Countdown

Only eleven or so more hours until James gets to meet his Auntie Erin and Auntie Kristin!  We should have lots of great pictures to post tomorrow.  Woo hoo!

Busier and Busier (But in a Good Way)

     Well, aren't I awful for going this long without posting?  We've been ridiculously busy with the house.  Of course, that's a good thing because it means that so far, things are still rolling along.  We've gotten everything from our office packed up.  The carpet cleaners and the heater guy came today (the buyer requested that as part of the contract), so we're doing well.  

     We also found a house that's pretty perfect.  It's in a great location, needs some work, but almost everything it needs is something we can do ourselves over time, and it's just inside our price range.  We'll see how things go.  Cross your fingers for us.  

An Offer We Couldn't Refuse

James naps wearing his "Grandma Loves Me" shirt.

Grandma and James chat about all sorts of exciting things.

     Good news!  Our real estate agent called last night to report that the offer did in fact come in on our house.  It's actually not that bad an offer, all things considered.  We're quite hopeful that this thing all works out.  With that hope in mind, Patrick spent the day packing stuff at our house, and I worked to set up appointments to have the carpet cleaned, the heater serviced, and other things the buyer requested.  We'll see how it goes.

     Patrick also made time to swing by the Trader Joe's and pick up a couple of Tofurkeys before they were all gone.  Now I'm set for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Thank heavens.  I was concerned as they're not that easy to come by, and, according to Walter at the Trader Joe's, there's been a run on Tofurkeys in the past two days.  He's not sure their new order will be enough to feed the growing number of Tofurkey eaters.  So it's a good thing I have mine now.  No worries.

     On a different note, James and I spent some time working on his baby book today.  It's so weird.  Looking back, it's hard to conceive of a life before James was here.  It's only been a month and a half, but it seems like it's a completely different world than it was before he arrived.  I have to say, I prefer this world.  :)

Growing Up

James looks particularly dapper in his sweat suit.

Daddy reads to James from Popular Mechanics.

     Well, James is definitely growing.  He's officially eight pounds as of his last doctor's visit, and he's outgrown several outfits now.  I looked at him this morning after I had dressed him in an outfit that started out too big for him only to see that his ankles and wrists were beyond hanging out.  Looking back at pictures of him from when he first came home just made it all the more real.  He's getting bigger and cuter by the day.

     Dare I say he's also turning into a better sleeper?  Patrick and I got him a humidifier that looks like an elephant and spews the mist out of its trunk and a sound machine that has a heartbeat sound.  We thought that perhaps using these things at night might help him sleep better.  So far, it seems to be going ok.  He stayed in bed all night the first night we had them, and last night he stayed in bed for a while too.  That's not to say that he was asleep the whole time, but small steps, right?  Of course, I might be premature in getting excited about that, but, as Patrick and I discussed just minutes ago, I do tend to be cautiously optimistic.  

     We did hear from our real estate agent earlier today with word that there is a person who is planning on putting in an offer on our house.  While I'm sure it won't be any kind of spectacular offer, we would pretty much take any offer at this point.  The only question is whether or not it will actually come in.  Again, I'm cautiously optimistic.  It would be really great to take James home to a house with a yard he can play in as he grows.  It would also be really great to not have to commute for forty-five minutes each way for work, as I know already how eager I'll be to get back home to my baby.  We'll see how it goes, and we'll keep you posted.   

Fancy Photos and Funny Fountains

     Well, things do seem to be going well on the James front.  It's been several days now since we got back from the hospital, and James seems to be back to his normal self.  He's still waking himself up when he needs to eat and spending several consecutive hours of the day awake and alert.  Thank heavens.  

     One other indication of James's normalcy is that he's back to astonishing us with his productions.  I don't know if you guys have seen that commercial where the man takes the baby into a bedroom and lays him on the bed to change his diaper.  Once he removes the old diaper, the baby proceeds to squirt with the force of a garden hose, spraying all over the bedroom.  The man quickly replaces the diaper and looks at the baby in astonishment.  Then, he waits until he's sure the baby is done, removes the diaper again, and the process repeats.  If you haven't seen it, you could come visit our house and view it in person.  I swear, that exact same thing happened with James today.  I really didn't think someone could fit that much fluid inside himself.  We now owe Kristin a new carpet as well as new walls.  

     On a different (and cleaner) note, we currently have all of James's professional photos available online, should anyone be interested in viewing them.  Go to the following link, and, when it asks for a password, put in "poomachine" (I promise, the photographer came up with that one all on her own).  

http://www.stylizedportraiture.com/clients/index.php?do=photocart&viewGallery=1183

     Oh!  I forgot the most exciting thing.  James has started smiling.  It's wonderful.  We'll try to capture it on film, but I imagine this is going to be one of those things to which no picture will do justice.  He's amazing.  

     

Back to (ab)normal

James was strangely lethargic last week, and after he would not wake up to eat, we finally took him to the closest hospital.  They did not have any definitive diagnosis, but lethargy in infants is apparently a symptom of meningitis, botulism, and numerous other malevolent things.  So they pumped him full of antibiotics, antivirals, antitoxins, et cetera, and passed him off to the experts at the Scottish Rite hospital.  They ran every imaginable test on him (including a spinal tap!), but did not find any obvious reason for his lack of alertness.  No meningitis, no botulism, no brain damage, no obvious bacterial or viral presence.  He stayed there a couple of days, and eventually got better.  The doctors still don't know exactly how, but somewhere amidst the intravenous medications, medical examinations, and large numbers of people praying for him, he fought it off and regained his energy.  Now, to make up for lost time, he wants to eat every hour and a half.  But that's better than being sick.   And now we have a giant list of things that aren't wrong with him, so that's reassuring.  

Thanks to all of you out there who were praying for him through this, and thanks as well to the doctors and nurses and staff at Scottish Rite, who routinely save the lives of kids like James. Even though they didn't figure out what was wrong with him, they watched over him and took care of him like they were his parents.  Whatever they're paying them, it's not enough. 

Weaker and Weaker

     Well, James seems to still be doing well.  Last night Patrick observed that either James was getting heavier by the day, or he was getting weaker and weaker.  I noted that my biceps were increasingly sore as well.  Therefore, we concluded that James seems to be thriving, though we did observe that sleep deprivation was probably not good for building or maintaining muscle mass.  So it could be some combination of the two.

     I had to go to work briefly yesterday to talk with my new sub, so I got a mere taste of how much it will suck when I have to go back full time.  Don't get me wrong; it was good to see some of my students and coworkers and to think about teaching for a while.  But I was away from James for four and a half hours, and that was torture.  No sense in worrying about it now though.  It's still two months away, and I'm holding him now, so that's what matters.  More later.

James is a month old!

Congratulations to James, who is one month old today! He shares a birthday with Charlton Heston (take your stinking paws off me!, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-6L_hT3QtQ), Rutherford B. Hayes (19th president of our fair nation, http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/rh19.html), and King Charles IX of Sweden. Sorry, I have no quote for King Charles IX of Sweden.

A Good Day

James naps on Daddy over the weekend.
James looks cute in a sweat shirt.
James correctly signals a touchdown while watching a football game on Sunday.
James wears the Bald is Beautiful shirt he got from cousin Hannalee.

     Well, today was indeed a good day for multiple reasons.  Reason one: James slept for three and a half consecutive hours last night.  Patrick and I were euphoric.  Now, I imagine it's too much to hope for a repeat of that particular performance tonight, but it was really nice to at least have a couple hours of sleep in a row for once. 

     Reason two: James is getting better at his feeding.  He's now successful without the aid of assorted gadgets about a third of the time he eats.  This pleases me tremendously as the whole stress of feeding him is occasionally more than I can handle when it doesn't go right.  If there are at least a few bright spots, then I have an opportunity to regain my optimism.  

     Reason three: James had his pictures professionally taken on Friday, and we can now look at the previews of said pictures on the photographer's blog (http://www.stylizedportraiture.com/blog).  You have to scroll down a bit to find them.  He's on there as Baby J.  They're awfully cute, even though my father thinks they're pornographic.  I'm quite pleased with them.  I can't wait to see all the pictures she took in about a week or so.  They'll be on a different web site, so I'll tell you where that is if you are interested in seeing them.  

     So, as far as James was concerned, the day was a wild success.  Less so for me personally as my long-term sub had to quit, so I had a good bit of work to do today to prepare a new sub.  But that's a different story, and this isn't really the forum for telling it.  So, James had a good day.  I'll be content with that, and I hope you are too.  

Halloween Outfit and Photos

     Well, yesterday was an exciting, albeit long, day.  James, Grandma and I traveled to Athens to have James's picture taken by the photographer who did Patrick's and my wedding pictures.  James was mostly cooperative, but, due to his age (a whopping four weeks!), he no longer likes to pose all bent up, which is what the photographer was going for.  I'm sure the pictures will be great though.  She spent a good solid three hours working on getting him posed and getting good shots.  She clearly has tremendous patience, as she apparently does newborn photos on a regular basis.  There should be some previews available early next week.  I'm very much looking forward to that.  That did make for a very long day for us all, but the pictures will be worth it, and James was great in the car (he slept the whole way there and back).  I slept some of the way back myself as I had only had about an hour and a half sleep the night before.  

      Of course, the other big excitement of yesterday was Halloween.  James did not trick-or-treat, though Grandpa suggested that he do so and bring back some candy for people with teeth to enjoy.  We declined to do that, but we did celebrate.  James wore his fancy outfit sent to him by his cousin, Hannalee, and he had a cute, vibrating ghost to play with sent to him by his aunties.  He also went to meet all of the trick-or-treaters.  One little girl, when Grandma commented, "I like your costume," replied with, "I like your baby."  And how could you not when he's so cute?