Uncommon Misconception

Hide Your Cheese, Ladies!

That's right: Milk is back on the menu!

For nearly two weeks now I've eaten dairy with absolutely no repercussions for Caroline.  To say I'm thrilled is to understate the issue.  Here in Texas, queso is as ubiquitous as bread and butter in the rest of the country.  Queso, literally translates simply to "cheese" in Spanish.  But in Texas, it means "cheese dip".  It's a beautiful concoction of melted cheese, salsa or pico de gallo, and occasionally ground beef.  Mexican restaurants can be made or broken over the quality of their queso.  Well, that and their margaritas or Mexican martinis.  And I, dear readers, am a connoisseur

But I haven't gone binging.  Well, not too much, anyway.  And my stint (look - correct usage!) as a dairy-free consumer has taught me a few lessons.

1) I actually really like soy milk.  I'm continuing to drink it in lieu of milk, and I'm using soy creamer in my coffee.

2) Luna bars rock.  And they make a great breakfast.

3) I don't need to eat as much or as often as I previously thought.  Perhaps I should say "as I previously did", since thinking had little to do with it.

4) Replacing the main fat component in your diet with other things - or nothing at all - has a nice effect on the body.

But damn, it's nice to have my cheese and chocolate back.

Would the REAL Julia Please Step Forward

I just finished a major project FOUR FULL DAYS before deadline.  Who am I?  Where did the real Julia go?

From the Mouths of Babes

Hannah has really come into her own in language skills lately.  It's no coincidence that she's also perfected her ability to take our well-meaning parental phrasings and turn them around on us.

Last week she happened to wake up earlier than usual.  I went in to her room in an attempt to lull her into another hour or so of sleep.  I got under the covers and snuggled up to her.  "Mom," she mumbled, rubbing her eyes.  "Yeah?"  "It's a little bit daylight now," she said, scrunching up her eyebrows.  "I know," I agreed, "but wouldn't you like to stay in bed and snuggle for a little while?"  She looked at me with a very studied, suspicious look.  And then finally, "Okay," (holding up two fingers) "you got two minutes."

Angels from on High

Remember my big idea?  If you know any angel investors who are interested in internet companies, services for women, food, or marketing to women (vague again, I know, but this is the best I can do here on the blog), drop me an e-mail.  We're almost ready to take the next step forward: securing funding.  If not, just wish me luck... I'll need your help later on no matter what.

More Serious

Remember my dad's "minor" heart attack?  Well, a few weeks ago, his cardiologist told him that his home-town doctor had done everything right - followed the right protocol and ordered the right tests - but the test that revealed the heart attack and the apparent non-blockage (yeah, I make up words? so what?) was wrong 20% of the time.  This meant that there was a chance that a) he didn't really have a heart attack, or b) he did, and the other arteries weren't actually free of plaques.  Well, or technically, c) the test was right.

You do realize that this is my dad, and that I must have a genetic disposition for weird medical issues, right?

Right.

It was a heart attack.  And of his three arteries, one is severely blocked and another is moderately blocked.  So... bummer.

He's going to need a stint.  Or something.  Something surgical.  They haven't spoken with the cardiologist yet.  Home-town doctor gave them a rough translation of the grainy fax he received from yesterday's CT-scan.

In the meantime they're going on a ski trip next week.  The doctor says there's no point in not going.  I really don't know what to make of all of this.  If any of you are up on the latest procedures for heart disease, send me a shout out.

Even Google Thought So!

The other day I was looking through my stats on flickr when I found this bit of disturbing news:

If you do a google photo search for "twins in belly", my belly shot comes up on the second page!  TWINS?!  That just ain't right.

I Heart Jumpy World

We had Hannah's birthday party at one of those big, inflatable jumpy-thing places*.  C'mon.  You know what I'm talking about.  If you have a toddler and any amount of inclement weather, you do.  Or should.

It was a huge success.  The kids had fun.  The place was helpful and clean and free of older kids-turned-bullies.  The adults had fun and ate breakfast tacos.  And - most importantly of all - my house was not destroyed in the process!  Huzzah!

My mother-in-law flew in from Buffalo for the weekend and festivities.  Her travel here, as usual, was a traumatic event.  We're hoping her return trip today goes more smoothly, but since no one can remember a single, solitary trip here that's gone well for her, we're not holding our breath.

There are pictures of the party up on flickr.  And as soon as I get this whole Web-video thing figured out, I'll share some clips.

*It's not really called Jumpy World, but the actual name is too long and convoluted, so that what we elected to call it here at home.

Three Years

Three years ago tonight, I got to see my baby girl for the first time.  It came after a horribly painful eight hours of separation while I recovered from my surgery and she was sequestered in the NICU.  It would be another day before I could hold her.

All day today I watched her in amazement.  I am humbled by the honor of being her mother.  There's really no other way to describe it.

Fun with Photoshop

Rather than cough up a bunch of money to have a company produce cards and invitations for me, I spent a bit of time playing with Photoshop this holiday season.  Then I used flickr to order 5x7 matte prints, et voila! Christmas cards and birthday invitations!  *Big prize (well, not really - unless you count the pride of na-nanny-boo-boo-ship) to the person who notices the special customization I included in the Christmas card.*

Operation SLOW DOWN: Update

Can you believe that there are some of you out there who are as interested (okay, close) as I am in Caroline's poo?!  Yes?  Well, good.

Operation SLOW DOWN - which included rice cereal and a Zegerid-Mylanta coctail - has been a huge, borderline-unmitigated success.  Within 24 hours we saw less frequent poo.  Within a few days we were down to one or two poops per day, compared to the seven or eight it had been.  Also within a few days we began to see more yellow than green.  And in another day or so the mucous was entirely gone.  As of today, Caroline continues to have yellow, slightly pasty poop once or twice a day.

Typically, Caroline wakes up and rice cereal is her first meal, followed in about a half-hour with a nursing session.  Then she plays for a bit and takes her first nap.  Rinse, lather, repeat.  She gets about four cereal feeds and five or six nursing sessions each day.  I'm sticking with only rice cereal until six months.  Since the whole point of this was simply to slow down her GI tract, I'm not to anxious to add in other foods just yet.

And I simply cannot tell you what a difference it has made. Caroline is an UBER-happy baby.  Really.  She coos and blows zerberts with the least provocation... like seeing someone walk by.  As a family, we finally get to reap the rewards of having an "easy" baby.  Five months later, but hey, that's okay.

We took her to our friends' house the other day for a whole afternoon of football, pizza*, and chit-chat.  She rolled around on the floor contentedly, cooed and slobbered on anyone who'd pay her attention, gamely squirmed at the "kisses" from our friends lab puppies, ate two helpings of cereal, nursed twice, and even took a nap!  We had her in her jammies before heading home that evening and she went smooth into bed as soon as we got home.  No fussing!  It was AMAZING!

Having a portable baby now has opened up a lot more doors for socialization and just generally getting stuff done.  We've also moved Caroline's bedtime back to 8:00 from 7:00.  She's now sleeping until 9:00 most mornings, with three wake-ups to nurse, spaced out every three to five hours.  I'm on the verge of becoming a real human being again!  We've even let her cry through some wake-ups when its clear she's not hungry.  And I believe as soon as she stops feeding so avidly at night, I'll reduce the number of wake-ups altogether. (I'm too nervous about getting her nice and chubby after all this business to take those away just yet.)

*As for the no-dairy stuff, I tend to agree with the GI that in our case, it likely wasn't ever the cause of Caroline's problems.  I began allowing hidden dairy back in last weekend, and it hasn't led to any change in her poop.  I did go a little overboard at our friends' house and swallowed three slices of pizza almost without chewing in a fit of craziness.  The next day Caroline was fussy, which freaked me out and sent me right back into the land of no dairy, but in retrospect, I think it was teething.  There never was any change on the business end.  I hope to start introducing small bits of actual dairy (read: cheese or milk) next week.  I'll keep you posted.