BRAT

Bananas. Rice. Applesauce. Toast. That's all I'm allowed to eat. That's right, Oliver has been visited by the plague. It came on yesterday while at work, achy body, temperature, eyes burning, and intensified yesterday evening. Luckily some friends ran to the store and picked me up some "knock you out for hours on end" Contac Cold and Flu. I took two and was dead to the world until morning.

I'm feeling a little better today, but stayed home from work so as not to infect those around me, especially the pregnant woman. Last night food repulsed me. My appetite is returning a little today, hence the Kristin-imposed diet. I just ate a little applesauce. My mouth loved it. My stomach wasn't so sure. I'm going to eat a little toast now. Here's to hoping it won't give me problems. If I strike out there, on to bananas and rice!Image credit digestive.niddk.nih.gov

Liquid...Diamonds??

Another chapter in the Clara-formula saga unfolds.

She had her two-month well-baby visit on Monday and looks great. She's up to 11 lbs 10 oz (75th percentile) and 23.5 inches (90th percentile - big shock, right?), so she's growing well and keeping pace with where she's been since her first visit the day after she was discharged from the hospital. She's right on track developmentally and is doing everything she should. However...

Last week I took another diaper in to test for occult blood and it came back positive again, despite having been back on the hypoallergenic formula for two weeks. So on Monday I brought another one, they tested it, and yep, still positive. Our pediatrician recommended we make the jump to an elemental formula, one that contains no protein chains whatsoever. It's completely amino acid based, so there is nothing in it that should continue to irritate her colon. Sounds good, right?

The downside - because it's such a speciality product, you can't purchase it in stores but have to order it directly from the manufacturer instead. Well, I guess you could order it through a pharmacy, but it's easier in my mind to go straight to the source. Our first order just arrived. Four cans, 14 ounces each. One can should last us about 3 days right now. Guess how much that cost us. Go on, guess.


$135 plus shipping.

That works out to $33.75 per can. The rest of the math depresses me in the extreme, so you can go figure it out on your own.

We think Clara has decided to spend every penny we have in the hopes that it will convince us not to give her any siblings.

Don't get me wrong, I want nothing more than to get this little girl's insides healed up and we'll do whatever it takes to make that happen. But yikes is it expensive. Our pediatrician referred to her as a "high-maintenance kid." Yep.

Filed under: Cute Girl > Cute Pictures

Pictures taken Sunday afternoon as we lay on our bed, trying to recover from Clara's up-all-night Saturday night.

Happy Birthday Big Momma Sal!!

To the one and only Big Momma Sal*,

Here's to wishing you a very Happy Birthday. As the number in the tens column increases remember your distance from retirement decreases. Wait. Your full-time job is visiting your grandchildren. Here's to hoping that you never have to retire!

Lots of love,
Kristin, Oliver & Clara

P.S. Check out other birthday wishes here and here and here.

* My best friend in high school was the only person able to call my mother this and not get a swift punch to the gut. I'm on rocky ground using it here, but I won't see her for another few weeks. Hopefully by then she'll have forgotten.

Playing Catch-up

Have a bunch of things to post so I'm going to post them all together.

• My buddy Stuart got into composing music a little over a year ago. Since them he has set up a sweet home studio. In the past few months he has composed an amazing song called Wonder of Flight. He played me the *almost* final version. It was near flawless. Being the perfectionist I am, and knowing the perfectionist he is, I knew trumpets weren't to his liking. He spent hours perfecting them. You can hear the final piece here. Definitely worth checking out.
• It's no secret that I'm a heavy sleeper. BC (before Clara) Kristin would have to kick me for about fifteen minutes before I'd be coherent. Alarm clocks don't wake me up. On the random morning when Kristin would let the alarm clock ring until I turned it off, she'd lay there so long that she'd just get frustrated. And kick me harder. Wasn't good for anyone involved. So when Clara arrived, Kristin quickly noticed that I would wake up if Clara was placed in my arms. Aha! A new way to wake me up! So now our morning routines is Kristin bringing Clara in to cuddle with me. It's so much fun to cuddle with the little one and take some time to see how close Kristin got to losing it overnight. Yesterday morning Clara came in to cuddle with me and Kristin snapped some pictures.
  
• Recently Clara has taken to pacifiers. Before now she would suck for a second or two then spit the pacifier out and take her crying to the next level. In the past two weeks she has made it known that pacifiers please her and that we should always have a ready supply. And the definition of ready supply is the Gerber Nuk pacifier. Not the type we got for free at the hospital or the first type we bought, but the Gerber Nuk pacifier. This is the only acceptable pacifier in her view. Another cute thing she has started doing is holding on to whatever is in front of her when we are feeding or pacifying her. Most times this is a rank, smell burp cloth, but the other night I was rocking with Clara in the chair trying to get her to fall asleep it was my hand. I was holding her pacifier in, as she kept pushing it out of her mouth then complaining, loudly, when it was gone. Her fingers started grabbing at my hand and wrist, trying to get something to hold on to. Her little nails tickled my skin.
• Another great post from RedKudu can be found here. She's teaching The Lord of the Flies to her students and employing some interesting techniques.
• Clara food update: As we have blogged about many times before, Clara had some difficulty digesting certain types of formula. If you remember we started her on powdered Similac. When that caused her problems, we switched to powdered Alimentum. When she wouldn't eat that, we switched to ready-made Alimentum. When that caused the same problem as the powdered Similac, we switched to powdered soy. When that constipated her, we went back to ready-made Alimentum. And low and behold she's fine. This really confused us. Why did the first ready-made Alimentum react with her system exactly like the powdered Similac did? When I bought the first batch of ready-made Alimentum, the labels on the containers were loose. I remember telling Kristin that the stuff smelled exactly like the powdered Similac (a welcome relief as powdered Alimentum smelled like DEATH). Independently, Kristin and I both wondered if someone at the store had switched the labels on the ready-made Alimentum and ready-made Similac bottles - Similac is $2 a bottle cheaper. I think they did. Now we check every bottle we buy to make sure the serial number on the bottle begins with "ALI."
• Last night was a tough night for Kristin and Clara. Between the hours of midnight and 7:30am Kristin got about 2 hours of sleep. At 7:30a I took Clara, called the choir director at church to tell her she needed to find a sub for me, sent Kristin to bed, and BlackBerry messaged a friend to tell him to ask another friend if he'd teach my Sunday School class. Kristin was able to get three hours of sleep Sunday morning. Didn't quite make up for the bad overnight, but was a bit of a start.
• Last Tuesday I was downtown at the Paper, and a coworker came up to me. "Oliver, I have to tell you that my boyfriend and I are totally addicted to the Warm Delights." She explained that they'd purchased two of the chocolate brownie, one of the lemon swirl, and one of the cinnamon crumb. They ooopsed and put the topping on the cinnamon crumb before they nuked it - it's supposed to go on after it bakes, unlike most of the other flavors - but otherwise loved the things. We agreed that the cake is the product's strong suit and that they need to tweak the toppings a little. Regardless, we have another convert! Yeah for Betty Crocker® Warm Delights™ Desserts!

Sopa isn't soap and ropa isn't rope but frijoles is beans.

Last Sunday we received a phone call from Bryce. Lisa wanted to know if we'd like to come over for beans. We replied in the affirmative, got directions to their house, and brought salad dressing. It's all they would let us bring. We pulled in their driveway behind a Scion. Out popped a familiar looking girl who then got back in her car and parked on the side where Bryce had told us to park. We quickly called Bryce from the car to confirm we were to park on the right side. He confirmed. I then asked who the other person was. "Juliet," he replied. "She'll be joining us for dinner." I then told Bryce that Juliet was my cousin Laura's college roommate. We had met before many years back. Was a delight to see her again. She was a charming dinner companion.

When Bryce said we were being invited over for beans I thought he was speaking figuratively. He was not. He meant it. It is tradition in their family to have Boston Baked Beans for Sunday dinner. They cook in an earthenware pot for eight hours and were delicious! Sweet without being overpowering, the beans were served with Hebrew National hot dogs. As my friend Dave used to say, "My people know how to make a hot dog." Love me some Hebrew National.

After dinner we sat around chatting and the topic of banana shakes came up. Don't ask me how. It was sort of like SoniCare at Thanksgiving. Lisa explained that banana shakes made with frozen bananas are superior to any other type. She jumped up, started rummaging through her freezer, and came up with four frozen bananas. "I'll show you." And she made banana chocolate shakes. A perfect dessert.

We stayed late talking. Okay, not as late as our last visit with Bryce. We wish it could have been, but little Clara was demanding her own bed. We had a wonderful time and hope to repeat it again soon!

Please not The Wiggles. Please not The Wiggles. Please not The Wiggles...

This morning I drove myself to the Park & Ride. This freed Kristin from having to bundle up Clara to drive me to the bus stop. I got in the car and, as is my custom, turned on the radio. Rather than one of our six preprogrammed radio stations, the opening bars of "You'll Be In My Heart" floated out the car speakers. Huh? Where's the chick-music that Kristin brought to the relationship or the 'moody electronica' that my coworker Holly is fond of mocking me for? What is this in my radio?

What was in my radio was Disney's Greatest, Vol. 1, our first purchase of and entrance into the world of children's music. This is one aspect of parenthood I hadn't prepared for! I had assumed that I would just plug in my iPod and skip over the songs that were too loud or too obnoxious for our little one, that Clara would love her father's perfect taste in music. It hadn't occurred to me that my days of picking the music on the radio were over!

As I mourned the passing of that innocent time, I realized that I actually had it pretty good. It's always important to remember those that have it worse off - the homeless, short people, democrats. My silver lining was the fact that the CD was not by the Wiggles. For those not in the know, The Wiggles are a group of four Australians in brightly colored shirts who sing children songs that have the uncanny ability to firmly plant themselves deep in your mind. It's sort of like a mental tapeworm. (Sadly, they have yet to discover niclosamide for the mind.) These guys have made a killing, with Business Review Weekly magazine reporting that they were Australia's highest grossing entertainers in 2005, earning more than AC/DC and Nicole Kidman combined.

My first Wiggles exposure was while watching a friend's two-year-old a few years back. He loved to listen to the four goofy guys sing "Fruit Salad, Yummy Yummy" and "Cold Spaghetti, Cold Spaghetti." Oh, they annoyed me. After leaving the house that night I turned to Kristin and swore that I would never allow that stuff in my house. Give me Raffi. Give me They Might Be Giants' children's CD. Give me Disney. But save me from the fate of The Wiggles.

It's a simple request, nay a simple prayer to powers beyond my mortal domain. Say it with me now, "Please not The Wiggles. Please not The Wiggles. Please not The Wiggles..."

Plays by Eugene O'Neill for One Hundred (Updated)

The past two days we've had amazing winter weather here in the DC Area. Finally our forecasters cast off the habit of debating whether the weather, and earned the title of weather people by predicting something that came to fruition. They're sort of like Trelawney. They get it right once or twice in a life-time.

Yesterday we started out with snow of various intensities that changed overnight into wicked sleet and freezing rain. Luckily the freezing rain was mostly to the east of the city. I've learned that it is far more trecherous than sleet. Today we are featuring below freezing temperatures that are keeping the snow and ice frozen. Both Kristin and I awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of ice pellets on the bedroom window. By the morning we had streams of ice running down our window screen. In the first picture the water on the window screens is frozen in place. Similarly on the deck the grey box in the second picture has streams of ice "running" down its side.

Because of the weather I decided to head into the office a little late. This allowed me to ride in with Kristin and Clara. Ride in with Kristin and Clara, you say? That's right! Today was the fourth JCREM Cook-off and Kristin and Clara were the guests of honor. (I blogged the last cook-off here. ) After having done food from your upbringing, summer dishes, and a harvest theme, we decided to mix it up with a Valentine's Brunch. As always a strong showing by all with traditional breakfast dishes as well as some things that my mother would never have let me eat for breakfast. See if you can pick those out of the list below.

• Waffles made on the premises & Fresh Fruit (Sonja)
• Goat Cheese, Spinach, Tomato & Bacon Cups (Meredith)
• Breakfast Casserole (Kristin - my wife)
• Pecan Roll (Kristen - my coworker)
• Heart Cupcakes with a Surprise in the Middle (Diana)
• Better Than ... Most Things Cake (Courtney)
• Brownies (Jen)
• Pumpkin Bread (Brendan's Mom)
• Streusel Crumb Cake (Sheilah)
• Homemade Biscuits with Homemade Jam (Caroline)
• Bacon - four pounds worth! (Fang)
• Chicken and Apple Sausage (Daquaan)
• Quiche (Kim)
• And I know I'm forgetting something. If you know what it is, tell me so I can add it.

In keeping with tradition I tried every dish. They were all wonderful. I especially loved Meredith Goat Cheese cups. She had to track down filo dough in last night's bad weather. Harris Teeter came through. Nancy also had an adventure heading to the store in her almost-PJs to pick up eggs. We also had mystery judges, but they have yet to hand down their verdict on the winners. Once they do I'll update the post.

Everyone loved seeing little baby Clara. She was a good guest at the brunch and smiled and cooed at all the right times. She napped in Dad's arms whilst we walked around the ninth and twelfth floors. It was fun to have the chance to show her off. Everyone says she is a beautiful baby. I couldn't agree more!

Update: And we have a winner! Hats off to Diana for her winning Cupcakes. Honorable mentions to my adorable wife for her breakfast casserole and to Caroline for her from-scratch biscuits. Thanks to Joe and Jen for adjudicating.

Getting Ready

Getting ready this morning Clara decided to sit on our bed and entertain us with some fun faces. Figured someone out there would enjoy these. My favorite is #3. What about you?

SmarTrip Update

Received an e-mail from my coworker Diana which read, "Are you jealous?" Attached was a press release which read:

(Alexandria, VA) Alexandria Transit Company (ATC) announced today that all DASH buses are now equipped with new SmarTrip fareboxes. ATC is the first local transit system, in partnership with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), to accept SmarTrip farecards on their buses.

After screaming "WHAT!?!" I turned and congratulated Diana on the happy news. I read on in the press release and found something even cooler:

The remaining local bus systems, including the Fairfax Connector, ... will begin their installations over the next few months. [emphasis added] It is anticipated that the installations on all participating systems will be completed by July 2007.

You mean to tell me that we could actually have SmarTrip on Fairfax Connector buses before Clara has a sibling?! NO WAY!!

I rushed to the Fairfax Connector website to see if they had an update. Of course they don't. I've commented on their supreme lameness before . Regardless, we have the Alexandria DASH folks to thank for this most wonderful news!

Click here for the full text of the DASH press release.

Special thanks to field reporter Diana for contributing to this report. But not too much thanks. After all the contents of the e-mail were "Are you jealous?"

Next Stop: Length

As she announced on her website (see below), JK Rowling has completed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The message includes tidbits that book seven is her favorite and that there will still be plenty to speculate on once the book comes out. Go check out the site for the full text in the Diary section.

Just Some General Cuteness

I can't believe how quickly time passes; our little one is eight weeks old tomorrow. A week from today we have her two-month well-baby visit...and four vaccinations to go along with it. I'm thinking it won't be a good day for any of us here. Since it's been almost a week since I've posted anything Clara related, here's a video we took over the weekend for your enjoyment:



And as a bonus, a cute picture from the same session in front of the camera:

Artificial Market Pressures Redux

Some of you may remember that during my pregnancy I found yogurt-covered raisins to be a gestational diabetes-friendly snack food and would always have a couple of bags in the pantry. Oliver posted about my experience with the sporadic availability of my favorite brand at Wegmans. If you need a refresher check out his previous post. I'll wait.

Back? Well, today I discovered my next mission to single-handedly influence supply & demand. Last time I was at Wegmans I picked up the last four bottles of Alimentum (the hypoallergic formula Clara needs). Today I purchased the last six bottles on the shelf. How many times will this happen before they are fully stocked? The experiment begins.

Bowling for Bombshells & Commentary on My Age

Today my department had an offsite. Unlike someone I know, I rather enjoy some time outside the office with my teammates. I enjoy people - as a general rule - and welcome the chance to get and do something other than sit and breathe shallowly while I type.

Today's offsite took us to Lucky Strike in downtown D.C. It's a bowling alley with no smoking and good food. I don't think they serve corn dogs, though one does sound tasty right now. We arrived and a spread was served: Caesar salad, nachos with multi-colored corn chips, chicken and turkey sandwiches and these things called Chicken Bites. Chicken Bites are the true embodiment of goodness, deep-fried chicken nuggets tossed in one of four sauces: buffalo sauce, sweet and sour, honey mustard, and - insert sigh of nirvana here - ranch. A plate of the ranch ones somehow found its way to the table where my team sat. Sweet, sweet ambrosia.

After gorging ourselves, we began to bowl. Our four teams - High Rollers, Bowling Stones, Split Happens, and The Incredibowls - bowled three games. I never realized how tiring bowling can be. I bowled a decent game but lacked the bowling boost (beer) of my office mates. I was proud of the fact that I broke 100 in one of my games.

A group of us rode the metro to and from Lucky Strike together. On the way back to the office, while changing trains at Metro Center, Alicia received a phone call. "Hello?". I'm always jealous of those people who have cell phone reception in the tunnels and stations; drat that Sprint. "What!?! Anna Nicole Smith is dead!?!" Heads turn and audible gasps are heard. "Give me the details!"

For the next few minutes Alicia relayed what few details were known. All the sudden Diana receives a text message. "Anna Nicole Smith ... dead. Make sure everyone knows." Gina, a coworker in a different department, wanted to make sure we heard even while on our offsite. Another member of our group received a phone call, but I don't want to mention her by name as it was from her boyfriend. He would probably be embarrassed if everyone knew he was following celebrity gossip on the news. In his defense, he saw it on a news site.

Back at the office, the group split up, two people to thank Gina for sending the text and the rest to their desks to gather as much information as possible. As we walked by Sterg's desk she said, "I can't get on any of my celebrity blogs.".

Anna Nicole Smith : Celebrity Gossip Blogs :: 9/11 : News Sites

While discussing the day's events with Kristin that night, I realized that the fact that no one called/messaged/texted me means I am not part of the young & hip crowd. If that's the price to pay for a cute wife and daughter, I guess it's worth it.

MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH

It's a big day in our house - Clara has been sitting happily in her bouncy seat for over ten minutes now! I think that since her vision is improving she's more and more content to just sit and take in her surroundings. Will this new development stand the test of time? We shall see, but for now it's great!

A Visit from my Dad

Last Saturday night my dad came into town for Clara's baby blessing. It was a delight to have him here. He even did the greatest service a Dad could do: worked on my right shoulder to get rid of the twinges I still feel when I extend my range of motion, left over from falling down the stairs.

Clara, Kristin, and I went to pick him up from the airport. When leaving the airport, I turned north on the highway, rather than south, the direction back towards our house. My Dad looked at me and asked, "You house is the other direction. Are we going to Sweetwater?" I was a little out of it (read tired) and had neglected to ask my Dad if he wanted to go to Sweetwater Tavern for dinner. My Dad loves the place, so I had called ahead to the restaurant in the probably event that he would want to have dinner there. I had just neglected to ask him, once we had picked him up, if he wanted to eat there. He assured me that he was delighted to go there for dinner and not to worry about not asking. Dinner was great. I blogged about the dessert at the food blog. Go check it out.

On Sunday after church we were hanging around chatting when it was decided that a Warm Delights was in order. Not just any Warm Delights, but the Lemon Swirl Warm Delights. A little background: my dad doesn't like chocolate. Growing up Mom always made carrot cake or got a lemon merangue pie for Dad when the rest of us had a dessert with chocolate. I felt it appropriate that Dad be present to try the Lemon Swirl Warm Delight.

Dad did the honors of mixing, frosting, and nuking. The result was a very tasty lemon cake with a lemon topping that had a slight metallic taste. I must say that of the three flavors I have tried, the topping is the product's Achilles' heal. They could improve the overall result by taking some time to make sure the flavor is right. But I digress. Kristin had one bite and Dad and I ate the rest. Yeah for the Betty Crocker Warm Delights!

Clara's Blessing

The highlight of our Sunday was Clara's baby blessing. Oliver did a beautiful job with the blessing...although Mom is somewhat concerned over the multiple references to her "strong will." Are we in for it or what? She's a special little girl and a true light in our home, and I think her blessing reflected that. Here are a few pictures from the event:

Clara in her blessing dress just before we left for church

Clara with Dad and Mom after her blessing

The family with Grandpa as well

And because I can't resist, two more pictures taken after church

The Girls Visit Me

Today my friends McKenzie and Lauren came to visit. It was sort of fun to have people more my age at the house - I get a little sick of all the old people. Lauren and McKenzie can crawl and are almost about to walk. They are total cruisers. The like to pull themselves up onto things. I hope I can walk soon, just like them.

After crawling around for a while, we pulled out my big container of toys. I really haven't gotten much use out of them - something about fine motor skills, and gross ones for that matter - so McKenzie and Lauren helped me by breaking in the toys. After that they moved on to the bigger toys, namely the piano. Both demonstrated an aptitude for music. It looks like McKenzie likes the high notes, so we're thinking flute or another reed instrument. Lauren went for the piano bench as a drum set. Percussion it will be!

Da-Da and Pete took LOTS of pictures. The first one below is of my friends' mommy. The second one is a picture of McKenzie ... squared. (Hey Da-Da, what does squared mean?)And last but not least: my Da-Da and Pete made a video of the visit. You can see how big the girls are getting. You even get a few shots of me. I hope that we can all play together again sometime soon!

Welcome Heidi

I have added a new blog to our list of blogs. Welcome to my friend Heidi. Heidi and I first met before time began. We share a birthday and the fact that we both have daughters named Clara. She married a guy that my parents knew, and think quite highly of, and now lives in a disgustingly huge house in a part of the country where housing in actually affordable. Go check out her blog.

In this post she tagged me for another meme. The rules are:

1. Find the nearest book to you.
2. Name the book and author.
3. Turn to page 123.
4. Go to the fifth sentence on the page.
5. Copy out the next 3 sentences and post to your blog.
6. Tag three other people. (Which I am opting not to do.)

Before I proceed with the instructions, a little back story is in order. A few years ago we were visiting Kristin's family in Portland, OR. While taking care of my necesidades fisiológicas I needed something to read. The only book I could find was the one mentioned below. To say it was a bad book is an understatement. On a subsequent visit I ended up borrowing the book as I hadn't had the chance to finish it on the prior trip and wanted to see how it turned out. My mother-in-law told me that I didn't need to return it; it wouldn't be missed. Because of the back cover (a picture of the author with his dog on a leash and quotes from the New York Times Book Review and another much less reputable publication, see photo at right) I've always wanted to blog about the book. Therefore it has been laying next to my computer waiting for some free time. And therefore it was the closest book to me when I read about Heidi's tag. So here goes.

Title & Author: Thin Air by Robert B. Parker

Susan could get a smile from a hammerhead shark.
"Peekaboo Boy?" Samuelson said.

Now I can throw the thing away in peace.

Shopping @ Shoppers

The Shoppers Food Warehouse near us recently underwent a major renovation in what appears to be an attempt to upgrade their image in response to Wegmans entrance into the local supermarket space. Giant similarly embarked on a marketing campaign to tell the world that they now have fresh produce - one of the main reasons we forsook Giant for Wegmans, the second being price. With the Shoppers upgrade they have new deli and seafood counters, upgraded produce, and a redesigned interior that departs from their past bargain basement image. Additionally, they dropped 'warehouse' from their name and are now called simply Shoppers.

We stopped by Shoppers this morning to pick up some formula for Baby Clara. As she posted last night, the tummy troubles continue and are now accompanied by what appears to be a rash all over her face. Kristin and I decided we should give the hypoallergenic stuff a second shot. So, on the way to the bus stop this morning we stopped by Shoppers and I ran in to get some formula and a few other necessities*. While scanning the signs announcing the items found on each aisle, I chuckled at what they had chosen to include in the aisle I sought: baby needs, feminine hygiene, magazines, and greeting cards.

I wonder if the people in charge of layout don't think men buy greeting cards.

*One of the areas Shoppers has always been tops is their colossal donuts. They are baked fresh daily, are fairly inexpensive, and there are always plenty Chocolate Frosted Custard Filled. Today our necessities consisted of two chocolate frosted custard filled and one raspberry filled. One guess as to which of us ate two...

Major Announcement

Usually I don't like to blog from work, something about earning an honest day's pay, but this is too huge not to mention.

Publication date for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows set for July 21, 2007.
When discussing this over e-mail Kristin asked, "Wicked. Who watches the kiddo while the other goes to B&N for the midnight release?" I replied, "What do you mean watches the kiddo? This is the only chance IN HER WHOLE LIFETIME to be part of a Harry Potter midnight release. She'll be there."

Special thanks to field reporter Bruce for contributing to this report.