Watch out, that thing's dangerous!

This pic is from about a week ago, actually. We've been pretty busy here, which I will go into after explaining the title for this blog entry...

Yesterday, I was looking at one of Riley's stuffed animals in his newly finished/furnished nursery (pix to follow at a later date), when I realized there was a spot of green something on it. On closer inspection, I realized it was a little spot of poo. On further inspection, there were more spots of poo in the general region on the shelf and ceiling (it's a dormer). I guess the changing table is situated a little too close to his animal collection and was sprayed during one of ou many overnight "stealth" poops. Our sweet son has a habit of unloading when the air hits his tushy. Must be refreshing or something.

ANYWHO- We've had several visits from friends and family lately. Manavi and Jen from St Louis (separately) have been by, Also, Rew's Dad visited last week, which we all enjoyed. My Mum is coming today, ahead of the gang to hang with the little dude before turkey day gets underway.

On a side note, if you're tempted, don't ever buy anything from Dell. My motherboard died Friday in my 1yr+6day old laptop. They wanted to charge us 50 beans just to talk to the service guy. Also, they don't sell parts to Best Buy unless the computer was purchased there. Criminals and pirates, the lot of them. grrr argh.


This pic is to placate those who have been asking for one with me and the Riley monkey.

More than one thing...

Now into week 6 of our great parenting adventure, we're beginning to get the hang of it. We've moved on from the "one thing a day" plan (although we have days where we fall back on it), to more like a "couple of things a day" plan. E.g., while watering the plants used to count as a daily goal, today we went for a nice long walk in the Arboretum, did a load of laundry, took care of some stuff for work, AND watered the plants! I think part of crossing this threshold has come from figuring out a sleeping arrangement that allows us all to get enough sleep every night. We've been trying out the co-sleeping thing for the last several nights. While I have very mixed feelings about this, and realize that there are very valid arguments for each camp, the reality seems to be that we're getting more sleep. It took me over a month to relax enough to stop freaking out about the concept of having the baby in the bed- the first time we tried this was actually in his first week, but I just couldn't deal with the panic of worrying that he was going to suffocate. Now, I think I know Riley better, know how he sleeps, and have more confidence in our ability to sleep with him. We also bought a sleep positioner to help him to sleep at a higher angle (reflux prevention)- it also helps us to "feel" where he is in the bed without getting too close to him. Anywho, we all seem to be dealing well with this change and I can say that it's nice to not feel like crap every day!
Other new developments include our first experimentations with "G Diapers" (http://www.gdiapers.com/) and bottlefeeding. Riley seems a little confused about the bottle, but still manages to get all the milk down. Rew is a champ with keeping him calm and well burped, so I have confidence that Riley will get it all figured out soon. It's nice to have some Dad-Riley bonding time!
And with that, I leave you with this totally adorable photo of my boys enjoying each other's company.

Sweet Pea

Nuff said.
Hope you all had a good week. We have been tackling our fussiness problems here, and have decided it's due to a delightful mix of reflux, gas, and feeding challenges (which complicate the first two). We seem to have a plan in place for addressing these, and things are settling down- just in time for his 6 week growth spurt! Riley has gotten big enough now that we tried out our Baby Bjorn for the first time today. Turns out the little monkey really likes it, and we used it tonight to get through the 'witching hour'.
We all 3 dropped by our department yesterday to pick up a few things and sign some paperwork. This was really a harsh reminder of how little work I've gotten done since the little dude was born, and how little I'll be able to get done before going back. Ah well.

One Month! Yikes!

Wow! We turned one month old yesterday! We had a busy day so I wasn't able to update until now. It's incredible how quickly this time has passed by. We're starting to find a better rhythm here, and are managing to get beyond the 'one goal a day' plan. Usually we get several tasks done a day, unless it's a cranky day. We may be making some headway on our feeding problems (which seemingly have turned out to not be reflux (?) - still trying to figure this out). Anywho, all is well here and we're starting to figure out this baby thing we have. Speaking of, he's starting to outgrow his newborn-sized clothes (see above).

Chimera

Here are baby pix of me and Rew. Can you see Riley here?


Here's Riley at 20 and 25days, for comparison.

Plus one more

Here's a picture of me, with my Dad, Grandma, and Greatgrandma. Just thought it was relevant, see below.

Zantac anyone?

So we've had a busy week with 'parent training'. It seems like just when we have the little dude figured out, he changes something so we're back at square 1. This week brought more adventures in gastrointestinal warfare. We think he may have some reflux problems, which is making him fussy while feeding and causing problems with sleeping. Got some meds today for this, so we'll see how that goes. We found out at the doctor today that Riley is currently 9lbs 4oz! So he's gained almost 2lbs above his birth weight- which would probably explain the new double chin and Michelin-esque thighs! Yay chunky monkey.

Halloween was fun- we purchased about 4x more candy than we actually needed. We were surprised at the low turnout of trick-or-treaters, given that it was a warm Friday night. We forced the extra candy on my starving grad student brother (who came over for dinner Saturday).

This weekend, my parents and grandparents came up from St. Louis to visit. We spent a lot of time passing the baby and watching baby TV. We also went to the Arboretum (really nice colors!). Dad and Rew also went to pick up Riley's crib, which arrived earlier this week.

Misc cute picture. His eyes are starting to focus more pointedly on us, which is fun.

Four generations in one picture.