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December 31 - I worked yesterday and a few other days in December, just to get
back into the swing of things. There's a lot to catch up on. My first official
day back isn't until next week. Mandy's here for our traditional New Year's
vacation. It's a little different with a baby around, plus the fact that I
haven't been working anyway for the last 5 months makes it different, too.
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We made our dinner plan, and shopped at Powell's for cookbooks, and then at the
Lebanese grocery store down the street. We decided to do Middle Eastern food
this year. (Someone, I forget who, commented that perhaps next year we can do
Korean, and make a tradition of choosing the food of whatever country we're
bombing at the moment.) As usual, it was a delicious meal.
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January 9 - My first week back at work. By an unfortunate coincidence, Jeff's
gone all week doing one of his last training classes. I barely made it through
today, with all my meetings. It was really, really hard. We need to find
someone to help us during the day, at least for a few hours. Karla found out
Jeff was gone, and they invited me over for dinner, which was really nice.
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January 11 - Jeff's home for the weekend, and then he's gone again a few days
next week. Frankly, I've been sensitive and cranky all day. I can't tell if
it's hormonal, or if I'm just mad because last week was so hard with Jeff gone.
We had our old neighbors, Betsy and Tony (and Harper) over for dinner. Harper's
14 months old, and very curious. Harper ran around, chased the kitty. When she
saw Sven, she held up both her arms in the Pat the Bunny parlance for "So big!"
She liked the pig in soup picture, too -- kept looking at it and holding up her
fist, then opening it and saying "Pssssh!" to indicate a splash.
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January 13 - Today was Ethan's 4-month (and some) appointment. It was
stressful. NOW the pediatrician says his head is flat -- which I asked her
about 2 months ago! Urngh. The doctor says it's so pronounced now that it makes
him look "Down-ish," and indeed the first thing she did was check his hands for
signs of the Down syndrome crease in the palm. (Not that she told me that's
what she was looking for.) Anyway, I'm supposed to talk to another doctor. She
did tell me not to worry, that it's really just cosmetic. But still, I don't
want him to have a funny-looking head! I must be a bad mommy. Fortunately, I
ran into Karla when I got home, and she could tell right away that something
was wrong, so I talked to her about it and felt better. And then I was talking
to Mandy about it later, and she said something like, "You know, being a parent
is a big responsibility... I mean, you have so many decisions to make. You're
responsible for everything, even the shape of their head." So true.
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Anyway, he's 28 3/4 inches tall, off the charts. 18 pounds, 3 ounces, which is
90th %ile for weight. So he's tall and skinny -- big surprise. We're supposed
to go ahead with solid foods, which should be fun. I've become determined to
never let him lay flat back on his head, to see if we can get his head to be
rounder before we go to the specialist.
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January 17 - We started rice cereal a
few days ago. The first time, he kinda made a frowny face, but got a little in.
Then today he enjoyed the cereal for the
first time, and really started opening his mouth and reaching for it. And he
loves his bowl.
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January 20 - Holiday today. We had a good weekend -- we finally built steps
outside our bedroom door. Ethan sipped from my glass today, which was really
funny. He reached for it and put his mouth around it, so I tipped it to give
him some water. He kept wanting more.
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He's had many
cute moments... on Saturday
I was feeding him, and then stopped and got up when he fell asleep. He woke up,
and then smiled and reached out for my face... so cute. Monday he was sleeping,
and I came in and he sort of woke up. But then his eyes fell almost closed
again, and he seemed asleep, but I could see they were just a crack open. I
wasn't sure if he was awake, or sleeping with his eyes open the way Mandy does,
so I stuck my tongue out and he smiled big, still with his eyes mostly closed.
So he was just faking.
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He took a bath with Jeff tonight -- lots of splashing and kicking. Not sure if
he was excited or frustrated, but it was cute all the same.
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January 24 - We're visiting Mom this weekend. Or
Grandmom, I should say. Today I left Ethan with Mom for a bit, and
visited the office. I dropped by to introduce Ethan to Bruce, which was fun. We
went to see Gammi, too, and Ethan
got to sit on the table.
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January 27 - It's great to be home. Ethan had fun with the cereal tonight -- he
actually held the spoon himself, with
me guiding his hand. He seemed to get that the spoon goes in the bowl, and then
to his mouth, but he ended up with cereal in his eyes, in his nose, and of
course all over his chin.
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ethan
