Ouch

May I present the first bad scratch. do you see it? dangerously close to his eye!
It is just too bad that I have learned to sleep when he sleeps.... or should I give up a blog post?
I will let you all know how the nail clipper experience goes if it is worth mentioning!
Sorry about that gargantuan image that was here earlier, just playing with hosted image posting code.

Now you know who really rules here...

So, there is a rumor that Josef is teething... I did not start it. It may be true. 

The red shoes story

I have to let folks know why I posted the picture of Josef with the red shoes...

There are several reasons actually...

1. They were a gift from Oma und Opa
2. They fit him finally
3. They remind me of my grandmother

Grandmother you say?

Yes, my dear Zun. Zun is my maternal grandmother, though she passed away and only lives on in our hearts. Zun is her nickname, her real name is Mary. No one knows what Zun means, it is just something her husband (aka Grandpa Honey) called her and is used by many... Zun is a marvelous grandmother. She grew up relatively poor in a TB community in Arizona (Barry Goldwater lived in it too and chased her or pulled her pigtails... I seem to recall). Her mother was a nurse and her father a railroad engineer and poet (he had the TB).

One thing she wanted as she was growing up was a pair of red shoes, but, they were too expensive and she never got them. My aunt is an artist, and made a painting of a picture of Zun and her mother when they went on a trip to California, in the painting she gave Zun red shoes. My grandmother loved that painting so much. Someday, if I get the chance I will post a picture of it.

So, red shoes remind me of my dear Zun, and so I had to put that picture of Josef wearing red shoes... just in case she can see it.

Josef with his red shoes 

To poop or not to poop...

So, I have not really said why dear old (or in this case young) Squink has been a touch.. shall we say emotional.

He had not pooped for a week. Now, it seems like this is normal in some babies, but I am convinced that the wee one was suffering from one major do-do headache for a few days, ok five days!

Thankfully for his little body and my sanity, at 11:30 PM we had some action... followed up with a super sequel at baby school (that is what I call it when I am speaking with my nephew, day care just did not make sense to him, baby school does... to me too actually). I am debating on whether or not to take a nap (I lived through his crying too you know) or to wash the car seat cover which has some of the generous, dare I say copious amounts of doo...

Oh, I just had better stop here, go take a 30 minute nap and then go wash his car seat cover...

This is what we did last night... 

This is how I wish he had been last night... 

This picture is blurry because he was laughing so hard. Oh I am in love. 

Getting ready for a day at the park. 

hip hip horray

Just listen to the message from the hem/onc - Jaundice is way down, though there is still something we still need to check out in a few months that most likely be nothing at all... the wait will kill me, but I am so relieved to know that my breast milk is not going to kill him and I am so profoundly grateful that I was not asked to not breast feed my boy... who is 13 lbs. 4 oz BTW (mama das ist 5.910 kg!!!)
He is also 23 inches long.

Latest news

Went back to the hem/onc doc today. His hemoglobin is a bit better but everything else is still a bit off... so, we will wait until the Squink is 6 months old to retest since it doesn't look like it would be causing something major.

Some people just can't see the leaves from the trees

Whose Shake Is This!!? wrote the following about my blog and a few others:
"But some hand of horror always drags me back into the fray. Bloogs that celebrate little 6 pound 4 ounce canned hams like Life of Noah... bloogs like Blair Necessities and all of their sad and tedious tales of medical peril, and puerile cuteness, and the redolent diaperloads that they resemble, hot, glorious and stinking. Or it could be a bloog like Poignant Irrelevance that does it."

An email but no comments area... What a coward and appears to hate all blogs but his own.

It is obvious that he has never had the chance to experience anything like bed rest, a difficult pregnancy and possibly even parenthood... Or he would be able to see that I had a purpose to the tedious tales... To give women a basic resource as to how to combat the hardships that parenting can bring, even from the stage of pregnancy.

Who made him the art critic and perhaps he ought to spend his time in an useful occupation. After all my blog is for friends (known and unknown), not the prurient.

I love this little boy. 

My boys. 

How does one spell relief?

Today, I spell it...
P. E. D. I. C. U. R. E.
and made all the better with lovely blue polish... and not a peep out of squink.
Thanks mom for taking me!

Reflections on bed rest

The one thing that is somehow surprising and yet not surprising about living after bed rest (and I think more so after being on bed rest a long time) is that my feet hurt all the time, as do my legs and back. I am referring to a pain and ache I never imagined, after all my legs were always so strong.

Also, I was hoping that the posting via email function would work better... But I have sent a few and so far, I have yet to see them.

One said something like:
I spoke to the hematologist again... The lab work they took that day was even better than the lab work that they had done at the pediatricians'...
Josef has another follow up this coming week for a re-test, but we are very hopeful. The best part was that the jaundice was even lower...
Sigh
it is really true that a mothers work is never done.

And, in case you notice that I am doing this at 5 am - it is because my feet ache so much that I am up... Woke up to feed Jo and can't get back to sleep.