Out Like a Lion
Yesterday was much better on the Abigail front. We went from Abiwail on Saturday to Hapigail on Sunday. It was so much nicer we even had some playtime on the changing table.
Besides bouncing on the ball, the changing table is her favorite place. For an hour she was smiling and responding to both Jen and I.
I never could imagine the emotional charge you get when your kid responds positively. The little smiles and happy coos are like little shots of happiness right into your soul.
- b
Reflux Session
As I said, the Mylanta sort of works.
There was a particular session last night where we had to bounce and be held (mostly) upright.
Though it looks like I'm gripping her hands, she's the one held fast with both hands to my thumb.
Then she fell asleep that way.
Which means you can forget about moving (keep bouncing!) for at least an hour.
- b
Family Visit
Yesterday the Straw's made it out to meet Abigail.
It's kind of cute. Their youngest, Jake, wants to grow up and be a Dad one day.
As practice maybe he can fill in one of these days when I'm particularly sleep deprived. He can't be any worse than I am.
- b
Reflux
Looks like Abigail's got reflux.
It took a few days of this...
To realize if we turned her like this...
Everything was cool. - Yes. That was supposed to be a Silverlight animation. See it for real here.
She's currently on Mylanta. That's helping a little. Next week I think she gets Zantac, then hopefully we all get some comfort and sleep.
- b
Silverlight
Might start having some animations and other web effects here that will require the Microsoft Silverlight 4 plug in.
If you're a Windows/PC user, you can get the plug in here.
If you're a Mac user, you can get the plug in here.
I've heard the plug in may not work using Google Chrome, but I haven't tried.
- b
The Ladies
It was another 114 shots of Abigail weekend.
You're supposed to keep only a few and delete the rest, but it's so hard to choose any of them as not worthy.
- b
Psycho Moments
Twice last week I had a bloody nose in the shower. Each time it happened while I was washing my face, so my eyes were closed. Imagine my surprise when the soap was rinsed away, my eyes open and I saw blood splattered all over the curtain and shower walls?
Weird.
- b
Mobile Milestone
Abigail's now watching mobiles.
- b
A Week of Home Ownership
It rained this week.
Rained a lot.
Rained enough to overflow my downspout and rot out my siding.
Yeah. Ok. That didn't just happen this week, but rain like this week makes things like this more nerve racking.
I suppose I could worry about water in the basement like everybody else, but mine mostly occurs in the garage.
It seeps up through the cracks, then runs toward the doors. It seeps up through the cracks in the basement too, but there are a lot less cracks in the basement.
The real concern is the stream flowing from my foundation. Again it's at the garage, so I'm only a little concerned.
Did you see it? Did you see the water trickling out of the concrete block and running for the drain?
It's times like these I'm glad no one's septic system is "up stream" from my well.
While on the topic of the garage, I went and picked up part of the nursery furniture yesterday. The packaging for the dresser and the crib made it too big for all of it to go in my truck, so I took what I thought we could use. In the pouring rain, Mark and I loaded up the dresser and drove it home. Once home, it didn't make it much further than the garage.
It was too big to go hauling all through the house (when it's sunny and dry, we'll have an easier time carrying it around the house and through the sliding glass doors), and Jen was too tired to play interior decorator. We at least carried it into the basement (away from any water seeping up through the floor). It's currently serving as a speaker stand for the home entertainment system.
Tomorrow begins my new position at my old job. While I was home after Abigail was born, they decided to do a huge re-organization at the company. Everything I had pretty much killed myself for the last two years was "re-orged" away. No reflection of my performance. The product and its architecture was simply deemed "the wrong direction" (the direction was never my choice anyway).
What makes the new direction "the right direction" is anyone's guess (or prerogative if you're the one in charge). What makes me confident I'll have a life-long job to support my daughter?
nada
- b
A Week of Abigail
Between huge changes at work and huge changes at home, it's difficult to keep the posts up to date.
Not to mention Abigail's getting over a bad case of baby acne, so she wasn't feeling very photogenic.
So now we know there are two things (besides feeding) Abigail likes best - motion and body heat.
The swing is cool,
but only for so long. Then it gets cold.
The preferred type of motion is bouncing on the exercise ball. Somebody like Dad holds her in his arms, sits on the ball and bounces - for hours. Calms her right down and eventually puts her to sleep after you've been bouncing - for hours. It's the new "gas dance". Calms everything but hunger. Only problem is it hurt like hell on the back the first few days, so we tried the Bjorn.
This way baby gets to bounce, Dad saves his back and everyone's happy, right? Worked for about five minutes, then baby decided she wasn't close enough to Dad. Luckily continual bouncing has strengthened Dad's back, so it's not really an issue.
Cute picture while suiting up with the Bjorn.
Jen managed to get outside with Abigail again. This time she wrapped her up in the Moby wrap and went for a walk around the park. This time the adventure was much more successful.
I thought this shot was cute too.
And last by not least a sleepy shot while held by her grandmother.
In addition to the photos, there were some nice milestones this week as well. So far she's taken two bottles. That's good news for when Jen heads back to work. Abigail has also started to make noises beyond crying. Every once and a while she and I manage a little "Ah, ahhh, eh, ah" conversation.
Exciting stuff, huh?
- b
First Outdoor Adventure
Tried to take Abigail for a walk outside today. The temps were in the mid fifties. The sun shining...
We didn't expect much.
We packed up the car with Gretchen and headed for the rail/trail.
Bundled Abigail all up. Put the stroller together and started to walk.
About five minutes went by before we had this.
Jen holding Abigail, wrapped up in her coat. She wasn't cold, but she wasn't happy in the stroller. It was her first time after-all.
We went about twenty minutes, then turned around and went back.
Maybe next time we'll try something easier like the mall when it first opens for the day.
- b
The Hurt Diaper
Picture says it all.
- b
Silly Spammers
A while back I turned comment moderation on for posts 2 weeks or older.
Most of the time the spammer comments are just jibberish.
Sometimes the jibberish is entertaining like this one:
"Some may feel squeamish about eating it, but rabbit has a fan base that grows as cooks discover how easy they are to raise — and how good the meat tastes."
Or this one with some context thrown in:
"Hello. Great job. I did not expect this on a Wednesday. This is a great story. Thanks!"
It was posted for the Po Po post.
- b
Can't Leave Well Enough Alone
I added another filmstrip sequence to the previous set.
This one has Abigail stretching after a nap. It's a little faster then the others.
I also added manual forward and backward buttons to all of them. Maybe I should add a speed control?
See it all here.
- b
Love the Bath Shots
- b
Night XC Mud Ski
I knew there was mud.
I knew there was a downhill log drop.
I skied down the slope anyway.
I hit the log,
launched off the log,
landed my skis in the mud, where they stopped, but my face did not until it too was in the mud.
- b
New Hat
Abigail got a new hand knit hat. It's super cute.
Thanks to Sarah.
- b
Abigail Found her Hand Tonight
And put it right in her mouth.
- b
Finally got it figured out (the boys at Good Year are geniuses(I hope.)). Turns out a corroded connector through the firewall was shorting the system.
Nothing like a $50 bottle of booze, $2 cigars and the smell of campfire to honor the blessing of ones child.
That's Jen holding Abigail's little hiny over the toilet. Jen makes some swishing sound and Abigail does her business. Crazy huh? We'd read 
Yay! Water stained ceiling tiles and pain in the ass compression fittings! My favorite!
That's two 2x4's and three concrete blocks fallen off the side of the pool and into the cover. Ice, wind, not sure what caused it, but it's got me really annoyed so far. Almost makes the water line to the fridge a long lost memory.
It wasn't very good. Probably had more to do with my presentation then the actual food.
