And so it ends...

NaBloPoMo, that its. Today is the last day of November, and the last day of daily posting. Not that I posted every day. I don't even think I hit the halfway mark. But I did post more than I've ever posted before, and that was my real goal. Can I keep it up? We'll see. I do have a vacation report to post, so there's at least a few more. And then there will be fun Christmas posts, too. I will shoot for daily posts, but I think you'll all have to settle for 3-5 per week.

Sunny Fla!

Well, we made it safely to Florida! The day wasn't without its stressful moments, though. Thankfully, none of them had to do with Squiggles. He was a happy baby all through the process of getting to the airport, checking our luggage, going through security, running to the gate, flying, and the reverse once we landed. I nursed him while we were taking off, and he fell asleep and slept for all but the last 15 minutes of the flight!

The stressful parts? Well, we arrived at the airport a little over an hour before departure (I know, it's supposed to be 2 hours, but we have a rinky-dink airport) to find the longest line I've ever seen at the check-in counter! A local high school marching band was on their way to Orlando to perform at Disney World. Cool, but how were we going to make the flight? Thankfully, we found out there was a separate line for non-band members. After some waiting there, we flew through security and to our gate (which were on opposite ends of the airport - why do they do that?) just in time to be called to board. Then, on the flight, I had a kid kicking my seat from behind, and a guy in front of me leaning back. I'm holding a sleeping baby, mind you, and I wanted nothing more than to be out of there!

But, like I said, we arrived safely and for that I am thankful. It's beautiful here, and I can't wait to relax and enjoy some time off.

And what holiday would that be, exactly?

I saw this little story on Snopes.com yesterday about Lowe's calling their Christmas trees "family trees" in a recent holiday catalog. Now, to be fair, Lowe's admits that the "family tree" moniker was an error, and that their TV and magazine ads, and fliers from here on out will bear the word "Christmas" in the description. So please don't go boycotting Lowe's!

However, this brought a familiar ire to the surface for me. Retailers switched from "Christmas" to "holiday" advertising some years ago, which, in a way, I can understand. The "holiday" season starts right around Halloween and lasts through New Year's Day, so I can understand lumping all the holidays in this time period together for marketing ease. What I don't understand is why the "holiday" decorations and marketing are almost always related to Christmas, yet the word is rarely seen or mentioned anywhere!

If you decorate your store with evergreen trees strung with lights and ribbon, put a Santa hat on your store mascot, hang red and green banners, and play "Jingle Bells" and "Silent Night", are you invoking images of Thanksgiving? Hanukkah? Kwanzaa? Ramadan? New Year's Day? No! These are, without a doubt, solely Christmas trappings.

Why the ambiguity, then? So as not to offend non-Christians or those opposed to Christmas? Fine; I am not one to judge, but wouldn't the proliferation of the obviously Christmas theme without the inclusion of your preferred holiday encroach on offensive as well? Wouldn't you say to yourself, "Ah, my favorite store is celebrating the holiday season. Wait, what's with all the Christmas trees? Where's the (insert preferred holiday symbol here)?" When is the last time you saw a menorah in a "holiday" display? Plus, aren't retailers at all concerned with offending Christians, too?

And then there are the well-meaning employees that I will come across who will wish me a hearty "Happy holidays!" I suppose I can understand the generality here, more so than with their employers ("Happy Internet Explorer Day!" "I hate Internet Explorer - viva Firefox!"). Why risk invoking an angered response when you're just trying to do your job? Perhaps I could adopt Chef's response; an even heartier "Merry Christmas to you, too!"

In the end, I know that retailers are really just unwilling to lose even one of the $474.5 billion dollars they hope to rake in this year by potentially offending someone. I know that Christmas is becoming an increasingly commercial holiday. Fewer and fewer people are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.

And that makes my heart break.

Ch-ch-changes

I liked the dots that I had going on here, but it was so dark and kind of jumbly (Google tells me this is not a word, but I say it is and it's my blog. So there.), so I've decided to make some changes. We'll start with a little cleaner, crisper look. Maybe widen the post column a bit. I'll put my meager HTML skills to work! Any fancy design ideas or features you'd like to see? Let me know!

Is this baby FAA approved?

We leave for Florida in just over two days now, so I've started reading up on airline travel with an infant. I don't think it will be too bad, as long as the following things happen:

• I remember to take all of the liquids/gels/creams out of Squiggles' diaper bag and put them in a 1qt zip top bag. Unless they are over 3oz, then they have to go in his checked bag. Oh, and I have to remember to put my little necessities (hand lotion, lip gloss) in there, too.


• I resist the very real urge to over pack. Since we didn't purchase a separate ticket for Squiggles, we are limited to two carry-on bags and 4 checked pieces of luggage. Shouldn't be too hard since Mom & Dad have a washer and dryer at the house (won't have to pack every onesie we own), but I think I brought way more than that on our last weekend trip.


• We're praying that: a) the flight isn't full, and b) that no one decides to take the middle seat in the three-seat row. Again, since I'm cheap and didn't spring for an infant ticket, Chef and I will reserve the window and aisle seats for ourselves; hopefully that will make the other passengers look elsewhere for seats. Unless, like I mentioned, the flight is full.


• The airline lets us gate-check Squiggles' car seat and stroller travel system. Bonus points if the aforementioned middle seat is available and we can actually strap him into the car seat (note to self: must check and see if car seat is rated for air travel).

Of course, I'm leaving off the really obvious things, like praying that our flight isn't delayed - especially on the runway! - and that Squiggles' takes to flying like he's done it a thousand times before. Actually, now that I've actually written down this list, I'm getting a little intimidated. And I didn't even get started on what it might be like to change a diaper at 30,000 feet!

Happy Camper

Ha-ha! Squiggles got a 2 hour nap in this morning, and guess what? He was happy the rest of the day, even with a shorter 1 hour nap in the afternoon! I am convinced that that first nap is crucial for him - if he gets a long morning nap, he's a happy camper; if not, well, we're in for a bumpy evening.

He has been wanting to go to bed earlier, though, but I think it's just part of the new schedule. Since he wakes up from his afternoon nap between 4 and 5pm, staying awake until 8pm is probably about all I can ask for right now.

The oatmeal feedings are still going well. He just about scarfs down 2tbsp, so tomorrow I think I'll make 3tbsp and see how much more he'll eat. I'm also starting to plan for his introduction to fruits and vegetables. I borrowed a couple of baby cookbooks (not how to cook a baby, but how to cook for one) and I'm learning all about purees and such. Loads of fun!

By the way, the official countdown to Florida is just under 73 1/2 hours. I'm so excited! Though, I am starting to wonder when I'll blog - but I'll figure it out!

No Nap Nick

That's what I call Squiggles when, uh, he doesn't want to take a nap. Yeah, I'm not the most creative person.


As I mentioned earlier, we're working on dropping a feeding (5 down to 4) and a nap (3 short to 2 long). I think he's got the feeding thing down, and I must admit I feel like less of a milking cow when he eats every 4-5 hours. The nap schedule, however, is still in flux. At the middle of last week, he really seemed ready for two naps. But by the end of the week and into the weekend, he wasn't doing so well. Maybe an hour, hour and a half in the morning, which led to a short 30 minute snooze somewhere in the afternoon, and then maybe another hour in the late afternoon/early evening. Maybe.

Today, he took an hour and a half nap in the morning, then a 30 minute nap in the late afternoon. That was it. Needless to say, he was beyond tired by about 7:15pm. We managed to drag it out for another half hour with singing, dancing, and a bath, and finally put him down around 8:15. I hope he doesn't wake up at 6am!

I think I'm going to be vacuuming more often...

Squiggles managed to roll all the way over to our bedroom doorway this morning while I was getting ready.

Our day with Sarah was great fun: pancakes, shopping, makeup, coffee...it was wonderful. I don't get to have days like that very often.

I could go into more detail, and regale you with a few cute Squiggles stories, but I'm tired because somebody woke up at 3:30 last night and wouldn't go back to sleep for almost an hour. But I won't name names.

Friday Soup

So it's late - well, late for me, which is after 10pm these days. I remember staying up later on Friday nights, knowing that there would be some extra sleep coming to me on Saturday morning. But Squiggles doesn't care what day it is, or that the weekend is for relaxing. We're up at 6:30 and that's that. So I guess it's not such a surprise that I have a hard time staying up past 10:30 anymore.


Yeah, it's late and I've had a long day and I've got a migraine that's been hanging on since this morning. And I haven't blogged yet today. So this will be a Friday soup post - "cream of walk-in" as Chef would say. Bits o' randomness to tie up loose ends and clear everything out at the end of the week. Maybe it will catch on.

More oatmeal today - another 2 tbsp. Squiggles really seems to like it, so I am encouraged. Of course this is making the diapers messier, but we're learning to roll with the punches. I think we may start introducing veggies over the Thanksgiving week.

Dinner at The Pub last night was excellent. Good beer, good scotch, good food, and, best of all, good company. I will make the suggestion, though, that if you go to a restaurant called "The Pub", please order pub food. Don't expect a place trying to be close to an authentic British pub to have killer salads. That said, we loved the Shepherd's Pie and Fish and Chips (well, Chef had Crisps instead of Chips). We also all determined that our new favorite beer is Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale.

Squiggles is in the process of dropping a feeding (4, down from 5), and moving to two long naps instead of three shorter ones. This has not been the smoothest transition. Tonight he had a meltdown around 6pm. I finally got him to doze off around 6:30, and 25 minutes later he had finished his power nap. Maybe the oatmeal will help him with all of this.

This weekend should be nice - Chef is away for the weekend, Sarah and I (and Squigs, of course) are going shopping tomorrow, and I'll probably start working on getting the house in order on Sunday. There should be plenty of time to blog, though I'm starting to wonder how and when I'll be able to blog while we're in Florida for our big Thanksgiving vacation. Oh, well, I have 7 days to figure it out. Right now it's time for sleep-sleeps.

Fiberful

I started back up with the cereal again today. Chef picked up some infant oatmeal at the grocery yesterday, so this afternoon I gave it a go while I was home at lunch. I say lunch, but it's really more like 2:30 in the afternoon because Squiggles eats around 11am and again around 3pm. Sometimes I come home for the earlier feeding, sometimes for the later one. Today was the later one. Don't worry, I have a snack at work so I don't starve - we wouldn't want that to happen, would we?

The oatmeal mixes up a little runnier than the rice cereal did. Or maybe I was a little heavy-handed with the breast milk; who knows. It smells different, too. Heartier, I guess. And it's more of a tan color. I was hoping Squiggles wouldn't pick up on the differences.

Guess what? He must not have, because he loved the oatmeal! He kept opening his mouth and looking at me and kicking his little feet. If I waited too long between bites (because I was talking with my mother-in-law while I was feeding him), he would let out with his little howler monkey imitation. He put down almost two tbsp. of the stuff. Woo-hoo!

Today's success gives me hope for the cereal feedings, though I'll reserve final judgment until we find out how this affects his sleep.

On an adult note (but not the x-rated kind!), Chef and I are going out with my friend Sarah and her husband tonight while they are in town. We're going to try out a new restaurant, The Pub, that we heard about last year while we were at the Dayton Ale Fest (we got to talk with the owner). I'm excited to see Sarah and have some grownup conversation and (hopefully) yummy food. And beer.

Good aim!

I have an announcement to make: I am wearing prepregnancy pants today! In fact, this is the first time that I've worn pregpregnancy pants since, well, since they were simply known as pants.

This whole recovering from having a baby thing is taking time, that's for sure; but here it is, not quite six months since Squiggles joined us, and I'm back into some pre-baby clothes. I'd say I'm back down to my fighting weight, but I'm actually below my prepregnancy weight. It's just that my weight has been redistributed. Or redirected. To my midsection. No matter - this is a banner day! Now I can start focusing on losing the weight that I wanted to lose before I got pregnant. I must say, carrying around an infant creeping up on 20 lbs. and nursing helps tremendously.

Sigh. But it's not so much about me anymore, is it? Well, I suppose I can share something about the boy.

One of the most surprising things about having a baby boy is the propensity they have to pee. On everything. Mind you, I didn't have a lot of experience with babies, let alone baby boys, before Squiggles came along, so I wasn't exactly prepared for much at all. Especially this peeing thing. I can now see the need for a Peepee Teepee. Actually, we just used a baby washcloth, but isn't that the best product name? And look, they have Santa hat ones for Christmas!


Anyway, I sure could have used these little things this afternoon. I went home for lunch for both me and the boy, and to spend some time with Chef (who came home early from his business trip - yay!). I was changing a post-feeding diaper, but was having trouble getting Squiggles to keep his hands off his crotch. This is his newest discovery - he loves grabbing himself. I'm not sure why. But it's odd and funny at the same time. Even with a diaper on, he grabs and it makes this scratching sound on the diaper.

So he's trying to grab himself and I'm trying to clean the poo off of him and he ends up getting it on his hands and now I'm trying to keep his hands out of the poo and out of his face and he thinks it's a fun game. Then he pees. A long, arcing stream of pee. Right into the little bucket on the changing table that holds his diaper cream and brush and other such things. At least he has good aim.

I guess we'd gotten lax about using the washcloth in the last couple of months because Squiggles seemed to have outgrown the issue, but maybe we need to start up again. Or maybe not. He'd probably just grab the washcloth and start chewing on it.

Not Quite Ready

Welcome to NaBloPoMo day, um, 2? Day 6? Curses for not starting on Nov. 1!

Here's an update on the cereal experience: it's on hold for the time being. Yes, that's right, I haven't fed Squiggles his rice cereal now for about a week. Why? Well, it certainly isn't because he wasn't getting used to it.


Not only was he getting used to eating cereal, it seemed he was even enjoying it. I had decreased the amount of milk so that it was less of a liquid consistency. We even made it up to 1 1/2 tbsp of cereal mixed with the same amount of milk, and he was eating almost all of that.

What made me stop feeding him the cereal was how it was affecting his sleeping pattern. Isn't starting babies on solid food supposed to help sleep through the night better? Well, not us. Squiggles had been sleeping just fine through the night, but after a few days of cereal feedings, he started waking up during the night. More than once per night. And it was getting harder and harder to put him down at night. We'd get him to sleep, and, as soon as we'd lower him into his crib, he'd wake up. And scream. It was not fun. Chef and I were at a loss as to what to do, so I suggested we stop feeding Squiggles the cereal. That was the only explanation; we hadn't started him on any other new routines lately.

Squiggles is sleeping just fine through the night now. The first couple of nights, we had a hard time getting him to go down - he'd wake up about an hour or so after we put him down - but now he's back to sleeping around 9 hours through the night. I'm not sure what really happened; maybe he was getting too much gas because of the cereal? Rice is supposed to be very gentle and benign for baby digestive systems. I shared this experience with a friend of mine who said that her daughter had problems with rice cereal, too, and that they had better success with oatmeal because of the higher fiber content.

So I will get Squiggles some oatmeal and we will try again. Maybe I'll even try a different time of day - late morning or early afternoon as opposed to the evening. But I'm in no hurry. He's gaining weight (18.5 lbs!) and sleeping through the night and isn't even six months old yet, so I don't see any need to rush this whole transition to solids. Plus there's that tiny part of me that doesn't want to him to grow up.

Starting...NOW!

So I've signed up for NaBloPoMo. Well, technically I signed up on Friday and promptly forgot to make any blog posts all weekend long. Please don't hate me, NaBloPoMo!

This will certainly be a challenge for me. I mean, I haven't made more than 5 entries on this entire blog since I started the dang thing, let alone post every single day. It's hard to motivate yourself to update something that only a few people read. So, I've decided to change my attitude about blogging. Did I start this blog to gain hordes of internet followers? No, I did not. I started this blog so I could have a place to talk about Squiggles and document these precious days. I'm horrible at scrapbooking, babybooking, really any "booking" for that matter. But I love the internet. I'm always on the internet. So I will use it to keep a record of my wonderful baby boy.

And I resolve to post every day. Maybe I'll even include a picture. That should get my mom and sister checking in.