Baby Steppin'

Who remembers "What About Bob"? Great movie, right? I mean, who doesn't hate Richard Dreyfuss in that movie and who doesn't love Bill Murray and his "baby steppin' down the hall, baby steppin' into the elevator"? Great stuff right!?

Well, we over in Familyville VA are proud to announce that we've got a little baby stepper ourselves! This morning, while playing with his dad, our little Asa took two deliberate and independent steps on his own! I was right there but somehow missed the first one and just saw the second little step and it was adorable! Jeff had a front row seat for the show which is great and next time we hope to catch Asa's two step on video.

In related news, Asa also has begun walking while holding onto our hands/fingers, which is new. In fact, last night at his cousin's grad party he walked himself clear across the kitchen while gently clasping my index fingers in either hand. I have to say, watching him grow and learn is the most inspiring and joyful things I have ever experienced.

So, I guess soon I'll be shopping for tiny little shoes for the kid, but not yet, no need to rush anything, he's still just as happy crawling around as he is pushing his little car around. And tomorrow he hits the pool so maybe he'll need flippers before sandals!

Twix and other temptations

Day two (actually we haven't even hit 24 hours yet but whatever) of my new health kick. The update is that around 2pm yesterday I started craving a Twix somethin' awful. So I went to the store to see what sort of "healthy" chocolate bar I could find. Sadly, Twix, Snickers, M&M's and even just a bar of dark chocolate are not what I would consider healthy.

I ventured further into the store and found the diet isle where they had surprisingly large selection of power/fiber/diet bars. Another five minutes spent reading every label and I settled on a Cliff Bar. It was so called "chocolate chip" but in all honesty there were only about 7 morsels of chocolate in the whole bar.

Dang.

Anyway, I ate it slowly to try and relish every moment. It was good enough that I'd do it again but not so good that I feel it beats out a nice Cadbury's Dark Chocolate.

The good news is the rest of the day was fairly healthy. A chef salad for lunch, lentils and another salad for dinner. Then some chips and dip (but hey, a girl cannot live on salad alone) and then of course some delicious frozen yogurt to wrap the day up.

Oh, and I did 125 crunches so suck it pudgy belly, you are on your way out!

Get in shape girl!

It has been 11 months since Asa was born (as of 2 am tomorrow morning) and I am officially freaking out. Not about how quickly he's growing up, although that is scary, but about my belly.

I mean, wtf? It's been 11 months since he was born. It's been like 20 months since I got pregnant, which means it been close to two years since I had sleek, toned, flat abs. I've got a mommy pooch and it's keeping me up nights.

I think what's even worse than the pooch though are these sickening little round bits of flesh on either side of my waist that can only be described as "love handles".  Well guess what world, I can't handle the handles. I can't handle the pooch.

As of this moment Anna M.K. Lofgren Thorner is on a new health kick, not a diet, a health kick - remember that. The way I see it I have four weeks to get in shape before I'm officially stuck in the mom body for all eternity. I refuse to be a statistic. I will overcome! So, starting now I will let you know what I eat and what exercise I manage to do. It may not be award winning writing but you can give me your hints and tips and stuff and maybe, together, we can get me back to my bikini-body days.

So far today I had a "low-fat" blueberry muffin, an ice decaf with milk, a bowl of raisin bran and a chai and about 30oz of water. And I walked for about 30 minutes around the block with the family this morning, so all in all, off to a good start. Now, if I can avoid the fatty lunch temptation that will be a real triumph ... wish me luck!!

running not walking

Okay, so Asa isn't officially walking yet but he sure is trying. He's got a little push-car that he can either sit down and ride around the house or he can stand up and push while he walks along behind or beside it. His new favorite activity seems to be to pushing it around the house until he crashes into a wall or piece of furniture and gets stuck.

The thing is, after a day or so of walking a few careful steps with it he has now decided that running behind it is the thing to do. All of a sudden that kid was tearing around the house at a pace that just shocked Jeff and me. I mean, he's running. Not walking. Running.

Of course, take away the push-car and he's just standing there so I can't say he's a bi-ped yet but he's got the idea in his head. You can see his little brain working on it while he stands there. He'll bend his knee and the heel of his foot will come off the floor just a bit, as if he's about to take a step forward and then he'll change his mind and just sit his little bootie right down on the floor.

It's adorable and sweet and it's making me increasingly worried that his first step will happen when I'm not looking. I'm nervous to leave him at daycare for the seven hour stretch he's there for fear the older kids will inspire him just enough to get those little feet moving. I don't want to shower until he's gone to bed so I can be sure I'm not lathering up while he's downstairs giving Jeff a great show of his first steps. It's going to be such a huge moment ... But I have a feeling that even if I do miss those first steps, I'll be so amazed at watching him walk over the coming weeks that I'll get over it pretty quickly.

I know I'm biased but I have to say, every day Asa amazes me with how quickly he picks things up. He's a smartie, a sweetie and snugly little guy and I'm so glad he's mine! I'll get a video up of his current push-car walking so you can see what the little guy is up to first hand!

it's hard to hear you over all this screaming

So Asa's surgery was a success yesterday and we couldn't be happier or more relieved! We were up at 5am getting things pulled together and out the door just before 6 for an on-time arrival at the surgical center in Fairfax. The staff was great and I really can't say enough good things about the whole event.

What I can tell you is that when people warned us that he would "scream" when he woke-up from the anesthesia I don't think we realized the extent of the screaming we would face. Normally Asa does not scream. In fact the only time I really remember him screaming is the first night of an ear infection or when he had to get those antibiotic injections. But in both cases the type of screaming was different, it had a sort of frantic, 'I'm in pain, make it stop' sort of quality to it ...

The waking up from anesthesia scream is entirely different. It's more guttural. It's a cry that sounds angry and scared and he was inconsolable. The first five minutes were made of up of a bucking but semi-limp baby screaming without stopping. The next five minutes he was fully in control of his body again and was extremely angry, slapping away offerings of juice or water with fury. The following five minutes he was clamped on to me like a baby monkey hanging on for dear life, occasionally stopping the screaming to whimper and sniffle and do those big intakes of breath that we do when we've been near hysteria for so long that we're bordering on hyperventilating. The following five minutes were snuggles mixed with infrequent but intense bursts of screaming.

At this point we dressed him and headed down to the car. We paced the parking lot for a good ten minutes making sure he was calm before even attempting to put him in his car seat, and apparently ten minutes was not long enough. I've never struggled with him like that but thankfully, we had planned ahead and brought his favorite food, which Jeff very wisely started feeding him while they both sat in the backseat of the car. After another ten minutes, we called it quits and decided that he was just going to have to cry for a bit and then (hopefully) fall asleep in his car seat while we battled rush-hour traffic to get home.

Fifteen minutes (and four miles) later, he was out. And for the first time in our lives, Jeff and I did what so many parents before have done, we drove around and around and around for the next hour and a half to ensure the baby stayed asleep. We tooled around neighborhoods looking at the architecture and trees of the nicer, older areas of Alexandria. We ran a couple of errands, Jeff slowing the car just enough for me to jump out and in safely so as not to wake the baby ... We drove and drove until little man opened his eyes and then we knew it was time to go home.

Once we got home he was fine, he had just needed to sleep it off. Asa was back to his normal happy, silly, sweet and cuddly self. Playing with his toys, climbing on and over Midnight, totally healthy and normal with no ear infection in sight. It turned out to be a fantastic day and well worth the hour of screaming to know that he should stay healthy for the foreseeable future. But fair warning to parents who have to put their kids under for ear tubes, when they warn you that they will be "grumpy" or "irritable" or "fussy" when they wake up, remember this story and plan for an hour of angry baby-rage unlike anything you've seen before and be sure you gas tank is full. And then plan for one of the most pleasant family afternoons you've had in a long time and enjoy the wild roller coaster of parenting a baby.

heart all flutter

Asa's surgery is Monday and I've been feeling very calm and sort of enthusiastic about it up until about 15 minutes ago. A sudden flurry of activity surrounding the surgery has got me all wound-up. I did the pre-registration form on-line this morning and then received a call from the nurse going over the pre-op details regarding food (withholding of food) and what to bring along and that left me feeling good. I felt more prepared and ready to go. And then I get a call saying that our pre-op form hasn't been received yet.

Surgery can't go forward without that form. It's 2 o'clock on a Friday afternoon. Surgery is scheduled for 7:30am on Monday morning.  What if I can't track the doctor down? What if the form is missing? What if we have to go in for another pre-op visit? What if they don't have any openings? What if we have to postpone the surgery?  As I've done so many times in the past, I'm "what if'ing" myself silly.

A call to the doctor, a back-and-forth, a dropped call (damn you AT&T), a frantic redial, a missed call, on-hold, call waiting, click over ... a wonderful, helpful, dedicated pediatric nurse has star-69'd me after the initial dropped call! We've sorted it out, the fax is being retransmitted, this time to me so I can deal with the back-and-forth double-checking that the fax has been successfully received by the surgeon.

A call to the surgeons office to confirm the fax number and bingo-bango, the fax is sent. A few minutes pause to breathe and sigh in relief that my job is done and then a call to confirm receipt. Failure. No fax has been received. Double check the fax number, re-send, wait ... (are you as stressed reading this as I am living it??) ... Call to check receipt, holding, holding, holding ... Success!!

And a new mom breathes a sigh of relief. Now let's get to 8am Monday morning when little dude should be waking up and looking at us through groggy little eyes with brand new ear tubes and ears free of pus and then, then, I will truly relax.

(dog) slumberparty

Ah, the joys of pets! They play, they frolic, they roll around on the floor acting cute doing anything they can to get your attention and affection. They shed, they gnaw, they spill their food and water on the floor, they drink out of the toilet and get the seat wet so the poor unsuspecting soul who has to wee next get's a wet tush ... And then they invite their friends over for a pup-slumber party and things get even crazier!

Yes, we are dog-sitting this week. And yes, she is a good dog, plays nicely with Midnight, is primarily disinterested in the baby (which I deem a good thing) and really isn't too much more work than just having the one dog.

But here is the hiccup: She does not sleep at night. She licks, she pants, she scratches, she whines, she wanders the halls, does everything but sleep ... I guess she misses her home and her parents. It reminds me of when we were kids and had slumber parties and inevitably there was always one kid who cried and missed their mom and had to go home at like 1am and sort of ruined things for everyone else, especially for the parents!

Of course I'd never considered it from the parents point of view before, but for the family hosting the party they've all the sudden got to deal with a bunch of other people's kids who were raised with different rules, have different idiosyncrasies and could turn out to be whiny wimps when it comes to actually sleeping at someones house (something you won't discover until everyone is exhausted and it's bedtime). And then there's the poor parents who were duped into thinking they actually had the night off for a change until the phone rings at 12:45am and they've suddenly got to drag their butts out of bed and go schlep to pick up their kid. I applaud my parents for letting me have so many friends sleep over, you guys were troopers!

I guess Jeff and I will suck it up as most parents do and host slumber parties one day too. In the meantime, we've got one more night of doggie slumber partying to get through and then we will breathe a sigh of relief as all parents do when they close the front door after their guest has left and life returns to the normal level of insanity.