Category: firsts

Happy Halloween!

E seems to be feeling better. So far he hasn’t thrown up since yesterday morning (knock on wood) and seems to have some of his appetite back. The doctor said that E would stop being contagious 24 hours after his fever broke and it broke on Wednesday night, so if E’s still feeling better this afternoon I’m going to dress him in his costume and take him by N’s office and maybe my office if there’s time.


It’s hard for me to believe that it’s Halloween already! E was actually due last Halloween but he wasn’t born until a week later. It’s been a great year.

What’s that you say?

The colonies have declared their independence? By George!

Happy Fourth of July!

I hope you have a lovely holiday. I think we’re going to putter around the house and then see some friends (and hopefully fireworks) in the evening.

I forgot to post about our trip to the ENT on Monday. Our pediatrician’s office had gotten us a 3:45 appointment but the doctor was really behind and we were stuck waiting for almost 2 hours. E. held it together pretty well for the first hour, but then started falling apart. So I put him in his stroller and walked laps around the hallway. It was good for him because he quieted down and fell asleep and it was good for me because I hadn’t had time to exercise that morning. We ended up walking around for 45 minutes!

Lateness aside, I really liked the doctor. He had a very competent and deliberate manner about him. After he checked E.’s ears the doctor said that they look like they’re in the process of draining. He said that the pressure is more painful to E. now that his ears are draining than when they were totally plugged up. He didn’t think it would be worth it to jump the gun and put tubes in when the problem may resolve itself. We have a follow up appointment to check E.’s progress in 2 weeks (thankfully it’s the first appointment of the day and so there won’t be a horrendous wait). So tubes are still a possibility, but they’re a slim one.

E. has been fussier these last couple of weeks than he has ever been. Luckily, it’s still not too bad. However, I’ve been spoiled by his previous mellowness and so this new behavior kind of wears me out. He has taken to shrieking in a super-high pitch at the drop of a hat. Hopefully the shrieking is related to his ear pain and only temporary rather than being a new hobby he has decided to explore. Because I have to admit that I am not a big fan.

Laying Down the Law

(I was going to post some more pictures today, but our mouse mysteriously quit working and I have no idea how to edit and upload pictures using just the keyboard. Navigating around websites using only TAB and ALT is bad enough. Try it for “fun” sometime.)

So on Wednesday I disciplined E. for the first time.

He had picked up a cold while we were on vacation and was/is still feeling under the weather and acting kind of fussy. Anyway, I was nursing him and he, um, bit down. He didn’t do it that hard and I was feeling sorry for him and so I let it slide with a mild, “no.”

A minute later he bit down again HARD. Yeouch! Definitely not cool.

I sat him up and looked him in the eye and sternly said, “No!” E. looked at me quizzically for a second and then his face crumpled and he started crying. It was a pretty sad sight. To be honest, I was pretty surprised. I hadn’t really expected him to understand. Anyway, I settled him down and then we went on with the feeding.

It’s been a couple of days and so far he hasn’t done it again. Here’s hoping the lesson stuck!

Rice, Rice, Baby!

Yesterday E. had his first real experience with solid food. (I’m not counting the handful of times in the last month that N. has snuck E. tastes of random things such as ranch dressing and frozen yogurt.)


His first solid meal was rice cereal; it seemed to go well. He was really good about opening his mouth and actually seemed to swallow most of the cereal, contrary to the photographic evidence.

I’m going to give him rice cereal once a day for a week or so and if everything continues to go well, it will be on to tastier things. Kimchi, here we come!

Our First Mother’s Day

Yesterday was low key but lovely. N. surprised me with a fancy bread machine for a combination Mother’s Day/anniversary gift. I’m really excited to use it. It makes a 2 lb. horizontal loaf and comes with recipes for all sorts of bread. I’m particularly intrigued by the recipe for the cheese and onion bread–yum!

In the evening we went up to N.’s parents’ house for dinner. Holidays with N.’s parents are getting a little poignant because in June they are moving to Korea for three years to perform full-time service for our church. So it was N.’s mother’s first Mother’s Day with E. but also her last one with him until at least 2012!

I wasn’t able to see my mom yesterday since she lives out of state, but I wanted to thank her for everything she’s done for me. I know it’s trite, but becoming a parent does give you more appreciation for everything your own parents did for you.

Hooray for mothers, grandmothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, and friends!

No one was bowled over…

…by my mad skills. Because, um, I really stank. I guess bowling is not like riding a bicycle. I used to average about 130 back in my bowling class days, but this time I barely scored in the 80s. Oh well, at least it was better than Barack Obama did.

It was fun to see everyone from the office. A lot of people were surprised to see me and the baby, but everyone was very nice and seemed happy to see us.

And you know my boss–the one who sent me flowers a couple of weeks ago? Yeah, E. spit up on her while she was holding him–making friends! She was very sweet about it, though.

I don’t think E. has ever been in such a noisy situation before. It was pretty loud with all of the pins clattering around and so many people cheering and yelling. But he was a trooper and even fell asleep in his stroller for a while. All and all, it was a pretty fun time for me and I think a somewhat bewildering experience for E.

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling…

E. rolled over yesterday! He was laying on his tummy, kicking his feet out behind him when his head started leaning to one side and slowly (ever so slowly) he rolled onto his side and then onto his back. I got out the video camera and tried to get him to do it again, but to no avail (of course!). I tried it with him again this morning, but he was tired and having none of it.

However, I haven’t given up hope and will continue trying to capture footage of the elusive rollover!

Happy Valentine’s Day

E.’s still a little under the weather, but I think he’s on the mend. I don’t know if it’s because he’s sick or if it’s just a stage, but he’s been drooling like crazy these last few days. His little chin is getting pretty chapped. He’s also started focusing on his hands a lot and often puts them in his mouth along with anything he can grab–so his drool gets on everything within his reach. Lovely!
Anyway, happy Valentine’s Day from E. and me!





E.’s First Fever

Yesterday I noticed the E. didn’t seem like his normal cheerful self and in the early evening he started to feel pretty warm. I took his temperature and it was 101 and some degrees, and so N. and I took made an appointment with our pediatrician’s after hours clinc. There his temperature was a little over 102, and because he’s so little still they wanted to run some urine and possibly blood tests to find out why.

Here’s the part I’m really ashamed of: when they were going to insert the catheter, they wanted me to sit by him and hold his arms and try and keep him calm. And I just lost it and started crying. I just felt so bad that E. was feeling so awful. He had been whimpering almost constantly for a couple of hours and it was obvious that he was miserable. And the whole catheter thing was freaking me out. E.’s so little! So N. held him. It was pretty bad because E. had just wet his diaper and so they had to stick the catheter way up there to get any pee at all. Of course E. totally freaked out. I still feel bad that I wimped out. I should have been there for him.

After they looked at his urine, they wanted to look at his blood so they sent us over to the hospital to get it drawn. It was now after 9pm and the outpatient lab was closed, so we had to wait in the emergency room for someone to draw it there. We were there for almost an hour before someone could be spared to do it. This time I did better though. I was collected enough to hold him down as they put the little tourniquet on his tiny arm and drew the blood. Argh! The whole thing was so sad.

So after that and around 10pm we were back over the clinic. They close at 10 but were waiting to get E.’s blood results and for us. It turned out that the type of red blood cells that the body releases from bone marrow when it’s fighting an infection were elevated. After talking with the doctor it was decided to give E. a one-time shot of antibiotics. So I had to hold him down again for that. Good times!

We got home a little after 10:30pm. I massaged E.’s thigh where he got his shot (he screamed bloody murder, of course) and gave him some baby Tylenol like the doctor said to and put him to bed. He fussed for a little while and then feel asleep, exhausted. He woke up screaming around 4am this morning and I jumped out of bed in a panic and ran across the hallway to his room, running smack into the door in the process. (I’m so unused to him screaming that it really kind of freaks me out.) But he’s now sleeping in his swing.

*sigh* I am so wiped out! We have a follow up appointment for E. this afternoon. Hopefully we’ll find out that the antibiotic has helped.

Anyway, here are some of E. with his cousins Big E. and Little E. who were visiting this weekend. It was really fun to see them and N.’s sister G. and her husband.

G., who is pregnant, had a craving for chajangmyun (Korean black bean paste noodles) and radish kimchi. Both sounded good to me and so we made some noodles and got out the kimchi. As G. and I were eating, Little E. declared that she wanted some noodles. So G. gave her a taste. And Little E. declared that she wanted more noodles! She ended up eating almost a third of the bowl. I think G. was torn was between annoyance at having to share so many of her noodles and pride that her daughter was eating Korean food; the pride definitely won out. Little E. also wanted to try the kimchi, but that didn’t go over as well!