Head Banging

What She Wore: Striped tee in spring colors; khaki shorts; slip-on tennis shoes.

What She Ate: I don't want to say. Ok, nuggets from Chick-fil-a. I'm trying to quit, but it's hard.

Ever just feel like banging your head against the wall?

The cat is still gone, so I need to figure out some sort of sign solution. I feel like a degenerate letting my cat run off with no collar and no microchip.

And, for whatever reason, Charlie is refusing to participate in his therapy. No sitting, no head control, no nothing. I thought maybe I was imagining it, but he did it today for the physical therapist too.

I'm just so frustrated.

Yikes

What She Wore: I'm still in my PJs--I've just been doing laundry all morning.

What She Ate: So far, not a thing--I need to go get something soon.

My husband's step-mother is an amatuer playright. She write several plays a year and has won many awards. Tonight she's having a "reading" of her current project. It's one of those deals where people give feedback in the end. Anyway, I've agreed to read one of the parts.

I am not an actress.

I don't think I can do a Southern accent on command (when I'm nervous, abosolutely).

There are going to be actual actors and actresses at this thing.

Yikes!

PS: Still no cat and it's been four days. I feel like he's OK, but I'm going to go and post signs tomorrow. I am worried that another family has adopted him--he's very friendly and fluffy and I can see why someone would want him. When he gets back (see, optimism), I'm going to get a microchip put in him. Sigh.

Ahhh, the Politics

What She Wore: blue jean capris (do I have any other pants?); purple and yellow polo shirt; brown, slip-on tennis shoes.

What She Ate: Went with mom, dad, and grandpa to a local pasta place. I had Piedini Milanese--basically, breaded pork medallions and pasta with Alfredo sauce. Pork was fabulous, Alfredo was fine, but not as good as I make at home (just my opinion). I brought home my mother's Enchilada Pasta leftovers and I'll probably have that for dinner.

Just when the keel gets slightly even. . .life throws a curve ball (doesn't it always?).

My husband had three best friends in high school. One, his oldest friend, lives in the area and we see him and his girlfriend on a pretty regular basis. One has moved off to Atlanta. The third is a bit more complicated.

Long story, very short: He got in a fight with my husband's oldest friend, married a girl that no one really knew, and somewhere along the way my husband lost touch with him. I don't' think we've seen or heard from him since our wedding over six years ago.

Well, he's gone through a number of major life changes and through a little serendipity got my husband's e-mail address and dropped him a line. He's got two daughters of his own (we knew about one), and a step-daughter as well. He's also got a new job, a new wife, and even a new name. He lives about 45 minutes away, and he suggested we get together for dinner with the kids, wives, etc.

Herein lies a multitude of issues.

First, the simple: Being friends with two people who don't get along is a minefield. Do you mention the other person? Act like they died? It's difficult. I've cried my share of tears over this issue myself and the Hub is nervous as hell to put himself in a similar situation.

The second is pretty simple as well, but it's going to be coming up a lot quicker: if we do get together for dinner, we're going to have to send some sort of warning e-mail about Charlie and his multitude of issues. Otherwise, dinner is going to be filled with some awkward explanations or uncomfortable silences. To the casual observer, there's nothing wrong with Charlie, but a little bit of time and you might start to wonder why he doesn't look at you. Plus, his issues are a part of our life and it seems dishonest to get together with old friends and gloss over the most important thing that's happened to you in the last few years.

So, how to word the "warning" e-mail? I told the Hub to list very specifically what issues they would be seeing. Something along the lines of "he had a stroke; it affected his vision; he has delays as well." Short and simple and if they want to know more than I'm more than willing to get into the nitty-gritty in person. The Hub wanted to say that he had a heart problems and a brain bleed, but he's getting better now. I think that it would make me nervous if I was about to have dinner with a baby that had a brain bleed. I would want to know exactly what kind of issues we were talking about. Of course, most people assume the best, so maybe I'm worrying unneccessarily.

What do you think? If you had to have meal with someone's child who had "issues" what would you want to know in advance? Let me know.

There's a Penguin in My House

What She Wore: Black, v-neck tee with short sleeve; blue jeans, leopard print slides with a wooden sole and a little narrow pink buckle.

What She Ate: PF Chang's Kung Pao Chicken and Mongolian Beef for lunch and dinner. I made my mother take me out to lunch because I was kind of depressed about the cat. Then, I took the leftovers home and had them for dinner.

Today Charlie's OT brought over a Penguin Pediatric Stander. Sounds cute, right? Well, they tried to make it look cute too. Here's a picture:

The reality isn't as great. At first Charlie HATED it. Well, mostly he hated being put in it. Then, he thought it was super-cool to be wheeled around the house. Then, he just acted confused. He's supposed to stand in it ten minutes twice a day to stretch out his hamstrings and prevent him from losing bone mass. He's a little too small for it (darn short genes), so we had to do some finagaling. This belong to a former client of our OT's who donated it when her daughter grew out of it. Charlie will use it until he grows out of it.

So far, he's not terribly impressed.

I also bought him a Baby Safe Feeder today too. He likes that a LOT better than the stander. Here his is trying some grapes.

PS: Still no sign of the cat--three days seems to be the magic number for cats. If he doesn't turn up after three days I'm going to lose it. So far, I've patrolled the neighborhood and checked the Animal Control's website--no luck. I left out some food, but all I got were a lot of ants. Hopefully, this is just a little vacation and he'll be back by the end of the weekend.

Not Good

My cat has pulled a Houdini. He is not an outside cat, but he is gone. I was transporting him from my car to my house when there was a ruckus that consisted of my dog jumping into the car seat while the baby was still in it. I rushed over to take care of that situation and by the time I had hauled the dog into the house, I realized that the cat was gone. He still has his claws. He has no collar. He has no micro-chip. I live on a busy street and am scared to death.

Perhaps I should be grateful that I'm at the point in my life where I have the energy to worry about something besides my child. That is a luxury that I didn't always posses. Still. . . I want my Max.

When is My Vacation?

What She Wore: Bright green peasant-style shirt with short sleeves; jeans in a dark wash; beaded gold slides with a wedge heel.

What She Ate: Soup for lunch and for dinner. . . enchiladas. It's been well over a week--I was starting to go into withdrawal.

So. I may have mentioned that I'm tired. Well, I'm still tired and this is a whirlwind of a week.

Today we met with our speech therapist for the first time. She was nice and professional and did weird things where she rubbed Charlie's cheeks, upper lip, and chin. Most therapy looks like voodoo to me, so I won't question these things. It seems to work, so clearly I have no clue. Our immediate goal is for him to start making consonant sounds--specifically buh, puh, and muh. We're supposed to emphasize them when we use them, help him push his lips together, etc. He doesn't like having his upper lip touched, so we're going to have to desensitize him to that a little bit. I'm picturing more silly songs in my future.

Later in the day we went to get fitted for a custom night splint. This sounds pretty fancy, and I'm sure it's not cheap, but it's really just a moldable piece of plastic that helps to keep the thumb on his right hand out instead of tucked under. The ladies at the Hand place absolutely love him: his cute personality, his chubby thighs, and the fact that he was holding his own bottle. That boy of mine is such a charmer. The "hand specialist" said that this was the smallest splint she'd ever made. She also felt that it was good we were starting early, but she wasn't completely convinced he needed it. He does open that hand completely and he rests with his hand unclenched. No matter, it doesn't bother him at all, so we'll use when he's sleeping at night. He wasn't really in the mood for the paparazzi, so I apologize for these crappy pictures. You can see the splint, though.

Finally, I have some work to do. Last week, Charlie's OT cancelled. This week, his PT cancelled. I understand about sick kids, but my dad is losing his mind a bit. He can't stand for Charlie to miss a week of anything. Long story short: he wants me to contact the hospital about adding private physical therapy and maybe more. He's offered to pay our out-of-pocket expenses to get things moving. This is extremely generous because while I do have some money set aside each month for medical, a big chunk of it goes to co-pays, thickener, and medications. His offer will keep us from having to go in the hole to pay for therapy.

So, I'm busy and I'm tired. Tired and busy. I need a vacation, or at least a good night's sleep.

This and That

What She Wore: printed t-shirt that I was supposed to wear on Friday, but changed my mind at the last minute and didn't; blue jeans, those trusty gray and black herringbone mary janes. I need to go hunt up some spring shoes now that Easter has passed.

What She Ate: Half a ham and bacon sandwich, sauted potatoes, and a Caesar salad. I don't know what I'm having for dinner. . . whatever they have available at the concert.

I really love my son's therapists and I know that it is very important for him to see them on a regular basis. For this reason, it takes something incredibly major for us to miss therapy. I've actually only cancelled one therapist one time and that was because Charlie had the weakened immune system and this particular therapist brought lots of items that were handled by a many children. I just thought it was too risky.

So, today when my BIL and SIL who were visiting from Florida called to say they wanted to have lunch, I was very disappointed that I wouldn't be able to go. They, my husband, and my MIL were all going to go to this cute little cafe that specializes in breakfast, but also has some great lunch food.

Charlie had a dual therapy session planned: his OT and PT were going to come jointly and asses and discuss equipment, braces, splints and the like. It was going to be a pretty big deal and like I said before I NEVER cancel therapy.

Well, I may not cancel, but the therapists do sometimes.

Today, I got lucky. One had a sick kid and the other had a meeting she didn't know about. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if one of them just didn't feel like working the day after Easter, but that's OK with me--I got to go to lunch.

Yum. Yum. Yum, and my BIL picked up the tab. Doesn't get any better than that.

Tonight, I'm going to a roots music concert. My husband is all about this type of music, so I'm going to put on my happy face and pretend that I'm not completely exausted from the weekend. I'll have a good time--I'm just tired.

The Little Boy Who Could

What She Wore: Scoop-neck tee with gray and coral floral pattern; blue jeans; strappy, coral sandals.

What She Ate: For lunch I'm going to have a decadent pasta of one type or another. For dinner, I'm off to my MIL's who's cooking dinner for us and for my husband's brother and his wife. They're visiting from Florida (lucky bastards).

Ok. It's Friday and I'm off to do things like eat lunch with my family, so I'll fill today's post with videos of my lil man.

First, here's one of him prop-sitting. The last time we videoed his progress he could do it for over fifteen seconds. Down below, you'll see that he's now doing it for over a minute. So far, he's not sitting independently, but he has made so much progress. Go, baby go!



The next video I'm going to put up is one that I think addresses Charlie's vision issues perfectly. Charlie does have vision, but it's confusing, so he tends not to use it as much as he could/should. The doctors are fairly certain that he's blind on one side (hemianopsia). This is pretty obvious if you're around him for even a short amount of time. Also, he tends to not look at things unless he really wants to. He's perfectly content to rely on hearing and touch. In this video he's kicking his kick mat, which he really loves. He's smiling, enjoying himself, and because I'm on his "bad" side, he hasn't noticed me. When I talk, you'll see him look all over and then locate me with his eyes. Once he's discerned my location it's back to fun and kicking. No more looking needed.



Finally, here's a video of part of our stretching routine. We stretch both hamstrings several times a day. I've found that if I sing while we do it, he loves it.



Yes, I know I sound like a complete dork, and no, I don't always talk like that. That's my baby voice.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter.

The Beat Goes On

What She Wore: Still in my pjs, but I better get changed soon--Charlie's OT is going to be here soon.

What She Ate: Vegetable soup. For dinner I think I'm having a Lean Cuisine BBQ pizza.

I decided that I need to make some lifestyle changes.

Basically, I need to put better stuff in my mouth.

I would say that I need to diet, but I know better than that. The minute I put myself on a diet I start craving enchiladas. Before I know it I've driven to McDonald's for some chicken nuggets and I'm persuading my husband to take me out ot eat.

Diets do bad things to me. Plus, it's not just about losing weight. I eat/drink a lot of crap and I don't think that's really good for you.

So, I'm making a few changes:

1. No more chicken nuggets
2. No more soda, even the diet stuff. I drink WAY too much of the stuff.
3. No alcohol except on weekends.
4. More water

I should be able to do this, right?

We Get By

What She Wore: scoop neck, blousy tee from Target with a yellow and grey floral pattern; dark wash blue jean capris; gray and black herringbone mary janes. I'd love to find a fun pair of gray shoes, but so far I haven't seen anything that I can't live without.

What She Ate: Baked potato soup for lunch. For dinner I'm supposed to be having a Lean Cuisine, but I'm going to try to convince the Hub to take me to La Madeline.

OK. Good appointment with the physiatrist. I left with a fist full of prescriptions, but the news was generally good. The main reason we see a physiatrist is to make sure that Charlie's tone isn't affecting his ability to develop. Tone is a muscle's reaction to a brain injury and it comes in two types--too tight (spastic) or too loose. Tone can be addressed with braces and splints, or with medications like Botox and Baclofen.

After his assesment he found that Charlie's left arm and hand are completely normal. Yay! The fingers and thumb on his right hand are tight, but his wrist is fine. He wrote prescriptions for two different thumb splints--a soft one for daytime and a hard one for sleep.

Charlie's hamstrings are still tight. The doctor thinks that he may have lost a little range of motion, but not enough to warrant an oral muscle relaxer. Frankly, his PT doesn't think his hamstrings are bad at all, so I completely agree with the decision to forgo medication. I'm not sure we've really lost range of motion, but maybe I'm in denial.

His calf muscles are fine and there is minimal if any tightness in his ankles. He does have a little foot drop, but nothing major. I mentioned that his PT was interested in AFOs for his feet. The doctor wrote a prescription for them, but he felt that Charlie will be able to stand just fine without him. Yay on that too!

He found no problems with Charlie's hip muscles, but he will go ahead and have a hip X-ray done at one year to make sure there are no problems there. Hip problems are very common in kids with cerebral palsy.

He wrote a presciption for a swallow study to see if we still need to thicken Charlie's milk. I'm going to talk with our OT and see if she can go with us to the test. We talked about the fact that Charlie's been refluxing since we took the anti-seizure medicine and he said we could try Prevacid if he continues to have problems.

He was pleased with Charlie's development. While definitely behind, Charlie is progressing nicely. He was especially pleased that Charlie passes objects from one hand to another and that he pushes up with both arms. He noted that Charlie was a healthy size and weight, which can be a problem for kids with brain injury. I know we're short, but I think that's mainly genetic.

He also recommended that we consider private therapy in addition to Early Steps, which is state sponsored. I want to do everything I can for Charlie, so I'll be looking into what this will cost and what exactly our insurance will cover.

He officially changed Charlie's diagnosis to Spastic Tri, which means three limbs affected.

Oh yeah, perhaps most importantly, he complimented Charlie's outfit. That, of course, made my day.

Later

We're going to see the pediatric physiatrist today. I'll update when I get back from that.

I'm So Productive

What She Wore: bright green, empire-waist, v-neck shirt with a white and navy blue stripe under the bust; dark wash blue jean capris; navy and white striped espadrilles. These weren't the most practical shoes for a trip to the hospital, but dammit I was felt like wearing something cute.

What She Ate: Serrano's Salsa Company for lunch. Enchiladas, of course. Stouffer's turkey and stuffing for dinner.

Now that we've finished with the yucky medicine, Charlie is back on the doctor circuit. Today we had a ultrasound done of his kidneys and next week we'll visit the nephrologist and see how they're looking. Wednesday we meet with the pediatric physiatrist, and I still have to schedule appointments with his neurologist and opthamologist. I also want to set up an appointment with a new neurosurgeon because I hate that he is currently being seen by whoever is available at the current location. I've gotten a recommendation and I'm going to go ahead and see someone at a different hospital.

But this is practical stuff and who cares about all that when there's fluff to worry about?

I bought a new rug for my entryway. It's not at all what I was looking for, but the Middle Eastern man who sold it to me convinced me to try it, and I'm glad he did. It's not my usual colors, but I think it looks good and I've already found out that it hides dog vomit excellently. This is good because my nervous puppy has a tendency to yak whenever things get too exciting. And by exciting I mean that someone turned on the vacuum cleaner. I wish I was kidding about this.

I also made some decisions about my dining room chairs although I haven't actually made a lot of progress. I put both of the chairs I like around the kitchen table and it became pretty clear that we were going to have to go with the cane backs. They were just so much more comfortable. I found this super-cool fabric and so far I've managed to halfway cover one cushion. I've run out of upholstery staples and it's a half-hour drive to Hobby Lobby, so the project is at a stand-still in the meantime. I think I'm going to leave the chair the wood color because it looks good in the room, but I am considering gilding the little shell at the top.

I've also decided that the theme for Charlie's first birthday will be Pigs. This might sound a little crazy, but hear me out. Charlie was born in the year of the pig. He was also born in Arkansas, which is the home of the Razorbacks (a mean pig). This is a state where calling the hogs is considered De rigour when people visit from out of town. Honestly, I found it a little scary (500 people screaming "pig soie!" at a teacher's conference would scare anyone), but I'm from the South so obsessions with SEC teams is something I'm familiar with.

So back to the party. I'm thinking BBQ, pigs in a blanket, bandannas, etc. Kind of a farm thing with a focus on pigs. I'll give you all the cheesy updates as I come up with stuff.

So there you go. Not so much doing, but a lot of planning, and frankly, that's a lot more fun than housework.

St. Patrick's Day

Cabbage.

Beads.

One seriously bad sunburn.

Must sleep.

Together We Stand

What She Wore: navy blue running pants; gray t-shirt from my college days; tennis shoes. Today should be the big gardening day. We'll see how that goes. . .

What She Ate: I haven't had much yet, but we're off to have roast beef po boys at a place down the street.

One of the things that I like about having a blog is that sometimes I'm feeling something vague and undefinable. I'm unhappy and disatisfied for reasons that I can't quite put my finger on. Today was like that and while I was wandering around Home Depot, it hit me. The vague, undefined thing became clear in a way that it hadn't been before. I think this is all the writing. Forcing yourself to put it into words can really help.

Anyway, I was wandering around Home Depot by myself, seeing all these families picking out plants when I had a revelation. Moving home has put a real cramp in the workings of my family. For so long it was just the two of us. Hub, me, me, Hub. All we had was each other. People rarely invited us to do things because we didn't know that many people. Weekends stretched out with endless possibility--we could do whatever we wanted. Granted, we usually sat around watching TV, but we had options.

Now, we have the push-pull that is family. My husband has spent most of his weekend free time working on putting in a drainage system in his mother's backyard. We have invitations too--every holiday we spend trying to figure out who to visit and in what order. Christmas was exausting. There's also all the other people we know. There are invitations for Pre-Easter parties, Good Friday, St. Patrick's Day, and Easter Sunday.

I've got to figure out the balance. Respecting your family's needs and your own. Making sure that every weekend isn't spent making everyone else happy. Making myself happy too. I need to get to that place where I say enough is enough. The trouble is. . . how to do it.

Girl After My Own Heart

Has anyone seen the new Britney video where she plays an animated crime fighter? Well, she's got knee-high leather heels that also have magical powers. Using shoes to fight crime? Screw the Fantastic Four, that's my kind of super-hero.

My Projects

What She Wore: Purple t-shirt that says "I heart NOLA," gray yoga pants, tennis shoes. I meant to garden, but I couldn't get my lazy butt out the door.

What She Ate: Leftover burger from a local place. I ate so much spinach dip last night that I had most of my sandwich left.

People who know me know that I always have a million ideas swirling in my head. I'm an idea person, but it's hard for me to actually get things off the ground. I have three big projects, however, that I am determined to see through.

First up, is a vegetable garden. All this garden time has been spent trying to dig a plot of land for my garden. I've accomplished very little because I'm a huge wimp. No matter what, though, I'm planting this weekend. Hopefully, something will come of this, but either way I'm going to give it a go.

Next, I have Charlie's birthday party. Since I've already started inviting people, I don't think there's any avoiding this one. In three months my little boy turns one. I'm not exactly sure what to do. The only thing I know with certainty is that I want to hang a big sign on the porch that reads, "Miracle Man Turns One." That's not much of a plan. Barbeque maybe? A spacewalk? I just don't know.

Finally, I have Halloween. Halloween is a big deal on my street and the one over. I've heard people estimate that you could have over five hundred kids coming through. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, so I figure I might as well live it up and throw a party. The kids can run around and trick or treat and the adults can stay inside and eat and drink. It just so happens to be on a Saturday, so it will be perfect. I've decided on a Pirate theme, and I'm trying to figure out how to make the porch look like the side of a ship. This is going to involve some major planning.

If anybody has any thoughts or ideas than just let me know!

Yatch and a bit of a Rant

What She Wore: flouncy black tee with a scoop neck and cap sleeves; faded blue jeans; black and gray herringbone mary janes. I need to go change, though, so I can get a little gardening done.

What She Ate: Ugh. Crackers. That's it. I'm just not that hungry today.

Well, I typed a big update after the PT came and then it just disappeared. I have no idea where it went. I'll summarize:

I liked her.
She's my age, graduated from LSU the same year as me, and she has a four-month-old daughter.
She seemed to like Charlie
She's ready to work on sitting, crawling, and standing. I think she wants to order some foot braces.
She didn't think his hamstrings were bad at all and was only a little concerned about one of his triceps.

So, I'm a little nervous because I'm realizing how busy we're going to be with everything. I have a lot of new ideas already and I still need to meet his "teacher" and his speech therapist.

Now I'm going to rant for a second.

I read this bulletin board with news about the town I live in. Someone posted on it that Barack Obama is the Antichrist. This is the second time I've heard this. I am no biblical scholar, but I did do a Bible study that included the End of Days, and I just think this stuff is nuts. The Bible does not say that the Antichrist is a forty-year-old Muslim (that's what this bulletin board post said). It's pretty vague stuff there, and people are free to interpret it the way they want, but I HATE when people say, "the Bible says," and don't use references because there aren't any. The English teacher in me in annoyed.

End Rant.

Happy Dance

What She Wore: Black, athletic capris; tennis shoes; t-shirt that the Hub brought me from Qatar. I was gardening today.

What She Ate: Nothing spectacular for lunch. For dinner, I had pasta with artichokes, ham, onions and some other things that I can't recall. We tried this place close to our house. Pretty good.

Charlie is having his first visit with his Physical Therapist today--well, tomorrow, actually, but most of y'all will read this tomorrow. She's coming on Tuesday. I'm so excited. I hope I like her.

As for Charlie. Well, I'm always saying this, but I am so proud of that little boy. He is getting stronger by the day. He can play his piano, and we've taught him how to bang two toys together. So far, he's decided that he loves mashed potatoes, apple sauce, and marinara sauce. He is not a big fan or carrots or peas. Guess we gotta work on those vegetables.

I'll post all about therapy after she leaves!

Me 'N' Mary J.

What She Wore: pale green capris; black tee with sprout on it that reads "Good things come in small packages;" black and grey herringbone mary janes.

What She Ate: My MIL made green beans, ham, onions, and potatoes over rice. Wonderful Cajun cooking.

Lately I've been thinking about Mary J. Blige's album, No More Drama.

If the whole Charlie thing has taught me anything, it that we have no need to manufacture drama in our lives. I could go from now until eternity enjoying calm afternoons and lovely dinners.

Facing death. Spending so much of your day in a place where children are sick. Knowing that not everyone will make it. These are real issues.

It's not about petty differences, social status, or ignoring people you don't like.

I won't pretend that I haven't had my share of starting drama for no reason, but those days are hopefully behind me. I want peace. I want calm. I want smiling faces if for no other reason than because it's polite. Life is already messy--let's not make it worse.

So, I've got a new motto: No More Drama! Call me on it if I'm stirring it up for no reason.

Therapy Thursdays

What She Wore: Black yoga pants; LSU t-shirt; LSU sweat shirt. Just for you, Tracy, two LSU shirts at once. Maybe I should go put on some LSU sweat pants too.

What She Ate: Sadly, so far today I've only had some nuggets from Chick-fil-a. It's Friday, though, so hopefully there's some Mexican food in my future.

I'm still waiting to hear from all of Charlie's new therapists, so we still just have OT on Thursdays at this point. The wheels of intervention turn very slow.

So, the OT came yesterday and I noticed that whenever she leaves I'm in just the best mood. She's always so positive about his progress and points out little things that I may have missed.

We are starting to see some changes in Charlie that I figured I'd tell everyone about. When Charlie was about five months old, the physiatrist diagnosed him as being spastic quad. This means that all four of his limbs have been affected by his cerebral palsy. Now, at almost nine months, it's starting to look more as if he'll have right hemiplegia. Basically, this means that his right side is tighter and weaker than his left. He prefers his left side to his right. He's also had some vision loss on the right side, which tends to exacerbate the the situation.

This is actually good news. Hemis have a better chance of being able to walk and hemis are also more likely to have normal intelligence.

There's no telling if his diagnosis will be changed in the future, but we are very happy to see him doing so well.

In other news, the journey towards solid food is going well. I'm still only doing one full meal a day, but I'm also giving him a couple of puffs randmoly throughout the day. He's not really a puff fan, so when he gets some teeth we may move on to another type of cracker. He can eat a full container of stage two foods and he also really seemed to enjoy a few bites of mashed potatoes.

And. . . drumroll please. . .

He fed himself an entire bottle. I had to lay him in his boppy and position him, but he held the bottle through the whole thing and didn't drop it. His hold needs some work--I don't know what he's doing with his thumb--but this is progress!

Did I Mention I'm Crazy?

What She Wore: Forest green turtleneck; blue jeans. I can't remember the shoes--they couldn't have been that great if I can't even remember them.

What She Ate: For lunch I had leftover BBQ chicken pizza. For dinner, we had red beans and rice.

Lately, I've started to realize that I'm getting a bit odd in my old age. I didn't notice until the last week or so, but I'm definitely starting see that I'm not as main stream as I once was.

I sort of hinted at, but I wasn't entirely clear when I said that I heat my microwave dinners up in the oven. I don't actually own a microwave. I've had one for years. Someone gave us one when we lived in Texas, and in Arkansas it was a built-in. There isn't one in our current home and it just isn't a priority. We only used it to boil water and to pop popcorn, and right now we don't feel the need to go out and get one. We may never get one. This, apparently, is weird, but I don't see the point on spending money on something I never use.

We are currently without TV. We plan on getting some rabbit ears, but we haven't gotten around to it.

Today, at a hardware store, the woman at the checkout told me that her body had never been the same after having a car accident. I started telling her all about the chiropractor I knew of that supposedly worked miracles. She looked at me and said, "I don't believe is chiropractors." Damn. I didn't even know that was controversial. Insurance covers it, so I felt that was pretty mainstream.

I'm weird, right?

Puff Practice

What She Wore: blue jeans; black, long-sleeve LSU t-shirt; gray/black herringbone mary janes with two skinny straps.

What She Ate: For lunch I had a chipotle chicken wrap at this amazing corner grocery turned sandwich place, which is withing walking distance of my house. While I was there, some bluegrass/folk musicians were having a jam session in the back. Talk about awesome. For dinner we had our Sunday BBQ chicken, baked beans, and twice-baked potatoes.

The daily drama is threatening to put me in a bad mood, so I'll resist posting a negative entry. Instead, I'll give you a photo-montage of Charlie's eating practice. We're working with puffs, which are the cereal-type things that dissolve easily. He prefers baby food, but I've got to start somewhere, right?

We might need to practice closing our mouths, huh?

Actually, he ended up doing pretty well, but it took some practice and I still have to pop the things back in his mouth sometimes.