Thursday

Uhh, here are some pictures from today... 

These are all sooc... but I was messing with the white balance (which is why the first set is nice and warm). I also used the b&w setting on the camera which creates a muuuuch nicer black and white than post production manipulation- at least on the crappy photo editing program I have. *Sigh* my free photoshop trial has expired. That was fun while it lasted.

Avocado: The food of champions

It is also the first food of Judah. Bill has been just dying for Judah to start eating. For the last two months or so he has been continually asking me if "Judah can eat the scone? Orange? Ice cream? Cookie? Pasta?" And I kept saying, "No." And then he would get all sad. But, alas, I had to cave sometime. We were planning on waiting until he hit 6 months (Wednesday), but we will be pretty busy that day so today was the day.

Ralph figured out that there was food that just might make it into his mouth. Gert figured out that shiz from the start.

We are doing baby led weaning. I first heard about it from the omnipotent Modg. I decided to look into it more so I downloaded the book for the kindle (but, have yet to read all of it). So much of the book is dedicated to trying to convince you to do it, and we had already decided this was what we wanted to do... I just need to read the how-to chapters. Baby led weaning is a way of babies feeding themselves. No mush, no purees, no hear-comes-the-airplane shenanigans. Judah will eat what we eat (within reason). He decides how much or how little to eat. He gets to play with it (which is how he learns). He gets all his real nutrition from BFing, the food it just for fun.

He loves sticking everything into his mouth and I'm pretty sure that avocado was a vast improvement over wooden or plastic toys (or paper, or hair, or noses, or knuckles, or dog fur). It was pretty entertaining for us too.

Sadly, the adventure ended with this:

He loves throwing things on the floor, so it should have come as no surprise that he would also love throwing (more of a push actually) a ceramic plate on the floor. Looks like it is time to invest in some plastic plates for the boy-o.

2 out of 3 things are better

Better 1. Judah

His nose is definitely running less today. However, he is more boogery. Whatever. He sounds less congested overall. One of my girlfriends suggested that maybe he doesn't even a cold, but that the slime nose is a teething symptom. Maybe. Hell, if I know.
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I started writing this post while Bill was giving Judah his bath and getting him ready for bed. Now, I'm back after unsuccessfully trying to get Judah to go to sleep for the last hour and a half. He is super sleepy, and will sleep when I'm holding him, but put him flat on his back in the crib and he instantly gets all congested sounding and wakes himself up. Sigh. I know a certain little boy who just might be sleeping in bed with me tonight (that way his head can be propped up on my arm and his sinuses can drain).

Notice the nose slime.

Oh well, he is still *somewhat* better than yesterday.

2. The boiler

The dude came back today and got everything squared away. Our radiators are now producing heat. All of them (a first!) and the house is slowly creeping back up to my ideal house temp (67 degrees). Yay, heat! It works for now (which is very important and I am verrrry thankful for) but I'm sure within the next 5 years or so we will need to install a new boiler that is better suited for our needs (and comes from a company that makes reliable products).

Not better 1. Gert

We heard back from the vet today. She is going to need surgery. And, get this, not just in one knee, but TWO! Both of her back knees have the messed up ligaments. Can't believe she already needs knee surgery, she is one a year and a half old. We don't have the surgery scheduled yet, my guess is it will probably happen after Christmas. That way she can take it easy at home and not have to deal with traveling right after getting cut open.

3 broken things

There are three broken things in our house right now.

1. Judah

J's Auntie is visiting for a few days to spend time with the cuddly little snot machine

He is coming down with a cold (I think). His nose just started running today. Poor little guy has been leaking clear slime out the nose for most of the day. His breathing sounds really wet because of it and so far he has had a hard time sleeping (I think his little snores are waking him up). This is the first time Judah has ever gotten sick... At least, I think this qualifies as being sick. Those are his only symptoms though, so I'm not sure if this counts. Hopefully, he will wake up tomorrow feeling better.

2. Gert

Gert has a bum knee. She has been keeping her weight off her back leg since Thanksgiving time. We have been making her take it easy and limiting her walks and refusing to play with her (to which she fiercely objects).  We assumed she had strained a muscle or something from playing (non-stop) with all of her Oregon doggy friends... But, she just hasn't gotten better. I took her into the vet yesterday to see what was what. The vet could feel her knee cap pop out of place, which can sometimes happen with little dogs. The bone that her knee cap is suppose to fit into might not be grooved deeply enough to keep the knee cap snug and in place. The vet also feared that she had injured the ligament between her upper and lower leg bones (right under the knee), so today she had to go back to the vet for X-rays.  She was such a good little girl that they did not need to put her under to get the x-rays. She let them move her and manipulate her legs and hips into place while being awake. The X-rays have now been sent off to the surgeon, but it looks like that ligament is effed up, which means she will need to get knee surgery.

3. The boiler

We finally broke down and called a plumber/heat guy to come take a look at our heating system. The guy was at our place from 8am-6pm dealing with our boiler. Whenever he would get one thing fixed, it became apparent that there was an additional problem with another part. He has to come back tomorrow to keep working at it, but hopefully the end is in sight (at least with the boiler part, it turns out our thermostat is not communicating with the boiler which is yet another problem).

The boiler was put in by some of the previous owners. And, well, they didn't do the best job or put in the highest quality appliance (to put it mildly). The first year we lived here we had the radiators serviced and found out the engine to the boiler was installed UPSIDE DOWN. Oi. Looks like the boiler is not very good and there have been loooots of complaints about this particular model. Part of me wonders if getting it fixed is just throwing good money after bad. Is it just going to keep breaking down bit by bit? New boilers are expensive, but at least that would (hopefully) be a one time shot instead of constantly battling what appears to be quite a lemon of a boiler. Sigh.

I do love owning a house, but it sure was a hell of a lot easier when we were renters and the landlords had to take care of all that shit and they had to do it ASAP.

Oh, whaddya know? Another post of a baby and a dog.

I started off taking some photos of Bill holding Judah.

But, then along came Ralph.

True love

I used to think Ralph merely tolerated Gert.

I now know that I was wrong. Clearly what we have here is a case of true love.

Pups

Today you only get photos. No words. No time. Too busy. My 'me time' is in serrrrrriously short supply at the moment. Even right now, Bill is upstairs singing and rocking Judah. BECAUSE HE IS AWAKE. And it is almost 11. AND HE IS AWAKE. I really should go up and take over, since Bill needs to get up for work in the morning. Sigh. I miss my precious few evening hours of me time.

Anyway, on with the pictures from this morning of Judah with his two favorite pups.

We interrupt this program...

Judah and I were hanging in his room taking some photos.

Sadly, with my point and shoot, because I still can't get my SLR to work. Sigh. It looks like I am gonna have to take it in (step one: find a place to take it in to...).

I was actually taking photos of the nursery so I can (finally) show the 'after' to all those 'before' posts I was doing as we were working on the nursery last winter and spring.

But there are only so many picts I can take of the room, while there are seemingly endless picts I can take of Judah. But, then....

We were interrupted by Gert. Who decided Judah needed his his feet licked. Then his calves. Then his knees.

Judah didn't mind.

When Gert finished licking his legs she decided to sit on the blanket next to him.

Which soon turned into laying next to him. Gazing adoringly into his eyes.

Then came laying on her back next to him.

Again, Judah didn't mind. He's cool with this development.

But then she starts squirming around.

Judah is not so sure about the squirming. When all of sudden...

BLAM-O! Face punch! And that was the end of that. Not our first photo session to end in tears. Probably not our last.

P.S. I will post the nursery photos any day now. I just need to track down the photos of the room when we moved in and what not.

P.P.S. Like us on facebook.

Why is everyone dressing up today?

Happy Halloween! Here is our little panda bear. The costume used to belong to his cousin.

Me thinks she was a bit older when she was wearing it. What with the standing and all.

Lucky for us, it fit right in time for Halloween. He wore the outfit to the doctor's this morning (4 month check-up). And when we got home he promptly barfed on it. Twice.

So we made sure to get some photos of him in it and then into the hamper it went.

Gert went as an alien for Halloween. Ralph is going as Kujo (always).

Besides barfing in the costume, Judah also sneezed. It went a little something like this: