Memorial Day, Independance Day, and a General Update

Since the last time I posted, Taylor has learned so much. It's embarrassing that I haven't updated the blog in such a long time.

She is making sentences. We have to spell things (i.e. "I'm going to feed the D-O-G").

She is taking to becoming a big sister wonderfully.  Often, when she is eating something, she will offer it to Becca's stomach and ask if "Avery want bite?".

She loves to play with her cousins (Rylee, Jacob, etc.).

She asks every day if she can ride on the lawnmower, but then cries when it gets close.

She loves to play hide and go seek.  If Rebecca and I are in another room, she says "Mommy, where are you?".

She asks me before bed time if I will chase her ("Daddy chase you?").  She is such a sweet baby and I know she is going to make a great big sister. 

For Memorial Day, we went on a mini-vacation to the beach with Gammy and Papaw Jody (my mom and dad). 

We spent the 4th of July with Mama-bo and Papa (Rebecca's mom and dad) along with all of Rebecca's family (there were over 25 people at the lake that weekend at one time).

Question of the day: With Avery's arrival quickly approaching (due date in less than 7 weeks), should I split the blog into a "family" blog where I provide an update on both kids in the same blog (as many of their activities will be together) or should I keep the blogs separate (if so, how do I do this given the former statement about dual activities)?

She Crawls!!!

Taylor turned 11 months old yesterday.  Can you believe it???  Let the 1st birthday party preparations begin! 

September 19th Taylor's first tooth broke through.  It's sharp and she's not afraid to bite you with it!  Since then, another tooth has joined the party.  Before long, she'll have a mouth full of teeth.  Thankfully for Rebecca, she is going to start to ween Taylor off breastmilk onto whole milk when she turns one.

In other exciting news, Taylor crawled for the first time!!!  I was so glad I was home to see it!  I was away on business this week and Becca told me that she was pretty sure Taylor would be crawling any day now.  I told Becca to not put Taylor down till I got home so I could be there to witness it.  The night I got home, it happened.  As you can see in the video below, it's not the most graceful crawl you'll ever see, but she'll get the hang of it.  She has been rocking back and forth and then diving forward.  A little odd, I know, but she's my kid, so I'd expect nothing different.  I apologize, but I didn't trim the video link.  The action happens about halfway through the video.  Enjoy!

Firsts

I'm so sorry it has been so long since I last posted.  In that time, Taylor has had many firsts.  It's amazing to see how much she is changing, growing, and learning these days.  Here are a few of those firsts.

Taylor got her first pedicure.  Which one of Taylor's parents do you think initiated this little exercise?

Taylor went to her first major league baseball game.  We saw the Texas Rangers play the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field in Tampa, FL.

She displayed her musical talent for the first time by playing fake drums and fake piano with Uncle Matt.



Taylor sat in a highchair at a restaurant for the first time ever.  She didn't mind Cracker Barrel's mashed potatoes either!

Speaking of eating, she fell asleep for the first time while eating.

And she sat up by herself for the first time ever.  We still haven't got the crawling thing going yet, but we're working on it.

Finally, topping the list of the coolest things Taylor has done in the past month is clapping by herself during patti-cake.  I'm still in shock she knows how to do this.  So cool!


How blessed are we!

A Few of My Favorite Things!

I thought I would tell you about some of Taylor's favorite toys. 

First up, we have Sophie the Giraffe:

Sophie is great because she has legs and a nose that can fit easily into Taylor's mouth.  You will notice a recurring theme in Taylor's toys: easily chewable, or easy to jump in.  Sophie sometimes provides such a great teeth workout that Taylor falls asleep with her:

Next up, is a little critter we partially see in the above picture, puppy.  When you pull on Puppy's legs, they rattle.  Her feet also make good chew toys.  One time, Taylor fell asleep in her car seat while holding Puppy's foot.  It was pretty adorable.

Mr. Crab is the final hand toy to make the favorites list.  Once again, he has provided hours of chewing enjoyment. 

Mr. Crab is also used as bait in crawling exercises which to date have failed every time.  You can check out one such example in the video below:



Now, on to jumpy toys.  She has a farm themed jumpy device that Rebecca and I can recite the words to.  Don't believe me?  "Lots of friends live on the farm, come along with me!  There's so much for us to do and animals to see!  Ducks and lambs and horses too!  Roosters crow and cows say moo.  We all love to play with you ON THE FARM!". 

Thank you, thank you!  I'm here all week.  Here is a video of Taylor in the aforementioned farm themed jumpy device checking to see if we are watching her jump.



We also have a jungle themed exersaucer donated by our buddy, Mr. Steve Washington! 

We took a picture of Taylor on the front porch in this exersaucer.  It looks like she is thinking, "Who, me?"

I hope you have enjoyed the tour of Taylor's toys.  I'm guessing it won't be much longer before the tour includes barbie dolls and tea sets!

Don't Cry Over Spilt Milk

Do you know that expression?  The one in the title?  Well, we didn't follow that this week.  We had an accident at the Laney household.  Before I dive into this story, let me say up front that we are not mad, whatsoever.  It's not the end of the world and it was obviously unintentional.  Here we go:

Wednesday night, July 7, 2010, Josh (Rebecca's brother), Nicole (our amazing sister-in-law), and Rylee (the smartest little kid in the world) came over for dinner.  BBQ Chicken, baked beans, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, and rolls were served.  It was amazing.  On top of that, Josh and Nicole brought over a dessert I have been craving ever since I laid eyes on it (Reesie's Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cake from Dairy Queen).  We ate some, but it was so huge, we had to re-freeze the rest of it.  Rebecca cut half of it for Josh and Nicole to take home and put it in our freezer.  We put the box with the rest in the "breastmilk freezer".  When they left, Nicole remembered that they had forgotten their piece of the cake.  She checked the breastmilk freezer, but their part was in the kitchen freezer.  Rebecca got their piece and they left.

The next morning, I leave for work at normal time (6:15 AM) and as I am walking to my car, I notice a trail of milk leading from the freezer.  Before I touched the door handle, I knew that the door had not been sealed.  You always have to push extra hard against it to get it to close properly.  I opened it up to survey the damage, and it is bad.  Real bad!  Thankfully, heat rises.  The milk on the top shelf is room temperature.  The milk on the second shelf is slightly chilled, but the rest of it is almost fully frozen. 

I thought about going back in and telling Rebecca, but I knew there was nothing she could do and I wanted to let her sleep.  I drove to work, and texted Rebecca to call me as soon as she woke up.  When she called, I said "I have some very bad news".  As I explained my findings from earlier that morning, she broke down crying. 

You see, it wasn't the milk Rebecca was crying for; it was the struggle to get that supply built up.  Taylor was born so premature (10 weeks), Rebecca's body just wasn't ready to produce milk.  Every couple of hours, we would be overjoyed if she could produce 3 cc's.  We didn't want Taylor to go on formula if she didn't have to and for a while, production just barely kept up with Taylor's feeds in the hospital.  Since Taylor had to stay at UAB for 5 weeks, Rebecca wasn't able to nurse her directly for a while.  She was forced to pump.  She even put a picture of Taylor up and looked at it while pumping to increase production.  Every time she would get just a little more than Taylor needed at each feed, the doctors would increase the feed amounts.  It was a never ending battle.  When the milk came in full swing, we started storing it as we had always done with any excess milk.  Theoretically we would use it to fill up her bottles, but she doesn't take one.  We do use it to mix with oatmeal and cereal each day and night.  The supply had dwindled very slowly.  Until the accident that is. . .

We went from this:

To this:

I know, it is still a lot of milk.  It's not like we are going to run out anytime soon. . .

It's not the end of the world.  It just symbolized the struggle of Taylor's early days at UAB.  Maybe it was good for us to let go of that attachment since Taylor is 8.5 months old now!

Lullaby

Taylor has grown up a lot over these last few weeks so I apologize I haven't updated you. I will post more about those strides in the next few days. I did, however, want to tell you something unique to the Laney household.

You are all familiar with the lullaby, "Hush Little Baby". Well, Rebecca wanted to sing that to Taylor, but she thought the words to the original song were a little odd so she made up her own. Here are the original lyrics. I had no idea . . .

Hush, little baby, don't say a word.
Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird

And if that mockingbird won't sing,
Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring

And if that diamond ring turns brass,
Mama's gonna buy you a looking glass

And if that looking glass gets broke,
Mama's gonna buy you a billy goat

And if that billy goat won't pull,
Mama's gonna buy you a cart and bull

And if that cart and bull turn over,
Mama's going to buy you a dog named Rover.

And if that dog named Rover won't bark,
Mama's going to buy you a horse and cart.

And if that horse and cart fall down,
You'll still be the sweetest little baby in town.

Rebecca's lyrics are:

Hush, little baby, don't say a word.
Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird

And if that mockingbird won't sing,
Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring

And if that diamond ring don't shine,
Mama's gonna buy you a pumpkin pie

And if that pumpkin pie tastes yucky,
Mama's gonna buy you a big brown monkey

I know pumpkin pie and monkey aren't revolutionary, but they beat "cart and bull" and a "dog named Rover."

The proof is in the pudding. Taylor falls to sleep in no more than 3 replays of the song.

Taylor LOVES Reesie

Normally, we don't post during the week, but this was too good to wait.

When I got home this afternoon, Rebecca and Taylor greeted me with a smile.  I held Taylor for a little while and thought it would be a good idea to take her outside with me to feed our dog, Reesie.  I just knew that her and Reesie would be great friends once they got to know each other.  I can just imagine Reesie chasing Taylor around the yard, but that is pretty distant in the future.  We've got a couple of steps we must go through first before we get there (crawling, walking, running, growing).  I decided to get them acquainted in the interim.

I fed Reesie and then carried Taylor to the edge of Reesie's dog run.  Reesie was intrigued by the little creature in my arm and came in for a closer look.  When she did, Taylor started laughing.  Every time, Reesie would step back and then lunge forward to get a closer look.  Each time, it was like a big game of Peek-a-boo and each time, Taylor would cackle.  I thought it was hilarious and went in the house to get Rebecca.  It was even better the second time around.

Doesn't this big laugh from such a little girl just make your heart smile?

Wal-Mart Trip

From the title of this blog post, you inevitably thought we took Taylor to Wal-Mart.  That would be a negative.  We have been expressly forbidden from Wal-Mart, church nurseries, etc. with Taylor until at least her six month checkup (next week).  Wal-Mart couldn't wait though. 

The last time we went to Wal-Mart, sliced bread had just been invented.  It has been a LONG time.  The cupboards were looking a little bare and so Rebecca braved the crowd and got us some groceries.  Speaking of Rebecca, she has started her own blog (HERE) which actually mentions the event below.  I highly recommend you follow.  

When Rebecca and I discussed the need for groceries earlier in the day, I offered to go "pick up a few things on my way home" but we were far past that point.  This required an expert and so Rebecca decided to go.  Before she left, she courteously got Taylor to take a nap.  Normally, Taylor sleeps the entire time Rebecca is gone and I felt sure this time would be no different.  Before she left, I asked what time she thought she would be home and she said "definitely no later than 5:30".  I made a mental note and bid her ado. 

It was only 45 minutes later when Taylor woke up and here is the text conversation that followed (note I am on the right in green and Rebecca is on the left in gray):

After several more exchanges like you see above, Rebecca arrived home with the groceries.  I do love taking care of Taylor, but I am awkward.  I don't have boobs and never had siblings to entertain.  This is all new to me.  Rebecca is an expert and I couldn't wait for her to get home and show me how it was done. 

I thought I would leave you with a picture of Taylor from last night.  She is one chunky monkey.  She looks so strong here but it is only because her arms were closer to the camera than her legs.  One day, before we know it, she won't need Rebecca's hands to hold her in the standing position (tear streaks down face . . . ). 

Teething and Rice Cereal

Teething or Ear Infection?  How do you decide?  The symptoms were documented: fussy, not sleeping well, etc.  The investigation began: Fever?  No.  Gnawing on finger?  Yes!  

So there we have it, she is teething.  She has recently discovered her hands and found that if she tries hard enough, she can just barely fit all five fingers in her mouth at one time.  After realizing two of her fingers were missing (just kidding), we decided she may be teething.  

When we were kids (way back in 1984 and yes that was meant to make the older readers feel really old), almost any store you walked into sold the teething rings that you could stick in the freezer.  Well now, they are no where to be found.  Rebecca searched on the internet, we went to Rite-Aid, and CVS.  We haven't tried Wal-Mart yet, but we will.  We found a knock-off that works for now, but we've got to get our hands on some of those for Taylor bug.  

I believe I am not the only dad that has had this issue:  I realize I have no clue what is going on with my daughter.  One morning, we are concerned about Taylor's health and I tell Rebecca to call the doctor.  When I get home from work, I am told the doctor has authorized Taylor to start trying rice cereal.  How are the two events connected?  I still have no idea, but here we are.

So Wednesday (March 31st) was the day.  Here is a picture of Taylor enjoying the feeding.

Taylor experienced a variety of emotions during the feeding.  At the beginning, she was bewildered at this foreign substance entering her mouth (up until now she has only had breastmilk).  Then she seemed happy because it tasted pretty good.  Then she became frustrated (probably because she was eating stuff that had been on all corners of her mouth and her face was covered in rice cereal goo).  Then happy again, then mad, then happy.  I can't really explain it except to say it wasn't too bad.

I couldn't end this post without showing you one of my favorite recent pictures of Taylor.  Look at that smile!

Weight

Today I posted on my blog about "weight" (Click Here) and decided it was a great subject to post about on Taylor's blog. 

I'm a real nerd and I keep track of her weight religiously.  Every time she goes to the doctor I open up my laptop and fire up those digits.  Every Monday, like clockwork, we weigh Taylor at Mama Bo's house and I rush to the Mac and enter those numbers in my spreadsheet.  I've even got a graph that you can see below (click on it to make it bigger).  I don't know if her weight is supposed to be linear or not, but it sure does fit well on that line.  Rebecca clued me in on a startling coincidence this week.  When Taylor was born, her weight was 2 lbs, 10 oz.  After five weeks in the hospital and a couple of months at home, she weighed (this past Monday) 10 lbs, 2 oz.!  Isn't that cool?

Rocket Poopie

Taylor does many adorable things.  This is not the story of one of those things. 

The past three days have been amazing.  At our wits end from sleepless nights and days trudging around the office without much sleep, Rebecca and I prayed for a sleeping miracle.  As I have shared numerous times in this blog, Taylor has had her days and nights mixed up.  After two nights of heavenly bliss sleeped filled nights, Rebecca and I were just waiting for something to go wrong. 

Yesterday afternoon, Rebecca and I loaded up Taylor and just drove around to enjoy the infrequent sunshine and beautiful weather.  We looked at cars, admired some houses, etc.  It was awesome.  We even stopped by Jack's and got a milkshake. 

At home, Rebecca and I were just sitting down on the couch when Rebecca asked Taylor if she had a dirty diaper.  When Taylor didn't respond, Rebecca started the investigation.  The second Rebecca pulled down the diaper, a rocket of excrement shot out of Taylor's butt, past the edge of the diaper, depositing a little of poop on the couch, and a lot of poop across Rebecca's left leg.  Just look at all that poopie. 

We cleaned the couch thoroughly, but we understand if you don't want to sit there anymore.

Taylorisms

Fifty years from now, when Taylor is finally able to start dating, she will ponder marriage and children and wonder about the things that she did as a baby.  Here are some of those things that make Taylor unique.

She has become fascinated with her fist.  She still can't figure out how to get them in her mouth, but she is trying. 

When it is awake time, she likes to be held facing outwards, preferably bouncing as you walk.  When its sleepy time, she likes to be held facing inwards, preferably patting (more like beating) her back as you walk around.  If you are still and she hasn't been asleep that long, she will wake up.  If you don't wait long enough to lay her down, she will wake up.  If you don't do it just right, she will wake up.

She sleeps swaddled at night in her Kiddopotamus. 

If she is in a good mood and you touch her chin, she might just smile for you.

It makes her very mad to yawn.

She has developed a fake cry that is simply meant to convey frustration.  It is more like a whimper than a cry.  When she cries the real cry, there will be no doubt. 

She's not really a fan of getting to sleep when we are ready to go to sleep.  That has been awesome for us by the way!

She's thinks its awesome to poop and pee so mommy or daddy will change her diaper and then when the diaper comes off to really squirt a big one out.

She likes to lay on her play mat for approximately 4.5 revolutions of the songs medley.  After that, it becomes boring. 

She loves to take a bath.  I mean loves it.  If she could scream with excitement, she would.  She shows us she is excited by pottying in the bathtub.  The below picture was pre-potty.

Taylor's First Walk

The first five weeks of Taylor's life were spent in the hospital.  It was a big day when finally were able to bring her home.  We bundled her up really tight since it was November and made the 30 second transfer to the car.  That has been the extent of her outdoor journey.  Car transfers to Paw-Paw and Gammy's house and back and car transfers from Papa and Mama-Bo's house and back.  Oh, and I can't forget the Doctor's visits.  With all that time in the great outdoors, she is a regular Jeremiah Johnson.

Don't get us wrong, we wanted to take her outside more, but this winter has been harsh for us warm-weather Alabamians.  Whenever we were ready to take a walk outside with her, it looked a little similar to this.  We weren't willing to risk it.  Although she is almost 4 months old, she is gestationally only about 1.5 months old. 

Fortunately, after months of cold weather, the heavens smiled on our little town in Alabama and we were able to attempt our first walk.  It was still a little chilly so Rebecca bundled her up in what has to be the cutest outfit on the face of the planet.  Don't believe me, check it out for yourself.

 We got out the stroller and set off on our trip around the neighborhood.  Rebecca took a picture to commemorate the occasion:

 Taylor had a great time.  She looked around and smiled. 

We took her in after only one loop around the neighborhood though as her face was getting a little chilly.  Hopefully when she gets bigger I'll be able to take her on some hikes at a park up the road.  If she's anything like her daddy, she'll love it!

Taylor's Cup Runneth Over

When we found out that Rebecca was pregnant, we sought the advice of friends and family concerning the battle between formula and breastmilk.  We were highly encouraged to breast feed if at all possible (sometimes it's not).  As we were told, breast feeding provides nutrition that your baby just can't get with formula.  Rebecca's breast feeding guru, Sarah Hinson (whose blog you can find here and here) told her about the numerous benefits.  Did you know that when Rebecca holds Taylor, Taylor's germs get on Rebecca?  That sounds pretty yuck, but God has a plan for that yuck.  Rebecca's body picks up on those germs and works to make antibodies to fight those germs and then delivers those to Taylor at the next feeding.  Isn't God's plan awesome?

Initially, we were very concerned about Taylor getting enough milk.  As you might remember, Taylor was in the hospital the first five weeks of her life.  Rebecca stressed herself out trying to get enough breastmilk to feed Taylor.  We even put a picture of Taylor beside the bed because that can stimulate breastmilk production.  Initally, Taylor was only taking about three CC's each feeding (doctor's orders, by the way, there are about 30 CC's in one ounce).  Rebecca would pump and pump to deliver just enough for Taylor to have at her next feeding.  Then she would pump and pump again, just barely having enough to cover the next feeding.  It was a constant concern for us.  As soon as Rebecca got one or two extra CC's, the doctor would increase Taylor's feeds starting our worries all over again.

We finally got to point where having enough for each feed was not a problem.  Now we have a different problem: Where to store it!

Note that this is a full size deep freeze specially packed over the course of 2.5 hours (by yours truly) to maximize breastmilk storage. 

Sleepless Nights

Taylor is doing awesome!  She is growing every week right on track.  At this last Monday's weigh-in, she was up to 7 lbs 13 oz.  Daddy made a spreadsheet (nerdy I know, but helpful) to track her weight and make sure she is progressing well.

She has her days and nights mixed up and is keeping Mommy and Daddy awake a large portion of night (mainly Mommy because Daddy doesn't have the right parts).  We're not complaining though.  She is truly a blessing from God.  As the quote on her wall says, it is hard to believe we have been given such a big miracle for such a little girl. 

She is also not taking a bottle well which presents problems for Kim on the one to two days a week that Rebecca works.  Pray that Taylor will be able to take the bottle while Mommy is away at work.  We're working with her nightly in hopes she will make the transition quickly.  She really prefers the alternative and lets be honest, who can blame her? (Daddy typing) 

That's the update for this week.  I'll leave you with a picture of that beautiful baby.  Look at those cheeks!

The Remote Car Starter

My parents (Robbie's parents) are awesome at Christmas. My mom goes all out and has since I was a little boy. She always set up games for me to play that made Christmas VERY memorable. Last Christmas was Password, the year before that was Wheel of Fortune, and the year before that was Punch-A-Bunch. This year, I got some great stuff, but what I want to focus on in this post was something that Rebecca got from them: a Remote Car Starter.

I know that the cold in Alabama is nothing like Siberia, but when you are used to 95 degrees, 15 degrees is REALLY cold. This winter has been especially cold for us in the South and so we were both really excited about the Remote Car Starter. It was a way for us to warm up Rebecca's car (for Taylor) without having to go outside 10 minutes before we were ready to leave.

I procrastinated for a while before getting the starter installed, but we finally got it installed on Friday, January 15. That night, we were over at Bobby and Kim's house (Rebecca's parents) seeing her brother, sister-in-law, and nephews before they went back home to Tampa, FL. The temperature that night was 26 degrees and so I did the remote car start thing and it worked awesomely. I was able to start up the car from the dining room window without even putting my jacket on. That's #1!

About 10 minutes later, Rebecca and I go out to our cars to leave. She puts Taylor in the car, goes around to the front passenger side to put her bags in seat, closes the door, and goes back to the back passenger seat for one more final check on Taylor before heading out. One problem ... the door is locked. In fact, all the doors are locked.

Rebecca immediately panics. She tells me that Taylor is locked in the car and frantically asks if there is a brick close by. Becca started crying. She decided she would just break her window to get to Taylor. I told her we could not do that and that I would call a locksmith. Rebecca was inconsolable. I asked her brother to take her inside while I sorted out the situation. We called her uncle Danny who used to be a car salesmen (and subsequently a car repo guy). He recommended we call the police. The police said they had no car unlocking equipment and recommended we call the Locksmith. That was a wasted three minutes.

The car was scorching at this point because the heat was all the way up and the air was blowing full blast. I called the Locksmith. He said he would be right there. Rebecca came back outside just as two cops rolled into the driveway. Our town is slightly more hardened than Mayberry and Police Officers routinely get cats out of trees and help get babies out of locked cars.

They stood there telling Rebecca things like, "I locked my kids in the car once. Everybody does it accidentally. Don't worry about it." That DID NOT help. Where is the locksmith? Rebecca thinks the baby is crying due to the heat. The cop shines his light in the window and she is sound asleep. The locksmith still wasn't here. Come on . . .

Finally, he arrived and took what appeared to be a plastic knife with a rubber band attached to the end out of his car. He got the lock to pop in less than 3 minutes and Rebecca consoled our comfortably sleeping baby.

Don't ask Rebecca about it. She will launch into a 10 minute dissertation about how the car locks as soon as you put your keys into the ignition whereas before it only locked when the car got up to 20 mph.  For the record, she is correct.  The remote car starter does suddenly make it lock when you put the keys in the ignition. 

Hopefully this will be something we can look back at one day and laugh at.  Rebecca is not there yet.

Daddy's Diaper Change

By now, this story is familiar to those inside our family, but to the rest of you (and really for documentation purposes for when Taylor is old enough to make fun of her dad) I bring you the following TRUE story.

About a month ago, Rebecca had to go to a follow up doctor's appointment and so I was given the charge of taking care of Taylor. It was my first time being the sole caretaker for her. Rebecca gave me all the instructions:

"There is a bottle in the fridge if she gets hungry. I have laid out several diapers and the wipes are on her changing table. Here is this toy. Here is how to control the sounds on the swing. If she goes to sleep, don't forget to turn the Angelcare monitor on and if you get her out, don't forget to turn it off. I'll only be gone a little bit. Obviously you know the my cell phone number, but here is Dr. Short's office number and if it is bad enough, God forbid, call 911. Do you really think you can do this? Maybe I should just stay home . . ."

I convinced her that SuperDad could take care of this situation just fine. I even have a cape in my closet :) Taylor did awesome for a little while, but then she started crying. I rocked her and she went to sleep. She woke up again, I tried rocking her, but she kept crying. I mentally scrolled down the "Why Babies Cry" list in my brain. $2 on the list (behind #1 Sleepy) was "Hungry". I gave her a bottle and she did awesome. My SuperDad cape was figuratively flapping in the wind amid my heroic and daring escape from arch-enemy "Crying Baby". She went to sleep and as is her MO, she started pooting in her sleep. I always hold her with one hand on her butt and I quickly discovered, it wasn't all noxious fumes. I decided that I would go to #3 on my list to complete the SuperDad trifecta, "Dirty Diaper".

The pack-and-play holds a variety of items that are useful to parents. It has a bulb syringe to get boogers out of the baby's nose. It has ointment to prevent diaper rash, it has wipes to clean the baby's bottom, and obviously, it has diapers. I took one out and laid it next to Taylor. I got a wipe and did the deal. Once clean, I tried to put the diaper on Taylor, but something was not working. I looked at the diaper and it looked smaller than I remembered and it did not say Pampers on it. It actually didn't say anything at all. I cursed Rebecca under my breath for putting diapers in the pack-and-play that I have never used. I picked Taylor up (bare-butt) and carried her into the Nursery. There, I beheld that old standard: "Pampers Preemie". Crisis averted. I changed the diaper and ducked back into the phone booth to change into normal human clothes before Becca got home.

When she got home, she was surprised that the baby was not disfigured and was actually asleep on my shoulder. I smiled and gave her the "You know I'm awesome" look, but then explained to her that I was very upset with her.

"Why did you put diapers in the pack-and-play that I have never used? I don't even think they would have fit her. They were shaped funny."

To which she responded, "What? I don't know what you are talking about."

I got off my throne and took her to the pack-and-play to explain her error. The second I pulled out the diaper, she laughed at the top of her lungs and collapsed to the floor. After about 10 minutes, she broke the news to me. This was no diaper
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. It was a Maxipad!

Who in the world puts a Maxipad in a pack-and=play? Can you blame me? It has wings you know! I told her that I considered going out to the garage and getting the duct tape. I'm an engineer. I could have made it work one way or another!

Taylor is Home!

Taylor is home and that is just awesome!  She is doing very well!  Here is a short video I put together of her first month!  Have a great day!



If you would rather watch it on Youtube, here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MUYfSfCFzY