Again with the timing

[jordanna]

Our friend Kate made us the cutest cloth diaper, with organic cotton velour and organic earth day fabric. Cayden decided to break it in with style, taking an enormous poo less than 5 minutes after I put it on him for the first time. On the plus side, I discovered that the diaper rash cream I made (recipe in 'Better Basics for the Home', best book EVER) not only clears up any small rashed he has, it makes wiping off poo much much easier.

And again with the pictures. These are getting a bit obsolete, as he has had a major growth spurt since my parents left. Hopefully the camera will be fixed soon:

Cayden expresses his opinion about the hot ride in the car seat

Cayden's first trip to Frankies, home of the best Mexican style budget breakfasts in Tucson. For classic american diner fare, we recommend the Broadway Cafe.

Chillest baby ever (when he's not screaming)

[jordanna]

After three days of unexplained crankiness, including frantic nursing then peeling off and screaming like someone was pulling out his toenails, we may have found a cause. We were both diagnosed with thrush yesterday (albeit a minor case), which has caused a small cluster of sores at the back of his throat. He is still having a hard time sleeping during the day (his only naps have been in the sling on me). But, this morning he spent 40 minutes in his chair calming staring at a toy and listening to classical music. Dude, this parenting thing isn't that hard...

By the way...

The pictures we are doling out from my parents' visit were taken on my Mom's crazy pro Nikon digital and we have really high quality copies. If you want some for printing, let us know and we will email you the original files.

What Tyson did to my father

[jordanna]

As some of you may have noticed from his previous posts, Tyson loves living near the airforce base. He isn't a birder, he is a planer; keeping binocluars and an i.d. book close at hand so he can dash out of the house when we hear the roar of an oncoming jet.

As a child, "here comes the airplane" was a phrase I heard come from my dad countless times. Last week I was getting dressed while my parents played with Cayden and coming from the living room I heard, "here comes the F-5". Tyson's obsession has officially been passed on.

And for those of you that check this only for the pictures, I give you Cayden on his Nana's lap:

Our Camera Broke

[ty]

Apologies to all of you who have your alarm clocks set to wake you up every half hour to check our blog for new pictures of Cayden, our camera broke. Since our last post Cayden has grown up and is out cruising University Ave for chicks right now. Atta boy son.

We've had a great week with Jordanna's parents in town. I think I've held my son a total of 20 minutes over the last 7 days. It's really cute to see grandparents in action and Cayden LOVES the attention bonanza lavished upon him.

We'll be sending the camera back to Sony for fixing and hopefully we'll be back in business soon. Until then we will slowly mete out the terabyte of photos Ann took while she was here.

Best quote from my mother-in-law at 10:30am on Saturday, not intended as a joke. "Is there any coffee or should I start drinking vodka?" She has some very serious back problems and air travel gives her hell so standard operating procedure is to hit a bit of rheumatism medicine before flying.

the nice lady who brought us beer

jordanna nursing up on mt. lemon


uncle nick and cayden bonding

No sense of guilt

[jordanna]

There are times when it is okay to wake a sleeping baby. Namely, when it is daytime and it is clearly time for him to eat.

all he needs is a beer and some trashy t.v., then his transition to couch potato will be complete

His Daddy's Timing

[jordanna]

I change him (a massive poo which required no less than 4 wipes and a good spray down to clean up), clean my hands, clean his hands, then take a washcloth and clean the dried milk off his face. He grins up at me and spits up all over his face and neck.

11 Days Down

[jordanna]

Well, Cayden is 11 days old and still kicking. We have been claiming for months that we couldn't wait for the baby to come so that life could calm down. Many people laughed in our face at this statement, but I have to say we were right. Chilling out with the babe is a far more relaxing day then painting, tiling, cutting and installing base boards, putting in flooring, plumbing, or the other myriad of activities that have occupied all our free time for the past 9 months. We are officially on a break from the remodel. We have some trim work remaining, and with cool weather in the fall we will start to attack the outside. Right now our only job is to get to know and enjoy Cayden. Not that it is hard. So far we are ridiculously lucky. Cayden is a really easy baby. Right now I am sleeping about 7 hours a night (I kick Tyson out of bed once a night for diaper changing duty). Not all in one chunk, but he goes for 2-3 hours twice a night. He cries, but not hysterically and rarely without cause. Even better, when we figure out what is bothering him he calms down rapidly. I don't know how long this will last, but we are enjoying it immensly. I personally will be ecstatic if this behavior holds out until my stitches heal. Tomorrow marks my return to work, and by that I mean the start of my work at home month. I have been saving all the high speed video digitizing I need to do for this month (which consists of clicking dots). This is something I can do from my lazy boy with Cayden in his chair or my lap, at least until I am sturdier on my feet (hopefully in another week or so). In addition to digitizing I have plenty of writing and planning for field season to do.

I would say all in all we are doing well and enjoying the new fam. Here are some new pics for your enjoyment:

Cayden in his cute red G-Diapers (which he has already outgrown) and wearing the t-shirt Kendra sent him

On his mattress in between our pillows

The chair from Missy and Mike that he LOVES

Daddy picks out a going to the store outfit

Daddy kicks back with some soccer, Pelligrino, and a cuddly sleeping baby

Cayden Hoyt Henry Sprayberry's Arrival

[jordanna]

** Warning: these are the down and dirty birth details, which may not interest you at all **

Some of you may recall my post that we would be induced on Thursday night if we didn't go into labor naturally, as we were getting farther past our due date, which tends to make doctors nervous. It is standard procedure to go in for a 'Non Stress Test' (NST) twice a week after your due date to keep an eye on the kid. I stopped by the hospital Tuesday afternoon for one of these on my way home from work. My plan was to go from there to an acupuncture clinic, and have them load me up with baby bringing needles. This was not to be. I thought that there might be something wrong when the nurse running my NST said the baby looked fine, and she was paging our doctor. Now, last time I had this test and the baby looked fine they let us go home and just filed a report with our doctor.

I could hear her on the phone with Barbara, the best doctor ever, telling her that they saw all the technically good things on the NST, but they were also getting a couple minor red flags and did Barbara want to look at the trace herself. She happened to be on shift in the hospital that day instead of in our clinic. Five minutes later Barbara was at my bed telling me that she was bringing someone in to measure the level of amniotic fluid. We had this test done a couple weeks ago, because my belly was consistently measuring short. they found that we had a good amount of fluid ('9' random units) and sent us home. On Tuesday we measured in at 5.8. At a level of 5 or less they will automatically induce labor. Our doctor's opinion was that my body wouldn't really be any more ready for labor in two days, and that 5.8 was within range of error of measurement. She was willing to send us home, but she recommended that we check in that night and be induced. I called Ty at home and told him what was going on and he agreed with Barbara and said he would be there soon. We were settled and checked in around 8:30 and they started me on a prostoglandin gel treatment. I had to stay in bed for an hour after that, and since the contractions weren't so strong yet we decided to catch some sleep. They put me back on a fetal monitor at midnight to see if we were ready for another gel treatment, but I was contracting too frequently (every 3 minutes). Contractions had to be at least 10 minutes apart for them to do another treatment. We got out of bed and walked around for an hour, which made the contractions come stronger. At 1 we decided to try and catch a little more sleep. The nurse was supposed to come back at 2 and put me on the monitor again, but they got very busy and we didn't see anyone until 5, at which point we were passed off to a different nurse, Tracey. Tracey used to be a doula and was wonderful. She determined that my contractions had become very sporadic and started us on another gel around 5:45. At 7 we got out of bed and headed off for a walk. It was a really beautiful morning and we meandered around the patios and gardens, stopping to rest when contractions hit (which were coming in 2-4 minute intervals). After around an hour of walking we headed back up to the room. The walking definitely made the contractions stronger, but it also caused each contraction to charlie-horse my right hamstring so I was ready for a rest. When we got back, the nurses had changed shifts and Tracey had gone home (wishing us well before she left and saying she hoped not to see us that night). I got back in bed and we waited for our 4 hour gel treatment window to finish up. At 11 our doctor came in to talk options. The contractions were petering out again, and she wanted to know if we wanted to try Pitosin or another gel before moving to Pitocin. We opted to get on the pitocin, as that is the hormone that directly causes the uterus to contract. The contractions had been painful and strong for several hours but I had only dilated from 1 cm to 2.5 cm.

We decided to take a walk and get lunch before starting the pitocin drip, because I would have to stay in bed once we did that. This turned out to be a poor idea for several reasons. First, the contractions were now painful enough that I really couldn't handle being around people. Everyone kept asking if I needed help or a wheelchair when I stopped to streatch my hamstring during a contraction and it was all I could do not to snap at them. Plus, during our hour out, the delivery room got slammed. By the time we got back, they didn't have enough nurses to assign us one and we couldn't start the pitocin. By 3:00 I was 3.5 cm dilated and they were ready to start us off. They hooked up the I.V. and withing 10 minutes my contractions were regular and less painful. They felt much more coordinated, more like a strong tensing then general cramping. By 5 they were quite painful again, but still relatively easy to manage. At that point they told us we had dilated to 4 cm. They called our doctor and updated her. By 7 things were getting pretty gnarly. We had turned off movies and TV and Ty was talking me through each contraction. My sister arrived at 8, having landed at the Tucson airport at 7:35 and being driven to the hopsital by our good friend David. Around 8:30 I thought I could feel some fluid leaking and by 9 we were certain my water had broken.

Interestingly, me breaking and my water breaking more or less coincided. By 9:30, my ability to relax through the contractions was more or less shot. I started yelling obscenities during every one and couldn't seem to find a position to get comfortable or make the contractions bearable. I feel bad for everyone else in the room at this point. I have few coherent memories of this stage, but most of them center around me telling people to shut up or stop touching me. At 10 they checked me and said I was 5 cm dilated. I had been mentally prepared for 36 hours of labor. At that level of pain, I really thought I could only handle another 2 hours. My doctor started talking to me about an epidural. She knew I didn't want one, but at our birth plan meeting she said that her only request was I not back myself into a corner during labor and keep my mind open about one. My main fear of an epidural at this point was that it would extend labor and I wouldn't be able to push well when the time came. Barbara also mentioned that they could give me morhpine. She said that as long as it wasn't administered within 30 minutes of delivery (and promptly assured me I was NOT delivering in the next half hour), my body would clear the drug and the boy would come out clean as a whistle. She said it wouldn't remove the pain, but it would help me relax. Now, in all the labor pain management I read, nobody mentioned that the narcotic used was morphine. I LOVE morhpine. I typically hate the feeling of chemically altered state. It is why I rarely drink to excess, I am rarely in the mood to feel like that. I have had morhpine twice before, and been thoroughly grateful each time. Ty sent everyone out of the room as asked if I really wanted to go with the morhpine. I had told him to check in with me if I asked for drugs. I asked if he was okay with it, and he said that since it wouldn't hurt the baby and I wanted it, he was fine. Five? ten? minutes later they injected the morhpine and it took hold. Then commenced one of the strangest 90 minute periods in my life. Ty would ask how I was doing as I lay propped up with my eyes closed. I would quietly murmur, "I have never been in this much pain in my life. " The edge had been taken off,and I was in a very zen-like pain trance. I had hoped to hit that point with mind power alone, but not so much. I could feel the contractions in my toes and it started to feel like they wouldn't end so much as vaguely oscillate in strength. Turns out that they jacked the level of pitocin as soon as I slipped into torpor (with Tyson's consent). Once my water was completely drained they were worried about getting Cayden out in time, since I had been low on fluid to begin with. At 11:15 / 11:20 I started to really want to push. This worried me, because I had so far to go. After four contractions of wanting to push more each time, I told the nurse. She asked if I wanted to be checked and I said no. I didn't want any more bad news. The next contraction came and when I tried not to push my body involuntarily spasmed, so I let her check me. At that point all hell broke loose. The nurse started calling for people, and had Tyson and Clarissa get me into an upright postion. She told me to start bearing down during contractions and called in the doctor. They started morphing the bed, pulling off the end and pulling out pushing stirrups. My doctor came running in with her attending and setting up the 'birthing bag'. I later realized this was a chute and the end of the bed to catch all the mess. Once she was set the pushing began in earnest. A friend of mine pushed for 11 hours last year delivering her son, and I was determined to push as hard as I could to make sure this wouldn't happen. For the first 60% of the contractions (starting as I could just feel them ramping up) I would hold my breath and push like a mother, just like the bradley method book told us. After 3 or 4 of these I would start to get out of breath, so I would breath in and push while yelling. And I mean yelling. Clarissa told me to drop the sound lower in my diaphram and boy did that make a difference. Both in volume and efficacy. Nothing takes away pain / tension for me lile a deep throated yell. Boy do I feel sorry for any mothers in nearby rooms beginning labor, because I am sure I made that sound like the most miserable experience ever. But I can definitively say it was the best part of labor. Uncomfortable yes. Every contraction he wasn't out I dreaded the next one, but it was the most cathartic experience I have ever had. When he crowned and slipped out I have never felt better in my life. Until I popped out the placenta. That blissful feeling of emptiness and ending is phenomenal. My zeal for pushing resulted in a baby in about 10-15 minutes. Unfortunately you don't have much time to stretch when things move that fast, so it also resulted in a fair number of stitches. But hey.When the doctor showed Tyson the placenta, she told him to take a glove and touch it. We had both played with Kell's (our nephew) placenta, which was this marvelous, soft, life giving organ. Cayden's was calcified over significant portions of the surface. Seeing that placenta removed any doubt that we had done the right thing. One of the major risks of delayed birth is placental failure. If we ever do this again, I would much rather not be induced but I will not hesitate if it seems like the right thing to do.

This has unexpectedly been a difficult post to write. I started a couple days ago and have worked a little each day on it. It was such a crazy emotional exprience, I wanted it recorded for posterity. That said, I think I needed a little distance to understand it a bit better. It has also been nice to be lazy at home together getting used to our newly, and wonderfully, expanded family.

Cayden's First BBQ

[ty]

Jordanna determined that 3 days of rest was sufficient to get her social life back on track so we went to a BBQ on Saturday.

The baby was a big hit, as babies always are. The resident cat was entranced with him and spent the entire evening trying to climb into the car seat.

Aunt Clarissa shows off her new nephew

He's getting ready to fend off the Paparazzi

Don't drop the baby, don't drop the baby, don't drop the baby...

JD is easy to track after birthing



Extra Bonus Material!! The Hiccup Video!!

More Baby Videos

[ty]

I just put two new baby videos up. The first one is larger than the second and they were taken no more than 30 seconds apart to demonstrate how quickly the little bugger settles down.

Everyone here is doing well. He had a bit of a rough night last night. We think it was because his digestion was switching from colostrum to the milk that JD has just started to produce. Our original plan was to have him in a bassinet right next to the bed but last night we ended up putting him between us and he seemed to calm down (and JD certainly did). So we'll stick with that and see how it goes.

Before video

After video

The Alien Has Arrived

[ty]

At 11:35pm last night Jordanna expelled our son, at great velocity, into the waiting arms of the UMC staff. She did it without an epideral, with myself and her sister by her side, and as we would expect from her, with a great deal of vulgarity. Both Mommy and Child are resting happily in the maternity ward as of this morning. With the exception of a bit of tearing during birth and some resulting stitches on her more sensitive parts everyone is happy, healthy, and on a nap-eat-nap-poop schedule.

We also filled out his birth certificate information this morning. Cayden Hoyt Henry Sprayberry. Cayden is an Irish name and it means "Spirit of Battle". We're both mutts but when you do the math he's certainly more Irish than anything else. Plus his cousins are named Kell and Rowan so we might as well build an American-Irish Futbol team.

Mommy and son

The placenta was very calcified (b/c he'd been
in there awhile) so it wasn't edible. Dammit.

Somebody clearly has daddy's skin tone.

Click here for a video of the little tyke and his mommy.

So all is well and we're hoping to spring them from the hospital around 5pm today. Thank you to everyone for the love and support we've received. More exciting info and pictures to follow.

-Papa Spray

Large and Cranky

[jordanna]

Yeah, still pregnant. We met with the doctor yesterday and are scheduled to go into the hospital for induction on Thursday night. I am now having some second thoughts about this decision. Maybe Twitchy will make all this indecision go away by showing up! Then again, maybe not...

The knitting was not an idle threat

[jordanna]

Well, I have finished the last of the bamboo diaper flats/ inserts (for those who might actually care, I will be putting together a diaper section of our website at some point detailing pros and cons of the various products we are trying), made contoured inserts for our two swaddlebees diapers, and finished the two waterproof crib sheets. This leaves me with only decorative, frivolous sewing left to do for Twitchy's room. And so I started knitting. I finished up two pairs of cute wool soaker shorts over the weekend. They were first knit into shorts, partially felted in the dryer (just enough to make the stiches tight) and then lanolized to make them waxy and water resistant. They idea behind wool soaker shorts is that they will slowly absorb liquid, but not wick it on to anything else. Because the shorts are wool, they breathe really easily and are good at helping babies thermoregulate properly ( cool in summer, warm in winter). We will see how these work. Right now we have all inegral waterproof covers for our diapers, but rumour has it the soaker shorts are a good additional layer for those famous newborn blowouts. If the kid doesn't show up soon, our house will be filled with very small handicrafts. Apparently my nesting instinct has manifested as spending every moment I am not at work making something for Twitchy. Or sweeping up the endless piles of dog hair donated by Roland.

5 Flights of Stairs

[ty]

JD is still quite pregnant. We were really hoping the kid would make his appearance late this weekend. I took my State Certification Biology test Saturday so now we're actively trying to initiate labor by making JD do jumping jacks, sit-ups, and this afternoon 5 trips up a big outdoor mall staircase. Each one followed by a trip back down the escalator. Coincidently enough the first one kicked off a contraction but alas, no baby.

In other news I threw Roland into a pool Saturday. Turns out our dog doesn't know how to swim. I had to hold him up and talk to him soothingly like teaching a 3 year old to swim. Despite the relatively traumatic experience it cooled him off significantly and he spent the next hour prancing and galavanting around like a fool.

Because I'm STILL PREGNANT...

[jordanna]

I thought to myself, "We should go to a movie tonight before the kid comes". So I am poking around the three dollar theater listings and came across this gem of a plot synopsis:

"Jim Carrey plays a man who becomes fixated on the number 23 and begins to notice that it appears everywhere around him. He also starts losing his mind and threatening his family with a large butcher knife."

Maybe we will just stay in tonight.

Things I find strange

[jordanna]

Having prolonged phone conversations while pooping in a public restroom. At first I thought this was a fluke, but I have now born auditory witness to at least 4 such phone calls in my work bathroom. Talking while peeing at home, I get. Because you can leave the bathroom without flushing and no one is the wiser. In a public restroom, there are many people flushing. And while pooping! That seems like something that just doesn't need to be shared over the phone.

STILL PREGNANT

[jordanna]

We were hoping I would pop before today, but at this point everyone keep your fingers crossed that Mr. Twitchy stays put until after 5 pm tomorrow. And think good thought for Ty and he jumps through hoops to teach in this state and takes his biology test.

Trick Question

[jordanna]

What is more terrifying than a tiny, ancient white-haired man driving around his tiny, ancient white-haired wife in a gargantuan white buick? A tiny, ancient white-haired man driving around his tiny, ancient white-haired wife in a gargantuan white buick on a crystal-clear sunny day with the windshield wipers on.

sigh...still pregnant

[jordanna]

Just in case anyone was curious. We are getting very anxious that we will go into labor on Friday or Saturday. This will cause much mayhem and annoyance, because Ty has to take a test on Saturday to prove that he is cool enough to teach Biology in Arizona. Scary Statistic: Arizona loses 50% of new teachers within 5 years. We think this is because of the ludicrous hoops you have to jump through to be phenomenally underpaid. I am all for increasing rigor and quality, but you can't convince me that taking a 4 hour test is a better indication of knowledge than having completed a Bachelor of Science in biology. That's right, B.S. not good enough for the state, but a multiple choice test will do the trick. Anyway, send all good thoughts and karma our way in hopes that Mr. Twitchy doesn't make a grand appearance between Friday and Saturday afternoon.

And some more sewing...

[jordanna]

We had a ridiculously industrious weekend. Saturday I (mostly) painted the hallway while Ty painted and tacked up the base boards he had cut a couple weeks ago. We figure we aren't really going to finish that project until, oh, labor day so we should probably install the already cut pieces to prevent them from getting completely trashed. Then I continued the sewing mission of 07.

When I finished my PhD, my parents gave me a graduation present that was so generous my mind went numb and I could barely stammer out my thanks: a brand new Bernina sewing machine and a fantastic used Singer serger. I have used these gifts many times, but the last month has been filled with sewing the likes of which god has never seen. This weekend was a marathon in which I finished the crib mattress (long story that starts with 'toxic and bad for baby' and ends with 'all natural wool batting cover for spring mattress that I stripped of PVC and foam'), two laundry bags for the diaper pail, the remaining diaper soaker pads, an extra water-proof bassinet sheet (yes I replaced the foam mattress with a home-made cotton one), and two wet bags for to stuff inside a diaper bag. I still have two crib sheets and 4 bamboo diaper inserts to make, but all the vital stuff is done! We have anough diapering stuff to keep the kid's bottom dry and he won't be sleeping in the crib for at least the first month. I am sure that won't stop me from continuing to sew every night until the kid shows up, but hey. Once I run out of sewing projects, I can start knitting......

This bodes ill

[jordanna]

We had a family insomnia fest last night. Me because I kept waking up hungry, with a full bladder and an obsecenely active baby. Tyson because this dry climate disagrees with his nose and he periodically awakens to the craziest nose bleeds I have ever seen. Despite the intense lack of sleep (and by intense I mean twice as much as we will get once twitchy arrives), I was totally chipper and energetic this morning. I thought to myself, maybe I am prepared for this whole baby thing. Maybe the lack of sleep won't be that bad. Turns out that burst of energy lasts exactly 4 hours. Now I am drooling on my desk and trying to sum up the energy to walk to the bathroom (guess who has a full bladder again). Despite my increasing sense of forboding, I really can't wait to meet twitchy.

Large, round, taut...better.

[ty]

In response to the large volume of requests for pictures of Henry's belly, we give you, without further ado...the belly that ate Tucson.










And as an added bonus a picture of our good-for-nothing freeloading cats waiting to get in so they can eat some food and then take a nap.

The New (for us) Volvo

[ty]

So we finally sold the Kraken, our huge Ford F-250 truck that moved us down to AZ and transported the great majority of our house from IKEA/Home Depot in its cavernous bed. The end of an era. We replaced it with the heaviest car you can buy. A 1991 Volvo 240.

We named it Jayne after a character in Firefly.


The fuel pump replacement work Ty had to perform
on it almost immediately.

So far it has been a very good and sturdy vehicle. Gotta love those Swedes.

Wow

[jordanna]

I was not actually wasting time on the internet when I found this, I was looking for a part I need for my rig. This was just a bonus: cow magnets. That's right, cow magnets.

Still Gestating After All These Weeks

[jordanna]

The kid is still in utero. I probably shouldn't get impatient yet because I am still two weeks from our due date. But still. The good news is, the changing table/ dresser should be finished tonight! And, if I can bully my husband into it, the baby's room will be emptied of all tools. I may even go hog wild and ask him to build the crib (say it isn't so!). Of course, I haven't finished recovering the mattress, but that is Sunday's project. (He has a basinnette to sleep in when he arrives, we aren't completely unprepared). I would like to point out that I am preparing for motherhood by saying "hog wild" instead of "ass-crazy". I have been working lackadaisically to ammend my cursing ways.

Dog fight revision

[jordanna]

We went back to Sunday Funday yesterday. Turns out the other dog wasn't *exactly* unmarked. He had a couple of toothmarks, similarly to Roland. But Lucky (the other dog), like Roland, healed up fine. They seemed to make friends yesterday, with no growling and lots of tail wagging. Roland did keep following Lucky around as if to say, "Remember when we fought and I won? Cause I'm dominant, right? Remember? I won? Cause I'm big? Hey, remeber when we fought and I won?". I think this was his first real dog fight and he is somewhat baffled about how to proceed now. Either that or he is a sore winner.

Yeah Right

[jordanna]

Yesterday while we were on yet another Ikea run, we saw this lamp under a sign that said "NOT A TOY". Not a toy? Not only does it have wheels, it has a handle who's sole purpose is to drive the damn thing at mock 1 around your desk!

When You're A Jet, You're A Wicked Cool Jet

[ty]

Living right next to an air force base has its perks. The past two weekends there have been airshows and I got to see some very very cool planes. All these pictures were taken from my front yard.

F-117 Stealth Fighter


F-15 Strike Eagle


One of the F/A-18 Blue Angles landing


A blurry F-4 Phantom


The "Piece of Resistance", another F-15 (top right), 2 P-51 Mustangs?, and an F-22 Raptor. The Raptor is our newest and coolest fighter. The program cost an estimated $70 billion with each plane coming out to around $360 million. Madness.

Roland Got In A Dogfight!

[ty]

For those of you who may not have met our dog Roland, he is very large, very hairy, very sweet rescue dog. He's half Alaskan Malamute and half Great Pyrenees which results in a 110 lbs. of sweet disposition with a very strong stubborn streak.

Every Sunday morning we wake up at the ass-crack of dawn and haul ourselves over to the local Humane Society for "Sunday Funday." This is an opportunity for neutered dogs with all their shots and no history of aggression to race around in circles and sniff each others anus at top speed. Roland is not the most socially ept dog but he's not aggressive, he just doesn't know how to play and he loves running around with all the other idiot dogs.

So apparently what happened was this: A random pound mutt (~80 lbs) there for the first time loped up to Roland and took position right next to him and behind him, even with his shoulder. If done aggressively (hackles up, no wagging tail) its the doggy equivalent of a stranger standing right behind you with his hands up close to your neck. So Roland did what he does when another dog tries to hump him or growls at him, he growled and snapped at the air to show his displeasure. This was apparently enough for the other dog who promptly big Roland hard enough to draw blood on both sides of his muzzle.

Now I wasn't actually there when it happened but I've seen how my dog handles this sort of thing and the eyewitnesses all agreed. Roland let loose with a ferocious growling/snarl, picked the other dog up by his neck, slammed him down on the ground, stood over him, and held him pinned by his neck till my wife pulled him off the other dog. The other dog was crying, whining and wanted nothing to do with any other dogs after that, but he was unmarked.

Roland had a puncture on one side of his muzzle and a nasty scrape on the other. Interestingly, Walshy-man had a good point about why Roland probably didn't hurt the dog. As pack hunters, Malamutes have a very strict heirarchy determined sometimes by fighting. But when all is said and done and pecking order has been established if you've injured a pack member you're less likely to hunt effectively. Hence the "I owned you, but I didn't hurt you" tendency.

Or maybe he's just getting grumpy in his old age.

162.5 and holding

[jordanna]

We went to the doctor today and discovered that I haven't gained weight for 3 weeks! This is an unheard of event for this pregnancy, as I am usually gaining double what all those silly websites say. Interestingly, I have only met one woman who had a totaly pregnancy weight gain that jived with those websites. Everyone else I have talked to gained in the range of 40-50 pounds. (I am up 37.5). In light of this new information, I feel absolutely no guilt over that twix bar I ate on Sunday. Tyson, the truely supportive husband, ate it with me in solidarity. The doc we saw today is our backup lady, who is really nice. She is not as cool as our primary doc, who could be our long lost twin in terms of attitude towards child birth, but we are comfortable with her filling in if there is a problem. She surprised me today by saying she didn't think we would make it to 40 weeks. I am not sure what she is basing this on, but she thinks twitchy will make an entrance in the next 3 weeks. I have been fairly convinced he would be late. Any bets?

The end of a smelly era

[jordanna]

The Kraken, our beloved 1986 diesel truck, is gone! We sold it last night, and he is off to a new home. We didn't get the best price in the world, but decided that it was worth taking a small hit to have it taken care of before the kid came. Friends of ours listed two much more desirable vehicles in July. They finally sold one of them in December and still have the second sitting in their parking lot. Now we just need to get Cricket out of the shop... Turns out 100% biodiesel blows up injector pumps. Or, ours just wear out faster than other peoples. We have officially replaced the Kraken with a much more kid-friendly vehicle: Jayne, the 1991 Volvo 240 sedan. You can't find a safer cheap car on the planet. He has been a great addition to the family, and we are happy to have this all wrapped up. Tyson is happy I am in a safe vehicle, and I am happy that it doesn't take a fork lift to get me into the car anymore.

Illegal abuse of the english language, 5 yard penalty

MSN's headline: "8 great spots for a 'mancation' "

My favorite quotes from NPR this morning

[jordanna]

"Have you ever thought that the fashion accesory missing from your life was a pink pack of cigarettes? If so, Camel wants a shot at your lungs"

" Wait, it gets better... That's right, the pope's latin expert is advising you on how to properly pronounce the words to a drinking song"

The Home Stretch or Get Off My Intestines

[jordanna]

Well, Twitchy is due 4 weeks from today. We don't expect a timely arrival, but we have now transitioned to seeing the doctor once a week. They are very exciting appointments, where the doctor confirms that I am still pregnant and asks if I show any signs of being not-pregnant. Twitchy appears to have taken up a head down posture, which is good new for those of us hoping to avoid a cesarian. The bad news is he is much more constrained in his movements. This has led to a unique motor pattern where he alternately bends and straightens his legs, causing his knees to mash whatever organs they pass against my abdominal wall. We are almost finished with the baby's room and actually have a place for him to sleep when he arrives. We are so on the track to winning national parenting awards. We will post pics of the finished product after all the accessories are completed and moved in. Kendra will be here for a conference soon, and I have enlisted her aid in fixing up some nursery furniture. Good times will be had by all...

Turns out they're all dumb

[jordanna]

Without a doubt, Socket is the smartest cat we own. The other two were raised in comfort from the age of 6 weeks, and spoiled rotten by us. The side effect of this loving care appears to be a leaking of brain cells out their furry little ears. Socket came to us at the age of 5, having had a more adventurous youth. She can typically outwit the other two in her sleep with one paw tied behind her pack. Heck, make it two paws. However, I just watched her jump up onto the plant stand that holds the water bowl. Consequently, I just watched her jump into the water bowl, and then right back out again with a very shocked look on her face. Mind you, this is the water bowl she drinks out of EVERY DAY.

New Gear!

[jordanna]

Anyone who has watched us prepare to go snowshoeing, hiking or camping knows that we are addicted to gear (I don't know where Ty gets it from; as for me, I'm looking at you Dad!). The most entertaining aspects of having a new kid is all the new gear. Our decision to eschew disposable diapers has led to more conversations on diaper technology than I ever could have imagined. At one point I thought the options were: disposable or cloth. Then, I learned the options were: disposable, cloth, or flushables (g-diapers). Then I learned there are approximately a MILLION different ways to cloth diaper your baby. We don't think day care providers will go for flushables, and the flushables are fairly expensive (30-40% more than huggies) so we are going to do a trial run where we combine diapering technologies: flushables inside the g-diapers, cloth inserts inside g-diapers, and pocket diapers. What is a pocket diaper you ask? Check these out! We figure we should be able to use the same inserts inside the BumGenius and the g-diaper pants. The pocket diapers go on like a regular diaper, so we have hopes that child care providers will use them, and just stow the dirties inside our diaper bag (I am making a bunch of individual water proof bags). We bought two pocket diapers of a different brand (Swaddlebees) than the BumGenius just to try out the concept, since Twitchy won't be in daycare until August. I am having a hard time resisting buying the BumGenius now, because I think they are a little too adorable and they get better reviews than the swaddlebees. In the end, I don't know if it is my environmental morals that have led me away from disposables, or the fact that all the alternatives are so much cuter.

My not so secret addiction

[jordanna]

For those of you who don't know, I LOVE CRAIGSLIST! Even if I don't need to buy anything, I will peruse the ads on at least a weekly basis because you never know. Paula and Steve benefitted from this habit of mine, as they got to sleep on our new plush foldout sleeper chairs (30$ for two). One of the pleasant side effects of a free advertising community, is that you don't have to pay by the line. Which means you can be a verbose and creative as you want. There is a "best of craigslist" section which features some of the choicer gems that turn up across America. One of them featured my other favorite bastion of savings, Costco: http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sea/273715530.html

It's the little things that make pregnancy charming...

[jordanna]

Like leaking just a *little* bit of urine everytime you sneeze.

Hoping I misheard her

[jordanna]

Ty and I went to his high school play last night, and I overheard a mother say, "How did her new nose come out? ____'s came out great!".

All right, I give

[jordanna]

Yes, I love and miss snowy winters. No, Ty and I can not imagine staying in Tucson forever because this climate just doesn't feel like home. But holy cow, the weather here lately has been AMAZING. This is apparently the time of year that offests the evil summers.

The Rodeo is Over

[jordanna]

While we did not actually go see the rodeo, highlights of the weekend included teaching our friends that Arizona is WAY too pokey a place to walk around outside with bare feet, running charades, and Graefe putting on a motorcycle helmet and letting Tyson hit him in the head. All in all I would call is a raging success. We finally had a housewarming party. We had planned one in the fall, but it seemed pathetic and staged since we were inviting a bunch of people we didn't actually know. This way, our house was filled with people we love and we got to invite the friends we have been slowly making to meet our crazy friends. We figure it is a good filter. If the locals don't tactfully retreat, they are keepers.

It was, as always, hard to put everyone on a plane and say goodbye. We are incredibly blessed with a fantastic community of family and friends. Thanks to everyone who came! To those of you who couldn't make it, you were well missed and lovingly mocked in your absence.

Things you don't see everyday

[jordanna]

Somebody parked right next to an air dispenser at a gas station filling their tire from a 5 lb. CO2 tank, complete with regulator. The kind you use to dispense beer. Maybe they think CO2 leaks more slowly?

When poop is memorable

[jordanna]

I was looking through the baby & kids section of craigslist (because I'm an addict, why buy new when you can hardly used cast offs?), and found an add for "The Must Have Baby Shower Gift". I was curious, what MUST you bring? Apparently no baby shower is complete without a diaper cake. That's right, a cake made out of diapers. And I quote, "Each cake is carefully and lovingly made by hand with size 1 (8-14lbs) Swaddlers New Baby diapers from Pampers to create beautiful memories of the birth of a child." I am all for practical gifts (although I am completely against disposable diapers), but somehow I never associated the phrase 'beautiful memories' with poop catchers.

"Assuage your liberal guilt"

[jordanna]

The title to this blog is in quotes, because it is lifted from an email that Kendra sent me. For those of you who didn't get it, she found a fantastic website that allows individuals to buy very reasonably priced carbon offsets for their daily lives (3$ a month for a small car). The hardest part of this pregnancy has been an almost paralyzing fear that I am bringing a child into a world that is doomed to chaos and destruction sooner than we think. I recognize that this is an extreme reaction, but at the same time if people (specifically Americans) don't wake up to the impact of their daily lives soon we are headed for trouble. As Ty tells me to get me to stop freaking out and delivering stress hormones to his baby, the best we can do is stay in education and try to live our lives as sustainably as possible. When I have more time (HA!) I want to add a 'Frugal Hippy' section to our website, detailing the affordable green strategies and products we have found. Anyway, check this site out as it has positive social and environmental impacts:

http://www.nativeenergy.com/

p.s. It is 10:30 and both my second breakfast and my lunch are gone.

Yet another IKEA experience

[jordanna]

We had a long weekend, culminating in assembling very nice tall closets in our office. Ty was at the state wrestling tournament in phoenix from thursday through saturday. I had a teaching seminar all day saturday, and took off for phoenix afterwards to meet him at IKEA. Why are we taking time out of our insanely busy remodel schedule to drive to IKEA? Because we have cats.

Once upon a time, we brewed 5 gallons of a nice IPA. This nice IPA was aging in our spare room, where all the tools and extra boxes of stuff live. We have many unpacked boxes, because what is the point of unpacking a box if you have no where for the contents to go? Enter cats. One of the furry buggers opened the spigot on our beer bucket and drained 2.5 gallons before we realized what was happening. Consequently we had a lake of beer in our spare room, busily soaking into all of our boxes. We had to promptly unpack everything, and our house has been a complete disaster ever since. We are starting the baby's room (read as the spare room where all the crap is) this week, so we need homes for all this stuff. Therefore, we found ourselves in IKEA on a saturday night, buying a closet and all the other random goodies that go along with an IKEA trip (an extra coffee press for Rodeo Days, cotton rugs, bedroom lamps, wooden blinds, and really tasty non-alcoholic sparkling beverages). Those of you who are coming down for Rodeo Days in two weeks, prepare to be amazed at our organizational capacity.

And sometimes we disagree

[jordanna]

I have heard that consuming your own placenta can help with post-partum depression. I think that the retching resulting from consumption of my placenta would also place me in a funk, so I am thinking that there is NO WAY IN HELL I am eating that thing (provided a huge famine doesn't hit tucson in the next 10 weeks). My husband, however, is borderline obsessed with the idea, and keeps trying to talk me into letting him eat it. Today I got this from him:

Placenta Pizza:
Grind placenta. Saute in 2 tbl. olive oil with 4 garlic cloves, then add 1/4 tsp. fennel, 1/4 tsp. pepper, 1/4 tsp. paprika, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. oregano, 1/4 tsp. thyme, and 1/4 cup of wine. Allow to stand for 30 minutes, then use with your favorite home made pizza recipe. It's a fine placenta sausage topping.

I honestly can't tell if he is serious, or just trying to mess with me.

Apparently I've still got it

[jordanna]

Somebody at my work just asked me if I knew what we were having. When I told her it was a boy, she said, "I knew it". She told me that in her culture, if a woman gets prettier during pregnancy she is carrying a boy. If it is a girl, the woman will look bad because the baby is stealing her beauty. I had never heard of this, but I greatly appreciated the complement!

On top of that, somebody tried to pick me up at the bus stop last week:
Random Guy (RG): Hey, do you need a ride?
Me: No thanks, my bus will be here momentarily.
RG: Where are you going?
Me: Home
RG: Are you sure?
Me: Yes, but thank you.
RG: Do I look that bad?
Me: (pulling aside my bulky coat and patting the belly) Nope, I'm already taken.
RG: Is that a five dollar bill on the ground?
Me: No, it's a bus transfer
RG: Kay, thanks (drives off)

Coming to terms with reality

[jordanna]

I just hired a handyman to come to the house tomorrow. I have decided that at 6 months pregnant, I have no business being on a ladder scraping popcorn off my bedroom ceiling (an activity which made my back scream when I weighed 30 lbs less than I do now). It is a little disheartening, as it is the first time we have had to hire somebody (aside from the electrician we paid to upgrade our service, clearly a job for a professional).

155 lbs and Still Rising!!

[ty]

For the first time in her life Jordanna has broken the glass ceiling that divides those of us whose weight resides above 12^2 and those plebians who live out their mundane existences at or below 11^2.

For months now I have been promising a deluge of pictures from various exciting adventures including but not limited to: walshy visit, bathroom remodel, the blizzard of aught 7 and my pregnant wife. I am both pleased to announce that a few pictures will make it into this post and chagrined to admit that there are almost 800 pictures that will not because I forgot the password to our website. Um...yeah. I'm working on that. Anyway, without further ado...


Here is our "master" bathroom just a few short weeks ago. It's called the master bathroom because with a little practice you can "master" the technique of leaning your head against the wall while you poop thereby allowing yourself to fall asleep on the toilet. Sweet.

Here you can clearly see how solidly the previous shower pan was constructed. It took me an hour with an angle grinder, cold chisel, and a 3lb sledge to break it up into pieces I could barely move.
Full propers should be given here to Zak who hauled his butt out to Tucson to work like a dog for 5 days straight. Having had very little experience with home remodeling his "can-do" attitude and lack of "screw this" demeanor was a sharp counterpoint to Tyson's rennovation-weary work ethic. Hence, a great deal of work was actually completed.

The aforementioned work completed. This is the 7th step (out of 42) in laying a new shower pan. There's something in this picture worth mentioning to the uninitiated. Pay particular attention to the gray plastic membrane rising out of the concrete on the far side of the pan. This plastic sucked. The book Zak and I followed while building this pan (heretofore referred to as The Bible) stressed on no less than 4 occasions that you should use Elastomeric Caulk when joining two pieces of that plastic membrane together. So that's what we did. Why? Because that's what the freaking book said. I don't put in shower pan liners for a living. Not even as a hobby. That's why I buy books by people who DO do it for a living. Of course it didn't work at all, not even a little. So what's the first thing my Dad said when I called him for my thrice-daily check in? "Elastomeric caulk?!? No, no. Don't use that. That's bad. " Um...its already buried 2.75" deep in rapidly curing concrete Dad. How bad is bad?

Things eventually worked out OK with the membrane (because seriously, were we going to jackhammer out a 3x4 concrete pan?) and we continued with our ill-advised shower installation.


When two people remodel a house together there are bound to be some disagreements regarding various style decisions. I was of the opinion that the grout color should be a subdued grayish shade. JD was more in favor of the reddish brown you see in the photo. We took our argument to the tile supply company and as neutral arbitraters they collectively laughed at me and my grout choice. Seriously. One guy brought over his pal and together they mocked my color sense. It was the best.


With the shower tiling grouted my job was to lay the floor tile. Never again will I tile with anything less than 17" tiles. It was wonderful. The entire floor was only 16 tiles. Notice the sexy diagonal. Oooooh, aaaaah. Diagonal.

The bathroom as it stands now.


This last Sunday night Tucson was "blanketed" by what is known hereabouts as the Blizzard of Aught Seven. To be fair nobody else uses the phrase Aught but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be coming back into common parlance. I love the term Aught. For all my life it's belonged to super old people who could use it in phrases like "Back in Aught Four we fought the Kaiser to a standstill using nothing but our skivvies and movable type." I say we Take It Back!!

Anyway, this pathetic amount of snow actually caused schools to be cancelled Monday. It's like living in Foster/Gloster.

Here it is my friends. The soon-to-be-famous shot of Brian (aka Smoove-B, aka BriBri, aka Brian the Lion) throwing down with Henry to see who has the biggest baby. Turns out Bri does. In theory he should be delivering sometime around March. He's registered in Golden Colorado c/o the Silver Bullet.


This is as of two days ago. JD's belly has grown enormously in the last 2 weeks (see above photo). She is feeling fine and as of her doctor's appt. yesterday all is well.

Sorry it took me so long to put up these pics. Of course there are 790 more that are just as good but the only way to see them is to haul your ass down here. Or you can wait for me to remember my website password. :)

Update

Apparently the marshmallows didn't make him so sick he couldn't stand the sight of them, as he felt perfectly up to polishing off the last half of the bag yesterday. We are bad, bad doggy parents who didn't realize they were still within his grasp. Needless to say we had another night of extended standing and nudging.

We never thought it possible

[jordanna]

Well, it happened. The unthinkable. The amazing. There is a food product on this earth that is capable of defeating our dog. The same dog, mind you, that ate 32 burrito wraps from costco. The dog that consumed 2 dozen of the fattiest cupcakes I have ever made, with nary a twinge of his pancreas. The dog that can eat an entire loaf of bread in the time it takes you to remember you forgot your glasses. Need I mention the entire bag of crystallized ginger?

We got home to a very hyper dog last night. By this, I mean he remained standing for extended periods of time, while wagging his tail and repeatedly nudging us for attention. After commenting on his odd behavior, we went about our business. Lo and behold, a short while later we discover a half eaten bag of marshmallows in his bed. HALF. EATEN. He gave himself such a massive sugar rush, he just couldn't stomach the rest. Out of curiosity we gave him another marshmallow. He immediately snorked it, then spit it onto his bed.

And we shall call him...

[jordanna]

Mr. Twitchy. At least until he exits the uterus. That's right ladies and gentlemen, it is a boy and he moves constantly. This is no less than I deserve, seeing as I fractured three of my mother's ribs in utero. Many apologies that we did not get off our butts and post a holiday letter or send out a formal 'boy!' announcement. As usual, life remained incredibly busy and we grew incredibly lazy during our downtime. The holiday break from housework is officially over though. We are knee deep in a master bath remodel, which was kicked off by Zak and Tyson last week. The last of the yellow linoleum has left our lives (don't worry, we still have yellow asbestos tile!) and we are continuing our amiable argument about the best grout color to tie together the two shades of tile and cherry-esque vanity. I am pretty sure I will win this one, purely because I care more than Tyson does (out with earth, in with cinnamon!). We are accumulating pictures and will post them before the end of January, including new belly shots. Mr. Twitchy has under gone a growth spurt and I am recognizably pregnant to a small percentage of the population now. I just got back from a conference where I got to watch people who know me peripherally from grad school do double-takes as they passed me in the halls. Only two people had the gumption to ask right away. Kindly, I didn't respond with "what baby?". It was tempting, but it turns out I am nice. Who knew?

Holiday Recovery

[jordanna]

Well, we dropped the last of the holiday visitors off at the airport a couple of hours ago. We didn't have any opportunity to feel unsettled this holiday, as family and friends descended on us to keep us company. We had my parents from the 20th until the 29th (the day after my 30th birthday), and the Walshes from Christmas Day until New Years. We couldn't have asked for a more entertaining or loving holiday. We went to Tombstone with my parents, and witnessed some spectacular acting in the re-enactment of the shootout at the Okay Coral, and had lunch at Big Nose Kate's Saloon. Ty has some spectacular video of the robotic recreation that can be found in the original location of the shootout. Mom and Dad logged some time helping us work on the house. Five months after we moved in, our stereo is actually set up and properly balanced! Dad and Tyson also spent 6 hours installing a beautiful birch butcher block shelf to top off the half wall in our kitchen. Between their visit and Justin Maguire's help after Thanksgiving, all but one of the little remaining kitchen projects have been finished. Where would we be without everyone's help?

I remember thinking in June that my 30th birthday would be a bit depressing because I would be so far from our Seattle community. I was happily proved wrong. While Jeff and David (our Tucson sunkids who keep us entertained : ) were out of town, we had all of our guests and Tyson organized a suprise party with all the people we know in Tucson. My parents took me out for a lavish lunch and shopping while Ty was working at home (luckily I'm oblivious and didn't catch on to what they were planning). The Walshes went crazy and took us all to a resort the next day for an overnight desert spa birthday extravaganza. I haven't been so spoiled in ages. We had a blast wandering through nature trails and playing in the pool. Abby and Tyson developed some controversial but successful water basketball plays. I also got to play Marco Polo for the first time in fifteen years. The food, crafted by Chef Jamie West, was beyond spectacular. All in all I would call it a successful spa experience.

We sincerely hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and that the new year brings you love and joy.