Happy Halloween!

"Rawr!!!!! Why are you making me wear this outfit?"

Dinner at Grandma's

Is it just me or does he seem to be saying, "Where are my damn carrots?"

Great-Grandma Margaret

I can only hope Townes inherits Grandma's fantastically foul mouth.

The Orbit

I will admit to having a tinge of stroller envy when I read about this super fancy, ridiculous expensive stroller "system." But $1,000 on a stroller seems ridiculous. Asinine even.

That said, as my back continues to ache from having to reach in to the car to hoist Townes' baby seat into its holder, the awesome circular base of the Orbit is looking more and more worth the money.

If I win the lotto, this is going to be my first purchase. Then perhaps some fancy shoes.

Curious

I often wonder what Townes is thinking about and/or what babies think about in general. Since they don't have a vocabulary yet, I can't imagine what their inner monologue sounds like. Yet, I somehow think that Townes knew I took this picture because I thought he looked awesomely ridiculous and cute. I'm pretty sure he's judging me here.

Baby's first game day.

Randy informed me this past weekend that he wanted to begin a tradition in which he, my dad and the kid all watch Texas/OU together. As a person who couldn't care less about sports but who does believe strongly in family ritual, I support this. Too bad Townes' first game day turned out to be such a disaster for UT. If they don't get their crap together, Townes may want to go to OU when he's 18. And that would break the men in the family's heart.

Woohoo!

So it looks like Townes does not need a helmet, which is good news for us, for Townes, and for our pocketbook. The one downside is I don't get to use this sticker, which I was going to put on his helmet if he had to get one.

Serendipity

We had two awesome things happen this weekend. First, aunt Cordi came to visit. Second, it happened to be gay pride in Fort Worth. Thus, baby went to his first gay pride parade. He wore his rainbow leg warmers to show his support to the gay community.

Apple fail

This past week I made some (what I considered) yummy apple baby food. I bought fancy organic apples, cooked 'em up and blended them to a yummy smooth consistency. Tonight we gave Townes his first bite of apples. He gagged. Hopefully they'll grow on him. Not literally of course.

For your consideration

Everyone always tells me Townes looks exactly like Randy, which he does. But I offer this proof that he also resembles his momma. Below find exhibits a (Randy), b (Andrea), and c (Kiddo). I'll let the court decide.

Today is brought to you by the letter "B"

Explanation of this picture

So it's looking increasingly like Townes is going to need a helmet to correct his head shape (in medical terms it's called plagiocephaly). Basically, the right side of his head is flat from sleeping on it. It can affect his eye and facial symmetry over time. We've tried rotating him in the crib, physical therapy to get him to favor his left side, everything. Nothing's helped. This is a picture of him getting his head scanned. He was a total trooper and just looked at us like, "What weird thing are you making me do now?" We're getting a second opinion next week, just in case. I cried and cried at first. But then I realized, if this is our biggest health issue of Townes' youth, we'll be doing great.

I also really want to put a sticker on his helmet that says "You should see the other kid" but I don't want to promote violence. Then again, that sticker would be awesome!

Rocking out with some rice cereal

A Note/Warning About Natural Births

So, for various reasons, I had decided that I wanted a natural birth--a protest against the growing onslaught of unnecessary medical interventions (unnecessary, not necessary and life-saving!), a feminist statement about a woman's body's abilities, alertness at birth, yadda yadda yadda. We had hired a wonderful doula and my doctor was on board. I wasn't particularly worried about labor because I was looking forward to not being barfy every day for months on end. Anything seemed better than that. When I went into labor around 4 am on April 25, I was excited, not nervous. I woke the hubby up, we piled into the car, he almost forgot to put it in reverse and almost ran into the house, and off we went to the hospital.

All went well but my water never broke. I remember thinking the labor hurt, but wasn't torturous. I remember thinking, "Yeah, this is painful but what's the big deal?" Then the doctor came in and informed me that she wanted to break my water to speed things along. I was happy to do that. And speed things along it did. I had the baby a few hours later. A few hours of excruciating pain later. Excruciating. Did I mention it was excruciating? I vividly remember at one point asking if it was too late for drugs. The doula gently suggested giving it one more contraction. I assented but privately I thought, "This is fucking bullshit. Why am I doing this?" But it was over soon and after only 7 minutes of pushing, we had an awesomely cool baby.

Now here's the warning...because things had happened so fast after my water was broken, I failed to drink. I was offered water but refused it. So by the time Townes arrived, I was very dehydrated. My blood pressure was high so the doctor hooked me up with an IV of fluids. Several hours and bags of fluid later, I really had to pee. I asked the nurse how I needed to proceed, being hooked up to the IV machine. I believe the conversation went something like this:

Me - "Um...I need to go to the bathroom. Do I wheel in the IV?"
Nurse - "Why don't I just go with you."
Me - "Thanks but that won't be necessary."
Nurse - "You've been down for a while and lost some blood. And your blood pressure's been elevated. People tend to pass out when they sit down on the toilet."
Me - "Oh I won't pass out."
Nurse - "Still, just in case, I should come."
Me - "Of course! If you need to, then that's fine."

So I went to the bathroom nurse and IV in tow. Sat down and then I remember saying, "I feel woozy." Next thing I knew I came to to a bevy of nurses in the bathroom and saw Randy standing in the doorway, holding the baby, looking horrified. Once I got back in bed and some time had passed, I was just fine.

But consider yourself warned ladies o' the natural birth. Drink plenty of fluids or risk passing out Elvis style.

Welcome to the Townes Elwood Blog-a-thon

Dear family and friends,

I have started this blog to try to let everyone see what's up with the kid at their own leisure and to avoid really obnoxious, chronic Facebook posts of Townes' cuteness. I don't want to end up on stfu parents. Seriously. But I do want to chronicle the kiddo's first year for family and out of town (and in town) friends who are interested.

Enjoy!
Andrea (and Randy)