A Hint

Can you see it now?

Ta-Da List

I recently received a copy of The Rookie Mom's Handbook and I recommend it for any new mom. It's chock full of ideas for, as the subtitle says, "250 Activities you can do with (or without) your baby."

One suggestion is to occassionally make a "did do" list, as opposed to a "to do" list, showing all that you accomplished during the day, no matter how mundane.

One commenter on their blog referred to this as a "Ta-Da List" and I liked that so much that I stole it.

So, here's my Ta-Da List for today:

Since Shrike left for work this afternoon (approximately nine ten hours ago), I have:

• Changed eight nine diapers, plus one that got peed on before it was closed up.
• Cleaned one peedy changing table, and one peedy baby (separate incident from above).
• Changed one baby outfit (see above).
• Nursed Peeper eleven twelve times, for a total of three hours, thirty-eight minutes (and counting).
• Gave Peeper medicine twice. (Another dose due soon.)
• Consoled crying / fussy baby at least a dozen times.
• Fed cats.
• Let dogs in and/or out four times.
• Made pitcher of (instant) lemonade.
• Drank four glasses of lemonade.
• Microwaved and ate frozen pizza.
• Open cereal box, served and ate bowl of cereal with milk. All one-handed.
• Moved clothes from washer to dryer.
• Did 2.5 billable hours of web development work and sent twelve related emails.
• Sent seven emails regarding Democratic Party business.
• Received and replied to six emails from Shrike.
• Confirmed two Facebook friends.
• Answered two spam phone calls and told callers to take me off their lists.
• Answered door for one baby gift delivery.
• Woke, frightened and made Peeper cry twice. Once by sneezing loudly, once by playing a web video.
• Got the song "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits stuck in my head for no apparent reason. (It was on the radio when we were driving to Peeper's cardiologist appointment on Wednesday.)
• Researched online web programming classes, since the only language I know is only supported by one hosting company that I know of (my former employers) and I want need to be more flexible than that.
• Ordered a pizza, via the interwebs.
• Ate two slices of pizza.
• Peed twice.
• Listed everything I did all day.
• Photographed Peeper.
• Blogged. Thrice.
• Was the recipient of a handful of baby smiles, which makes it all worthwhile.

Daily Peep: What's Wrong With This Picture

Can you spot the mistake in this photo?

(Hint: It's not Peeper!)

About That Cat

While we were in Texas, I talked about the cat that Anonydaddy and his brother (allegedly) tricked Anonymama into adopting.

I also posted a video of said kitty helping Shrike to settle Peeper during a crying fit.

Oh, but that's not the end of the cat stories!

---

After Anonyuncle left, "WhiteCat" (one of several names they went through before finally settling on one) spent a big chunk of the day in Anonymama's lap, consoling her as she watched the Cowboys/Eagles game that she'd Tivoed the day before.

Peeper was already in her lap, but he's obviously used to babies, because he snugged right up to her. Actually, he tried to "make bread" on her, but since he has claws, we didn't allow that.

At one point, I looked over, and they were holding hands - his paw was right on top of her hand - but, of course, they'd moved by the time I got back with the camera.

Then their FirstKitty saw him sitting on her mother, and ooohhh, she did not like that at all.

She yowled at him, and when he didn't leave, she took a step toward him and yowled again.

(That's when I removed Peeper from the scene. I wasn't too keen on my mother maybe ending up in the middle of a cat fight, but I damn sure wasn't going to let my baby stick around for it!)

Still no reaction (he's deaf, remember).

Stalk.

Yowl.

Nothing.

Stalk.

Yowl!

Nothing.

Stalk.

Yowl?

(I swear, there was a question mark on the end of it.)

Until she was literally right behind his head, and he'd still not twitched a whisker.

Finally, we think she actually touched him, and he turned around as if to say, "Oh, were you talking to me?"

She walked away, defeated.

---

Every time the cats started yowling, I'd think, "Oh! Is that Peeper?!" even if she was in my arms at the time.

The similarity of their cries was not "all in my head" though. . . .

One day, I was thinking "Hmm, I hope Peeper wakes up to nurse soon. Wait, it's not been that long, why am I feeling so. . . ? Oooohhh!" and realized that the cats sounded SO baby-like that they were triggering my milk let-down!

How crazy is that?

I said to Anonymama, "If neither of those cats plans on getting goody, they'd better stop making those sounds!"

Of course, she reminded me that they have sandpaper tongues and one has claws and I wanted no parts of that!

---

WhiteCat had an appointment with the vet on Tuesday for vaccinations and removal of various offending appendages (claws, testicles). That evening, I received an email from Anonymama:

When WhiteCat went to the vet for his operations, the vet discovered that he had
a diaphragmatic hernia and had most of his innards up in his chest.

He was sure that he had been hit by a car in the past. Said not much else would to that.

After much thought and discussion, we decided to go ahead and have the surgery to repair the hernia and move stuff where it belongs.

That was done yesterday and he is doing well. Will go back in 3 or 4 weeks to do the other surgeries.

He has become one very expensive cat. And I did not want another cat, but once he was ours for a few days, what could we do? The other choice was to put him down as the condition was going to get him before long.

I guess we are just suckers for our cats.

Suckers who now own one very lucky cat.

Daily Peep: Sleeping

Birthday Girl

We celebrated "Christmas Eve" (tamale dinner, gift opening) with my family on December 27, so Frappa brought some teeny-tiny cupcakes, in celebration of Peeper's two-month birthday.

Here we are with one of them:

I thought it more appropriate to put the candles on a treat that Peeper herself could enjoy.

On the other hand, maybe she would've liked the cupcakes just fine.

Weight Check

The pediatrician's office weighed Peeper at 7 pounds, 12 ounces today.

Of course, we like the cardiologist's measurement from yesterday better, but this is the scale that we trust, so I guess it'll be another week or so before we can really call her eight pounds.

The next "official" weigh-in will be when she gets her next Synagis (RSV shot) on Thursday January 22.

Daily Peep: Baby Gym

She's still got a ways to go, but Peeper's getting more and more interested in her dangly toys.

Daily Peep: Where's Mommy?

There she is!

Cardio Check

Peeper had a visit with her cardiologist today, and although we didn't get any real news, it went well.

He's still very happy with her growth and (although we don't "believe" their measurements) they measured her at 21 1/4 inches, and 8 pounds!

We'll get an "official" weight at the pediatrician's office tomorrow, but if she's not 8 pounds for them, she should be very, very close.

She'll have another echocardiogram in two weeks (Friday January 23) and if it doesn't show any change in the hole, he'll start consulting with the surgeon about it, but he said that won't necessarily mean surgery, because "We still have some time to work with."

At our last visit, he put her odds of needing surgery at "50/50," but from everything else he said, and how he said it, we both came away with the feeling that he thought it was a lot more likely than that.

Today, we both felt like he was more optimistic about her chances of healing up the hole herself, and surgery didn't seem as much of a certainty.

I can't really explain what he said that was different, maybe it was more about his tone than the actual words, but we came away from today's appointment feeling like surgery is a little less of a foregone conclusion than the impression we had last week.

Of course, we'll know a lot more next week, and with that echo the odds are likely to shift pretty significantly one way or the other, even if we're still not certain.

In the meantime, please continue to keep little Peeper (and her moms) in your thoughts and prayers, and please continue to send us all the good vibes, positive energy, and heart-hole-healin' mojo you can muster.