Happy Girl - Busy Week

So it has been a few days since I have updated, we have been having a good week so far. Today, Tuesday was a long day, in the morning we went to the pediatrician to do the second half of Holly’s flu shot, I was amazed at how good she did, she cried for about 30 seconds, gave me a kiss and was fine. Since it was just a little pin prick, and the fluid going in was less than other vaccinations, it wasn’t so bad. I wish they were all that easy.

Next we had to go to the lab and do my post partum glucose test, yeah I know it’s like 4 months overdue, but it takes 2 hours and it is hard to find that much free time, since my insurance is changing I wanted to do it before the current one expired so there would be no hassle. It took 30 minutes before they would even see me, and then they did the first blood draw, then I had to drink the yucky sugar water, they only had orange, and sit for 2 hours.

We did take a walk to the park across the street, I was trying to get Holly to go down for her nap, but she didn’t want to fall asleep and I was using too much energy burning off the sugar, so we went back to the lab. She did eventually fall asleep, so I started Eclipse, the third book in the vampire series I am reading. We then did the next blood test, and holly was still napping, I didn’t want to wake her by transferring her into the car, so we went back to the park and I read for about another hour while Holly napped. She hadn’t taken a nap that morning, so she was really tired.

After she woke up we headed over to tumble and tea, so I could eat lunch since I had been fasting for the blood test, but they were closed, they normally close at 3:30, but recently sent out an email that they were extending their winter hours to 7:00, when I got home I realized the new hours were not going to start until November. So we hung out at the house and played for an hour, until it was time to leave for the movie. It is baby brigade night, and we went to see Appaloosa.

It wasn’t like I was super looking forward to the movie, it’s a western, it was mildly entertaining, but not great. I mainly went because Joel was out of town, he was doing a presentation at Sonoma State today, and didn’t get home until 9:00, so it was nice to have dinner and a movie. Holly had fun playing, and seeing her friends, Ila was there and we met a new baby who was 5 and ½ months old whom I saw drinking a sip of water from its dad’s water bottle, I was very impressed with its sipping skills, and had to go introduce ourselves, and ask how old she was.

Holly fell asleep on the way home, but then woke up around 9:45, so Joel got to feed and change her and play with her for a few minutes before she fell back asleep.

Monday was another super busy day, in the morning I tried twice to feed holly Carrots, which she is supposed to like, on the second try I added in a spoon of oatmeal to thicken it a bit, but she is getting really good at keeping her mouth shut and not getting any bites, and now she is using her tongue to push the food out. In the afternoon we went to pick up some craigslist items, I got a cool 11x17 white board with calendar squares on it, it will come in handy for doing monthly calendars on shopping, feeding Mack, and other stuff like that. Then we went to pick up an exersaucer, it was only 25$ and it was the ultra evenflo, so it had like 8 toys on top, it is very cool and I know Holly will love it.

Then I decided to head out to Costco, I decided to join and get a membership so that I could try and save some money by buying in bulk, specifically a friend told me that formula was cheaper and in a larger container, so I was excited by that. They also have discount gas. Costco parking is always a zoo, so I was waiting for a spot for like 10 minutes, since they don’t bag your stuff it takes a while to unload into the car, and it was an older couple, so I am waiting and then realize there is a car in the other lane waiting for the same spot, I try to get his attention, and begin to park, the guy nearly hit me rushing into the spot and taking it, then the guys yells out of the car.

So I decide to get another spot, I see another old couple a few cars down, so I pull up to wait, which puts me behind this guys car, so then he gets out and yells at me, and says maybe if you would get your blinker fixed people would know your trying to park. Well I had honestly forgotten that the blinker was broken, but still he didn’t have to freak on me, I thought about yelling back, but just said, I have a 7 month old baby, and can’t live without my car for three days, he throws his hands up and goes back into his car and sits there, after I park and get out of the car and walk into the store, he is still sitting in the car, so I am not really sure why he had to rush to steal my spot if he was going to just sit there.

Inside Costco I got my membership, and they let me put Holly in the photo, so it was quite cute. Then I went shopping, and it was a bit overwhelming, Joel didn’t want me to get too many perishable bulk items, so they wouldn’t go bad, and I was still going to the regular store, but I somehow ended up spending over 200$ I did get a lot of stuff and I was able to get all of it into the cupboards so that was good. I was able to get a bunch of staple items, like pasta and formula, and I did end up getting some frozen chicken, it was so much cheaper I couldn’t pass it up.

Next we stopped at the bank and deposited my last work check, I had been holding onto it since the 10th and this was my first chance, and then we went to Luckys and did the rest of the grocery shopping. It was nice to have the fridge full again, we had pretty much emptied it before going out of town and hadn’t had much time to fill it since we got back, then I went and picked up one more craigslist item, a kids guitar. It was only 8 dollars, Holly is way too little for it, Joel doesn’t think she will be able to use it until she is like 4, but still it was so cheap and I know I want one, and couldn’t help myself. I am going to stay off craigslist for a while; there is so much good stuff on there.

Sunday was a very laid back day. I don’t think we left the house. Joel was working on a script for a contest, and we basically just hung out and played all day. He made a pot roast, and he basically just told me how wonderful his weekend was. I don’t think we really did anything special, but just spent the day together.

Zoo day

Please be sure to check this out @ Holly Daze or you might miss out on the embedded video's.

Today we had a great fun day. Our morning started off really slow, Joel made me a yummy breakfast, honey maple sausage, tofu bacon, bagels and peach yogurt. We got out of the house at 11:30 which means we didn’t make it to the zoo until noon. We walked down to the children’s area, and the bat room to meet up with Marylee, Mike, Miriam, and Isaac.

We saw River Otters, Tortoises, Bamboos, alligators, Chimpanzees, Macaws, tigers, Lions, giraffes, Sun Bears, Elephants, Flamingos, Snakes, I am sure that I am missing more, but there were a ton of animals. There were several different sizes of turtles, some as big as several hundred pounds, one that I particularly liked though was a littler one, still maybe 10-20 lbs, sleeping in the middle of a river on the back of an alligator, like it was a log.



There was a baby giraffe that was only 4 months old. And there were monkeys swinging high in the trees, one got mad and had a barrel in his play area that he was pounding so everyone knew it was his. The tigers and lions were sleeping in the warm sun, I can’t believe it is almost the end of October and it was over 80 degrees, I thought I would die in the heat, and I got a sunburn.



Little Miss Holly was dressed up in her Halloween costume. The event we were attending was called “Boo at the Zoo” and all kids were encouraged to wear costumes, and got free ride tickets if they did, there was a costume parade earlier in the day face painting, and a scavenger hunt. Holly must have gotten about 20 compliments on her outfit; she was dressed as a furry lion! The sad part though, was that it was so hot, she was getting sweaty and overheated, and could only wear the costume for about 30 minutes.



Miriam was dressed as a fairy and little Isaac was wearing an orange stripped boo shirt. He slept a large part of the day, but when he woke up he was very alert and active, he smiled and watched Holly when Marylee brought him over to play with her. Joel decided to give Holly the Camera to play with while it was in movie mode, and holly made the following movie....



Of her Mouth...

We walked around the zoo for a few hours visiting all of the animals and filling in our scavenger hunt so we could get the goodie bag. Then at the end of the day we decided to take a train ride around the zoo. The zoo is very hilly, and the train goes all around, so there were some really nice views down into the zoo from near the upper edge. here is a video of Holly's crazy mom and the runaway stroller...



After the train ride we decided to head out, Holly was exhausted and fell asleep the second she was strapped into her car seat. We decided to go to the book store after the zoo, and to public market to get some early dinner. I was parched and got a watermelon smoothie. We wanted to pick up the third book in the twilight series, and this book is still only in hard back,, and was 20$ but I really wanted it. There was a special, but 2 get the third one free, so I decided to also get the 4th book in my series, the newest one which has just been out about a month, thus allowing Joel to get a free book.



Holly had admirers at the bookstore that watched her play and told me how cute she was, this was of course after she woke up from her nap. Joel got a cookie and some coffee, and after we found our books, we went to public market to get some take-home food.

It was a really fun day. Holly after being in the car seat or stroller all day had a lot of energy. She wanted to “run around” and she did not sit still. She now lunges from sitting to crawling without hesitation, and once on all fours begins to rock back and forth, she had dropped down to her face and elbows several times and lifted herself up, but the most amazing this she did was this.

Lying on her back, she turned onto her side with her bent elbow tucked up against her, then in a fail swoop she turned onto her stomach, into a crawl stance, in a matter of seconds, she had never turned onto her belly as far as I could remember and I was in shock and amazement by the progress she makes on an hourly bases.

She had some carrots after playing, they were better than the peas, but she still is not excited or helpful when it comes to eating. She was really tired and cranky in the evening, eating two bottles and carrots within an hour, she was super hungry. I am exhausted today also, partly because I was up late last night catching up on reading all of your blogs, and patricianly from the sun, so it may only be 9:00 PM, and I have my book, but alas, I still think I will be going to bed. Goodnight.

Friday

This morning Joel had a Dentist appointment, just a check-up and cleaning, so we took Holly with us. I had read an article that one should bring their babies to the dentist office with them, so they would learn not to be afraid of dentists. Dr. Ballard was so excited to meet Holly; she checked out her two little teeth and said she looked great. She gave Holly a tooth brush and said to bring her back with us on our next cleaning. Holly watched as daddy got his work done, so she could get exposure to the sounds and sights of the office. We read 5 books in the waiting room and watched a Thomas the Engine video. Holly really liked her toothbrush and chewed on it. She liked the way the bristles felt on her gums and tongue. She was quite adorable.

After the dentist we stopped at subway to pick up some lunch which we ate in the courtyard at Joel’s office. This was a high traffic area so the munchkin got to see many of Joel’s co-workers on their way to their own lunches. Our sandwiches were good, but it was time to let Daddy go to work. We went home to take a nap and play for a bit and then it was time for Swim Class. It was a hot day and the warm pool was warm, but after a moment the water felt really good. Swim class was the smallest I had ever seen it, with only a handful of people. Holly played with Xavier and Ila, and Sarah. Ila was splashing in the water, and holly was very intrigued by this, but her nap from earlier was only about 30 minutes so she was still very tired, and not super active. She was low key most of class. We did go underwater quickly for a moment. She patted my face a few times which is the first step to patting the water, and we had a good class, and nice warm shower. She was hungry and tired at the end, ate a bottle and fell asleep as soon as she was tucked into the car seat.

I drove up into the Oakland hills to Montclair during her nap to pick up some books and toys that I had purchased through craigslist. It included 5 Babar books, and a t-shirt, two baby Einstein books, a CD and 4 VHS tapes and a Noah’s Ark Toy, and two books. The Ark toy has ten sets of Animals that you can load into the ark, they are all made of wood, and it is a very cool toy. While I can’t use the VHS Tapes, I thought I would bring them to Florida on my next visit, my mom has a VCR, and I can always give them away also, the whole lot only cost me 19$ and I am sure the wooden ark cost more than that new. There was an amazing view of the bay from up in the hills. Holly still napped so we drove by Joel’s work but he wasn’t ready to come home, so when holly woke up about 6:30 we headed inside and I made her some more sweet peas. She doesn’t like them, but this was the last of it, I mixed them up with some oatmeal so the flavor would not be as strong, she protested often, but each time it gave me an opportunity to sneak in another bite, only making her madder, and thus eat the food down faster. She was having a bit of a cranky tantrum afterwards, but eventually settled down.

We are counting the days until she learns to crawl, she is basically there, she just needs to engage her arms a bit more, but she is ready to take off flying, she is already lunging forward to reach toys getting from a sit position to all 4’s, she just isn’t sure what to do once she is there, and usually ends up rocking back and forth, or doing a face plant when she gets tired, then she will wine and fuss for a while, sometimes she turns over to her back, other times she has a fit and Mommy rescues her by sitting her back up.

Joel ended up giving her a final bottle for the night and putting her down in the crib, she was out like a light, as she only had two very short naps today.

Thursday

Today was a really fun day. It started off with Holly waking up late, 9:45, which was a good thing, since I was going to my old mother’s Group from 10:30-12:00 and I didn’t want her to be napping at that time. She we got everything together dropped daddy at work and went. It was a lot of fun, Jennifer the facilitator was excited to see me and when she heard I quit my job she was thrilled. Lucas and his mom where there and they remembered how much I was struggling with the decision to go back, and then no one saw me for 2 months, so they figured I was back and living life. It was nice to have this discussion forum.


There was a very cute little 10 months old in a CBGB shirt, and there was another 9 month old who was pulling herself up and starting to lean on momma. She had an older brother, and we talked about what to do when the older kids pick on the younger ones. Jennifer recommended that we should not intervene, unless the child is in danger of getting hurt, because if you scold the older child for taking away the tow, you don’t empower the younger one to stick up for themselves.

It was an interesting discussion, so then I asked what I should do always worried about Holly scratching the younger babies, and she said that I should simply open her hand and pet there face and say nice, gentle, ect. So when Cliff the 11 month old walker (holding one of moms hands) came over to play with holly I let her reach out towards him, and he ended up reaching towards her face, so his mom took his hand and said nice, and it seemed to work. She was happy to have a play mat that was bigger than her and very interested in his walking.

After the mother’s group holly took a nap in her car seat as we headed over to tumble and tea for some lunch. I had a yummy grilled chicken pesto Panini sandwich and a green salad. When holly woke up we went over to the play area, there was another little boy named Julian playing, he had on a cute shirt that said Yo, Ho, Ho and a bottle of Milk, with a pirate crossbones on his bottom, he also had on flame leg warmers as knee pads and a cute blue helmet. He was learning to pull himself up, and really liked my skirt, he would hold onto it, and my leg and then pull to a stand, once he was there, he didn’t quite know what to do. His mom was nice and we chatted a bit. Later he played with Holly inside the matted area, and they had one of those toys with the wiggly wires all about and the round beads that you push along the wire, and Holly played with it, she would find a single bead and twirl it, and then slide it up and down the wire.


The two of them played pushing beads back and forth. Holly was quite intrigued with his helmet and wanted to touch it, then later when he was crawling, he went right over to her and gave her a kiss… I’m sorry boys, I know Holly has quite a few boyfriends, but the little flirt got her first kiss from Julian, a boy she just met at the café… naughty girl that she is.. She giggled and laughed, and I just started cracking up. Earlier he was kissing his mom, and I noticed because when Holly gives me kisses she opens her mouth and then basically pushes her face into my check, she doesn’t quite have it down yet, and so I was watching Julian kiss his mom and it was a little more advanced, he would close his mouth, go to her cheek, plant his lips then when he pulled away smack them by opening his mouth, it was quite adorable, and he was so quick with his crawl, I didn’t see it coming when he kissed Holly.

Later I had to change Holly, she was storing up a big poopie from the Sweet Peas she had yesterday, and Julian and his sister Rory left while we were getting changed. Next Kelly came by with her nanny, now Kelly looked like she was about 1 years old, she weighs at least 5 lbs more than holly if not 10, she was a big girl, and she was only 7 months, she was not crawling or walking yet, and Kelly and Holly played for a while. Her nanny was very sweet, she didn’t speak a lot of English, Kelly’s mom worked from home a few blocks away and the nanny comes in 2 days a week.


Then Shilo and her little girl Isha came to play, and isha weights 19 lbs, but looked not much bigger then Holly, and much smaller then Kelly, which makes me think Kelly must be about 25 lbs, and Isha was 11 months old, and she was already walking, she didn’t like to walk without holding her mom’s finger, but she also crawled and she was super fast, she was 0-60 across the room in about 5 seconds flat, so she had her mom running around after her. Isha was very sweet. Margo stopped in to say hello she was 15 months and walking by herself and with her dad.

Later two other mom’s with their also 7 month old babies stopped in to play, and we talked about eating habits, both of these girls eat baby food 2-3 times a day, and one just started eating these cracker things, that I guess are like biscuits, that I need to look into, and neither of them have teeth, but apparently these cracker biscuits dissolve, they were much more advanced with the eating then we were, but there mom’s started then at around 5 months, so they had a bit of a head start, Isha is already eating grown-up food and she eats whatever her mom and dad are having for dinner, I was amazed, but her mom started her on food at like 3 months old, so she has been doing it a long time.

Holly had a lot of fun playing with all of the babies, and she enjoyed the play area and new toys, once while I had her sitting and playing, she tucked her legs underneath her and then pulled herself up, the problem was that the side was about waste height, and she was standing, but had her head on the side, so she was bent over in half, she didn’t quite get that she needed to use her arms to push the rest of her body upwards, so I took her hand and helped her the last bit of the way, then holding her hands we walked over to the archway, which was arm / chest height and I let her grab on.


She stood there for a few minutes not sure what to do next, and then she fell backwards onto her but, she was quite amused with herself. She met several other babies and had a great time, but she was getting fussy, and after I fed her sleepy, and since they were closing in a few minutes we headed home. She fell fast asleep in the car and is taking her afternoon nap now.

After Holly’s nap she had some more peas, today was really bad, she would whine in protest, and sadly this cry / whine meant her mouth was open and mean mamma used that as an opportunity to sneak in some more peas. I only gave her about ½ of what was left less than a 1/3 of the container I think, tomorrow I will mix it with Oatmeal to see if she likes that better, Joel says it tastes good, but the flavor is strong and very different from any she has had before.

I think she is teething still, I mean she hasn’t broken skin yet but she was really fussy again tonight, we got her to fall asleep at around 10 but she has woken up twice crying for no reason, then falls back asleep once I give her the pacifier. I hope the teeth come in soon and move on. I am worried she might be getting sick, her nose was stuffy and she threw up some last night and a little bit tonight, not bad like it was a few weeks ago, but still that same gag reflex when she coughs and well, the cough several weeks later is still there.

Wednesday

Today Tracey and Lucian came over to play with us and meet Sally, Holly’s PT. Since Tracey Studies kinesiology, and is doing her theses on baby Movement, she was very curious on what type of work Sally does with Holly. Holly is coming up on her 6 month assessment, so Sally was testing out some skills today to help prepare her report.

First we played with the ball, and Holly was not very excited about this today, she didn’t want to be on her belly, but we did sit her on the edge, and tilt her left and right and she was righting herself and using her core back muscles. 2 weeks ago when Sally was over we noticed at the end of the session that Holly’s back was rounded and we think this was because she was tired, so we made a point to look today when the session began and her back was strait and she was using all of her muscles.

We practiced sitting with her legs tucked in tight in a cross legged pattern, this is so she doesn’t use her hamstrings and heels to stabilize herself but uses her core trunk muscles. We also decided to use some of the tape on her today, two strips on either side connecting from her shoulder down her long back muscles to her but, this was to provide some resistance when she reaches with her arms to activate the back muscles and strengthen them. We tested some of her falling reflexes, and they were all present, at first they were a little delayed like she moved the correct way but in slow motion, but we let her “fall” several times in different ways and she reacted fast on several occasions also.

Holly’s biggest gross motor delay continues to be her ability to hold her head up at a high angle. When playing airplane she looks down, or maybe up at 30 degrees, which is equivalent to 3-4 months, at 5-7 months she should be at least at a 45 degree angle, and working towards the 8-9 months 90 degree angle. I forget what this looks like because I am so used to Holly, so I held up Lucian, to see how far up he holds his head and he was already at a 45 degree angle at 4 months, but he got tired very quickly and dropped his head, so my concern with Holly, is she doesn’t even do it for a few seconds and then get tired, she just doesn’t do it. But in reverse with gravity’s help we have extended her head and back knowing that when she wants to her body does move into that position, so it is possible.

Later when Tracey and I spoke about it, Tracey reminded me that Holly’s head size is in the 78 percentile, while her height and weight are like 28 percentile, so in that respect her head is really big for her body, and it must take a lot of work to keep it up. So who knows, it’s not like I am super worried about it, I just want to keep working with her on it, and do what I can to help her out.

After Holly’s PT Session her and Lucian played some more, they were adorable, Holly is like a little doll, and Lucian is like a teddy bear, speaking of which, Tracey had a teddy bear gift for Holly which she adored and immediately ate its tie. The teddy bear was about as big as her, so it was completely understandable for her to think that Lucian was another teddy bear toy for her to play with. She liked to hold his hand and leg and reach for his face, but I had to pull her back, I didn’t want her to scratch him. The two of them played facing each other, each between Mommy’s legs, it was very cute. I enjoyed having Tracey’s company, and Lucian was getting so big. He is much less floppy, holding his head up strong and showing resistance when you passively move his arms. He makes cute little grunty noises also. He has a very adorable smile, it’s sometimes crooked, and he just raises one side like he is being sly.

After playing for a while we decided to go out and get some lunch, we drove down to 4th street which is a semi-shishi shopping area and went to this great little Mexican restaurant, we sat outside in the breeze, and I had a delicious limonada. In that shopping area is an Italian pasta and cheese shop, where I picked up some fresh garlic linguini and fennel sausage for dinner, as well as a slice of pumpkin cheese cake for Joel and Boston cream pie for myself. They had great samples of Honey, Cheese, Crackers, and Salsa. Afterwards we walked over to a toy store called the Ark, it was great. It had all kinds of wooden toys, and developmental toys, and soft animals and books, we only had time to look over one small section of the store, there was even an upstairs that we didn’t get to go to. I had to resist from buying anything, but I am sure I will go back.

We said goodbye, and Holly was tired, she had been awake since Noon, just before her therapy, and was cranky and had a bottle while we were eating our late lunch, but it was already 5:30, so the second I put her in the car seat and started driving she nodded off to sleep. I drove over to my old job to pick up a veggie box, we prepaid for several weeks, and they are dropped off there on Wednesdays. I called my friend and old co-worker while there to check in on how things were going and she came out to chat with me. She was happy to see me, but things are not going well, there are a lot of holes that I left behind unfilled, and with limited staff it will be difficult to keep the department running. I feel bad for the situation they are in, but I had to do what was best for me by leaving my job.

I left there at a quarter to 7, just in time to pick up Joel from work, That night we enjoyed our fresh pasta and had a great dinner. When Joel first got home I decided to feed Holly some peas, we had such a busy day she had not had a chance to eat yet. She doesn’t really like them, and she is getting really clever at finding ways to get “her” spoon into her mouth without opening it wide enough for me to give her a bite of food. It was fun for Joel to get to watch me feed her, as I usually do it when he is at work. Holly stayed up while we ate, so we took shifts and she fell asleep around 10:00. When I went to bed at around 2:00 I gave her a small bottle while transitioning her to the co-sleeper from the swing, which is why I think she slept in so late the next morning.

1972

I got this idea from Chantelle @ Photomommy... It is indeed the coolest site I have seen in a while, basically you can upload a photo of yourself, and check out what you may have looked like from 1950-2000. Here is what I would have looked like if I graduated in 1972... Check me out :-)

I'd love for you to leave a comment with a link to your "High School pics"

4th of the 4th

I got this cool Idea from Betsy @ My Five Men. The idea is that you post the 4th picture in the 4th folder of your picture area. In mycase the Folder is Camping, and the forth picture is one of my at our campsite next to a big redwood. This is from 2004.

Leave a comment with a link to your 4th of the 4th.... Would love to see them.

"Tag.. your it"

Settling Back In

Monday started off as a slow day, I had a lot of unpacking to do, and it had not really sunk in that I was now unemployed. I was actually very productive, unpacking almost all of our stuff, and I had an appointment with Comcast to switch to cable modem and digital phone from DSL and Landline, also I called the insurance company to find out about the repairs, which was a challenge and took a bit of coaxing, and played phone tag with Holly’s therapists trying to schedule her 6 months assessment, it was a super busy day. In the afternoon I decided to give her some sweet potatoes, she loved these, in fact she liked them so much that she ate ¾ of the container, I didn’t want to over do it so I stopped her.

Holly was sort of happy to be home but also sort of not, the house was really quiet, she had been used to there being like several people around at every moment and getting constant attention. I played some music to keep the house noisy, but she was very clingy and cranky all day, and exhibited a little bit of stranger anxiety when Katie came. Katie had her report with her that I was able to review, it was a draft, and for the most part she has her assessed on the 5.5 month level, this was based on assessments she did about 3 weeks ago when she was 6 months old, almost 7, so she is coming up about 6 weeks delayed. I was happy with the report and the progress she has been making, she has several skills that are in the 8-10 month range, but the cluster of skills is around 5 months, she has a few only at the 3-4 month level too. Yet the main thing is that every day she learns something new, and I see her moving forward every day. Since Holly has been so fussy and she seemed to be at the edge of being sick, we decided to keep her in the co-sleeper most of the week, laying her in bed next to us, so we could keep a close eye on her.

On Tuesday we got a package from my friend Ona in England, she got Holly the cutest items, a pair of bear slippers, and some pink knitted shoes, and finally a pair of lacey socks and patent leather black shoes. The first two par are still too big on her, but the black shoes were just her size, and were a perfect match with her little school girl outfit pictured here, but they didn’t seem to stay on her feet for too long.

Tuesday was a low key day catching up on all of the housework and settling back in from vacation; it still has not sunk in that I don’t have to work anymore. I spent the afternoon going through a week’s worth of mail, doing some bills, and other paperwork that I had to get done. In the afternoon I fed Holly, and since she liked the Sweet Potatoes so much, I mixed them with some rice cereal to get her to eat that, she eat it up, though clever at trying to keep her mouth closed, she was happy to eat it and you could tell she liked the flavor.

On Wednesday morning I was off to get a cleaning at the dentist’s office early in the morning and to pick up a prescription from Children’s Hospital. It was for Liquid Folic Acid, this high foliate treatment is something that Dr. Hagerman recommends and writes about in her book. The dosage is really high compared to what people are used to giving, and it doesn’t come typically in a liquid for, you have to get it in IV vials for it to be liquid, so when I picked it up I had to also get 30 syringes, as you need to use a needle to get it out of the vial and then inject it into the milk, which needs to be at least 50cc’s. It is weird how you use the needles, you have to inject in the amount of air equal to the amount of liquid you are removing, and it’s weird. I filled the prescription but we haven’t started giving it to her yet. We plan to start this weekend, so we have some time to play with it, give her a small dose and work our way up.

Sunday Trip Home

This is a shirt that came all the way from Italy from my sister kat, for Holly. She got it when she was visiting Jackie there this summer. It is supposed to be sized 2T which is for a toddler, but it already seems to fit the girl, it is sorta crazy how that works.

While Sunday was officially our last day in Virginia I considered it a travel day, so it really doesn’t count. I didn’t have time to do much but eat some bagels for breakfast say goodbye to the family and pack our bags. We ended up packing a box and having Jackie ship stuff home to us, especially the books, as they were really heavy, I think I could have made it all fit in the bags, but the bag was easily 50 lbs and we had a lot of books.

We got to the airport at around 2:00 for a 2:50 flight, but it is Charlottesville, and only had 4 gates, so we were through baggage and security in about 5 minutes, and waiting at the gate, they didn’t have any shops on that side of security and they made me throw out my tea on the way in, so all they had was a vending machine for drinks, I only had dollars and the machine didn’t take them, so I had to run and find change before the plane boarded, on such a small flight they didn’t have drink service and I wanted to be sure to have something to help pop my ears. My ears have a lot of trouble flying. This time the 36 seat plane was completely full, but it was a quick and pleasant trip.

Once we arrived at Dulles we only had 45 minutes to change planes and our gate was a train ride away, there was no need to rush however because once we arrived it was a mad house and it took about an additional 45 minutes to load the plane, apparently the flight itself was over booked by 16 seats, people who had purchased tickets but had no seats assigned, and then on top of that there were 9 additional people from previous or delayed flights that were trying to get on the plane. It was utter and total chaos. I tried to board early because we were sitting in a 3 seat section and wanted to get there before the third person arrived, but they told us that they do not seat babies early. I was told I could be seated in group 2 at the beginning, so I was at least able to go in before most people, and before the man in our section. We squeezed into the seat and it was the middle of the day so Holly was wide awake. I also had no time to get life savers and had only ½ container from the last trip to help with my ears.

Holly did eventually fall asleep just before the movie started, which was great for me. I was excited about the movie, it was swing vote, something I had not yet seen and wanted to, it was entertaining and I enjoyed it.

So a few highlights from the plane ride, as we finally got seated and ready to take off, through a 30 minute boarding delay, and another 30 minutes or so on the ground I am assuming to get everyone else boarded we finally began down the runway, and we had been waiting and hoping for this the entire afternoon, Holly begins to make a “project” for her Daddy. Once we are in the air she is finishing off, but the seat belt lights are on, until we get to about 37,000 feet, so we had to wait another 30 or so minutes before we could get up and change her. Joel agreed to do it, so he had to dig out the diaper bag and get the man next to us to move and head to the teeny tiny airplane bathroom.

Once there he had to put the toilet seat down in order to have a place to put her she was bigger than this, so she balanced on it diagonally and he precariously changed her. Once she was cleaned off he couldn’t clean up the diaper and bag, so he had to leave the bathroom excuse himself passed the 3 people waiting in line, walk back to our seat and give me the baby and then head back and finish up. He had to bring the diaper in a scent proof bag back to the seat because there wasn’t a trash for it in the bathroom, and then give it to the stewardess.

If that wasn’t enough, after the movie, she decided to have another project for us. This time we decided to change her in the seat, as the bathroom had less room. So we put down the seat table and laid out the diaper bag pad and got the wipes out and prepared. Joel held Holly in place including her arms and legs out of the way and I cleaned her off and changed the diapers. This time it was a huge messy awful project, much worse than the first one, and so we ended up putting the entire thing, including the plastic insert into a bag and holding on to it until we got to SFO.

The flight wouldn’t have been so bad, on top of two poopie diapers (which almost never happens) but to top it off, when we arrived, we made a large circle to delay out approach about 30 more minutes, and then arrived but due to congestion spent another 30 minutes circling and waiting to land. All in all we arrived about 2 and ½ hours late and our 5 hours on the plane turned into 7. We were so ready to get off by the time we landed all sweaty and sticky, Holly didn’t seem to mind at all, she got a nap, had two nice projects, no problems with her ears, and had fun playing in Mommy and Daddy’s lap.

At SFO we were happy to stretch and get off the plane, when walking to the baggage area we saw there was an exhibit from the Exploratorium. There was a Tornado generator, and a large platform that used a fan to create dunes, and a lightning generator, and finally these blue and red swirly globes. Holly really had a great time looking at them and watching them, she especially liked the lightning.

We finally got our bags and went outside; it was amazing to be in the cool San Francisco night air. We ended up having to wait for three shuttles before we could go to the parking terminal, and it was just simply a mad house at the airport.

We finally got to the car at almost 10PM, our original flight was supposed to land at 7:00, so by now it felt like 1am, as that was what time it was in Virginia. We were starving so we drove around San Bruno and found a Wendy’s and got some dinner, and ate in the car during our drive back to Berkeley, on the highway home we were driving and suddenly I saw a large tire barreling down the highway bouncing and heading right towards my windshield, in what would have been a head on collision. I had a car behind and to the left of me, but I was able to break and swerve enough to not hit the other cars and get out of the line of fire, the tire clipped my passenger side bumper, I saw something flying off and was terrified that the wheel would be damaged but got my bearings and the car seemed to be going steady. So we drove on. When we crossed the bridge we stopped at the gas station by our house to check out the damage, it seems that the tire took off the entire bumper, and left a huge dent in the car. I doesn’t seem to have done damage to the frame, but there seem to be at least 3 panels that are somehow dented, not including the hood.

Holly all tucked out slept through the entire ordeal. Welcome Home I guess was what this was…. On Monday I called the insurance, and at first they said it was a collision, and my deductable was 1000$ since I just quit my job, this made me very unhappy. I fought them on this and talked them into putting it in as a claim for comprehensive, which has a deductable of only 250$ this was so much better and means I can actually get it fixed. Sadly, when I called around to get it fixed by the official state farm mechanics I found out that these panels and bumpers come unpainted, and so the work is scheduled to take 3 days, and that’s after I go in on a different occasion to get the estimate and have the parts ordered. Well that said, I don’t know when I will be able to get the car fixed because I can’t imagine when I will have three days to give up to repairs, I will at least wait until after Halloween, perhaps mid week sometime in November. We will see.