Silent Runnings

ok...I still have yet to catch it on video (AJ is camera shy on occasion), but he's been crawling for a few weeks now. Not up on his knees yet, but still motoring around _REALLY_ fast.

His most recent "new" trick is to wake up in the mornings (he usually comes to bed with me after VNB leaves for work) and instead of crying or making any other noise, he silently rolls onto his belly and is off and 'running.' This makes it difficult for me because my back is to the bed when I'm at the computer (which I usually am by the time he wakes up), but I don't have the lights on yet because I don't want to wake him. This is especially difficult when he's wearing his dark PJs that blend in very stealthily with our bedding. Blinded by the computer screen, I must turn at each and every noise (no matter how slight) and try to discern if he is indeed awake, if he's partially thinking about waking up (at which point I rush over, pat him on his back, and pray that he goes back to sleep), or if it was just my imagination.

And since we've already learned the hard way that "mommy and daddy's bed + awake or moving baby = hard meeting of head with pergo," I tend to be a very sleepy nervous wreck until he wakes up in the mornings.

If I wasn't worried that it would wake him up, I'd _SO_ get a little cat collar for him - you know the kind with the bell...

App. Trail, Denver, and the Poconos, Oh My!

Ok, so I haven't blogged in like a week. I might have mentioned that VNB was backpacking the Appalachian Trail (part of the MD portion) with some friends from church last weekend (Friday morning through Sunday afternoon). Then Monday at noon, AJ and I left for the airport to fly to Denver for a business trip. We got back Thursday evening. Then we left Friday morning for VNB's Father's Day weekend extravaganza in the Poconos and got back around noon today. It's been exciting, let me tell you! And very tiring. And dirty and cold there at the end.

So the weekend that VNB was away wasn't that exciting for AJ and me, really. I got the house mostly clean (it needed it), while still successfully getting ready for our trip, going grocery shopping, making it to church almost on time, and managing to sleep a little too. I was doing ok until VNB called to say that they were done. Then it was like something inside me snapped and I couldn't take it any longer. By the time he got home, I was pretty wiped. So he took AJ for a few minutes while I laid down, then I got back to packing.

Monday morning, 9 AM. I get a call from a friend asking if I wanted to ride to the funeral with her. Now, I knew that this very dear friend of the family had died, but the last I'd heard (including at church on Sunday), they were going to have a small family-only service right away, then have a big memorial in a couple of weeks when his daughter got back from Nigeria (she was leaving with a team from the church on Monday). Anyway, I was a "little" surprised by this new info, so I called the church to make sure that it was a public funeral. Then, I did something which has to have beaten some record somewhere. I got together the last of the things for our trip (we were planning on leaving the house for the airport at noon), emailed my boss, found (clean!) clothes that were appropriate (at least mostly) for a funeral which weren't already packed in my suitcase, got AJ dressed and ready, and we were in the car driving away (only having forgotten two relatively unimportant things) at 9:40.

We made it to the church just in time for the funeral to begin (it started at 10), then even had time to go to the graveside service too before needing to rush off to the airport. Unfortunately, AJ had a diaper which was in desperate need of changing after the funeral, so we had to traverse from one end of the church to the other. Now, it's not a big building, but _EVERYONE_ we passed wanted to chat and see the baby and coo over how adorable he is and how big he's gotten...and by the time we made it to the bathroom with the changing station and back again, the procession had left for the cemetery. And I had no idea where the cemetery was - but since I was planning on going, other than waving, I hadn't given the family my condolences and I'd told a couple of them that I'd be there, so we really needed to show up. So I called one of the pastors and made a bee line up 95 (what do you mean that isn't the speed limit?) until I caught up.

We made it to the graveside service with just enough time to give our condolences to each of the family members before it started, then we left for the airport the moment it was over.

We got to the airport with only minimal delays and made it, exhausted (well, I was anyway), to our traditional 'very last gate in the terminal.' We had a pleasant flight (AJ was great), landed, met up with a co-worker, and headed to the hotel. After a quick trip to the grocery store for diapers, wipes, and baby food, we turned in for the night.

The next day, we successfully found the baby sitter's house and made it back to the meeting site in time (barely, but we made it). After a long day of meetings, I got to go pick AJ up from his first full day away from the care of someone related to him. He had a great time, and I was mostly able to concentrate. The hardest thing was making time to go pump. After dinner with the team, we turned in.

On Wednesday we repeated the trip to the sitter's and breezed through our meetings. After picking up AJ, letting him nap, and letting everyone get changed from the day, the team went out to Denver's Dave and Buster's for the absolute worst service I have ever received in my entire life. It was an hour between the time that we entered the restaurant and we received our drinks (and only about 5 minutes of that was waiting for a table). And that was only the non-alcoholic drinks. The adult beverages consumed by the non-nursing mothers took even longer. And the food took even longer than that. The manager didn't even seem to care that much. But we finally escaped from the restaurant and managed a couple of races before AJ and I had to head back to the hotel, well past his "night night" time.

Thursday was just a travel day. That went pretty well. AJ was great on the plane again, despite the length of the flight. We got home in time to pick up dinner and spend a little time with VNB before AJ's bed time.

The next morning we got up, repacked, and headed to the Poconos (with only one false start to come back and refill the cat's food dispenser). What should have been a 3.5-hr trip took a little over 5 with construction delays. But we got there, set up camp, and went to the closest fast food for dinner. Right as we were getting back in the car, the rain started. By the time we were back at the campground, it was a deluge. By the time we were back at our loop (but not quite back to our campsite), the hail started. We waited that out under the trees by the bath house, then returned to our campsite to view the damage. It was surprisingly minimal, so we ate, unpacked some more, and went to bed. AJ made it on his little mat by himself until about 1:30, then came to bed with us.

Saturday morning we planned on hiking...after spending about two hours looking for a trailhead that should have been (and actually was, we discovered later) very close to our campsite, we gave up and went someplace else to hike. On the way back, AJ had his first swim in the park's lake. Despite the chattering "teeth," he had a great time! He even got his face wet a couple of times, although the top of his head never quite got wet. By the time we got back from that, we were all pooped, so the afternoon's hike got cancelled in favor of snoozing. After a couple of expensive trips to the camp store, we had chairs, firewood, and hot dogs for dinner (among other things).

The hot dogs were gross, but AJ went to bed relatively easily and VNB and I had some quiet time by the camp fire before going to sleep ourselves. AJ only made it by himself until about midnight. That was when the temperature really started dropping. They tell us it only got to about 65, but I don't believe them. At some point, the always warm VNB got up and improvised another blanket for us from the beach blanket. Despite all the clothes we could quickly find and put on, we were freezing all night.

But the next day was RACE DAY! VNB's actual present was tickets for the tree of us to the NASCAR race at the Poconos Speedway. We'd been warned that we might not actually get the seats listed on our tickets, so we went early. WAY TOO early. We got to our seats about 4 hours before the race actually started. We each took turns taking the baby out of the sun and eventually the pre-race stuff started, followed by the race itself. By then, we were surrounded by all of the chain smokers in eastern PA. They would coo at the baby while puffing away, and no amount of polite coughing and wafting away of smoke from the baby's face seemed to give the hint that maybe we'd prefer our child to avoid lung cancer for a few years yet. So about halfway through the race, VNB decided that it was time to go.

We found out that there was a 'no smoking/no drinking; section, but it was much lower down than our seats had been and much closer to one of the turns, both of which would have meant even more noise. So we left and went for a nice dinner instead. Except for a touch on VNB's face, we all managed to escape the worst of the sunburn, and apparently missed a rather boring race. The guy that had been in first pretty much since the start of the race (one of the Busch brothers) ended up winning, with no other controversy that we heard of.

So after another stop at the camp store for a blanket, we headed back to camp. Once AJ went to bed (with a thick, long-sleeved onesie underneath his PJs, extra padding under him, and extra blankets ready to go) and we got the fire really going, the rain started thinking about really starting. We got everything we could packed up, put out the fire, got AJ re-settled, and prepared for the coming cold. The cold never really came. AJ joined us around 1:30, but probably because he was hot, not because he was cold. It rained pretty much all night. I kept expecting it to stop and the cold to start, but that never really happened. It was just blazing hot and humid until it was time to get up in the morning.

But we did get up, finished packing, and headed home. AJ screamed for the first half-hour or so, but then settled down for a LONG nap. He didn't wake up until we were about five minutes from home (thank goodness!). I even remembered to call in for my meeting...only 30 minutes late. :)

But we're home now...and AJ was GLAD to see his old toys and be back in familiar settings, and I'll be glad to get back to a normal schedule in a two-parent household!

Things I Do During Meetings

1) Blog (like right now)

2) Put the baby to sleep and take video of him (***WARNING*** this is so cute that you may turn into something with an innocent look and big eyes ***/WARNING*** and yes, Valentina's Buddy - in the background you hear our friend K E-R)

3) Change the baby's diaper (don't worry, this isn't the actual change operation, this is the fun time post-change - usually AJ's happiest and most talkative time. This actual video isn't from during a meeting, which is evident by VNB off-screen making faces at AJ and distracting him (but eliciting some awesome smiles and giggles))

4) Fix lunch/snack/tea for myself

5) Do the dishes

6) Clean the house

7) Feed the baby (aka "Carrot Face")

8) Do laundry (well, until the phone cut out in the laundry room)

9) Perform my morning toilet (sans shower - i.e., brush hair/teeth, put on deodorant/clean clothes, etc.)

10) Play with the baby

11) Web surf

12) Play games on the computer

13) (*gasp*) Work



Things I Have NOT Done (But HAVE Contemplated)

1) Showered

2) Taken out the trash/recycling

3) Vacuumed

4) Bathed the baby

5) Watched TV

6) Slept

Poor Parenting Moments, Part I (I'm sure of many)

So AJ's on the floor right now, crawling around, while I'm (you guessed it) in a meeting. So I looked down a few minutes ago to find him gnawing on the end of a USB cable. Thinking that it was ok for him to chew on a cable as long as it was the plug end (meaning that, while it's not really a good habit to get into, at least if he's chewing on the plug itself, then it's not plugged in), I just let him continue. Then a note popped up on my desktop:

"USB device not identified"

Yes, the cable that was being gnawed on by my infant son was plugged into the computer (which means that it was getting power, albeit a small amount).

And apparently he's not an identifiable USB device.

Dude...if this kid survives, it'll be a miracle.

Google Video

So I've got my "What I Do During Meetings" post almost ready to go (I started during the meeting yesterday and was continuing on it during this morning's meeting).

Unfortunately, Google Video (formerly You Tube) is in the process of upgrading or something...and since this particular post is not nearly as funny/cute without the video, I'm not gonna post it until I can upload stuff.

So for those of you who have been anxiously awaiting the next post...well...sorry...it's coming soon, I promise!

Bloggy Giveaways

****WARNING****
Following this link could be an infinite time sink.
****/WARNING****

Ok, so I've got Rocks in my Dryer on my blogroll because I read her stuff frequently. Well, today she's hosting a carnival in which people give away free stuff. As of the last time I reloaded her website, there were 192 people who were giving things away...things ranging from a purse that was used once to a $50.01 Amazon gift card, with oodles of things in between. Granted, most of these items are being given away by "mommy bloggers," so the content is mostly geared towards people in that category, but then again, who couldn't use $50 to spend at Amazon?

I'm not giving anything away myself because that is _way_ too much hassle in the middle of deadlines, an increasingly messy house, and a teething baby...but I certainly wouldn't mind _getting_ free stuff.

And just so you know, I'm working my way through the links while I try to pay attention to the meeting that never ends (seriously...this thing has been going pretty much daily and for a good part of each day for like the past month and a half...but the light at the end of the tunnel is only two days away!!!! Yay, Wednesday COB!!!!).....I'll post again later today with video of what else I do during meetings.

My Childhood Home

This is another of those things where someone's running a carnival. And since this was something that is currently on my heart a lot, I thought I'd share.

When I was six, my family moved to the town of Laurel, MD so that my dad could become the Minister of Music and Youth at First Baptist Church of Laurel. We started out living in an apartment, but moved into our house about three months later. And while I have many, many very fond memories of that little yellow and green house in North Laurel, that's not the place I think of as "home" during the time we lived there. The place I think of is the church building. We were there so often (my mom taught school there for a while too) and spent so much time there that that building is really what I would consider to be my "childhood home."

I really just have pictures in my head of things:
- seeing how far we could roll a bouncy ball under the pews during adult choir practice
- sliding under the pews during adult choir practice
- rolling bouncy balls and sliding along pews during adult choir practice (do you see a theme here?)
- painting a rock for an Easter program (during adult choir practice) with a 102° fever
- Boogy "Hart Fall" (the PC name for "Boogy Fart Hall" where the "Boogy Fart" lived....long story...which, incidently, begins during adult choir practice)
- the 8" of cross that hung down into the baptistry
- the corner of the ledge by the elevator that was always broken off

It's where I got baptised, it's where I was commissioned to go overseas, it's where I met and married my husband...

It's where I grew up (heh...as much as I ever will).

But in less than a month, we'll turn the keys over to the local police department for their new headquarters as our church family moves into a much-needed larger facility a few blocks away. I know that we need it (heck...VNB and I are the ones who took over the pastor's office for a Sunday School class for a while), and I'm really glad that we have a set of pastors who _aren't_ as tied to our current space as people like me are....but I don't know that it'll ever feel quite _right_ to be in the new building. It won't be "home" as much as our current location is. There will be new bells and whistles that will be nice, there will be plenty of classroom space for everyone with room to spare, and we won't need as many services because we'll all actually be able to fit in one room at the same time...but it won't be home. At least not for a while anyway.

I know, I know, a church is a group of people, not a building...but home is where the heart is, and my heart loves that place because it represents so much of my childhood (and life!) to me. And I'll be sad when it's gutted and it quits being part of the heavenly justice system to become part of the earthly justice system.

But, at least for now, the outsides will stay and I can still drive by and remember climbing the tree on the corner, and running through the snow and birdseed on the way to the car on my wedding day, and playing "escapee baby" on the fire truck jungle gym in the playground, and slicing open my knee on that same playground, and playing three different parts (at least two of which were male) in one Christmas cantata, and, and, and...

Busy

I haven't posted in a while (again, some more), and this time I've got a valid excuse which is going to continue for at least the next two weeks, so I figured I'd post a "quickie" update.

First off, work is crazy for me right now with our first major deadline for this project coming up in the next two weeks. AJ and I will actually be going in to the office semi-regularly (AJ at our division director's explicit invitation which was questioned multiple times by me). He's the team mascot, I think. We'll see how quickly that invitation gets rescinded the first time he screams while the company president has visitors in his office (our "War Room" is apparently right across the hall).

And on the little man that life revolves around: As of this past Sunday morning, he's been outside of the womb for 6 months! Hard to believe! We went to his 6-mo check-up on Tuesday. He's dropped a little more in weight percentile (14 lbs 1 oz, down to 5th percentile - that was easily blamed on last week's plague), but he gained a little in height (up to 30th percentile). By far his biggest gain, however was in his head size. He'd been around the 50th percentile the last time. This time he was in the 70th percentile! That's right. My baby has a big brain! :) When I was expounding on all the various ways in which AJ is the most advanced 6-mo-old in the world, the pediatrician kept saying "well that's very ambitious." I think she was just making me feel better. Although I'm sure she knew that he _is_ the most advanced 6-mo-old in the world.

We all seem to be over the plague (although AJ apparently passed it on to some friends of ours on Saturday...oops!). AJ's appetite hasn't quite returned to normal though. Or let me be more precise - his appetite for solid food hasn't quite returned. Before the plague, he was eating about six containers a day of baby food in three different sittings. Now, if we really work at it all day, we might make it most of the way through two. He's still _eating_ plenty, it's just not from a spoon as much anymore. A little regression due to teething/the plague.

No teeth yet, but we have had a small amount of forward motion. He hasn't quite really figured it all out, but he's discovered that we cheer when he "comes to Mama" in his walker, so he _REALLY_ wants to be able to do the same on his belly. Plus, just "over there" is something he's sure he's not supposed to have, so if he can just get over there, he can chew on it (this morning it was the remote control, Wednesday it was the cables on the floor in one of the conference rooms at work). Every so often, he gets his butt up in the air and manages to wiggle a little closer. Definitely hasn't mastered it yet though.

OK...gotta get back to work. I'm glad to hear from all you folks who have emailed lately saying that you're still reading! With this counter thing (which could easily become an obsession of mine - it's very addictive), I've been amazed at how many different places people read this from. And I've only had two different (non-directed) web searches which resulted in people clicking in - one for a "urine catheter" (heh...it's amazing what you talk about during a birth story), and one for a "12 week sonogram does the baby move around "a lot."" Heh.

Ok...but enough stalling...back to work for me.

The Silver Lining

You know, there is definitely a silver lining to having an infant son barfing all night one night (which kept you awake all night), followed by another day and night of him not feeling well, fussing, and only nursing (which kept you up a second night), followed by a day of yourself barfing and well, not keeping anything in the other end either, while having a teething and still not quite back to normal infant son continue to pretty much only nurse, followed by another semi-sleepless night of your own aches and a husband who's tossing and turning as he begins his own day of barfing, etc.

Anyway...so the silver lining of all of that is that instead of being between 10 and 15 pounds away from my max "normal" weight, I'm now less than five pounds away from it! Of course, once my appetite returns and I get back to eating normally, that'll probably go back to the 10-15 lb range, but it feels kinda nice right now.

Now if only my thighs would stop their massive jiggling and touching of each other, and my pants would go back to actually covering all of my backside when I sit down, I'd be almost back to "normal." It only took six months and having my entire family get the plague to get this far.

Of course, the mega "nursing implements" are here to stay for a while yet and the stretch marks will never go away...but still...at least my gut's almost gone...you know...until I start eating again.

An Homage to Me on My Birthday

By Weird Al



Ok....so it wasn't really about me, nor do I fit it exactly, but that equation in the background looks so familiar that I'm tempted to look it up (and I'm pretty sure which book would have it), and, well, hands down, Picard.

Pretty hilarious though.

So happy 31st birthday to me and happy 3rd birthday to Iraq! :)

For AJ's Grandaddy

AJ's Nana and Grandaddy (VNB's folks) came up from NC for dinner on Thursday and forgot to take pictures!!!

So these are for them. There's video too. AJ _LOOOOOVES_ his walkers. And watching his daddy's fish.

Father's Day

Ok, so it's a little late, but I had to post a pic of what AJ and his daddy did together for Father's Day.

To add to the day's manliness, we watched the American Chopper marathon on TLC (OK, _I_ watched it while they napped). But we'll _really_ celebrate Father's Day on August 5th when we go to this. We'll camp nearby Friday and Saturday nights, spend Saturday hiking in the Poconos and enjoying a nearby lake, and Sunday at the race.

Oh...and if you're wondering, I got dangly things for my ears for Mother's Day. They have AJ's birthstone in them and match the necklace I got for Christmas.

Bored, Plenty to Do

I'm bored. I've got plenty of work (paid and otherwise) to be doing right now, but I'm not doing it. Unfortunately, I'm all caught up on all of my websites, I've played my latest game as far as it'll let me play without paying for it, AJ's asleep on my bed, so I'm not going to go do the other things I could be doing, just in case he decides to try to roll off...again...(boy is bound and determined to be dropped on his head).....so I'm just sitting here, trying to think of something worthy of blogging about.

Nope, nothing's coming to mind...well other than a "please, please, please buy me EV Nova for my birthday!!" But I don't think that counts.

Um....we're working out way into the fruits now with AJ (who can actually sit in his high chair - propped up on a towel, but still). He still LOVES carrots, likes sweet potatoes and squash, and will eat green beans, but I don't like his reaction to peas, so I think we're gonna hold off on those for a while longer and try them again later. I don't know how to describe it other than just my "MommySense" which makes me think that it's not just a dislike of the taste that makes him act the way he does when he eats them. Having no other green veggies to try (well, without cooking and mashing avocados and zucchini myself), we moved on to applesauce yesterday. I was hoping to start the tradition of eating a "breakfast" of fruit everyday, but AJ wasn't interested in the apples at all until it was "lunch" time, so that may or may not work. At lunch, he ate them gamely, although he didn't seem obsessively excited about it or anything. I didn't try them myself, but I'm guessing they were a little tart. He'll try some more once I actually get to the store and buy more.

Since this new habit of his has gotten to be rather expensive (he eats about five of the 2.5 oz packages a day, which costs about $2.50), I've started trying to make his food from scratch. It's really not hard or even that time consuming, but it _is_ messy, and I'm having to learn a few tricks.

First thing that I learned as I was madly steaming and mashing squash as he was eating the last of our store-bought food was that the squash is a very low-yield food. I mean, I get less than one 2.5 oz container from two good-sized yellow squash. Not really worth it except that they're really juicy and I get lots of good squash juice for use later on. Let's see...I spent $4.20 on squash and got _maybe_ three containers out of it which would cost $1.50 at the store...for a loss of $2.70.

The second thing that I learned was that sweet potatoes are a rather high-yield homemade baby food. From two normal-sized sweet potatoes, I got six very full 2.5-oz containers (so they were probably more like 3 oz), and each of those can really be cut in half and watered down (with squash juice) for an easier consistency. So from two sweet potatoes which cost $1.80, I got 12 containers, worth $6, saving us $4.20. Now, you add in the time it took to peel, cut, steam, and smush the potatoes and consider that I probably could have been doing "real" (and by that I mean paying) work, and I probably lost about $30, but if I can manage to multitask, then I think it's worth it. Plus it's fun to smush things in my food mill.

Carrots are medium-yield. From a standard bag of carrots (2 lb) I've gotten 6 2.5-oz containers that aren't quite so tightly packed as the sweet potatoes, and are a little juicier, so I don't think they'll quite double, but still, let's say nine 2.5-oz containers for another $1.80, in place of $4.50's worth from the store, saves me $2.70.

So between the three of them, I'm saving $4.20 on approximately 24 containers of food which will last him about five days. Heh...that's less than a dollar a day. Maybe not worth it? I dunno...I kinda like doing it.

Anyway...I haven't tried the zucchini yet (although I would suspect another low-yield veggie) or the butternut squash (medium-yield?). Now that he's starting the fruits too, I may try my hand at apples, etc., depending on seasons. I'm not sure that I'll try the green beans. They're so stringy that I'm not sure I really trust my food mill to smush adequately. Although I guess there would probably be less prep work prior to steaming than with the others...just snip the ends and check for bad ones.

In any case, should you try this at home, be sure to work with large quantities to minimize the time it takes you.

Now back to figuring out what to do to avoid doing any work.

Elvish and Hobbit(ish) Names

So, in browsing other peoples' blogs today (yay, for comments!!! boo for work that I _ought_ to be doing instead of reading comments and checking out the commenters' sites!), I came across this and this.

My Elvish name is: Ireth (Sáralondë) Mithrandír. And I'm married to: Círdan Mithrandír. Our son is named: Valandil (Huor) Mithrandír.

My Hobbit(ish) name is: Primula (Burrows) Boffin of Whitfurrows. And I'm married to: Hob Boffin of Whitfurrows. Our son is named: Mungo (Popo) Boffin of Whitfurrows.

The names in parentheses are my maiden names and AJ, as opposed to his actual first name. Eat your heart out, Elianna. Or should I say, Silmarwen Sáralondë? Or Anaranë for short.

Oops....Mungo's crying (I don't think someone named Valandil would cry).

Breathing

People joke about new moms who wake up in the middle of the night just to make sure that the baby's still breathing.

Well, I have two confessions:

1) I used to do that with my dog when she would sleep next to me, and
2) 5 months after his birth, I still do it with AJ.

Now don't get me wrong, I am usually able to contain my neurosis at night when I really _should_ be sleeping (apparently, my laziness/bed gravity/reason trumps my concern), but during the day when I'm awake and he's sleeping, it's all I can do to keep from just constantly watching to a) make sure he doesn't fall off my bed (ahem....again....), and b) make sure he's still breathing.

Part of me wonders if I'll ever "grow out of it," and part of me hopes that I never do. And then the panic of "what ifs" hit.

So then I take a deep breath, check on him again, and pray that God keeps him safe and breathing for a long, long time.

My Blogging Story

So reading Rocks in my Dryer turned me on to this "carnival." I don't know who'll find it interesting, but I felt like participating, so here goes!

How did you start blogging?

I was living in Iraq, working for a humanitarian organization. The folks back home liked hearing from me, but I stopped being able to access the email account I was using to send out mass email updates. A friend of mine had been blogging for about a year at that time and it seemed relatively easy, so I started blogging instead of emailing (after one final mass email which was painstakingly sent out to about 15 people at a time).

Did you intend to be a blog w/a following? If so, how did you go about it?

Well, yes, and no...initially, as I just said, my "following" was those from my email list who successfully a) _read_ the email (a surprisingly small number), and b) actually went to the effort to continue to keep up with me. I was surprised with the number of people who complained to me when I got back that I "just stopped writing!" There's no real polite way to tell people that if they had actually _READ_ what I wrote, they would have known how to continue reading updates from me!

In any case, when I got back, I was blogging just for me essentially. Most of my "following" gradually lost interest (life in America isn't as exciting, I guess). Now it's down to a few family members and friends (to the best of my knowledge), but that's ok. It's really just a chance for me to tell someone the crazy things that run through my head without having to actually sit down with a person and _talk_ about them.

What do you hope to achieve or accomplish with your blog? Have you been successful? If not, do you have a plan to achieve those goals?

Originally, the purpose was to make sure my family and friends knew that I was still alive, and to keep them apprised as to what I was actually doing and how things were actually going "over there." Now, it lets me easily share pics and stories about AJ with friends and family, in addition to giving me an outlet for my thoughts. I think I'm mostly successful. Now that there _is_ a "little man" in my life, I need to be better about writing about something besides him from time to time. I may be a "mommy blogger" now, but that doesn't mean that there are no thoughts in my head other than him!

Has the focus of your blog changed since you started blogging? How?

Gosh...these questions didn't seem quite so redundant when I read them through. I guess I don't travel as much anymore (and certainly not to such exotic places), now I've got a husband and baby (originally I was just longing for the day when I'd meet my husband), I've definitely matured some over the past few years.

What do you know now that you wish you'd known when you started?

How it was all going to end. Very shortly after I began blogging, we left Iraq for some training and I was never allowed to return. While I still carry some of that angst, I can definitely see how HE was working in all of it. If I hadn't come home exactly when I did, I literally would never have met my husband.

Do you make money with your blog?

Currently, no, but I've thought about it. I'm just not sure that I've got enough traffic to support it. Would be nice to make some money for "free" though!

Does your immediate or extended family know about your blog? If so, do they read it? If not, why?

I know they at least _knew_ about it back in the day, but I'm not sure how many other than my mom (hi, Mommy!) still read it. Now I'm letting the in-laws in on the secret too, so they're starting to read (hi, in laws!)

What two pieces of advice would you give to a new blogger?

Um...write for you, not an audience, and don't name your cat Monkey because you'll end up with very confused toddlers.

Archives

So in looking for the link to my "no hit counter" pledge, I ended up re-reading my entire three years' worth of blogs. It was interesting reading. For one, it wasn't nearly as embarrasingly honest as I remembered it being (there have been quite a few "I can't believe I posted THAT" moments over the years), but it was also fun/heartbreaking to remember what was happening during those times in my life, and to realize how much I _didn't_ say sometimes.

I got to relive the death spiral of my laptop, the heartbreak in leaving Iraq so unexpectedly (also look here, here, here, and here), the surprise in meeting VNB so soon after my return (we'd only really met about two weeks prior, but we were both already pretty sure of the eventual outcome at that point), the joy of getting to know him, getting engaged to him, and becoming his wife, the journey of pregnancy and childbirth (I teared up again when I re-read those moments during the turning of AJ when I was so scared), and now looking back over the pics of our little man and seeing exactly how quickly he learns and grows and changes!

Well...it's been an interesting ride. I wonder what will happen next!

R2-D2, Where Are You?

So VNB's sister and bro-in-law came up to visit a few weekends ago. It was their anniversary weekend, so to celebrate, they babysat AJ and let us go see a movie (Spiderman III....it was....eh, but then I'm not a huge fan). On Saturday, we all went downtown because his sister had never seen DC. We saw the Air & Space Museum, then toured many of the monuments. On the way back to a metro station, we passed something which made my day/week/long time (well, if you take AJ and VNB out of the picture). You see, to celebrate Star Wars' 30th anniversary, the USPS is putting out a series of stamps...and as advertisement, they've painted some of those blue mailboxes to look like R2-D2!!!! There are apparently several around DC, but the one we saw was about a block south of the White House, near the Red Cross headquarters and DAR's Constitution Hall. My in-laws have the pics. It was awesome!

Well, today I got my ~monthly ThinkGeek.com email and in it was this link. If anyone feels like spending $130 plus shipping on me anytime in the near future, I WANT ONE!!!!!!! Be sure you watch the video on the page.

Changes

So, way back almost two years ago, I pledged that I would never set up a counter on my blog. Well...things have changed drastically in my life, and I think I'm going to go back on the letter (although not the spirit) of that pledge. You see, back then, VNB was "just" my "VeryNiceBoyfriend" (although he became my "VeryNiceBetrothed" about 10 days later). Now I'm posting images of our son for anyone on the web to see. So I want to see who it is that's looking and make sure they're not coming in from some weird search or something. Which means keeping track of stats which are easily available through a counter.

I'm still not going to let myself obsess about the numbers of people reading, because this blog really is just an outlet for my random thoughts (and why the heck not share those with the world?). I think that's still conforming to the spirit behind that pledge, if not the letter. But I _do_ want to make sure (to the best of my ability) that there aren't any wackos out there with pics of my little man.

I still have to research and add the counter though, so it may take a little while. Just know that I didn't add it lightly and that it was for good reason.

I'm also thinking about adding a "blogroll" to the sidebar. These are just other peoples' blogs (or other websites) that I read regularly. I like them for various reasons, so I'm happy to give them a little free advertising. Check 'em out, once I get 'em posted. It's not usually _required_ "netiquette," but I'm probably going to email the folks first to get their permission, so that may take some time and will mean that it probably won't be stable for a little while.

I might also join a "blogring" which is basically just a community of bloggers who share some similar trait like "mommy bloggers" or "Christian bloggers." It's always good to have friends.

And how is it exactly that Blogger.com doesn't have the word "blogger" in its spellcheck dictionary?

Team Jones For the Cure

AJ, VNB, and I (along with the rest of Futron's team and the other half-million people who were there) got up early yesterday, Metroed downtown into DC, and walked 5km. We (meaning VNB) managed to raise almost $450, which will be doubled by Futron!

AJ had a nice nap in the stoller and continued to wow the folks from my company with how laid back he is all the time. Heh...they should have been in the car with us last night on the way home...but that's a different story.

Anyway, here are pics from the day.

Food Fight!

Here's the long-awaited second meal. He LOVES his carrots. He's not quite to ecstatically in love with sweet potatoes or squash, but he likes them too. Next up, green beans!

AJ Noises

Here are typical AJ noises. The video gets pretty boring after about 30 seconds.

Updates

It's been a while since I've blogged about anything except the little parasite who is currently (literally) sucking me dry. He's still good. He still screams when the carrots are gone and he likes sweet potatoes too, just not quite as enthusiastically. We'll try squash here in a day or two. His favorite new game is to lunge forward. I guess that means that sitting up is just around the corner. It's hard to believe how quickly he learns, gets stronger, and grows. He's got a white bump on his lower gum below where his left canine tooth would be, and he's been royally fussy these past few days, so I'm thinking that one might be first.

Today I was even able to lay (lie?) him down in his crib and have him fall asleep. It wasn't nearly as easy as that sounds, but that was the ultimate outcome. In between lying him down and him actually sleeping was about 20 minutes of him "rolling" around in his crib (just back and forth, not over, although he's done that twice on the floor now), about 30 minutes of him screaming in his crib, then about ten minutes of me standing by his crib with my head on the railing and my eyes drowsily blinking as I went "shhhhhh, shhhhhh, shhhhh, shhhhhh..." That quieted him down, eventually _his_ eyes started blinking drowsily, and then he fell asleep!!! And he slept for about 45 minutes, whimpered for a bit, then slept for about 15 minutes more. And the angels sang.

They were also singing because my scale told me this morning that I am officially no longer "overweight" (according to my bmi)!!!! I'm still 20 lbs heavier than this time last year, but I'm no longer officially "overweight!!" I still feel pretty ookie about the way I look, but at least there's progress!

What else? Hrm....so I've found myself feeling a bit directionless lately, mostly because I'm just now getting to the point where I can notice that for the past I don't know how many months, all I've been doing is keeping my head above water. To the point that I've somewhat had that McDonald's commercial moment where I wake up and discover that I'm a soccer mom with three kids in a mini-van. Now that I've gotten over the anxiety caused by that awakening, I'm realizing that I'm in a very different place in life than I was just a little while ago. Relationships are different (and some don't seem to be surviving the transition...but at the same time others have deepened and new ones have formed...), responsibilities are different, priorities are different....but there's been so much change in my life lately that I've been afraid to ask Him what my next steps should be for fear that the answer will require _more_ change.

Or at least that's what I thought I was afraid of. I think the real problem was more that I don't know yet how to deal with His will for _our_ lives. It's not just about me anymore. Gone are the days when He can say "go" and I can get up and do just that. I mean....He could still tell us to go and we would still go, but now it involves changing two people's minds (and eventually AJ's too). And I think my real fear is that He'll tell _me_ something, but not VNB and then I'll have to figure out what to do about that. Except that I know that's just silly and He'd never do that. In fact, ways in which I've hoped that VNB would step up, he's done exactly that on his own without any prompting from me.

But life is different now in ways that I never anticipated (and I'm not just talking about surprises like AJ). It's still good, it's just different...and it's interesting seeing who's come alongside me and who's fallen away.

Working from home has really been good. We've gotten stir-crazy from time to time, but really much less frequently than I would have expected. I've still not quite figured out working, keeping AJ happy, _and_ keeping the house clean, but two out of three (at least most days) isn't so bad, right? I've still got a complex about my bosses thinking it's a good long-term plan, but really, I would say that the company's getting a _really_ good deal out of me this way. Since I'm part-time, they don't have to pay benefits, plus they're getting about as much work from me as they are from people who are on this same project full-time - they just pay me for half as many hours, plus I don't have to worry about getting up, dressing up (in my one pair of work pants and two work shirts that "fit" right now), getting AJ to daycare, getting to work on time, and working while feeling guilty about AJ being in daycare...AND they're not losing an experienced analyst. Logically, I think they come out ahead, even though it means that I'm not in the office all the time. I still worry that at some point someone's not gonna be so cool about it and I'm gonna have to defend my work situation though. It could be interesting as we walk as part of Futron's "Race for the Cure" team with the company president this weekend. :)

Speaking of which....if you want to sponsor us, go to this site. Only sponsor VNB because his company will match whatever he raises, and then my company (whose team we're on) will match whatever he raises...which means that if we do this right, your pledge could be quadrupled. Pretty nifty, huh? :) This is a cause that hits pretty close to home for me. There's been virtually no cancer in my family history (what little we know of was caused by my grandfather's 2nd-hand smoke and even then my grandmother was in her late 70s), but my lumpiness puts me at higher risk, as does the fact that AJ didn't come along until I was 30. Plus, I've known several folks who have been personally touched by this disease. So give early, give often. :)

What else? Hrm....AJ's kinda funny and already reminds me of myself in many ways. My mom loves to remind me of one time that I was down in the dumps when I was about 9 or so. I'd only been playing piano for about a year, but we had this simplified version of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" that I was desperate to play. So she found me crying one day and asked what was wrong. There were three things. I don't remember the first one, but the second was that I didn't like Cabbage Patch dolls (they were the big thing at the time, so something _must_ have been wrong with me if I didn't like them), and "I can't even play the Moonlight Sonata!" Oh, life was ending....well...AJ does the same thing. He can reach for and grab onto toys now, but if he can't get them to do what he wants them to do (or if we empty the jar of carrots), he _SCREAMS_ in frustration. With the toys, he usually gets distracted after a minute or two of _SCREAMING_, so life in his Pack 'n Play goes like this - play, play, play, _SCREAM_, play, play, play, _SCREAM_....and so on. And he can't even play the Moonlight Sonata.

Well...that's about it for now. I'll upload the video of AJ eating so that everyone can experience the joy that is carrots.

Food Fight!

So AJ's been kinda fussy lately (fussing during the day, not sleeping at night, etc.) and I've been feeling rather emptied, especially by the evening, plus he met most of the requirements listed on BabyCenter.com before you should feed your kid solid food, so we decided to try "solid" food for the first time last night.

Our pediatrician had said that we should start with orange veggies (carrots, yams, squash), then progress to green veggies (green beans, avocado, etc.), then fruits (bananas, apples, etc.), and _then_ to cereals (apparently this stimulates fewer food allergies than the other way around). Since he's been happily gnawing on frozen baby carrots as teething "rings" for a month or two now, we were pretty sure he'd like the carrots, so that's what we started with.

We put him in his bouncy chair, rolled up his sleeves, put a bib on him, and VNB gave him his first spoonful. He proceeded to get it all over his face (of course), but very quickly caught on to opening, slurping, and swallowing. By the end of the jar (yes, he ate the whole thing), he was reaching for VNB's hand and guiding the spoon into his mouth. No I'm not exaggerating even a little.

When the jar was empty, he literally screamed for more. I think he might like the carrots, what do you think?

He hasn't 'eliminated' the jar yet, so we may hold off on the next one until he does (don't want to stop him up too badly), but when he eats again, we'll definitely get video for you to enjoy.

Spaceman Spiff

So we stopped by my office again today to take a picture of the team for a contract re-compete proposal and we decided that it was too good a chance to miss to take a few pics of our favorite little spaceman.

AJ at the Gym

So last night, AJ missed his diaper and had to change PJs around 2:30 AM (there was _MUCH_ screaming involved, even though I tried to do it in stages, because he was _HUNGRY!!!!_ and yet Mama insisted on changing his clothes!). So in the dark, I grabbed the first onesie and pair of PJs I could find. This morning I discovered that it was his grey onesie that my mom had given him to go with a pair of grey sweat pants, as like a little work-out outfit. So I figured that he could wear that today and I could get some pics for her. Then I had the bright idea to have AJ playing in his little "gym" (which he does in the mornings anyway). Well, several hours (and videos) later, this is the result.

I put him in like this:


Notice that his head is to the right and he is centered on the mat. Notice also his cute little outfit, complete with gym shoes from his Aunt Grandmom, and the adorable "I'm the champ" pose! He's been getting good at finding his right hand with his left. Yes, he's the cutest, smartest 3-month-old in the world, and no, I'm not biased at all.

Well, within about five minutes, he had positioned himself like this:

I swear that I had nothing to do with it, he just likes kicking his little ball. Apologies to those of you out there who couldn't care less about AJ kicking and talking in his little gym. Just keep in mind that there's a set of grandparents (and aunt and uncles) in TN and a set of grandparents (and great-grandparents and aunt and uncle) in NC, and some great-aunts and uncles in GA (who haven't met him yet) who don't get to see him very often. So deal!

He's only recently discovered kicking the ball, and the video was the first time I'd seen him actually _grab_ a fish. Did I mention how brilliant he is?

Well, by the time I was done downloading the pics and videos from my camera, he had re-positioned himself like this (and even though I was sitting right next to him, he did it so quietly that I was surprised when I looked over):



He's getting more and more, um...spirally-mobile? In that video, he's playing his new favorite game (that he discovered for himself while we were visiting my family in TN) - kick the side of the bassinet and bounce around. The squeals should be enough to tell you how much fun it is!

There's nothing in the world like watching a baby play when there's tragedy on the news.

Good Times

Ok, we'll see how (if) this works. I've been jealous of all of my friends posting videos to their websites, and I finally decided to _take_ video of AJ...and it was so cute, it had to be shared. Be sure you watch till the very end.

Also amusing in this clip is the audio (which I assume comes through as well). You get to hear a professional "rocket scientist" that I know making a fool of herself trying to get the little man to smile. Ah, the joys of motherhood. ;p

Also, apologies for the branding across the top. I either need to shell out the $70 to buy the software, find free software, or stop turning the camera sideways. Seems like it'd be easiest to just not turn the camera.

Attempts on AJ's Life, or AJ's Story Part IV

So we spent our two days in the hospital (three if you include "Labor" day). They were relatively drama-less. We slept, ate, and tried to be presentable for visitors, we had visits from phlebotomists at 6AM, and I only had to track AJ down once (they'd taken him to see the pediatrician, but apparently they gather all the babies at once, the pediatrician works his way down the line, and as he's finished, they bring the babies back - AJ just happened to be the very last baby in line and I got concerned after he'd been gone for a couple of hours...I probably wouldn't have noticed if it hadn't been for those darn phlebotomists...did I mention that they left the light on when they left?). All in all, it was about as positive experience as being in the hospital could be.

But we finally got to go home!!!! Wednesday morning, we waited for what seemed like hours to be discharged. Finally, right before lunchtime, we were. Since we were at a hospital over by where VNB and I each worked, and since I was starving and would want a controlled eating environment, we decided to stop by his office and mine prior to going home. So we went through a drive through, then took lunch to his office. While we ate, everyone admired our handsome boy. When we were done, we went to my office and while I filled out my timesheet and took care of a few more things, VNB showed AJ off to everyone he saw.

Sounds tiring, right? Well it was, but we weren't done. Our pastor's wife hadn't seen the baby yet, so our next stop was there house. That was a nice chance to sit for a while, feed the baby, and relax before we finally made it home.

Now prior to that day, it had literally been in the 60s and 70s for most of December and January to that point. On that day, it was about 23. So before we left the hospital, we dressed AJ in the following: long-sleeved onesie, thick fleece sleep bag, heavy blanket for swaddling, then his car seat has a padded cover too. When we got home, the padded cover was replaced by a second blanket. He did great on the car ride home (with all the stops), but that evening, he would do the following: eat, sleep for about 10 minutes, then scream. Now, he'd hardly cried at all while we were at the hospital and he'd usually sleep for 2-3 hours in between feedings, so we were perplexed. We tried burping and bouncing and walking and everything else we could think of, but the only thing that would make him stop crying was to eat some more.

After several hours of this, something clicked in my head. Without even really knowing why, I started to undress him. Off came the outer blanket. Off came the inner blanket. Off came the sleepbag. (Back on went a lighter blanket for swaddling.) And the screaming stopped. And AJ went to sleep.

Go figure, the appropriate dressing for 23 degree weather with a brisk wind is a _little_ warm for room temperature with no wind.

But he survived _that_ attempt on his life, so we figured we'd try again. This time we were aided by his great aunts - the OP and Aunt Mom. OP brought over dinner that first night - meatloaf and broccoli. Now VNB doesn't like broccoli, but I _LOVE_ it and since he doesn't like it I don't get it very often. So I had it for dinner that night and the leftovers for lunch on Thursday. On Thursday, Aunt Mom brought over dinner - guess what the vegetable was? That's right - broccoli. So I ate some for dinner that night and the leftovers for lunch on Friday. On Friday, VNB's sister and brother-in-law came up to meet their nephew and take care of us for the weekend. They had made a very nice dinner and we were all actually sitting at our table, eating. Now, AJ had been a little fussy all evening, but nothing _really_ unusual...until dinner. He was sitting with us quietly when all of the sudden, he let out this ear-piercing scream. We seriously thought that he'd somehow pinched himself or something. That caught our attention.

After a while of him screaming for a few minutes then calming down, then screaming again, then calming down again, I was beginning to suspect gas, so I sent VNB to the store for Mylecon drops (except I didn't know the name then, so I sent him for "baby Gas-X"). He talked to the pharmacist at the store who said that he should call the pediatrician. So he came home and we attempted to call the person who was going to be our family practice doctor. Since we hadn't seen him yet (and couldn't seem to get an appointment), it was a little difficult to get his on-call person to talk to us, but we finally did. His suggestion was to watch it and if it got significantly worse, to go to the emergency room. I finally asked if it might be gas (remember my four large helpings of broccoli?) and couldn't we get drops for that and he said, "Oh yeah, Mylecon. That might work too." (Leia's uncharitable thought at the time, "Thanks for nothing, idiot.")

So VNB's sister drove me to the store where we bought the drops. We came home, AJ ate some more, then took some drops. The drops went down, a burp came up, and AJ relaxed and went to sleep. It all literally took about 5 seconds.

So we tried to cook him and that didn't work. Then we tried to make him explode. When that didn't work either, we figured that he was sticking around. I don't _think_ we've tried to kill him since then....although his 9th day was a "little" interesting. Read all about it in the next episode, "The Terrible Day, or AJ's Story, Part V."

The Longest Day or AJ's Story Part III (Appendix A)

So I forgot to mention one thing in the previous post. If you were paying attention, you would have realized that AJ was born on January 8th (the version was on the 7th and he wasn't born until the following morning). Well, for those of you who didn't already know this little tidbit, Jan 8th is also Elvis' brithday. As a result, AJ has been practicing his sneer and even has is own Elvis outfit. Unfortunately, the odds of catching the sneer in a picture while _in_ the Elvis outfit are very small. So you'll have to make do with this pic. Looks like he's getting the hip swivel down. :)

Halleluiah!!!

The angels are singing in Leialand right now.

That's right folks...I was able to zip and button my favorite pair of jeans WHILE THEY WERE ON MY BODY today!!!

This is the first time since about a week after Labor Day.

They've made it up past my ginormous thighs and butt for about a month now, but it wasn't until I tried today that I was actually able to button and zip them over my (equally ginormous) gut.

And to think that I almost didn't even try today just to avoid the disappointmet of them still not fitting.

Now, this isn't to say that they fit anywhere near like they used to (several inches to spare in the waist), in fact, it's a little difficult to breathe right now, as I sit down in them...but they're ON! And I can go out in public in them!! I don't have to wear VNB's pajama pants or sweats anymore!! I can wear my own pants again!! Yay!!!!

It's a glorious day!!!!!