Monday, May 26, 2008

End of an Era

8 weeks ago we were sitting in a small hospital room, happy to have a healthy, pretty child.
Unfortunately, 8 weeks is a significant number because it means that tomorrow Joan goes back to work.
It's incredibly sad to both of us that he'll only see his parents 3-4 hours a day, plus weekends, but such is the evil of modern life. It'll be hard, but we know he'll be in good hands.
The arrangement we've worked out is that my mom, his Nonnie, is going to watch him here, at our house. We have high hopes for the arrangement. We know she's qualified, based on personal knowledge of her past work product (though you have the right to disagree if you know me)
She'll be one on one with him this week, and next week she'll add Anna to the mix.

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Anna is a very well behaved child, so we're hoping she'll be a good influence on him. She's just shy of a year older than him and is pretty mobile, with an affinity for Jimmy. Good thing he doesn't have a tail.

March '04 017

This week continued to be better than the peak of the misery a few weeks back. He's still fussy and strains to work stuff out, but the severe fits have dwindled away. He's also getting longer stretches of sleep during the night, but has a couple of hours of light, noisy sleep in the mornings.

We've started him on Colic Calm, one of the many hocus pocus remedies out there, but, as far as we can tell, it's not not working.
The fluid is basically a concoction of a bunch of different herbs, and contains some type of charcoal, which makes it black. The charcoal powder is supposed to absorb the bad stuff in his intestines. Whether it actually does that, I have no idea, but we do know that it does stain everything it touches, and makes him look like some poor son of a chimney sweep by the time he's done dosing. (or like he's got more facial hair than dear old Dad)

Week 8 039

Unsurprisingly, it comes out of the other end looking the same way. Kinda freaky when his diaper is completely black, but you get used to it.

If you have a cranky baby, you may want to give it a try. We ordered it off of the 'net but now Professional Arts Pharmacy in Lafayette (where Joan's Mom works)is the second retail store in the state to carry it. A guy drove in from New Orleans the other day to buy some from them. Some people swear by it.

Joan's diet is still pretty limited but she's adding ingredients every couple of days. She's worked in spicy tuna rolls, french fries and sweet potatoes this week.
She's been killing the McDonald's classic grilled chicken sandwich.
Three times I've been to McD's and three time I've said this exact phrase,
" I'll take one Classic Grilled Chicken Sandwich , please."
Lo and behold, three times the response from the talking box has been:
"Would you like that grilled or crispy?"
To which I've mentally responded:
"What $%^*$#@ part of GRILLED CHICKEN SANDWICH did you not understand, moran."



but, back on topic.
Riley went to his fourth live music event this week, when he checked out the Lafayette Concert Band Memorial Day show out at Parc International.

Week 8 084

Like Barrack Obama (of whom I am no fan), Riley wasn't wearing a flag pin and didn't salute during the anthem.
Sean Hannity would hate my son. (and that would make my day) [Ooops, did I go political there for a second? oh well.]

he did well through most of the show, being passed amongst his grandparents, but toward the end he needed Mommy's love to stay quiet.

Week 8 077

he also went to church for the third time, and was quiet through church for the third time (though his smells were more obnoxious than even his worst cries could have been) He is quite the hit with the old people at the 8:30 service.

He's also developed a dislike for being in his car seat. Fortunately, once we get where we are going, he has no problem traveling in the Baby Bjorn and did very well yesterday on his first trip to the mall and on our weekly grocery run. I really like that thing. (the the carrier, I mean. and the baby too, I guess)

So far, I'm pleased with our ability to work him into our lives and not become complete shut ins. Next step, riding in the Jeep. I can't wait.

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