When you hit the "snooze" button.....

Robin's 1 Year Check-up

Height: 28 1.4 inches (1/4 taller than Arthur was at 1 year)
Weight: 14 lbs 14 oz (5 lbs less than Arthur was at 1 year)
Head: 17 1/2 inches (1 inch smaller than Arthur at 1 year, Arthur still has a big head)

Development: He's been moving for 5 months now so it's no surprise that he really knows how to get around. He's crusing and walking while holding onto things. No independent steps yet but he has let go a couple of times. He's much more interactive with his toys now, he definitely "plays with a mission in mind".

Language: We think he may have a word for cat..and maybe a word for Arthur. He does say "mumumumumumum" and we're not sure if that's intentional or not. He's more of a mover than a talker. Arthur was the opposite.

Growth: As much as his size is still tiny, he is growing. His bone structure is small and I think he's just destined to be little for a while. My grandfather wasn't a large man by any stretch and my mother and her family are all fairly petite as well. I think those are the genes passed down for him. He's on his own curve so they definitely aren't concerned at all. He's doing just fine.

Food: Robin is still nursing and will be for quite some time. With the full blessing of his doctor's as well. No liquid cow's milk yet...it wasn't even recommended for him today (athough yogurts etc. are fine). He's happy to nurse and I'm happy to nurse him. And his mommy's milk has far more fat and calories than cow's milk and he really needs that. We also think he may have some tummy issues with too much dairy and possibly eggs...so we're trying to watch those things very carefully.

He eats and eats and eats. But since he's such a mover, he's really just sustaining his growth. He's not really "bulking" up. But that's fine for him. He eats a huge bowl of old-fashioned "boil on the stovetop" oats every morning mixed with some fruit or applesauce. He really chows. Then after his nap he'll nurse (or have some yogurt if I'm working) and have a snack. Then usually another afternoon snack. And then dinner. The boy loves chicken. He's eaten an entire breast by himself. He really hasn't met a diced up, chopped up food he doesn't like. And like Arthur, he's going to be an olive lover as well. Then he nurses before bed. He's definitely pumped up on the calories, but we're still sticking to a healthy diet with lots of brain building fats from really good sources.

Vaccines: I had faxed over some information to our pediatric group about a month ago with some presentations of ethical alternatives to the standard MMR. I found out today that they carry both of the versions already so we can have them if we want. Our pediatrician wants to delay the start of those until Robin is 15 months anyway so we'll probably get one then, and then move to the second, and then the last. We're definitively skipping the chicken pox (varicella) vaccine and when I told the NP she was supportive saying "You know, we all had the chicken pox when we were kids...."

I'm thankful for the cautious presentation of the MMR, for breaking it up, and for being able to use versions of the vaccine that were not created with cell lines derived from aborted fetal tissue. I'm really happy that I was persistant and that we had one of the pediatricians who also was concerned about the issue. It's weirdly conservative of me. I'm such a liberal otherwise.

Speaking of: While we were waiting we observed a pamphlet on the desk in the exam room "Discussing sex with teenagers".....presented by "Focus on the Family". Yeah, the section on "What if my child is gay?" first emphasised that parents should "treat is as any other issue they dissaprove of" and be cautious because most of these encounters are "coerced". eye yie yie! We'll be skipping that brochure, thank you very much! ha ha ha

(Joanne thinks it's mandated by the current administration...she thinks they must be required to have it on hand...blah)

Anyway...

Back to Robin: He's great, he's growing, and he's a healthy boy!

The Truth is Out There

My third year in college I worked with a stellar group of individuals and later, most turned out to be very dear friends of mine. I don't really get to see them much at all, but they are dear to my heart. One of my biggest memories of working with them was the way that the X-Files permeated much of our discussions, gatherings, humor...

This was when the X-Files was all the rage, and was pre-rerun. Back when episodes were new and shiny. Several members of said group of friends were obsessed, never missing a show. And honestly, I didn't get it. I'd watch one from time to time and scratch my head, and wonder why everyone thought it was the best show ever.

Fast forward about 11 years....

Being strapped for ideas for Christmas, and being in the middle of our multi-year stretch when we didn't have broadcast or cable television I decided to buy Joanne a boxed set of a TV show that she liked. I tried to think of what would interest her. She loved Dallas, but I selfishly decided that it would be pure torture for me to have to sit through "Who shot J.R." again. Wasn't going to happen. Crank Yankers? I think that was probably a phase...

I knew she liked the X-Files, and while it kind of bored me in college I decided it to be the lesser of the evils and I went ahead and picked up season one.

It started to be a nice little thing for us to do around the time Arthur was born. We'd get him to settle down for bed, and we'd watch a show together. Some days we were just too tired for a whole movie and sans commercials, one x-files on DVD is about 40 minutes. It was just the right time.

Who knew that I'd finally see the light? And I got hooked. I finally understood the Barenaked Ladies' "Watching x-files with no lights on/we're dans la maison/I hope the smoking man's in this one" and why it was so clever. I started noticing when they recycled extras (Audrey Pauley), and started contemplating whether said killed off characters were really dead. (Both Spenders...nope! Lone Gunman, sadly yes.... Krycek, wasn't he killed of and resurrected several times?)

6 years too late clever...but clever none-the-less.

I thought season 3 was really well done. Season 5 was unmemorable. Season 7 was really creative and interesting. Season 8 was a tough adjustment and then Season 9 had me really really ticked off. What's up with the Terminator guy? They killed off the Lone Gunman?! Scully gave up her baby?! What the heck?!

And tonight it's done. Over. Finis. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about the ending. (Yes, I know...I'm 6 years too late and I don't really deserve to critique..ha ha ha). But it's weird that it's over now. I kind of want to know what happens.

Oh yeah....there's a movie coming out! I guess I didn't have such bad timing after all.

Happy 1st Birthday sweet baby boy!

Arthur's first pond swim

I had an employee appreciation event today sponsored by my work at a local recreation area with a pond. It was a warm day and it was a good one for swimming, cooking out, and playing in the park. Arthur's never swam in a pond before, mainly because I didn't know we had a good public one relatively nearby. He's been in pools, and never in water that wasn't over his head. So this was nice for him to actually be able to walk in and walk out and stand back up after "swimming".

(O.k. in the video it looks like he had a struggle after jumping in, but I swear it's just because I cut it off in a weird place. A nano-second later he stood back up)

Robin's first dip in the pool

Aside from the gob of sunscreen that got caked in his hair, he seemed to enjoy himself for his quick first dip.

Just so long as he's not "drunkly"...

We stopped for some soft serve on our way home from the park and on the way Arthur had mentioned several times how thirsty he was. So we arrive at the ice cream place:

Him: "Mummy, I need my water. I'm drinkly"

Me: "You're drinkly?"

Him: "Yeah. I'm drinkly. I need my water"

Not sure where he got "drinkly" from. I confirmed that he was also "thirsty". Either way, it didn't seem to impact his ice cream eating abilities.