And just because I can't possibly milk enough sympathy for my baby....

When we got into the exam room, the assistant informed us that she wanted to set up a urine collection bag just in case the doctor needed a sample. Okay, I say, since I really don't know what's wrong with my kid.

She swabs down all A's bits with iodine solution, then puts a glorified ziplock with a round self-adhesive seal over all of A's bits. Then we seal it into the diaper. The plastic bag was probably as big as the diaper. It could not have been comfortable. I haven't stuffed a Hefty bag into my undies to check, but it seems wrong.

Of course they don't need a sample. Before we leave, I stop the assistant and say, "Do you need a sample? If you don't, could you remove the bag?" Watching poor cranky A get a bandaid airlock taken off his most tenderest of tenders was just about as much mommydom as I could take today. (I know, there are parents with kids in cancer wards and hospices...this is just a band-aid. I know! Still doesn't mean I like seeing my baby uncomfortable.) Next time you take a band-aid off, think about how much more worrisome adhesive is south of the border.

My baby's got what?

Herpangina. Boy are there diseases that give you the shivers just hearing the name. Nothing to do with herpes or angina, this is a virus that causes painful little blisters in the back of the throat. It apparently causes such mind-numbing pain that babies can't chew, which is why A left his O cereal untouched for the first time ever this morning. It's big in the summer. The doctor thinks the fever's peaked out on day 3 and so we're just riding this out for another three or four days.

Doctor's orders: fluids, cold smooth foods, feeding for comfort and not nutrition. Os and turkey are out, milkshakes and applesauce (and breastmilk, even though I was trying to cut back on the comfort nursings for mommy snuggles) are in. It's a virus, so we wait it out. Argh.

He's crying and unhappy and cranky all the time. It's so sad when there's nothing to do for him. Nothing makes him feel better.

Foggy weekend

I spent a lot of this weekend sick, so it's a blur to me. Saturday morning I was in a stupor while we went to the baby hellhole and bought another car seat for A. We got a Britax Roundabout. It's ugly. I blame it on being sick and not wanting to go anywhere else. I went home and fell asleep for another couple hours with Jake (a sign placed upon my cat read "Come back to Jake-maka. Vacancy: 1." So I'm sure I was a treasure to be with.

But A was complaining every time we put him in the seat, which probably meant he was too big for it and as such needed a bigger seat. Another seat will be purchased for C's car once it gets back from the shop.

A is running a fever again today and has several molars glinting through his gums right now, so he's been cranky today. I've been more coherent today, which is good. If he's got a fever tomorrow, he's going to the pediatrician's.

I was coherent enough to go to the plumeria society meeting and actually win a 'Duke' plumeria cutting (which I'll try to find a photo and link to) and some plumeria seeds. Yes, plumerias have seeds and I'm going to try and start seedlings. Whoa. And the plumeria show and sale is in two weeks so I'll be plumeria crazy all around.

A likes ribs

Yes, it's true. The boy doesn't like plain meat, just smoked and BBQd. Video on YouTube.

No swimming today

The pump broken down, so the pool had to be closed. Sigh. The good news is that I already scheduled a make-up session for A this Friday. The bad news is that I left early so A could get a nap and so I drove all the way to Belmont Park and woke him up only to discover there were no classes today.

We had a good weekend. I have to clean. We are in desperate need of bookshelves and I have to sort through a stack of files before I throw out a lateral file.

Jury Duty

At playgroup this week (which should almost be renamed "A and L have a playdate" but hope springs eternal), I saw a jury duty summons. K and I had a discussion about how she and her hubby have had to go every year for as long as they've lived here.

I said, gosh, isn't there an exemption period if you've served? She said no, one year.

So today in the mail, what did I spawn with my idle chatter about jury duty? That's right, a jury duty summons. The paperwork actually says I'm exempt from jury duty for three years if I've served as a sworn juror, which, of course, I have. And I blogged about it so I have the dates, yay!

Stupid bibs

Yesterday the NYT had an article saying some of Toys R Us's baby bibs were contaminated with lead. Unfortunately, they're the ones A has. Bleack.

Duly motivated, I took A for his lead screening, which is a normal part of the 12-month checkup but I just hadn't gotten around to doing yet. The phlebotomist was not the best we've ever had, but A was a superstar. The guy stuck him in the arm, lost the vein, moved the needle around for twenty seconds to find the vein while A watched (not screaming). I was about to scream myself but settled for asking with the right amount of umbrage and studied casualness: "Do you want to try his other arm now?"

"No, I've almost got it," he said, and in a second, yes, he did. A did not yell or cry during any of it. When I put him in his stroller to go, he pulled his band-aid off. The guy gave us another band-aid and taped it to A's arm.

The window where A used bibs was actually pretty small, but it still makes me nervous. I'm about to go throw out all his non-German toys. I think the Germans are the only ones left I trust.

The fever is down

So we'll hopefully get to avoid the doctor this week. A's currently trying to make clicking noises with his tongue because I can. He's also found a set of calligraphy markers that I'm letting him play with in a fit of parental insanity. He can't take the tops off of them and I'm not sure he knows the tops come off of them. He'll figure it out as soon as I look away.

I took him to the zoo this morning to take a nap. He fell asleep (of course!) on the way to the car. I managed to get him into the car seat without waking. I picked up some In-n-Out, ate in a parking garage and read books. When A woke up, the engine wouldn't turn over. Call C, say, "Hey, is this a dead battery thing?" (I get all stupid-girl about the car. I try not to, but I'm honestly only hoping it goes most of the time.) Yeah, probably battery, C says. (I do not mention that C owes me jumper cables.) I call AAA, ask for a jump, a new battery salesman, and possibly a tow truck. They're as friendly as can be.

Then I put the key in the car, and it comes on just fine. Call them back--not realizing in my brilliance I have programmed the number into the phone--and cancel. Come home, feed boy. Now he's working on climbing on top of my desk. Boy, he's scary.

Completely random

So I was reading a L&D nurse's blog (pointed to courtesy of Jennifer, thanks!). Recently she's got a collection of birth stories there; one of which had the most beautiful term for a sunny-side up (OP) baby like Mistah A here: Sternengucker (German) or "star gazer." My little star gazer! How fab!

Fevers and doctors and pedialyte, oh my

Our boy was running a fever today. This is notable because I've got the mommy touch now, you know, the put a hand on the forehead and say, "You're hot." I thought he was hot at swimming, then later thought he was hot as I was considering an outing. So I took his temperature and sure enough, he was running a low grade fever (100-101°F).

He's had some intestinal issues over the last week and he's got a cut on his finger (which I think is him biting himself), so I called the doctor's office. They think it's a virus. Tylenol for the fever, Pedialyte for the intestinal issues; they'll see him if he runs a fever for three days.

The mommy touch comes from touching a baby all the time. You get acclimated to what they should feel like. My guy's hot like his dad, but fever feels different.

His ezcema seems to be doing somewhat better, although he's still getting slathered with lotion for some rough patches. Swimming today didn't seem to make it worse.

Saturday at the doctor

Today A had a rash on his sides (right where you would hold him) and it looked like it was spreading to his tummy. He didn't seem bothered by it, but it bothered us. Long story short, we went to the pediatrician's and he's got a mild case of eczema.

The doctor thinks it was brought on by swimming with a wet suit. He said we should keep A moisturized and use 1% hydrocortisone on the rashy bits.

I'm quite annoyed, because my father had nasty, severe eczema and eczema is hereditary. I was pretty happy when A had no signs of anything relating to my father. I thought I was mostly over my cheap self, but then this happened and I thought, great, eczema, one more asshole thing the stupid sonofabitch can do to me (which is kind of funny, now that I see it written down like that). I don't like it when my daddy issues rear their ugly heads. It's not often that they do nowadays, but man. I had the same gut reaction that I would have if someone slapped A.

But I'm trying to cut back on my completely irrational and crazy lines of thought like that, and identifying something as crazy is the first step towards leaving crazy. Also helping with crazy: getting more sleep, like now.

Swimming blahs

Today's make-up swim class wasn't great. We had a sub since our regular teacher is on vacation (thank God, because I thought she'd never get one) and the sub didn't really know how class went and winged it. So A was a little confused but game. He did okay except for when she moved him around without really watching where he was and he ended up a little submerged and drank some water. That wasn't cool. She normally teaches the three- and four-year-olds so I'm guessing she just had issues adjusting to the babies. (One of the things she wanted them to do was shout, "Hooray!" They don't shout on cue yet, lady.)

But A grinned and grinned when he saw the pool so that's good.

A has had some nasty diaper rash going that's made him now wiggle and squirm like, oh, an electrocuted puppy every time I try to change him. On the last change, I apparently twisted something in my back by my left clavicle and now it's difficult to turn. Hmmm. Parenting is a full-contact sport.

Oh crap, he's climbing!

As I type this, the wunderkind is perched on top of my oak step stool and making his way to the seat of the futon. Poor sweet Niles was having a nice lie-down in the sun; he has now, resentfully, moved to the window where he is watching A to determine if this was a fluke or a development. Sadly for Niles and me, it's a development.

Now we can climb up things. Whee!

New blog, new blog

I realized that the writing stuff was taking up too much room on the blog of baby stuff, so I've made a new blog.

Due to my tendency to not keep my big fat mouth shut, that one will be invitation only. It's not you, it's me. I need to be able to sleep after I rant about people who piss me off. I sent out invitations this morning to people who I thought would care, but if you didn't get one, email me and I'll send you an invite. I'm including the people I just forgot and the people I weren't aware read the blog.

Those of you who just want to hear about the bambino should be thrilled.

A picked up a new sign, btw: bird. He likes birds. We went to Sea World yesterday and saw the "Pets Rule" show. He tracked the animals, said "Meow" for the kitties and "Doggie" for the dogs, then watched the window behind us that the birds flew into mid-show very carefully. There's a lot going on in his head.

So what do you do with a baby in Vegas?

Well, let's see. We drove to Vegas, which took about five hours, out of which A was unhappy for half an hour. I put my hand on him and he fell asleep.

We met up with C's work people at the hotel and ate. Then C wasn't due back until later, so we checked into our hotel, let the boy run around the room, and then headed over to the hotel for a tour of J&T's suite and to get my badge. C dropped A and I off at our hotel and he went to the Voodoo Lounge for the company shindig. A and I fell asleep. C crept in later and escaped death by not waking me up too much.

Day two, we dropped C off and picked up Miss Julie and went shoe shopping and fishing shopping. Did you know Zappos has an outlet in Vegas? It does, and I found it and the most darling pair of cute trendy sneakers, plus a pair of blue snakeskin heels. Plus we had excellent Memphis-style BBQ. We went to see The Big Announcement by the CEO and then C, A, and I had dinner and went to bed.

Day three, we had a long lazy morning. C, T, and I went and had BBQ again because it was just that good. Yum! I could eat another pulled pork sandwich right now. The sweet potato came with brown sugar butter sauce. I can't begin to tell you how good that is. Brown sugar and butter might be the best tasting thing in the world.

C went to his panels, A and I drove around Vegas for a nap, then we went to the pool (where some person tried to tell me that the pool was an adult-only pool like I was an idiot and I went all Willy Wonka inscrutable/loony on him), and then we went to watch C in his last panel, then went to the Grand Banquet and ditched after the wedding and costume contest.

Day four, we got up, had breakfast, and came home.

There's a huge difference between staying on the strip without a car and staying off the strip with a car and there's a huge difference in having your baby there and not. But we were not the only ones there with young 'uns.

I think A's favorite part was either trying to walk around in the hotel hallways or taking a bath in the hotel tub.

I took no pictures aside from ones of the hotel room, which is truly a shame.

Vegas with baby

Yes, we were those people in Vegas with a baby in the stroller.

Pizza's hot so I will say that we went to Vegas, had a good time, and didn't gamble or drink. Vegas with a baby is worlds apart from Vegas without a baby (at least, if you are a good parent--yes, I'm looking at you, people who line your kids up against the wall of the casino while you gamble).

More when pizza's not hot.

Viva Las Baby

I'm trying to pack but Mister Crankypants here is making it difficult. So I'm blogging and holding him in my lap.

He desperately needs a nap.

Today was his 12-month checkup. I asked a lot of questions about food, allergies and parenting. He's doing great. He's average in weight, height and head circumference (but in no other ways is he average!), 22 pounds, 29 and a half inches. The length surprised me; his car seat's limit for height is 30 inches so we'll be getting a car seat sooner than I thought. The pediatrician says he has a lot of words for a one-year-old.

He has a new trick where he runs over to a light socket, sees how close he can get to it before I say, "Danger!" then runs back to me, giggling. He also thinks sneezes are hysterically funny right now. Anyone sneezes and he looks delighted, like a large and beautiful butterfly just floated by. If it's a particularly good sneeze, he giggles.

He got the MMR vaccine today and he's running a low-grade fever, which the doctor told us to expect. He really didn't like these shots; he howled and turned so red I thought he'd had a reaction to the drugs at first. One of them apparently burns.

We've got a rental car to go to Vegas (since my car had a nervous breakdown the last time we were there) and we've got to pick it up this evening. I wonder what you do with a baby in Vegas. I'm packing swim togs and we'll spend a lot of time at the pool.