Pump and Style

Daniel recently asked me if I am still hearing voices from the pump and style (see how he enables this craziness). First I have to clarify, I'm not hearing voices. Ok, well, actually the pump in style voice is back. Lately I've been hearing "Paco, Paco, Paco, Paco." Paco is Anja's dog. While I appreciate Paco, I really want to stop hearing his name in the morning. Strike that, I want permanent silence from the pump and style motor. Until then, I guess Paco it is. It's more upbeat and positive compared to the earlier messages. urrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Here's Paco roaming around in Frankfurt, Germany doing what dogs do.

Mama and Rocco

The weather has been so amazing lately. If Anja was still here she'd be outside sunbathing every day (her location was tile A4 to C8). Since the weather has been so phenomenal I sit outside with Mr. Personality for about 10 minutes every day so he can get his regular dosage of Vitamin D. Then we head for a walk, somewhere - usually around the lake or to Piedmont Avenue. If we walk Piedmont Avenue then we have 2 definite stops. First I stop to say hi-ya to the little Vietnamese lady that runs a dry cleaning business. For years - I'd say 7 now - she's been asking me when I was going to have "baby." And when I'd tell her that we were taking our time, she'd tell me "no time, hurry, must have baby." So she is very happy that I'm no longer wasting my time. She now asks me when the 2nd baby is coming. I'm back to telling her that we are taking our time...and she has the same sort of responses. She now regularly gets to see Rocco and each time she tells me how big and healthy he is. I think motherhood has driven me towards narcissism. I love to hear how cute and healthy and big he is. After my vietnamese dry cleaning greet and meet, we head over to the jewelry store where two Italian sisters run the place. Annette has a grandchild in LA who is only 4 weeks older than Rocco and she misses him terribly. So I stop by and she gets to coo and ahh over Rocco and then she tells me all about her grandson and inevitably pulls out all the photos she has of him. I love to see what new jewelry she has in store. She has amazing taste. She has some great rings and earrings and that totally reasonably priced (well that is if you have disposable income). One day when the economy recovers (we all hope soon), and I have a job and our kitchen is paid off, I'll buy myself something.

Rocco is doing great. I feel that I have his diet totally figured out. He is eating a lot these days and is taking Chinese herbs to aid with his digestion issues. He was weighed yesterday and is now 15 pounds, 9 ounces.

So these are pictures I took of Rocco and I on Monday before our walk around the lake. There is also a picture of our never ending back wall. Daniel is almost finished painting it. He has been so busy at work. I hardly see him right now. He's sad that he doesn't see much of Rocco these days. He leaves for work before Rocco wakes up and comes home and Rocco is already in bed. I hope that with time, all of this gets easier. Actually, I take that back. Next week, Oma Anne arrives from Germany to finally meet Rocco. It will be great to have her here. I think Rocco is probably bored by me....the same stories, songs, la macarena dance, etc. He needs more entertainment tricks, more people, more love....and thank god it's arriving soon.

Ok, off to bed -it is almost 9PM.

5 months

Rocco turned 5 months yesterday. As I was washing the dishes I was thinking, wow - my life is so different now. Normally I would have been washing empty wine glasses and by now our glass recycle bin would have been nearly full of empty bottles of beer and wine and probably vodka bottles. Now you can literally count all the alcoholic bottles in the bin on one hand. On the flip side, we are saving lots of money by not purchasing booz or going to bars (boo hoo hoo). One day, one day....

So what has most definitely changed is our comfort level. We are no longer scared of him. Every noise used to freak us out but now we both feel very confident. I'm especialy used to all his noises and little quirks. At the moment, it's the mirror. HE LOVES to look at himself in the mirror. If he starts crying I just take him to the mirror and he stops. He looks at himself and starts to smile. It's very funny. I'll need to capture it on video. He can hold himself up now and he just continues to get bigger each day. And with each new day he also wants more attention. I've come to think of Rocco as the out of town guest that never leaves. You know how you have to entertain guests, keep them busy with the local sites and all. This is my day with Rocco but it never ends...he just wants more, more, more!

Anyway I need to get to bed. I'm on a Senior Citizen's schedule these days- dinner at 5, sleep by 9....etc.

I need to find a local Coco's so that I can take advantage of their early bird special. Seriously, all I need are some dentures and depends and I'm there - 75+ hanging with the older crowd. Anyway, I really need to get to bed. It's very late for me. ....buenas noches.

Out with the old, in with the new...

Daniel and I were glued to the TV this morning. He prepared breakfast and we watched the inauguration of Obama and commented on how lovely and large Aretha Franklin's hat was - that was quite a glittery bow. It was a somber speech I'd say. In fact, it was pretty matter of fact: things are bad, real bad and it's only going to get worse. I was surprised to see that Bush was all smiles even while his failed upon failed policies were being criticized.
Maybe he didn't get it. Very possible. And Cheney looked like a CIA hit man. They belong in jail. We should send them to Guantanamo before Obama closes it down. They should experience the non torture techniques they approved (water boarding isn't torture is it)? I was also shocked to see that they left the white house with high approval ratings: Bush at 22% and Cheney at 13%. How is that even possible? Is inbred America really that big? Is Anne Coulter, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity's fan club THAT big? Holy crap - how badly do people need to be fu%^#d over before you stand up and say ENOUGH, I've had it....can i have my pants back?


I wish we could have been there - I can only imagine the buzz, the emotions and the feeling of hope emerging from the hundreds of thousands in the crowd. What a HUGE collective sigh of relief there must be around the world. Unfortunately, it will have to be short lived because the truth is that "we the people"committed atrocious crimes in Iraq. The last body count statistic I saw for Iraqi deaths alone showed 98,000 deaths. And this is a conservative estimate....others say the death toll is in the million range. We all know (or most of us I imagine) how painful losing someone you love is NOW imagine a country plagued by death where every person has lost someone or 2 or 3 or more over the last few years to war. How can this not come back to hurt and haunt us for, well ever? This number doesn't include US soldiers or Afghan deaths. And this is just Iraq - the former administration left a domestic, international and constitutional mess. This is why I don't understand those 22% Bush lovers and 13% Cheney lovers. How? How can anyone condone what has happened? I don't understand it.

Well that's enough cheer from me today. I'm depressed now. Maybe I should watch the inauguration concert again to lift my spirits - dote on Aretha's big hat and all...

Bananas

I forgot to mention that while Anja was here we gave Rocco his first taste of solid food. He tried smashed banana for the first time and as the picture shows, he didn't like it. We only gave him a little bit and since he mostly let it slowly drool out of his mouth we didn't try it again UNTIL a day letter. Again, we tried a bit more banana and we had the same results. So we stopped and haven't given him anything since then. Everyone has been telling me that rice cereal should help him sleep longer but after speaking with our pediatrician and our acupuncturist/nutritionist we were told not to give him any solids for awhile. I didn't know this but babies do not have the enzymes to break down food so for the first year. So I was warned that feeding him solids at this stage will only exacerbate his food sensitivities. We were told to wait at least until he's 9months to try again.

He is eating well but he is very sensitive to foods that I eat. I have cut out all dairy (except butter which doesn't contain casein which is what causes intolerance to dairy). I have also cut out coffee, whey, milk chocolate, red wine and some soy products.

This isn't all bad, I'm slowly losing all the weight I gained during my pregnancy. I have less than 20 pounds to go then I'll be back to my normal chunk verses the obese state I find myself in. I still only have 2 pairs of pants that fit. I refuse to buy big girl clothes. Well, I did buy jeans but they looked so insanely huge that I HAD to return them. I just can't have them here - bad karma I say. I would rather look like the unfashionable mess I am right now than spend money on clothes that will only depress me. Only a few more months of this, then I can hopefully start sporting my old clothes.

Rocco. 15 pounds, 1 ounce

Today Rocco had an appointment with our pediatrician, Dr. Bean. I was concerned that he is maybe too small and not eating enough. Dr. Bean assured me that he is fine and that his weight is above average. He's in the 60th percentile for weight and in the 70th percentile for height and head circumference.

He basically told me to chill out because Rocco is healthy and growing well and eating well. I kept on asking, are you sure? He's fine? His weight is OK? Dr. Bean is really cool and laid back. He told me not to force feed Rocco and just let him do his thing. I also told him that we aren't sleeping that much these days and he thinks Rocco is going through a growth spurt. He said they can last weeks. He said Rocco grew so much since the last appointment that it is no wonder he is waking me up to eat at all hours in the evening. He said that I shouldn't see a calm with night feeding until somewhere in the 6 to 9 month range. Ur. Little man is waking me up every 3 hours to eat. I guess it has improved - I shouldn't complain too much. He was waking me up every 2 hours. I'm exhausted. Daniel is two. Chili is three.

Anyway despite the sleep deprivation, I'm relieved and so very happy that so far so good.

I took these photos this afternoon after his appointment.

Tennessee Valley Trail, Marin

Sunday we walked the Tennessee Valley Trail in Marin and had a picnic on the beach. We had a few hours of sun before having to head home. Jackie took care of Rocco until 5 PM which gave us exactly 4 hours to get there, walk the trail, hang on the beach and return home. It was a beautiful day. I brought a bottle of wine and we are so civilized now - we didn't even finish the it! Daniel spent most of his time working on his rendition of stonehenge and Anja and I just hung out and caught some sun. The walk to the beach is super easy but we were beat by the time we got to the car. It was pretty warm and all we wanted to do was get home and rest. Damn, I'm getting old.

The REAL reason for a stroller

A few days ago Anja and I went to the North Face outlet in Berkeley looking for a jacket and

some pull overs.

Rocco's stroller came in handy and we were able to use it to haul all of our stuff around. Rocco slept through the whole experience and didn't even realize he was caved in with sale items surrounding his every move. We had to stop shopping since moving his little stroller around the aisles became more and more difficult. I brought down a few jackets pushing the stroller through the store.

I took a picture of the "mommy hook." Anja bought this for me so that I can hang bags off the side of the stroller. It is great. It is a carabiner that you attach to the handle. The folks at North Face were loving the "mommy hook" and said they should sell those to their rock climbing mommy's.

In the end, I bought a rain jacket on sale and a new pair of shoes which I've been using to go on my walks with Rocco.

Pic 1: Anja and Rocco in kitchen

Pic 2-4: North Face

Fisherman's Wharf

We went to Fisherman's Wharf last week with Anja. It was surprisingly empty. It was cold and overcast for the entire day. It felt like winter for about 2 weeks in the bay area, then we hit the fast forward button to summer. It has been very warm over the last few days and today it was 75 degrees. We are in a major drought here so while I love the weather it is very scary that there isn't any rain fore casted in our area.

Well back to the Wharf - we normally do not going to the Wharf since it is such a tourist trap and everything is over priced BUT because it was empty it was actually very nice. We ended up eating at some restaurant that had some horrible tasting food. If Gordon Ramsey were to visit, I'm sure he'd be throwing a fit over what I'm sure was frozen deep fried fish. I felt a little nauseous after my meal and Rocco actually threw up when I fed him later. Rocco hardly ever throws up so if he's throwing up Fisherman Wharf fish you know it was bad.

Anja was smart, she decided to skip the restaurant, picked up a snack instead and walked around. I recommend that to all - skip the restaurants. I'm telling you, Gordon Ramsey needs to show up and pull a hell's kitchen on the folks running those infant vomit inducing restaurants.

Pic: Daniel, Anja and Rocco at the beach in Alameda

Pic 2: Me and the baby at the restaurant, Neptune something or other

Pic 3: baby daddy!

Pic 4: Alcatraz

Pic 5: As Daniel calls them, "brown stuff." Anja and I informed him that they are called walruses.

The Holidays

It's all a blur. We didn't do much for Christmas or New Year's. On Christmas we had a few friends over for a very late meal. We cooked together and ate sometime near midnight. Rocco received many cool gifts - thanks to all for sending him Christmas gifts and for thinking of him. He now has new books, clothes and hats! On New Year's we went to bed super early since Rocco's sleeping schedule has changed a lot. He now wakes up every 2 to 3 hours. I don't know what happened. He used to sleep longer and that has all changed in the last few weeks. It may have to do with my dietary changes. I can't eat/drink dairy, chocolate, coffee, or wine. If I eat or drink even a tiny bit, a little bit of blood comes out in his next poop. So I'm living the life a nun at the moment and have given up everything that tastes good. As much as I complain it really hasn't been that difficult. The hardest part of all this is the sleep. My schedule is WAY off. I'm going to sleep early (9-10PM) but I wake up so often throughout the night to feed R that very often I just don't get back to sleep. Last night I was up from 2AM until 6:30AM. Then Daniel took him at 8AM and I slept uninterrupted for 3 hours until 11AM. It's frustrating because I miss half the day and am up half the night.

On a happier note - Anja, Daniel's sister arrived on New Year's Day. She is cooking for us as I blog....and it's nice to be able to hand Rocco over to her and not worry :>. She went to Babies R Us today and purchased a warmer for R's stroller as it is getting colder and colder each day (for California standards). It's nice to have family around. We expect Anne in a few weeks, then my mom will be out. We are really happy to have family around.

Ok gotta go -hunger calls.

Rocco found his tounge

There has been lots of development in the world in Rocco. He recently found his tounge and for several days he constantly stuck his tounge out. It was very cute. Unfortunately this phase and come and gone. I haven't seen him stick his tounge out for about a week now.

About 5 days ago he began rolling over. He still hasn't figured out how to hold himself up completely and he becomes very frustrated. He rolls over every day and even more than ever we are keeping an eye on him especially when he's on the bed or on the diaper changing table.