Saturday, July 11, 2009
Jack's baptism is tomorrow
The clothes are pressed and ready. The house is semi-clean. Brownies are in the oven. We're all looking forward to the big day. I'll have pictures and more details after tomorrow.
Friday, July 10, 2009
I should be sleeping right now
This is my big chance which comes but once a week, if I'm lucky. I'm at Noni's for my Friday night sleep-a-thon (otherwise known as a full night's sleep). It's such a blessing to be able to hand over Jack to her and rest easy knowing she has things totally under control. Noni rocks, but if you read this blog you already know that.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Feeding an obsession
Since I'm into a TV series again (see True Blood below) I became reacquainted with my favorite web site for feeding that obsession, Television Without Pity. When I was hooked on Sopranos and Six Feet Under I used to go there for the weekly recaps of the Sunday night broadcasts. TWOP's entertaining recaps helped me uncover nuances I might have missed or pointed out details that escaped me. Their recaps are pretty lengthy, it sometimes took me half an hour to read the whole thing, but they were worth the effort for their entertainment value. If a recap isn't enough you can always go to their forums for your particular show and obsess with other like-minded fans.
Like I needed a new obsession...
I just started on HBO's True Blood last night from Netflix. I got the first two discs in the mail Wednesday. They each have two episode on them. Last night I watched all four episodes. Awesome way to watch a series. I have the third disc coming in the mail tomorrow and discs 4 and 5 should come Saturday. As it happens we're enjoying a free HBO/Showtime promo with Dish Network so I should be able to follow season 2 also. I set the timer last night to catch the episodes I've missed so far. They've only shown 3 episodes of season 2, right?

I like the TV series on it's own merits. They do make some pretty big changes from the books, but they still tell an interesting story so I won't hold it against them. It's weird to see the characters I know so well in my head show up on my TV in the flesh. So far I'd say my mental Sookie was prettier, my Bill was more handsome and Grandma looked totally different. But the TV grandma looks more like a real person so they win that one.

It seems like in the TV series Jason gets as much screen time as Sookie. They seem to be totally obsessed with his body and why not? Wow, what a body. I love "Larry" as the sheriff. Good casting on that one. Sam is good, but Tara was made up from scratch pretty much. Still, it works with the TV story. I like how in the books Sookie is more or a loner (and lonely). Anyhoo...I'm rambling.

I look forward to finishing Season 1 and catching up with everyone else. I don't look forward to having to wait for Sunday nights again. Damn you, HBO!
Jack's 2 month check-up
We went to see his pediatrician Monday. We got to wait an hour for his appointment. That's always a good start. His height was 23" and his weight was 12 lbs. 4 oz. This puts him at the 31st percentile for height and the 44th for weight. So he's a little dude. We're not used to that. Emma has always been in the upper ranges.

Jack got his first big round of shots. It took two nurses and a leg holder. They tried to give the three shots nearly simultaneously. I appreciated their effort.

Everything seems to be going well developmentally. We discussed Jack's fussiness. The doc decided that it was a bit of colic. We also discussed Jack's absolute hatred of his car seat. The doc didn't have any useful recommendations. He said we were doing fine with our feeding schedule and amounts. So far so good. We'll be going back at 4 months.
Preschool for Emma
We finally made what was an agonizing decision for us (me). Whether to send Emma back to the same preschool as last year or enroll her in the school based preschool (which is basically funded by Head Start). These are the only options in the county. It's the difference between going to school two half days a week or five full days. What nudged us toward school-based preschool was finding out that nearly none of her friends were returning to the church preschool and she'd be way older than the new kids. I also want her to be challenged this year and not be bored out of her skull.

Emma missed the cutoff for kindergarten by nine days. I'd say she was ready, but the school system is very strict about their cutoffs. One concern I have about school-based preschool is that it is still basically Head Start. That means it's meant to help kids who aren't learning their ABC's, colors, shapes, numbers, etc. at home. Emma has all of these nailed. Does this program have anything to offer her? At the preschool screening they tried to persuade me that they do give individual attention to kids on their level.

Finally, I was concerned about how much they want to be all in your business, with it being a federal program. This concern was definitely legitimate. When we decided to enroll Emma in the program this is what we had to provide:

Copy of birth certificate
Copy of Social Security card
Copy of Insurance card
Proof of Dental appointment
Proof of Physician's physical
Immunization record
Proof of income (Income tax form)
Proof of residency (electric bill)

Then they want to do a home visit too. I think we'll be avoiding that one as I know the Family Advocate and she wants to do the visit in town instead. I've filled out a pile of forms, still have a behavioral assessment to do on Emma, and one more "interview" with the Advocate. Whew!

This will definitely be a big change for our family. We'll drive Emma to school and she'll ride the bus to the store after school (1/2 mile). Because we didn't know we'd be going this route we'd committed to a Disney trip that will mean Emma will miss her orientation and the first two days of school. Oops. The Family Advocate said she'd do all she could to help Emma get started and blend in easily when she gets there. I sure hope so.
I think we've turned a corner
Sorry folks. There's neglecting my blog, and then there's falling off the map. I will try to do better.

Jack seems to be enjoying life much more these days. Until a few days ago he spent most of his waking hours unhappy. That meant I had to carry him most of the time. It's very stressful. Instead of losing weight I've been gaining from stress eating. Instead of Zoloft I've been popping the little candy coated chocolate pills with M's on them. Now Jack spends much more awake time happy in his bouncy seat. He also flirts when given the chance. It's very cute.

I go back to work one week from today. I'm glad that Noni steered me away from going back sooner. I've still had to check in with work a couple of times a week and as time has gone on I've resented it more, the intrusion on my "sick leave". Now that I'm a shorttimer to SAHM-hood I'm sorry to be going back (but not entirely).

The last two nights I've gotten pretty decent sleep. Jack has gone to bed by 11:00 p.m. and only gotten up once in the night. Then he ate his meal and went right back to sleep. I could survive this.

This week is kind of nutty. We have appointments every day. On Monday Jack went for his two month check-up. On Tuesday I had to go to a work meeting two hours away. Today we met with our minister to prepare for Jack's baptism this Sunday. Tomorrow Emma has her check-up to get ready for school. It will be her first appointment with our new pediatrician. On Friday we'll be going over to Noni's for mommy's weekly good night's sleep.

Noni has the outfit for Jack's baptism. It was Uncle B's when he was baptized. Thankfully it doesn't have giant lapels and isn't a leisure suit ;) She was working on getting spit-up stains out of it. Today she let me know she succeeded. It's a little white onesie with a vest. I'll take a picture Sunday.

Emma is still being a challenge. Every adult in her life still has to fuss at her for being all over Jack. We still fear for his safety because she doesn't know her own strength and doesn't grasp how delicate Jack is. I told M last night that we needed to be more proactive in showing Emma ways she can touch Jack and not be a threat to his safety. I honestly don't know how long it's going to take to get past this.