There Was This One Time, At Band Camp...

It's been a busy and productive several days, depression and grief notwithstanding.

The Boy's diet is one of the biggest projects I've got going on these days. Since last I wrote he's tried mango and carrots. Loved them both. We stopped the yogurt for a few days, cuz we're not sure if it's causing him problems. He's sleeping pretty good at night these days. Goes down around 7:30 or 8:00, but wakes up way too early. The last few nights he's woken at 4:30 am. The Rock Star tries to get him back to sleep, and sometimes he does for 20 min at a time. More often it's cry until 6:00 am and then we get him (and me) up for the day. I'm working really hard at keeping to a daily routine that includes breakfast, nap, lunch, nap, dinner, bedtime with breast feeding in between each. Naps are rarely more than a half an hour. Second tooth is just under the surface, refusing to come up and I suspect it is the root of all troubles the Boy is having.

I got a set of invoices done yesterday. The Rock Star finished the 2003 taxes and made a good start on 2004. We have kept to a healthy eating plan every day since we got back from the funeral. Our goal is a month of totally healthy eating. I started walking two cocker spaniels every week day. Sometimes the Boy comes with, sometimes he stays home with whoever is here. The Rock Star comes along sometimes. He's started a new job working at his cousin's office on several programming project. It's flexible hours and will likely last through the summer, giving us a much needed income boost.

Spring has really sprung around here and everything is greening up. Magnolias have bloomed and so have tulips in many yards. Just starting to see the Rhododendrons. Can't wait for Lilacs. Love the Lilacs. I want to plant tomatos and herbs this year. Wondering how much it would cost to have someone come over and spread mulch in all the mulchy areas and do a spring clean up of the yard, plus clear a gardening patch. I love planting and tending and harvesting, but I hate clearing areas and tilling them up.

Something sweet in the extended entry.:)

Yeah, my hair is too many days from it's last washing and I'm wearing my ratty old pjs, but get a load of that cute baby, huh?

Headlines

If you wanna get old fast, have a kid. Time is flying by and I barely had any idea that nearly 2 months have gone by since last I posted. Lots has happened, most good, some very bad. I'm just gonna post the headlines and a pic or two.

The Boy turned 6 months old on February 10th. He's 7 months old as of this post. He started eating solid foods on Feb. 13 and eats like crazy. I'm following the Super Baby Food book by Ruth Yaron and it is great! This is a fantastic book and I recommend it to everyone. She makes it so simple to feel good about what your baby is eating. He's had rice, oat and millet porridges. Also banana, sweet potato, avocado, pears, acorn squash and whole milk yogurt. Tomorrow he's getting mango. All organic and prepared with love by me. I feel really proud of how well he's eating so far. I have been making home made yogurt and we all love it. I've made granola, too. Feeding the Boy right is helping us to eat right, too.

BIL from San Francisco visited beginning of March. He taught us all how to play Texas Hold'em and I experienced a brief but intense addiction to the online live version.

The Boy started sitting up on his own at the beginning of March and we started a new ECFE class.

My 42nd birthday was Mar 30 and we celebrated at Buca di Beppo. I love me some Buca. And I really loved me some chianti that night. When we came home I was ever so nicely buzzed. A client came to pick up her dog and as I came downstairs to greet her, I tripped over the gate we keep on the bottom landing and fell down the last four steps. My slam into the new hard tiles was cushioned by the amount of chianti I'd consumed, but man oh man did I feel it the next day. And every day since then, as a matter of fact. My right knee and calf were very sore, and the bruises were spectacular. Both my wrists are still very painful, and it's likely that something is broken in my right one. I've got to get out a brace and try to take it easy for a while. It hurts whenever I use it.

We started teaching the Boy to sleep in his crib on April 1st. We got a book called Good Night, Sleep Tight by Kim West. She's called the Sleep Lady. The first night he cried for 45 minutes or so, but the Rock Star was right there with him. The idea is to leave him in his crib to figure out how to put himself to sleep, but not leave him alone to cry it out. It's hard to hear him cry, but the plan has been working for nights. Last night, for instance, I put him down at 8 pm and he slept clear through til 6 am. That's 10 hours without a peep. It's been a real relief to reclaim our bed and our night time sleep. Naps are another story, but we keep working on them. He usually naps 30-45 minutes in the morning and afternoon, and according to all we've read he should be napping 1-2 hours each time. I'm hoping that he'll start taking longer naps soon, but for now I'm glad to be on a schedule/routine that gets him to nap (in his crib) at all.

On April 5 we got very bad news. My dad had a massive heart attack and died. It was completely unexpected and we are devastated. We flew to the small town in Montana where he lived with his wife, just in time to view his body before cremation. My dad was the best man I'll ever know and I miss him terribly. The depression is threatening to overwhelm me again, but the Rock Star is helping and the Boy is giving me lots to keep me busy.

The Boy flew for the first time, to Montana and back, and he was a champ. Not a peep. He got a certificate from head flight attendant. During the trip there he was Mr. Sunshine. Really remarkable, considering he was completely outside of everything he's ever known, being passed between 20 or 30 loving relatives all day and cutting his first tooth. Just because being away from home for your father's funeral isn't fun enough, I got my period for the first time since I got pregnant and Mastitis in my left breast. Good times...

An update to my last post, I'm not as addicted to Craigslist as I was, but still check it regularly. We got a leather couch, chair and ottoman for $300 and a breadmaker for $20 and a food dryer for $10. Craigslist been berry, berry good to me. Always in need of an internet addiction, however, I'm toying with the idea of returning to Ultima Online. I stopped playing shortly after I started my blog, but kept both my accounts. It's an online role playing game that has in the past consumed massive amounts of my time. It won't be able to now, cuz I don't have much time to spare. I'll prolly have to give up the few TV shows I've started watching.

Let's see if I can dig up a couple cute pics. Check the extended entry.

Being a good boy on the plane:

Sitting on the floor at Grampa's apartment: