Merry Christmas

To sum up our feelings about the true meaning of Christmas, I don't think anyone could say it better than Charles Schultz, with some help from God:

"'And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them: 'Fear not, for I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men'

That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.'"

We hope that you and yours will know the love of that baby wrapped in swaddling clothes who became a man and came to seek and save that which was lost. Merry Christmas.

Darwin Award

Although I'm not convinced that anyone actually reads this other than Big Brad and occasionally Burly (not even my own family), I feel the need to explain the prolonged blog-absence. You see, I feel that I am now a candidate for a Darwin award...you know, survival of the fittest in spite of our doing something completely stupid and suffering a completely avoidable injury or something like that.

What happened? Thanks for asking. My husband and I bought a safety gate to keep our fast mover my boy out of the kitchen while one of us is cooking/cleaning, etc. It came in some packing which was securely tied onto it with one of those thick plastic ties like you find on kids' toys to keep the toy in the box. Instead of going and getting scissors to cut the ties off (which would have involved walking into another room), I opted for the easy way out and grabbed the knife that was within arm's reach. I did not realize, however, that this particulary knife was quite dull. So here I am, sawing and sawing to get the plastic ties off, all the while having the knife blade pointed toward me. It slipped underneath the plastic tie and impaled itself about 2 inches into my left forearm. My first thought was how stupid the whole scenario was. Then, being a nurse, I thought, the knife wasn't clean, I'm going to get osteomyelitis, I'm going to be on IV antibiotics for 4 weeks, etc. Meanwhile, blood is spurting, not trickling out of my arm, as I have sliced through a huge vein. So I'm running around the house trying to find something to stop the bleeding with, tracking blood as I go, panicking because I'm alone with my boy, and do I call 911 or do I call Hubs to take me to the ER or do I drive myself, or do I just put pressure on it and go on about my day, and am I going to pass out? I called my grandma who's a retired nurse and was able to talk some sense into me. I put a clean pair of socks over the cut to absorb the blood and called Hubs, who had not yet arrived at work. Bled through that pair and another pair in the time it took him to get back home. Also, my boy has by this time discovered the blood in the kitchen floor and decided, hey, this makes great fingerpaint. So I'm holding pressure on the cut and trying to get him out of the kitchen pushing him with my feet as though dribbling a soccer ball. Hubs got home, we went to the ER and I had to get stitches. Mind you, the cut itself was not that wide, I only needed 3 stitches, but it was deep. Because I managed to slice through several muscles as well, I had no strength whatsoever in my left hand for almost a week. And was unable to type. Which would explain the blog-fast. Fortunately, things are on the mend. I still have a huge bruise on my arm and it's occasionally sore, but I can do most of what I need to do. My wonderful husband was able to pick up the slack and cook, clean, change diapers, etc. until I was back to baseline. And my boy, well, he got to show off in the ER. Everyone thought he was adorable.

I hope everyone else's week has gone better!

Leno and more

Monday night I couldn't sleep so I got up and watched some Leno. Monday is headline day, you know, when Jay reads funny or stupid things in the written media that viewers send in. Well, there were a few that were G-rated and funny enough to share. Here goes:

1) On a restaurant menu: "BLT sandwich $1.99. Lettuce and tomato .10 extra." Doesn't that kind of miss the point??

2)"Antique Manure Spreader Makes Great Christmas Gift" Hurry everybody, make sure Santa knows it's on your list....

3) "China Working Hard to Stop Spread of Bird Flu" right next to a picture of a small child playing with a basket full of chickens in the open market. Hmmm.

4) A misspelled word in a religious column led to the title "A Personal Massage from Jesus" Jesus does a lot of things for a lot of folks, but massage, I'm not so sure about.

5) In the classifieds: "Identity Theft: Part-time, home based work. Great earning potential. Call now!" Um yeah, if you want to spend some time in the big house!

Hope that brightens your day. My boy is trying his best to walk. He'll stand still for a few seconds and clap his hands like "Hooray for me!" and then sit down. Other than that, he's a mess. He loves my pots and pans. He bangs on them with wooden spoons and sings to me all day long. It's fun.

I just have to give my 2 cents' worth about Tom Cruise. Who in the world does he think he is??? He who knows absolutely zero about postpartum depression goes on national TV blasting Brooke Shields for using antidepressants. So then he gets his young fiancee pregnant. (from the looks of her belly, that may have happened first, who knows.) Having had postpartum depression, I would wish it on no one, but if anyone deserves to know what it's like, Tom Cruise is the one. Now he has bought an ultrasound machine to do ultrasounds of their child?! That's not a toy! Turn up the frequency too high and you do damage to the baby. Sounds like he has just enough knowledge to be dangerous, and not enough to know what he's doing! And why can't they be like the rest of us mere mortals who get one, maybe two ultrasounds?! They get to have one whenever they feel like it? So I think it's safe to say that you can cross Tom Cruise off my "Respected Celebrities" list. Opinions?

Grace

I'm doing a devotional series called "When Worldviews Collide"; basically it's about the differences between what Christians believe and what followers of other world religions believe, and how we as Christians can effectively (and compassionately) witness. Also gives a pretty indepth review of the religions so that we know what we're talking about. So far it's really interesting. The man who wrote it is a former Muslim who was disowned by his family after coming to Christ, so his testimony carries some weight. Anyway, today's lesson was on grace and how no other belief system offers it; sounds pretty pedestrian. I just wanted to share how this author defines grace (everything in quotes is his, not mine).

"For many of us who came to Christianity from another world religion, grace is a profound and startling principle. We were taught that we must live and die by our works. We grew up with the constant terror of the balancing scales. We learned to face death with loathing because we knew we were unprepared for judgment...Do you mean that Christ has given me the means for my salvation? Are you saying that I cannot be good enough? Do you honestly teach that where God knows I am incapable, He instead provides His blood as my means of salvation?....As a former Muslim who was taught that paradise is promised for those who die fighting in the cause of Islam, I will put it in the most graphic terms: By grace Jesus Christ strapped Himself to a cross so that I would not have to strap a bomb to myself."

That blew me away.

Here are some new things that my boy does/says:
1) Ask him "Are you stinky?" and he shakes his head no.
2) Ask him if he wants to get out of the bathtub and he invariably shakes his head no.
3) Says "caca (crap)." His father encouraged him on that one. Pretty soon they'll be holding matches behind their butts and farting.
4) Thinks burping and sneezing are both hilarious.
5) Has a fascination with lids. If you take the lid off anything at all, he wants to hold it until it's time to replace it, then he'll "help" you do so.
6) I gave him a pot and some wooden spoons so he could make music. Did that for a little while then decided the pot made a better car. Pushed it around the floor going "bbbbrrrrrm". I hope this car fascination doesn't parlay into a career in NASCAR.
7) Pokes his finger into his belly button (or anyone else's) and laughs like the Pillsbury Doughboy.
8) If someone says the word "stinky" he waves his hand in front of his nose . His father taught him that.
You can see that in our household bathroom humor has a prominent place.

Got Christmas presents for my boy and his dad via amazon.com the other night at work when things were slow. Online shopping rocks! Got Daniel some cars that stack on top of each other, a play guitar (since he's so fascinated with Jesus's), and a little puzzle with farm animals on it to go with his Baby Einstein farm animals DVD. Also some books in Spanish for Papi to read to him. Hubs is getting a CD of one of his favorite Christian artists, Marcos Witt, a DVD of El Chavo del 8, a classic Mexican sitcom that he likes, and a third gift TBA. Actually, I know what it is but I don't want the rest of the world to know before my husband does. Since his bday and Christmas are the same day, he deserves to get a little extra.

What are everyone's plans for Christmas? We're going to stay put, seeing as how I have to work Christmas Eve. Oh well....

Digging for gold

My boy has figured out how to pick his nose. And he's very good at it. Most of the time he doesn't actually dig around, he'll just sit there with half his finger up one nostril like it's the most normal thing in the world. He did it at dinner tonight and I thought I was going to fall out of my seat laughing. Which is, of course, going to encourage the behavior. My wonderful hubby was the one going, "Now son, we don't do that. Please take your finger out." And I'm sitting there doing my best to hide my laughter. He really is adorable when he does it but I don't want him to still be doing it when he's 16!

Exciting nights at work

Again, breaking with the tradition of not blogging about work, I have to write about some stuff! For those of you who don't know, I'm working on a women's floor -- we do pregnant ladies, new moms and babies, fetal deaths and the occasional lady with another type of surgery. We do a lot of high-risk pregnancies also. As is my custom, I worked Friday and Saturday nights 7pm to 7am and both nights had more than my fair share of excitement. I guess it will eventually look good on a resume, as well as increasing my confidence in my ability to care for these ladies. Friday night I get there and my assignment is 5 patients, one of whom is a woman 7 1/2 months pregnant with.....quadruplets!!! So I'm going along, getting my stuff done, and my quads lady starts feeling bad, having contractions, etc. Okay, well when that happens, we kind of move fast. I found her doc, who happened to be around, and he gives me 3 orders: start IV fluids (which also means starting an IV since she has no access), give her meds to stop the contractions, and get all 4 babies on the fetal monitor. (to get their heartbeats & make sure they're handling the contractions well.) A lot of times it's hard enough to get one baby's heartbeat. So you can imagine how long it took for us to get all 4. There were 4 nurses in there working on this poor lady, who was really nice throughout the whole thing. She ended up being fine and delivered the babies via c-section the next day. After that, the night was ok.

Saturday night, it was even crazier. I get there and the nurse whom I'm coming to relieve tells me up front, "I won't sugar coat it. It's been a bad day." That's not what you want to hear when you're coming on. She's had several patients, 2 of whom were 7 1/2 months pregnant, one of whom has been contracting all day with nothing for pain. Moaning and screaming all day and no one wants to give her anything. This nurse and I both believe she's in labor at 33 weeks, and this nurse used to do maternity nursing in Nigeria. She's probably delivered more babies than a lot of MDs in the US. This patient starts bleeding. Finally they rush her over to Labor & Delivery, where she has the baby (premature) almost immediately. Fortunately, the previous nurse stayed with this patient and helped immensely. Well, the next bit of excitement comes when I go in another pregnant lady's room who's in with pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH)/preeclampsia. When that happens, the blood flow to the placenta (and therefore the baby) is reduced and you have a great risk of a baby dying in utero. The only known cure is to deliver the baby. We have orders to call if her blood pressure's over a certain number. Guess what?! It was. I retook it, same thing. So I call the doc, she asks me to take it again in an hour. No change. So, this lady won herself a ticket to get induced. Fortunately, she was not bursting at the seams and we could make the transition a little more calmly. That night I got the nickname "Queen of the Breaking Antepartums." (translated: you had a lot of pregnant ladies to send over to Labor & Delivery) Well earned, I might add. The night settled down after that and I ended up walking laps around the floor to keep awake. (And helping the other nurses since most of them had more patients than me. They tried not to give me more admissions because I'd already had my share of excitement.)

On the home front, we're all having a quiet day. Jesus only had to work a couple hours, so we're all hanging out in our bedroom. Hubs is fiddling with his cellphone, I'm obviously blogging, and my boy is pushing the laundry basket full of clothes around the floor like a car and going "vrooom vroom." The menfolk enjoyed watching Elmo on Sesame Street earlier.

Last item -- does anyone else watch that show "Prison Break"? We do and really like it.

My soapbox

I don't get angry that often, but I read something this morning that made me angry. In a survey conducted of 1.5 million Americans, the majority is in favor of taking citizenship away from children of "illegal immigrants" born in the US. (I really don't like that phrase. As if any human being is illegal.") Being that my husband fit into that category when he arrived here 5 years ago, they could be talking about my son! First, whether or not you agree with the fact that the parents are here, that child oughtn't be punished. Second, our Constitution guarantees that anyone born on US soil is a US citizen. We are treading in dangerous waters when we start qualifying that. Third, whether we like it or not, the people born here today are the next generation of Americans. I personally want the people running my country when I'm a senior citizen to be insured and educated, which they will most likely not get if their citizenship is stripped from them. People tend to get very anti-immigrant in the name of national security. We forget that our white ancestors didn't speak the language of the natives living here when they arrived. We forget that our ancestors gave them smallpox,cholera, and syphilis (to name a few) and shoved them off onto reservations. I personally would rather have 20 million people here illegally (regardless of where they're from) who are working, paying taxes (they do) and raising decent children than 20 people who come to this country legally to fly planes into the WTC. Maybe they just surveyed the wrong people. I hate to think that my fellow Americans have become so short-sighted that they now want to pick and choose who among those born here gets to be a citizen.

Today I thought I'd share with y'all a poem that I found several years ago and really liked. I wrote it down, stuck it in my journal, and a couple days ago came across it again. It was written by Amy Carmichael, an Irish missionary to India who served 63 years without a furlough in late 19th and early 20th century. The story of her life is called A Chance to Die by Elisabeth Elliot and it so very much challenged my level of commitment to Christ. I highly recommend it to anyone and am going to reread it myself.

From prayer that asks that I may be
Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee
From fearing when I should aspire
From faltering when I should climb higher
From silken self, O Captain free
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.
From subtle love of softening things
From easy choices, weakening
(Not thus are spirits fortified,
Not this way went the Crucified),
From all that dims Thy Calvary,
O Lamb of God, deliver me.

Another day at the office

I don't normally blog about work (we have way more interesting stuff going on at home usually) but today is the hopefully rare exception. I had the opportunity to care for a young lady the other night who'd suffered an IUFD -- intrauterine fetal demise. Basically her baby had died in utero and she had to deliver him dead at about 5 1/2 months. And she was 16. It was a great opportunity for learning. When I first started working there, I wasn't sure how I would handle IUFDs. Not scared really, just not sure what to expect from myself. It turns out that this is something that, while I don't wish for it to happen, is a great ministry opportunity. People tend to be very in touch with the spiritual side of themselves when there is a death, regardless of the age of the one who has died. Moms (and dads) usually want to hold their baby, no matter what he/she looks like and no matter how little. (This one was just over 1 pound and just over a foot long.) That may sound a little morbid, as babies who've died in utero don't look like normal healthy live babies, and that's exaggerated even more if there's some sort of birth defect. But I think it's great that parents do that. It gives them a sense of this being a real human being and it puts something concrete to go with their sense of loss. We always take a picture of the baby for the parents; even if they don't want it right then, many do come back later for it. This is not a subject I enjoy dwelling on, but like I said earlier, it is a super ministry opportunity. I felt like I was ministering more to this mother than I did with a lot of other moms with live babies. Especially with this mom; she being very young herself needed someone to mother her. I feel like God understands a whole lot about loss; after all, He lost a Son once too.

Birthday shout-out

...to my friend Mandy Talton who turns 27 today. I wish you mucho happiness today and always. Much love to you.

My boy and his kingdom

So now I'm on my regular work schedule -- 24 hours each weekend split into 2 12-hour night shifts. It's not really that bad until about 4am the second night and all my patients are sleeping and there's nothing to do. Then I struggle...even with 24oz. of the Green Caffeine on board. Fortunately, I've sufficiently recovered to update our blog.

Big Boy and Papi got to hang out and do guy stuff this weekend while I worked/slept. Apparently, my boy has it in his mind that any creature that qualifies as an animal is a dog and should, therefore, bark. He pointed at the dogs in one of his books and said (appropriately) "arf-arf". However, when I took him to see some goats at a petting zoo, when Papi took him to the park to see the ducks, and when he saw horses on TV, he said the same thing. It was not until today when we went back to see the goats (who tried to eat his finger) that he made the appropriate goat sound. Not bad for a 13-month old. He also enjoys helping me throw things away, especially his used diapers. He'll grab it from me as soon as I take it off him so we can go to the trashcan...he throws it in and then claps for himself!

If you haven't had kids, I highly recommend it, when you're ready. We are nuts about ours!

Trash day

Friday is trash day in our neighborhood. In the Miles Travis spirit of having really random things on one’s blog, let me let you in on a dirty secret of our lives: the pantry! That’s right, ladies & gents, we clean out our pantry once a year whether we need to or not! The last time it happened, our 1-year-old was a newborn and it was actually my mom who had the ubiquitous honor, as she was staying here doing grandma duty just after his birth. Anyway, it fell to us this year, so we thought we’d list the contents thrown out of our pantry this year (my husband says there’s no “we” in this. He sees no reason for the entire world to know what was in our pantry.) So for your reading pleasure, Rejects from the Pantry:
1. About 25 jars of Gerber & BeechNut baby food, which will be donated to pregnant friends.
2. Half a bag of chicharrones (fried pork skins) plain.
3. Half a bag of chicharrones, spicy.
#2 and 3 were a gift from my grandma to Jesus.
4. Three open boxes of Saltines in various varieties, untouched for about 8 months.
5. Unopened jar of Dole Peaches “best used before August 2004”
6. Partially (read: barely) eaten box of prunes (pregnancy craving)
7. Potassium salt substitute
8. Dog food bowl. Sorry Pansy. We miss you but not that much.
9. Instruction manual for George Foreman grill.
10. Application to UNC grad school. Still in the plans but not in the immediate future.
11. Eraser for dry-erase board. We don’t own a dry-erase board.
12. Paper grocer bag full of Thanksgiving food donated to our church from another local church. I guess they figured that since we’re a Hispanic church we wouldn’t know how to put together a proper Thanksgiving meal. I don't know.

We sincerely hope this brightens your day.

Teeth

Tooth #8 has made its presence known. Now on to meat and potatoes. My boy has his first dentist appt. 11/21. They say you're supposed to have them see the dentist before 18 months, so we're trying to obey. We'll see how that goes. I'm a little nervous.

This has nothing to do with my child but I thought I'd share it anyway. This is my blog, after all. I was watching Oprah yesterday (yeah, I do that sometimes) and it was actually pretty good. She had Ricky Martin on (that's not why it was good, btw) and was following up his tsunami relief efforts in SE Asia. One of the women whose house got rebuilt said this: "I've learned that humans can survive on nothing." That just hit me as being so true. I know our family is guilty of thinking we "need" this or that to survive. A bigger house (me). A bigger truck (Jesus). We have no idea what it is like to live having had everything we own wiped out. Mind you, both of us grew up pretty poor. But we have gotten so comfortable in our current state. We need so very little to get by. I think God made it that way on purpose. If we needed so much to survive, we would probably get complacent and think we don't really need Him. I remember when I was in Haiti feeling the same way. When they pray "give us this day our daily bread," they mean it literally. They depend on God for the food they're going to eat that day, that meal. It's easy here to take that as a figure of speech, and to a certain extent it is. But if we had to pray that every day literally for our daily bread, we'd probably be a lot closer to the Lord than we are. Just a thought.

The little chap

Don't have a lot of time til the wee one wakes up but we wanted to keep you posted on his latest doings. 1) He definitely does not like kiwis (the fruit. He likes folks from New Zealand just fine.) 2) He has 2 new words: "nana" (banana) and "nini" (long i sound -- night-night). 3) He likes to be chased while crawling. 4) He has to have a balloon every time we go to the grocery store. Fortunately we go to Harris Teeter where they are free! 5) He likes it when you feel sorry for him after something disagreeable happens. He'll crinkle up his face and go "Awwww"and want you to do it back. 6) I think he's cutting his 1-year molars. We can feel huge bumps under his gums. 7) He hid behind his rocking chair today while making a stinky diaper.

We made it!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, we have survived the first year (and then some) intact! My boy's birthday party was great...we had a small chocolate cake for him to smear all over his face and a big white cake for everyone else. However, instead of getting a great pic of him diving into his cake and smearing it everywhere, we have a couple pics of him w/ just a couple streaks of icing on his cheeks and his little face is contorted into the worst of grimaces because he's most unhappy. Not a fan of the icing, I guess. We had about 20 guests, which was fine w/ us. We had enough food to feed the Marines.

Our son is a joy to raise. We both sit in awe every day and thank the Lord for giving us such a happy, strong, intelligent, healthy child. We know we're very fortunate in that respect. There are so many kids out there whose parents would give their eye teeth to have a healthy child. Still not walking yet, though we're not in any hurry for it to happen. He'll do it whenever he gets good and ready. Our kid is pretty laid back -- why walk when you can crawl and get there just as well?? This past weekend my mom and stepdad came up to see him, and he and my stepdad had a ball together. Dad fed him (rather, let him feed himself and make a mess) and they played for quite a while together. Dad's idea of teaching a kid to feed himself is this (overheard while they were in the kitchen eating oatmeal): "First you get the spoon into the oatmeal. Then you dip it down in there and get some oatmeal on the spoon. Then you take the spoon out and aim it toward your mouth. Then you fling it on the wall!" Fortunately my child didn't do as instructed!

I just can't say it enough what a great kid he is. He is so much fun to hang out with! If I had to pick anyone in the world to eat dinner with, it'd be him and his dad. They are two peas in a pod, for sure. Today while Hubs was out cutting the grass, my boy stood at the window the entire time he was out there and hollered "Hey!" at him over and over. All he has to do is hear the motor of the truck pulling in the driveway and he starts kicking his little feet and waving his little hands and squealing w/ delight -- Papi's home!

For about the bazillionth time, we're going to try to post some photos. Here's hoping. BTW, I'm working nights now. Have to go in tonight at 11. Haven't slept since 11 this morning. Hoping to have a little help from the wizard in the green can, oh yes, Mountain Dew. Adios!

Thursday nite TV

Last night as I stayed up to mop our kitchen floor, which was really gross, I decided that since I was up I'd watch ER, which I haven't seen in ages. I was pretty disappointed. Not in the actors themselves, but the story line was not so hot. Oh, how I miss the days of Carter and Ross and Green! Anyone else agree?

The King on his Throne

Yup, you guessed it. My boy now has a potty seat! Not that we expect him to use it anytime soon. Just for show. Just so he could get used to it being there, nonthreatening and all. But he did enjoy grabbing the handles on the side and pushing it all over the livingroom like a little old guy with his walker! And he flipped the lid up and hid his juice cup inside. And then took it back out and drank out of it. Yum.

Regarding Hubs' favorite movies, his input is the following: "Well, you know I don't really get into that kind of stuff, like hooked on it or anything." (We only sit every Sunday and watch whatever movie is on UPN, mind you.) But he did contribute that he likes movies with Jackie Chan or Jet Li. Of those, I believe his favorite would be Rush Hour (the first). He also likes the movies of Maria Elena Velasco, aka La India Maria, a Mexican actress whose movies are quite funny (clean fun, no less).

I've read a couple interesting books lately, both fiction and non. The fiction ones were Sam's Letters to Jennifer and Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas both by James Patterson. They were sweet, sappy, chick novels that you can read in an afternoon. The nonfiction books were the ones I really learned a lot from. They all dealt with the same thing: the killing fields of Cambodia and Pol Pot's regime in the late 70's. All were horrifying, heartbreaking, you name it. I couldn't believe that the world could be completely oblivious to what was going on in that country, especially after Vietnam being just next door and we'd been there for how many years??? You'd think we'd have learned our lesson after Hitler. Which brings me to the question I've been turning over in my mind recently.....why do we go in to supposedly liberate Iraq and free them from oppression but stand by and do nothing while essentially the same thing is happening in the Sudan? And happened in Rwanda, Cambodia, etc.? I support our troops wholeheartedly, but I'm not so sure about this war we're in. Why do we not call it what it is, which is genocide? (Book titles are: 1) Haing Ngor: A Cambodian Odyssey, 2) To Destroy You is No Loss, and 3)First They Killed My Father)

On a brighter note, my boy's bday party is this Sunday. We are all excited, especially Mom and Papi!

Road trippin' with my little man....

....is not all it's cracked up to be. First, he's not crazy about his carseat. Second, his carseat still faces backward (for 1 more week) so whatever I do to attend to him I have to do waving my right hand/arm around blindly in the back seat praying that I'm putting his dropped toy or cup or whatever somewhere in the general vicinity of his face/hands. He is not one of those children who conks out the second he's in the car. The entire way to Yaya's house (my mother) (about 3 hours) we alternated between happy babbling (I can tolerate that), screeching at the top of his lungs to hear his own voice (not quite as pleasant but still tolerable in small doses) to meltdown mode (which almost drove me to drink). Now you have to realize, my boy is not a bad child. He's a great baby and we've been really spoiled to have him as our first. He is just not a fan of road trips. At all.

Anyway, after 3 long hours we got to Yaya's house to see her and Nana (my grandmother). We stayed from Thursday til Saturday and most of the time we enjoyed ourselves. My boy & Nana became fast friends playing peek-a-boo, which he could play all day long. Yaya enjoyed getting him dressed after his bath at night, which usually turns into a wrestling match that WWE couldn't even compete with. Usually at our house bathtime goes somewhat like this: 1) Have all the stuff ready -- towel, powder, diaper, PJs, butt paste (that's what it's called). 2) Get Wee One out of bathtub and onto towel. 3) Spend next 20 minutes chasing a half naked baby all over the bed trying to get his clothes on before he pees all over everything and/or crawls off the edge of the bed. Fortunately for Yaya, he was on his best behavior and let her dress him w/out incident! And don't you know my boy just hated all that attention from those 2 old ladies. He sat & watched the hummingbirds with Nana and tolerated it when Yaya pushed him around the yard in her wheelbarrow.

However, we were both really glad to be back at home with Papi. That afternoon/night my boy was stuck to Jesus like superglue and started screaming when I tried to put him to bed. He wanted Papi to do it! Of course Hubs wasn't happy about that at all! :) They are best buds and I am very blessed to have a husband that puts so much effort into being a phenomenal dad. Hubs didn't have a great role model growing up (dad was abusive and mom died when he was young) and he has more than proven to himself and the world that he is not repeating history. I know they are crazy about each other just by watching how they play -- and far be it for me to interrupt them! Half the time my boy doesn't even want to nurse if Hubs is around for fear he might miss something funny that Papi does! Yesterday Hubs took him to have hamburgers with the guys and they both had a blast. Now that he's less dependent on Mom for milk and other stuff they get more time together to scratch and spit and belch and do guy stuff. They love to go out in the veggie garden Hubs has in the back and water the flowers and see if there are any ripe tomatoes.

I'll try again to post photos of Young Master G. I've tried unsuccessfully several times. Either I'm computer-challenged or the computer is photo-challenged. He really is worth seeing, even if my own opinion is a bit skewed.

Still no input from Hubs on the favorite movie bit. I have to catch him at the right time; otherwise he's likely to give me silly answers. Adios!

17 days and counting...

...until my boy turns 1. Time has flown by and now neither Hubs nor I can imagine what our life was like before him. He has brought us out of ourselves in a way neither of us could explain but that anyone who is a parent can totally understand. When you have someone who is totally dependent upon you to feed, dress, entertain, change diapers, put to sleep, etc. you realize what you are capable of. You may be sick, sad, angry, or whatever but that creature still needs you. So you get up and do because you have to and because that big ol' smile is the highlight of your day. In fact, I credit my little boy (and God, of course) with my life because at one point during my postpartum depression (which medicine DOES help, Tom Cruise!) I was suicidal. I was ready to drive my car off the bridge and into the Tar River more than once but I didn't because my boy was in the car with me at all those times. I would not go back to that feeling for all the money in the world, by the way.

So what is Wonder Child (as my stepdad calls him) up to these days? Being his sweet, spoiled rotten self! His dad uses the word tremendo, which is about the Spanish equivalent to saying he's a mess or he's full of himself. He is in a Dad-only phase, meaning that apart from the nursing bit, he wants to be w/ Hubs 24/7. If it's just Daniel and me at home, that's fine, but the second Hubs appears, it's adios to Mom. What else....oh yes, everything that can be pushed along the floor (which is a lot of stuff) is now a car. He pushes whatever it is along and says "bbbbrrrrrrm". Everything with buttons on it is a telephone to be put to his ear and screamed into. His current favorite is "HEY!" at the top of his lungs. We have one of those plastic boxes with different shapes cut out and the little shapes that fit into them to help them learn what fits where...he's getting the hang of it. Yesterday he put the circle in the round hole and the square in the square hole. Just to prove it wasn't a fluke, he repeated it today and then some! He has decided that he's way too big for Gerber so now we're eating big-boy food with our 6 teeth. We only eat some of the Gerber desserts, other than that, he's purely on table food. So now I have to cook, whether I like it or not. Again, one of those things that you do because the creature depends on you!

Breaking from the mold a little (we do like to live dangerously sometimes), I'm going to list my favorite movies. Sad when that's your idea of living dangerously. So, by category, these are my favorites:
Drama: Forrest Gump, Dead Poets Society, Life is Beautiful, Children of Heaven (made in Iran, very good)
Comedy: What About Bob, Austin Powers (only the first), National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Good Morning Vietnam (could also be drama)
Chick flick: Steel Magnolias (was there any doubt?)
Films to not waste your time on: Monster (the one about Aileen Wuornos the female serial killer in Florida), Y Tu Mama Tambien, Army of Darkness (this last category I guess you could say includes my least favorite films).

You'll notice that I have not included action movies. First, because I'm not crazy about too many of them. Second, Hubs is. So when he gives me his list of favorites to post, we'll more than make up for their absence in my listing! So that's the news from our piece of paradise in eastern NC.

Almost 11 months

Sorry for the prolonged absence! Life here has been chaotic but pretty good otherwise. I started my job at WakeMed 8/15 and so far have been really enjoying it. I'm working in the newborn nursery right now but will be working on the floor (postpartum, antepartum, women's health) this coming Wednesday. The folks there have been really nice and I've been learning a lot so far. And we have our fair share of excitement...like yesterday when we had 4 babies come in within 10 minutes of each other, 2 of whom came from a lady who didn't know she was having twins. That was kind of fun. And we threw a baby shower for one of our patients who was a Katrina evacuee and of course had nothing for the baby she delivered while here. One of the best parts about my job is that I'm working 3-4 days a week max and have a lot more time to spend at home with my 2 favorite guys (the hubby and the son, of course).

Hubs is also enjoying having more family time. He's had to take on some extra responsibility during this orientation when I'm having to work days; he's had to get the wee one to the babysitter (whom he adores and who spoils him rotten) and back. While this is a bit of a strain, he also knows it's temporary and not every day. He's also the one responsible for making the yard so pretty. The wee one of course helps him water the flowers! We have some nice Roma tomatoes out back thanks to his hard work.

My son will be 11 months old tomorrow. That is really hard to believe, considering it seems like yesterday that he was born! He is so funny and gets funnier by the day. Currently his favorite word is "hey". He gets on the phone with my mom (or whoever) and says it over and over. He'll get anything that remotely resembles a phone (the mouse, the remote, his pacifier, his toy truck) and hold it up to his ear and yell "Hey!" He's recently decided that he wants nothing to do with Mom if Papi's around. He's preferred Papi for a while now but recently he's been dissing Mom completely in favor of Papi. (except of course to eat...) He also decided that he is too big for Gerber foods and will not eat them. He insists on table foods. So now I have to cook! I think he will take his sweet time walking, which is just fine by me, considering that right now he makes a disaster of our house as it is. This afternoon while he was sleeping I cleaned up 4 distinct messes OUTSIDE his room. He loves sunglasses and baseball caps. We're going to celebrate his 1st birthday Oct. 9....time flies when you're having fun!

Just in the nick of time

So I lay my son down for a nap this afternoon. Normally he plays and talks for a little bit before going to sleep, but this time the talking etc. is lasting longer than normal. I go to check on him and what is he doing? He's in the process of taking off his diaper, which he has pooped in. Fortunately, I caught him before any damage was done to me or the bed. Just another day....

By the way, I changed the settings so anyone who wants to comment can do so, not just registered bloggers. Have a good one.

Being a stay at home mom

So I'm between jobs right now....my last day at my old job was Wednesday and I start my new job at WakeMed Monday. So my current occupation is stay-at-home mom, and I love it. My boy and I get to play all day, and when he's asleep I get to get things done that have been put off for forever. (like scrubbing the kitchen floor that was so dirty you could eat off it. no telling what all you'd find!) Today he entertained himself for the longest time opening and half-closing the doors to our bedroom and our front door. Watching him go from a newborn who's pretty much a blob that eats, pees, poops, cries, and occasionally sleeps to an increasingly independent almost-toddler that voices his wants and opinions very clearly continues to be an amazing process. I used to have to sit and entertain him; now he finds ways to entertain himself and on his own discovers how his toys work. To think that this human being grew from one cell to what he is now, wow. I don't see how you could NOT believe in God.

Today after he ate his oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, I took my hair out of its ponytail and used the telephone as a microphone and sang Tim McGraw to my son as he watched from his highchair. I love being able to make a fool out of myself in front of someone and as a result have them think I'm the coolest person alive. I shook my head back and forth to the beat of the song and he did the same and laughed at the top of his lungs. Moments like that are ones that I want to freeze for all eternity.

The latest & greatest

So my boy is 10 months old now, ever closer to that 1-year mark that I never imagined would get here. Now it's creeping up faster each day! My boy has become quite the showman...he now calls his dad "aba" (Papa) and today told his Dad "no". (at least that's what we think he said). I think to myself, I carried you for 9 months and have nursed you for another 10 and counting...where's "Mama"? Oh well. He crawls all over the house and is into everything imaginable! Now I know why they say to cover those outlet holes. They're right at the level of little eyes and apparently extremely fascinating (gee, what's this? something new I haven't gotten into yet...). He loves to take our books off the shelves and the videos out of the video cabinet. Today I let him play in my desk shelves while I checked my email. That was a treat for him. New papers to crinkle and salivate on!

Hubs has started rehearsing songs to sing in church for special music...well, my boy has decided he wants to be a singer too. (singer we can handle. ballet dancer, that's another story.) Every time Hubs goes to the radio or even gets out a CD, my boy reaches out his little arms and/or starts crawling toward Daddy. He wants Hubs to hold him while he sings. I sat and watched them today and it was the cutest thing. They really are becoming best buds. A couple nights ago I got home from work unexpectedly early and watched them playing in the bathtub together and they didn't realize I was watching. They were two peas in a pod, just a tiny baby splashing and being silly in the bath and his daddy being silly right along with him. And Daddy plays cars way better than I do. They crash cars together and crash them into the wall and it's hilarious. I try to do the same thing and I get the "Is that the best you can do?" look. As Wayne and Garth would say, I'm not worthy.

We had our first (of undoubtedly many) bout with pinkeye starting Monday. So we've been struggling w/ eyedrops. And let me tell you, trying to put eyedrops into the eyes of a squirmy, ticked-off 10 month old is akin to, oh say, holding back Niagara Falls. Very close to impossible, if not there.

I'm going to try and post some recent pics of the WonderChild. We'll see how it goes.

Silly me

Ok, I realized I wrote basically the same thing 2 different times. Sorry!

The latest and greatest

Today my boy's officially 10 months old and today was officially my last day at my job before moving on to WakeMed. Monday I got a call from the daycare saying he had pinkeye, and surely enough he did! Green goo out the wazoo. So I stayed with him Monday afternoon and he and Dad got to be at home for 2 whole days (yesterday and today) playing and singing and scratching and spitting and partying. They are getting to be best buds. I'm getting left out a lot. Mom just doesn't play cars like Papi does. Papi can crash the car into the wall and it's funny. I do it and I just get the "Is that the best you can do?" look. As Wayne and Garth would say, I'm not worthy. Hubs has started singing in church along with some soundtracks of worship songs (for special music, not the congregation singing). Anyway, every time he goes to practice, my boy starts vocalizing and lifting his little arms up...he wants Papi to hold him while he sings. Last night I got home from work early and watched the two of them playing in the tub together and they didn't realize I was watching. It was the cutest sight. Just a tiny baby splashing being silly and his daddy being silly right along with him.

Latest developments

He's mobile!!!! He started crawling Thursday morning...I had sat him in the floor to "help" me fold clothes then I got up to wash my face...I hear the bedroom door close. I am fairly certain our house isn't haunted, so I turn around to see my son on all fours very proud of himself for having closed our door. And this morning he said his first word (at least the first that I know for sure he meant). We took our morning nap together, and as he woke up, he dropped his Binky (pacifier) in the floor and said, "Uh-oh!" And kept saying it over and over again. So look out world, here he comes!

My Boy the great (and big)

Just a quick update...my boy's 9-month check was this last Tuesday. He weighs 21 lbs 1 oz (that's 9.5 kilos for those of you who measure it that way) and is 27 1/4 inch long. So he's becoming quite a linebacker (although his mother will never allow him to play American football). His pediatrician says he looks great and that Hubs and I should be proud (of course we are!). He decided to try and pull up on his toy box the other night. I was doing something in the bedroom and Hubs calls me to come look at what he's doing....lo and behold, there he is, half-standing while holding onto his toy box. His pediatrician says for me to look for him to just bypass the crawling bit altogether and start walking around 10-11 months. NOOOOO! Our house is not childproofed yet! He's quite a chatterbox, jabbering away all the time. I'm sure what he says makes perfect sense to him. Less than 3 months until he's 1 year old. That is very hard to believe.

My boy takes on Chapel Hill

Oh boy, my child is becoming his own man, for sure. Trying his best to crawl, and almost doing it. I give him another week or so. Or he may just bypass crawling altogether and start walking; he loves to stand. If we're not playing or eating, we have to be standing (with help, of course). We met YaYa (his grandmother) this weekend in Chapel Hill to gallavant around town, and of course my boy took the place by storm. Since we are trying to raise our son right (the Good Book does say to train up a child in the way he should go), we took him to Franklin Street to give him a taste of college life. Of course, no trip to Franklin St. is complete without a stop in Johnny T-shirt, so Daniel's grandmother made sure he's outfitted at least for another few months in a 2005 National Championship tshirt (go Heels!) and some Carolina pajamas. And a Carolina board book complete with famous landmarks and all the fight songs. So far he has the makings of a future Tar Heel. Let's hope he doesn't let us down and go to that dark blue school. Also during this visit, my boy showed his grandmother how intelligent he is...I was trying to put him to sleep, thought he was, so I got up to leave and get us some frozen yogurt. Mom said that as soon as I left, he got up and started playing and fighting sleep. Hey, when the cat's away, the mice play. He's an amazing creature. Every day he shows off something new that he knows -- yesterday it was how to sing along while Daddy plays the guitar, today it's how to stay awake as long as possible. (which he's succeeding at right now.)

Family outing

We went to the park today so my boy could feed the ducks. He's seen them before but never fed them...we had a ball. He thought they were so funny fighting over the crumbs! It's so cliched but true...having a child changes your perspective totally. Everything becomes amazing all over again. Watching his little face light up as he saw the ducks coming over to us (they always know who has the food) was worth all the money and treasure in the world.

My son's bad habit

He has a really bad habit of scratching whichever body part is closest to you. He digs his nails in real deep and it's almost like he enjoys it. Well, tonight as he was lying in the bed with his Papi (his dad), he dug his nails into Papi's chest and Papi reached out and popped his hand. When Hubs told me this, my heart cringed. My child got a spanking!!! But he said my boy tried to do the same thing again but this time kept looking at Jesus to see if he was going to do anything about it. So I think he knows real well what he's doing. Anyway, he's asleep in the big people bed (again) like an angel. We love him.

Approaching 9 months

So we've decided to start a blog so that all of you fans of my baby out there can keep up with his daily accomplishments (or temper tantrums, or poopy diapers, or whatever else we decide to let the world in on).

It's really hard to believe that he's almost 9 months old, that he's been out of the womb almost as long as he was in. What's even harder to believe is that he's becoming mobile. He tries to crawl, which right now is more like scooting around on his little hiney and bending so far over forward that one of his feet touches his nose and the other is stuck out behind him. He stands up if you put him next to a table or the sofa or something. But after a while he gets frustrated because he can't get anywhere and wants you to help him sit down so he can butt-scoot.

By the way, who knew poop could be purple? After he ate apples and blueberries, his was. Thought you might like to know.

Some of you already know this, but for the rest of you it's worth sharing. Before he was born we decorated his room with little stick-on decals of cars, airplanes, boats, etc. Guy stuff. No Winnie the Pooh for the son of MY husband! Well, in one part of his room, there's a decal of a green motorcycle. For whatever reason, my boy thinks that is the coolest thing, because every night before we go to bed, we have to wave night-night to the motorcycle. Every morning when we wake up we have to wave good morning to it. Every time we go in his room he cranes his neck to find it and when he does, breaks out into this huge grin, with all 4 of his teeth showing. Funny.

Also, the sleep wars have begun. Last night he decided he was too big to fall asleep in his crib, so his dad had to put him to sleep in the big-people bed and later make the transfer. Today, he's waited until I put him down for a nap to make a stinky diaper. Twice. Both times, I've gone in to check on him and this overwhelming smell reaches my nose and I know what's happened. My intelligent boy has managed to postpone naptime, even if only by a few minutes.

This may sound like complaining. It's not. He's the greatest baby and we are having so much fun with him. I've got an interview next Friday at WakeMed hospital in Raleigh (mother-baby unit....yippee!). Those of you who pray, please do. That job would give me more time at home with my man, which is what I've been begging the Lord for now going on about 6 months. So that's about all for now. Keep your eyes out for more posts when my child does something else wonderful! Love to all.