Humpty Dumpty

Last Friday evening, Logan and I were lounging around in the new living area, which we all just L-O-V-E. I set Logan down in between some pillows on our (new) couch, and crossed the room, about 5 ft away, to put something away. I was watching/talking to him the entire time, and in the split second that I was out of arm's reach, he did a triple axel and PLOP. Rolled off the couch and landed on the rug. Of course, he was startled and cried -- took me a few minutes to calm him down -- he was pretty shaken up yet TOTALLY fine. Part of me thought, Jeez. What a drama queen. The other part of me said, poor little guy and, WHAT was I thinking?!?! Stupid mommy! (I really should have known better than that....)

This is actually not the first time he's fallen. And, it's amazing how much my demeanor about the fall this past Friday has changed, vs. the first time he fell. I was so traumatized - and embarrassed - by the event the first time he fell, that I didn't blog about it back then. The only thing I've left out of my "online journal" actually. Yet, I still remember it vividly like it was yesterday. But, I can at least talk about it now (I couldn't breathe a word about it when it happened).... so I'll tell you all my little secret.

Logan had just turned one month old. He was still such a wee little thing. Super precious of course. Still in his brace at the time, and fussy as all hell, keeping us up at odd hours throughout the night (ahhh, the good ol' days). He fell asleep so easily laying on my chest that I would usually nurse him in bed, then pat and rock him on my chest until he fell asleep. Once asleep, I'd lay him either in the bassinet near our bed, or in between Jon and I and go to sleep myself. Well, on this particular night, I must have dozed off while still patting him to sleep -- because the next thing I knew, I woke up to the most terrible THUD you could ever hear as a brand new mama. In lightening speed, I was out of bed and picking Logan off the floor -- it was horrifying for me to see his little body so helpless and still, lying face down on the floor. It took him a few seconds to realize what happened, fast asleep himself, but once he figured it out, he let out the most awful ear piercing wail a mother could bear.

When I had jumped out of bed, I screamed something along the lines of oh shit -- which woke Jon up too of course.... and he started yelling "oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god". It didn't really help the situation but I suppose in times like this, you quickly learn who's better at handling emergency situations (me). ;-) Jon ran to the kitchen, cabinet doors banging, while I was rocking and comforting our little guy to let him know he was ok. I had no clue what Jon was doing, but later found out he was looking for a bag to put some ice in, for Logan's head. :)

Once Logan stopped crying (which I remember thinking was surprisingly fast), he just wanted to nurse and go back to sleep. He seemed to be fine, but we were a little nervous and wanted to make sure he didn't have a concussion or anything serious from the fall (our bed is pretty tall and of course, he fell onto the hardwood floor). So, as I was nursing him, I logged online to start researching what you should do when your baby falls (as it turns out, this happens ALL THE TIME to LOTS of moms!!) -- while Jon got on the phone to call the on-call nurse.

I was pretty upset on the inside, but outwardly calm with Logan in my arms. Strange how that is - mother instinct perhaps? I walked through a series of questions with the nurse - the biggest being, was he able to nurse/suck (why yes, he's nursing right now) and could he put his head down touching his chin to his chest (yep, he was able to do that too). I didn't know it at the time but that's a sign that tells you if he's hurt his neck or not (his neck will be stiff and unable to bend down if he's hurt). The nurse said he should be ok from the fall, not to worry, and if he continued to behave normally after the next 24 hrs, we shouldn't worry about it.

It was strange how different Jon and I behaved after that. I was ultra calm during "the incident". Jon freaked out, but once he could see Logan was fine and the nurse said not to worry, he turned on his heels and trotted back to bed. So what did I do?? I *then* had my meltdown. ;-) I lost it -- screaming at Jon to come back here, how could you leave like that?, we need to watch him every second to make sure he's ok, this was a huge thing that just happened to us, how could you just go back to bed?, etc. etc.

*sigh*

He calmed me down - repeated what the nurse had said, that Logan would be just fine. And, told me this is just the first of many falls and heartaches that we are going to have to endure with this little guy. He was right -- we both went to bed, with little Logan safe between us in my arms.

The next day - we decided it was time to buy a co-sleeper, so that if he DID roll off the bed again, he'd roll into the co-sleeper, and/or I could put him in that rather than the bassinet (which I didn't like using too much because I had to get out of bed to put him in it and/or sit up in bed to check on him in the middle of the night). At first I was resistant to buying YET ANOTHER baby item for our house, but in the end, it was one of the best purchases we could have made. I absolutely loved the co-sleeper -- I could check on him throughout the night while still lying in bed myself, he was within arm's reach for me to pat his back when he got a little fussy, I could easily pick him up to nurse him throughout the night and/or lay him back down once he had fallen back to sleep. Once he started sleeping in his crib in his own room (about 3 months old), I actually had the hardest time of everyone, adjusting to the change. I suppose I had just gotten really used to sleeping in between my two favorite guys.

It took me many days, perhaps even a week? I'm not sure, to recover from Logan's accident. I felt I had failed him as a mother -- he was completely helpless and 100% dependent on me, and there I had gone and fallen asleep while he was still on my chest, and let him fall from the bed. I was ridden with guilt. He wasn't big enough to catch himself in the fall, nor understand what had happened, and that just killed me inside. It was really hard for me to accept that I had dropped him, no matter how exhausted I was or unintentional the accident may have been. I still blamed myself for being so careless!

However, I feel I am finally past it and am able to talk about what happened and share the story with other Mommys (hey look, I'm even blogging about it!). I've come to realize I'm not the only Mom who has slipped up once or twice thank goodness and, we can't be perfect, no matter how hard we try. These kids of ours are pretty tough and resilient -- I suppose it's nature's way of accommodating for the inevitable accident here and there. Of course, now that "the incident" is long behind us, Jon teases me from time to time about how I "THREW him off the bed". Nice. But, we smile and laugh and make light of the situation as best we can. We are, after all, still learning this whole parenting thing.

So, now you know my dirty little secret. I may have ruined Logan's chances at becoming a rocket scientist, but he could easily still be president.

And, I am okay with that.

Avocados

Logan tried some freshly squashed avocados tonight. He was pretty damn tired (he's been sleeping A TON today) so he wasn't as interested in them as I had hoped (I LOVE avocados, so doesn't that naturally mean he will too??).... but, he did eat a few bites before we called it a night. I'll try again tomorrow when he's in a little better mood.

American Sign Language

I just purchased the "Sign with your Baby" starter kit (with book, demonstrational DVD, and quick reference guide) as well as some flash cards, which just arrived from good ol' Amazon today. I've heard good things about signing with your baby -- so I'm going to give it a try. It would be awesome if we could communicate with Logan before he begins to talk -- I can only imagine it's going to make life that much more fun and interesting (not to mention less frustrating for Logan *and* us!!)

Most sites recommend starting sign language with your baby at 6 months since they generally start having better control over their hands.... but other sites say you can really start as soon as you want, since they can learn/understand the signs, even before they can actually do them themselves. So, in some ways I feel I'm already behind the 8-ball on this one, but since we haven't yet hit his 6 month birthday, I'm still within the "zone" to start. ;-)

Anyhoo, I can't wait! I've already flipped thru some of the cards and book and it seems a lot more intuitive than I was expecting. It'll be exciting to learn another language and teach Logan to "talk" at the same time... :)

The Cure

Whatever words I say... I will always love you!

Enjoying a great concert with Leo and Mae. :)

Nocturnal Terror

I'm sad to say, we had one hellish night last night. :( Logan woke up around 4am or so and would NOT go to sleep. He was Mr. Nocturnal. The tough part about it (besides being in the middle of the night) was he was super tired and cranky, yet he just couldn't get back to sleep. I wonder if the crazy stimulation yesterday (lots of people with many different babies, a plethora of toys and loud baby music to go with them) had anything to do with it - but who knows.

So, both Jon and I did our best to try and calm him down and get him to relax so he could fall back asleep. Like my mom used to do when we were little, I usually softly talk him through it while I'm rocking or feeding or patting him. I'm sure he doesn't understand me but if anything, I'm talking myself thru the meltdown just as much as him. :) He was also super hungry and downed about 8oz, and when he was done with that, wanted to just gnaw on my fingers all night long.

I was finally able to get him to relax enough so that I could put him back in his crib without him freaking out, and listen to music until he fell back asleep. The sun was just starting to rise (about 5:45 or 6am?) when I finally got back to bed for a few more precious minutes of sleep. And, with an 8am con-call this morning, I've been dragging ass just a bit. I guess the middle-of-the-night-meltdown wore our little guy out too, because he slept in until 10am before finally getting up for the day....

*whew*

Memorial Day BBQ

Jenn just posted pics of her Memorial Day BBQ that we attended yesterday. The kiddos all got to play together for a bit which was lots of fun. Of course, my favorite pic is this one :)

Quote of the Day

I overheard Jon telling Logan today:

"The fatter you get, the more you look like Mommy"

Boy, isn't he sweet??

My husband really does love me. Really. ;-)

[In Jon's defense, he meant Logan is taking on more of my family's looks now that he's rounding out, but because of the way he said it and taking it out of context, it was too good not to post.... :-P ]

Hope everyone enjoyed the 3-day weekend as much as we did! We spent the weekend shopping for new furniture (this time, for the den) and a new much smaller/sexier stroller for Loganito. We also went to a couple BBQs with friends and had a great time hanging out with all the other babies.

Logan's currently passed out in bed -- he went down early today (about 7:30pm) after a stimulating but overwhelming afternoon with all the babies and toys. He woke up in the middle of the night again last night (about 2am), but we knew that was going to happen since he conked out before we could give him a full dinner or change his diaper. Otherwise, he's still been sleeping thru the nights so we'll see if tonight the trend continues!! :) He actually had the longest nap ever today (4 hrs!!) and ate quite a bit before the nap, and again tonight before bedtime. So, we could be creeping up on yet another growth spurt with all the eating and sleeping he's doing right now.

I think I need new nipples

Get your mind out of the gutter. I don't mean MY nipples..... I'm talking about bottle nipples. yeesh.

For the last few days, perhaps week, I've noticed Logan sucking the hell out of his bottles. To the point that, several times in one sitting, he'll suck so hard that the bulbous base of the nipple caves in and he just smiles up at me all sweet and innocent as his gums bite down on the thing. Poor nipple. I know what *that* feels like.

So, I guess I need to move up to a faster flow nipple. I've got a spare set of Level 3s (thanks Kim!) that I'm going to try out this weekend..... we'll see how it goes. If he doesn't drown, I suppose it's time to move on up.

Dads....

Jon "watching" Logan while I get some chores done. *sigh*

Late night maintenance

This is what my husband looks like after coming home at 6am. Guess who's been on baby duty all morning, juggling poopy diapers and con calls with clients?!? I now know I can feed Logan a bottle and take meeting minutes, all at the same time. ;-)

The good news is, Logan slept through the entire night again!! Yay!!

Giants Fan

Yes, this is the night for mad blogging. Or rather, I'm just finally catching up!!

Just a quick one pic posting.... of our little Giants Fan (outfit courtesy of Zabuton, Uncle Zane and Uncle Kai, who went to a Giants game last weekend).

Heeeeeeey batter batter! Go Giants! :)

Uncle Kai

What with my back being out of commission, life was thrown off kilter last week (it's still not 100% back to normal, but another story for another day). And, during that time, my brother Kai was actually in town visiting, in between Spring and Summer semesters. I've been remiss in mentioning his visit (he has since returned to LA), and more importantly, posting up some pics from the photo shoot with his nephew.

Needless to say, between both my dad and I, we didn't really get too many good shots. Logan seemed to be in a "blah" mood that day -- it *was* the first day his cold hit him hard after all. And, Kai? Well, who knows. He *tried* to look at the camera from time to time, but it seems we kept missing that perfect shot. ;-) Still, we got a few worth sharing.

It was great seeing you Uncle Kai! Good luck on your last grad school course!!

Mommy Blogging

Has anyone heard this term: "Mommy Blogging"? I was just reading about it online earlier today. Apparently, my girlfriends and I are not all that unusual after all! It appears there is a new community of women who, instead of meeting at the local playground to share their pregnancy, kid, husband and life stories in general, blog about them online. It's really taken up quite an interest, particularly with the stay-at-home-mom community. What's more, many of the women who were at one point working full time and blogging, ended up QUITTING and turning this Mommy Blogging stuff into a full time career!!

WHERE DO I SIGN UP?!?! :)

I actually came across all this via another blog site - dooce.com - which is really a woman's collection of life observations and rants, who happens to ALSO be a mom, so she's bundled into the Mommy Blogger camp. Her writing is cynical, raw and hilarious - and if anyone is looking for some entertainment throughout the day, I'd suggest checking her site from time to time.

At any rate, she was recently interviewed on the Today show, to speak on the Mommy Blogging phenomenon. Her post about the trip includes a little snippet of the episode, where you can see other moms talk about their new careers as well. In case dooce.com doesn't do it for you, here are some others you can try:

1) Motherhood Uncensored. And, if you want to laugh so hard you cry, read her post about Secret Agent Moms. I'm still wiping the tears from my face. Yep, I'm now a fan.

2) Woulda Coulda Shoulda. A mom who feels "the intersection between 'cool mom' and 'terminal goody-two-shoes' is a precarious one.” A woman after my own heart.

3) Mom-101. Sarcastic, witty, and yet verbose. Cool.

4) Silicon Valley Moms Blog. If the above aren't enough -- this is a site that has MANY postings from all sorts of moms in the valley (or, if you want to read on Moms from other cities in the country - but who would, really? - they have links to their sister sites on the main page.)

So, what did I do for most of the day? Yeah, I had a few fires here and there at work to put out, but the rest of my day I wasted away reading these other blogs (it can get a little addicting I have to admit). And one by one, I have added them to my Reader Subscription list because, well, you just can't have too many funny, witty, Mommy Blogs to read about, now can you?

A New Record!

well, we're hoping this is a trend and not a one-off, but Logan slept THROUGH the night last night. This is unheard of in our household. He generally goes to bed, sleeps about 4-6 hrs, then wakes up in the middle of the night (about 3 or 4am), has a big honkin' meal (about 4-6oz) and then goes back to sleep for a few more hrs before he wakes up for the day.

WELL.

Last night things changed. He's still pretty snotty and congested, so we both thought for sure he'd be up again soon when we finally put him down around 10 or 10:30pm last night. As usual, sometime in the middle of the night, our monitor lit up from his crying. We usually wait a few minutes to make sure he's really upset and needs tending to, but this time, he cried for a few seconds (or minutes? it's always hard to tell when you're half asleep) and then fell back to sleep on his own. We both got away with staying in bed and not getting up until late in the morning. Nice! :)

Couches are in...

woohoo!! just got our brand new couches delivered today -- I figured a pic was in order, since this is the nicest/cleanest they'll ever look. :-P

Now we just gotta get the tv/surround sound set up and a new coffee table, and we're all set for movies galore!! :)

Bananas

Tonight I decided to have Logan try bananas -- and he seemed to like them quite a bit! :) He also seems to be getting the hang of eating solids more too -- he's leaning in and opening his mouth when I come near him with the spoon (he's also got his hands open wide in front trying to grab the spoon too), and he CHOMPS down on the spoon the minute it hits his lips. Which was, I have to say, quite entertaining. :) The only downside to the bananas is they seem to be a little more sweet and sticky than sweet potatoes -- which wasn't cool when he got a handful of mooshy bananas and then rubbed his eyes or grabbed his ears. Aaiiiieeeeee!!

As for me, my back still hurts unfortunately. I went to my first PT session today -- didn't do much; mostly went thru an evaluation, a few stretches, got a massage :) and then laid on ice while I was hooked up to a transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator (TENS), which is supposed to help relieve the pain. It was pretty wild. It didn't hurt, just felt really prickly and a little relaxing too! I could definitely get used to this.... :)

Because I've got a newborn, they say my recovery will take twice as long as a normal adult's, and I'll just need to be patient. woohoo. Just what I want to hear. I want it fixed now. Now. Now. NOW!

My homework is to ice my back twice a day and take motrin regularly (up to 2400 mg/day) to get the inflammation and pain down. I'm also supposed to be extra careful about lifting, walking, holding Logan, etc. and not do any fancy twists at the waist that could put extra stress on my back. Basically walking and swimming is all that's allowed right now, exercise-wise. I go back in again on Friday, so we'll see if they'll allow me to do more after my 2nd session. :)

I'm not on my mac to post pics tonight, so instead I'll leave you with a great clip from The Family Guy. Oh, how I can already relate!!! ;-)

Sick All Around

I'll try to make this quick since my kiddo is getting a bit fussy as he rolls around on the futon couch next to me. And, I apologize in advance for any typos I don't catch, as he's also helping me type this post out. ;-)

In addition to hurting my back, Logan and Jon both got sick this past week. I'm not surprised really. They say within the first week at preschool, most babies end up getting sick.... and that's exactly what happened. I started noticing Logan's runny nose as early as Tuesday morning. He started coughing and sneezing a bit more by about Thursday and by Friday it was a full blown cold -- super snotty, congested, watery eyes, and lots of coughing. Poor little guy. He's been having trouble sleeping and eating because he can't breathe very well (he HATES it when I try to suck the snot out with the little bulb-syringe), but he's still been taking a fair number of good long naps and hasn't seemed to lose his appetite or spirit, so all in all I think we are really lucky. :)

But, because Friday night it got significantly worse and he couldn't sleep well, it meant he kept us up most of the night. Jon did most of the night shift and didn't get to sleep until about 6am the following morning - and then proceeded to sleep until about 1pm because he ended up catching the cold himself! So, we were a sorry bunch this weekend. We missed out on a family get together up in Sonoma on Saturday - where Logan and Luke (Logan's cousin) were going to get to meet for the first time. But, we just didn't have things going in our favor what with my broken back (a 2.5 hr car ride would have been really painful for me), Jon and Logan both sick, and record heat all week/weekend long (and no air conditioning up in Sonoma).... Instead, we stuck close to home and watched movies and basically laid around all weekend long. :)

Logan's had another development that he's getting better and better at every day: rolling over!! We'll put him to sleep on his back and a couple hours later when we check in on him before going to bed ourselves, he's snoring away, tummy down on the mattress. Several times he's rolled completely over to one side of the crib, practically hugging a railing while he sleeps. Strangely enough, he doesn't quite do the rolling from tummy to back nearly as well, which is supposed to be the easier one for babies to master. So, there have been several times now where he wakes up crying because he's face down but can't figure out how to "right" himself up..... his new little trick, however, means we can't just lay him down anywhere we like now, and have to keep a better eye on him since he's become a lot more mobile!

He's also taken to "sighing" a lot more these days. We're not sure if it's just because he's sick and tired and not feeling well, or if it's a new phase we've come across, but it's hilarious. During our evening walk today, every couple of minutes you could hear Logan sighing away like he was bored out of his mind. He seems to like hearing his voice drawn out in long cadences. :)

And, he's absolutely LOVING his jumper!! We love it as well. It gives us a break and let's him play on his own, but still be a part of the family (since we have it hanging in between the kitchen and living room). He's content to just bounce along for long periods of time -- a couple of times we've caught him practically falling asleep as his eyelids start to droop and his chin falls into his chest, yet his little legs still kick and bounce away! Amazing.

Because I've stayed home all week long, we ended up sending Logan to school 3 days this past week and I kept him at home 2 days. So, without planning it, we ended up doing a part-time transition his first week. Logan's taken to his school wonderfully and seems to really like his teachers and classmates (even made a new girlfriend on his 2nd day, the lady killer!). What a relief. :)

The Straw that Broke the Camel's Back

Bree <-- Camel
Lifting Logan while in his carseat <-- Straw

I've been pretty gimpy these last few days, living off of Darvocet and running meetings in a laid out position on my couch. Logan doesn't quite get that Mommy is in a bit of pain. So, I went to see a doctor about my back today. Long story short, I've got a couple protruding (or bulging/herniated) discs in my lower back -- the damaged discs are pushing into my spinal canal or nerve roots, which is causing the pain. My doc has me signed up to do some Physical Therapy over the next month to try and strengthen my back and get the discs back into place. Yay. Sitting is the worst possible position to be in - so my doc wants me to work from home as much as possible. My boss, being the accommodating man that he is, helped me escalate my injury thru the blackhole at MSFT and I've got a new desk on its way. This is what they just emailed me:

With the electric lift workstation, you can easily move the desk from seated to standing working posture with the touch of a button and use your seated task chair when you want to sit down to work.

"With the touch of a button" Oh my! :)

I start Physical Therapy next week. I usually hate PT. But in this case, I'm really hopeful it'll help me out. Muay Thai is out of the question (my doc politely asked I not continue right now, and added, just don't do anything "explosive" hehehe). I can (and am encouraged to) do light exercise like walking however. I'm thinking about taking up some swimming again since it's low impact and the weather is so hot and beautiful right now...

The only good news to all of this is the strict workout regimen my doctor will have me on, might be the kick in the butt I need to lose the extra pregnancy weight! :) plus, it now gives me an excuse to not only work from home, but skip out an hour a day if I need to, to take a dip in the pool. :-P

It's Not That Easy Being Green

Disposable diapers are the 3rd largest consumer product in landfills (behind newspapers and beverage/food containers) and require over 500 years to decompose. So, one of the reasons I signed us up for a cloth diaper service was so that we could be a bit more environmentally friendly.

Unfortunately, we haven't used the cloth diapers as much as I had hoped. The first couple months of Logan's life, we weren't able to use them due to his brace (cloth diapers are a lot bulkier and his brace didn't fit right with them on). We also use disposable when we go out, since it's more convenient to chuck the dirty diaper rather than carry around the dirty cloth one.... but, because we are such social animals and out all the time (I guess), there would be entire days in a row where we'd be using only disposable and not the cloth! :( And, now that he's attending preschool, cloth diapers aren't very well supported there...

It's been eating at my conscience that we aren't being as green as we should be, so I started doing some research on biodegradable disposable diapers instead (our lifestyles are such, that we really can't join the camp of parents who don't use any diapers at all).

There seems to be (at least) two different options that get really good reviews. gDiapers (started by an Australian couple) are a flushable option which are kind of a cross between cloth diapers and regular disposables. They seem pretty cool but we still run into the "inconvenience" of carrying a dirty diaper cover while out and about (and talking our preschool into the extra care required to use them).

Logan's cousin Luke is using the other option, a biodegradable diaper made by Nature Babycare (started by a Swedish mom; Isn't it pathetic that none of these are American?!?). And, after talking to Curtis/Renee, and reading reviews online, it seems to be everything we're looking for! :) They are biodegradable, compostable, chlorine free and easy to use. They also make disposable wipes as well which is a plus. :) So, I just ordered a small pack of the wipes and diapers this past weekend to try them out and Mr. Logan wore his first biodegradable disposable last night. They seem to work just fine -- we'll know more with time of course, but my hopes are up!

Belated Wishes

This morning, I (and a couple other moms) received the below email from a co-worker of mine. It was an unexpected, but pleasant, surprise. Of all the mother's day cards, emails and calls I received this past Sunday, even of all the yummy dark chocolate that I love, this was by far the best of them all and really touched me deeply.

See if you agree.


-----Original Message-----

Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 6:55 AM

Subject: Happy Mother's Day

I wanted to wish you all a happy mother's day. I got the women I could think of anyway. I know there are a lot of others around, but I don't reckon I know them too well.

Without you ladies giving hope of turning a somewhat bleak future into one of hope, raising tough, smart children to meet the challenges that we are bestowing upon them, there'd be not much else to look forward to in the times that are nearly upon us. It takes a lot of courage and dedication to work a full-time job and raise a kid, much less a couple of them for some of you.

Even if your kids don't think much of you now, don't honor you as well as they should, or take you for granted, they likely will thank you someday in their own way (if not in words, then in actions). If not, well I'll say thank you for them.

Formula Don't Grow on Trees Yo

I completely forgot to post last weekend but Jenn's mom Bev gave us one of the best presents of all.... an entire *CASE* of formula (that's 24 cans of the powdered white stuff). Score!! This is huge since we are going thru the stuff like it's candy and it ain't cheap! ;-)

Thanks so much Bev!! We really appreciate it :)

First Day at Preschool

I contemplated on the drive home today whether I should refer to Logan's school as day care, child care or preschool. I've decided preschool is the coolest - it makes him sound all "grown up" and makes me feel like he's already started his education. I figure given the amount of cashola we're dumping into the place, I should be able to call it whatever I want. So, preschool it is. ;-)

He had a great first day, charming all the teachers apparently. Jon and I got a pretty late start this morning, so we actually dropped him off later than I was planning. But, after some initial crankiness (the classroom was fairly loud with crying babies when we arrived, which woke up poor little Logan from his morning nap and startled him a bit I think), he seemed to be right at home so we left him to manage thru the chaos on his own.

It finally hit both Jon and I today that we were leaving our little guy with complete strangers -- which made us pretty nervous. I choked up a couple of times while watching him lay on the floor next to another baby. Jon kept by his side the entire time we were there and gave him a sweet good-bye kiss when we left.

I wasn't very productive at work. I kept thinking about when I could leave and wondering how he was fairing. I refused to be one of those mommy-zillas and call to check in tho. But by the afternoon I found out how he was doing anyway since Jon called himself. :)

When I arrived to pick him up, he was upset and didn't notice me -- and when I finally walked up to him, he didn't immediately greet me with his usual big grin. I had this fleeting thought "Oh my god he's already forgotten me" which was a tad freaky. But, I then fed him a bottle and we ended up spending about an hour there just hanging out and playing on the floor together which he seemed to really enjoy. He seemed to just be really overwhelmed but otherwise in a good mood which was a relief. Of course, he conked out on the ride home (the pic isn't great, but you get the idea). ;-) It'll be interesting to see if he sleeps better/longer through the night now because of all the activity at school during the day.


Logan's been pushing out his legs more and more these days, like he wants to jump jump jump. Particularly when he's sitting on your lap. So, tonight we decided to put up the jumper that Julie and Jeff gave us (thanks guys!!). I had to put a little table underneath his feet since he didn't quite reach the floor in the living room (that particular doorway is taller than the other ones in the house). He slowly got the hang of it and by the end of the night was swinging and swaying and jumping like crazy. It was pretty entertaining and gave both of us a rest -- Jon caught up on some tv while I made dinner. I'll have to catch a video of him jumping around next time....


The other, bad, news is that I somehow tweaked my lower back today and am in intense pain just sitting at the computer or lying down on the couch. :( I can't carry Logan around the house with me like I usually do (the other reason why we pulled out the jumper tonight) which is doubly frustrating knowing he had such a big day. So, I'm really hoping it's nothing serious and I get better soon. Go go gadget Darvocet!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's day to all the moms out there!! :)

I had a nice leisurely day with the boys today -- Jon picked up a treat for me this morning, yummy donuts from a shop near our old house that we love. I then went to muay thai and worked it all off ;-) Aaron took us out to a late lunch, where Logan proceeded to give me a hard time throughout the entire meal even tho it was *supposedly* my special day, damn kid.

Jon also got me a brand new set of pots and pans for the house. Up until now we've been operating with an assortment of hand me downs and I've always wanted to buy a new (and complete) set. Of course, there's always a "gotcha" with Mr. Jon -- and apparently he thinks I'm going to cook more now that we have a nice set in the kitchen. I told him he better watch what he says or I'll be barefoot and pregnant (again) before he knows it. That'll shut him up for awhile. hehehehe

We spent the evening at Kim and Nathan's hanging out with friends and taking in the Survivor Finale and then came on home to put Logan to bed and pack for his BIG DAY tomorrow -- his FIRST day at child care!! Yikes.

Stay tuned to hear how it all goes! Same bat time, same bat channel.

5 Months Old

This morning Logan actually fell asleep shortly after I started nursing him. I figured he must've woken up too early and still needed some rest. So, I laid him back down in his crib and was about to go back to bed myself when I thought, dang, he looks so damn cute (with his two little arms/hands up in the "stick 'em up" pose) that I thought I'd take a few shots with my brand new camera. So, I got the camera out but of course, this big ol' honkin' lens and autofocus started making tons of noise and Logan's eyes peeked open to see what all the commotion was about! Damn it. Last time I do THAT again. ;-) Anyhoo, we ended up doing a photo shoot in the crib anyway, but instead with little Loganito practicing his standing all by himself holding onto the crib railing! :)

This afternoon I decided to move onto a new solid food, yummy sweet potatoes! You thought the rice cereal was a mess, check out the damage from this sweet orange goo!! ;-) We had a good time and he seemed pretty interested in the whole process - eating about half the jar (well, half the jar is now gone, I can't say it all made it to his stomach) before losing interest and wanting to play with his spoon and bib instead. He also polished off about 8oz or so of milk. So, he seemed pretty hungry. We'll see if he sleeps any better tonight because of it. Else, he's just going thru another growth spurt.

The last couple of days, Jon's brother Aaron has been visiting and we've had a really nice time. It hasn't been the action packed weekend that this bachelor is probably used to - instead it's been chaotic dinner outings with friends and LOTS of babies ;-) but I think he and Jon have enjoyed catching up and of course Uncle Aaron loves his new nephew. As you can see from the pic, our silly boy has discovered his tongue more and more these days.....

And finally, because I haven't posted many pics up lately, here's one I really like of Logan with my dad, that Jon took earlier in the week. Click on any of these images for a whole slew of more photos with the new toy....

Happy 5 months today Mr. Logan!

Juror Summons

Did you know? Depending on the state you live in, you can be excused or deferred from jury duty if you are breastfeeding? Pretty cool. As it so happens, I just got summoned to jury duty and on the back of the form there is a section to fill out if you want to be excused, and one of the options says "Currently I am a mother who is breast feeding (Rule of Court 859)"

I never really thought about it, but it makes sense. Have you ever seen a court room with a mother's room attached? or, a Juror who puts up her hand and says, "Hold on a sec Judge, I gotta flip sides here", as her baby nurses in her lap? ;-) So there ya have it. Not that you'd EVER want to skip out on jury duty, or that you needed any more reasons to breastfeed. But if you did, then this is just one more reason to think about. :)

We're coming up on the end of Jon's paternity leave this week and overall I think Jon and Logan have gotten along smashingly. Funny, Tuesdays are not a favorite day for Logan. Both Tuesdays (last week and this week) I came home to a little baby meltdown and had to skip muay thai class and just comfort my poor little kid because Jon was at his wit's end. Jon thinks he's just missing Mommy but I really don't know. Logan's also still waking up at least once, and if we're unlucky, then twice, in the middle of the night.... but he's not STARVING like he was a couple weeks ago when he was downing 6-8oz in the middle of the night. So, Jon just gives him a little milk, however much he wants and needs, and then sets him back in his crib to watch his mobile and fall asleep on his own.

I'd say our biggest news this week has just happened in the last 24 hours. Ever since he was born, we've been swaddling Logan up tight anytime we lay him down for a nap or bedtime. But, I've been thinking maybe we should start transitioning out of that habit, since I'm concerned it hasn't given him enough chances to learn to roll over on his own (since his arms are bundled tight against his body) *and* it hasn't allowed him to learn to just fall asleep on his own. I'm not really sure if it's a huge issue or not (I doubt it), but since we're working on getting him to sleep through the night still anyway, I figured it wouldn't hurt to try.

Anyway, last night Jon tried putting him down without his swaddleme blanket (best invention EVER by the way) for the first time and he slept about 4 hrs on his own before waking up this morning. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal but that's HUGE! Anytime we used to put him down without being swaddled before, he's always squirmed and kicked and punched his arms in the air and woken himself up within 10 seconds. So, Jon laid him down swaddleme-less for each of his several naps today and he did great, sleeping on his very own each time. We've just put him to bed tonight without the swaddle again, so we'll see how long it lasts tonight. *crosses fingers*

One last item before I turn in for the night. Today is my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Zafu!!! :)

Wiggle Worm

Logan is a super wiggly guy on the changing table. Today was no exception. I thought it would be fun to see if I could get a video of him squirming around. This capture is actually him being mellow if you can believe it (you'll see I even took off his diaper and pretended we were going to do a changing just to see if he'd move around more like he usually does!) :)

His favorite move is arching his body to one side (toward the wall). He's also really good at planting his feet and then rubbing his butt back and forth along the table and then launching his entire body toward the end of the table.... usually JUST as I'm about to put the diaper on (which means the diaper stays put but his body moves about 6 inches off the diaper).

Suffice to say, it's definitely getting more and more challenging just to get a friggin' diaper on him these days! And don't get me started on how many times I've had to wipe pee off the adjacent wall. ;-)

Had a nice walk

Back home after a nice long walk with Mommy and Lola this evening. :)

Yeah, I'm badass.

Spoon Feeding

We tried spoon feeding rice cereal to Logan for the first time tonight. I caught a couple videos of it -- unfortunately, nothing too exciting. He didn't seem super thrilled about the rice cereal, but let's be honest. Have you TRIED rice cereal? I did. It's super bland and boring. I'm looking forward to giving him some of the more fun stuff soon, that actually has a bit of FLAVOR attached to it!! ;-)

For some reason the first video I took was more grainy than the second, I must not have focused before we started. So, just posting up the second one since it's a bit better and you still get the gist of what happened. ;-)

Enjoy!

New Gadgets

Today feels like Christmas!

My loving husband gave me a super cool birthday-anniversary gift today... the brand spankin' new Canon EOS Rebel XSi SLR Digital Camera! Which is awesome since I've been getting more into photography again, now that Logan is here. :) I've still got to read the manual and figure out all the tricks but look soon for some more great photos of Loganito! (For those who are photography fanatics, here's an in depth review of the camera.)

I also got a new iPhone..... ok, let me explain.

After Logan's "distraction" session last night, I picked up my phone to text Jon and found the top half of my screen wasn't working. I thought OH SHIT STUPID ME. Logan's slobber and drool has killed my phone! I rebooted it several times to no avail. I searched online and found several sites suggested turning the phone off and sealing it in a container full of uncooked rice, which will help pull out any moisture from the phone. So, I went ahead and let it sit in rice all night long.... but, it still wouldn't work this morning.

I started thinking it's possible maybe the drool isn't what killed my phone and it just broke coincidentally at the same time! (it could happen, right?) Because most of the apps I use are at the top of my home page, I couldn't do anything like text, check the calendar, view maps, etc. I also couldn't call Jon because some of the numbers in his phone number are at the top half of the keyboard, and because his name is at the top of my favorites list. Perfect.

So, I visited a Genius this evening and innocently explained "hey my phone's not working all of a sudden" (I forgot to mention the baby drool that might have HAPPENED to also get inside) and voila! they swapped out my old phone with a new one - just like that. yipppee!! (and *whew*)

I've got to reconfigure it to all my old settings and what not, but big deal. I gotta have a phone. And, just to be safe, I won't let Logan drool on this one this time. ;-)

Paternity Leave at its Finest

This was actually taken yesterday when I got home from work, but I forgot to post it.... funny how HAPPY Logan looks and how tired and dazed Daddy looks.

It was the best shot of Daddy I could get -- he's never been one to be photogenic.

Bottles Galore

Ahhh, the joys of having a baby.

I came home early this evening so Daddy and Aunt Catherine could catch Game 5 of the Sharks-Stars Playoffs and found the sink filled with dirty bottles. Daddy hasn't had time to wash any of them and thinks I will, apparently. If I didn't need him so much, he'd be so fired by now. ;-)

Logan was pretty damn tired when I got home -- and had a really hard time knowing what to do. He didn't seem terribly hungry, didn't have a wet diaper, didn't want to play with his toys or sit with Mommy or even walk around the house. I finally found switching between my iPhone and the cats were enough distraction to calm him down before bed. I captured some great shots and thought it's about time to share some recent photos in his album. Click on the pic to the right for more of the "distraction" session. :)

You'll notice he's sitting up most of the time on his own now! You'll also see the favorite famous lower lip jutting out on a couple of the shots - he started wailing the minute I took the iPhone away from him. What a nerd.

I miss my baby

well, today it really hit me how much I miss Logan. :( the rice cereal experiment last night seemed to work well -- he slept quite awhile before waking us up in the middle of the night. But, Jon got him back to bed pretty quickly and then he slept in until 9:30am this morning which is TOTALLY UNHEARD OF!!

I was thrilled to see how late he was sleeping in, but I was also a little sad -- since I didn't get to spend time with him, nurse him, change him, etc. like I usually do. Instead - nada for Mommy this morning. And, because I went to muay thai after work tonight, I only got a couple hours total with him today.

My brilliant realization is that I will now only get a few hours a day during the week to spend with Logan! :( (I know, I'm slow) It's been a bit of a shock to come to this realization, since I've been so used to spending every waking moment with him...I was almost tempted to wake him up this morning just to give him a kiss goodbye before I went off to work.

Don't worry - I didn't. I obeyed the cardinal rule ("Don't wake a sleeping baby"). 'sides, Jon would have killed me. ;-)