Sunshine on my Shoulders

1. Mason is still doing great with the elimination diet. The only setbacks we've had are when I unknowingly eat something with soy, like at a restaurant. Did you know a plain, dry baked potato from Red Lobster contains soy? Me either. My bad, Little Dude. My one and only splurge has been the occasional drive-thru french fries and I even checked to see which places don't use soybean oil to cook them. I thought Sonic was safe, but it turns out, only Chick-fil-A uses plain 'ol spuds in 100% peanut oil (to which he hasn't reacted). Why must there be so many additives in everything?!

2. Lately, I've stumbled upon a few new things I can eat. Unfortunately chocolate cake is not one of them... but jell-o is! Hooray for sugar!! Since avocados seem safe so far, I've been spreading them on rice cakes, imagining that I'm back on that lovely little private beach in Mexico. I even found some gluten-, dairy-, soy-, corn-, egg-, nut-free vegan mac n' cheese the other day. Sad news is that it tastes even worse than it sounds. Ick. Mocha wouldn't even finish it.

3. Speaking of her: I woke up this morning to find that last night she peed on my freakin' yoga mat that has been out in the living room for a few days. Can't wash that out. Thanks, turd.

4. It wouldn't have been so bad except that the morning was already off to a rough start after the little neighbor kids were playing right outside Mason's window and woke him up. Perfect timing too, since it was late enough that he was not going back to sleep and early enough to put us both in a bad mood. And right about the time I found Mocha's surprise, the kid filled up a fresh diaper and began screeching at me as though it was my fault he was sitting in poop for 0.5 seconds. I know I'll be grateful for that reaction when he starts potty training, but in the mean time, Iamsotiredofcleaningupbodilyfluids!

5. Matt got a slammin' new computer. Mine is basically on hospice, so we went shopping Monday to see whats new in the 5 years since being in the market for one. Well, Matt came home last night in a funk and decided he needed some retail therapy. Two hours and several dollars later, he had his fix. The coolest part is that he got some gadget that wirelessly connects it to our TV so now he can watch his espn.com, youtube, and whatever else in all its HD, 40-something-inch glory.

6. Last spring we had grandiose plans for sprucing up our yard and planting a garden. We even borrowed a tiller and bought flowers... annuals. Then out of nowhere, morning sickness slammed me onto the couch and March-June became little more than a blurry haze of barf bags, chicken nuggets and 2-day-old mascara. When I finally got over it, my summer class was nearly over, Matt had undergone foot surgery, and the little flowers (never taken from the tray) had been dead and crunchy for months. I guess it got pretty ugly because the only topic of conversation in the last year between us and two of our neighbors has been our pitiful lawn. We actually caught one of them trimming our hedges a few weeks ago when he thought we weren't home. AWKWARD! I never imagined we'd be the trashy ones on the street, but go us! This year we are determined to finish what we started and maybe add a little curb appeal too. We haven't even bought dirt and I'm already overwhelmed. Why does yard work have to be so much... work? We're sticking with perennials this time.

7. I luurve springing forward. It is my signal that I survived winter and the sun will shine once more. My serotonin tank is usually on empty by the time February is over and I was exceptionally nervous about it this time, having to go through the first few crazy months with a baby during the same time of year. But alas, we survived. One thing I haven't figured out is: Why don't we just move the time by 30 min and call it good?

1/3 of a Year?!

Today was Mason's 4-month checkup, a week after the fact. We all know he's been a chunk from day 1 but here are his latest stats:

Height: 25 inches (maybe a little more because he scrunched up)

Head: 42.5 cm

Weight: 17lb 6oz. Yowza. No wonder the Baby Bjorn is cutting trenches through my shoulders on even the quickest trip to the store.

Overall the Doc seemed pleased and said we had the green light to start solids but once I told him about the allergy issues, he said it would be fine to wait until closer to 6 months too. It's not like he needs the extra calories, after all!

He also casually mentioned that he should be sleeping through the night. This is exactly what I wanted to hear, and exactly what I didn't want to hear. Remember the last post when I said we moved him to his room? Well the next night he was back in ours... then back in his for a week... and he's been next to our bed ever since. Most people would think the crying at bedtime would be the hardest part to deal with, and let me tell ya, its no fun. But it was all the up and down all night long that did me in.

You see, I couldn't hear him crying over our fan (which freaked me out to begin with) so we left both bedroom doors open. It still took major screaming to wake me up so Matt started going in and bringing him to me. Easy enough, right? Wrong... at least when you have a senile, incontinent little daschund who wakes up and needs to go outside all night too. And did I mention that since the doors were open, said doggie had free access to the green shag rug (read: grass) in baby's room? Add stumbling over a baby gate multiple times in the dark and suffice it to say, it was a circus around here.

I just figured we'd try again in a month or two, once he wasn't waking so often to eat. Then the Doc said he doesn't need to be waking to eat since he's clearly not having trouble gaining weight. Goodbye excuse... It seems my baby has been labeled a "trained night feeder." It also seems that it's not going to be easy to straighten this out. Doc said his child once cried for 2.5 hours straight, almost with a touch of pride. Who does that!? When I said I was thinking more along the lines of 5 minute cries, he gave me one of those "oh, its one of those first-time-moms" looks.

What is it about pediatricians that makes you feel like such a loser upon leaving their offices?

What we know for sure is that the little dude is healthier and happier than the last visit. One positive note (that its not all in my head) is that even the Doc noticed that he is active, busy,and any other cute little word to say that he is a handful. My mom's favorite is intense and she gave me a book about high needs babies. Sounds like this might not be just a phase... Oh joy!

We've definitely got our work cut out for us. Good thing he's cute...