Fair's fair: as promised, since you watched Sophie & Josie on our anniversary, we will watch Dan on yours. What time should we pick the little feller up?
May 2007 Archives
Every once in a while things just click, and a slow realization dawns onto my sleep-deprived brain. The latest one worked like this:
Last New Year's Eve we drove down to Mountain Top to visit our friend Katina, who had volunteered to babysit our cat Eliot (oh yeah, remember him? we named the website after him) until we found our own place again. It's about an hour and a half drive, and we spent a fun evening with her, Nicholas and Maria (Mike was at a football game).
The next morning, Sophie suffered from some extreme constipation: she was tensed up, crying and sometimes screaming for about three hours. We tried Mylicon, Tylenol and finally mineral oil (which did the trick). We didn't know what to make of it, other than it was unusual and apparently pretty painful.
Over the next four months she had similar experiences, where sometimes she'd start crying and say she was going before bedtime, not go and start up again the next morning before finally going. Sometimes she'd struggle for 14-16 hours, on and off. We brought it up with our pediatrician, and in addition to the usual suspects (lots of water, whole grains, vegetables & fruit, all of which we're pretty consistent with) Sophie was prescribed a stool softener.
Then our month of medical hell happened, near the end of which Sophie was diagnosed with a pilonidal cyst. We were up to our knees in the flu and didn't have much time to research or make mental leaps larger than "this is covered in vomit, I'd better wash it", but finally Brandie sat down to read a little about what to expect for the aftercare of such a cyst. There she discovered pilonidal cysts usually become irritated after extended car rides, and that they can make going to the bathroom extremely painful.
Oh. Well that makes a lot of sense, doesn't it. My fingers are crossed that once she heals up from the surgery, we won't have to bother with the stool softener any more.
UMass college sophomore "Dan S." (real name withheld to protect his lameness) promised again today to visit us in our new (now old) house over the Memorial Day Weekend. Given his past history of failing to deliver on such promises, we're all holding our breath.
On the bright side though, he's offered to single-handedly move us into the new (still new) house! What a guy, that "Dan".
Our friend and recent visitor Matt (seen here not sticking his tongue out) is running Bay to Breakers today: we'd love to show up and cheer him on in-person, but will have to rely on our long-distance friends to relay it for us!
Go-o-o-O-O Matt!
Sophie's surgery was yesterday, and I'm happy to say everything went very well. The cyst was removed without a problem and wasn't infected so they were able to stitch it up entirely. She fell asleep in the car on the way home from the hospital (around 4pm) and slept straight through til 5:30 this morning; she had a good appetite at breakfast and has been in good spirits since. Her stitches don't seem to be bothering her too much yet.
Thanks again to everyone for all their support and well-wishes, and especially to Grandma for spending the day with Josie (whose new nickname is "The Closer") so we could both be at the hospital with Sophie!
Happy Birthday to my dad (seen here holding Sophie, his first grandchild). I hope you can make it up to the shack to celebrate. Save some fish for us!
Seen here celebrating her last birthday (just kidding, it was Sophie's and we made her wear the hat), we're all wishing Grandma Sue the best of birthdays today! Sophie is especially interested to know what kind of cake you'll be having.
Wishing a Happy Mother's Day to all our family & friends out there, especially new mom Jennifer, expecting new mom Kelly, and most especially to my lovely wife.
Brandie, you inspire me every day. Thank you for these amazing gifts!
Love,
Jacob
I often wonder that if I only had two years worth of memories, facts and information rattling around in my brain, would I still forget as much?
Sophie seems to remember everything. Today Jake and I were discussing how she is playing with words and sounds now. Here's an example (warning: this story mentions #2):
"I'm Soph-O, I'm Soph-E, I'm Soph-EYE" etc. So I said to Jake, she's playing with her vowels. Sophie turns to us and says "My poopoos is in my bowels." Well, yes, it is, but isn't that a little weird for a two year old to be saying? I think we mentioned it to her once because she was saying that her poopoos was in her belly and I don't know, I wanted to tell her where it really was. We discussed this once maybe two months ago and out it comes, total fact.
This one is sharp, we better watch what we say around her.
Our cousin, next-door-neighbor, childcare assistant, snow shoveler, lawn mower, game enthusiast and budding game designer Stephen turns 13 today!
Regrettably I don't have a picture of him and the new bike, so this one will have to do. We're all very excited to see it though, especially Sophie who associates all motorcycles now with her friend Danny.
Happy Birthday, Big Guy! Can't wait to treat you to a campfire and some Saranac soon.
