Pop quiz

Helen: “What’s your favorite dinner that Mama makes?”
Katrina: “Taco Bell.”

Allan's new diet

"I prefer to call them dried plums, thank you."

I had to haul all the kids to the Doctor again yesterday since Katrina still seemed to have some sort of infection. While we waited, Allan began screaming bloody murder and straining again. Poor guy can’t even go when he’s just eating fruits and veggies! The previous Wednesday, I had actually watched him empty his bowels like he was a tube of toothpaste. We’re talking, like two feet of poop. By Sunday, I thought Allan’s pears would help him. Monday he struggled, but hardly went.

As the pediatrician walked in, Elena, Katrina, and I were yelling, “Come on, Allan! You can do it! PUUUUUUUUUUSH!” Allan was beet-red, on the examining table, with his diaper wide-open. Without missing a beat, the doctor ran out of the room and returned with a rectal thermometer to (ahem) “help” him out a bit. We knew he wasn’t finished, but he did feel some relief, poor boy! He went a bit more in the afternoon after much struggling and yelling.

So now I have to feed Allan prunes twice a day. I gave him two containers yesterday. We might have to up the dosage soon if we don’t get results.

Allan’s six-month stats

Length: 28 1/4 inches (97th percentile); Weight: 21 pounds, 9.1 ounces (95th percentile); Head circumference: 17 3/4 inches (75th to 90th percentile)

Allan’s car seat is good up to 22 pounds. Phew! We have a few more weeks left.

(Comment from old site:)

Hi after all this time!

Submitted by Amanda Crawford (not verified) on Wed, 07/16/2008 - 11:39am.

Hi you guys! I am so glad I found you! Please email me so we can catch up! Cliff Notes: Daniel and I have two little girls, Abbie and Amelia, and are still up in the Twin Cities.

Hope to hear from you soon!

April Fools

Yes, I admit I fibbed. Allan did not sleep in his crib the night before last. However, after an entire April Fools Day with no naps, Allan was exhausted and cranky—no joking! (We had no reason to go for a car ride, so Allan simply resisted all attempts during the day.)

We decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to try to convince Allan that the crib wasn’t so bad, after all! 45 minutes and many tears later (Sorry, Elizabeth Pantley), Allan fell asleep for a whopping hour. It was nighttime, so I fed him and put him in the crib again. He slept for another hour. I did notice that the one thing that seemed to help pacify Allan was a fuzzy washcloth. For some reason, if he could get a hold of it, Allan would put it near his mouth and suck his thumb/or the washcloth and finally go to sleep. The longest he slept was two, 2 1/2 hour sessions, but I also had to feed him because I was too frazzled and sleepy to listen to the crying. This is a big deal because previously, Allan would have immediately awoken upon being placed in the crib! I don’t know if it was his excessive sleepiness, but I’m hoping we’ll do this well or better tonight.

By the way, Brad did fool me yesterday. He sent me a link to a Rick Astley video and said, “you might find this interesting.” I watched the entire video, “Never Gonna Give You Up,” waiting for something funny to happen. I mean, I know that Rick Astley looks much whimpier than you’d imagine. Especially considering his deep, full voice. As I read the comments on YouTube, I noticed the remarks kept mentioning April Fools. I didn’t see anything funny, though. NOTHING.

Later, after talking with Brad about it, I discovered the joke was on me. How embarrassing.

(Comment from old site:)

Clarification

Submitted by Brad Town on Wed, 04/02/2008 - 2:30pm.

First, I should mention that we didn’t just let Allan cry by himself. I was in there talking to him. However, I am not his Favorite Person in the Whole Wide World, and he found that unacceptable.

Second, when I sent Helen a link to the “Never Gonna Give You Up” video by Rick Astley, I didn’t tell her anything about it. I just said something about finding it interesting. She watched the whole thing waiting for something interesting. Ha! I was hoping to Rickroll her, but I didn’t expect it to go so well!

Incidentally, YouTube was Rickrolling people yesterday. Every “Featured Video” on their main page went to that video. That might explain why that video gained several millions views in one day.

Whoohoo!

Miracle of miracles! Allan finally slept in his own crib all night long! It’s such a relief that he’s finally figured out how to sleep by himself.

(Comment from old site:)

Date

Submitted by Brad Town on Wed, 04/02/2008 - 8:02am.

Please note the date of Helen’s post.

And the winner is … Mama!

Can someone please pass the disinfectant?

Allan had quite the exciting week, with the introduction of solids and all. Unfortunately, his bowels weren’t so excited. After the 2 1/2 tablespoons of rice cereal, I decided that it was time to introduce some sweet potatoes instead. On Thursday and Friday, Allan ate a container of stage one sweet potatoes. Surely this would jump start those bowels, right? By Saturday, I was really getting nervous. So was Brad. And most importantly, so was Allan. Somehow Brad convinced Allan that it was time to just let it go. When Brad changed his diaper, he was surprised to see only a small amount of substance. We knew more was coming. We could smell it in the air. The clock was ticking. Allan was miserable all day.

On Sunday Brad excitedly brought Allan to me and said, “This is for you.” I politely refused his offer to allow me the privilege of changing Allan’s poopie diaper. Alas, when Brad went to change him, there was Nothing! False alarm.

After Brad went upstairs for an afternoon nap, I placed Allan in the exersaucer so I could practice some music. Allan became fussy after a few minutes, so I decided to take him out. As I lifted him out of the saucer and onto the changing pad I noticed there were globules of poop running down his legs. Allan was so happy and giggly. Then I looked at the exersaucer. Surprisingly, Allan’s poop had propelled out of his onesie right onto the base of the saucer! There was no poop on the fabric seat! Katrina was kind enough to photograph this amazing feat.

I think I must have gone through half a bag of wipes in order to clean the boy off. He kept grabbing his dirty socks and spreading his mess everywhere.

As usual, Brad lucked out on this one.

(Comments from old site:)

That is just gross.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 04/01/2008 - 8:38am.

Poor Allan. He will surely have some very - uh- interesting pictures to show his family some day.

Ha!

Submitted by Helen Town on Tue, 04/01/2008 - 12:52pm.

It’s all part of my evil plan.

No poop yet

Allan in the pre-rice cereal days

So I began giving Allan rice cereal this week. The boy seriously poops like 3-4 runny stools a day under normal circumstances (with just breastmilk as his food source). on Monday, Allan ate 1 teaspoon of rice cereal. No poop. Tuesday, he ate another tablespoon. No poop. Wednesday, I gave him ANOTHER tablespoon. Still—no poop. That’s the definition of insanity, right? I knew rice was constipating, but I thought it would simply normalize his stools, not eliminate them!

By Thursday, I decided this was serious business. I called my neighbor, Vandana, and asked her to pick up some sweet potato baby food in the afternoon. Surely, that would loosen things up! Katrina fed him the entire container. Allan loved it. I’ve never had a child who actually finished an entire serving in one sitting at only six months of age!

Today I eagerly awaited the explosion of Allan’s bowels.

NOTHING.

Two hospitals, one day (updated)

I’ve had it with hospitals for a while.

First I took Elena to Providence Park Hospital today to have an ultrasound, and I was lucky enough to get to listen to her scream and cry for Mama and for them to put her diaper back on (she needed a catheter, which was the main source of the stress). I stopped and got her a chocolate milk shake at McDonald’s.

Tonight, while Helen was at the dentist, I was home with the kids. When I told the girls we were going to feed Allan, they got pretty excited — Katrina slipped while running to the chair next to Allan and slammed her chin onto the edge of the chair. When I saw blood on her chin from a half-inch gash, I called the dentist’s office to ask Helen to get home as soon as she could.

Katrina did well at the ER at Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital. I got her a chocolate milk shake at McDonald’s, too.

Updated Thursday: Katrina didn’t get stitches, thankfully. She got Steri-Strips, and she was happy they were still there this morning.

(Comments from old site:)

You’re such a good Dada.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 03/27/2008 - 8:51am.

You’re such a good Dada. Can I have a chocolate shake too?

Chocolate shake

Submitted by Brad Town on Thu, 03/27/2008 - 9:42am.

At a buck-ninety a pop? For the child size? No way.

Cheepskate. Sheesh.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 03/28/2008 - 7:46am.

Cheepskate. Sheesh.

How do I stop posting

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 03/28/2008 - 11:50am.

How do I stop posting anonymous comments?

Girls feeding Allan (updated)

Updated March 31, 2008: You can see a higher-resolution version with better audio and video at YouTube. I tried embedding that one here, but the YouTube player stretches the video vertically.

Our ARM is resetting

We got a letter reminding us that the interest rate on our mortgage is adjusting on May 1. Our interest rate will drop a quarter of a point. Thanks, Dr. Bernanke!

I had figured this out before we got the letter. It’s not difficult at all. First, I looked at our loan paperwork and found the list of details I’d need:

• The date of our reset
• The number of days before the reset when the new rate would be determined
• The index to check (for ARMs like ours, it’s usually the weekly average yield on one-year U.S. Treasury securities)
• The margin to add to the index value
• The way to round it

On our loan, they use the most recently published data 45 days before the reset. So, looking at the Federal Reserve’s information, I saw that as of March 17 (45 days before May 1), the most recent data was 1.52%. I added the margin given in the loan documentation and rounded to the nearest eighth. (To round to the nearest eighth, you multiply by eight, round, then divide by eight.)

(Comment from old site:)

I’m glad I’m not the one

Submitted by Helen Town (not verified) on Tue, 03/25/2008 - 2:37pm.

I’m glad I’m not the one doing the finances!