6 months already?

Amazingly, little Parker Rose has passed the 6 month milestone recently.  As an indication of our modern world, this is marked not by parties and fanfare, but a visit to the doctor.  No problems there, but just the usual screaming once the needles come out.  She is a patient little girl, accompanying us to all sorts of stores and warehouses as we try to get the new house wrapped up, but she draws the line at getting shots.  She calmed down pretty quickly afterward and hasn’t had anymore symptons other than being a little tired.  Let’s hope that holds through our first family Christmas celebration on Christmas eve.

Here are a few band-aid shots of Parker Rose:

Wile E. Coyote

They did what to me?!?

Looks like I'm gonna make it

Raffle for loyal readers

I haven’t posted much lately, so I figured I owed Parker Rose’s followers a reward.  We have decided to send Parker Rose to a randomly selected blog reader’s home for the holidays.  I haven’t worked out the details on raffle tickets yet, but we did start working out the travel strategy today:

Should we use Priority or Express?

Someone's ready to roll

Not quite the Thanksgiving we imagined

This year was to be our first Thanksgiving with Parker Rose.  Plans called for large potluck type dinner at my parents’ house with lots of family and friends.  Beth and I planned on cooking our dishes together and heading over to my folks’ house with Parker Rose in a cute Thanksgiving dress.  Pretty good plan, eh?  This post would have been a series of lovely photos of babies, food, and family.

It all started going wrong on Tuesday morning.  Beth and I were driving to the grocery store for the necessary supplies when we saw a little dog running in traffic.  We decided to stop to see if we could catch him and get him home.  After a few tries we ended up behind the Home Depot.  I got out of the car and lured the little dachshund mix over to me.  He seemed sweet, but a little scared.  I grabbed his collar to make sure he didn’t get away.  He then revealed himself to be none other than Cerberus, the famed three-headed hound guarding the entrance to Hades.  He proceeded to use all three heads to try to get me to let go.  Thrashing, biting, flailing.  I couldn’t get him to calm down and had to let him go.  I gave up my efforts to catch him and left it to the other folks trying to help.

I looked down to see blood running from my left hand.  Small wound but lots of blood.  I went to the drug store nearby and washed it out and cleaned it with alcohol.  Feeling cautious and a bit wimpy, I went to my doctor’s office.  They prescribed antibiotics and a topical cream.  I started the regimen right away.  I was a bit surprised at how tight my watch was that night until I realized how swollen my arm was.  I went to bed unworried.  But when I woke up to more swelling and red streaks running up to my elbow, I went back to the doctor’s office.  They took one look and sent me to a surgeon.  He took one look and asked me if I liked hospital food.

So the night before Thanksgiving, I end up in the hospital getting IV antibiotics.   That left Beth on her own to watch the baby, prepare the Thanksgiving dishes and make it over to dinner on Thursday.  With her sister’s help and a delayed dinner time in the vain hope that I’d be out of the hospital by then, she made it.   I won’t go into the cooking hassles she had: malfunctioning oven, food from the store that had been opened and resealed, eggs already cracked from the store or on the way home.   It sounds like the dinner was fun and everyone there enjoyed it.  Beth made it home and put Parker Rose down and brought me some leftovers at the hospital that night.  Yummy.

So, I’m still here, feeling sorry for myself and getting IV antibiotics 3 times a day.  The doctors got the culture back to find out it was Pasteurella, a common bacteria transmitted in dog bites so the antibiotic regime will simplify and I’m hoping to go home tomorrow.  I usually put pictures in my posts, but I’ll spare you the gross-out wound photos this go-round.

I guess it could be worse.  At least we have our health.  At least we were together.  At least nobody got hurt.   In seriousness, I have plenty to feel thankful for this year, not least my wife and child and the miracle of modern medicine.

A new way to sit for Parker Rose

We like to put Parker Rose in a vibrating chair when we are working in the kitchen.  We strap her in tight and she usually just sits back, enjoys the massage and plays with the butterflies dangling over the chair.  Well not this time.  She managed to get herself propped up into as close to a sitting position as we have seen.  She slowly leaned further and further forward until her nervous mommy stepped in.   Check out the video:

Link to video

Too little for a crib, too big for the co-sleeper

We’ve had Parker Rose sleep in a co-sleeper next to our bed since we brought her home.  She’s got her own space for safety, but is close enough to the bed that we can feed her or check in on her without getting out of the bed in the middle of the night.  When we brought her home from the hospital, she was so tiny in it, but lately she pretty much takes up the whole thing.  Our pediatrician advised us to move the co-sleeper away from the bed around this age because she will become aware that we sleep right next to her, making the transition into the crib harder.  Uh-oh.  Too late.  Looks like we missed our window.  This video is an example of what we wake up to in the mornings.  Usually she is in PJ’s rather than fully dressed, but this will give you the idea.  Once again, I apologize for being unable to edit out a single second of cuteness, so this is a little long.  It’s a grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ special.

Link to video

Parker Rose in a pouch

Parker Rose loves to get outside whether it’s in the stroller for a run or walk or just being carried by mom or dad in the yard to watch the world go by.  Our legs can handle the walks in the stroller but our arms aren’t up for too much time carrying her around.  She just keeps growing and making it harder.  We decided to recruit some help.  Hiring someone to carry the baby would have been a bit pricey, and we wouldn’t get to be as close as we would like.  So we decided to get ourselves a Baby Bjorn carrier.  I know, I know.  I used to think these things were a little goofy, too, but it’s a lot of fun and Parker Rose loves it.  Here’s a picture (as always, click to enlarge):

Bundled up and strapped in

Ready for her closeup

We use a video monitor to keep tabs on the little one while she sleeps.  Overkill, I know, but it lets us relax a bit and leave her to sleep without checking in on her constantly.  Plus, she is so darn cute when she sleeps, we don’t want to miss it.  Usually when she wakes up she just rubs her eyes and wiggles around a little bit.  We wait to be sure she is really awake and not just squirming and then we go in.  Sometimes she leaves us no doubt that she is awake – we get a closeup  of Parker Rose staring right into the camera:

Parker Rose finds her toes

We posted a while back about Parker Rose finding her hands.  Well now she has discovered her feet.  They are a nearly endless source of fascination for her and an incredible display of her flexibility for the rest of us.  Here is a little video I took as she was waking up yesterday:

Parker Rose can’t get enough of the park

This is from a few weeks ago at the park near our house.  Just soaking up the sun and having a good time with Beth, Laurel (AKA Auntie L), me, and Parker Rose:

Keeping an eye on things

Mom and baby swinging away

Laughing with dad

Tasty thumb. Yum, yum.

Let’s give this eating thing a try

Parker Rose is getting to that age when it is time to introduce some solid foods.  We started with rice cereal as most people seem to do.  We didn’t have a tremendous amount of luck the first try as you’ll see, but it sure was fun trying.  Fair warning, pictures and video below contain graphic images of a food-smeared baby face.  A cute one, but food-smeared all the same:

Open wide

Is this stuff supposed to taste good?

Parker takes matters into her own hands

Did any food actually make it in her mouth?

And now for video action: