The Otter view

When Natalie and I go downstairs to play, I typically hop on the computer and check my email at some point.  Depending on how long I spend at the computer, she sometimes comes over to me and wants to get up on my lap.

The first thing she says when she's situated is Otter.

It never fails.

She wants me to show her a picture of my brother-in-law Chris.

So...I go searching through our pictures.  Sometimes it takes me a while to find one and in the meantime she's saying Otter every couple of seconds until I do.

The girl has broken me.

This is now our new desktop background:

 

Something to write home about

These days I am not nearly as plugged into the music scene as I once was in my single years.  While it's is something I have freely accepted based on all of the other wonderful things in my life these days, I do get sad about it on occasion. 

While I was home from work with Macie I was thinking about the music I spent so much of my life listening to.  It's hard for me to remember specific time periods of music (other than college) but I wanted to do what I could to document my musical path for my own historical reference, if nothing else.

I've always listened to a wide variety of music, but I have also had a couple of artists that I have spent large chunks of time with at given stages of my life.

Here is the list of artists I focused on at the different stages (with albums of focus during that time period as well).  The first one listed is the one I spent the most time with, etc. 

Someday, I may dig deeper into each of these time frames.

Early high school - Pearl Jam and Nirvana

Late high school - Pearl Jam and Rage Against the Machine

 

 

College (Freshmen) - The Doors and Pearl Jam

 

 

College (Sophmore) - Counting Crows and Bush

 

 

College (Junior) - Jimmy Buffett and James Taylor

 

 

College (Senior #1) - Soul Coughing and Led Zeppelin

 

 

College (Senior #2) - Built to Spill and the Get Up Kids

 

 

Pre-Gina (2000 - 2001) - Mike Doughty and Tenacious D

 

 

Pre-wedding (2001-2003) - Jack Johnson and Mason Jennings

 

 

Pre-Natalie (2003-2005) - Mason Jennings and Old 97s

 

 

Post-Natalie (2005 - present) - Mike Doughty and All-American Rejects

 

Inside, Outside, Upside Down

Here's 41 random observations from the last week:


I knew things were going to be just fine at the hospital when our labor nurse ended up being named Gina (same spelling and everything).


I believe that it is going to be a long time before a day goes by that I don’t think about how close we were to having a dire situation on our hands on the way to the hospital. For those that don’t know, we left at 6:15pm for the hospital based mainly on a hunch that Gina was progressing with her labor. Her contractions were getting stronger but they were still seven to eight minutes apart (the general guideline for heading to the hospital is contractions every five minutes). By the time we were checked into the hospital it was 7pm. Gina’s water broke at 8pm and if she would have already had her epidural and if the doctor was at the hospital, Macie would have literally been born at 8:02 (all she needed was two pushes). After waiting to meet Natalie for sixteen hours following Gina’s water breaking (and 1.5 hours of pushing), the pace of this delivery was incredible.


With the speed of the birth, Gina was unable to get an epidural (her biggest fear). However, the anesthesiologist was able to give her a spinal just five minutes before Macie was born. It helped take the pressure away and Gina was grateful for it.


We’ve had so many visitors since Macie was born (including Molly essentially every day) that Gina and I have been overwhelmed (in a good way) with all the love.


Macie has the biggest eyes I ever remember seeing on a baby. Currently, her eyes are brown (though you can detect hints of blue in sunlight) and they just suck you in.

I forgot how hard it is to tell that a newborn is breathing. When they sleep they are so calm and peaceful that at least ten times a day I check Macie (either by rubbing her head, adjusting her blanket, etc.) to make sure she is OK.


I knew this already from Natalie’s birth, but there is no question in my mind that the female is the stronger of the two sexes. What Gina did in that delivery room was extraordinary.


Who needs sleep anyways?


After every feeding, Macie gets the hiccups.


If there is a next time, I am going to worry less about being packed and just make sure we have our camera.


Unlike Natalie who has been Nattie since day one, no nickname has stood out for Macie yet. Nicknames that have been thrown out there are Mace, MJ, Josie, CC, etc. I really thought I'd be calling her Josie (playing off her middle name) but I'm currently favoring MJ. Only time will tell...


Natalie has done wonderful with Macie. We have had our moments (especially when Gina is feeding Macie), but overall things are going well. I love it when Natalie says Macie’s name (usually in a whisper).

I’ve been reminded in the last week that I still have my swaddling touch.


Our house is now officially a poop factory and I am the king of the poop patrol. Good golly.


The funniest moment of the week occurred just as Gina was taking Macie into our room to feed her one afternoon. She looked at me dead-panned and simply said “moo” as she walked past.


With the fits that Natalie throws these days from time to time (her terrible twos are starting a bit early), I forgot that at birth (and for a while after) babies have a cute cry.


Talk about threading the needle, both Molly (ten days in Disneyworld) and my buddy Matt from work (six days in Aspen) returned to Minnesota on the 6th. Gina’s parents left for the weekend in Vegas on the morning of the 8th and were able to see Macie before they left. Gina said her mom is spoiled and always gets her way.


One of the sweetest things that happened at the hospital was our nurse Gina showing up the day after Macie was born a half hour before her shift started so that she could spend some time with us. It meant a lot.Congrats to Molly’s mom Marcy on the winning guess out of the 51 people who attempted to predict when Macie would be born.


Leaving the hospital bubble was hard to do. Life seems so much easier there.


A big thank you to my mom for staying at the house with Natalie and Casey while we were at the hospital.


Gina has healed so quickly. Not only did she not have any stitches this time but she was up and moving around just fine only a few hours after the birth. She has said on multiple occasions that it doesn’t feel like she just gave birth.


Since returning home from the hospital, our family has endured the deaths of two of our fish. It’s been traumatic.


I am excited to read Marley and Me now that Macie has been born. I made it about half way through the book a few months ago and had to stop because part of the book was too hard to get through.
It feels great that I have finished designing the birth announcements and they should be mailed out by the end of the week.


It does not feel great that I have done very little research for strato this year. I am so far behind right now.



One suggestion to the future parents out there: If you are having a winter baby, remember to install the car seat before it is below zero outside. That was not a good time.


When the doctor told us that it was a girl, Gina and I started laughing.
Gina and I then spent the rest of the night in disbelief wondering what just happened. Hours earlier Gina was at school, teaching a full day. At 3am we decided to shelf the thought and attempt (unsuccessfully) to get some sleep.


The human body is absolutely the most incredible single entity ever created. Ask any parent who has been blessed to have a child born with ten fingers, ten toes and a clean bill of health and my guess is you will find a very large percentage of those people agree.


Neither Gina nor I loved the name Macie in the beginning. Gina brought it up and it was intriguing enough to keep around, but nothing more. However, over time it really began to grow on us. We walked into the hospital with five girl names (Macie, ???, Ella, Anna and Susanna). The second name does exist, but we are not telling anyone what it is on the off chance that we have another child and it’s a girl. Unlike the boy names where we had two names that we loved, we really had no idea what we were going to do for a name if we had a girl. We even considered abandoning the girl’s list and starting over. A half hour after Macie was born, Gina and I both held our child for a bit and informed each other what name we thought our new baby looked like and we both agreed that she was definitely a Macie. You have no idea how glad I am that we were on the same wave length.


Gina and I found the name Macie reviewing the governments SSN site of popular baby names (mostly because I’m anal, we looked at the top 1000 registered boys and girls names in 2005). Though I don’t hear of a lot of Natalie’s, it was the 18th most popular SSN name registered in ‘05 (Nattie’s birth year). Macie was 458th.


At the hospital, we ran into our friend Nicole’s sister Sarah P. from high school and her husband Brett. They were checked in about the same time as we were and had a beautiful baby girl at 6:44pm on the 8th named Elizabeth.


Natalie and Macie were born in the same room (201) at the hospital.


Gina and I always said we’d pick the most popular spelling of whatever name we chose. Macie is spelled numerous ways (Macy, Macey, Maci, etc.), but Macy is the most popular. The reason we went with the spelling we did was that Macy is only the 243rd most popular name so it didn’t really matter that much. It’s not like we were changing the spelling of Hannah (the 7th most popular name) to Hanna (the 244th most popular name).


Macie (and all of its different spellings) means Matthew’s Estate. With so many important people named Matt in our lives, it is a perfect fit.


The middle name of Jo is in honor of Gina’s mom JoAnn. On a side note, I do like that both my brother and grandpa have middle names of Joseph as well.


This date thing we have going on with Rick's side of the family is a bit out of control. Gina and I had the same wedding anniversary as Ed and Mary Jo. Ed and I had the same birthday. Ed passed away on Gina's birthday. Natalie was born on Grandpa S's birthday. Macie was born on Grandma S's birthday.


Natalie and Macie, as newborns, do not look much alike. Natalie looked so much like me and Macie looks a lot like Gina. I suppose it’s only fair we each got one.


There may be nothing in this world more wonderful then holding your sleeping newborn baby against your chest, smelling her and simply listening to her breathe.


Watching Macie nose dive for Gina, a bottle, a nuk or whatever else is near her mouth is priceless.

A Houdini among us

In December, Natalie graduated to a big girl bed.  She may not have been 100% ready (she was close though), but we needed to open up the crib for the baby and didn't want both transitions happening at once. 

Gina and I bought a twin box and mattress and put it on the floor in her room.  Nattie has to work a bit but she can even get into bed on her own.

 

From the start, we have tried to teach her to stay in her room until we come and get her.  However, parenting is just like life...it tends to play out somewhere in the gray.

 

We want her to stay in bed overnight and in the morning until we come and get her, mostly from a safety standpoint, as getting out her room essentially grants access to the entire house while we are sleeping.  But, it is also convenient for her to let herself out of bed after a nap.  Otherwise, she needs to work herself up and start crying for us to know she is awake.  If she's in a good mood when she gets up it's counterproductive.

Not good.  No simple solution exists and Gina and I are all about consistency.

Gray area solution:

Overnight, we put a gate up outside of her room so that she knows she needs to stay in there even if she wants to get out (usually around 5am).  If she sees the gate she needs to go back to bed, if she doesn't see the gate she can come out. 

All and all, it's worked pretty well.

Within the last week, however, she's pulled a couple of magic acts on Gina in the morning.  Last week, she walked into our bedroom with the gate and handed it to Gina saying "here you go." 

Point taken.

I need to tighten the gate to the doorway.  I had thought seeing the gate up would be deterrent enough.  I was wrong.

I've since corrected the issue.

Then this morning happens...

Natalie was in our bathroom when Gina got out of the shower.  This time, the gate was completely in tact.  Gina asked if she had crawled under the gate and Nattie told her yes.  Gina then took her over to the gate and asked her how she got out (because sometimes she answers questions a certain way and doesn't really know what we are asking). 

She got down on the ground and pushed her lamby under the gate.

Point taken.

The kid is no dummy.

In order to tighten the gate I need to keep it off the ground a bit so that I can twist the tighening device on the bottom properly.  Last night, I had tightened the gate a bit high (maybe five inches off the ground or so).  She recognized that the gap was large enough this morning for her to get out and took advantage of her daddy.

 

 

Natalie 2  Brian 0

My 20-month-old daughter has just outsmarted me for the second time in regards to the gate in the last few days.

Hopefully I won't need to add another post in the near future about a third (or more) instance as well.

Super Bowl XLI

While I may regret going on record with this...

Colts 26  Bears 17