Downs

• N/A

Ups

• It was great to have mom here today as I had to make stuff for potluck tomorrow. Boulder Church has “potluck teams” and each team does potluck 2 times a year. This means they set up the tables/chairs for potluck as well as bring extra food. When I had Calvin, I resigned from the potluck team I had been on but another team leader asked if I would be willing to be on her team and just make extra food. This seemed a reasonable compromise so I agreed. I got my two main dishes made this afternoon and just have to put the finishing touches on my dessert this evening.

Calvin Moment

• It appears that Calvin might know what the word “outside” means. I don’t remember exactly what I was saying but I was talking to mom about Calvin and the outside. Calvin stopped what he was playing with and immediately walked over to the sliding glass door and started fussing to be let out. It could have been coincidence but I don’t think so.

Simplification

• Delegated a couple of CDs to the thrift store bin.

Food Diary

• Oatmeal with Blackberries
• Lunch – Toasted cheese sandwich and 2 dark chocolate pieces
• Dinner – Garbanzo Pot Pie, Broccoli, and garlic bread
• After dinner treat – Chocolate Mint Squares (I need to test them before taking them to potluck tomorrow )

Downs

• N/A

Ups

• Calvin has been in a good mood much of the last couple of days. I really hope it lasts.
• My mom is here for about a week. Naturally, Calvin is loving having another person pay attention to him.

Calvin Moment

• We went to Kanemoto Park this morning. Unfortunately, I hadn’t thought to bring a towell and the slides all had puddles at the bottom. I used a blanket to wipe off one of the slides and Calvin had fun sliding down it. While we were at the park, I gave him a couple of graham crackers for snack. He held a piece of graham cracker in each hand and wandered around the park occasionally falling down. When he fell down, he’d attempt to get up but usually couldn’t do it while clutching the crackers. So, he’d carefully place the crackers down on the ground, lever himself up, and then grab the now completely sandy crackers.

Downs

• N/A

Ups

• Calvin was in a good mood today which made the entire day a nice day.

Calvin Moment

• Calvin likes to step up on things. He does this by holding onto a grown-up’s hands while lifting his foot onto the step and then getting the grown-up to help lift him up. Today at the park he decided he wanted to step up onto a park bench. He displayed impressive flexibility by lifting his leg up to around head height in an attempt to be able to “step” on the park bench. Obviously, this didn’t work very well but I lifted him up onto it so he was still happy with the experiment.

Simplification

• Threw out some old boxes that were cluttering our basement shelves.

Food Diary

• Oatmeal with Blackberries
• Snack – A couple of crackers
• Lunch – Toasted cheese sandwich and 2 dark chocolate pieces
• Dinner – Curry with brown rice and a piece of Roti
• After dinner treat – 3 chocolate pieces

Downs

• On Friday, one of our production servers went down when I restarted a service on one of our new test servers. It took almost an hour but eventually we tracked the problem down to a file on the production server that some how was overwritten as an empty file. While both the test and production servers are running the same software, our public catalog, there is no other connection between them. At the moment, I’m assuming it’s a very bizarre fluke but I’m going to be testing early tomorrow morning (I would have done it today except our vendor considers the patron catalog to be “non-critical” and doesn’t provide support on Sundays. I want them available in case something like opening up notepad on the test server causes the production server to format itself.)
• I’ve had a cold, or a series of colds, for more than 3 weeks now. I’m very ready to be well. Also, my back/neck is bothering me again. Currently, I have to turn my whole body instead of just my neck to see things behind me. I was completely miserable yesterday.
• Calvin had another breath holding spell Friday night. I didn’t panic this time until Calvin started breathing again.
• My plants are dead. This is entirely my fault as I forgot to check the weather report for frost and woke up to discover a light smattering of snow on them. Though, it looks like the plants I don’t particularly care about as much, such as thyme and dill, survived ok.

Ups

• Jaeger got up to take care of Calvin today. Between my cold and my back I didn’t get back to a deep sleep but I was able to snooze a little bit more.
• We got a babysitter for Calvin and went out to a coffee shop and read for a couple hours before grabbing lunch and returning home. It was good for both of us to get a break.

Calvin Moment

• I told Calvin’s babysitter that it was ok if Calvin went outside. Also, that he liked to play in dirt and the plants were dead anyway so it was probably ok to let him. We came back from our outing to discover Calvin covered from head to toe in dirt. He was obviously having the time of his life. One of his “toys” is an old measuring cup of mine which he commandeered as a shovel to scoop dirt from the pots onto our deck. Normally, we have to strip Calvin of his clothing after supper. Today, we had to strip him before he could come back inside the house.

Simplification

• Packed up some of Jaeger’s clothes for the thrift store.

Food Diary

• Breakfast – Waffles with peanut butter, blackberries, and real whipped cream
• Snack – Hot Chocolate (at the coffee shop)
• Lunch/Supper – A large burrito and 2 small pieces of chocolate
• Snack – a couple of dark chocolate pieces

Downs

• I still have a cold. It’s got to end someday, right?

Ups

• Calvin was in a pretty good mood today. HPLD has a subscription to Tumblebooks which I tried out today. I sat Calvin in the high chair and had the computer read him a story as I cooked. In general, I try to follow AAP’s guidelines on screen time but the only other way I’ve found to keep Calvin happy while I cook is to feed him. There’s a limit to how much food I feel comfortable giving him in one sitting. So, Tumblebooks is my compromise.

Calvin Moment

• Calvin continues to love playing outside. Today we just played in the backyard because it was drizzly and I wanted a quick exit strategy if it started pouring rain. Calvin found some mud and was happily patting it down when all of a sudden, he stuck a handful of it in his mouth. I suppose this was bound to happen. However, Calvin has very specific preferences when it comes to food and it appears that the mud did not meet these standards as he immediately made a face and started spitting it out. For the remaining time outside he did not try to eat mud again.

Simplification

• I spent way too long this evening reviewing legal docs surrounding my will and guardianship documents for Calvin. I found a couple more corrections that need to be made but we’ve almost got it right.

Food Diary

• Breakfast – Oatmeal with blackberries
• Lunch – Toasted cheese sandwich
• Snack – Chocolate Chips
• Supper – A “breakfast” burrito
• Evening Treat – Hot Chocolate

Downs

• I still have a cold. Today my ears started really hurting so I made an appointment to see the doctor. I eventually decided that they were just annoyed due to the air pressure changes today and when I saw the doctor she concurred with my analysis but said one of my ears was looking a bit dubious and gave me a prescription just in case it got worst.

Ups

• Sunday we got plants for the planters on our back deck. Last year I was a little preoccupied so we didn’t do anything and I really missed the fresh herbs. This year I got 2 Thai Basil, Columnar Basil, Sweet Basil, Oregano, Rosemary, Dill, Mint, Cilantro, a Patio tomato, and a Sun Sugar tomato. I haven’t had much luck with tomatoes in pots but I think it’s because I was trying to grow the wrong variety. Hopefully one of these will work better. Jaeger also got 3 peppers and plans to get one more pepper as well as flowers for the front porch.
• We had book club yesterday night which is always fun. We discussed Boneshaker which was about a women attempting to rescue her son from zombies after he braves a deserted city to attempt to vindicate his dead father’s memory. Next month we’re reading River of Gods which I’m less excited about. I believe Jaeger nominated it solely because it’s set in a future India (He’s a little obsessed about India these days. Note: the “India” bookshelf has grown substantially since this photo was taken.). My choice was Fever Crumb. I mean, how can you beat a book set in the future about the only girl in the Order of Engineers.
• After we got home last night, Jaeger and I discussed some long-term financial goals. We’ve decided to go ahead and pay off my graduate student loan in the next couple of months. We hadn’t been aggressively paying it down since I got an obscenely low interest rate but now it’s still several times greater than we can make with any liquid assets. From a pure numbers point of view, it would make more sense to pay off the mortgage first. However, in the short-term it works better to pay off the student loan first. That frees up a monthly payment we can use to save for a replacement car for when Yoda decides to die.

Calvin Moment

• Calvin is obsessed with being outdoors. This is actually more exasperating than cute as it’s incredibly boring to traipse around the outside of the house for hours. Normally, I would take him to the park but it’s not as sheltered as our subdivision and the wind was vicious today. However, in spite of my griping, I am pleased that he’s an outdoors kid. I’d much prefer him to spend his free time moving outside than glued to a screen. Plus, maybe this will offset the genetic disadvantage of having two myopic parents.

Simplification

• Emptied the shredder yet again and shredded more receipts.

Food Diary

• Breakfast – Oatmeal
• Lunch – Toasted cheese sandwich and a small Mango
• Snack – Waay too many chocolate chips.
• Supper – Spicy Green Bean & Tofu Stir-Fry over Brown Rice

Downs

• For the last couple of days I’ve had pretty bad back/neck pain. I suspect a combination of circumstances caused this but the proverbial straw that broke the camels back was my panic Tuesday night.

Ups

Today I got a massage. I wasn’t planning to but when I sat down to work for the morning I could barely concentrate because my back hurt so much. This was after taking a couple ibruprofen. So I looked at my schedule and decided I could probably squeeze in a massage if I tried.

Up till now, I’ve not been in the habit of getting massages, mainly because I don’t have enough extra in my expenditure allocation to cover it. However, I did get a couple the last month of my pregnancy (I highly recommend prenatal massages. They provide an hour of relief from all the achiness). Based on that experience, I thought a massage was worth a try.

I’m really glad I went and got a massage. It was worth every penny. My back still aches but now it’s down to a bearable level. Plus, my whole body feels much better. Not only did it physically relax my body but it gave me an hour to do nothing but relax which is too rare these days. I decided that I need to reevaluate my personal budget and see if I can allocate money for massages more often. After all, this indulgence much healthier for my body, though not my wallet, then indulging in chocolate

Calvin Moment

• Calvin is current is a very independent phase. I thought this wouldn’t happen till later but he’s started insisting on doing everything himself. Instead of being carried up the stairs, he wants to walk up the stairs. Instead of being fed, he wants to feed himself (and mommy too). He also really hates being strapped into anything: the car seat, the back pack carrier, even the swing (though once he’s in, he seems fine). I’ve decided it’s time I start queuing up my “strong-willed” or “spirited” parenting books.

Simplification

• Shredded more receipts.

Food Diary

• Breakfast – Oatmeal
• Lunch – A burrito, 1/2 banana, and 2 chocolate pieces
• Snack – A couple of crackers
• Supper – Split pea soup and 2 pieces of Applesauce Raisin Bread
• Evening Treat – 2 dark chocolate piece.

Let me preface this story by saying that Calvin is perfectly fine. We had a very calm and relaxing day today which I desperately needed

Calvin is a very intense child. When he’s happy, he’s very happy and when he’s upset, he’s very upset. It’s not uncommon for him to get so upset that he is completely breathless with rage.

With Calvin’s new schedule, I feed him breakfast and then take him to daycare for the morning. Then I pick him up after work. When we get home, I usually make supper while feeding him a snack in the high chair and then go to the park to play for an hour. After that, we get home and I finish up supper preparations, feed him, give him a bath, and then feed him a night-time bottle right before bed. Yesterday, everything was progressing nicely on schedule until bath time.

Calvin currently loves “climbing” stairs. He can do this on his hands and knees but he much prefers goose-stepping up the stairs while holding our hands. Last night was no exception. Then, toddler-like, he wanted to climb the stairs again, and again instead of taking a bath. Well, I decided it was bath time so I put him in the crib while I got all the bath stuff together. Calvin was very unhappy and started screaming. However, as I mentioned before, Calvin is a pretty intense child so this wasn’t surprising. While in the bathroom, I heard him let out one of his bloodcurdling screams that almost always preface him being so upset he’s silent for a minute or two. I listened with one ear waiting for him to continue with the scream.

He didn’t.

Apprehensive about the silence, I went to investigate. I figured that Calvin had finally learned how to crawl out of his crib. Instead, I found my baby lying face down on the crib mattress completely motionless. I turned him over to discover that his face was bright purple and his lips were blue. He had stopped breathing.

I panicked. I grabbed Calvin from the crib and screamed for my husband. This got Jaeger’s attention but all he could tell from downstairs was that something was wrong. I think I also screamed something like “Calvin! Blue!” while frantically wondering what I should do. I had taken infant CPR and I theoretically knew that with infants you are suppose to start CPR immediately instead of getting help first. However, I was confused because I knew that he had stopped breathing because he was upset, not because he was choking. I wasn’t sure if normal CPR procedure applied or not. By the time all this flickered through my head Calvin had started to make little gasping sounds. By the time I got downstairs with him, a couple of seconds later, his color had returned to normal and he was awake and seemed perfectly fine.

I, on the other hand, was not fine. We all had a little family sit-down-on-the-floor-in-the-livingroom-moment because I couldn’t stand. After a couple of minutes I took Calvin out on our porch and let the cool evening air continue to calm me down. Eventually, Calvin and I headed back upstairs and continued our night time routine of bathing, taking a bottle and then going to sleep. That is, Calvin went to sleep. I tried sleeping but couldn’t so I got up and finished reading Boneshaker, our book club choice for the month. After I finished it, I went back upstairs and finally managed to fall asleep sometime past midnight.

This morning I called Calvin’s pediatrician’s office and talked to the pediatric nurse who was very blasé about the situation. She assured me that breath holding spells are actually quite common when children are upset or in pain and nothing to be concerned about. If I suspect Calvin is going to have another spell, I should lay him down on his back so he doesn’t hit his head if he loses consciousness. After losing consciousness, he should start breathing again within a couple of seconds.

When I took Calvin to daycare, I mentioned it to them so they wouldn’t be surprised if it happens again. Ms Amy told me that she had another kid do this and sometimes blowing a puff of air into their face would startle them enough they would start breathing again. After that, I continued reading a parenting book I had checked out, If your kid eats this book, everything will still be okay, and discovered just a couple of pages after where I had previously stopped, Zibners also discusses toddlers holding their breath. So, it appears this really is a fairly common thing for toddlers to go through.

I think I’ve mostly recovered from the experience but I hope this is a one-time thing and not the start of a trend!

Downs

• It appears that Jaeger is sick. Calvin and I both have cold-like symptoms for a while but I don’t know if it’s related to what Jaeger has or not.

Ups

• Got my work laptop back today and it hasn’t died yet.
• Calvin was in a pretty good mood today and the rain/wind died down so we could go to the park.

Calvin Moment

• Recently, I’ve been having trouble figuring out how to read to Calvin. He never seems to want to stay still long enough to read an entire book. However, today, I tried reading to him story-time style. That is, instead of sitting him on my lap to read, I just angled the book so he could see it from where he was playing and read to him that way. This method seemed to work a lot better. He paid attention to the book and didn’t get too restless.

Simplification

• The church is having a “Sabbath reading” book swap. I had been holding on to a fair number of Christian Romances in case we had a girl that might enjoy reading them later. However, now that I’ve decided Calvin is going to be an only-child, I don’t think there is much point in keeping them. True, there is the off chance that he’d enjoy reading Christian Romance but it seems pretty unlikely.

Food Diary

• Breakfast – Oatmeal
• Lunch – A Larabar and a Luna bar
• Snack – 1 cookie and 2 dark chocolate pieces
• Supper – Lentil soup with 3 1/2 Banana muffins – yeah, I know that’s excessive but they were so good.
• Evening Treat – 1 dark chocolate piece.

Downs

• N/A

Ups

• Went to a Mommy group yesterday which was nice. Calvin seemed to have a lot of fun exploring a new house and I enjoyed talking to other women.
• My new kitchen computer arrived yesterday which has consumed most of my spare time recently. I stayed up way too late working on customizing it. However, I’m already in love with having a dedicated kitchen computer. I’ve got all the major customization done and now I’m working on figuring out the little things that will make my kitchen experience better.

Calvin Moment

• The weather today wasn’t conducive to a park visit. However, we did venture outside briefly between the rain. I pulled out an old green recycling bin we had because I thought Calvin would enjoy climbing into it. However, he decided to use it as a walking prop and pushed it for several houses until we hit another street. It made a horrible scraping sound the entire time but Calvin didn’t seem to mind.

Simplification

• Shredded some old receipts I found from 2008.

Food Diary

• Breakfast – Oatmeal
• Snack – 1 1/2 graham crackers
• Lunch – Toasted Cheese Sandwhich
• Snack – 1 cookie and 3 dark chocolate pieces
• Supper – Spicy Mung beans with Wild Rice topped with greek yogurt
• Evening Treat – 1 dark chocolate piece.