‘My Boring Life’ Category

  1. Living on the face of the sun

    August 26, 2010

    Jamie’s newest words are:

    • “Bello” (for Jello)
    • and “e-i-e-i-0″ (very clearly enunciated, super cute)

    Doc and I got to go out on an actual date last weekend, thanks to the generous babysitting talents of Kathryn and Brett. We intended to go see “Inception,” since we know someone who worked on the movie (and plus it just looks interesting), but our show was sold out when we arrived. Knowing that we had a limited timeframe to be out on the town, we chose another movie that started around the same time, “Dinner for Schmucks.” Not something we had intended to see in the theatre, but it was funny at times and moderately charming, and at this point I am so starved for movies that it almost doesn’t matter what I go see. It was just nice to be out on a date with my wonderful husband.

    Beginning July 30, we had 26 days in a row of heat over 100 degrees. The official recorded temperature was 99 on a couple of those days, but it is always hotter at our house than out at the airport where they record the official numbers. Last weekend was just the worst; the analog thermometer on our back patio registered 108 on both days. Thankfully Jamieson has not seemed to want to go outside as much as usual lately. He’ll look out the windows to the patio and say “HOT.” On Sunday afternoon I filled up his wading pool and let him swim for a while. He also ate a couple of big slices of cold watermelon, perfect for a hot day.

    Yesterday the  highest temperature I saw all day was 77 degrees (I was so excited that I checked every hour or so). That’s lower than we’ve had most nights this month.

    Anyway, I don’t expect it to last, but it has been a very nice break from living on the face of the sun.

    Category Family, Jamieson, My Boring Life, Weather | Tags: | No Comments

  2. June/July Jamie Update

    July 20, 2010

    Over the weekend, Jamie began using two more words: Up and Bubble. Not together, although that would have been extra cute. Doc made a list of his current repertoire: Daddy, Mama, Ham, Hi, Nine, Uh-oh, Yeah, Hot, Up, Ama (Grandma), Papa, Moo, Meow, No, Bye-bye, Baby, Help, Bubble. Signs include: Help, More, Eat, Cookie, Book, Hurt, Friend, Dog, Cat, Water, Please, Thank You, Drink, Mama, Daddy, Wash, Bath, Diaper, Stop, Go.

    Yesterday before bed, Jamie was snuggled up on Doc’s lap in front of the TV, watching a Baby Einstein video (the sleepytime lullaby one). I came over and sat next to them and put my hand on Jamie’s belly. We watched the video that way for a few minutes, then Jamie grabbed Doc’s hand and placed it on top of mine, then laid his own hand on top of Doc’s. I just about wanted to melt! Man, I love my family.

    For the past three weeks, except for two days, Jamieson has done something completely unprecedented: He’s sleeping in!! He goes to bed usually around 8 or 8:30 pm, wakes twice in the night for a bottle, and has slept until at least 7:00, usually closer to 8. He wakes and then stays in bed for a good long while, rolling around and talking to himself and his stuffed animals. On weekdays, I get him up before I leave for work (we think he’d be really annoyed if I left for work without saying good morning to him). On weekends, we let him hang out by himself as long as he wants to. Sometimes it’s as long as an hour! Also, he’s been taking really long naps: three to four hours is common nowadays.

    This new sleeping pattern makes me not even care that he’s still waking twice in the night and needing our attention! I’m getting more (and better quality) sleep than I have since before he was born.

    We’re trying to wean him off the bottle, at least during the day. I know the recommendation is to wean your baby off the bottle around a year old, but we have worked out our own schedule with that and it’s worked for us so far. But now we think he’s getting old enough and he’s eating enough solid food now that we can safely wean him.

    Our next challenge is going to be stopping the night feedings. It might go easy or it might be a nightmare; I don’t have a feeling yet as to which way it will go. I think he’s ready, though, and we certainly are.

    Doc got him a train engineer’s cap and bandanna, and a wooden train whistle. He’s unbearably cute wearing it, and he LOVES it!

    Engineer Jamieson Harlan Scott

    Category My Boring Life | Tags: | No Comments

  3. Reverse Mommyblogging

    October 6, 2009

    I have an infant son. And I have a blog. Does this makes me a “mommyblogger?” Maybe not in the traditional sense of the term (and it is weird to think that a term coined so recently can even have a “traditional sense” yet), but I am a mom who blogs about her life and her family.

    So… in what I call Reverse Mommyblogging, I shall now take you through a day in my household, and list by name and brand all the products I typically use, BEFORE I get paid to mention them!

    I am not affiliated with any of these companies, and they have not paid me or sent me free products… YET. In these trying economic times, though, a few extra bucks or free products would sure come in handy, so all offers will be entertained. Do you hear me, Procter and Gamble? Get me on that free products train! I can be a corporate shill, too!

    • Safety 1st baby monitor
    • Apple iPhone
    • Pampers Baby Dry or Cruisers size 4 diapers
    • Pampers Sensitive baby wipes
    • Aveeno Baby Soothing Relief Moisture Cream
    • Triple Paste diaper ointment
    • Gold Bond medicated baby powder
    • Baby clothing by: Gymboree, Baby Gap, Carters, Circo
    • Avent pacifiers
    • Enfamil Nutramigen baby formula
    • Gerber 2nd foods baby puree
    • Healthy Times brown rice baby cereal
    • Dr. Brown’s baby bottles
    • Gerber Soft Bite baby food spoons
    • Baby Orajel toothbrush and toothpaste
    • Tom’s of Maine toothpaste
    • Boston Simplicity contact lens solution
    • Aussie Moist shampoo and 3 Minute Miracle Deeeeep Conditioner
    • Infusium leave-in treatment
    • Garnier Fructis Sleek & Shine 
Anti-Humidity Styling Cream
    • Dove moisturizing soap
    • Noxzema Daily Exfoliating Cleanser
    • Cococare cocoa butter
    • Kiss My Face Liquid Rock Patchouli deodorant
    • Burt’s Bees Radiance Day Cream
    • Burt’s Bees Chemical-Free Sunscreen SPF 30
    • Cover Girl Trublend pressed powder
    • Almay Intense I-Color eyeliner  in Raisin Quartz
    • Maybelline Great Lash mascara in Black
    • Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmer in Champagne
    • Millstone decaf caramel truffle coffee
    • Saturn SL2 automobile
    • Gasoline from 7-11, Exxon, Shell, etc.
    • Apple MacBook Pro
    • Logitech MX Revolution wireless laser mouse
    • Apple 23″ Cinema Display
    • Coke Zero
    • Mirado Black Warrior pencils
    • Adobe Creative Suite CS4 software
    • Calphalon Stainless Steel cookware
    • Cascade 2-in-1 Action Pacs dishwasher detergent
    • BabyGanics foaming dish and bottle soap
    • Dr. Brown’s bottle brush
    • Tide Free laundry soap
    • Target brand baby laundry soap
    • Target brand infant ibuprofen
    • Target brand infant gas drops
    • Aveeno Baby Soothing Relief Creamy Wash
    • Sony television
    • Mac mini
    • Playstation 3

    Category Blog, Finance, My Boring Life, Sociology, Writing | Tags: | No Comments

  4. And the blog suffers

    October 5, 2009

    Sadly, S0mething Shiny Disorder is suffering lately. The updates and blatherings on are few and far between.

    I am sure my two readers are simply crushed by this shocking news.

    Lately, the little free time I have (i.e., when the baby is asleep) is spent either sleeping or doing chores or running errands or spending quality time with my husband. All of that trumps personal writing at this point.

    I hope that once Jamie is a bit more self-managing, I will begin to see an increase in the time I have available to write. I do miss it.

    That being said, I am working on a catch-up post about (what else?) the latest on Jamieson. Stay tuned.

    Category Baby, Jamieson, My Boring Life | Tags: | No Comments

  5. A big boy

    July 5, 2009

    Jamie’s moving right along in the business of growing up.

    A Day in the Life 66

    For some time now, he’s been able to roll over from front to back and back to front, and he now uses that skill liberally as a means of getting where he wants to go. He’ll roll over and over and over to get somewhere. Yesterday he rolled right off the guest bed onto the floor when I looked away for like two seconds. It’s only a 12″ drop because the mattress is just on the floor, but it still scared him and he started crying.

    He’s now able to get up on his hands and knees, and rock back and forth. He gets so excited! He can get from his back to his belly to the crawl position, and from there to sitting up. And he can use all these moves in combination! It’s clear to me that he realizes the implications of this… you can almost see the wheels turning in his little head. Just in the past couple of days he’s occasionally done something like putting one knee forward or one hand forward, probably accidentally. The crawling is coming, and it’s coming soon!

    In preparation for this stage, we’ve built a play area for him in the living room, consisting of a big puzzle-piece mat, some baby corral fencing, and a bunch of toys. We also bought some things that you stick in unused electrical outlets, and we have some furniture straps to secure bookshelves to walls. As he gets closer to mobility, we’ll need to crawl around taking baby’s-eye-view of things and put up temptations, secure cabinet doors, lock down toilet seats, etc.

    A Day in the Life 75

    The other cool thing he’s doing now is making “Da” and “Ta” sounds very clearly. It’s so fun to have a little “dadada” conversation with him, because it is almost like having an actual conversation. He’ll say something, and we’ll imitate him, and he’ll smile and imitate back, and so on. I suspect his first real word will be “dada.” Maybe “mama” will follow closely behind.

    This afternoon I discovered that a laundry basket is a GREAT way to keep a baby contained and entertained! He wasn’t satisfied in his bouncer, and I needed to be on the floor of the kitchen cleaning and sorting out my spice cabinet. So I stuck him in an empty laundry basket with some books and toys, and presto! Super happy baby for about an hour.

    A Day in the Life 89

    A few nights ago, we watched “Something Wicked This Way Comes.” I’d forgotten what a good movie that was, probably because I haven’t seen it since I was 11 or 12, sitting in the dark in Suzanne Plunkett’s living room at a sleepover. I think we scared ourselves into not being able to sleep. Jonathan Pryce was fantastic as Mr. Dark, and he looks so different with a beard that we actually didn’t recognize him as Sam from Brazil until afterwards!

    Today we watched (repeatedly, for Jamie’s and our own amusement) a classic Disney short called “Funny Little Bunnies” from 1934. I highly recommend it!

    Hey, did you hear that Michael Jackson died? You did? SO DID I. Now could the news stations PLEASE move on to actual news? Like Sarah Palin’s resignation as governor of Alaska? Maureen Dowd wrote a fantastic column about it in today’s New York Times:

    What looked like a secret wedding turned out to be a public unraveling as the G.O.P. implosion continued: Sarah wanted everyone to know that she’s not having fun and people are being mean to her and she doesn’t feel like finishing her first term as governor.

    That’s about all for the moment. I’m sure there’s a lot I’ve left out, but I think two posts within a week is pretty good for me. :)

    Category Baby, Entertainment, Jamieson, My Boring Life, Politics | Tags: | 3 Comments

  6. More baby news: The great digestive mystery of 2009 continues…

    June 30, 2009

    Sadly, my blog posting is taking a hit lately. It isn’t that I don’t want to, or that I have nothing to say; it’s just that all my free time is taken up either with taking care of Jamieson, working, sleeping, doing chores, or spending quality time with Doc. It’s hard to find an hour or two where I’m actually in the mood to write, AND have the time to do it.

    I hope to be able to find more time and energy to write as the weeks go on.

    Anyway, here is what’s been going on during the last month.

    The last part of May and first part of June pretty much sucked. Doc was sick with a bad chest and head cold, then I was sick with the stomach flu and exhaustion, then Jamie got the cold, then I got the cold. Luckily, Jamie had gotten the stomach bug earlier in the month, and Doc didn’t get it at all. I went to Kathryn and Brett’s Memorial Day cookout, but probably shouldn’t have, and we missed Valerie’s birthday dinner altogether. My doctor tried me on several different medications in an attempt to alleviate my exhaustion and feelings of being overwhelmed and anxious, but the side effects made me feel even MORE sick to my stomach and also plagued me with insomnia, both at night and while trying to nap. Shortly thereafter, I came to the conclusion that actually getting sleep would make me feel better a lot faster than trying to fool my brain into being happy, so I stopped taking it.

    The weeks since have kind of been a blur. I definitely have been feeling better, probably largely due to the fact that I’ve been sleeping for one long stretch most nights. When I think back to just a few months ago, when I was lucky to get 3 or 4 hours of sleep in a row, this seems like an impossible dream!

    We changed up our night feeding schedule. Doc does the first feeding (usually; if I’m still up I will do it sometimes) and the second feeding, and then I get up in the morning with Jamie. He’s usually up some time between 5 and 6:30 a.m., usually closer to 5. Although recently he’s taken to not really going back to sleep after his second feeding, which is kinda messing things up. We hope that he’s just starting to change up his own nocturnal schedule towards sleeping through the night.

    Jamie turned six months old on June 8. Doc and I bought him some presents, and Grandma sent some too. We had some pretty intense storms blow through in early June, including some tornadoes nearby. Our power went out about 10 a.m. one morning after massive amounts of rain, and was out until nearly 11 that night. The house heated up quickly; Doc and Jamie went to the mall to cool down in the afternoon, and then we went out to dinner and ran some errands in the evening. The power came back on as we washed baby bottles by candlelight. The stoplight at our corner blinked red for almost a week before they fixed it.

    We continue to try to get Jamie’s digestive issues fixed. He’s been on Nutramigen AA formula for about a month now. It costs $155 for a week’s supply. No, that is not a typo. We’ve been lucky enough to get a few samples from our gastroenterologist’s office as well as a couple of shipments from Dr. Debbie. I’m not sure that it’s really making that much of a difference for him, to be honest. Doc has observed that when he’s relaxed, he seems more relaxed now but when he’s fussy, he seems more fussy. More peaks and valleys, in otherwords, whereas on the regular Nutramigen he seemed fairly consistent with a low-grade fussiness. He has learned to accept the taste of it but he really didn’t like it at first. We think it doesn’t stick to his ribs as well as regular formula. It does seem thinner and more watery, like skim milk. He certainly continues to put on weight, but he’s not as satisfied with it.

    We are going to a new pediatrician now. Our first pedi just wasn’t a good fit. I don’t think she ever really believed that there was anything wrong with Jamie. She once called him “high strung,” as if it was a personality issue that was causing his constant activity, crying, pain, and crankiness. She suggested that we just run the vacuum cleaner in his room all night, since constant loud noise often was the only way we could get him to sleep. Her bottom line with us was that he was gaining weight and thriving, so he was fine (and she repeated this to us at every visit). I know she thought that we were overreacting and exaggerating. It was as if she would prefer that Jamie just outgrow whatever was going on with him, rather than work with us to try to get him help. He may be gaining weight and growing properly, but there’s a whole quality of life issue that she was completely ignoring.

    In fact, we finally went to the gastroenterologist (Dr. Annette Whitney) completely on our own, not because of any suggestion of the pediatrician’s. And Dr. Whitney knew what was wrong immediately, since milk and soy protein sensitivity is one of the most common infant food allergies. You’d think that the pediatrician might have picked up on this and at least suggested it to us as a possibility, but she never did.

    Anyway, we really like our new pediatrician, Dr. Michael Brown. He’s personable and seemed to truly understand what we’ve been going through with Jamie, and he wants to help us get him feeling better. We’ve only been in to see him once, but so far I am pleased.

    Dr. Brown prescribed a steroid cream for Jamie’s torso rash/eczema, and within a week the rash was completely gone. Poor baby isn’t scratching at his own skin all night and day now. I think that has really helped him to feel better overall.

    He’s drinking prune juice (mixed with water), which smells like ass (and Doc confirms that it tastes disgusting too). But Jamie seems to like it just fine! And it’s helping keep him regular.

    We started him on rice cereal, AGAIN. This is the third time, and the third brand we’ve tried. And at last! Success!! Healthy Times Organic Brown Rice Cereal does not give him 48 hours of intestinal cramping like the previous brands we tried. It says “NO SOY” right on the box in big letters. I suspect soy may be a bigger issue for him than dairy, because of his reactions to the other cereals, both of which contained soy (one from Vitamin E in an undeclared form; Earth’s Best Organic Brown Rice Cereal, I’m talking to you! Please label your cereal as NOT SOY FREE!). And of course, it’s twice as expensive as regular rice cereal, and only available at Whole Foods. Sigh.

    He’s really getting the hang of eating from a spoon, and he seems to like the cereal. He’s figured out (mostly) that the spoon goes on TOP of his tongue, not underneath. When he’s cooperative, he doesn’t really even make much of a mess. We are usually giving some to him in the morning and the evening. We’ll be able to try a pureed fruit or vegetable in another week or so, I think, with guidance from Dr. Whitney.

    She had us bring Jamie in for a barium enema, which was about as fun as it sounds. They filled his lower intestine with barium liquid and took x-rays of his little guts, and although they didn’t see anything immediately wrong, they found it really interesting (and so did we) that it took him about 30 minutes and a feeding to “expel” the barium. Most babies get rid of it immediately and forcefully. Not so Jamieson. We heard today that the results came back normal. I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, I am really glad that there isn’t anything seriously wrong with him. On the other hand, if they had found something, it would have at least been an answer and we could have been on the road to getting it fixed. Mostly I’m thrilled that the tests were normal, though.

    So now we wait, and keep searching for answers.

    We had a nice father’s day. Jamie did a drawing for Doc with giant crayons — his first artwork! I framed it in a special frame that opens with a magnet and allows you to swap out artwork whenever you please. He also got another Bluebird of Happiness for the bedroom. Then we all went out to lunch at Picasso’s Pizza, and later went shopping at Fry’s. For dinner we grilled bacon-wrapped filet mignons (Mom’s gift to Doc) and had rice pilaf, salad, and wine. A good day.

    We finally unplugged from spoon-fed entertainment… we cancelled our cable and Tivo service! I have had some form of cable television since I was about 11 years old, save for the three years I lived in the dorms at college. And you know what? I don’t miss it one bit. Since all stations are now required to provide local over-the-air programming for free in digital, we bought a converter box and antenna for the upstairs TV, and an eyeTV and antenna for the downstairs TV. Upstairs, I just watch whatever’s on if I am interested (which is rare), and downstairs, they eyeTV streams the over-the-air HD and digital content to the mac mini and into the TV. The mini works as a DVR, and we also are using Boxee (although now are moving to Plex, which just works better), Netflix instant streaming, Hulu desktop, iTunes, etc. etc. Almost anything that we used to get through cable and record on the Tivos, we either watch through the good ol’ Interwebs or record it using the eyeTV and the mini. There was an initial cost to get all the equipment, but the amount that we’ll save each month on cable and Tivo bills will make up for all that in just a little over a year. Doc did a ton of research and spent hours and hours trying to find the simplest and most elegant solution for us, and he really did a fantastic job!

    I’ll have to post more later. I’m tired now and want to get this out to the teeming millions (a.k.a. my two readers, who may very well have given up on me now that I’m only posting once every few weeks)…

    Category Baby, Doc, Entertainment, Family, Jamieson, My Boring Life, Parenting, TV | Tags: | No Comments

  7. Milestones

    April 27, 2009

    April 12

    Tried on a cute dress today. Made me look like curtains from the 70s.
    It was green and pleated, and looked cute hanging on the rack. Not so much on me. I had to go clothes shopping and get a few things in a (horrors!) larger size. I keep telling myself it’s only temporary. But the numbers on the scale don’t seem to be moving much. Making milk for Jamie makes me seriously hungry.

    The other thing that happened today: Jamie tried his first solid food, rice cereal. He wasn’t that into it. In fact, he got kind of upset. I guess we probably shouldn’t have tried to give it to him when he was super hungry. We tried again before bedtime and it was a lot easier. We made the cereal thicker, and he very quickly got the hang of eating off the spoon, even going so far as to grab  the handle to help shove it into his mouth. Unfortunately, he had a really bad night and a bad day the next day so we decided to wait a while before giving him any more.

    April 14

    Breakfast: organic yogurt, strawberries, and coffee. Mmmm.

    The Infant Commander had a good night last night.
    I can’t really remember the specifics about this night, but I think it might have been the night he woke at 8 p.m., midnight, and 4 a.m. Four hours between feedings, consistently!

    April 16

    I wonder how to make a 4-month-old nap when he is clearly tired but won’t go to sleep…
    This is one of our greatest challenges: getting the baby to nap. He is way more interested in interacting with us and with his environment than he is in going to sleep. We are finding that sleep begets sleep, though. It seems counterintuitive, but if we can get him to nap and to sleep longer at night, then it’s easier for him to continue napping and sleeping longer. An overtired baby is a cranky baby who doesn’t want to sleep. He won’t drift off on his own, though, so we are on the lookout for new soothing methods.

    April 17

    I just got stung by an f-ing bee, or wasp, or fire ants. On my toe. F!!!
    That hurt like hell. I was outside with Jamie at twilight, showing him the plants on the back deck, and I must have stepped on or near a bee or wasp. Of course I was barefoot. It got me on the side of my 4th toe, and what started as a little stinging sensation quickly blossomed into a full fledged foot-on-fire feeling. I quickly checked Jamie to make sure that there weren’t any bees on or near him, and hopped inside. I stuck him in his bouncer and hopped around the living room, cursing to myself. Doc was out running errands and I called him to let him know that I’d been stung, Jamie was in a safe place, and I didn’t know if I was allergic or not since this was only the 2nd bee sting I’ve ever had. I figured that in case I passed out, he ought to be aware of what was going on. I did not pass out. Soaking my foot in a bowl of ice water helped. I was sore for a few days.

    April 18

    I am very pleased by the dinner I whipped up tonight: club sandwiches, tomato soup, and spinach salads.
    It was good! I didn’t find out until later that the spinach was a bad idea… Read on.

    I am kinda surprised and annoyed that my love for red meat, acquired during pregnancy, has not gone away.
    Beef! Sausage! Bacon! (Is bacon red meat?)

    April 21

    In honor of Earth Day, I have stopped eating green leafy vegetables. Save the spinaches!
    So I stopped eating green leafies. Out of desperation, we called our lactation consultant, who determined that all the spinach I’ve been eating might be the cause of Jamie’s gassy uncomfortableness. And so it seems to be the case! I’ve been off spinach, greens, lettuce, cabbage, etc. (and broccoli for good measure) since the 21st, and the difference is remarkable. He is so much more relaxed now. The ironic thing is, I increased my spinach intake while pregnant and continued after Jamie was born, because it is so chock full of nutrients. If only I’d known… we could have saved him (and ourselves) months of agony. I’m trying not to let the guilt get to me.

    April 24

    I am kinda weirded out by how green beans squeak against my teeth. Perhaps a generous serving of butter on top would fix that problem…
    Really, they do squeak if I just eat them steamed without butter. It’s odd. Rachel suggests eating them with bacon, and you can bet I’m going to try that next time.

    April 26

    I am grateful to Doc for last night’s 6 hour sleep block and to Jamie for sleeping till 7:30 this morning.
    A breakthrough! Jamie had his bottle at 1 a.m. but woke up at 3:30 crying. He’d had something like 7 ounces of milk, so it’s not that he was hungry — but I’ve always nursed him on demand when he woke, because that was the only surefire way to get him back to sleep. This time, Doc gave him a pacifier and rocked him for about an hour and a half. Every time he tried to put him back in his crib, he started to come awake again. At 5 he handed Jamie off to me so he could get some sleep. I sat in the rocker with him for another hour, then decided to bring him into bed with me. I fed him a short time later (5-1/2 hours between feedings!) and then he slept until 7:30. Doc won me six hours of solid sleep and since Jamie’s been consistently getting up around 5 or 5:30 a.m., I was quite pleased at how late he slept today.

    April 27

    ‘Tis easier for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than it is to thread a greasy baby through a onesie.
    That boy does not like having cream applied, but he gets rashy on his neck and chest where drool-soaked onesie fabric sits against his skin. So we rub him with Boudreaux’s Baby Butt Smooth Dry  Skin Ointment after his bath, and that usually makes him upset, and then our next task is to try to get a crying greasy baby into his jammies.

    ****

    circusgrowthchart

    Big Top Growth Chart

    A coworker showed me a link to this circus-themed growth chart. I love it! It’s kind of expensive so I might ask for it as a birthday or Christmas gift instead of just buying it. I like the idea of having a permanent record of Jamie’s growth. When I was growing up, we made marks on a doorframe (as I suspect so did many of you).

    Last night was another good night as far as training Jamie that he really doesn’t need to eat every 2 hours at night. He woke up a mere 2-1/2 hours after his last bottle, and instead of feeding him I gave him a pacifier and rocked him. He wasn’t too happy about it at first, but succumbed to the sleepies a short while later. He then slept another hour and a half before waking to eat. I hope this is a trend, and eventually he just won’t wake up for that feeding anymore. Doc has been working so hard to make this happen. I was glad I could pitch in a little bit last night.

    So in addition to spinach, I am also off of caffeine. Although my caffeine intake isn’t enormous (one cup of coffee plus several diet Cokes per day, usually), I suspect that Jamie might be somewhat sensitive to it, so I have cut it out of my diet completely. I went cold turkey and have had headaches for the past three days. I wonder why they call it “cold turkey.” Perhaps suddenly quitting a habit is about as appealing as a cold plate of turkey. I can dig that.

    Jamieson has crossed another milestone in his young life: He is now sitting up like a big boy! This means that, if we put him in a seated position, he can usually stay sitting by himself for a short period. If he begins to fall to one side, he’ll put out his hand to steady himself. Often he leans way forward for balance, but now I am seeing him sitting upright with good posture, more and more. Yesterday we had him sitting on his playmat, and he was gripping Doc’s fingers for balance. And then, he let go. On his own.

    Here’s a few recent photos…

    Jamie in the Bath 2

    Jamie in the Bath

    Sitting!

    Big Eyes

    First Cereal, Unsure

    First Cereal

    Bouncer 1

    Category Baby, Food, Jamieson, My Boring Life, Nature | Tags: | 2 Comments

  8. April Foods!

    April 13, 2009

    WholeFoodsAprilFoolsPage

    April Foods!

    Yes, I realize that April Fools’ Day was two weeks ago. I meant to post this the same day but just haven’t gotten to it yet.

    Whole Foods had a great home page on April 1. Click the picture below to see it full size. I love the recipes section — Chianti and Gorgonzola Popsicles! Yeah!!

    Category My Boring Life | Tags: | 1 Comment

  9. Infrequent Update #1

    April 11, 2009

    Posting frequently is just about impossible these days. I know it’s been something like three weeks now, maybe more, and I’ve probably lost my two readers for good. But, I do what I can.

    So my life pretty much revolves around Jamie, of course, and I don’t have many other topics to write about, so if you’re tired of reading about Mr. Baby, you can pretty much just skip this one.

    Goin' to Florida for the winter

    Goin' to Florida for the winter

    I’m going to try something new here. It’s tough for me to write a cohesive blog post when I’m so tired and don’t have much time, but it’s fairly easy for me to keep my Twitter and Facebook statuses updated. So I’m going to share some of those posts here, and expand on them a bit to give you an idea of what’s been going on.

    April 11

    Jamie keeps trying to roll over from back to front. He’s almost got it, he just can’t quite get his legs over. I’m not ready for this!

    April 9

    I am grateful to Kathryn for cooking dinner AND cleaning the kitchen!!
    Kathryn came over after work. We played with the baby, who was Mr. Cry-Cry Pants for a large chunk of time, gave him a bath, and then I fed him while Kathryn inventoried our kitchen and cooked us dinner (pizza and salad). AND she did the dishes. I LOVE YOU KAT!

    My baby has doubled his birth weight, grown over 7 inches, now drinks apple juice, and wears big boy pajamas! They grow up so fast… sniffle… ;)
    Oh my goodness. He had his 4-month checkup yesterday. He weighs 17 pounds 6 ounces and is 27-3/4″ tall. That’s the 75th percentile for weight and off the charts for height. We grow ‘em tall in the Scott household. His colic is largely gone, although he definitely still has digestive troubles that make him very unhappy for days at a time. He got his second round of shots, which made him very sleepy the rest of the day and he also ran a little fever. We gave him half-doses of infants’ Tylenol drops to help him with the associated fussiness. He’s basically happy and healthy; the doctor seemed pleased with his progress, although she did say he was “high-strung.” She recommended starting him on 2 ounces of apple juice per day, to help him poop (he has only been going maybe twice a week, and is very uncomfortable for the 2 or so days leading up to The Poop Event.) He likes the juice but not as much as my milk (yay!) She also said that we could give him probiotics — acidophilus bacteria, the “good” bacteria in our guts. It could help his digestive issues, and certainly won’t hurt. He also can start having rice cereal, which may help his digestion and might help him sleep for longer stretches, since he’s such a hungry boy. We haven’t given him cereal yet but may start this weekend.

    The first step is admitting you have a problem: My name is Katy, and I need 8-9 hours of sleep at night.
    It’s true, I do. I can get by on 7 hours without too much trouble, and clearly I can survive on 3-4 if needed, but Optimal Katy is 8 to 9 hours at night. I freely admit that I love sleep and need lots of it. Not everyone in my household does. :)

    Mr. Bright Eyes

    Mr. Bright Eyes

    April 6

    I feel like the walking dead today.
    Didn’t get much sleep last night. Very rough night. Jamie didn’t sleep well and then got up super early.

    I need to stop reading articles about child kidnappings in China, before I completely lose it.
    “Deng Huidong lost her 9-month-old son in the blink of an eye as a man yanked him from the grip of his 7-year-old sister near the doorway of their home. The car did not even stop as a pair of arms reached out the window and grabbed the boy.”

    I think “it gets easier” is a lie people tell new parents to get them to keep going.
    I mean, it HAS gotten easier. He’s a totally different baby now than he was two months ago. But it’s happening so slowly, and we are so exhausted. I’m ready for a few quick changes to keep me going.

    April 5

    Gosh, it sure is windy out.
    Sure was. I think a cool front blew through.

    Jamie just went 4-1/4 hours between feedings. Yay!
    But he’s not making it a regular habit! Boo!

    April 4

    Sitting on patio, chowing down on Triscuits. Baby is in bounce house. Gorgeous day in the shade.
    Yeah, this was a pretty good day. I took him outside in his little bouncer play center thing (they used to be called “Jolly Jumpers” and you’d hang them by a clamp from a door frame. Now they’re more like Exersaucers on springs) and the temperature was perfect. I love Triscuits. Just plain old salted Triscuits.

    Drinking coffee, nursing baby, reading “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.”
    I’m not sure if I should be consuming caffeine while nursing — while I’m actually nursing, or even inbetween. Maybe Jamie’s sensitive to it? Hard to say. I think I’ll try to cut it out of my diet for a while and see if it makes a difference.

    April 3

    Just watched Battlestar Galactica finale. Cried.
    I won’t post any spoilers here. I’m going to miss The Best Show on Television, but I think it ended exactly when it needed to. The final scene between Bill and Laura made me sob like a baby. And I know baby sobbing, believe me!

    Friends don’t just randomly shout into the darkness, and hope someone’s listening!
    Thanks to Doc for showing me this awesome animation about Twitter.

    April 2

    Watching Baby Einstein videos while eating dinner.

    April 1

    Walking & tweeting at the same time.

    I miss my Jamie and Doc. Love you, family!

    I am a milk-making machine.

    Simpsons stamps!
    Too cool! The Simpsons can still occasionally pull off a good episode or two.

    Trying to convince myself to drink a can of V8 juice with breakfast.
    It didn’t work. I like V8 and it’s always good to eat extra veggies, but I just couldn’t do it this morning.

    March 31

    Interested in the results oriented work environment.
    The concept is basically, as long as you get your work done and are reasonably available to your co-workers, it doesn’t matter when or where you work. Oh, and meetings are all optional.

    March 30

    I miss my baby and husband.

    We had a great Sunday. Happy baby, awesome weather, Schlotzsky’s, Arboretum & visit with Dad, freelance work, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, wine, cookies.

    March 29

    I am having a better day.
    See below.

    March 28

    I forgot to pay Rachel for the movie ticket. D’oh.
    I had a horrible day, emotionally. I was very very down all day, and Jamie was very very upset all day, and I had a hard time dealing with it. I cried a lot. Everyone pretends that babies are all unicorns and rainbows and fairy dust, and nobody ever tells you that there will be days when you just don’t want to be a parent anymore. I went out to the movies with Rachel and Kathryn in the evening (AFI Film Festival, Student Shorts), and had a good time, despite initially not feeling like going. Doc encouraged me to get out of the house for a couple of hours. I wish I’d felt like having dinner afterwards, but I just wanted to go home and sleep.

    March 27

    I forgot to pump this morning. I am going to regret this.
    It wasn’t too bad, actually. I was engorged but not painfully so, and I got 7 ounces of milk instead of my usual 5.

    March 25

    I feel overwhelmed with love for my son and husband. Family!!

    March 24

    I do not want to buy a whole new wardrobe, but still can’t fit into my pre-baby clothes. I’m tired of wearing baggy maternity wear.
    Well, I am giving in and going out tomorrow afternoon to get some new clothes. I am tired of wearing pants that I have to hike up every few steps… and, sadly, I can’t even fit into my “fat” clothes from before. I know that while pregnant I kept saying that I felt so good about my body that I didn’t care if I never lost the baby weight… but my hormones are different now and I am NOT HAPPY carrying around a couple of spare tires between the boobs and the thighs. (I am happy with the boobs, though, I have to admit. They can stay the way they are!!!)

    Purse contains five paperclips, four loose pennies, one packet of Splenda, half an Obama button, but… no… keys.
    Found office keys an hour or so later. They had fallen out of my purse onto the floor of my car.

    I know that the caves won’t save us!!
    We went out to the movies the night before, on my mom’s last day here, so she could babysit and we could get some time away from Mr. Baby. We watched “Knowing,” with Nicolas Cage. The movie was not bad, but it was out of focus the entire time. We asked an employee to fix it, but nobody ever did. I got a headache. We complained to a manager afterwards and he gave us six free unrestricted passes, and I have no idea when we will be able to use them again. Anyway, the movie was decent but there were some seriously cheeseball lines in it, and that was one of them.

    March 22

    Drinking a Newcastle Brown on the patio.
    Warm weather, and good cold imported beer. Hell yeah.

    March 20

    Date night: Coraline, then Red Lobster. But I miss my son..
    Mom babysat. The movie was fantastic, and the 3D effects didn’t seem gratuitous (unlike the effects in the remake of “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” which we saw a few weeks earlier via Netflix). Red Lobster: Love the cheesy biscuits. Like, I could eat a meal of just those. We had a nice time out, but we sure missed Jamie.

    Category Baby, Family, Jamieson, Movies, My Boring Life | Tags: | 1 Comment

  10. Dear Green Mountain Energy…

    February 27, 2009

    February 27, 2009

    Dear Green Mountain Energy,

    I wish to request that your company implement paperless billing. Every other utility that I use and bill that I pay — gas, water, phone, cable, internet, insurance, security system, credit cards, etc. — offers paperless billing as an option. I find it both ironic and unfortunate that a company as environmentally-minded as Green Mountain would let me pay online but still insist on sending me a paper bill in the mail each month. I enjoy supporting wind power, but I don’t see the necessity of wasting paper and resources.

    Sincerely,
    Me

    Category My Boring Life | Tags: | No Comments

  11. Our little pirate

    February 18, 2009

    Jamie in his stripey pirate shirt, blue jeans, and tiny Chuck Taylors.

    Category My Boring Life | Tags: | 3 Comments

  12. 2008 in review

    January 6, 2009

    Yes, everyone is doing “2008-in-review” posts… I have no idea why I feel compelled to do it too, seeing as how I’m a little BUSY these days with MUCH more important things…

    So I’ll keep it brief; Jamieson is asleep in his sling now, and much as I love having his warm little body pressed up against mine, I know I’m on borrowed time here.

    JANUARY

    January began with a wonderful little secret. I was pregnant! Our families and close friends knew, but I hadn’t told anyone at my office yet, which was good because near the end of the month, I miscarried. I was 12 weeks along, which made it rather physically traumatic, requiring a night spent in the emergency room and then surgery a few days later. Emotionally, it was very difficult for us.

    FEBRUARY

    We early-voted in the Democratic primaries…. Um…. not much else…

    MARCH

    I don’t think we did anything in March.

    APRIL

    Screw this. My life is boring and no one wants to read about it a second time. Anyway, it’s almost time for me to feed Jamie. He’s rustling about in the sling.

    Category My Boring Life | Tags: | 3 Comments

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