Curried Lentils

Last week we watched The Girl Next Door. Earlier this week we watched The Hangover. On Friday morning Michael made a flight to Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. For any guys out there planning a trip to Vegas without your wife, I'd recommend different movies leading up to your trip.

Before leaving, Michael asked me if I was going to send him pictures of Leah while he was gone. Like any good mom with an iPhone, I took a bunch of pictures to document the weekend.

So here's a quick commentary of our adventures while dad was away. For the sake of the readers I will drastically paraphrase the weekend by removing all descriptions of pooping, sleeping, and eating.

FRIDAY -

Mom returns home from the pool, to find Leah asleep in her spot:

Off to Performance Wellness where we had our science lesson of the day:

Stop by Jack and Adams to visit some friends and get out a good cry:


Leah's response when I told her dad was not coming home tonight because he was at a nerd convention:


SATURDAY -

Early morning play time before taking a nap (aka mom gets to ride the trainer):

Trip to Whole Foods to scarf down an Acai bowl:



Only took Trish and I about 15 min to devour these things. Things in pictures are larger than they appear.

Over to Book People to get some colorful books and back home for more play time:

SUNDAY -

This isn't a lollipop?
I like my chair:


Just kidding, I hate my chair:


Mmmm.... a banana:

This isn't a real banana?


What's this toy?
Look, my doll has striped pants, just like me!


In the ladybug dress for Stephanie's baby shower:


Back home... Yippee, dad is back from Vegas :)


We gave Leah a bath tonight. Or, maybe I should say we gave her three baths tonight. Just after putting Leah into the water for her bath she decided to poop. The icky mess that contaminated the water looked quite a bit like the curried lentils I'd had for dinner. I'm pretty sure it takes more than 20 min of processing to get through me and through Leah but the color and texture were remarkably similar.

[oops, I guess I should revise my early statement about not mentioning poop]

Time to start over. Remove Leah, get another bath ready, put her back in. This time we made it through about half the bath before she decided to give us another gift. To add to the humor of it, we recently broke the nub on that bath tub and we're currently using vice grips to turn on and off the water. Each time we emptied Leah's little tub, we had to pull out the tools to get the next bath ready. Thankfully, we made it through the third try without any presents.

Hunting for Colors

We've noticed Lil' G has quite an interest for colors and patterns. Our first clue was her curiosity for her flowered burp cloth. I'll probably write a future post on her various burp clothes, they're a little different from what most people use.

While we were in Miami, we thought it might be good to introduce Leah to some more colors. For example, Miami is green, Austin is burnt orange.

On Monday we had a family adventure to visit Fairchild Botanical Gardens.

Since I was there last (for a friend's wedding 8 yrs ago) they've added a lot of great sculptures to the grounds. The colors were vibrant and Leah really seemed to enjoy all the wonderful things to look at.

Gnarly:
Gnarly sneeze

Don't drink the water, I think there's something weird in there

"Mom, I see some red things with white poka-dots in the water. They're interesting!"

What are those?

We're pretty sure the flowers by Yayoi Kusama were her favorite. They are the newest pieces added to Fairchild and when we first spotted them we were quite excited, knowing Leah would love them.

Here's my favorite depiction of her curiosity:

A couple more fun ones at the dancing flowers...

While Leah was hunting for color I was reaching for something else:

mmm... chocolate

For the benefit of Chuck I let LG watch a few minutes of the Redskin's game. I don't think she understands the rules yet but she does seem to know she's watching bright colors on a magical screen.

A few more glamor shots with dad and great-grandma Janette

That's all for now, hopefully you enjoyed the colors as much as Leah did

Judgment

Yesterday afternoon we returned home from our adventure to Miami. It was LG's first time on an airplane. She did pretty well, maybe even a bit better than we thought she could do. There were a few rough times during the rapid altitude changes but she did okay and I had the opportunity to teach her a basic science lesson or two.

Traveling with an infant is quite different than traveling alone. There is a lot more to carry and it takes a lot more time to get ready. Our entire day yesterday was spent getting LG ready to travel, traveling with LG, and getting her to unwind after the travel.

As we were boarding the flight from DFW to AUS yesterday afternoon I heard a snide remark from someone waiting to get into line, "I guess they're letting everyone on." At that point the first class cabin had been told they could board and in usual fashion a mass of people were hovering within feet of the ticket counter, crowding the entrance, waiting for the first second they could jump onto the plane. Apparently these two young parents, dressed in race shirts and sneakers, did not look like they should be getting on the airplane yet. Maybe the guy thought we were trying to push our way on since we had an infant. He probably didn't realize the guy with the infant was using upgrades he'd managed to save up after 20+ overseas trips over the past decade.

I thought to myself, I would have expected that type of comment on the flight out of Miami but not the one into Austin.

I then realized something else; I had just stereotyped the people from Miami while criticizing someone for making a judgment about others. Point is, we are all gutty of passing judgement on others and could probably all benefit from paying a little more attention too it.

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On the way over to Miami LG's luggage was lost. It was a little frustrating that she'd lost her bag on her first flight but I don't think she noticed. I suspect this was probably the best time in her life to have misplaced luggage. I can't imagine trying to console a two-year old if the airline lost the bag with their favorite blanket it it. (Note: I just returned home from a trip to Target to purchase a backup airplane blanket - it has airplanes on it, not for the airplane).

Michael's description of the bag, "Teel duffel bag with "MICH" monogrammed on it."

As if that wouldn't make it stand out like a sore thumb they asked him to list five things in the bag. Apparently "Baby Clothes" was enough to distinguish the bag from all the black luggage with adult clothes.

Since we'd flown to Miami on New Year's Eve the airlines were probably a bit understaffed in their luggage retrieval department. Although the bag had been located at 9 am the next morning, it never went out for delivery. We did get it back the next night when Michael drove back to the airport to find it. This morning he got an automated call from the airlines to update him on the status of his lost luggage.

As a side note, those upgrades we used to get ourselves to first class also meant we had bright orange "Priority" tags on all of our bags. Wonder if that helped them find the bag the next morning.

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Nap time is probably about done so that's all for now. We have lots of pictures from the trip and I promise to write another post and add pictures very soon. Stay tuned.

Baby 101

It's been 100 days since we left the hospital with Leah. That corresponds to roughly:

200 loads of laundry (and our highest water consumption ever)
400 mood swings (those are mine)
600 feedings (I'm a cow)
800 diaper changes (more than half with poop)
1000 bouts of crying (which Michael thinks are cute)

Yes, things have changed but we knew that would happen. For years people have told us life changes more than you believe.

But... what are those things they don't tell you?

My vote: lack of warning about the true pain of the [insert pause for added dramatic effect]... THE CLUSTER FEED.

I first heard about this mysterious thing a few weeks before Leah was born. I was informed that at some point during the first week the baby would have a growth spurt. This growth spurt coincides with cluster feeding, an increased rate of feedings resulting from increased hunger.

I suppose this happened when I was in the hospital but everything is a bit of a blur the first week. The baby seems to be doing nothing more than eating, pooping, sleeping, and crying. Therefore, a slight increase in the frequency of feeding did not seem alarming.

Trouble is, I was not really warned about the future cluster feeds. Had I been thinking logically, instead of thinking like a sleep deprived new mom, I may have realized this would happen. After all, I knew there would be future growth spurts.

Here's a short recap of the last 24 hrs:

Tuesday morning is Baby Day at the Alamo Draft House theater. I burst out in laughter when I saw the warning signs posted on the doors.

I fed Leah before we left and brought a bottle, assuming she would not want it until the end of the movie. Shortly after the movie began, the crying began. Warning sign #1: an off schedule feeding. We fed Leah, changed a diaper, and walked around the back of the theater with her for another hour. Apparently she was in no mood to sit still (I still have no clue where that trait comes from).

When we returned home we fed Leah again, changed her, and put her down for a nap. She slept for 1.5 hrs and managed to soak through her diaper so extensively that three large spots soaked her bed when she woke up. I'm pretty sure this is the first time she's managed to leak through all three diaper holes. Warning sign #2: massive amount of pee in a short period of time

Since yesterday afternoon Leah has followed a stringent pattern of eating every 2.5 hours (it's normally every 4 during the day and 8 at night), sleeping a bit, and waking up for more.

I'm sure you can guess how our night went! Not much sleep and a lot of frustration that I have to squeeze even more liquid life out in a short period of time. These type of nights make a mom want to rip out her hair. I thought twice about this as I remembered my hair is already falling out at a rapid rate due to nursing.

We responded to this eating frenzy with logic. In a classic example of an over controlled process we pulled about 3 feedings worth of milk out of the freezer. Of course, once she starts eating more my body will also respond with an increase in the cow factor. It's impressive how quickly the body can respond to an increased demand but it's not much fun when the discomfort level rises.

Biggest concern now is our flight tomorrow. It was already going to be a logistical challenge for us but the eating frenzy adds some increased fun factors. We'll see how it goes. For now, I'll just have to repack all of Leah's clothes. She's been wearing 0-3m stuff but after this last cluster feed I think we'll be exclusively in 3-6m before the weekend.

Maybe Leah felt the need to grow enough to fit into the snow suit before it warms up in Austin:


Another picture, Leah with her favorite nerd toy:

Busy Gear Garels

I just returned from a quick trip to Target to buy some red-topped bins for baby clothes (and pass along to the next J&A baby girl). While I was there I made a necessary trip over to the toy section.

I continue to wonder what I will do when Leah gets older and insists on buying every toy she's interested in. How can I possibly say no when I can't resist the urge myself?! Tonight I just had to get this:
Seriously, the Playschool Busy Gears was a need! My curious engineer in training likes colors and moving objects. How could I pass up such a perfect toy, especially once I noticed it was on sale.

I was reassured when I was in the checkout line. There were two young girls (and their mother) ahead of me in line who thought I'd picked some cool toys. They also had an eye for my blueberries so they must be smart girls.

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We decided it was time to take a family adventure. For me, it felt like the past few months have involved a lot of "your turn to watch her" instead of doing things all together. That was our goal this weekend, to work on doing things together as a family. We had a great weekend together, I'm happy that we've been able to start introducing Leah to being a Garel.

After living in Austin for a decade it was about time to make a trip to Enchanted Rock. I can't believe we waited so long to head out there, it was well worth it.

As usual, Leah was the smarter one with logistics. Michael read mention of the parking lot filling up during peak season but we assumed this weekend would not be that popular. Leah knew better, she woke up at 3:30 and 7:30 to eat (1 hr earlier than usual). We arrived at the park at 10:30, too no line. We walked to the top of the summit and noticed a string of people heading up on our way down. Then we made another hike through the park. When we left at 2:15 there was a huge back-up of cars, waiting to get into the park. Almost seems Leah knew it was smarter to get out of the house and arrive early ;)

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Lesson of the weekend: Bench press is not a necessary exercise while nursing. I went to the gym yesterday for the second time since having Leah. I decided it might be time to test out my arms a bit since I was no longer concerned about the risk of dropping the bar on my belly. Let's just say the added soreness is not good when you already have tugging in that area.

MG_morph

Things happen a little differently on days with both parents at home. There's more time to get chores done around the house but some things in life don't change too much after kids. Instead of settling down to a productive day of finishing the fence project or purging out things we don't need we decided to introduce Leah to the Garel lifestyle.

Here's a list of today's activities
- Feed Leah
- Change Leah
- Mom is "that person" waiting for the gym to open at 8am
- Dad runs at Town Lake
- Feed Leah
- Change Leah
- Farmer's Market trip
- Austin Children's Museum visit
- Feed Leah
- Change Leah
- Take care of brother's cat
- Mom runs at Town Lake while Dad & Leah play at Jack & Adams
- Feed Parents
- Feed Leah
- Change Leah
- Read story
- House chores and web surfing

The parents out there may notice something was missing from this list... there was no mention of a nap. I suspect this type of weekend oversight may become a serious issue in the future. Or... Leah will quickly realize her parents are crazy and will begin to sleep through all the activities we drag her out too.

When I returned back from my outing at Town Lake I asked Michael what they had done while I was gone. Michael happily showed me a phone full of pictures of Leah testing out a tri-bike.


As I carried a bucket of laundry upstairs I asked Michael what he was doing. "I'm morphing pictures of us to find out what Leah should look like." Apparently there's a website that allows you to morph pictures to determine what your baby would look like. This would probably be a great application for those who do not have a baby sleeping in the next room. With his lack of sleep Michael forgot that he already knows what our morphed baby looks like.

But... this was fun and took less than 9 months of waiting before we got to see it.


Thankfully, I think Leah lucked out and looks cuter than the morph prediction.

Aside from morph_baby there's also a morph_old feature. I have to be honest, this one freaked me out a bit. I'm hoping this strange shadow looking morph is not the way Leah will look in 30 yrs.