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Trick-or-Treat!

Here she is in her first Halloween costume...it's Eva-Dandelion!

Happy Halloween, everyone! Hope you get lots of candy!

Spoooky!

Halloween is coming…THE BEST holiday ever! Eva is so, so excited—we put the finishing touches on her costume yesterday, and she gave her spit bubble of approval. She’s been wearing her scary kitty hat (thanks Auntie Laura) all weekend, and we’re carving her pumpkin tonight.

Tomorrow afternoon she and I will head downtown to hang out with Daddy at the Volume One offices, handing out candy to all the little hobgoblins running around during the special Trick-or-Treating time for the downtown businesses. Then it’s home for dinner and to greet the trick-or-treaters at our door.

What will Eva be dressed as? Sorry! You’ll have to wait. Tomorrow, we’ll unveil The Costume. I know, I know, "Boooo," right? (Ba-dum ching.)

Hug?

Happy 4-Month Birthday, Eva! (Month 4 recap coming soon...)

She's Ours...the Evidence is Mounting

If Eva should ever wish to deny that she's our kid, she'll have to work on her posture.

Eva in the Local Media

Hey! Mike, here. I’ve got a few stories to tell about Eva (coming soon), but in the meantime, here’s a recent column I wrote for Volume One about the kid. See what you think...

How's My Kid? Glad You Asked!
I don’t want to be one of those parents who can’t shut up about their kid, but...

My daughter is about three and a half months old, now. That doesn’t seem very old, does it? That’s because it’s not very old. Still, it feels like she’s been living in our house, crapping her pants for a lot longer. It feels like she should have figured out the toilet by now. But no – when her diaper gets full, all she does is complain with a series of high-pitched vocal outbursts. By most comparisons, we have a pretty laidback, user-friendly kid. I try not to think about the many parents out there whose babies like to cry all the ding-dang time (I’m practicing my “baby swearing”). If this was the case, the past three months would have felt like three years.

And yet, it seems like it was only a few days ago when I was typing up my column from a recovery room in Luther Hospital.

Crazy, weird, mind-blowing time paradoxes aside, I’m sure all you hip, cool, young-but-thinking-about-having-kids people out there are wondering if my daughter has cramped the Guns N’ Roses circa 1988 lifestyle my wife and I have always enjoyed. The answer: kind of.

A Learning Opportunity

Dear Eva:
If you are going to wake Daddy up at 2:30AM for a diaper change, you’d better be ready to wear your jammy pants inside out for the rest of the night. Cause and effect, kiddo. Cause. And. Effect.
Love, Mama

Ever So Sorry!

Has it been a week already? A week?? Geez. Here you go, Eva-lovers:

Last week was a busy one. Fun, but busy! We had company for part of the week—one of my best friends came to stay with us for a few days, so Eva and I had someone new to spend our days with. She’ll kill me for this, but here’s Eva's “Auntie” Laura, who didn't realize the sole purpose of her visit was to allow me to take a shower that lasted longer than 5 minutes:

On Saturday, Eva went to a party! Our friends got married, and Eva was invited to the reception. We broke out her tights for the occasion, and Eva partied all the way ‘til 9PM. She was a very good girl. Impressed us once again.

Ok. One more.

Satisfied, you animals? Sorry for the long absence!

Girls Rule and Boys Drool…Except in This Case

Ok. I was warned. I saw the pictures. I sat at a baby shower with Mike’s relatives and was told over and over and over again to expect it. Yet, I wasn’t prepared.

The Drool Has Arrived.

Apparently, my husband was quite the drooler as a child, and it appears he’s passed the trait on to his daughter. Today Eva sat in her swing happily blowing bubbles while a steady stream of spit ran down her chin. Her shirt was wet all the way to the waistband on her pants before I realized what she was doing and put a bib on her.

Thanks Mike. You couldn’t have just given her your eye color or something?

Sniff.

My poor baby. This week Eva has been suffering through her first cold. She's been all snotty and coughy and sneezy. We had a few tough days and nights this past weekend, but she’s feeling much better now. We got lucky—it could have been a lot worse. And now we have one cold under our belts.

It’s tough when your kid is sick. She just kept looking at me through her watery eyes like “What’s happening, Mama? I feel bad.” Beyond cuddling her and using soothing sounds, I had no way to explain to her that the cold was temporary, that everything was going to be ok.

It’s heartbreaking. Especially when your kid hates the nose-sucky thing, and won’t let you near her face with it. Every time I tried she gave me this look that said, “Do you not realize what I’m going through here? And now you want to torture me by sticking things up my nose? Dream on, lady.” And then she’d start coughing and gagging on the mucous she wouldn’t let me get rid of.

At one point I sent Mike out to the store to get some Children’s Tylenol so we’d have some on hand in case things got worse for her. He was so sweet and concerned for his daughter that he came home with one of every type of infant medication they make. What a good Daddy.

As it turned out, Eva didn’t need to take any medicine: Mike and I raised the head of her crib mattress and ran a humidifier in her room, both of which helped immensely. Yay for natural remedies, huh?

Today, Eva is feeling much better. She finally felt well enough to turn off the TV, get off the couch, and brush her teeth. Maybe tomorrow she’ll change out of her pajamas. Poor kid.

Meet Gideon!

I have a friend. Yes I do. Her name is Kim, and she plays a part in most of my favorite memories (blurry as they may be…) from college. Kim and I went through the same program at UWEC, and therefore drank many a beer—uh…had many classes together. And then she moved away (Pout.) and we lost touch a bit.

Lately, though, Kim and I have been reconnecting because we both ended up pregnant at about the same time. A few months before Eva was born, Kim gave birth to a little (I use the term loosely—he was 10lb, 4.5oz) baby boy. She and her husband named him Gideon and instantly became my “test couple.”

You see, any new thing I’m going through with Eva, Kim has already been through with her babe, and I can simply contact her to get all kinds of great advice. Handy, no? Anyways—the girl is hi-larry-us. And I thought you all might appreciate hearing some of her stories. She’s a fabulous writer who currently has no outlet, which is just a damn shame—think of all the cute kid stories wasted!

So. I asked her for permission to post some of the emails she’s sent about her darling boy, and she graciously agreed. Also, in the future, when she’s got a particularly good story to tell, she may very well become a “Guest” Blogger.

Have I piqued your interest? Want to meet Gideon? Here he is:

I received this picture in an email that simply said, “Yes, that’s correct – I put Gideon in a bucket and took his picture.”

Yes. This is who I get my parenting advice from. Enjoy!

All about 5-month-old Gideon…Gideon is ready to start crawling. I use “ready” very loosely – he will scoot his body forward if he has something to push off of. He can make it to the edge of his blanket before he gets very frustrated and mad. His first tooth has started to arrive—in the lower left corner of his mouth. “According to the books” he is supposed to get the top two first but apparently he has decided that the lower canine tooth will be the first to sink into me. I am very excited for him and very, very nervous for me. I feel as though there should be some sort of protective gear provided.

As he has gotten bigger he has trained us well. We have learned what to look for with the pee-shooting though are still able to lovingly call him our “little poop shooter” (I am still the only one who really thinks that name is okay to say). We have been trying to move him out of our room – though he is resisting much more than anticipated and we are (shocker) too weak to resist. So every night, because he is still hungry every 3-4 hours, we get him and he comes in. I keep reading that it will only take a week to change sleep habits – a freaking week? That’s a long time when you are exhausted and the babe is pissed and crying every three hours because he is not with you! We have finally decided to buy a bigger crib because he can’t stretch out any more. Poor guy. I have made many mental notes for myself when we decide that it is time for a brother or sister – one of them includes not joking about giving birth to the Jolly Green Giant with ADD. Who knew?

Look for more from Kim and Gideon in the weeks to come. Unless she gets boring. Then she’s totally out.