Yikes!

Last night sucked. Cole woke up around 2:30 a.m., which is fine and not out of the ordinary. I fed him most of his bottle, changed his diaper and fed him the rest of the bottle. All routine. It was even normal when he had a little spit up when he was done eating. Like I said, all fine.

Then, the next thing I knew, I was in a horror film with a possessed baby spewing up an unbelievable amount of formula. It seriously felt like he was vomiting up formula for a couple of minutes. I think it may have even been more than a bottle's worth. He had to have been storing it up for awhile, maybe since lunch.

When it was finally over I had to change my entire outfit; my sweatshirt, pants and even my tee shirt. There was so much it soaked through all the layers. Cole, of course, was also a mess. I had to change him AGAIN and wipe him down with a washcloth. The blanket and pillow that normally sit on our rocking chair were also soaked and need to be washed. It was scary.

I was pretty proud of myself  for not waking up Kristin. When it happened I just stood him up in my lap and held him for a little bit debating whether to call for help. I hesitated as I wasn’t sure if we needed to call 911 or a priest. In the end I handled it myself and let Kristin sleep. Although, after I was finally done cleaning up, I was so amazed at the incident and proud of myself for dealing with it, I went back to bed and woke her up to let her know what happened and how well I handled it.

We are all doing fine now, although Cole had an incident in the morning as well. As I was quick changing him, he did the classic baby boy maneuver and pissed in his face (also on his clothes, the diaper genie, the floor...the list goes on). I don't care how often I see it, I just don't know what to think when a baby is having trouble opening up his eye because he just literally peed in it. For my sake and his, that little thing better grow ASAP.

Family Walks

With the weather finally shapping up, the sun peeking out and a general feeling of cabin fever we have been getting outside more lately. All of us...Bella included. And boy did she miss it. Before Cole was born Bella got a walk at least 4-5 times a week. Nick and I have always enjoyed nighttime walks, we make ourselves hot toddies, bundle up and walk around our neighborhood and Bella has always been our #1 companion. However, since Cole has arrived we have been slacking in that area and Bella has been a little neglected.We have been taking walks to Starbucks, to Whole Foods and to the mailbox. But we usually leave Bella behind. She is overly energetic and if we want to go into a store she obviously can't come. But that all changed a few weeks ago with Bella's first walk outside since Cole was born (yes, when we finally do the math it is true...poor Bella has not had a walk in about 3 months). She was very well behaved and enjoyed being out with us instead of sadly looking out at us from her window perch.

The best part of the walk came at the end. Bella went #2...Nick picked it up...and the bag BROKE. This is has always been Nick's biggest fear, and usually picking up after Bella is my job. But on this walk I had Cole in the Baby Bjorn so the task of bending over to pick up dog shit fell on Nick. And it was hilarious. There were some groans of dismay and then the demand that we speed walk home immediately. All the while he held his hand out in front of him, with a stricken look on his face.

Like I said, hilarious.  Nick wants me to mention that he did not think it was hilarious at all.

Hangovers...not missed!

Kristin and I had a fun time at the Vampire Weekend concert Tuesday. We have mentioned this concert to many and no one seems to know who they are but assumes they are super goth. To clear up any worries...they are super dorks from Columbia University who sing about oxford commas, vacations in Cape Cod and a diplomat's son. Like I said, no reason to worry. Click here to read more.

Kristin and I enjoyed dinner out at a new restaurant, The Red Accordion, and had way too many beers; both pre, during and post concert. I can actually still feel how much fun we had two days later. I was smart and took off work Wednesday, while Kristin actually went into work (an hour and a half late). I have to imagine that was one of the worst days ever.

The concert was fun though and we are glad we went. Vampire Weekend only has two albums, so they pretty much played all the songs we wanted. Following the concert we met some random people and went to John Hawks Pub for a couple drinks. There we had a run-in with an obnoxious fat man who claimed he owned John Hawks Pub and was going to “walk me out.” He was wearing khaki shorts, black socks, sandals and a sport coat. Owner? I don't think so.

It was nice to get out, but in the end we missed Cole and have since decided that 2 AM feedings are much much better than falling into bed at 2 AM and feeling like death the next day. I guess we are officially parents and all grown up.

Close Up

Some of Cole's latest and greatest. We are starting to notice the similarities between our baby photos and his. He still seems to look a lot like his Dad (when Nick was young and cute) but sometimes I see a little of myself too. What do you think?

No More Mondays

I thought I would give a little update on my Mondays. Sadly, today is my last and I couldn't be more upset. Cole and I are pretty much up to the same stuff. The biggest difference is, with Cole being bigger, the throw up and the poops are also bigger. Overall, I have managed to learn a few lessons:

First lesson...
At the advice of Kristin, I have learned that I just have to go through the day in a shirt that has a little bit of puke on it. You can pretty much bet that you are going to get spit up on, it's a little gross and takes some getting used to, but our dirty laundry pile always towers over the clean pile so anything to decrease the load is worth giving the old college try. Update: Within an hour of writing the above, I was thrown up on twice to such an extent that a shirt change was definitely not optional. I was soaked in regurgitated formula, and I am already rethinking the puke shirt.

Second lesson...
Always make sure diaper bags are securely placed on one's shoulder. Keep reading to know the importance of this lesson.

Third lesson...

It has been a goal of mine now to actually make it out of the house with Cole on one of our Mondays. I am not sure why I am finding it so difficult to do. It just never seems to work out or maybe I am just a wuss and afraid to deal with him if he goes berserk in a store. Last week I finally did it! We did not get off to a great start. As you can see he is not very happy to be leaving the house. I'm not sure what he had in mind for the day, but obviously an outing with Dad was not on his list.

I thought he would look forward to rocking his Spiderman outfit, which fits perfectly even though he is 4 months and the onesie is for a 6-9 month baby. Does anyone else think Spiderman gained a little weight?

Anyway, Cole usually calms down in the car once it gets moving and today was no exception...except that I'm an idiot and decided I needed a McDonald's coffee, so I hit up the drive-thru. Right away Cole started screaming. Needless to say, no more drive-thrus for Cole and Daddy.

Our trip started with an apartment visit in Wauwatosa and to the hardware store to get keys made for some tenants. Cole was still sleeping - all is good. The next stop was the Wal-Mart in Waukesha. I heard some peeps, but nothing much so we were still good. We got our items and got back in the car just in time. The baby monster awoke with loud wails. He still didn't need to eat for another hour, so I wasn't sure what to do. I was also regretting venturing out so far from home.

Our final stop was supposed to be Babies 'R Us, but I decided not to go for it and hopped on the highway to head home. Cole loves the highway, and about half way home he quieted down, so I turned down the music and returned to a legal speed. Now at this point I realized that I panicked and probably could have gone to our final stop, but oh well. Maybe next time.

Since he was quiet and I was feeling confident again, I decided to pass up our house and head north to Taco Bell (yes, risk another drive-thru; has Kristin ever told you how forgetful I am?). Surprisingly all went well and I was able to enjoy the new Taco Bell shrimp tacos.

Overall, I say the trip was a success. Oh yeah, except on my way into the house the diaper bag slipped off my shoulder and may have landed on Cole's head (and by "may have" I mean it "did"). To sum up, lesson #3 is to not panic, keep cars moving, and it is okay to eat seafood at Taco Bell.

Lullaby

Taking Cole out to run errands always makes me a little anxious. Most of the time he is perfect, just sleeps in his car seat and doesn't make a peep.

However, when it goes bad-it goes really bad. Take a recent text message Nick sent me while at Wal-Mart, after I asked how their trip was going (more to come on their outing soon), it read, "ABORT, he is awake and screaming." When this happens I usually try to stuff the pacifier in Cole's mouth and hope that does the trick. When it doesn't...we hightail it out of wherever we are so he can scream it out in the car.


The car is where all the fun begins. I have discovered that Cole is a fan of this song. Usually I turn it up and sing. But the trick is...you have to sing in a high voice, and you MUST sing the instrumental parts. In fact, in Cole's opinion, singing "dingk, dingk, dingk, doo, bum, bump" is the best part of the song and has the highest success rate of calming him. Sure, you can sing the words, and somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd verse he might calm down. But sing your heart out to the parts with no words? Well then you will have a sleeping baby within the 1st few lines. Nick and I are actually going to this concert next week...had we known the little guy was such a big fan we might have purchased an extra ticket for him.

About Time!

Finally! Cole slept through the night on MY night. Last Thursday, Kristin's night to get up with him, he slept through the night. On Friday, my night, he woke up for a feeding around 2:30 a.m. On Saturday, Kristin's turn again, he slept through the night. He has also slept through the night at Grandma DJ's house, but never for Dad...until now! He slept from about 9:30 p.m. to 6:15 a.m. I had to wake him up to get him fed and dressed before we left for the day. Hopefully there is more of this to come and it wasn't just a fluke. Now if he could only start feeding himself, stop crapping his pants, and get a job we will be all set.

An Outfit for Every Occassion

On Saturday Kristin, Cole and I walked over to Whole Foods to meet Caroline for lunch...a good start to our weekend. Cole seemed very happy to see Caroline and enjoyed catching up since their last visit. One of the highlights was standing in line next to the tallest person ever; seriously probably seven feet tall. We also witnessed an impromptu dance session, in the middle of the grocery store, by the Milwaukee Ballet. Totally bizarre.

Later in the day Cole got all dressed up for a playdate at Emily and Scott's. Their son or daughter is still on the "inside" but they entertained Cole while we went out to dinner for Grandma DJ's birthday (probably doesn't want us to mention she's 61...oops). The night also served as diaper practice for Scott. They did a great job tiring him out and he finally slept through the night for us! Needless to say they will be watching him again soon. That's what you get for doing a good job.

This morning (Sunday) we met the gang for brunch and Cole rocked a way too small outfit. It has since been retired. He slept throughout the 2 hour meal and only lost his cool at the very end, when he awoke to find me, Scott and Jason passing him around the table and laughing at his funny sleep faces. Our super crabby waitress even commented on his perfect behavior.

The weekend ended with a visit from the Joe Fuchs' clan and a walk up to Starbucks in the afternoon sun. Despite Cole's "sleeping through the night" episode, we still need coffee at every moment.