Footloose and Fancy Free

This past weekend, we found something that doesn't exist in California: an empty soccer field.  (Although LA has plenty of empty basketball courts - a rare find in the south).*

So we let Leah run wild.  She had the best time, and spent most of this time running away from us.  Since there weren't many people around, we didn't feel the need to chase after her, and she had a blast.  (She also slept incredibly well that night...I think we'll be finding empty soccer fields a lot more often).

As a product of preschool, she also is a bit of a social butterfly.  She has no problem walking straight up to any kid on the playground. It's fun to watch the Peanut hold her own out there.

Leah is walking really well these days.  So for those of you who haven't seen Leah in a little while, enjoy these clips.

*Editor's Correction:  L.A. does not have plenty of empty basketball courts.  They are filled with skateboarders. 

Go Ahead, Give Me Your Best Shot

Seen Recently

Just some recent pictures for your enjoyment.

From daycare (Leah is on the left)...

BA's Corner: Daycare, Changes, and Family

Leah is getting ready to transition to the next daycare class.  I hope the "Tiny Tots" are ready for a big Peanut.  While she's still an "Infant 1," I thought I'd share some daycare pics we got last month (most are from "beach day").  If nothing else, this proves that she doesn't cry all day long, just when we drop her off and pick her up.  Ugh.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daycare has been a bit of a struggle - one we didn't expect.  New rules, new teachers, and new routines take some getting used to, and we're still adjusting.  For some reason, it seems like Leah has never been fully comfortable in her new daycare, and neither have we.  It's a nice facility and they do many great things with the kids.  But for some reason, we just haven't clicked.  There seem to be a lot of rules and things constantly change, so maybe that's part of it.  They are trying to push the kids from 2 naps/day to 1, and it's not going very well.  Aside from that:

• Leah has started to eat everything on the menu since she's turned 1 (which is great, and fun too)
• We continue to try the straw cup with her (unsuccessfully...although she did it once a few weeks ago)
• We are still transitioning from formula to milk (she drank full milk for a few days, but I don't think her stomach was ready for it, which resulted in some extra loads of laundry.  So we are still mixing it with formula and gradually working up to full milk again). 
• Plus she now has tennis shoes, since the "T-Tots" require them. 

 

Suffice it to say, there are many changes going on over here.  But Leah is sleeping very well at night and we are managing through the changes at a pace she can handle.  Plus, it is so wonderful to have AA back.  We feel like a family again - and a family that has control over our lives!  Monday afternoon, when we returned from our mini-vacation (thank you again Nana and Papa!), we took Leah on a wagon ride up to the pool after her nap.  We enjoyed swimming and relaxing as a family again.  I know it doesn't sound like much, but it is huge.  Leah had a ball splashing and kicking with both of us there, and she especially enjoyed when I would toss her up in the air.  Water splashed all in her face, and she just grinned and giggled.  

 

In our return to normalcy, we have vowed to:

1. Take some time as a family every weekend...no pictures, no blogging, just enjoying the moment
2. Salvage as much of the rest of the summer as possible, so that we don't look back at 2012 as "that awful, wasted summer when the bar controlled our lives."

 

Bar be gone.  We're a family again.

Team Grandma

Leah is really lucky to have such a wonderful Grandma and Nana!!

BA's Corner: World's Best Baby

I'm now fully convinced that I have the world's best baby.

We had an ENT appointment scheduled for a couple of weeks from now, just in case Leah's ear infections didn't improve.  And the plan was to get an “emergency” ENT appointment if necessary last week.  Leah had been on her most recent medication for about 3.5 days.  Like the other medications, she seemed to be doing fine for a couple of days.  But on Thursday, she didn't nap well, began to tug at her ears, and we had to console her several times between 7:30 p.m. and midnight.  She tugged at her ears some more Friday morning.  So we thought something might be going on. 

It's always a judgment call as to whether we should make a doctor's appointment or not.  I'd say 80-90% of the time we've gone into the doctor, he or she confirmed that there was good reason for us to come in.  This day was no exception.

So after a month of a double ear infection, and after a failed 5th medication, we called in Friday morning to get an "emergency" ENT appointment for evaluation and next steps, which they scheduled for this coming Tuesday.  But we didn't think that was a very "emergent" appointment, and we thought we should get Leah checked out before the weekend.  So we got the first available sick appointment with Leah's pediatrician Friday morning - 10:10 a.m.  Nana and I hopped in the car for the short trip to the doctor’s office.

We brought the stroller so Leah could nap as long as possible at the office.  They tend to make you wait for a while, so we’ve learned to be prepared.  Leah fell asleep in the car, and I was able to transfer her to the stroller without her waking up too much.  So she got a 30-minute nap or so in her stroller at the doctor’s office (while I convinced the nurses not to touch her until the doctor came in).  

The doctor looked in her ears, determined they were “not much better,” and said our next step was for him to call in a favor to see if she could get tubes that afternoon.  He made several calls to review his treatments and Leah’s (lack of) progress, and discussed next steps.  Most doctors were in surgery or on vacation, but he managed to get a hold of one going through airport security at ATL.  He also got a second opinion in the office.  Everyone agreed immediate tubes was the right answer, and he got us scheduled for some time that afternoon.

At this point, Leah knows what the doctor’s office is, and she doesn’t care for it.  She whips her little head around to see each person who walks through the door and notice what they have in their hands.  So we had burned through all the toys in her diaper bag trying to keep her calm.  And while all these conversations were taking place, I was trying to convince Leah to drink her bottle, having already distracted her with goldfish and rice krispies. 

The doctor peeked in for a quick update and instructed us to stop feeding.  Oops.  If there was a possibility she’d get tubes that day, she’d have to stop drinking liquids for 6 hours, and stop eating solids for 8 hours.  Sorry Leah.  This is how she handled it....

The arrangements were made, and we headed straight to the Emergency Room.  Yikes.  Leah’s Granda (AA’s dad) was passing through town to have lunch, so we told him to have lunch with us in the ER!  AA met us there with a couple of bottles so we could give Leah some apple juice until about 1 p.m. 

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta was wonderful.  From the minute we stepped in, we were impressed.  There was no wait, so we burned right through triage to our first room, where we traded off so that Granda could spend some time with the Peanut, who was in a smiley, playful mood as usual.

Nurses and doctors came in and out of that room, and Leah watched every one of them.  She looked at every tool and instrument that came close to her, and smiled at everyone.  She was great.  We determined that the surgery would occur no earlier than 6:45 p.m., since I had given her goldfish.  We were quite lucky actually…the Pediatric ENT performing the surgery was only scheduled until 7 p.m.  Had our original appointment been any later, we’d have been out of luck for the whole weekend.  So after some lunch and visiting, we shipped AA back home to study until at least 6 p.m.  We were moved to our second room, at which point I walked Leah up and down the halls for probably an hour trying to get her to nap in her stroller.  I got some strange looks, of course, but I’m used to it. 

Leah napped for probably 20 minutes, and I began to brace for the worst.  I knew we’d have the crankiest baby pretty soon….ear infections, strange environment, essentially one bottle all day long, and maybe a combined 60 minutes of naps all day.  She was going to be a handful until this surgery.  And I figured she’d be really cranky after the surgery too.  So Nana and I settled in for a long day.

We were moved to our third (and final) room, which had a pull-out couch and a crib bed in it.  Man-o-man did Leah have a ball in that crib bed.  We put the rails up, dropped her in, and she ran laps for hours!  She would crawl from one end to the other, stand up, point at anything, talk adamantly about it, hop down, and do it all over again.  She was so funny.  We kept steadily rotating through the limited number of toys we had, and improvised with a few others.  We built a fort with sheets, and I made balloons out of some medical gloves - she had a ball with those. 

We were told the surgery was scheduled for 8 p.m., so we grabbed a bite to eat and told AA to keep studying.  Soon after that, they called me and said “we’re ready for you.”  I knew AA wanted to be there to see Leah before the surgery, so I stalled them as much as possible.  They came in with an infant gown and told me to put Leah in it.  I lolly-gagged through that, asking the nurse some questions and playing with Leah a little bit.  Then I slowly sauntered down the hall with the nurse, making conversation and taking pictures with Leah. 


The big people in the funny costumes are using big words. 
Should I be concerned?


Nana stayed in the room to tell AA where to go when she arrived.  The doctors, PA’s, and nurses came in, and I asked each of them some questions.  The Pediatric ENT came in to review the procedure and I asked him some questions (after I thanked him profusely for squeezing us in at the end of his shift).  Just before the OR nurse came to pick up Leah, AA arrived.  So I handed Leah to her and we snapped a few pics.  Leah was curious, of course, but still smiling.  I couldn’t believe how wonderfully she had handled all of this on no sleep and an empty stomach.  She was amazing.

At 6:45 p.m., the OR nurse put Leah in a warm blanket and carried her off to surgery.  Leah didn’t cry…she just put her arm on the nurse’s shoulder and looked around. 

Do you all think you can bribe me with a measely warm blanket?

We walked back to our room.  The doctor came in about 10-15 minutes later and talked us through the follow-up procedures.  They brought Leah in a few minutes later, and she was cranky and fussy as expected.  She drank A LOT and we finally got her calmed down after about an hour.  She was ready to go, but they said it’d be another 2 hours before the paperwork was ready for her to be discharged.  Ugh!  So we all grabbed some dinner (Leah included) and then we sent AA back to study some more.  It was hard to believe that an hour and a half after her procedure, this was our girl…..

Which way to the elevator, Peanut?



Every time the nurse came in, Leah crawled to that side of the crib, stood up, and stared at her while she spoke, listening intently.  Her final discharge instructions included (1) no blowing your nose and (2) no heavy lifting.  Leah didn't think either of those would be a problem.  By 9:45 p.m., we were all wrapped up.  The last thing I asked the nurse was “Do you mind if we keep the gown?”  She let me, so we’ll see if we get a bill.  It was adorable….what a souvenir.  

Get me outta here!!

I couldn’t believe after a day like that, no food, no sleep, all that strange activity, and it being way past her 7:30 p.m. bedtime…this was how my child was behaving.  I was so proud of her.

She napped on the way home.  We gave her another bottle at midnight, along with some Tylenol.  She slept well.  Lets hope the worst of the ear infections is behind us!

BA's Corner: Enough

How much can a person take? What about 2 big people and one little person?

There are many good reasons why we haven't updated the blog in a week.  Rather than tie them all together in a nice, neat story, how about some data points that help paint the picture of our lives recently?

• We're all sick. And we got Nana sick too. You should hear us all sitting around at night coughing like a bunch of chain smokers (Leah included). We each lost our voice at different times, but have gradually gained them back. It all started with Leah, and she had the worst of it.  She had this virus (the worst I've had in years) on top of a double ear infection.  She had a fever and spent 3 days panting...she was a mess, and it was a little scary.  Poor little girl. 
• Leah's now been to the doctor 7 times in 3.5 weeks.
• She is now on her 5th medication for ear infections; none has worked yet. The 3rd round was a series of 5 shots in her little legs over 3 days. She had 1 ear infection in 10 months in California. She's had infected ears continuously for the past 3 weeks here in Atlanta. We're just not sure if it's the same infection, or different ones.
• Leah's newest medication apparently results in massive diarrhea. In fact, the bottle says "diarrhea may persist for weeks or months after medication is finished." Wonderful. So now we're just sitting around waiting to wear out the diaper genie.  Apologies in advance, Leah. 
• We now have an appointment with an ENT.  Fingers crossed we don't have to get tubes yet.
• We were also "pleasantly surprised" to find some pictures online of Leah's new daycare class. My favorite are the pictures of 2 other kids sucking on Leah's pacifier.  And they wondered why we wanted to bring it home and clean it every night. 
• On top of all this, I just filed a claim for $6,500 with the moving company, if that gives you any indication as to how "smoothly" the move went.  Among other things, our goods were split into 2 shipments without our knowledge, and it took way too long to get into our townhome.  So we've been behind the ball ever since we got here. 

If we have another 2 weeks like these past 2 weeks, AA likely won't pass the bar.  So we had to make some changes. 

• First, we've had some serious help from family.  Nana and Papa came several weekends to watch Leah while AA studied and I got things done around the house.  Unfortunately, I got sick and spent most of that time in bed while Nana and Papa watched Leah AND put together porch furniture, fixed the grill, cooked dinner, etc.  Thank you Nana and Papa!
• Then we were still overwhelmed.  So Gramma drove up to watch Leah this past weekend.  I was feeling better, so I got several things done around the house and even snuck over to get my GA license and a haircut.  I felt spoiled to get my first haircut in several months.  Thank you Gramma!
• We held several conversations last week with Leah's daycare teachers about her drinking bottles in a bouncer chair, which can encourage ear infections.  We were concerned about this from day one here and watched it closely.  But with so many problems lately, we just told them no...every morning and afternoon last week, to each teacher. 
• We're still trying to figure out how to keep other babies from munching on Leah's pacifier.  Can't have that any more either.
• We've pulled the pacifier during the day....only for use in the crib.  We've read that the constant use of pacifiers can encourage ear infections. 
• And now we have pulled Leah out of daycare for at least 2 weeks.  We just can't keep sending her back into the lion's den and dealing with her constantly being sick.  Not right now.  We have to get her well, and we all have to get well too. 
• AA has to get isolated.  There are too many distractions pulling at her right now. 
• So Nana has come to stay with us, at least for a couple of weeks.  She'll be watching Leah, and she's a huge help around the house too.  At this rate, AA is sure to pass the bar.  Thank you Nana!! 
• Unfortunately, this means that Papa will be eating a lot of Long John Silver's in July. 
• Family and friends, we promise things will get back to a state of normalcy at some point in August.  We will make the rounds and spend much more time with everyone.  We just have to survive right now. 

So if you were wondering why the blog hasn't been updated in a week, now you know.  On the flipside, the Peanut has gotten to meet a lot of our loyal blog readers in person, so there's the trade-off. 

In LA, we developed "Exam Mode."  That's when AA focuses on studying and I do virtually everything else that needs to be done.  That means Leah ends up running "Aarons" with me all over town. 

We thought AA's bar prep would force us into 2 months of "Exam Mode."  Instead, we are in "Survival Mode."  We have boxes everywhere, and we have just enough unpacked and set up so that we can survive until AA finishes the bar.  At that point, we can begin to get our lives back in order.

It's really hard to concentrate on work with all of this going on.  But I'm convinced we have the best baby in the world. Given all of this, she is generally just as happy as can be. Whether she's coughing, panting, sweating, or otherwise hurting, she tries so hard to smile through it all.

The rule in our house is that when you're sick, there are no rules.  Whatever makes you feel better, that's what goes.  You can see what makes Leah feel better....and I think it makes AA feel better too!  She's been sad that Leah won't sleep on her anymore.  But Leah has had no trouble curling up on Mommy recently.

Catching a cat nap in between "Aarons."  When she wakes up, she looks around quickly to
figure out where I've taken her this time, and if daycare, new faces, or shots are involved.



We didn't have to worry about her rolling off of our bed...she didn't have the energy.





"Make the pain go away, Mommy."



Pink eye is no match for the baby goldfish I'm about to devour. 
Put down the camera, and hand them over.



Transition Week

At Leah's new daycare, they have a thing called "transition day."  It's where the new babies come to their new classroom for two hours just to get used to the teachers and other kids, and for parents to learn the new procedures for this age level.  Well, this whole week has felt like transition week for me. 

Daycare has not gone as I'd hoped it would.  Leah has screamed and cried everyday at drop-off which she's never done before.  Couple that with the fact that I cried when leaving our California daycare because I was so sad to leave her teachers and you have a lot of daycare-induced crying going on lately.  Aside from that, the teachers here haven't been especially friendly to us.  They're not rude, they just never seem excited or happy to see us.  Maybe they're just timid, or maybe they don't expect to be friends with the parents, or maybe it's because we're new, but it seems like they take a collective sigh when we walk in the door, "oh great, here come the new people, what are they going to ask me about now."  On her first day, BA picked her up after work.  He got to daycare at 5:40 p.m. and Leah was the last baby there and she was crying.  The teacher said she'd been fine until the other parents started coming and then Leah would cry each time she realized it wasn't her Mom or Dad (ugh - knife to the heart).  The teacher said that all the other kids are picked up by 5:30 p.m. in Leah's class, even though they are open until 6:30 p.m.  What?!?!  What kind of job does these other parents have?  I think many of them are stay-at-home mom's who just want a break in the middle of the day.  And I don't have a problem with that, except that it makes us look like the bad parents who leave our kid at daycare all day, and it stresses Leah out to see all her friends leaving first.  I can't take the guilt, so BA and I switched around our schedules for the remainder of the summer.  I'm no longer going to Emory for live classes; I'm staying at home and watching all the lectures online.  He will take Leah in on his way to work (which means she gets to daycare at 7:30 a.m. - she's the first to arrive) and then I'll pick her up in the afternoon.  Right now I'll work until about 3:30 p.m. and then pick her up by 4:00 p.m.  After we eat dinner, I hit the books again until about 8:00 p.m. or until I can't take it anymore, while BA puts Leah to bed. 

Since Leah has had the week-from-hell, I decided to pick her up early yesterday take her grocery shopping.  She had a blast; smiling at strangers, bouncing up and down in the cart as we rolled up the aisles.  She made so many friends at the store.  I was concentrating on picking out blueberries in the produce section when all of a sudden I looked up and these two ladies were waving and smiling at us.  Leah had been grinning at them with her hands clutched beneath her chin.  Another patron stopped me in the aisle to tell me that "she's adorable."  A Publix employee walked by and said "hi there, cheeks!"  And the check-out lady asked me her name and then talked to Leah the entire time we were checking out - and Leah talked back. 

Despite all the transition struggles, I still really like Atlanta.  As mentioned above (almost) everyone is friendly to us, people are holding doors for me (and I'm not even pregnant - it was a miracle when someone would hold the door for me in L.A. even when I was pregnant).  BA and I have gone through a touch of culture shock in Atlanta, just as we did when we first move to L.A. and thought that everyone owned a fedora and surfed all day.  The southern accents are thick and they are everywhere (but I like them).  I have to remember to be nice on the road and not drive like a jerk.  There are bugs everywhere!  Three years out west and I forgot about cockroaches.  Two days in our new house, and I remember how big southern cockroaches can be.  Yuck!  And the trees are still lovely.  In law school, professors will use hypotheticals to teach a concept.  At Pepperdine the hypothetical would usually go something like this, "Surfer walks across homeowner's property to access the beach.  Has Surfer committed a trespass?"  But in my Barbri-Georgia class the hypos go like this, "Bubba wants to buy some shrimp from Big Momma's Gulf Shrimp Company."  Hahaha - I'm not even joking - that was an actual Barbri-Georgia hypo.  Things are different here, but good.

And back to daycare ... I really like the school, I'm just not thrilled with the classroom yet.  I haven't adjusted to their style or manner of doing things, and I have to give it time.  It's a transition week and I have to remember that.  They seem to be doing fun things with the kids - this week was "Wacky Week" where everyday the kids and teachers wear something unusual.  Yesterday was backwards day where the kids and teachers wore their shirts backwards.  The day before was tacky day, and today is beach day.  They are going to let the babies play on a water table and with sand.  These are great developmental activities and it's much more than our daycare in California provided (although we loved our daycare in California because they were so sweet with Leah).  It's just hard on me to see her crying so much, but hopefully soon, the transition will be over and the tears will dry up. 

Leah and Daddy on their way to "Beach Day" at daycare.

Peanut's Post: Big Changes

Hi folks!  There have been some big changes going on around here.  Mommy and Daddy are still busy unpacking and our computer with all our pictures on it is still in California (on a moving truck) which means they cannot upload any new pictures right now, so they've left the blogging to me for the moment.  So here are a few pics I snapped on my iPhone from the last two weeks. 

First Mommy graduated from law school.  Apparently this is a big deal to some people.  As far as I'm concerned, it was a nice ceremony, on a nice day, overlooking the ocean.  And I got to go to Katsuya for dinner the night before, where I flirted with our waiter who looked like Bradley Cooper, so I can't complain.  

I'm not sure why it was such a big deal - she's still studying so I don't think anything really changed - but everyone kept talking about "graduation" so I guess it was important to Mommy.  

 

Then the next day I found myself at LAX again.  Last time we were here, I ended up in Hawaii, so I wasn't too worried.  Except I noticed that Mommy and Daddy had packed an extraordinary amount of stuff for this trip, so I was a little suspicious that we might not be going on vacation this time.
  

We got on the airplane, just like last time. 

 

And I instantly made a baby friend.  He was 6 months older than me, and honestly, way more interested in me than I was in him.  

He couldn't take a hint (kept saying my name over and over again "Eeee-ahhh, Eeee-ahhh") so I finally just had to sit down and ignore him.

 

Mommy and I read books on the plane.  She reads lots of books.  Big books and small books.

 

And then we arrived in this place called Atlanta where I've spent more time in shopping carts than I spent in my entire time in California.  Apparently it's necessary to give exorbitant amounts of money to places called Target and Publix in order to move to Atlanta. 

 In any case, we've moved into our new house, and I'm in the process of exploring every inch of it whenever Mommy looks the other way.  

It's tough work, but someone's got to do it!