the similar stuff with their families.


And the best part? The honesty in the funny stories, like MoMommy's take on binkies. And the everyday stuff that really is heartwarming (see The Mother Load's latest post). It's probably a tad bit easier to be honest through a blog sometimes - a perfect way to vent and learn. Though the La Leche League meeting & leaders have also been *really* cool (another post for another day). And I have high hopes for the natural parenting and babywearing groups (which I hope I can make it to this month!).

Although maybe the best part is really the photos and videos, like Erin's great laughing baby. I mean, there are some seriously ADORABLE kids out there. On ALL the blogs I've seen. It makes me wonder: do we blog because the kids are cute? If they weren't, would we 'forget' to post a profile pic? Or is there an ugly-duckling group out there I don't know about? Or worse, are we (Kaden) in the ugly-duckling category but everyone's just too darn nice to point it out? No, that can't be it. I mean, just look at him:

I digress. The original point was, there's something to be said for these internet connections in our increasingly fractured social lives. Maybe, just maybe, blogging really does help us keep our sanity and be better moms, women, wives, workers, etc.... and isn't that something to celebrate?

Not a newborn anymore...

Nothing to say today, just wanted to share his latest cute photo. Notice the pacifer down below- after introducing this at select times, we have much less cranky-baby-times :)