4.26.2007

All Through the Night

I have returned from my brief hiatus from blogging. I've had a hard time finding the time to blog recently.

Emma actually slept through most of the night last night! We put her to bed between 9:00 and 9:30 last night and she didn't start making noises indicating that she was hungry until around 4:00 this morning! So, aside from the fact that I was a bit nervous to not be hearing from her at her usual time of between midnight and 2:00, I got a fairly good night's sleep.

Speaking of Emma, Mel took her to the pediatrician yesterday. A few weeks ago we noticed a red bump on her head. We didn't think much about at first, but is has been getting bigger over time. It's still not too big, but we thought that maybe having the doctor check it out would be a good idea. It turns out that it is hemangioma, which is a "a congenital benign skin lesion consisting of dense, usually elevated masses of dilated blood vessels." The doctor said that it should get bigger until Emma is about one year of age, then it should begin to disappear. By the time she's five years old, it should be completely gone.

Now on to me! After not being careful about what I've been eating, I signed up for the web version of WeightWatchers yesterday. It turns out that they have recently changed their program and I get significantly more points worth of food to eat each day. It's no wonder that I've always felt hungry while using WeightWatchers in the past. And now that I am paying for WeightWatchers, at least once my one-week free trial is over, I'll be more likely to actually follow the program. There's nothing I hate more than wasting money! Of course, that doesn't always stop me from wasting money, I'm just upset with myself when I do.

4.16.2007

Weekend Update

Mel and I had a good weekend. On Saturday, we met up with CC for lunch at Perkins. This was the first time we had gone out to eat with Emma, and things went pretty well. It helped that she slept through the whole experience. We are planning on going out to eat this coming Friday for dinner. Hopefully she does as well then as she did Saturday.

On Sunday we finally had the baby shower that had been postponed from early March due to the bad weather that shut down much of the state. We managed to stuff over twenty people into our living room. The shower was pretty fun. We played one game in which we had to identify different flavors of baby food. Most people only smelled the baby food or sampled an extremely small amount of it. I decided to take a big scoop of each of the foods. I figured it would be easier to identify the flavors if I was tasting a large amount of the foods. Some of the people in attendance thought that was disgusting, but I didn't understand that feeling. Babies eat the stuff all the time, so it must be edible and nutritious. I have to say that it really wasn't that bad, although the fruits were better tasting than the vegetables.

Mel and I also rented a couple of movies this weekend, and I don't think we could have possibly rented two movies that were as different from each other as the ones we got. The first movie we watched was The Illusionist. That was an excellent movie. I have to say that the end of the movie was a bit of a surprise to me. The other movie we rented was Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. That movie was not nearly as good as The Illusionist, in fact, it was pretty stupid. Now I have seen worse movies that Talladega Nights, for example Dude, Where's My Car? But I have also seen better movies that some people who I will not name here, believe are very dumb. The movie I am thinking of is another movie that stars Will Ferrell, Zoolander. Despite thinking that this Will Ferrell movie was very dumb, I would still like to see Blades of Glory. But I will not see that until it comes out on video.

4.13.2007

Enough Already

I am sure I am not the only person in eastern Iowa tired about hearing and seeing stories about last year's tornadoes in Iowa City. Yes, it did a lot of damage and a lot of people's lives were affected, but enough already. Now I was quite safe being some thirty miles or so north of Iowa City, being in Cedar Rapids, so I guess I don't know what it was like to be there. However, I imagine the people who lived through the tornadoes do not need the media to remind them about what happened. I am sure many of them would just like to get on with their lives. Hopefully there is no second anniversary reminder of the tornadoes next April 13!

4.12.2007

Early to Rise

I have been up since around 3:15 this morning. Fortunately I went to bed shortly after 9:00 last night, so I had a solid six hours of sleep. I woke up around 3:15 to feed Emma. After putting her back to bed around 4:00, I couldn't get back to sleep, so I decided to check my e-mail. Unfortunately the Internet connection was down. So, instead of trying to get back to sleep, I called Qwest to determine what the problem was with our Internet service. By the time I was done working with the technician, it was a little after 5:00. Since I usually get up at 5:30 to get ready for work, there was little point in me going back to bed. Now, about twenty minutes before I leave for work, the Internet connection is finally back up. I guess that's not too bad. I was told it could be up to forty-eight hours until it would be back online. Of course, the technician said it would likely not take that long.

4.11.2007

Late Night

For the past several nights, I've been getting a bit more sleep than I did initially when Emma came home from the hospital. She's been waking up pretty regularly around midnight or 1:00 A.M. So I get up then, feed her, changer her diaper, and put her back to bed. She's usually asleep within an hour of waking up. Well, last night was a bit different. I'm not sure what her problem was, but she just did not want to go back to sleep. After being up for almost two hours with her, Mel got up to sit up with her for a while. I am so looking forward to the stage where she sleeps through the night!

I have learned some things by being at least partially awake in the middle of the night:
  1. KWWL apparently reruns The Tonight Show with Jay Leno at 2:00 A.M.
  2. South Park is still as blasphemous as ever. This I learned while watching a rerun of their Easter episode at midnight a few nights ago.
  3. One of the Disney Channels we get shows cartoons from the '80s late at night. I saw an episode of the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon two weekends ago.
  4. For some reason, FX shows a block of Married with Children starting at 12:15 A.M. What an odd time to start a program!

4.07.2007

Emma Gets More Visitors

I'd say that we had some visitors today, but I know that the only reason that my mother and sister came was to visit Emma, not Mel or myself. Anyway, it was nice to see them. My sister brought a gift for Emma from Martha, a friend of ours who lives in the Twin Cities. Mom and my sister arrived around 11:30 this morning and were here until close to 5:00. Since they were here during lunchtime, we picked up food from the Cork and Fork for lunch. I really love that place, but until the past few weeks, I hadn't eaten there all that much.

While they were here, the topic of conversation turned to YouTube for some reason. While discussing YouTube, my sister mentioned a video clip from Saturday Night Live that she had seen there which was hilarious! So a few minutes ago, I thought I'd look for it. I must agree that it is quite funny, so I am including it here. This video contains words that were not in the television broadcast and is not appropriate for young children. So, I wouldn't play it if there are kids nearby.


4.03.2007

My Humps

A few weeks ago, I posted a remade version of Sir Mix-A-Lot's video Baby Got Back. Today I am going to post a video by Alanis Morissette performing that ever so socially relevant song by the Black Eyed Peas, My Humps. In case you want to compare Morisette's parody to the Black Eyed Peas' original video, I am including that as well.

4.02.2007

To the Doctor

Today was Emma's first trip to the pediatrician. She went for her two-week check-up. We had to wait a while in the waiting room before being able to see the doctor, but it was worth it. The doctor is very nice and very thorough, giving us plenty of opportunities to ask questions. We learned how Emma is developing. At two weeks, she is at the seventy-third percentile for height, the tenth percentile for weight, and the fiftieth percentile for head circumference. While I know these numbers will likely change, it looks like Emma may grow up to be fairly tall and lanky. Emma didn't get any vaccinations on this trip to the doctor, but she'll get some next time!

Now for another topic from my day today. This afternoon, I succumbed to peer pressure. Several people in the neighborhood had mowed their lawns today, so I decided that I had better do so as well. I am glad that I did, as the lawn will probably be very damp tomorrow considering the severe thunderstorm that is taking place as I write this.

Finally, tonight Mel ordered herself an iPod, and now I am a bit jealous! When I bought my iPod about a year and a half ago, I decided to go with the 4 GB iPod nano. While I have enjoyed it, I have found myself wishing that I had bought a full-sized iPod with video capability. Well, that's what Mel got. She didn't get the largest one available, but is still getting a 30 GB iPod. We ordered it tonight using the discount that I get through my job. I still get by with my nano, but if I ever find myself needing to replace it, I will definitely get an iPod with greater capacity!