Lilypie 4th Birthday Ticker

Friday, May 28, 2004

Again I spoke (blogged) too soon. All seemed fine yesterday, but in the evening Spencer threw up again. (Wardrobe change for Spencer & me this time.) Only one instance of vomit, then off to sleep for the night. Jim and I had to call it a night early too. Apparently Spencer may have passed whatever nastiness he had along to us, and we are both sick as dogs. I skipped the 10pm pump so I could get in bed early for some extra sleep, but I paid dearly for that decision when my body woke me up at 12:45. Even after some relief, there was no real sleep for either of us last night. Between Jim's stomach and my throat, things haven't shaped up very well so far today.

Side note about Spencer's visit to the pediatrician yesterday: he weighed in at 19 pounds and 15 ounces! Ack! If hadn't thrown up so much the night before, I'm sure he would have topped 20 pounds - holy cats!
Spencer seems to be ok, but things took a turn for the worse on Wednesday evening: we got to experience (what was probably) his first stomach virus. Characterized by five rounds of projectile vomiting an insane amount of fluid (call to pediatrician in between rounds three and four,) it was a bit of a stressful ordeal for everyone and required several wardrobe changes by both Spencer and Jim. Fortunately, the baby was so tired by the end that he was able to successfully fall asleep from exhaustion. It took Jim and me took a bit longer to relax, however.

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

I spoke too soon... Spencer woke up again at 5:20 this morning. He's not feeling well and apparently has trouble sleeping when he's all congested. :(
Tired. I've been tired a lot lately. I expected that having a baby would leave me incapacitated and tired in a zombie-like sort of way, but the truth is that I now get enough sleep to function and just go around at about 80% on a good day. It is frustrating, to say the least. Last night Spencer woke up screaming at 4:20, and this morning he pulled something similar at 1:40. Now, having nursed him to fill his little tummy back up and calm him back down, I need to spend another 20 minutes pumping to see if there is anything left to send to school with him in the morning. The last few days he's taken all 24oz of his milk before 4:00pm, and they suggested perhaps I bring more to have on hand. Ack! Babies his age typically consume ~30 ounces a day, and he takes nearly that entire amount just at school! Oy. Solids are coming along, but it will take a while before they are eaten in volume enough to complement his liquid diet. (Last night's dinner of 1 ounce banana + 1 ounce squash doesn't make a huge dent in his calorie requirements for the day.)

For those that missed it, Letterman's Top Ten Things Never Said Before on "The Sopranos", delivered by the cast members themselves, was quite a hoot.

Monday, May 24, 2004

I am still in shock that Adriana got whacked last night. I was really pulling for her & Christopher to come through. I think she is (was) probably the sweetest person on the show, always looking for the best in people. (Even trying to protect the murderous drug dealer who ultimately caused her downfall, "He doesn't even use any more... just deals, and sends all the money to his cousin in Pakistan who runs a prep school for boys.") She had a tragic character flaw - her naivete. Sigh. I guess if I had been a little more up on entertainment news, I might have seen this coming: actress Drea de Matteo already has plans for the fall starring in the new Joey show.

Sunday, May 23, 2004

Spencer, Bonnie and I went to the park today and spent the afternoon with some friends. Spencer liked the park, and his first ride in a swing. Here are a bunch of photos from the day taken by Ronda. Today was also another first for Spencer. He tried his very first fruit...BANANAS! Needless to say, he loved them.

Saturday, May 22, 2004

Spencer now has two foods in his diet: sweet potatoes and squash. No new pictures were taken of eating squash, but they look pretty much the same - just a slightly paler orange mess on his face. He just becomes so excited when he sees the spoons coming towards him that he lunges forward to get it. Cute, but no wonder his high chair needs a five-point harness on it! We plan to introduce a green vegetable this weekend, and (after waiting the required 3-4 days to check for any reaction) include fruit as well in to the mix. So far, making his food has been super-easy, following the guidelines spelled out in Super Baby Food.

Monday, May 17, 2004

Peace & quiet. I probably shouldn't put that in print, for fear of jinxing the situation and waking young Spencer, but right now all is calm in the Leach household. We enjoyed a nice dinner with Kim & Chloe and Carol & Brian. I should have taken pictures of all of the babies playing together, but I didn't. Just a video clip of Brian testing out Spencer's Deluxe Jumperoo. He LOVED it. Overall, I think the evening worked out just great with everyone taking turn napping, playing the bouncy seat and being fed in the high chair. AND the three of us adults actually got to sit down and eat dinner at the same time! Speaking of eating, Spencer got the hang of it over the weekend! We introduced him to sweet potatoes and he thinks they are mighty fine. There are a couple pics of his messy face added to the May photo album.

Yesterday we had lunch with Audra during her brief stop through Houston on her way to the airport for vacation to Maldives. I was thinking about her this afternoon, knowing that she had been traveling for about 24 hours, and still had several more to go... when suddenly her name popped up on instant messenger! "Audra? Is that really you?" It was! She had managed to find internet access during her layover in the airport in Dubai! Too crazy! I can't wait to see the pictures she'll have to share from halfway around the world.

And Happy 1 Year Anniversary to Chris & Katie!!!

Friday, May 14, 2004

Spencer is such a big boy already! Every day at school they comment on how much he has grown and filled out. Yesterday I scheduled an appointment for his SIX MONTH CHECK UP! Ack! I can't believe it! Spencer's newest tricks these days are making funny fish faces and sucking sounds with his mouth. He hasn't rolled over again since last week, but he he enjoys rolling from side to side. And this morning, Jim found him in his crib lying across the width of the matress and having a grand old time kicking the bumper!

Still no luck eating solid food yet. We've gone through an entire box of rice cereal during the past month, and the only time any got into his belly was when we put it in his bottle. After trying to spoonfeed about an ounce or so, we cut our losses of wasting precious milk and put the rest in a bottle with a special nipple. Some folks suggested that rice cereal might not be the most appealing, so this week we tried sweet potato. That didn't go over too well either. We'll take another stab at it again tonight. Although, we're not terribly concerned because he certainly seems to be thriving on breast milk alone. It can be an infant's sole source of food for a year or more, but we hope he'll get the hang of solids long before then!

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

One thing I forgot to mention about the weekend was that we went to the new Chuy's for lunch on Mother's Day. It was just as fabulous as always!

On Saturday Rebecca and I finally had lunch together - a date we had been trying to set up since before I returned to work! I have a lot of respect for our friendship and value the opportunity to have intellectual discussion about the challenges of raising babies, understanding we have made different decisions on the subject.

Monday, May 10, 2004

Happy Mother's Day to me! It's been a great Mother's Day celebration all weekend! On Friday afternoon I was invited to a Mother's Day Tea at Spencer's school. We came at the end of the work day, enjoyed some mini quiche and cucumber sandwiches and socialized with other mommies and babies (and one daddy.) We also received gifts that the babies had 'made' for us - a dishcloth with their little footprints - too cute! On Saturday the azalea plant Spencer ordered arrived with about 50 buds just ready to bloom any minute. And yesterday, for the actual day, Spencer gave me an impressive gift of three Wusthof knives - a chef's knife, a paring knife and a Santuko knife (which I have been wanting, but not knowing it's name, just calling it the "Rachel Ray" knife!) When I told Deena I received gifts from Spencer she asked "was he drawn to get you shiny things?" "Why, yes!" It's a bit of a bummer that currently I don't have time to prepare a dinner that takes more than 10 minutes or has more than 4 ingredients, but I know that day will soon return. In the evening I opened up presents from mom, how nice of her to send me gifts for my first Mother's Day - I think part of the reason was a 'thank you for having a great baby because I enjoy being a grandma.' She helped with fashion in a fun new watch, pocketbook and sleeveless tops all in lime green. Here are pics from this weekend.

Thursday, May 06, 2004

Jim's sister Ronnee was a caller on 104 KRBE this morning to talk about The Bachelor. Listen!
Bari has a blog! Also, she was the one who originally introduced me to the Set game (which I haven't played in a couple years) and I was so excited to see the link on her new blog for a daily online Set game! I am embarrassed to admit that yesterday it took over 10 minutes for me to find all six. Today I found five in about a minute, but my total time was seven and a half minutes before the sixth was discovered.

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

Last night, Spencer decided to rollover a few more times for both Bonnie and me, so we were able to record it once. It's the 3rd time we had him do it in a row, and he was letting us know, in no uncertain terms, that this was his last performance of the night... check it out.
Not that we had any doubt Spencer was growing and thriving, but learning just how well he is doing from the numbers yesterday make it much easier to continue to look at numbers like 2:00 on the clock in the middle of the night.

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

May is here, and today Spencer is exactly five months old. Omigosh! In honor of this occassion, I brought him by the pediatrician's office on his way to school to get some updated stats. (Drumroll.) Spencer now weighs 18 pounds and 6 ounces. He measures 27 3/4 inches in length! Big guy! Now that May is here, we have also started a May album with a couple of pictures.

I was also thinking about Wendy this weekend, remembering that her little Paige just turned one year old. We last saw each other when she and Paige came to visit Spencer and me in the hospital. No, that's not quite right, we saw each other the next weekend at the hockey shower at Dawn's house. Then Wendy moved to Dallas a few short weeks later. I dialed her old cell phone number, and was pleasantly surprised to hear her answer. It was really great to spend some time catching up on the past several months.

The hockey shower reminds me... Dawn is moving to Europe, and the dog won't be joining them. If anyone is interested in adopting their eight year old Great Dane, Goose, please let me know, He's a super-sweetheart and very well behaved.

Sunday, May 02, 2004

Spencer rolled over today! And he seemed pretty happy about the whole event, too! I captured the tail end of his second roll over one video, and waited patiently for a third, but Spencer decided he was done. The milestone took place at Chuck & Angie's house. Spencer and I enjoyed the gorgeous weather during the one mile walk each way. Their 15 month old daughter, Ashleigh, must have said "baby" at least one hundred times - she thought Spencer was pretty cool.

I forgot to say Happy Queens Day on Friday to my coworkers & friends in Amsterdam. During a conference call last week, we could hear some of the festivities already underway in the background.

That evening we met up with Heath & Kim & Chloe for dinner and a visit. Spencer's bath drew quite a crowd, and he proved once again that he is not quite ready to eat cereal from a spoon.

Shortly before Spencer was born our dishwasher died and it was more cost-effective to buy a new one than to spend money on the expensive replacement parts. (Having a quiet dishwasher now is very nice, I have to admit.) Jim did all of the work himself. Right now, he's in the kitchen saving the day as a handyman again. Last week, our microwave developed an interesting new feature: it would turn ON when the door was opened! After doing some investigation and research, he picked up a new microwave and will be finishing the install momentarily.