Monday, January 01, 2007

Onward with the 07

I always seem to dread the new year, because it’s another year gone by that I didn’t do what I said I was going to do last year. But this New Year is quite different.

Theresa and I have been doing a tradition since we were married. We have this little canister that’s labeled, “gil and THeresas hopes and dreams” Each New years eve, we open it up and look inside! What lies inside are little pieces of paper that have dreams and goals written on them from the new years eve the year prior.

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We mostly forget whats in there, so when we open it up, we have a good time reading what we thought we wanted to do, or whatever. Sometimes it’s a little tough reading the paper slips, (loose 10 lbs) and we just put it back in the pot for next year. Other times it can be very rewarding. I remember last year when we opened the canister and I pulled out a card that read, “to work in the design field, some-how..some-way..” it was so great to pull out that piece of paper and throw it away! Dream realized.

Wow, what a great feeling to see a goal realized that you yourself wrote down on paper.

When i worked at a gym, i would tell people the same thing every day:
IF you are serious about a goal, the first step is to write it down on paper. The second step is too tell your friends about your goal. This is crucial because they will know if you fail. But your friends can help you along the way, that’s the plus.

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That friend for me is Theresa. And while she can be a great motivator, I find the most motivation from my son, akello. If not for me….then for akello. That’s what I find myself saying a lot these days.

I knew going into this new years eve that there would be some dreams going back into the bucket (10 lbs) but some others that would be coming out! (paying off a credit card)

This new years was funny with akello and all. We couldn’t go to any parties b/c of akello’s sleep time, and don’t feel like he’s “sitter ready” especially with his recent bouts of diahrea. Oh the diarreah! The poor thing! His ass was so raw for a spell. It hurt to look it! He started to get it after he received his 4 month shots. Wich by the way went soooo much better than the 2 month shots. He didn’t even blink when he got the first 2 shots. And cried just a little (and at moderate volume) when he got the third. So we don’t know if it was something in the shots, or if it was all the sweets that theresas been eating lately cuzz of the holidays and all.We think it was the chocolate from Theresa. So T quit eating all the sweets and eggnog and He’s starting to get back to normal.

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I got to say, if there was a contest for The loudest crying baby, I would sign him up! He is soooo loud! I even keep a pair of earplugs handy. He doesn’t cry too much, but when he does, it’s painful. He really doesn’t cry too much these days. In fact Theresa and I have seen a difference in a lot of things with him lately in the past two days. He has been doing really well in the car lately which Is really great. (knock on wood) Theresa and I really are amazed. We shall see how long this lasts. We attribute this change to a difference that we made in his sleep schedule and also think that it might be that he's just maturing. We read in a book that baby’s should not be up for more than two hours at a time, and this same book actually gave a reason for akello’s figiting and constant movement. The book explained to us that he is overtired. And told us a lot of other symptoms of overtired babys and how you can think as a parent that nothings wrong. Well the case studies matched akello to a T! so we started giving him a nap between every one to two hours. No more nap schedule. We start the day as soon as he wakes up and go from there. And sure enough its made a difference. He doesn’t figit as much as he used to and he sleeps a lot more during the day. And its easier to get him to sleep too because,,,,,,HE’S NOT OVERTIRED!!!

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Its my job to cut his nails. They grow fast and he will often cut himself accidentaly by waving his arms around and will also cut himself on the face whenever he rubs his eyes when he is tired.

I was doing really good with trimming him until one day…..oh it was bad.

I was going along trimming the nails as usual when I realized that after I made a cut, I didn’t hear the usual sound of “clip” in fact I heard nothing at all. I feared the worst and looked at his face, for an expression, then to his finger. That’s when I saw it. The slow rush of blood coming from the inside of his little finger. I looked back at him just to see his smile turn into the saddest little face, oh and that cry!

I didn’t cut his fingernails for days. I felt so bad. But, nature left me no choice and I was back at it. This time super careful.

Its very difficult to do this. Hes always moving around. And he does not keep his hands open. They are usually curled around my hand or opening and closing. Never still.

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He moves around so much that our pediatrician told us at his 4 month checkup that he’s a very active baby and is burning a lot of calories, needs to nurse more to make up for it, or maybe use baby cereal. We are looking into the baby cereal thing but havent done anything on it yet. We are nursing more though. He grew 3 inches since his 2 month checkup! so all that weight is going to his height.

Well. We did wind up going to a NEW years eve party. But! it was a Babycentric one!
the party started at 6 and we treated 9pm as midnight. Babies were all around and parents sat and exchanged stories while munching on BBQ and sipping champagne

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the party hosts even set up a changing table in the hallway!

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akello did really great and had a good time. As did we. we left at 8:30 though.

We have started to retrain akello's bed time. it used to be 9 then 6, then 7 then 6 then 7:30

We change our minds allllllll the time. Heres the thing. all the baby books say to put you kid to sleep earlier. the earlier the better. and that they will sleep longer, and that its healthier etc. well theresa has been talkin to all her freinds and they all say the same thing. 8:30 to 9:30 is when they put their kids down. for the obviuos reason. They can get sleep close to the same time that baby gets sleep.
and its like, HELLO! babys dont know what time it is!

with akello, he would go down at 7:30 and would sleep for 3 hours. this gave theresa and i some time together wich was nice, but as soon as 10:30 rolled around, he would be up every 2 hours. And theresa would be right up with him.

Now we have not made an immediate jump from a 7pm bedtime to a 9pm bedtime. we are slowly increasing it.

our pediatrician always tells us, "throw away all those books!!"
theresa reada a lot of books. but for all the philosophy and methods she picks up on a lot of information that comes in handy.

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For christmas, akello got some good starter toys to start him on the road to a proffessional career in sports. A mini soccerball from Aunt Anita and a mini table tennis set from Ron! i cant wait for the first mini ping pong photo-shoot!

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