10 months

Miles, today you are 10 months old. You are sleeping right now. Yesterday Barack Obama had a historic nomination acceptance event and it makes me hopeful that the world will be an ok place for you to grow up in.

So how have you grown? You got 2 more teeth this month, your front top teeth and when you smile oh, well, I just melt inside. You're about 2 1/2 feet tall, your 18 month clothes are too small for you and keep popping off at the snap crotches.

So what can you do? You can give an Obama style Fist Bump, give High 5's, wave bye bye and give kisses. You call your Grandma "Ga". You call me "Ma", FINALLY! You enjoy chatting on the phone with Amelia - you both can't really talk but somehow have intense phone conversations with each other. You totally have everyone around here fascinated by your every move - even the office staff, who pitched in and bought you a piano with animal sounds which has become one of your favourite toys. Your Grandma seems to get high whenever she sees you - she acts so silly to entertain you. Another thing you have gotten good at is crying to be held. You act like we left you in the forest and you're afraid we will do it again. You CONSTANTLY want to be held and while my parents find it cute I find it annoying.

What happened this month? Well you got gastro and was the sickest I've ever seen you and it was scary. Projectile vomit, violent diarrhea and no appetite at all. Thankfully that has passed and you are back to eating like a termite.

Ok huggy bear, you woke up and are demanding attention, holding on to my chair and shaking it with your tiny might. When are you going to let go of that pacifier? Ok, you're trying to turn off the TV again, gotta go!

Vitamin D Deficiency May Lurk in Babies

From NY Times today, scary and something I have never heard of:

Exclusive breast-feeding may be associated with vitamin D deficiency and rickets, recent research suggests.
Click on title of post to see article.

I didn't know until this weekend.....

that babies could have such explosive diarrhea that it would actually blow the poop out of the diaper and all up the back of the baby and all on the bed too. I feel I have learned this piece of information the hard way.

Because I miss Pace and am kind of sick of the Olympics

more animals

House of Ill

We are hunkering down this morning weathering a storm of projectile vomiting coming from 3 sides. Two days ago my mom started having vomiting and diarrhea. Miles was not around her and we thought maybe she had food poisioning so did not expect it to spread. But it did.

Yesterday around 3pm I was feeding him green peas (what an Exorcist Cliche but it's true) then a little milk and the child started Linda Blair-ing on me and ALL over the couch. I had never seen projectile vomit before. It's like an ugly fountain. It was kind of a light green, Martha Stewart probably would choose it to paint a kitchen or mud room. Poor child did that till there was less than nothing in his stomach. Quick trip to the doctor and he was diagnosed with gastroenteritis. Last night was a nostalgic trip back to the first weeks of his life when I had to be up every couple hours to care for him. Baby got the diarrhea too.

Today so far he's been holding on and I've been giving him Pedialyte every 15 minutes as well as coconut water and Crix biscuits. Unfortunately my dad has fallen to the gastro as well. I am currently the only soul standing. I feel a little paranoid kind of like I may be Linda Hamilton and the alien is already in my stomach and will soon rip through kicking ass and taking me down with everyon else.

Mayaro beach house

You know how when you're home, and it's just hot and you're kind of bored and you think to yourself how nice and cool it would be to be at the beach instead? Well I had that thought while sitting in our air conditioned living room and went and spent the weekend at a beachouse in Mayaro with some friends of my mom's.
My mom (who could give those fabled rats a run for their money when it comes to packing) and I packed for the overnight stay so that meant that when we left we took a playpen, 2 fullsize suitcases, a lasagna, a gallon size bottle of Baileys, a stroller, 8 liters of water, 6 towels, bedding for 2 beds, plus enough baby food to feed Miles till he is ready for college.
Barely able to close the trunk, with no room to move her feet in the back because of all the luggage we were not ready to leave yet. No, we had to pick up a friend of the host who we had never met. Did she travel light? Well comparatively but not really as she was going to the house for the entire week having nothing to do with her life but roast in the hot sun I guess. So we jammed 3 more bags into the car plus this lady who had green painted very long toenails and off we went.
Those who have never been to Trinidad may think that it being an island in the Caribbean that the idyllic beach must be, oh, a stones throw from every doorstep. Not so dear reader. Though as the crow flies the beach we were destined for would only be maybe 20km south east of us, in order to get there we actually had to go NORTH about 30km then EAST about 20km then SOUTH about 50km. And so it was 2 1/2 hours of bumpy road with a strange, kind of loud talking lady (who later the next day stripped half naked in the yard in full view of everyone and just didn't care) we arrived at a pretty nice house.
Our hostess is a lovely and gracious woman who kindly told the few friends she invited that they could bring friends too if they wanted. What resulted that day and the next was a kind of Indian Animal House where bottles of booze and new people were arriving nearly every hour and massive amounts of food were being cooked. There were children everywhere, adults swarming and even a crab in a bucket who jumped out of his confines and escaped to safety, preferring his chances with in the wild to his chances with these people who seemed to cook every type of meat they could get their hands on.
Eventually however night fell and the day trippers took their leave and there was calm in the home. We all happily took to the porch and drank Baileys, and eventually got a bit sleepy. To the sleeping quarters we went and there realized that sleeping in a beachhouse in the Caribbean without air conditioning is kind of like sleeping in the ocean itself as the air was so wet and humid. So my mom and I dragged one of the plastic encased mattresses to teh rooftop deck and made it up and with pillows and all lay under the full moon with Miles for a few hours till he fell asleep then moved it back downstairs to prevent him waking up with lungs full of dew.
Oh, I forgot - the neighbors were having a MASSIVE party with live tassa drumming and everything so getting Miles to sleep that night was especially impossible.
Around midnight I went with one of my aunts to the beach so she could find her husband who enjoys taking a midnight dip. As we were out looking for him, out from the water emerges an aging Venus, naked as the day she was born and cool as anything says "hello, goodnight" and heads into the party next door.
Next day, drink, people, repeat. Drive back in blazing hot heat and think to self that the beach may be good for a lot of things but not for cooling off.

Baby Top 40

Miles usually does not watch T.V. it's on in the background and I'm watching the Olympics or surfing through the election pundits. There's only one thing he consistently stops to watch, agog with enjoyment, bouncing up and down no matter what he's doing. It's those Free Credit Report. com commercials. You know "they monitor your credit and send you email alerts, so you don't end up selling fish to tourists in tshirts". That one. More than Disney channel, more than anything educational on PBS or Discovery Channel. That's his favorite thing on T.V.

front teeth and talking

So 2 days ago our boy got his top right front tooth. My brother in law may know what this tooth is technically called but I call it Adventures in Biting. The Miles mouth is now a place you put a finger only if you have paid up your health insurance. Unfortunately in my Mommy Duties I do have a responsibility to go in there fairly often. His gums hurt and he's fussy so I have to rub some teething gel on there. I feel like I've been drafted to go into a battle where everyone knows heavy casualties are the expectation. He seems to smile knowingly when he sees the tube, like he's rubbing the tongue on them polishing them up for the attack. He aims for the cuticle. It's the most sensitive spot on the finger I guess.
Talking is pissing me off. I am the Ma Ma. I did EVERYTHING for 9 months then mostly everything for another 9 months. Why oh why then does he call my mom "Ga! Ga!" but me, I get coughed at. Yes, I said coughed at. Miles gives me this little "cough, cough" to get my attention when I am not looking at him. I guess he doesn't want to cry but can't talk yet. But it is humbling to be called by the infant as though my name is Jeeves the Butler. This has got to be remedied. I may start playing a loop tape of "Ma Ma Ma Ma" to him in his sleep till he starts saying it.

9 months

Dear Miles,
A few days ago you turned 9 months old. You are just good enough to eat. I love everything about you, and many other people do too. Your babysitter Sandra here in Trinidad comes to "borrow" you like a library book if she hasn't seen you in more than 3 days. Her whole family is in love with you and I'm taking pictures of them in case I have to call the authorities if you're missing. You LOVE her son Nicki here in the picture holding you. You just hang on to every move he makes when he's around. You want to walk like the big kids so bad, you stand up and barely hold on to things and inevitably fall and bust your butt when your feet get tangled. But after a little cry up and trying again you go. You can say car and dada. Every now and then you will repeat something clear as day.

You have your two bottom front teeth and you make the most of them. You are an eating champion. There has only been one food (gross Heinz chicken and vegetable puree) that you have refused. You eat the most bitter vegetables like carile and spinach and want more. We took you to Ruby Tuesdays a couple weeks ago and gave you a little bowl of pasta and when it was done you picked up the bowl and started licking it. Here you can see a picture of you eating a chicken leg like it's nobody's business but yours.

You are surprisingly strong. You grab 4 liter bottles of water and drag them around, you picked up the computer chair by holding on to it and refusing to let go when we tried to get you away from the computer. And you're tall too, you're already 30 inches.

You LOVE to bounce up and down.

You cut the cake with Amelia for her 2nd birthday party and then stuck your whole hand in her cake trying to grab what you could for yourself. It was quite a day for you, in the swimming pool with a bevy of 2 and 3 year olds, hanging out quite calmly while all the chaos swirled around. Having this time to spend with you every day is something I will never forget, it is truly worth the effort and self sacrifice to see you enjoying life and turning out to be so brave and calm.