Stardate 60282.10 - Loren at 5 Months

I know we've been slacking off on the posts this week (two uneventful trips for work for me this week), so here are two pictures of Loren at 5 months.


Norfolk, VA

Stardate 60273.19 - Touch Your Toes!

Loren has recently begun sticking her feet into her mouth. She does it a lot when we are changing her, and she is always grabbing her feet when she is sitting around.

Amazingly, Loren actually slept from around 8 PM until I got into bed at 10 PM last night without waking up. And although she was up again at about 11:30 PM she did sleep until 4 AM before she woke up again. And during most of these Cheryl is able to get her to go back to sleep with either a little feeding or whispering.

She slept in her crib at daycare for the first time today. It took 5 minutes of crying and her mobile, but she went to sleep in her crib. And she took her bottle pretty well this morning - she just likes to drink in shifts.

Anyway, Cheryl is on the way home with her now, and Loren turns 5 months tomorrow!

NYC

Stardate 60270.27 - People Make Too Damn Much Money

I don't work on Wall Street. I don't get a $100k bonus every year. I'm not a lawyer, nor a doctor. The same applies to Cheryl. We are living in NYC on "normal" salaries, not Wall Street salaries. So the prices to own here just sicken me. We went to two "open houses" in our building today (we live in a condo building but most units are owned by a rental company - and for the record, we rent). We do have a full-time doorman, but the building was built in the 50s and our apartment probably hasn't been renovated in 20 years.

Now granted, both for-sale apartments were completely gut-renovated and were pretty nice. Both had their own washer/dryer, which is nice, and both had a terrace in addition to the balcony, and that was also nice as the terraces overlook 66th Street (quiet) and not Second Ave (loud). But the prices are out of control, especially when both overlook the construction site outside that will be generating noise through 2008. The two bedroom, two bath was $1.6M. The three bedroom, two bath was $2.4M. The 2BR, 2BA was probably about 1,200 sq ft. The 3br, 2ba was probably around 2,000 sq ft. (My international readers will have to do the math on their own.)

This is why I will never be able to own in Manhattan. I did the math, and even with a substantial down-payment, the $1.6M apartment would cost us $8k per month in mortgage and fees. That is pretty fucking depressing.

In a humorous coincidence, one of the apartments also had a grape motif in the kitchen, which reminded us of the house in Holmdel that we looked at around Christmas with the grape motif bed. That house, which had 3,800 sq ft finished and another 2,000 sq ft of an unfinished basement, was only $1.3M.

Now that I'm depressed, I'll leave you with a picture of Loren in the exersaucer, trying to drink from a cup. She loves to hold onto cups and try to drink.


And I'll miss her 5-month birthday this week as I'll be traveling.

NYC

Stardate 60264.35 - Everyone Back to Work

Clearly, Loren is feeling better. So everyone went back to work/daycare today. Now I'm catching up today (at least this was a slowish week) and trying to get a bunch of stuff scheduled for next week, including a couple of trips. Those are always good for some angry blog entries.

And I found something for us to do on Sunday. Our building is actually condos, but a rental company owns something like 80% of the units. This means about 20% are individually owned. One of those units, similar to ours (2 bedroom, 2 bath) but with a slightly different layout just went on the market for $1.6M (this is why we rent and don't own). There is an open house on Sunday, so we'll go take a look, just for fun. If anyone wants to send me a check for $1.6M so that I can purchase the unit, feel free to do so. :-)


NYC

Stardate 60263.36 - Home w/ Loren

So today is day two of Loren being home. She seems fine today, so she'll be going back to daycare tomorrow. Cheryl went back to the office today, but will be coming home around 1330 to take care of Loren so that I can get some work done. Today is a slow week as a major proposal effort was just completed (I was minorly involved), and most people were working day and night for the past week and have taken the rest of the week off.

And for the record, she has had no problem taking a bottle from me today.

NYC

Stardate 60260.19 - Family Sick Day

Cheryl had a fever of 103 last night, and it was still over 100 this morning so she is home from work. Loren has also been a bit under the weather the past couple of days, and daycare recommended we keep her home today. I have it too, but apparently just a mild case where I have to blow my nose every 10 minutes and am feeling a bit run down, but otherwise appear to be fine.

So we are all home sick today.

NYC

Stardate 60257.35 - Drink Milk?

So we think we have it figured out with Loren and the bottle. Apparently, if it is not coming from the breast then Loren prefers her milk cold. At daycare yesterday they were again having problems getting her to take a bottle, and Cheryl came at lunch determined to show them that Loren would indeed take a bottle. But Cheryl also had issues with the warm bottle. So Cheryl switched over to a cold one, and Loren took it with no problem.

Like her daddy, she prefers her beverages cold. Only tea and coffee should be warm, everything else should be ice cold. Ok, there are a couple of exceptions. British Ale is fine cool, and fine white wine is more flavorful closer to cool than to cold.

But bottom line - she took just as well to the bottle in the afternoon as she does here at home. So we've cracked the code (maybe!).

We've all been feeling a bit run down these past couple of days, and that hasn't helped any. Loren took a 2-hour nap yesterday morning at daycare, which she hardly ever does. Cheryl is exhausted and I'm pretty tired as well.

UPDATE: Loren took her cold milk bottle from the daycare personnel today with no screaming and no problem.

I did go to a Virginia Tech NY Alumni Association meeting last night. I participated a little more last year before Loren was born, but haven't been to an event in almost 5 months. Most everyone was parked there for the long haul, but I knew that Cheryl and Loren were not at 100% so I stayed an hour and a half and once the meeting proper was over I split for home and was in bed before 10 PM. Yes, I am lame.

Anyway, we are planning a charity fundraiser but events are still being finalized. I'll post a link once the event web site goes up.

NYC

Stardate 60252.97 - Goofy Pictures

Jessica Stover threw down a challenge to share some photos (well, actually I think the exact quote was "feel free to share yours"). Here are three funny ones of me.

Send me to a wedding, give me some beer, and put me on the dance floor and this is what you get:


And here is what you get when you put me on a granny-bike. Note the 3 wheels for added stability and the rear-view mirror:


And this one isn't really goofy, but it's the middle of the big East-cost blackout, traffic is at a standstill, pedestrians are streaming out of the city, and how do I handle the event? Look below:


NYC

Stardate 60251.62 - Bottle Better

So today we had a bit of a fight with Loren and the bottle this morning, but it went better. Then it was such a beautiful day that we decided to go to Costco. There I tried to use a check to pay for our groceries, but the cost was high enough that they had to "confirm" it or something. By the way, Costco has made it progressively more of a pain in the ass to actually pay for their goods. They used to take Discover but then switched to American Express. Well, my only AmEx is a Corporate Card and we're not supposed to use that for personal stuff, even though the bill comes to me and I have to pay it. Another stupid rule that makes no sense.

I'm constantly surrounded by stupidity.

Anyway, Costco asked for my Virginia license since I used it to open the account. "Yes," I said, "I used that license 14 years ago when I opened my account, but surprise! I've moved in the last 14 years and I've lived in NY now for more than 4 years." Apparently I have to know to go to customer service whenever I move to a different state and re-register my license with the Costco account - or so they told me. I told the guy that was the first I had heard of that requirement. He didn't seem to care, but he took my check.

Idiots.

After a quick lunch we went out to the park (photo above) along with every other person living or undead in Manhattan. The crowds plus the Greek Pride Parade tying up part of Fifth Ave made it dicey to get into and around in the park.

Anyway, we came back and I took a bottle from the fridge and while holding Loren set it on her knee. She reached for it with both hands, pulled it to her mouth and began to drink! And proceeded to almost complete it! So perhaps, maybe, one can hope, the battle over the bottle is close to over. We'll see how it goes at daycare tomorrow.

NYC

Stardate 60251.80 - April Fools and Losing an Hour

First, losing an hour stinks. Not to mention all the time wasted in resetting clocks and watches around the house. At least the DVR, computers, and cell phones all auto-update. But I counted today, and I had to reset 10 items. I think we should just do away with the time change altogether. Of course, I also think we should replace the $1 bill with a $1 coin and we need to go metric, but I'm not King (I'd say President, but apparently he only has the power to make war, and not to do anything real in terms of domestic policy).

And in case you didn't get to experience any April Fools jokes, check out Google's by visiting Nickerblog.

NYC

Stardate 60250.06 - Bottle Woes

So it has been a bit of a hellish day. This has been Loren's first week in daycare, and she has not been good about taking a bottle from the daycare staff. They have only managed to get her to take 2-3 oz per day, and that has apparently involved a lot of work. She had been decent about taking the bottle when she was younger, but it became hit-or-miss with us last week. In hindsight, we probably should have made it a habit to give her a bottle more often.

Anyway, it became a problem this week as Loren would not eat and would just wait for Cheryl to get there at noon for her in-person lunchtime feeding, and then Loren would wait until 4 or 5 for Cheryl to get there to pick her up and giver her another in-person feeding. Cheryl thought briefly about just shifting her schedule and going down twice a day, but the daycare folks didn't like that idea - they want Loren to take a bottle. Which is important if Cheryl ever cannot get down there - they have to be able to feed her.

So the daycare gave us a couple of suggestions as to brand of nipples/bottles to use, and so we determined to try and get her to take bottles on Saturday at the times she would have to at daycare, to keep her on schedule. I think Cheryl ended up making at least four trips out to secure these various bottles and nipples over the past 3 days.

So anyway today became the Worst. Saturday. Ever.

We'll, maybe not ever, but it took us from about 9 this morning until 3 to get her to take and actually complete a bottle. And we tried what felt like 200 bottles and 500 nipples with her screaming at the sight of the bottle and continuing to scream while we placed the nipple in her mouth. She finally did take a bottle, but it has caused a lot of stress and frustration on all our parts. And we're not sure what tomorrow will bring.


In an effort to give Cheryl a break (i.e., nap) this afternoon I took Loren for a 45-minute stroller ride (I would have stayed out longer but she started crying in the stroller). I snapped these pictures with my phone while we were walking, pre-fussiness.

Loren has not napped much at all today, so perhaps she will sleep well tonight. Of course, we thought that about last night but she was up 3 times, once for 2 hours. So the lack of sleep has made us all a lot of fun today.

NYC

Stardate 60243.83 - Checkup

So I have not been to a doctor in more than 4 years. When our pediatrician asked for some medical history on me and Cheryl, and I told her that my grandfathers both died of heart issues and that my Dad had a quadruple bypass at age 50, she strongly suggested that I get a physical - or at least a check-up. So she gave me a recommendation as to a general practicioner.

One of the problems in moving to a new place and having no-one here that you know is that getting recommendations so that you can select a "preferred provider" is difficult. I picked some random person off the insurance web-site from the hundreds and hundreds on the list and then promptly forgot about it. But now I have a new preferred provider and have had my first check up.

I am well.

He found no problems with anything in the exam or the EKG they ran. They also got some blood and urine ("Can you fill this?" Beat. "Not from here."). They will call me today if there are any issues, and I am free to call them to see what the results were. I will probably do that, if only to get my cholesterol level. But the bottom line is that I appear to be healthy, other than the fact that I am getting over this small cold I caught last week.

UPDATE: My cholesterol was 194. When I was tested back in college (15 years ago) it was 164 so I guess I'm slowly getting worse, but 194 is not bad. Of course, we did have shrimp the night before I went, so maybe that impacted the number.

NYC

Stardate 60236.36 - Loren's Second Day at Daycare

Don't worry, I won't give a day-by-day accounting of Loren's activities at daycare, but James asked how things went, so I thought I'd post a quick update this morning as we are getting ready for day two at daycare.

She got a "Mood: Happy" check on her daily report (already getting scored at school), and they managed to get her to take a 2 hour nap in the morning by using the swing. She took her standard couple of 20 minute naps in the afternoon. Cheryl went over and fed her at lunch, and Loren was a little grumpy about taking a bottle from her teacher, so she only had about 3oz from the nearly 10oz that Cheryl dropped off in the morning (just in case!).

We have a family activity this Friday at the daycare center and we are supposed to bring food "from our country". I guess we'll bring hot dogs and Cheeze-Whiz. We also have to make a family flag. I wanted to use the Kingdom of the Bloodstone Lands flag, but Cheryl said she didn't want to have to explain my D&D hobby to all the other parents the first time we meet them.

Loren was back up around 0545 this morning, but we got her to hold off until nearly 0630 for her breakfast, which puts her feedings back on the schedule Cheryl wanted.

We'll see if Loren is "Mood: Happy" again today. I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon (haven't had a check-up in 4+ years and got lectured by our pediatrician about needing a physical, especially considering all the heart issues in my family), so I may be picking up Loren on my own afterwards.

And as far as she told me, there was no hysterical sobbing on Cheryl's part yesterday. There was a lot on my part, but that was due to the amount of overload I am experiencing at work, and not putting Loren in daycare. :-)

NYC

Stardate 60235.62 - Loren's First Day at Daycare

So Cheryl and I took Loren to daycare this morning for the first time. We had a lot of baby gear to take down with us, and we went ahead and walked the almost 30 blocks for a bit of exercise (I took the bus back). It seemed to be relatively painless (although Cheryl may be huddled in the corner of her office sobbing right now, I don't know), and Cheryl will go at lunch to feed her and check in. Hopefully Loren will adjust quickly. An older boy was dropped off for the first time this morning and he was not adjusting very well when his Mom left.

Here is a picture of her in a seat at daycare, still smiling and happy. We hope she stayed that way!

NYC

Stardate 60230.84 - Brunch With the Cousins

So you may remember that my cousin Angelique came to visit last month. On Saturday, we went to her and Laurence's house in Croton-on-Hudson (satellite view on the left) to visit with them and their children, Kaya and Van, for brunch. Angelique's sister (and also my cousin, obviously) Erinne and her husband Niall and their children Alex, Maeve, and Cian (and one on the way) also came over.

We had a great visit and tried to catch up - well, as much as you can with six children running around to watch (well, Loren wasn't exactly running around or moving under her own power much, but she did try out the bouncy-swing-chair). The weather, while not warm, was warmer than expected so some of the gang were able to play outside for part of the time.

For Steve's and Jen's benefit, we ate potatoes au gratin, ham, and asparagus. For James' benefit, we got up at 7, stopped at a couple of stores for baby items on the way, stayed about 3 hours, and watched no television. For Andy's benefit, we listened to no music. (If you read all of their blogs regularly, then this paragraph is funny.)


NYC

Stardate 60228.78 - Home with a cold

It is nice to be home, but I came down with a cold Thursday and now I'm afraid I'll give it to Loren. I swear she grew over the past 4 days. I got up at 0300 this morning and left Norfolk on a 0600 flight for DC so I could be in a couple of important meetings. Then I caught a 1600 (4PM for people who cannot do the math) flight back home. It was nice to be coming back from the airport and have it still be light outside.

Anyway, off to visit the cousins tomorrow at Angelique's place.

NYC

Stardate 60223.10 - My Own Little Space

While I do miss Cheryl and Loren, I am catching up on hours and hours of Cops on CourtTV and F/X. :-)

And they have given me my own office space down here, which is quite sufficient. And the hotel has been fine, although the exercise room is pretty sparse (2 treadmills, 1 elliptical, 1 stairmaster). I did work out for about 45 minutes this morning, and then walked over to the office (about a 6 minute walk), so I feel a little better about the large lunch I ate (at least I had a lot of salad).

Norfolk, VA

Stardate 60220.23 - Smooth Trip So Far

I know everyone is hoping for a huge rant about the injustices rained down upon me on my current trip, but so far things have been very smooth. I checked my reservation on-line, and it actually indicated that the hotel had a king room non-smoking ready for me. That was different from when I made my reservation and it said the room would "be assigned at check-in" and that I was not guaranteed my preferences.

But when I checked in, the Holiday Inn Select indeed had a non-smoking room with a king bed ready for me, they gave me a bottle of water and a pack of cookies, and they called me once I was settled in to make sure that everything was alright. The room even has a microwave and a small fridge. I snagged a bag of microwave popcorn (is there any other kind anymore?) from the office before I left so that was my dinner tonight.

In fact, the complaints I do have are very minor...the desk chair is a little too low for typing on the computer comfortably, the furniture is a little cheap and/or worn, the bottle of water was hot, and they put me in a handicapped room so the closet bar is pretty low and when I hang my pants lengthwise they drag on the floor. (But the advantage of having a handicapped room is that there is a lot of space.)

Last night Loren was up every 2 hours, so when she got up at 0330 I went ahead and got up once Cheryl had settled her back down and got my shower. So it has been a really, really long day for me. I plan to watch a little TV and then go to bed around 9 PM. I am going to get up and hit the gym in the morning as I am close enough to walk to work and it is supposed to be warmer tomorrow. And I have no early morning meetings.

Norfolk, VA

Stardate 60215.93 - Loren on Sunday

Here is Loren after Church on Sunday, hanging out in the living room. This is Cheryl's last week off from work, so she has filled her calendar with many outings with Loren while I am on travel for work. Next week we see how well Loren can adapt to daycare.

NYC

Stardate 60211.49 - Teething Pains, Perhaps?

Yes, Loren looks really cute here. But she was not so cute for 20 minutes while Cheryl was out for a hair cut and Loren screamed bloody murder. She had just gotten up from a nap, and she wouldn't take a bottle, so I just rocked her and bounced her a little in my arms. For 20 minutes. While she continued to scream.

Cheryl got her to eat once she got back and Loren's preferred food distribution method was available. But she has still been super cranky all afternoon. We think it may be teething pains, as she seems to want to bite down on the bottoms of aluminum caffeine-Free Diet Coke cans.

Anyway, Cheryl's parents and grandmother came in today to baby-sit and/or help Cheryl shop for clothes she'll need for work (she goes back in about a week). We decided to give Loren some Children's Tylenol and send her with the entire crew (sans me) on the shopping run. So its just me, the cats, and quiet in the apartment right now. I feel like I should dig out a computer game to play, or find a movie to watch, but all I want to do is sleep. Not sure if it was the teeth or not, but Loren was up a lot last night, and even more the night before.

Hopefully she'll nap in the stroller and be refreshed once they get back. Hopefully.

And for people tired of reading about Loren and longing for my complaints about travel, have no fear. I have to travel to Norfolk for part of next week and I'm sure things will not go my way. Whinny blog entries are sure to follow.

NYC

Stardate 60204.09 - Community Board and Stuff

If you want an interesting way to spend a couple of hours, attend a community board meeting in Manhattan. Sloan Kettering tore down a theater across from 66th in front of our building and they are about to build a 15 story treatment center on the site. Well, they start digging a hole "soon" and then they start putting in steel in January 2007 and finish up around March 2009. Our balcony and all our south-facing windows provide an excellent view. I just spent two hours hearing people ask legitimate questions (how long will construction take), questions not applicable to me (why don't you take medicare?), and bizarre questions (can you move the HVAC equipment on the roof closer to 66th street so I'll get better light?). Of course, I live on the 13th floor, so the building will be three stories taller than my apartment. It will be off-set from the street a couple of times by the time it is level with my balcony, but still my view and light will be severely compromised. At least I don't own so I don't have to stay, but God, how I hate moving!

Oh, and way more important and with a much greater coolness factor - I made it into one of Jessica's posts on her site today. And the spell-checker thinks that by "Jessica's" I mean "cheesecake". You be the judge.

Now this post should make my readers happy who tell me my blog has turned into the all-Loren show!

NYC

Captain's Log Supplemental - Alison as Protector

Here is Alison with her trusty quarterstaff, ready to fend off Orcs, Goblins, or random pieces of baby toys from harming Loren.

Update: A couple of people wrote me, thinking we have 2 children. Alison belongs to Greg and Denise. Denise was a college roommate of my wife's, and we've kept in touch with her over the years. Cheryl and I have one child - Loren. One is all I can handle right now!

Stardate 60201.06 - Movie of Loren and Alison

Update: A couple of people wrote me, thinking we have 2 children. Alison belongs to Greg and Denise. Denise was a college roommate of my wife's, and we've kept in touch with her over the years. Cheryl and I have one child - Loren. One is all I can handle right now!

Here is a movie I shot with our Cannon Powershot S2 IS of Loren and Alison at Greg and Denise's house last weekend.

Stardate 60196.75 - Another Great Day!

It was another warm, humid day in NYC and Cheryl got out with Loren for several errands. Loren is really "talking" a lot right now, and is getting more and more stable when pulled to a sitting position. I forgot to take a picture of her in her Washington Redskins onesie, so here is another picture from Denise and Greg's where Loren is playing with Mr. Fly and Alison is standing (moving?) guard.

NYC

Stardate 60193.51 - Loren at 4 Months

So Loren turned 4 months on Saturday, and we invited ourselves to go out and visit Denise and Greg (and Alison!) overnight. Traffic was really very light, and we got out to Monroe, NY pretty quickly. We hung around Denise & Greg's place for the afternoon, and had some great personal pizzas for dinner. We got Alison and Loren to sleep around 7:30 or 8 pm, and then we were all exhausted and went off to bed as well.

Loren woke up at 1:30 AM for a quick feeding, but then went back to sleep until 6 AM. So it was a pretty good night.

We were going to stop at the outlet mall but since it was raining pretty hard we just made a Walmart stop for diapers. Then it was back home to relax this afternoon, although we have some baby laundry to do.

Here is Alison standing guard over Loren, Denise with Loren, and Denise with Loren and Alison.

NYC

Stardate 60189.78 - Lovely Spring Day

It is a georgeous spring day here in NYC, with temperatures around 72. We've had the windows open in the apartment since about mid-day, and Cheryl has been out all afternoon with Loren on a couple of long walks...one to buy some stuff and another with the group of mothers from her classes at the "Y".

I am really longing for spring now that its taste is on the air. I'm sitting at my desk with a nice light breeze blowing in the windows and it really feels like spring.

Oh, and I forgot to give a weight update on Loren from group earlier this week - she was 14 pounds.

NYC

Stardate 60184.82 - Back From Virginia

So now we are back from Virginia, although I had to go to McLean for the day Tuesday and I have to fly to Norfolk for the day tomorrow (Thursday), so I have not had much time to get anything posted. I'll have to ask Jessica if she sees a drop in traffic if a few days go by without a post. The picture above is of Loren at the airport, and she does smile like me (eyes vanish). Here is a picture of me as a baby to compare to Loren to see if she does indeed look like me.


Here is a picture of Nanna with Loren Saturday morning.


And here is Kracker with Loren Sunday morning, before we got packed up and headed back to Richmond.


Here is Loren in her special outfit from Nanna and Kracker before she got too hot and we had to strip her down.


Here is her cousin Zack (my sister's son) holding her.


Here is Great Uncle Bill with Loren. She almost fell asleep while he was carrying her around, but he made the fatal mistake of sitting down before she was completely hard asleep. She likes her motion when she is awake, and even when falling asleep!


And here is Bill's wife, Great Aunt Susan with Loren. (I love adding "Great" in front of Uncle and Aunt when referring to everyone now...makes it seem like they should be in their 80s or something).


Here is Great Aunt Lucy with Loren.


We don't own an Exersaucer but we may have to see if crazy "aunt" Denise will permit us to borrow one of the 2 that she has at her house. Loren stayed entertained longer than we have ever seen her do so before with a single "activity".


She slept the whole way back to Richmond in the car Sunday, and slept the whole way back on the plane and even stayed asleep for the Taxi ride home on Monday. Other than a minor incident on Saturday right as people arrived (exacerbated by giving her a bath right before) when she got super cranky, she was pretty good on this trip. It was nice to see everyone, but we did do a lot of travel back and forth between Richmond and Verona. We may need to park in one location next time.

NYC

Stardate 60170.70 - Trip to Virginia

Flew down to Richmond Thursday morning to visit with Dad and Ma-maw so that they could meet Loren. Aunt Melinda came by as well. Then Friday we picked up cousin Lyndsay at VCU and headed over to Verona for a visit with Mom (Nanna). Loren slept the entire way pretty much, so it was a easy drive. I hear her crying upstairs, so I may need to run off and see what is going on. Cheryl was napping and Kracker and Nanna were watching her, and she may be ready to eat again. So I won't write anything else right now.


Verona, VA