Pop Quiz

This morning before we got out of bed, we had Garrett lying in between Garrett and I. Andrea said to him, "do you know the Daddy?" and he turned and looked at me. Then she said, "which one is the Momma?", and he turned back to her. Next she asked, "which one is Katie?", and he turned farther and pointed into the bed, like he was trying to point downstairs. Finally, she asked, "which one is Garrett?", and he pulled his arms in! I couldn't believe that he would be able to signal all four of us. We asked him about each parent a few more times to see if he could duplicate and he did keep turning to each of us on cue. However, on about the fourth tie he started to get antsy, as if to say he'd gotten tired of the game.

Tasty Fingers

Today was the first day that Garrett found two fingers to suck on in order to pacify himself. When I got home from Martial Arts, he was in his swing, with his two fingers in hos mouth and he was totally asleep. He was so beautiful, but it was impossible to capture how cute it was in a picture. It's one of those joys you get to experience as the parent that you cannot share, but trust me that it was adorable.

Worker Bee

Garrett came to work tonight. Andrea was going to a class and a meeting, preparing for the course she'll be teaching at Citrus next fall, and I was still at work trying to catchup on emails, so Andrea dropped him off to me at work just before 5.

A few people came by to see him after hearing some cooing. At first I was rocking the stroller with one hand and writing emails with the other, but I wasn't doing either very well, so I took back my hand to finish typing. Garrett started talking and I figured I would have to finish the rest from home, but after a minute, he quieted down and fell asleep.

I ended up staying at work for another hour while he slept, which let me finish a list of things I'd been meaning to take care of. The latest projection is that I'll be spending a week in China in mid to late March, doing training and troubleshooting. The whole thing depends on a test they will be running at the site next week. If it goes well, we'll set a date and make arrangements.

After finishing at work, we stopped at Target for diapers, then headed home and got their just before Andrea. Garrett woke up a few times, but kept going back to sleep. Once we got home he was wide awake and pretty full of energy all nght. For dinner we made ginger-lime chicken from a recipe Danielle provided.

Garrett and I played until bedtime. He wore me out, so I put him in his big swing and he jabbered for several minutes before falling asleep. I went to bed before Andrea, but she told me that Garrett only woke up slightly while getting ready for bed and slept in his bassinet until 5am.

Rolley Poley

When I got home from Martial Arts tonight, Andrea asked if I was ready for a surprise. She laid Garrett down on his tummy and he rolled his head around for a few seconds before lifting it up. Next he started looking over his shoulder, as if there was a toy directly above him that he wanted to see. He paused on his side as if preparing for the big finish, then suddenly rolled onto his back!

He's been scootching and rolling around for a while, but tonight he made his first roll. It happened while I was gone; Andrea actually missed his first roll too. She looked away for a couple seconds and suddenly he was on his back! She videoed him twice after that before I got home, so he did it four times tonight.

State of the Union

Since it is Tuesday, Andrea spent the evening teaching and taking Jazz, so Garrett and I were home with Katie. Tonight Garrett and I watched the State of the Union address. I took this opportunity to explain to Garrett several concepts: President, Congress (Senate and House), Supreme Court, Speaker of the House, Vice President (and role in the Senate), and State of the Union. He responded with an emphatic "booha... eeeeyaaa!".

I was interested when President Bush spoke about increased spending on Alternative Fuels, and I was definitely interested in his education initiatives, since Garrett will be a direct recipient of this. But as usual, the State of the Union address was mostly grand pronouncements and very little substance. After the first 15 minutes, Garrett was hungry, so he ate one bottle and burped, then ate a second bottle through most of the rest. About an hour into the speech, Garrett fell asleep, so I set him down in his carseat and tried to change the laundry. However, this woke him almost immediately, so I buckled him in and whisked him off to Trader Joes, which has become a Tuesday night tradition in the past few weeks. I decided to forgo the frontpack and shopped with his stroller. We ran through the store in less than half an hour, but I forgot a few things (hindsight is 20/20).

Andrea was home before us and Garrett had fallen asleep in the last 5 minutes of the drive home, so Andrea pumped while I started dinner. We watched Gilmore Girls while we ate, and now I'm going to finish up some work, while Garrett is asleep in his bassinet. Andrea wants to do some cleaning because Danielle is coming to watch Garrett tomorrow, but she's so tired that I don't think she'll be able to get much done. Depending on how long I am working, I plan to do some too, but the night has already gotten pretty late.

Strikes and Spares

Tonight we met the gang (Darci, Danielle, Justin, and Natalie) at Lucky Strike Bowling Alley at the Block in Orange. We had a great time bowling and visiting. The third game was our wild game, where people bowled in funny ways (left handed, granny style, backwards through the legs) and Andrea got the best score of the evening. She even scored her first strike of the night using her left hand. Overall we had a great time and we're looking forward to meeting again in February.

Garrett was very curious when we first arrived, then became very upset when he got hungry. Andrea was feeding him and still bowling her frames and after a little while he calmed down. I rocked him to sleep and he slept in his stroller for almost a whole game. After that he played a little while with different people, but was getting tired again as we were finishing up. He fell asleep on the carride home and woke up to eat when we arrived. Then we all got ready and headed to bed.

Martial Artist in the Making

Tonight Andrea brought Garrett to United Studios during the break between the two classes so that I could introduce (show off) Garrett to people. He met Sensei John and Sam in the entryway. Then we ducked into the office so he could meet Sensei Alan. Alan was showing Garrett how to make punching movements with his arms. Garrett decided to grab hold of a finger with each of his hands. Then he started pulling them in opposite directions, until Alan said "hey, that kinda hurts". I have to admit, I have never gotten a 3rd Degree Black Belt in a submission hold, and Garrett did it on his first visit!

Daddy Day Care, Week 2

Tonight I was home alone with Garrett for the second week of Andrea's new Pilates class in Rancho Cucamonga. About 10 minutes after Andrea left, Garrett told me that he was hungry and proceeded to down almost 4 ounces of milk in under one hour! This obviously wore him out because he fell asleep soon after. I saw Katie pacing around (her potty signal), so I set Garrett down in the Pack 'n Play and realized he was asleep! After letting Katie roam outside for a few minutes, I took advantage of Garrett's nap to start the bottle sterilizer and wash a few dishes. However, as soon as I started heading for the bathroom, Garrett woke up!

He was pretty happy playing until Andrea's mom called. I think he didn't like being ignored while I was talking, so he started to cry. Once I said goodbye, I played with him.

Andrea makes everything Grand...

This morning Garrett was super smiley. Andrea set him next to me in bed while she walked and fed Katie, then we all had breakfast together. Andrea was teaching at the Grand Opening of a performing arts studio, so she got ready and Garrett played on his playmat. Garrett first spit up on his pajama, then during a diaper change, he peed all over the changing pad, so he went in the bath too.

As Andrea was leaving, Garrett got super hungry. Andrea felt guilty leaving him, but needed to go so after a few minutes on the breast, I fed him a bottle. After that he fell asleep in my arms and I cuddled him for about an hour. He woke up with a wet diaper, but fell back asleep after he was changed, so I transferred him into his carseat and he slept for another hour, while I did some housework. Andrea saw a lot of babies at the opening and missed her little man. The moment Andrea walked through the door, he woke up (breast-dar sensors were flashing).

After a good feeding, we all went to Trader Joes together. Garrett slept through most of the shopping, but woke up as we were packing up the car. Once we got home, we rocked Garrett to sleep so we could put away the groceries and prepare for our guests.

Around 6:30 Mom and Aunt Betsy arrived to visit and see our Christmas Tree. Of course, Garrett continued sleeping for the first hour that they were there. We had dinner and everybody got to hold Garrett. Aunt Betsy made some funny faces and took some silly pictures of Garrett in his grandma's arms. Just after midnight, we sent them home and did some cleanup before bed. Garrett slept in his bassinet for two hours without interuption before waking for a night feeding.

Potty Monster

Garrett woke up around 6am with lots of grunting until more than an hour later he finally pooped. Then, he pulled one of his infamous "diaper duos", as soon as Andrea put a new diaper on he pooped again. It seems like we've done nothing but change diapers today (even more than usual). His record breaking total was 21 (you can only imagine how much he needed to eat in order to pee that many times). No wonder Andrea felt that she got nothing done today - the day was consumed by feedings and diaper changes, which have become a lengthy process filled with singing and a "zurburt" or two on the belly. The good news is that he likes diaper changing time! And its all because Andrea mentioned how much she hates the Baby Dry diaper and she wanted to use them up. Garrett understood and took care of the duty immediately!

A sign that he is hungry is when he eats his fist, which he has been doing quite often the last few days. Sometimes Garrett tries to fit both hands in his mouth. Today he did it basically any time he was not eating. He loves his "handburger".

I ran out to get some bagels for breakfast and Andrea showered. We enjoyed breakfast together (all three ate) and then we went for a family walk. When we got back to the house Garrett woke up with an explosive poop, which signaled his bath time. We bathed him and got him dressed, then took some pictures and video of him kicking and making noises.

I went to Vons to get a few things for our lunch and heavy cream to go with dessert for tonight. One of our Christmas presents was a cream whipper: pour in heavy cream and attach a NO2 cartridge and the whipper does the rest, instant whipped cream! We had planned to use it with an English Toffee Cake for dessert, but our plans changed.

Mom and Aunt Betsy were planning to come to our house for dinner so they could see our Christmas tree. Unfortunately their yorkshire terrier, Demi Tasse, is ill; the vet is waiting for lab results to make a diagnosis, but the x-ray suggests kidney failure on one side. Because of this we cancelled our plans for tonight. I hope she will get well soon!



Andrea and Garrett fell asleep on the couch about 7pm and slept until 9pm. When they woke up, we made dinner while Garrett played with his rocking chair. He has figured out how to kick in a rhythmic pattern to make the chair rock. After dinner we opened Hannukah present #5, a travel mobile that goes in Andrea's car. When Garrett got fussy, Andrea fed him and he fell asleep. Then, I placed him in the bassinet, where he slept for over an hour.

Lint Catcher

Garrett does not seem to like sleeping in his cradle. We have tried to put him in it several times, but he only stays asleep for 5 minutes or so. Maybe he knows we are not at home, so he wants to stay close to the parents! The same is true with our other baby. Katie always sleeps in bed with us when we stay somewhere, but she'll never stay in bed with us at home (unless its just one parent in bed).

This morning I slept in until 1pm! Andrea and Garrett were up at 10:30, but they let me sleep. We had a caprese sandwich for lunch, followed by bread pudding with homemade vanilla sauce, hot tea, and pepparkakor (Swedish Ginger Snaps). Garrett loves to be bounced like he is riding on a horse, the faster and wilder the better. While Andrea was playing with Garrett she sang "Giddy 'up, giddy 'up, giddy 'up, let's go!", which prompted me to continue singing the song, Sleigh Ride. Andrea did not realize that that line came from a Christmas Carole. I tried to teach Andrea the words, but we soon realized that Andrea is not an auditory learner. It has become Andrea's favorite Christmas Carole, and I promised to write out the lyrics for her.

We have been noticing lint in Garrett's toes for some time, but today it is especially bad. In fact, today he even collected lint between his fingers because he often grasps things and then keeps his hand closed, trapping lots of lint. His red christmas pants create a lot of it that got stuck everwhere.

By the time we were thinking about packing up it was 3:30pm and we feared we would hit rush hour traffic home, so we decided to stay until it passed. However, we did enlist Mariann's gardners to help me load our couch into the Explorer. We had hoped to make it home in time to ask our neighbor, Cy, for help carrying the couch into the house, but we did not leave Coto until 9:30pm.

Garrett woke up upon arriving home, but we needed to unload the couch together, so we entrusted him to our faithful friend, Mr Vacuum Cleaner, who sang his monotonous song to Garrett and put him to sleep. With Garrett and Katie staying warm upstairs, I brought in all of the pillows, while Andrea swiffed the floor where the couch goes. I pulled the car up as close as possible, and we carried it into the house. The hardest part was lifting it above waist-level to clear our back gate. Andrea's elbows were sore from baring so much weight and I felt guilty for having her lift it.

Once we attached new floor savers on the bottom, we slid it into place. We spent some time rearranging the pillows to try to find the right look. The new pattern is very elegant and warm and goes beautifully with the lighter color on the wall and the wood laminate. The seat cushions have gone from being too squishy to being a little too firm, but I am sure that sitting on the couch for a bit will soften them up.

Just as we sat down on the couch for the first time, Garrett started waking up. Andrea got ready for bed and fed him, part of their nighttime ritual. I took the opportunity to play with our new bottle sterilizer and start some laundry, then I came to bed around Garrett's second night feeding.

Since Garrett went to bed before opening his Hannukah gift # 4, we opened it the next day. It was a Play'n View with lights and sounds plus a mirror for my car. Now both Andrea and I will be able to see Garrett when we drive alone and he will have some fixed entertainment for car rides.

Always Up for Costco

This morning I brought Garrett downstairs earlier than yesterday, between 7:30 and 8:30, then went back to bed until about 10. We saw Andrea's dad before he left for his office, then Andrea and I had some breakfast, and a latte with Mariann (espresso for Mariann and me, Chai for Andrea). We spent most of the day lounging in our pajamas. Garrett was so smiley that we had a photo shoot on the couch.

Mariann told us she was interested in buying a video camera as a training tool for riding. She wanted our advice on selecting one. The prices on digital cameras have dropped amazingly. With new technology (hard drives and high definition) still several years from coming to the consumer market, it's basically a matter of choosing your favorite brand. There's no better place to purchase electronics than Costco, both price and their unbelievable return policy, so we planned an outting for the evening. Ultimately, Mariann selected the Panasonic model that Costco carries. As much as I am a fan of Sony products, I could not justify encouraging her to spend an additional hundred dollars when the Panasonic will function perfectly well.

Garrett was so calm during the entire trip. He was happy while I pushed him around the electronics and DVD sections, then he fell asleep while we compared Camcorder models. He got a little upset on the ride home, but quickly calmed and slept for the rest of the ride.

As we were leaving Costco, an employee who knows that Mariann is from Sweden approached me speaking Swedish. I did not hear him at first, but recognized that he was not speaking English. When I looked over at Mariann and she obviously understood, I realized he was speaking Swedish. Mariann answered for me that I "talar inte svenska". He and Mariann conversed in Swedish for several minutes and he spoke to Andrea as well, who understood the conversation. When we were loading the car, another Costco employee asked uswhat language we were speaking, and then wanted to know how to say something in Swedish. Per his request, Mariann and Andrea taught him to say "hurry up". This whole experience reminded me how much I have want to learn to speak Swedish. the first summer that Andrea and I lived in our house, I suggested we should speak exclusively Swedish; it was a very quiet hour!

Once we arrived back at their house, I charged up the battery and familiarized myself with the camera briefly as Mariann prepared dinner. We had intended to go over the cameras functions tonight, but started watching a movie after we ate, and Mariann fell asleep almost immediately. Andrea and I were interested initially in the story about foreign women imprisoned in Singapore by the Japanese during World War II, but decided to shut it after the third scene of graphic violence (when they hurt the dog, that was the last straw!).

Garrett was grunting like he was wanting to poop, so we put him on his play mat. Kicking normally helps him go! Only 5 minutes later, we heard the sound of thunder. Garrett had pooped!

Garrett's third Hannukah present was a butterfly with a mirror in the center that goes in Andrea's car, to let her see Garrett from the driver's seat. He smiled at the butterfly, and played with it as Mormor moved it around in front of him. The butterfly liked to kiss Garrett's nose and say "Puhpsies".

We spent some time going back through Andrea's calendar, compiling items for a pregnancy review blog entry. I will link to it when it is complete, but it will be dated October 13th and mention the major events in the 9 months after Garrett was conceived. When Garrett woke up we moved upstairs and continued reviewing the calendar until I fell asleep holding the sidekick.

At 3am, Garrett woke up with a wet diaper, so I brought him downstairs to change him, which woke up Mariann. Andrea helped her rinse a few dishes and take the dogs out. Garrett decided he wanted to eat, so we all had an after-midnight snack and returned to bed at 5am.

Recuperation Day

After getting to bed at 4am, everyone was pretty sleepy. I was rocking Garrett between 9:30 and 10:30, when Andrea brought her boys back to bed. After that I slept until 1pm and woke up in time for a yummy sausage omelete.

Afterwards, I was burping Garrett when he fell asleep on my chest. He
slept as I read and Andrea took a bath. Then we swapped so I could
shower and get dressed.

For the second night of Hannukah, Garrett's gift included 3 Onesies and 2 pairs of socks and a stuffed Zebra. The Zebra perfectly matched his green and blue outfit, a gift from Mormor.

Tonight's dinner was a recombination of items from Christmas Eve dinner, startng with the pate. Then we had meatballs with cabbage, followed by lox, and then ham with squash.

After the main course, we played a card game called 500 (although we modified to only play to 200, which took an hour and a half). Garrett slept through most of the card game, but woke up for the last round and helped Mormor play. After cards, we enjoyed a very diverse cheese plate, followed with frangelico cake and espresso.

At the end of the cheese course Garrett got very upset. He has spit up a lot more than usual today. We changed him into pajamas and Andrea fed him, but he seemed unable to focus on eatting. After a long burping he settled down to eat and fall asleep. While Andrea and Garrett slept on the sofa, I showed Ron how to load music from CDs onto his iPod and imported enough music to fill it.

Then I prepared for bed (and wrote this blog entry) before waking Andrea and going to bed.

On the First Day of Christmakkah...

When I first woke up this morning there was a thick layer of white out the window, so I sang White Christmas to Garrett. Of course, being Southern California, it was a super thick fog rather than snow. We all fell back asleep for a little while. Once we got up, we brought Garrett downstairs to see that Santa had filled his stocking with Monkey themed gifts: a stuffed monkey, a "5 Little Monkeys" book, and another book about monkeys "Hand, Hand, Finger, Thumb

After some breakfast, we got ready for the day, and dressed Garrett in his "Baby's First Christmas" outfit. We were the first guests to arrive at Mom and Aunt Betsy's house, so we chatted and unloaded our presents under their tree. My Uncle Andy and his girlfriend, Carole, arrived next, followed by Aunt Bev, Rachel and Betsy. Bill is sick this Christmas, so he stayed home with my uncle, Shawn. Once everyone got settled we started exchanging gifts. With my family, the process is quite different than with the Cordovas. There is only one gift opened at a time and the gifts tend to be wrapped individually. The advantage to this system is that you can see what each person is giving to the other person; however, the gift exchanged takes significantly longer (cumulatively we spent about six hours exchanging gifts, and had a fun time doing so).

As Andrea and I expected, people were especially generous with gifts for Garrett, since it was his first Christmas. He received lots of clothes and toys, with an emphasis from one branch of the family tree on basketball themed gifts ;-)

We enjoyed a delicious prime rib dinner with baked potatoes, a corn casserole, salad and rolls. During dinner, we received a phone call from my cousin Helen, who was celebrating Christmas in Nashville, Tennessee. She sent her congratulations to Andrea and I on Garrett's birth and a Merry Christmas wish for all. Dessert included an amaretto cake that was a gift to Mom and Betsy from Andrea's parents with homemade Devonshire cream to accompany it. There were also cookies, peppermint bark and fudge on the table!

Being the first day of Hannukah, we also opened Garrett's first Hannukah present. After describing the festival of lights to Garrett, someone said "we should get this on video". As soon as we pulled out the video camera Garrett grinned from ear to ear! It was one of the biggest smiles in a day filled with big smiles (in a week that has been categorized by his increasing smiles!). After describing the festival again for posterity we unwrapped his "Little Piggies" hand puppet & book combo and we read him the story right away.

After the presents were opened and the other guests were heading home, Garrett fell asleep on Andrea's chest while I quickly tried to fix a problem with the component video on Mom and Betsy's new home theater set-up. Apparently my diagnosis of a bad dvd player was incorrect, so we reconnected the cables as they had been and then I packed up the car. Garrett slept the whole ride back to Coto de Caza and stayed asleep while the parents got ready for bed. However, he woke up as we transferred him into his cradle, too hungry to sleep by himself, so Andrea fed him before we all
fell asleep for the night. Merry Christmas (and Happy Hannukah) to all, and to all a good night.

Merry Christmas Eve

Garrett's first Christmas Eve was a lot of fun. We spent the morning wrapping gifts and Garrett sat in his swing and watched Andrea wrapping for almost an hour. We all bathed and got ready, Garrett weighed in at 11 pounds and 1 ounce. Then Garrett fell asleep in his bouncy chair (with a little help from the hair dryer) so we could pack up the car.

We had to drive separate cars in order to be able to bring our couch back on the way home, so Andrea arrived a few minutes before I did and she began feeding him. When I arrived with Katie, we alternated unloading the cars and holding Garrett.

Tonight's dinner was a lengthy affair, but Garrett slept through the majority of it, allowing Andrea and I to eat together with Mariann, Ron, Danielle and Justin. We started with Gravlox on a Corn Pancake with Creme Fraiche. Then we had two kinds of pate with bread and mustard. Next was Swedish meatballs and cabbage followed by ham with acorn squash (all of us except Ron combined those two courses).

At this point, we exchanged gifts and Garrett woke up to take part in the evening. Exchanging presents with the Cordovas is a bit of a blur because there are always two or three people opening at a time. However, it was a lot of fun to see people open from us, and we received some wonderful gifts. I think the most fun was opening the gifts for Garrett.

By the end of the exchange, cheese was served, but Garrett needed some quiet time to eat. Andrea and I each read part of "The Night Before Christmas" to him and he fell asleep eating. When Andrea and Garrett returned for pie, he was ready for another nap, which lasted long enough to enjoy dessert and say goodbye to Justin and Danielle who leave for Vancouver tomorrow morning.

Finally we put Garrett in his pajamas and he snuggled with Andrea and Mariann on the couch. I think I heard Santa down the block, so I'll rush to bed myself and wish all readers a Merry Christmas.

Proof in the Pudding

Today was a very big day at work for me. A project I have been working on for about 5 weeks was scheduled to be demonstrated to my boss and a colleague. The goal was to make it "good enough that I would buy it"! It was originally scheduled for 2pm, then moved to 11am, then 10:30am. At 10, I was struggling to finalize a few things, so my boss "granted [me] a reprieve" until 1:30. I worked through my lunch hour and by 1:30 was compiling and updating our history file (a record of what has changed). I walked into my boss' office at 2:05 ready for the demo, so all the rescheduling was for naught. However, the feedback was mostly positive with some detail changes to work out.

The demo went from 2 to 4, so when I left at 5, I was pretty wiped out. I stopped at Von's to pick up a few things, and then home to prepare appetizers because we had planned to meet with Patti & Cy this evening for dinner.

It took me a while to shake off the long day, but we all had a very fun dinner to celebrate the holidays and Garrett had a lot of fun with Patti & Cy. They gave Garrett a set of 4 hand puppets that he starred so intently at. They also gave him a light maker that shines animal shapes on the ceiling and plays music. Cy turned it on and we dimmed the lights so it would show up on the ceiling, but Garrett liked to stare directly at the light maker.

By the end of the night Cy had fallen asleep and I was feeling tired as well; however, once I started putting the last few branches on the tree I hit a second wind. After eatting, Garrett fell asleep and he slept in his bassinet while we decorated the tree. I needed Andrea's help stringing the lights, as my attempt was incredibly uneven. We both enjoyed hanging ornaments and were extremely happy to have decorated the tree. Following a tradition from Andrea's family, Garrett's snowman stuffed animal became the tree topper for this year, which is more fun than having the same one every year. Last year's topper, Baby Elmo, was very gracious in
passing on the title.

Sleeping Beauty

This morning Garrett played on his playmat while Andrea pumped. He enjoyed grabbing the Parrott as well as hearing and feeling it crinkle. When he had enough of that, he had Tummy Time. After a few head turns from side to side he had enough of that. Andrea gave him a bath that he really enjoyed.

After getting dressed he spent time in his bouncy chair. He likes to swat his hands at the toys, especially the lion, which he stares at intently. As Andrea was getting out of the shower, he made noise that he was done - a kind of pre-cry. Andrea quickly dried off and then turned on the blowdrier, which calmed him and he fell asleep, allowing Andrea to dry her hair and dress.

He continued napping while Andrea attacked the mess that had been growing downstairs since the couch left. At noon, Garrett woke up to eat and I came home for lunch. He snuggled with me for a few minutes after we all ate, before I had to go back to work. Then he went into his rocking chair while Andrea continued to clean downstairs and he fell asleep to the sound from the vacuum cleaner.

When he hears a white noise, like the vacuum, his eyes get glossy as if he is tuning out visual stimulus and focusing on the sound. His whole body relaxes and he is hypnotized. Eventually, his eyelids become heavy and he falls asleep.

Andrea finished cleaning the downstairs just in time for Garrett to wake up. When he awakened, he did not cry like he usually does, but rather sat there contently. Andrea thought it was time for a diaper change and some food. For the next hour or so, Garrett kept falling asleep on the breast rather than eating. Andrea decided to take Garrett and Katie for a walk. It was a little too cold to stay out, so they went for a short walk to the mailbox and returned home. Of course, Katie really wanted to walk! Garrett was asleep when they got home, so Andrea fed Katie and bathed her. Garrett still had not woken up, so she did some laundry and dishes. Andrea was feeling that it was time to feed Garrett, but he was still asleep, so she pumped again. I came home and we made dinner together - a mache salad with pear and pecans and then a delicious tilipia main course. It was great to cook together. In fact, it was the first time since Garrett's birth that we have cooked together - a
pasttime we used to enjoy on a daily basis. (He is worth all the changes, but it was nice to cook and dance in the kitchen together again!) Of course Garrett woke up just as we were sitting down to have the entree. Although Garrett seemed hungry, he was more interested in suckling than actually eating. Andrea thought maybe a burping and diaper change would be a good break and help him focus on eating when he
returned to the breast.

He has eaten so little today that his courdoroy pants fell off as soon as Andrea picked him up. Andrea was having so much fun playing with him during the diaper change that he got the hiccups, which he usually gets when he is cold. They must be contagious because Andrea has been having them a couple times each week lately. Andrea never had the hiccups before Garrett was born, although Garrett had them in the womb every day the last month of the pregnancy. The only thing that gets rid of
Garrett's hiccups is milk. (I made pumpkin cake and chai latte while Garrett fell asleep snuggling and Andrea finished writing this entry!)

He is spending so much time sleeping, especially the past few days. Could it be because he is growing?

Rip Van Tom

Andrea was awake early with Garrett and Katie, but came back to bed for a short stretch mid morning. I slept in pretty late, as I tend to do on the weekends. Although we had intended to make our way back with some time to do stuff at home, it took most of the day for us to get ready and pack up.

We enjoyed some more time with Mariann, and a quick visit from Danielle on her way to the barn. However, a big portion of the day was spent enjoying Garrett who probably ate extra to make up for not having Mommy around for several hours yesterday.

Daddy's Day

Today Andrea had plans to meet Danielle, Darci & Natalie for Holiday Tea. That means I got to spend the day with Garrett. However, I was not alone, Andrea's mom invited us over. The plan was to put up the Cordova Family Christmas Tree, but plans change when you have a little bundle of love to spend time with.

The morning was the usual scramble to get everything together. I dropped Andrea off at Danielle's house right on time, but I would find out later she was the only one! As soon as I pulled out of the driveway, Garrett began to vocalize, and it quickly turned to crying. I drove as quickly as I safely could, and arrived at Mariann's with an upset little man. She took him immediately so that I could unload the car and once we had his things we changed him and gave him a bottle.

Unfortunately, the bottle holder we used for the first time today is not as stable as the other. The advantage is that it is tall enough for 4 oz bottles; however, the disadvantage of spilling more than half the milk out is a big downer. Fortunately, we had enough milk to make due despite the spill and Garrett never drank the last bottle in the refrigerator today.

The time passed quickly, Garrett napped on and off and ate the 3 bottles that now only contained one ounce of milk each. Mariann and I discussed the different careers she has had in her life and how opportunity happens (the old saying, "When God closes a door, he opens a window" seems exceptionally true in Mariann's case, with opportunities arising at just the right moment; however, it could also be argued that someone like Mariann makes her own opportunity). Garrett was amazingly good as usual, but he was very happy to see Andrea when she returned in the evening.

The four of us had a nice evening and a delicious dinner. Katie and Bella got along better than some of our past visits and they spent time sleeping on Bella's bed without any trouble.

The story of our couch fabric continued as we debated a similar fabric that is less bold. Of course, the fabric that is no longer available is still our favorite and we may find ourselves waiting until March for the it to arrive again. This would mean having to take back our couch for a few months. However, I am sure whatever we decided the end product will be well worth the trouble.

I Know That Voice

This evening we went to Andrea's OB checkup. Dr Cropper immediately beamed upon seeing Garrett and held him for a picture. After our horrible experience with her partner, Andrea and I had both wondered if our expectations for the experience with Dr Cropper had been wrong, if it would have been more like the actual experience. However, this visit completely convinced us that it would have been a really positive experience if Dr Cropper had been delivering. Not that it changes what happened, but it was yet another confirmation to trust our instincts.

We spent quite a bit of the visit explaining our experience. Dr Cropper was appauled to hear about some of the things we described. We had prepared a short description of our experience that we left with her so she has the option to discuss it with her partner. She also informed us that the policy at the hospital is to call in another anaesthesiologist if the wait is longer than half an hour. Since Andrea waited about 3 hours, this is clearly in violation of that policy. Dr Cropper encouraged us to write a letter to the hospital administration and I think we will.

The entire time that Dr Cropper was holding Garrett he was staring at her, as though trying to remember her. I think he must know her voice from the pregnancy. It's amazing how much babies can absorb from the womb.