I pulled 80+ hours last week and 70+ hours this week, so blogging has been low on the list. Despite the long hours, I have had the opportunity to spend some quality time with both Olivia and Susan, so that’s been a nice twist.
There are a little over a hundred new photos on Flickr, including Olivia swimming and Susan and I dressed up for the ball.
Maybe next week will be a little more normal and I can write a proper post for all our blog stalkers. 
Time, sleep, and antibiotics have all been helpful. I feel 90% better, just a little sniffle leftover. Ian is feeling better in all respects except for sleep. He did an 87 hour work-week. Bleh, however he gets tomorrow off to make up for it. Yay! The Mullins’ visited this past weekend. We had a lovely time dining and shopping and enjoying each others’ kids. For the record, Kaelen and Mackenzie are quite adorable. Oh yeah, Olivia went for her first swim with daddy in the pool at the hotel. Watch for photos in the near future of her adorable chubbiness in a red and white polka-dotted bikini.
Tonight, ah tonight. Tonight is the Predators’ Ball. A lovely excuse to get all dolled up, eat good food, and perhaps do a little refined dancing. For an example of my idea of refined dancing, please see Amy “soon-to-be-Bartley” Kirk’s rendition of the happy dance. Or my husband’s fine performance of “Riding the Donkey”. In a kilt. Yes, yes. The Kirks bleed refinement and elegance.
Much gratitude to my mother is needed. She and my sweet Aunt Lynda babysat Olivia while Ian and I had the crud and mom is also keeping her tonight so we can have our fancy date. Olive enjoyed her mini-vacation quite a bit and returned to us in fine form. It is amazing how much we missed her while she was gone, even though we knew we were too under the weather to take care of her. Funny how something that weighs around 14 pounds and can’t walk or talk (though she’s trying) became the center of our world in less than 3 months. What an empty house it was…
Susan spent all day yesterday in the bed, hoping to get plenty of rest to push her into caretaker mode for today. Unfortunately, though, her body was conspiring against her and around 10p, she discovered she had a fever of 100.1 degrees. It was then that we knew I was going to be home again, playing the multi-tasking father. (I wish I could get a picture of me holding/feeding her with one arm, typing on the computer and talking on the phone via a headset…)
This morning she headed over to the “nicest CVS [she's] ever seen,” to visit their Minute Clinic. They diagnosed her with a pretty significant sinus infection, something likely allowed in by a little cold she had a few days prior. They’ve prescribed her a 10-day dose of antibiotics and she’s on her way to recovery.
To give me a chance to recover, her mom is headed up here to collect Olivia and retreat to her aunt Lynda’s house for at least the next day or two. It’ll be extremely strange not to have Olivia in the house overnight tonight… the idea bothers me more than I thought. Maybe its because she and I have had a chance to spend a lot of time together this two days and I’ve gotten mushy. Anyway, despite my concerns, its for the best. Her mom can stay her and risk getting sick, and I’ve got to get some sleep, as well as show my face at the office at some point!
We’re still planning on having the Mullins’ over from the wilderness this weekend, so we’re quite excited about that. Additionally, we’ve been invited by Ben and Dru to the Predator’s Unmasked Ball on Monday, so that’s high on our list of exciting things. I’ll be sure to get pictures of us in our fancy dress. Susan’s mom has also been kind enough to volunteer to babysit that night, too!
I’ll update as we have them…
Today was Olivia’s two month checkup, coinciding directly with her two month “birthday.” Since Susan is stricken with a serious head cold, she has quarantined herself away from the baby and I became the sole parent to carry Olivia to her appointment.
Her stats:
If I recall correctly, she’s in the 50th percentile on head circumference and 95th on height/weight. Basically this means her head size is pretty much in the middle of all kids her age and her height/weight are considerably higher than most kids. We knew she was growing, but I don’t know that we expected these results!
At our two week visit we got information about a clinical trial that was testing a meningitis vaccine in infants. Its a vaccine that is already in use for children older than 12, but they are working on getting it to kids sooner. Apparently there was actually a ten year old girl her in Nashville that just died from a meningitis infection of the variety that this vaccine would protect against. Anyway, the trial begins at the two month visit and we’ve decided to opt-in. I had to read through the informed consent and sign a few documents. We’ll have to collect some information over the 7 days following each of her well visits.
Being a trial, there are some kids who get the vaccine at this visit and some that don’t. She was randomized into the group that does not get the vaccine until later in the well visit routine. In this fashion, she’ll be the “control” baby, but once a year has passed, she’ll still receive the vaccine due to her participation. I spoke with the study doctor there at the office and the trial has been going in its current stage for nearly a year now. She’s getting in near the end of the current stage that has 4,500 participants. They’ve seen no adverse reactions, so that made us feel even better about enrolling her.
Once all the trial paperwork was out of the way, we proceeded to her normal immunizations. Of course, during all of the paperwork delay, she’d fallen asleep on the examination table and was snoozing delightfully. The nurse had to wake her and make her quite upset. First came an oral dose to guard at the rotavirus. Being a bit of a pro with oral medicines, she was pretty displeased. This got her lungs going full blast.
After the rotavirus vaccine, there were three injections, one on the right thigh and two on the left thigh. It all went pretty quickly. With the first stick, she was already screaming pretty well and her only reaction was to raise her eyebrows a bit. With the second and third stick she didn’t do too much more than scream a little louder. At no point did she reach the scream without sound stage that I’d heard so much about.
After it was all over, I picked her up and held her. She took a few minutes to calm down, then fell asleep. After 15 minutes, though, I had to lay her back down for a check that she was reacting okay. This, of course, sent her into another brief screaming fit – I think it was a flashback. She calmed down, though, and the nurse was able to look into her smiling face while she got her temperature under the arm.
All and all it went just fine I think. I think Susan would have been a bit of a mess with all the crying and screaming, but Olivia came out just fine. She seems not to have any ill effects so far to top it off. At the same time, though, how do you know if a 2 month old has a headache?
Susan’s Valentine’s Day gift from me is one we can share with everyone!
I made a 25 page book of photographs that covers our wedding, our honeymoon, and the first month or so of Olivia’s life. Its a 7×7 book available in hardback or softcover. The hardback version, which Susan got, even has a dust jacket!
If you click on the link above, you can preview the first 15 of pages in the book in a low-res PDF format. You can also purchase your own copy if you’d like one! I’d suggest the hardbound version because there is extra text and photos on the dust jacket, but I’d bet the softcover is pretty darn cool, too.
I’m sure as Olivia ages, we’ll be making another book to showcase her. I’ve seen a number of other books on the Blurb site that have pictures from a year of the child’s life, so, for example, Olivia’s first year. I may have just ruined the surprise for some people’s Christmas gift… oops.
From Susan and Olivia I got a a picture for my desk at work. Using the “3-D” frame we’ve had since our wedding, she got a photo of the two of them holding a sign that says “We (heart) You!” Everyone that has seen it was quite impressed and I’m happy to have a photo of Olivia that isn’t an ultrasound! I’ll post of picture of it when I get a chance.
The busy-ness never stops. We went down to Chatty over the weekend to help Ian’s sister move. We arrived at Matt and Chell’s late in the evening on Friday night, just in time to have supper and visit with Graham, Virginia, and my mother. Joyce (one of my mother’s oldest friends) came by to sneak a peek at Olive. We all caught each other up on our respective lives. Good times.
Saturday, Ian woke up and headed over to Amy’s place to help pack the moving van. Olivia and I went to Central Baptist to show off my little girl to Mom’s coworkers. They were sprucing up a room for a princess tea party. It looked quite fabulous and I snuck some munchies to tide me over. Olivia slept for the most part. I swear, it’s like the carseat is 10% plastic and fabric, 90% sleeping aid. It conks her out every single time. She did manage to pop her eyes open the last few minutes of the visit so people could see just how pretty they are. Deep blue with an inner ring of silvery blue. That inner ring gets bigger every day.
Saturday afternoon, we all headed to Garrett’s for Amy’s housewarming/LAN party. Yup, we’re geeks. And fairly proud of it, too. I played a Nintendo Wii for the first time. Tennis. I’m not sure what I expected. I can’t play tennis in real life. Why on earth should a video game be any different. It was fun, but my partner and I were run into the ground by the other players. A good time was had by all.
When Sunday morning rolled around (way too soon), we geared up to head home. We waited around to see my parents before leaving. Dad got his fill of holding his granddaughter. He’s so sweet to her. Around 1PM, we hit the road. We were due at a birthday party in Nashville. Olivia, true to form, conked out as soon as we started the car. It was a pleasant journey home. The party was lovely and it was good to see Ian’s friend and former coworker, Chuck, and his family. They have a gorgeous new home in the country. And there was cake. Yummy, yummy cake.
Baby puke. Smells awful. Tastes worse. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. Olivia spit up… into my mouth. I’m still gagging a bit as I right this, though it happened about 20 minutes ago and was immediately followed up with a good teeth-brushing. Yack, yack, yack. The moral of this short and rather disturbing story is this:
Never, under any circumstances, look at your baby when you are burping her over your shoulder. If you fail to heed this advice, don’t make the mistake of talking, cooing, or opening your mouth for any reason while you are looking. Hum if you must, but no singing.
I headed out in the morning to our local home improvement store and grabbed the pipe insulation that I’d mentioned. I was pleased to find that I had written the prices down incorrectly and it was considerably less expensive than I expected. I also picked up a new air filter and a bunch of baby proofing supplies.
When I got back home I spent the next hour or so putting the insulation onto the pipes. It was a relatively simple and quite inexpensive task, but I’m hoping for pretty reasonable results. I then went through and stuck plug covers in the outlets around the house. I also bought two pair of cord keepers for the blind cords and installed those. Along with those supplies, I bought cabinet catches, but those weren’t quite as easy to install so I’ve left them for another day.
After all that work we got cleaned up and went to our friends’ house for a Super Bowl party. Of course we weren’t really going to for the Super Bowl, it was more an excuse to party than anything. We went a little early, when we knew it’d be quiet, and stayed just long enough to see most everyone that was in attendance. Olivia was perfect, of course, sleeping through all of the noise and confusion of the party.
From the loud crowd that was at the party we moved to Randy and Emily’s house that was only a couple of minutes away. There we enjoyed quiet company while showing off our (still) sleeping little one. We got a glimpse of where we may be headed, with their daughter Maley showing off all of her girlie toys and such.
While we were there, I phoned Sydney who’s birthday was on Sunday. She’s reached the grand old age of 10 years old now, acting as a reminder that I’ve known her parents, as well as both Randys and a few other folks, for sometime around 12 years. Over those 12 years we’ve all stayed in pretty good contact, watching each other grow families, move houses, and grow older.
I was really, really productive today. I didn’t get out of bed until 10a, but I made up for it. Almost straight away, I went outside and re-did the front path that I laid late last year. I finally put the second plastic wall up on the left side, and then I rolled out garden fabric to keep grass from growing in the path. This involved lifting each paver in addition to picking up all of the marble stones that I’d put down to begin with. This project lasted until a little after noon.
At this point I moved to the side of the house that faces our neighbors. Here I had planned on planting a nice bush that I’d purchased last fall, but because I got lazy and didn’t do the work I did today, its likely dead in the container they shipped it to me in. Today, however, I got through the work I had planned – I dug up a little more than a half dozen boxwood bushes. These may have been beautiful items if anyone was going to bother with maintaining them, but that isn’t going to happen, what with their rapid, random growth. This project lasted well past 3 or 4 o’clock, with a brief break for Fat Mo’s lunch when family arrived.
Mom, Amy and Garrett came up for the Preds game tonight. Mom took care of Olivia while Amy and Garrett went to the Apple Store, Susan went to Sam’s, and I kept plugging away at the work I was doing.
By the time Amy and Garrett got back around 5, I had moved to the back yard where I’d completed cleaning out the vegetable garden of last year’s detritus. I may go back over that bit of yard to dig up the roots that I figure were left behind… either that or the plants had horribly shallow root systems. 
From the short work in the garden, I moved to the wall of tree limbs that were gathered along the back fence. This was a side-effect of the big tree falling in the back yard a few months back. Ed and Matt had come up to help cut the tree up, but I decided just to leave the limbs in the back yard since I didn’t know when the nice brush collection would be. Now that I know its a week from Tuesday, I had to get it up front. This involved dragging toward the gate, then throwing it over the fence. From there, it had to be dragged to the corner. Luckily for me, Garrett showed up just as I was starting this part and he chipped in. I’m not sure if I would have finished the job today without his assistance. At this point the corner of the sidewalk is impassable, but there isn’t much I can do about that.
Oh – that was just today. I forgot that after I got off of work yesterday, I spent a couple of hours in the front yard planting the bulbs I failed to get in the ground last fall. That was fun – it was below freezing most of the time I was out there, and at least an hour of the work was done by the light of the street lamps. Mom said it looked a bit like there was a game of whack-a-mole going on in my front yard, what with all the little holes everywhere.
Tomorrow hopefully I’ll tackle insulating the hot-water pipes in the basement – something I hope will help us use a little less water when preparing bottles for the baby in the middle of the night.
I’m also starting to look for a contractor to give me estimates on two big projects. First, I need someone to take a look in the attic (yes, our bedroom is the converted attic, but the bits around the box that is our bedroom are still straight up attic) and determine if we need to do anything about insulation or air-sealing. As it stands, the wind is visibly moving in that space, but that might be important to move the extremely hot summer air. Second, we’re going to have to have someone patch a few spots on the roof. As I was doing all of this work in the yard today I discovered at least 4 full-sized shingles that had been blown off of the roof. The majority of them seem to be at the peak of the roof and while I’m not completely positive, one gap may be a little deeper than is good for us. I also believe I’ve identified the location of our leak (as well as confirming the leak while I was investigating the attic space) as a loosening plate around the bathroom vent pipe.
Ahhh… the joys of home ownership.
After all of this work, I’ll be dragging Matt and Garrett into the next big project – a patio in the back yard. Along with the patio, I’ll be diving back into the vegetable garden business and working on laying out a drip irrigation system so as to avoid the high water bills we experienced last year. If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been on a bit of a conservation kick lately… I’m trying to squeeze every penny out of the house as I can…
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