Monthly Archives: June 2010

To Cut or Not To Cut.

Posted on by

This hair…

Born with so little hair… dark peach-fuzz that all fell out.

So desperately bald… no hair on this child what-so-ever.

And then, a miracle!  Some hair starts to grow… fluffy, but surely there!

That hazy glow surrounding his grumpy countenance is truly hair.  Real, honest to goodness hair.

There it is!  You can really see it!  HAIR!

In all it’s fuzzy goodness, Ronan has hair on his head.

But my, how quickly it grows… and takes on a life of its own.

OUT OF CONTROL

“I gots hair on top, guys.”

Seriously?  When did all THIS show up?!

And there it is… in all its glory.  The baby mullet.

But the curls, you guys.  THE CURLS.

 

How can I ever cut it?  I am so torn.  I go back and forth DAILY over whether or not it’s finally time.  Sometimes I feel like the only mom of a boy this age who HASN’T given him a haircut yet.

Brock and I both lean towards letting it grow.  What’s the hurry?  Once we cut it… it’s gone.

What should we do?  Cut or no cut?

Incredible Inwood

Posted on by
6

Woah.

Yes, that’s right folks, I’m back.

I’m terribly sorry for this unintended hiatus, no matter how much it was actually good for me.  I think I needed a couple of weeks to get my blogging mojo back.  I think my mojo is back.

Just as a recap, Brock, Ronan and I went to the beach a few weeks ago.  I had a hard time blogging while we were there, and spent a few days recuperating from the trip.  The following week, Ronan and I flew to New York.

Yup.  Just me and Ronan.  To New York.  To visit friends.

Friends?

Mm-hmm.  We flew to New York to meet people that we had only ever met before on the internet.  We had a “tweetup” which is net-speak for Twitter friends meeting up.  I know, you all think I’m crazy.  But it was probably one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life.

First off, let me say that EVERYONE that I met in Inwood was amazing.  I have never been surrounded by so many people so immediately accepting, and so fun to spend time with.  Every day was jam-packed with things to do, and places to go.  For those of you that don’t know, Inwood is the neighborhood that encompasses the northern-most tip of Manhattan Island.  It is full of absolutely beautiful pre-war architecture, tons of culture, and an amazing number of family friendly, CLEAN and gated parks.

Ronan and I had a blast walking all over the area, checking out the sights and trying out the restaurants.  We spent every morning in a different park, meeting the locals and running around.  We tried new foods in all of the restaurants, and enjoyed everything we ate!  (Also missed out on a bout of food poisoning that Jose, Inger and Zaida were not so lucky as to avoid.)

Some highlights of our trip were:

Anne Loftus park – we returned here a couple times.  With several different play areas, tree covered park, and tons of benches, Ronan had a blast running from one end of the park to the other.  It was a gorgeous photo opportunity, so I took plenty!

My first subway ride – much more glamorous the first time around (and in my head) that in reality.  But it was kind of relaxing, even though Ronan never slept.

Artisanal Bistro – Daniel, Zaida’s husband, is the front of house manager at this amazing french bistro.  He took us for lunch on Thursday afternoon, and I ate far better than I ever have at ANY other restaurant in my LIFE.  We had fondue, and a steak salad, and dessert; creme brulee, cheesecake and an apple tart.  Ronan was just as excited about the food as I was.

Piper’s Kilt – An Irish Pub!  What a fantastic little pub, easily accommodating an onrush of Tweeps, FOUR toddlers, and a huge order of food.  Which was amazing.  The service was great.  And the atmosphere was perfect.

Hooplawn! – I experienced my first hoop jam!  It was so amazing to meet everyone that I had only previously known through Twitter, and SO much fun to spend the evening hooping.  Ronan had more fun than I’ve ever seen a child have splashing in a puddle, only to fall in and not mind at all.  The weather was great, despite threats to rain, and fun was had by all.

While we were in New York, our days were so full of activity it felt like we were there forever, but now that I’m home… I feel like it passed by in a moment.  I miss all of my new friends already, and the casual nature of walking out of your apartment and being within a few blocks of anything you could ever need.  I feel so lucky to have made the friends that I have made, and desperately hope in the future to make another trip.  Also, I am incredibly thankful to our amazing hostess, Claudia, for opening her home to us and for being an incredible person.  She made us feel welcome, and wanted and like we were at home.

I am beyond words thankful for Zaida and her family.  She planned everything to the last detail, and didn’t bat an eye when weather and health problems seemed determined to ruin the trip.  Her BEAUTIFUL babes, Gabriel and Stella, were always a pleasure to spend time with.  Her husband Daniel (a self described “goofy asshole”) was fun and helpful, despite the debilitating sickness he was enduring (ya big baby!).  Ryan, her teenaged son, was polite and funny, helpful and sweet.  He offered to take pictures during the hoop jam, and even played with Ronan when he was getting tired and fussy.  Such an amazing family, filled with so much love.

Before this post gets too long!  I loved meeting and spending time with Melissa and Jay, and their beautiful son Alex.  Jose and Inger were a pleasure every time we got together, and always made me laugh.  Their boys, Lucas and Yannick are absolute TREASURES and beautiful to boot.  Rich and Selena and Jay and Jill and Lynn and SO MANY PEOPLE I can’t remember all the names!

Thank you SO MUCH to Inwood and all of our friends for helping us have such a great trip.  I hope we make it back some day.  Soon.

Special.

Posted on by
3

You know, I wanted today to write about my lack… lack of energy, lack of motivation, lack of time.

Instead, I decided to write about a beautiful lady that I scanned at work last night.  She was in her late 80′s, and was just as sweet as could be.  It is all to easy to assume any patient of advanced age will have some sort of mental deficiency; we see it very often, our patients that are hard of hearing, or suffering from dementia.  Patients that have regressed back to childlike tendencies.  Patients that are completely out of it.  It’s pleasantly surprising to spend my time with a woman as quick, smart and capable as I am.

(My Badge Picture)

She asked me about the sweet baby on my badge, and I told her it was my little boy.  She said he was gorgeous, and I asked her if she had any kids.  She told me she had 4 children, 3 boys and a girl!  She also said she had them very far apart… her first at 26 years old, and her last at 38.

She told me her last child was born a premie, at 4 weeks early.  She said they told her the baby was jaundiced, and that she would have to stay in the hospital.  She said there was NO way she was leaving her sweet baby at the hospital, she’d had 3 kids already and knew what to do.  I thought about the amount of time that had passed, and what a 36 week premie would be like that many years ago.  I told her she was very lucky everything turned out okay, and she knew it.

When we were all finished, I walked her back for her next exam.  I was chatting with her about Ronan and talking about how we’d like to have more kids.  She said she was an only child, and that’s why she wanted a large family.  As I left her, she told me that I was “just adorable”.

I would have said the exact same thing about her.

Choke.

Posted on by
3

Woo.

Need to write a blog today.  Had nothing to write about.  Until about 5 minutes ago.

I was sitting on the couch with Ronan, sharing my hummus and pita chips.  Ronan will eat just about anything we’re eating, and he LOVES hummus.  He was taking his own pita chips and ‘dipping’ them in the hummus on his own.  He really wasn’t even making that big of a mess!  I was careful to only let him have half a chip at a time, as he’s notorious for sticking the whole thing in his mouth, or as much as he could possibly fit.

Now, Ronan has all four of his one year molars, so he has no trouble chewing food.  I could hear him crunch, crunch, crunching away at his chip, and gladly going for more hummus any chance he could get.  We’d been snacking for a while, and I figured he’d be slowing down soon… he usually leaves out of boredom rather than being full.

All of a sudden, I looked at his face as he started to yell angrily in pain.  His eyes, nose and mouth were all bright red, and he started crying.  It looked like he had maybe swallowed a piece of chip that hadn’t been fully chewed yet, and it HURT going down.  I watched as he sucked in, and then started choking – the rest of the food that was in his mouth went somewhere it shouldn’t have.  He was coughing, and wheezing, then coughing again.  I left him, let him cough, until I realized he didn’t seem to be able to get his airway cleared.

Trying NOT to panic, I picked him up and dug some of the food out of his mouth – positive for TOO MUCH in there.  Once I did that, he started spitting out the rest, and began to cough more normally.  It took just a few more seconds for him to start crying, really crying and only THEN did I feel like everything was going to be okay.

He cried a sad, pitiful cry while I held him.  He put his head on my shoulder, and wrapped his arms around me.  It was scary for both of us, really scary.

I put him down on the ground, and he immediately went for another pita chip.

Sigh.  Kids.