Friday Morning Poop

I bet you all are thinking this is going to be a stinky but cute poop story about Roscoe.  Wrong.

Ray likes to drink his coffee while he walks the dogs in the morning.  This morning, he was picking up Mela's poop with the little poopie bag and PLOOP drops a poop in his coffee.  That is too great of a story not to share.

Ray "changed" Roscoe this morning and left on his pajamas because it is Friday and Roscoe wants to vegg.  If you haven't noticed, Ray is living a bit vicariously through our son.

Roscoe's maneuverability still surprises me.  It is not like he can crawl or even scoot, but he is so squirmy.  This morning he was playing on his play mat one minute, chewing on his mirror, and then the next minute I look down and he is here:

And then I look down and he is holding Ikaika's paw:

Now here is one that, if you know my boy, you might think is photo-shopped or otherwise impossible.  At least that is what I would have thought if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.  He has been sick (cold, fever) and had to stay home from the nanny on Wednesday.  I set him on his play mat while I ate my breakfast and this is what he did (yup, sound asleep... for 2 minutes anyway!):

On Tuesday Roscoe came to work with me and we walked in the rain, so he tested out all of his rain gear.  I have to say I was a little jealous of his little fuzzy cave.  He was so comfortable that he fell asleep and when I got to work I just parked him in the corner and he stayed sleeping for almost an hour!  This is one by-product of him being sick that I could really get used to...

He also came to work with me last Thursday.  This is why he loves coming with me so much that he won't take naps - two beautiful girls (Sophia and Jane) fawning over him (who can blame him?):  

Happy Friday Vegg-Day Everyone!

This &%$# is Bananas! B - A - N - A - N - A - S!

It's official: our little boy just likes food. Period. The bananas we tried last weekend were another smash hit. He liked them so much, in fact, that when I was eating strawberries and bananas later he started grunting and yelling at me for not sharing. I had to go hide and finish because I felt so guilty!

Speaking of guilty... I had a BIG Bad Mommy Moment on Saturday. Roscoe fell out of his swing/cradle thing. Onto our hardwood floor. It is like a bucket so I am still not sure how he got out of it in the one minute he was in there (I went to the other room to grab his carrier), but he did. And I have replayed it one meeeellion times in my head. As I was hyperventilating and wondering if I should take him to the emergency to check for brain hemhorrage, he stopped crying and started laughing at me. I am so glad I gave him some good entertainment to make up for the trauma. He is fine; no bumps or bruises or red marks or anything, thankfully.


So, back to his banana milkshake...   

The (mis)Adventures of a Pumper

Ah, pumping.

The joys of being a pumping mama are not limited to lugging (another) heavy bag around the city.  Or worrying about unfortunate leakages at inopportune times.  Or the fact that lingering pregnancy weight plus being milked makes one feel very much like a cow.

There are also the nitty gritty details that I mostly repress. Like the fact that (since I work at smaller organizations) the only private place for me pump is the bathroom. Notice I didn't say locked. I learned the hard way that locked does not equal private when others have a key...  So to the bathrooms I traipse, suffering any smell that may linger, sitting on the only available "seat", next to a large compost bin in one case. In another case the "seat" does not have a lid and an unfortunate bit of clothing has accidentally dunked itself in said "seat".  More than once.

So I sit myself on my throne and remind myself of the nutrition I can offer (free nutrition at that) and willingly degrade myself.  Like the time someone walked past the bathroom and turned off the lights. I support energy savings but please, folks, check for legs and the hum of the pump. There I sat, in the dark, strapped in and unable to get to the switch, feeling quite bad for my cow-self.

Or the one (and only) time I tried to be productive and return an urgent client call while pumping only to have someone come in, use the neighboring facilities and then flush while I spoke to the executive vice president of my largest client. (But really, I can't blame her - you gotta flush!  And I did hear a "sorry, Karisa" in there...)

I could tell all kinds of stories about auto flush toilets and unaware bathroom goers, but I will spare you. Now I must return to my happy state of repression so that I don't gag and immediately cut Roscoe off from his favorite cocktail.

Oh So San Francisco

Sometimes I glimpse my life semi-objectively and am amused by the "san francisco-ness" of it all.

Wednesday I had one of those moments. One of my clients opened a new gallery space so Roscoe, Ray and I met at the opening after work. It is a cool spot and I loved seeing my friends pseudo-outside of work.

The part of it that especially humored me was when I did the "soil tasting." This meant eating a piece of lettuce while sniffing (in a goblet) the soil that it was grown in - mixed with water. You can then taste the soil in the greens you are eating and feel more connected to the origin of your food.  I was totally making the connections until we tried a piece of goat cheese (very small, Ray, don't be a hater) from the goat that was raised on the land and ate the greens grown in the soil (or something like that).  That was a stretch for me but the excited and expectant face of the woman explaining this all to me made me smile and nod appreciatively.  And yes, I did quite enjoy this, once again reassuring me that I live in the right crazy place for me.

And then today - oh how I wish I had a photo - Roscoe is looking such a child of San Francisco. I am at a conference today, so Ray dressed Roscoe and dropped him off this morning. He is wearing a navy shirt that is short sleeve with a fake long sleeve under it that is navy and cream striped. And then gray sweatpants with like a maroon and gold stripe down the side. We affectionately call these his "computer programmer pants" because Ray called it that when he wears them he looks like a computer programmer on the weekend. Ah, my boys. How I love them.  I had to laugh when I saw the outfit (sorry, Ray), but Ray's response was that Roscoe looks comfortable and he (Ray) wishes he (Ray) could be wearing sweats today instead of work clothes. Good point, Love.


p.s. I got a pic before I published this post! 

Let Him Eat Cake! (or rice cereal...)

We have been thinking that Roscoe is ready for "solids" (in the loosest sense... there is nothing solid about this stuff!) and, boy, were we right.  I expected some faces, some confusion by the spoon-eating thing, some pushing of the food out with his tongue, etc.  What we got was a baby gobbling down every last "crumb" of his first meal and giving us that it's-about-time-people look.  Saying he loved it is an understatement.  He was leaning forward, flapping his arms and opening his mouth as soon as my spoon hit the rice cereal.  And then he waited, big eyes and big mouth, while the spoon made its way to his tongue.  He did chew on the spoon a bit - not sure if he thought that was part of the meal.

I actually feel bad that I am not giving him some today, but... we had a rough night last night (very little sleeping, lots of gassy crying out).  So I checked my Super Baby Food book and Googled like mad and I guess that sometimes the rice cereal can cause gassiness.  Especially because we gave him whole grain brown rice cereal, which is more difficult to digest.  Who knew that 1 teaspoon for 2 days would cause such drama?  Now I am wishing I just started with banana or avocado, but I don't want to start another new food so soon so he will have to do with regular old boring milk for the next few days.  We will try the cereal again later when his system is a little more mature.

Here are some pictures and a video of his first meal (notice him focusing so hard on the spoon that he is cross eyed...and the vultures hoping he drops something...):

And click for a video of the festivities...

Videorama

One of my friends told me that our wedding videographer used part of our wedding video on his web page.  I just watched it and it brought back so many great memories!  *heart*  If you want to check it out here is the link: Fish Eye Films

We have been terrible about taking videos and pictures of Roo (except the foggy ones from my phone!) so I have resolved to leave the cameras out so that hopefully I remember more often.  Here are some from the past week:

Boppy Faceplant

Parrot Eater

Peekaboo & Spit

Riverdancer

Boucing & Talking

Hope you enjoy!

Cousins! Push ups!

I couldn't resist... just got this picture from Karen of Connor and Ramon - and Roscoe has the same onesie!  Can't wait for them to meet each other next month.  :)

Babies, Babies and Other News

This week feels like another wave of happy, happy baby news.  I found out on Sunday night that one of my good friends here in the Bay is expecting her first (YAY! still early so keeping it on the DL), then I talked to Laura and she is expecting her second (WOOHOO! she had Tessa four and a half months before Roscoe), then I talked to Antonietta who is pregnant with their third and due in September (HOORAY!)  I love my friends and I love babies and I LOVE when my friends have babies.

I celebrated my first official Mother's Day last weekend (last year he was still in the belly, of course). I only wish Mother's Day was more often because it was a really lovely day and I could get used to it.  :)  Ray spoiled me all day and made me feel special and loved.  He also got me a KINDLE *gasp*.  As you may know, I am a read-aholic.  I used to get in trouble as a kid for sneaking a flashlight and books into bed and reading till the wee hours.  I LOVE bookstores and books and paper and pages and words.  I have been trying to restrain myself from reading all day with my new toy (I have so much work to do right now!) but it is so hard.  I already have 3 books downloaded (little presents begging to be unwrapped) and have a full wishlist of books flagged for future download.  Much like 25 years ago, I was reading in bed last with a flashlight (Roo was sleeping in his bassinet) and I didn't even have to worry about waking him up turning pages.  My favorite part is that it is so light and portable - no more lugging big books on Muni or 4 books on the plane to last me through a vacay.  This is of utter importance now that Roscoe hogs all of the bag space.

Roscoe is eating well these days and has a few new tricks up his sleeve.  He not only drools these days; he also spits.  And he has developed a preference for spitting on your face as you hold him.  He also spends hours a week watching the dogs with awe.  As I write he is having a one-sided conversation with Ikaika and periodically spitting on him.  Ikaika is sleeping and seemingly unaware of this lavish attention.

He also has a special friend on the bus.  She is maybe 7 or 8 and when we ride the bus to Liz's she is on her way to school with her mom and older brother.  She always tries to sit next to him and smiles and makes faces at him the whole ride.  It is just too cute.  And he was forever distracting my office mate at one of my jobs by staring at her all day and smiling and batting his eyelashes.  Liz's nickname for him is Coqueto (spanish for Flirt), which is quite appropriate.  He is certainly a charmer.  Yet another trait he got from his Daddy.  For the record here is a summary of who to blame so far:

Sleep Issues = Karisa
Charm & Friendliness = Ray
Contemplativeness (complete with furrowed brow) = Karisa
Sunny Disposition = Ray
Baldness = Karisa
Love of Physical Activity = Ray
Food Focus = Karisa
Mama's Boy-ness = Ray
Intensity = Karisa
General Gassiness = I won't name names, but it's not me... Ray might say it's the dogs...

Bribery and the Bottle Strike

Not much going on here; just a standard Tuesday for us (i.e. Ray at work (hopefully only one of the jobs today...), Karisa at home watching Roscoe, trying to work, doing a load of diapers and going to the grocery store and post office).

Our nanny ended the bottle strike yesterday by bribing Roscoe with TV.  Yes, he LOVES trying to watch the TV.  If the TV is on he will crane and contort his neck in an attempt to see it from wherever he happens to be.  Liz pulled her stroller with car seat in front of the TV, let him watch and kept slipping in the bottle until he had 2oz.  Not a full feeding, but she was able to do it a few times during the day.  I can even imagine the look he had - think Joel as a child in front of the TV - mesmerized like this magical box holds wonders he cannot comprehend and nothing else matters at that moment.  I understand because I still get that feeling when I walk into a bookstore.  Hooray for bribery!  Let's hope Wednesday and Thursday go as well and that someday he will not be permanently scarred from all of the bribery and TV watching at such a young age.

The more we settle into the nanny routine, the more I find myself having internal battles about the environment he is being raised in 3 days a week.  TV, movies, crotch dangling baby carriers, Lysol, bleach, chemicals, chemicals, chemicals... all of it makes me cringe at the thought of all of the unnecessary crap and toxins entering his system already.  I am so careful at home about what we use for cleaners and detergent and all of that and then I realize that hours upon hours he is exposed to all of the junk I work so hard to avoid.  Although rationally I know that I do things that make other people cringe and we each have our own cringe-worthy list.  Alas.  When I find my body tensing and forget to breath I remind myself of the fact that I trust his caregivers and he is happy with them.  That I can't protect him from everything and it is much more important to me that he is shown lots of love despite the Other Stuff.  Liz even called her own pediatrician to ask about Roscoe not taking a bottle.  And she took a video of him laughing.  And she Skyped her mom in Mexico to "introduce" Roscoe to her.  Those little things remind me that we are making the right choice for him right now.

I have not taken any pictures, but here are a few tidbits you might not know about our little Roo:

1.  His right ear folds over.  Like completely.  And gets suctioned to itself and stays like that until we un-suction it.  I don't know why because it does not appear to stick out any further than his left ear.  And he doesn't seem to mind.

2.  Roscoe and Ray have matching birthmarks so faint you can barely see them.  On their right thighs in the same spot lies a little brown spot.

3.  He has been watching the dogs for awhile now and the other day he was watching Ikaika and then reached out his hand toward him and Ikaika licked it.  Like, hello, nice to meet you.

4.  He really has no interest in rolling over or sitting up.  I know he CAN roll over because he has, but he just won't do it.  And unless the sitting is accidental on the way to standing (with help), he will have none of it.

5.  He puts on his Wide-Eyed Concentration Face and watches us intently when we eat or drink now.  I tried giving him his little spoon, but he pushed it out with his tongue so the tongue-thrust reflex is still present and he is not quite ready for solids yet... but soon.

Tugging on my Heartstrings

Roscoe is on strike. He will not eat when he is not with me.  Monday he barely ate and screamed 2 hours straight at Liz's.  Ray said Liz handed Roscoe to him as he opened the door, looking completely exhausted (Liz, that is; Roscoe was unfazed).  Wednesday I had to leave work at 2pm because he had not eaten since 7am.  He was actually happy, though, and Liz said nothing seemed wrong.  He just refused to eat.  Thursday Roscoe was with his Lala Friend and by noon she called saying we had to come get him because he was hungry and refused to eat.  I was working on an audit at my client, so Ray had to leave work, drive down to San Mateo, pick him up, drive him to my work and then go back to work himself.  Needless to say, we are pretty tired.  Oh, and he also is sleeping even less than before *gasp* (i.e. wakes up EVERY HOUR crying for the past week, not just whimpering but full on scream-crying that requires soothing and sometimes even bouncing on the ball to calm him enough to eat...sigh).  Obviously this new pattern is not sustainable (as if the old pattern was!).  Nothing like a little regression to get you to appreciate how far you have come.  :)

We thought it might be teething. Or maybe an ear infection. BUT IT'S WORSE.  We went to the pediatrician yesterday and everything is fine physically. Which means it is psychological. Which means he won't eat because he is sad and doesn't want to be away from us. Ugh. My poor achy breaky heart.  And to add insult to injury... we had given him Tylenol a couple of times this past week because he was screaming like he was in pain and we could not soothe him and we were sure it was teething or something... yeah, that Tylenol lot was just recalled.  


So, big deep breath and self pep talk that in a few weeks this will all seem like ancient history and we will be on to the next thing.  I know we will all be fine in the end, but the responsibility of making decisions knowing that they deeply affect another human being who happens to be helpless and unable to voice his own opinions... it sometimes feels like so much.  Do we just starve him until he has no choice but to eat from the bottle?  Do we cut down on the hours he is away from me and ease him into it?  Do we give up and move to a commune seeking a "better way of life"?


And there really isn't an expert we can ask.  All babies are different and no, it is not that he just wants a different type of bottle or nipple (the common suggestion).  And no, Dr. Pediatrician, it is not because he is grumpy.  Maybe we do have a "high needs" baby, but he is also "high reward" so everyone that pities us can just Suck It.  Our little screaming monkey is worth every bit of it.


I don't want pity, I just want to know what to do and what is best for our family.  But, no one knows Roscoe like we do and it is our job to take what we know about him and make the best decisions for HIM not just assume he is this unfeeling lump we can mold to our liking.  (Apparently I had a lot to get off my chest this morning).  


So, here are some suggestions that we might try: Ray is going to work on giving him bottles.  We might have him "eat" milk from a spoon or sippy cup (apparently this is different enough for them to take it).  We will consider starting him on some solids in a couple of weeks if he continues to show signs of readiness.  I might start dropping him off later so he spends less time away until he feels more comfortable.  I know some people would think we coddle him too much.  But I am a softie and that's not going to change.  If I have to leave the room every time an SPCA commercial comes on, I am never going to be the girl that can let her baby tough it out.  


Like our pediatrician said, Most Babies are sleeping many hours at night now without eating, so if he goes 8 or 9 hours during the day it won't hurt him.  He will just keep us both up at night stuffing himself for the next day, I suppose.  One thing I learned from the pregnancy is that even though I had a mile long list of "symptoms," they were not all simultaneous.  Just when you think you will lose your mind from one thing, another thing pops up and shifts your focus.  Or, another more positive way of saying that is "God will never give you more than you can handle."  So far in my life this has been true, so I am just rolling with it and seeing where we all end up.