Observations from a Not-so-new Momma – the half a year addition

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On Friday, Brenden turns 6 months old! Happy half year, Bubs! Here’s some new info on the little guy:

1. Once we leveled out the mattress and “set him free” so to speak (no more swaddling or “nest”), Brenden figured out he could scoot and roll and have fun in the bed. I’ve started trying to take pictures of the weird positions he sleeps in.

2. He also came up with the fun game of “throw the pacifiers out of the crib”. We now have at least two to three in there to combat the game.

3. He is now seriously teething. I still can’t find any little teeth buds, but he’s got lots of the symptoms – flushed cheeks, drool, chewing on everything, doesn’t like solids, crankyness, etc.

4. Due to the teething, he’s become very difficult to feed. I actually took him to the doctor last week thinking he was sick because he freaked out every time we tried to feed him solids. We finally figured out it was teething and found the formula: oragel+no cereal+cold food+a little yogurt = happier eater

5. Feeding him solids has become the new thing this month. So far, he’s tried: avocado, sweet potato, bananas, pears (thanks Great GrandButlers!), apple juice, oatmeal and rice cereal, and yogurt. Favorite so far – yogurt (whole milk organic active cultures yogurt). Least fav – bananas. Avocados are a close second fav.

6. Most people who know me know that I am not “granola” in any way, but having a baby has made me much more interested in what I put in both me and him. I’m making my own baby food and buying organic veggies. Since he likes yogurt so much, I’m even going to try to make my own!

7. He’s getting closer to crawling, but not quite there yet. However, if you put him on the floor and lay down a little bit away from him, he figured out how to squirm his way over to you and he’s very proud of himself when he does.

8. I just downloaded a bunch of pictures off our old camera – normally Andy uses the good one and I walk around with the older one since I usually forget to take pictures of anything. I just found pics all the way back to our Disney trip. I’ll try to put some of the good ones on Facebook and let Andy pretty up the other ones for here.

9. B is starting to get hair. Actually, he’s had some hair, but now he actually has hair you can see. It’s oddly blond. I don’t know where he got that.

10. Now that we’ve started solids, he’s going to bed earlier and sleeping later. I think it’s the combo of heavier food and all the activity during the day – he doesn’t stay still. Ever. Unless you put him in a bath. That seems to be a serious activity that requires concentration.

11. I’ve started giving him baths at night before bed – you can pretty much count on him starting to get cranky and sleepy by the time bath is over and pj’s are on. He falls asleep within 5 minutes after that. It’s really nice. Hopefully he’ll continue to be a good sleeper for a while!

12. The bigger he gets, the more I want to throw furniture out the window so we have floor space. Who needs seating? Isn’t that what the floor is for?

13. We went to the store yesterday and bought every kind of fruit/veggie that counts as “first foods” for a baby. Including prunes. Lord, help us all. yuck. So far today I’ve made six ice cube trays worth of food, with probably enough stuff for six more at least. He’s set for a few months – then there’s a whole new list of foods he can eat!

14. I’m starting to look into different web-based services to make a scrapbook of B’s first year. So far I’ve looked at www.cropmom.com and www.shutterfly.com. Anybody have any other recommendations? I have a few beautiful handmade scrapbooks that I just need to print out the pics for as well – he’s going to be one well documented kiddo.

Hope you are all doing well! Come by and see us sometime – B loves visitors!

Happy six months!

Happy six months!

The Right Shoe Makes All The Difference

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I completed the physical therapy for my knee a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, when I tried to run afterward, my knee pain kept returning. It felt like all the time, money, and effort I’d invested in the PT had done nothing. As a last resort before buying a pair of Rollerblades as an alternative, I tried an experiment: running in my old shoes, the ones I’d gotten on recommendation from the saleman at the speciality running store.

I’d run for many miles in those shoes with little to no problems at lower distances. They were comfortable, reasonably attractive, and provided good cushioning. Once their useful life had run out, I’d bought a different brand of shoe that I thought was similar, but my knee problem got much worse at some point after I started wearing them. I wondered if the new shoes might have been the problem, but I stubbornly believed I had chosen a good pair on my own.

I laced up my old shoes and headed to the treadmill to start a run/walk session. After the first minute of running, I felt no pain. After the second, no pain. And the third. After a total of 8 minutes I finally decided not to push my luck and walked the rest of the way, but the experiment had worked. I hadn’t run that much without knee pain in months. I can’t tell you how exciting that moment was.

I’m giving away my “new” shoes and running in the old ones for now, but I plan to get some new ones soon after our spending freeze is over (2 more days!). This time I’ve done lots of research and found a shoe made specifically for runners like me: flat-footed, with a neutral to underpronator gait, and on the large side for a runner. Two-hundred-forty pound guys have run marathons in these things. I think they can handle me.

“Change Has Come to America”

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On January 20, 1997, I stood several hundreds yards from the Capitol in Washington, DC surrounded by hundreds of thousands of people, the largest crowd I had ever seen. The occasion was the second inauguration of William Jefferson Clinton. I had just turned 18 and voted for the first time a few months earlier. Although I’d voted for the other guy, I was thrilled and grateful to be part of such a huge event. Thanks to a program called Presidential Classroom, several dozen high school students and I spent a few days in DC, heard from a variety of great speakers, and most importantly, attended the inauguration. It’s difficult to put into words how that experience felt. Words like pride, gratitude, excitement, hope, and wonder come to mind. Seeing so many of my fellow citizens coming together to witness history, the renewal of office for a legitimately and peacefully elected leader of the most powerful nation on earth, was a moment I won’t soon forget.

Today at noon EST, this scene will repeat itself, only this time it’s different. For the first time, a black man is assuming the highest office in the world, only a few decades after discrimination against blacks was made illegal. An unpopular president is leaving office after 8 years and a dubious record. Barack Obama, for reasons both obvious and ellusive, is filling our nation’s capitol with a sense of excitement and hope not felt in many years. Estimates of the crowd for today’s festivities range from 1-3 million people, surely more than I joined at Clinton’s inaugural. I wish I could be there with them.

Cynics may scoff and say Obama is just another politician, a silver-tongued weasel who tells the people what they want to hear and then fails to deliver. But for some reason I believe Obama is different. Sure, he can’t change the world overnight. Barring a bizarre miracle I couldn’t begin to understand, tomorrow the economy will still be in the toilet, and we’ll still be fighting two wars with no easy end in sight. But maybe, just maybe, with enough time and cooperation from the rest of Washington and the rest of the nation, Obama can turn things around. I am eager to find out.

Amazing Pic from US Airways 1549

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As you might have read already, US Airways 1549 LGA-CLT ditched in the Hudson River shortly after takeoff. From what I’ve gathered from various sources (which might or might not be accurate, I must warn you), the aircraft hit a flock of geese over the Bronx at around 3000 feet and lost both engines, which caused it to quickly lose altitude. Due to what I can only assume is quick thinking and great skill, the pilots made a left turn and ditched in the Hudson River. Before landing, they sealed up the aircraft so that it continued to float for some time, and everyone onboard evacuated safely. Ferries and rescue personnel arrived very quickly to tend to the evacuees.

Here’s an amazing picture that a guy named Janis Krums took from one of the ferries (click here for source):

Passur.com has the flight’s path out of LGA. Set the start time to 1525 Eastern on Jan 15.

Kudos to the pilots for ditching the plane safely, the flight attendants for getting all the passengers off, and the rescue crews for responding so quickly.

Spending Freeze

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Jenny’s mom sent us an interesting article from the Dallas Morning News. I hope you read the whole article, but it’s about a couple who decided to go an entire year without buying anything new. Used items were okay, as were necessary purchases such as gas, food, and toiletries. But it did mean no new clothes, games, electronics, cars, or toys, even as gifts. From this experiment they saved a huge amount of money and realized that they really didn’t need all the stuff they used to buy.

Other people go on short-term spending freezes where they don’t buy ANYTHING for a week or two at a time except absolute necessities. When they’re hungry, they dig something out of the pantry. If they “need” a new pair of shoes, they just keep wearing what they have until the freeze lifts (thaws?).

Jenny and I are attempting a short-term spending freeze right now, with the following exceptions:

  • Gas
  • Dinner out with friends on Sunday nights IF we split something)
  • Um, anything else that we absolutely cannot live without

So far it hasn’t been too bad except that my cell phone holster broke. I have a Blackjack with a large (already cracked) screen and exposed QUERTY keyboard, so I am prone to accidentally dialing people if I carry it in my pocket. So if you get a call from me but all you hear is background noise, yell really loud to show me what I’ve done. =)

737 Burns Biofuel

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A Continental 737 successfully tested a 50-50 mix of Jet-A (standard jet fuel) and biofuel made from algae in one of its engines. The Houston Chronicle has the story. This development excites and encourages me. As much as I love being able to fly all over the world, I also know that airlines burn huge amounts of fuel, which is refined from oil. A 1-hour flight on a 737 burns nearly 750 gallons of fuel. If we can make some of that fuel from biological sources such as algae, the environmental impact would be huge.