Mantastic

Friday night was for the boys. What better to strengthen the bonds of men than Grilled meat, halo 3 and cold beer. Mandy was good enough to gove me a hall pass for the evening after a couple of hours shopping for new pacifiers and curtains. It's so nice to be outdoors these days. It's dry as a bone here, but we like it better than rain. Saturday we went on a nice hike along the river with out friends Tom and Colleen and their two girls and their two girls' friends. Juniper played in the water and Tom and I shuttled the girls back and forth across the river. That night we stayed in to catch-up on rest and Sunday we went to church and then to a Memorial day pool party. Myles came down with a fever that night. His temperature got up to 101.7 so we took him to the urgent care clinic on Monday morning. No ear infection, UTI or lung infection. It appears likes it's just a virus he's fighting. We have him on children's liquid tylenol and he's doing much better. The new medical term of the week is "low grade temperature." We are thankful for Merrideth, our friend and Myles' doctor who was good enough to give us medical advice at 6:30 on Monday morning.

Mylestones

Several firsts happened this week. On Thursday, Myles grabbed one of his feet for the first time. He began a new scream too, we still can't tell whether it's a scream of delight or distress, but it's clear that it's voluntary. He seems to just want to hear himself scream at certain times of the day. Yesterday, we went for our first hike with Myles and Juniper. We went with the Burnet family (their daughters are ages 4 and 6) as well as two friends of their daughters and their dog, Stuart. We were a happy bunch with a lot of energy to begin the hike. I was carrying Myles in a sling. Then, about 10 minutes into the hike, we stopped by the river for some fun, and Myles had a loud, large poop. The thing about the sling is that when Myles poops while he's in it, it tends to be an up-the-back poop. I guess it's the law of physics or something, since the pressure is on his butt when he's in the sling. So Seth ran back to the car to get the diaper bag. Meanwhile, Juniper played happily in the river. She's a total river dog, she loves it. When Seth got back, Colleen helped with another first...the first time Myles' diaper has ever been changed while he's being held upright. So we changed his diaper and his whole outfit (sure enough, it was up the back), and kept on hiking. We had lots of fun, but Myles quickly let us know he did not want to be held facing in, so we all took turns holding him facing out. Then this morning, Myles pulled my hair for the first time. A tight little grip, that one. (It wasn't intentional, he just sort of mechanically closes his fist on whatever his hand happens to land on.) We can't wait to see what he'll do next!! Today, we are off to a Memorial Day pool party, so Myles will get to wear a swimsuit for the first time ever and go in the pool with Seth. And Seth has tomorrow off, so that makes it a very nice, long weekend.

Mandy Gardens, Myles Turns 18 (Weeks)

We're starting our garden on the cheap until we can save up to build some raised planting beds. It's also incentive for me to organize my tools. The week is getting off to a quick start. We had our pastor over for meatloaf and iced tea last night so we could plan for Myles' dedication service on June 3rd. I think I put too many onions in the meatloaf and mouth suffered for it the whole night through. No matter how many times I've disproved it to myself I keep thinking a gallon of water at the bedside will flush out the taste. Both sets of parents are coming to town for the dedication service. My folks will be coming in from Jersey and staying at our home.

Thumb Sucker

Here I am with a Maya wrap ring sling, so graciously loaned to me by my sister-in-law Irene. It takes some practice to get the hang of it, but it can truly be a lifesaver when I need to get some work done and Myles wants to be close. Also here's a photo of Myles, my mom, and me on Mother's Day. Love you mom!!

It's been a two-steps-forward-one-step-back kind of week. Two (or was it three?) times over the weekend, Myles slept like a champ. I think falling asleep in someone's arms until he's truly out is key. On those wonderous nights he stayed asleep in his crib for several hours, and woke up only once for a feeding around 3 or 4am. Perfect! But recently, we've had two rough nights in a row with fussy crying in the evening, followed by more restless sleeping, waking 2-3 times to eat. Hmm. I think you just have to take the good nights when you can get them, and shake off the bad ones in the morning (coffee helps, I enjoy just half a cup on the hard mornings).

It appears that Myles is also learning a new, quite wonderful skill...thumb sucking. The beauty of sucking your thumb is that it's always with you. Unlike the pacifier, it doesn't fall onto the floor where the dog can get it. This week Myles went from sucking on his fists to getting his thumb squarely in his mouth and chewing on it, to actual thumb sucking. We're so proud! I'm sure we'll regret it when we have to employ every trick in the book to get him to quit down the road, but for now it's rather nice to have a baby who can calm himself a little bit with his thumb.

On a side note, I began watching Spike Lee's "When the levees broke" documentary this week. Wow. It's amazing. I highly recommend it based on what I've seen so far. After living through Hurricane Mitch in Honduras, I thought I had a sense of what a serious storm was all about, but the problem in New Orleans wasn't really Katrina (which went to the east of the city, I believe), but the breach of the levees and the awful negligence of the local, state, and federal governments in getting help to the people stuck in a flooded city. I'll say no more...go out and rent it!

Mr. Gerber, Your Replacement Has Arrived

We had a wonderful Mothers Day. Bob and Gail arrived at our house on Saturday afternoon with a 5 lb bucket of fresh strawberries from the farmers market and a hanging plant. We walked downtown and went shopping for art and truffles. I choose the french kiss truffle which made my legs wobble as it went down. On Saturday night we went to the Tourists baseball game. The Tourists are our City's minor league team. They played the Charleston Riverdogs and won. We drank 24 oz beers while Bob schooled us all about the game of baseball. Sunday Mandy preached a wondeful mothers day sermon and her friend Liz came all the way from Baltimore to surprise her. We went out for brunch and spent the afternoon in a food coma daze before we were awakened by strawberry short cake ala Gail. This year Mothers Day took on a whole new meaning for me for obvious reasons. I am so incredibly proud of the job Mandy is doing as a new mother. She has and endless supply of love for Myles and treats him as gently as a butterfly without any reservations of complaints. I look at her with so much awe these days. During the birth I developed a huge respect and admiration for Mandy's strength and courage and just when I thought my love for her couldn't grow stronger, I see her with our baby boy and I'm infatuated all over again. Happy Mothers Day baby!

Our Son The Swinger

Here's Myles swingin' back in ol' week 14. We bought the acclaimed battery-operated swing with the idea that it would be the magical solution to Myles' fussy hour, which always seems to begin when we sit down at the table to eat diner. We put the swing to the test multiple times and have concluded that the most magical of solutions is still the old fashioned cradle hold with the rock/back-pat combo.

Mama's 30!

Seth was very good to me this birthday. On Tuesday, we went to Colleen and Tom's to babysit for the girls while they went to a meeting. When we got there, Colleen and the girls came out with a homemade chocolate birthday cake, sang to me, and told me that we weren't babysitting, they were babysitting Myles for us so Seth could take me out to dinner! Seth orchestrated the whole thing so convincingly (either that or this lack of sleep is really getting to me), I had no idea. Then he even gave me a gift of a visit to a really nice spa. We don't usually get big gifts for each other, so I actually cried (again, it's that lack of sleep). Before we left Colleen and Tom's, though, I was feeding Myles when Lydia approached. She's 4 years old. She said, "Um, Amanda, is that cow's milk or rice milk that you're feeding him?" (I was breastfeeding). I said, "Lydia, it's human milk." She said, "Oh, what's that?" So Colleen explained it to her and told her that was what she ate when she was a baby too...a very cute moment.

As you can see, Myles now wears a bib as if it's his second skin. Lots of drooling going on. Twice this week he has rolled from his back onto his side, but he hasn't gotten all the way to his tummy yet.

I'm lovin life at 30...thankful for so many blessings! Onto Mother's Day!

Mylestones

On Sunday, Myles played the imitate game when I stuck out my tongue at him. We never know with these new little changes if they happen by chance or if he's deliberately doing something new. But it was very cute. He was laughing and sticking his tongue out, witnessed by Seth and friends.

Yesterday, he smiled at Juniper for the second time and seemed to really register her presence. I put his hand on her back to "pet" her, and she turned to give him a kiss.

Juniper was a little naughty over the weekend. On Friday, Seth put Myles in the swing in the living room while he was working on the computer. He noticed that Juniper was sitting very nicely, at attention, watching Myles. How sweet, he thought. A few minutes later when he went to check on Myles, he noticed Myles was missing a sock. Sure enough, Juniper was chewing on it over in the corner. Somehow she managed to pull the sock off of his foot while he was swinging back and forth. (Don't worry mom, she didn't bite or hurt his foot). What can we say? Juniper loves dirty socks (and dirty diapers, but we won't go there).

Monday Morning with Myles

1:20am: restless grunting and kicking...feed, change diaper, back to bed

4:30am: restless grunting and kicking...play game of replace the pacifier, switch sleeping positions, back to bed

5:30am: restless grunting and kicking...feed, back to bed

6:45am: alarm goes off, Seth gets up, I thank God for a day off from the office, roll over, and go back to bed to "sleep in"

7:30am: rise and shine, change wet diaper which has leaked all over Myles' outift, Myles poops mid change all over changing pad. Send Seth out for more wipes, which we forgot to get yesterday. Change changing pad. Put Myles in outfit #1.

8:00am: Myles in bouncer, Mandy eating breakfast. A ruckus can be heard, which can only mean one thing...another poopy diaper.

8:20am: Seth returns with the wipes. I give Myles another 5 minutes to see if he has anything else up there.

8:30am: Upon removing Myles from the bouncer, I realize he has pooped out of his diaper all over his clothes and the bouncer. oops. guess I shouldn't have waited those 5 minutes.

8:40am: change Myles into outfit #2, feed the tyke, put him in the sling while I balance the checkbook. He promptly falls asleep.

9:30am: Move upstairs to packn play while I shower. Bad transfer to the pack n play, he wakes up and cries, move to bed, safeguard with pillows, jump in the shower.

10:00: time to get some work done on the computer, put Myles in the bouncer. Juniper startles. 3rd poop of the morning. Thankfully, this one stays in the diaper.

10:15: back to bouncer.

10:17: The youngun is restless, put him back in the sling. Let whiny Juniper out.

10:20am: Meltdown in sling, back to the pack n play while mama changes the bed and gets laundry ready. Juniper's whining to get back in.

10:30am: Back in bouncer.

10:32: the youngun stirs. reposition on couch, safeguard with pillows. Rub head until he falls asleep.

10:37: sweet success! baby is sleeping...quick, to work!

P.S. these photos were taken at the small birthday bash at ada and michael's house...out of 8 attendees, 4 of us were celebrating birthdays! carvel ice cream cake. first photo is myles with ada. second photo includes amy and baby hazel (7 months old).

Man of the Hour

What a man, what a man, what a man, what a mighty good man.

This pictures a little dated, and so is Seth!! Tomorrow is his 29th birthday! (May 4th)

Email him some birthday wishes at sethhendler@yahoo.com or call him.

sleepless in Asheville

It's funny what lack of sleep does to you...for those of you who are our ASP friends, you may recall a little something like lack of sleep from our summers on ASP, and this is kind of like that, only you don't get Saturdays to sleep in. And if you're breastfeeding most of your sleep is interrupted sleep so you never get that really deep sleep your body craves. Given the troubles I had sleeping while pregnant, I figure I haven't really slept well in a year. But it seems like there's always something about the morning that encourages me to cut my losses, get out of bed, and go to work any way. These photos were taken at my folks' house. Seth had a work trip to Chattanooga last weekend, so he dropped Myles and I off in Knoxville. When I saw these photos, I was shocked at how big Myles is looking these days. He's so precious!

Myles will be dedicated at church on June 3rd...as part of the morning service, he will formally be welcomed into our community of faith. We decided not to baptize him, because we want him to be able to make that decision for himself when he's older. We have asked our friends Colleen and Tom to be his god-parents...actually I like the spanish "comadre/copadre" word for it better. At any rate, they said yes. We are very blessed to have good friends in our city who love Myles and want to be a part of his life.

Well, back to work. I think the little one has awakened (again).