Bagheera

Since so many people emailed asking if Bagheera was okay, we figured we would add a quick note. Bagheera was pretty tired on Sunday, the day after we got back. I wasn't very concerned because he's usually pretty tired after a trip anyway. The important thing was that he was holding down all food and water. By Monday, he was back to his normal self - wanting to play, go for a walk, whatever we would do with him.

So, Bagheera survived the memorable camping trip, although I bet he wishes he could forget about it.

Alli's First Camping Trip

Kim and I decided to take Alli camping. Yes, she's only 3 months, but camping is such a fun family activity. So, we packed up the car and headed up north Friday afternoon to camp with a family from work. Alli faced many challenges on this trip: a 3-1/2 hour car ride (it was really 3 hours, but we had to stop to nurse), sleeping in a tent in 50 degree weather, and smoke from a campfire. She handled it all like a champ.

The ride there and back was easy for her, although both directions there was a small breakdown and some crying about 20 minutes from our destination. Weird that it was at about the same time in the trip both directions.

For sleeping, we had her in a Pac-n-Play beside our mattress inside the tent. We had her bundled in SOOO many layers, including having a Boppy pillow around her head to add extra warmth.

But Bagheera... We showed up later than we wanted to on Friday and had to set the tent up in the dark. Pam took Alli so we didn't have to worry about her, and Bagheera just went exploring and getting into "stuff". Well, whatever he got into didn't agree with him. We went to bed around 10pm and that's when the problems started. Bagheera started puking. At first we were upset because we knew it was because of something he had eaten while he was exploring. But then we realized just how sick he was - he threw up every 15-20 minutes all night long. At about 3am, he started going more like 45 minutes between episodes, but still going. He threw up inside the tent 3 times because we couldn't get it open in time. After one of those "inside the tent" times, we heard an animal outside and we didn't want to send him out there (skunk? raccoon?) So we took some travel pads that I had packed for Alli and laid them at the door of the tent and just had him keep throwing up on those. Ugh. Luckily everything was well ventilated. Kim and I basically didn't sleep at all. Alli woke up at 6:30, right on time. Bagheera was still having problems.

Bagheera started feeling better by early afternoon, but still not quite all the way there. His last episode was in the car on the way home, but it was mostly food. (We had started him on bread and water to see if he could keep anything down and slowly built up to hoping his food would stay...)

So the trip in general....trying... Alli? Total camper extraordinaire!

Alli's Buddy

Alli seems to have a lot of fun during the day. Krista has been taking great care of Alli. I also know how much Alli loves watching Tyler, Krista's son. Krista took some cute pictures of the two of them over the last week or so. I hope this experience is wonderful for both kids. I'd like to believe it is and that they'll be good buddies for a long time.

Alli: 3 months
Tyler: 19 months

Pictures - Alli at Three Months

Well, we finally got around to post-processing the pictures we took over the last week. Here are some fun ones of Alli. I love her many different expressions.


Alli Concentrating:


Alli Thinking:


Alli Giggling:


Alli Flying:

Three Months Old Today

So Alli is 3 months old today and she decided to perform tricks for us for her "birthday". This morning, I finally got the timing down so that I could leave the house at 7am as opposed to 7:30. Ha! Success. But as I walked by her playing on her activity mat, I saw that she was exploring different things. Instead of staying on her back kicking and punching her animal friends, she would also kick her legs up and roll to her side to make faces at the baby in the mirror. I was astounded because she was doing it so intentionally and like she had been doing it for ages. I told Kim to come watch because she was going to roll over for us and he hadn't seen that yet. But instead she would kick her legs to get back on her back and play with her friends. She did this over and over - on her side, on her back, on her side. Finally she decided to just hang out on her side. We thought maybe she was just done playing and figured laying on her side was a nice change. But after a few minutes, she decided she wanted something more so she started kicking her legs over, and grunting, and kicking, and grunting until finally she was able to get herself over that stubborn shoulder that was in the wrong place and end up on her belly. So proud. I got out of the house at 7:30. :)

We'll take pictures this weekend and hopefully get a couple of posted as well.

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin', Get Those Doggies Rollin' (for real!)

I can officially say that I saw Alli roll over. Tonight after work, I wanted to change clothes so I brought her into my closet with me and just laid her on the floor so I could talk to her while I was changing. Bagheera came in and went straight for her with his nose. Alli turned away and wound up on her side. I figured she looked pretty comfy, so I just left her there. Pretty soon the legs started going and I was cheering her on. And finally, after a few minutes, she finally made it to her belly. She didn't like it there very much, but I was quite proud!

The Tyler Factor

Today Kim dropped Alli off at Krista's while I went to work. It was *hard* to say goodbye to her an hour earlier. And of course I had to ask both Kim AND Krista how the drop-off went. :)

When I picked Alli up this afternoon, she was sleeping. Unfortunately, while she slept her pacifier fell out of her mouth. Nothing big, but Krista and I walked into the kitchen to pick up Alli's things and Tyler tried to help (as he does) by trying to put Alli's pacifier back into her mouth. Now, you have to picture just how accurate the aim may be for an 18 month old to hit the mouth of a sleeping baby while she's being rocked in a swing. Yea, I think you have the picture. Needless to say, she woke up and cried.

No big deal - no harm done. We thanked Tyler for trying to help but also told him that sometimes Alli just doesn't want the pacifier. Not sure he understood it. But as we stood there talking, me with Alli in my arms and Krista with Tyler in her arms, Tyler reached out and grabbed Alli's hand and started yanking on her (you know how kids do). Krista reminded him to be gentle and Alli got the biggest darn smile you could ever imagine on her face. She *loved* the attention Tyler was giving her. I could see that in her eyes, Tyler can do no wrong. It was the cutest darn thing, and it made me happy cause this was the kind of relationship I was hoping she would get from this arrangement.

I remember when my oldest nephew (Jonathan) used to tug, pull, smash, etc. his younger sister (Claire) when she was a baby and she would just smile and laugh and think it was the greatest thing ever - all while us grown-ups would freak out because we thought he might be hurting her. It's amazing the interaction between kids.

So thank you Tyler for helping with Alli and keeping her very entertained and happy!

Sleeping Cutie

This is why I love being a Dad:

Our Guard Dog

Kim and I have been concerned that Bagheera, while a wonderful dog, is just not a guard dog. I'm starting to wonder if he realizes that we need to be extra careful to protect Alli.

Yesterday the alarm guy came over to make some adjustments to our system. Of course he came while I was in the middle of nursing. I actually unlatched Alli, put her with the Boppy on our bed, and answered the door. I spent 1/2 an hour with this guy all the way down at the other end of our house. Alli just stayed quiet on our bed, for the most part. I heard a couple of vocals and told him I had to check on my daughter. Well, apparently Bagheera had also heard Alli's stirring because when I got there, I found Bagheera on the bed next to Alli, head facing the bedroom door and alert. I was so proud of him!

Another "alarming" event came when I was back nursing Alli. Both Bagheera and I heard voices from outside. He growled and barked and I told him "good boy". He looked out the windows of the bedroom and then laid down in front of Alli and I, facing the bedroom door. I told him to go check the front windows, but he didn't leave us. It was then that I realized what a guard dog we had.

Bagheera doesn't protect the house. He protects the people. So all this time, we kept thinking we didn't have a guard dog, but really, he's a guard dog just for the things that *really* matter. Us. Not the material things we have in our house. The people. The family. I'm so proud of him and so very happy he's such a big part of our family!

Separation Anxiety

I had decided to go back to work gradually - only working three days this first week back - Mon, Tues, and Thurs. Today is Wednesday, my first day off after two days without Alli. It's interesting how it feels going back to work. For me, as I walked into the building, it felt like I had only been gone for a long weekend. When I got through all the emails, I jumped right in and started catching up on where everything was in the project and started right back to work, just like a long weekend again. In some ways, I was the old Jenny. But I missed holding the little munchkin and smelling her hair.

Day two was harder because I didn't get to see much of Alli on Monday. I mean, I picked her up and she was sorta sleepy. We got home, I fed her, she slept a little, I bathed her and fed her again and then she was done for the night. So Tuesday I really didn't want to leave her, but I did.

Today is *my* day. The day to hold her and smell her hair whenever I want!!! It's been great to see her smiles as she tends to smile more in the morning and early afternoon than evenings (probably because she's tired by evening time).

But in all, I'm happy to be back at work. It does give me a grounding, make me feel a little like myself again. I just wish Alli were there with me so that when I need my little "fix" of holding her I could. But, it will get easier and I'm pretty sure weekends are going to take on an entirely new meaning!