Winter ONEderland

Callum's birthday party was on Saturday. It was a Winter ONEderland theme, and I was really happy with how it turned out. All these people kept commenting on how creative and crafty it was, and while I appreciated that, and also it's totally true that it was a lot of work to put it together, I have to give most of the credit to the Internet. Elizabeth made the bunting. Misty suggested the photo chain. Pinterest gave me the vast majority of the other decor ideas, as well as pretty much all the recipes. Basically, the Internet means that you can execute something cool without having to come up with all the creative ideas yourself. WIN.


Here's the bunting Elizabeth made. Isn't it stunning? She did the whole thing--all I had to do was glue the triangles onto some silver rickrack and hang it up.


Decor was balloons, tissue paper pom poms, wooden snowflakes that I colored silver, tealights floating in jam jars tied with raffia bows (inspired by this), and blue stones in clear vases. Plus the bunting, the favors, and the photo chain. And one little blue bucket of foam "snowballs" with a little flag sign saying "Snowballs, 5 cents."


I was so pleased with the photo chain. I ordered it off Etsy and all I had to do was put in the photos. There were 12 slots when I had been expecting 13, so I just put the newborn to 11 month photos on the chain and then centered the one-year photo above it. This chain got tons of compliments from all the guests. It was such a cute way to see how much he's changed in a year. Here you can see it in more detail:


I didn't do much to give the food a wintry theme, but we did do a hot cocoa bar (inspired by this), complete with Bailey's, Kahlua, and amaretto, whipped cream, pirouettes, candy canes, and flavored marshmallows (peppermint, cinnamon, and gingerbread, plus regular). That was also a big hit--we went through over a gallon of hot cocoa!


The spread (plus bonus shot of Jeni and family) included some items made by me--chocolate cake, gingerbread cake, lemon pull-apart bread, peanut butter brownies, spinach pockets, and crab rangoon--plus assorted store-bought dips and appetizers.


The favors were hot cocoa cones, done based on this tutorial--I just replaced the Valentine-themed sprinkles with a mix of white, silver, and blue sprinkles to fit the winter theme. (I did puff cones for the babies.)



And then, of course, there was the birthday boy. He only napped for 40 minutes before the party, so that was less than awesome, but he seemed to have a great time. He wasn't at all overwhelmed by the crowd of people in the house, and he had fun crawling from person to person and seeing all the other babies. He looked very serious when everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to him, but he didn't cry or act shy. He was not, however, specifically interested in his birthday cake.


In fact, he wouldn't eat any of it. He did pick up a tiny crumb at one point and lifted it to his mouth, but then he put it back down without actually tasting it. He did, however, crack a smile when I blew out his candle for him:


And as soon as the party ended, he conked out completely. It must have been exhausting.

I was really happy with how the party came together--but beyond the details, the best part was just getting all our friends together in one place. I didn't plan activities or anything--only food and decor--but inviting a whole bunch of people with babies makes the socializing pretty easy, because everyone has a lot to talk about. Most of our friends hadn't met each other before, but they all got along great and seemed to have a good time. And it was so lovely to see so many people that we adore together in one place to celebrate our baby. When everyone was gathered around him singing "Happy Birthday," I was smiling but I also felt a little choked up. It was just so sweet.

I hope everyone had a great time. I definitely did. Though I can't believe that after all the planning and baking, my child STILL has never tasted cake. He has no idea what he's missing.

Twelve months

Holy god, you guys.


My baby is one year old.


My tiny little newborn.


He is talking and he is close to walking and until he is really walking we can keep pretending that he isn't actually a toddler, RIGHT?

LOOK HOW TALL HE IS OMG.

I can't believe that it's been a year. It seems physically impossible. And yet the proof is undeniable.


Happy birthday, baby boy. You have made this past year the best of our lives.

Grad school

When I graduated from college, most of my friends were talking about grad school. Some of them were going right away. Others were going to work for awhile while they figured out what they wanted to get an advanced degree in. But nearly all of them had a plan that involved going to grad school eventually.

And pretty much all of them have done so by now. Law school. MPA. MPP. MBA. A couple ambitious friends are even in the middle of PhD programs at the moment.

Me? I was NOT interested in grad school. I always said that the classes were my least favorite part of college. The thing I liked least about them (other than getting up early) was that even when you weren't actually DOING your work, you felt like you SHOULD be doing your work. So if you were out with friends or whatever, there was always a little niggling feeling at the back of your mind reminding you of all the work you still had to do. I HATED that.

So after college, I got a job. I was thrilled with it. It was a fantastic job in public health, and I found the work really interesting. And I loved that after you left at the end of the day, you didn't have to think about it again until the next morning and could enjoy your free time with a clear conscience. And I told everyone who asked that I was thrilled to be in a profession that didn't require a master's degree, and that I was never going to school again.

Except that by "never" I guess I really meant "for five and a half years," because guess what starts today? That's right: the first class of my graduate program.

I don't really NEED the degree for my career, per se, though it will certainly be beneficial. I'm really happy with my job and the work that I'm doing, and so far nobody has ever asked if I had a master's degree or implied that I should get one. But eventually, I think its absence would become more of an issue. And, I work with a bunch of really smart, educated people. Most of them have grad degrees, and it helps a lot. Not just for their career trajectories, but for their true and deep understanding of the science behind the work we do.

What I really want out of this degree is a theoretical foundation for my practical work experience. I've learned a ton about public health, social marketing (NOT the same as social media; see here for an explanation), and behavior change through my work in this sector. I've learned a fair amount about logic models and theoretical frameworks, too. But I've learned it piece by piece, as I've seen it in documents I've edited or discussed it in strategic meetings. And while I know a lot already, I want to connect the dots. I want to study the academic basis for these theories and gain a true, deep understanding of how and why they work. I want to be fluent in this language and instinctively know which framework we should propose for our latest project, based on the desired outcomes.

So I'm going back to school. I'm getting a master of science degree in health communication from Boston University. It's a program designed for students who are also working full-time. The other students in the program will also have demanding jobs and personal lives. So I won't be alone in my attempts to juggle work, school, and family. It will certainly be intense, but it will also be worth it. And hopefully it will be interesting, too. Health communication is the only field I've ever come across that has interested me enough to devote an entire degree to it. And I'm really excited to do it.

The program should take about 18 months. So you can all hold off on baby #2 watch until then.

Sickie

Callum got a cold a little over a month ago. After a week or so, I took him to the doctor to get checked out in advance of our trip. The doctor said he had a cold but his ears and lungs were pristine so he was fine to fly, and in fact, taking him to a humid climate is the best thing you can do for the cold.

The trip did seem to help. The second we landed in Florida his nose basically turned into a faucet for the next three hours, which seemed to be the humidity softening everything and letting it flow. He remained sick for the rest of our trip, but it seemed pretty mild.

We got home and he was still sick. He was coughing and his nose was running. Then he started pulling on his ears, something he'd never done before. He did it constantly, especially on the right ear, and I noticed on the video monitor that sometimes he would put his hands on his ears in his sleep. All the articles about ear infections said that the number one indicator of an ear infection is the baby's mood, though, and he seemed as happy and energetic as usual, so I thought maybe it was just a new habit.

He was still sleeping through the night, though sometimes he'd fuss a little in his sleep. Some days his appetite seemed low but the next day it would be fine again. His naps kind of sucked, but that could be (and might still be) totally unrelated to a possible ear infection and completely related to him being, you know, a baby. I still felt like something wasn't right with him, so I called the nurse line at our pediatrician and was told, maybe it's his ears but more likely it's just an ongoing cold, up to you what to do. So I decided to hold out for his 12-month well visit at the end of January.

But you know what the weird thing was that tipped me over the edge? In the mornings he would sit up in his crib and start banging the back of his head against the railing. This seemed like a strange new habit so I googled it and found this BabyCenter article, which said that head banging is a common self-soothing technique, particularly among boys, and then mentioned that it can sometimes be an attempt to distract themselves from the pain of teething or ear infection. When I read that, somehow I just KNEW that's what was going on. It was the final straw of all these little things, I guess. I just KNEW that despite what everyone said about how all this stuff could be normal, it was just a cold, he'd be unhappy if he had an ear infection, he wouldn't be sleeping, and so on, that this wasn't typical behavior for my kid, and that something was probably up.

So yesterday morning I called the pediatrician's office at the dot of 8:00 a.m. and managed to get a same-day sick appointment with our regular doctor, which is nothing short of a miracle because she's incredibly popular and doesn't usually even take sick appointments. We went in yesterday afternoon and the nurses continued to try to convince me that he was just fine and it was all typical baby behavior. And I kept responding (and they agreed), "Yeah, maybe he's fine but I thought it was better to get him checked out just to be sure."

Then he saw the doctor. And she was awesome. And she did not make me feel like a paranoid first-time mom. And she spent ages with us. And she checked him very thoroughly. And she discussed everything with me.

And she diagnosed him with bronchiolitis, a double ear infection, and a yeast diaper rash as the cherry on top.

So! After extreme hassle with three pharmacies, one of whom tried to charge us $200 for medication that our insurance ended up covering to the tune of $14 out of pocket (THANK GOD), he is now on steroid nebulizer treatments for the bronchiolitis for two weeks, antibiotics for the ear infection for 10 days, and over-the-counter yeast cream for the rash until it clears up.

And parental instinct for the win. I KNEW something was up. I even knew the infection was worse in the right ear than the left. And now I know that I was right: my kid is the type who acts totally fine and happy even when he has to be massively uncomfortable.

Now we just hope that the treatment makes him feel better really, really soon. And that he stops thrashing like an octopus during his breathing treatments, or it's going to be a long two weeks.

Sunny days

So. Christmas travel. We spent four and a half days in Miami before heading to North Carolina for a week at my parents' house, and wow, was it glorious. The whole trip was really fantastic, actually. Callum is basically a dream traveler--no fussing, naps through plane rides, rolls with the unpredictable vacation days as far as a nap schedule is concerned, sleeps fantastically at night, is generally adorable and happy as always, even 1,500 miles from home.


We didn't buy him a ticket for any of our flights, but for two out of the three flights we were able to snag an empty seat for him so he could fly in his car seat, and on both those flights he slept for many hours and was awake only for takeoff. In one case we actually had to wake him up when it was time to deplane. On our flight back to Denver from Raleigh-Durham, however, he did have to ride on our laps and it was extraordinarily unpleasant, mostly for us. 28 pounds of active, curious, thrashy baby in an already cramped seating situation is not ideal. He did sleep for an hour and a half of the flight, which was good, except that he did it sprawled across our laps, so by the time he woke up our legs were asleep and our backs were killing us and we were ready to get off the plane rightthissecond.


But! Two out of three isn't bad, and really, he was so well behaved that even having him on our laps was tolerable. Still, I think the next time we fly with him we will splash out the cash for his own seat, partly because it's safer anyway, but really because nothing beats peacefully reading your book and eating your snack from your tray table with nobody trying to pour your juice all over you or pull your shirt off so you flash the whole plane--and instead, your baby is sleeping peacefully in his car seat next to you. Given that our kid is the SIZE of your average two-year-old, I think it's about right that he should be given his own seat as is required at age two.


Anyway! The trip itself was fantastic. The ocean water was a little cold and had some jellyfish in it, so we didn't go beyond the edge, and Callum was already pretty dubious about the tiny waves that crashed on his legs. He loved the sand, though, and ate less of it than I was expecting, and he enjoyed the hotel pool, and he spent quite a bit of enjoyable time playing with his toys on the hotel balcony.


And you can only imagine how much he enjoyed a week of grandparent time. He got all the attention his little heart could desire, and many amazing, thoughtful holiday gifts. He watched a menorah lighting for the first time, and crawled around with his cousin, and had his first Christmas dinner (Yorkshire pudding, peas, and roasted root vegetables were particular favorites). He met friends and crawled around my childhood bedroom and chased after my parents' dogs and cuddled with Grandma and Grandpa and generally had the time of his life.


Oh, and he said his first word. "Doggie" ("dah-GAH!"), followed shortly thereafter by Mama and Dada, and then "meh" when he wants more. The jury is still out on whether he's trying to say "more" in English or "mehr" in German, but the meaning is clear. This kid is talking. And even when he's not saying discernible words, he is chattering and babbling constantly. He has a lot to say. And we are happy to listen.

Cousins! In matching outfits! If only they'd been willing to sit still side by side and smile at the camera. Oh well.

It was such a wonderful vacation, with the two most perfect traveling companions imaginable. What a great way to start off the new year.

Time to sum it all up again

(Previous years: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007)

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?
Had a baby. Paid off a car. Started working for a for-profit company.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I didn't make any resolutions last year, and I don't intend to make any this year. Sorry.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
A ton of people (plus me, of course). My sister, and a whole bunch of friends. Including several local friends, which means play dates for Callum!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5. What countries did you visit?
For the first time since I started doing this survey, the answer is none. Damn baby.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
I honestly don't know. 2011 was a pretty perfect year. I can't think of anything we're lacking.

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
January 24, when Callum was born.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Um. Is "having a baby" going to get old by the time we get to the end of this survey? I guess I'd say achieving some balance in my life in terms of raising a happy, well-adjusted baby, enjoying a thriving marriage, and working at a full-time job that I love, all without going crazy.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not working out enough. We actually canceled our gym membership because it was impossible to go. Again, damn baby. Hopefully in 2012 we can figure out some kind of home exercise routine.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Other than a hideous 24-hour stomach bug that all three of us suffered through, plus the miserable cold that I'm currently nursing, no.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Our new SUV, I guess.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Torsten's, as usual. Seeing him with Callum just reinforces how great he is, every single day.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Most politicians'.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Our mortgage and childcare.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Oh, you know, having a baby. The usual.

16. What song will always remind you of 2011?
Hush Little Baby, since that's what I sang to Callum all the time when he was an infant.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder?
b) thinner or fatter?
c) richer or poorer?
a) Happier
b) Thinner (not too difficult to achieve, considering that when I did this survey last year I was about 37 weeks pregnant)
c) Richer

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Nothing specific, really. I'm pretty happy with what I did this year.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Stressing about breastfeeding. So not a big deal in the end.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
First we went to Miami Beach for four days, and then we spent a week at my parents' house in North Carolina along with my sister's family. It was great.

21. Did you fall in love in 2011?
With Callum, for sure.

22. What was your favorite TV program?
House is the only current show we watch. We also went through the full series of The Wire and Boston Legal on DVD this year, and they were both great.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
No.

24. What was the best book you read?
I liked The Marriage Plot a lot.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Um. Did I make any musical discoveries this year? Oh dear. I don't think so.

26. What did you want and get?
A baby.

27. What did you want and not get?
New siding for our house. Yes, I know, I'm very domestic.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
I really enjoyed both Contagion and Arthur Christmas.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I can barely remember. I think we went out to dinner at our favorite sushi restaurant, with Callum. I turned 27.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I really can't think of anything. As I've said for the last two years, it was a great year exactly as it was.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
I would go so far as to say that I changed my shirt after approximately 80% of incidents involving Callum spitting up on me.

32. What kept you sane?
My husband and baby.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Stephen Colbert.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
The horrifying slate of presidential candidates presented by the GOP. Does that count as a political issue? Also the usual stuff like health care, reproductive rights, gay marriage, etc.

35. Who did you miss?
I'm going to steal my answer from the last two years here: Most of my friends and family, since pretty much all of them live far away now.

36. Who was the best new person you met?
Elizabeth (and Eric and Hannah). I mean, unless you count Callum, since we technically met him this year.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.
I really can trust my instincts. They almost always lead me in the right direction.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Nope, sorry. I did this last year and I don't think I'll ever have such a strike of inspiration again.

Happy New Year, everybody!

Eleven months

Dear Callum,

Today you are 11 months old. Let's not even discuss the fact that this means that next month you'll be a year old, because I still can't believe it.


This has been a huge month for you in terms of gross motor skills. Something clicked in your head about pulling up to standing, and now you do it constantly. You don't so much pull as you casually brace yourself to stand up. When I walk in the room you will crawl over to me as fast as you can, place your hand on my shin, and stand up. You've also figured out how to sit back down again by squatting, kneeling, or lowering yourself down the bars of your crib. You can bend over to pick up a toy and stand back up, and you're just on the verge of cruising--sometimes you shuffle along your play yard while holding on with both hands. You've been letting go while standing more and more recently, and can stand unassisted sometimes for 10-15 seconds. Sometimes you even clap your hands while standing up.


You are becoming more and more social, too. When we hold out our hands and ask you for the toy you're giving us, you will happily hand it to us. You love to imitate the sounds that we make, and you imitate sounds that other kids make too. We went to dinner with friends one night, and their toddler shrieked so loudly that everyone else in the restaurant turned to look. Then two seconds later you emitted a pitch-perfect version of the same shriek, so similar that at first I thought it was our friend's kid making the same noise again. Luckily the restaurant wasn't crowded at all. Your nanny takes you to the playground regularly, and you've gone from crying when other babies touched you to pushing back when you get pushed. You are definitely figuring out how socializing works.


You're incredibly chatty. You say "mama," and it seems more and more like you mean me when you say it, though I'm still not convinced enough to declare it your first official word. You babble nonstop, and it really sounds like you think you're talking. You understand a lot of words--I can think of at least 20, and I'm sure there are more that you understand that I'm not aware of. You will imitate us when we say "doggie" or "daddy," but you haven't yet said those words independently. You also try to wave, though you use both hands to do it and usually end up clapping instead.


You love toys. You're also really into lift-the-flap books at the moment, and can happily lift the flap over and over again, though we have to be careful when you do it so that you don't accidentally rip the flap right off. You also turn the pages of your books, making it hard for us to actually read them to you. You can focus on books for a very long time, though, and will deliberately and thoroughly look through your books one page at a time, examining each one thoroughly before moving on to the next. You will play with your toys for a long time, and then you will occupy yourself by tossing them all away, over the play yard or the side of your crib. You try to stack everything, and will nest your buckets in each other by size. It is amazing to see you starting to learn how to use toys as intended, rather than just banging them together. In music class you know how to use the drum, the jingle bells, and the xylophone. If I put a hat on your head you will then take it off and put it back on over and over again.


You're still growing--you gained about half a pound this month after a couple months of no gain at all, and now weigh just over 28 pounds. We are moving more and more away from purees, especially now that you try to grab the spoon when we feed you and do it yourself. You have a great talent for finger foods by now, and though quite a bit of food still ends up on the floor when you feed yourself, by now you actually manage to consume a fair amount of food when you eat. You love everything we eat and many things we don't even like. Favorites include pickles, tomatoes, cucumbers, chicken nuggets, noodles, and rice cakes.


You are still sleeping fantastically. Even on vacation, you sleep 12 hours at night and take a 2-3 hour nap during the day. We love your sleep schedule and although we've learned by now that nothing ever lasts, we are hoping that you stick with this particular routine for awhile, at least.


Speaking of vacation, we're in Florida right now, headed to North Carolina shortly, and you are a fantastic traveler. We were lucky enough to end up next to the only empty seat on the plane on the flight to Miami, so you flew in your car seat and slept for three hours on the plane. You are not incredibly impressed with the cold ocean water, but enjoy splashing in the pool, and even when you tipped off the pool steps and fell face first into the cold water, you didn't even cry. And you really like playing in the sand. Your laid-back personality lends itself well to traveling, and we really appreciate being able to mess with your schedule without getting punished for it later. I'm sure at some point that will change, but we're enjoying it while it lasts.


You are still the sweetest, mellowest, most fun baby I've ever met. You have seemingly boundless energy, which can be exhausting, but it's worth it to watch you explore and laugh and interact with your world more and more every day. 2011 has been the year of you, and certainly the best year of our lives as a result. We are looking forward to many more amazing years with you.


Love,
Mama