Come on Baby, Don't Fear the Repo

Saturday we were getting ready for my brother's 30th birthday party when Picasso barked at the window. After throwing him in time-out (our dogs get sophisticated punishments), we realized he had barked at some men running up our driveway to steal our trashcan. We watched helplessly as they drove off in a Budget Rent a Truck. After staring for a second in disbelief, I called my brother-in-law who is a cop and asked him what I should do if my garbage can was stolen. He decided I should report it since it could be a ring of identity thefts. We let Picasso out of time-out and told him he was a good boy. Now we have a really confused dog. I then jumped in my car and tried to find the truck but it was long gone.

I called our local Sheriff who sent out a nice cute patrolman who liked our trashcan protecting dog. He explained that he had heard of missing trashcans before and couldn't remember the outcome but thought that the trash cans had not actually been stolen. I remembered that my neighbor had been looking for a trash can a few weeks ago and walked next door to see what the outcome had been.
My neighbor explained that he had chased down the garbage truck that day and found out they had accidentally dropped his trashcan into the truck. (I don't know why they didn't stop and tell him, but I would have liked to seen my seventy something year old neighbor face down the garbage man.) I mentioned our plight to the neighbors and they were discussing buying shredders for their mail when I left.

As I came back to my house to tell the Sheriff, I saw that he had pulled over a Budget rent a truck on my street. That's good police work! He came back to the house and informed us (quite nicely) that the driver was a repo man and had written authorization to take our trashcan since we had not paid our trash bill. This might be a good time to point out that my husband is in charge of the bills and never even knows what day of the week it is. I went next door and informed my neighbors that there was no need to run to Staples.

Karen and I promptly went to Lowe's and purchased a similar looking trashcan. They were fooled and took our trash that week. Jamey did, however, also send in the bill.

Ruby weighed in at 10.15 lbs. She was 23.25 inches and her head was 15.25 inches.

Length = 95th percentile
Weight = between 50th and 75th percentile
Head Circumference = 75th percentile

I found this amazing considering how giant her head looks to me. Then, I looked at daycares and saw some of those 95% head babies.

She also got 4 shots and some oral vaccinations and was super good for them. She yelled for shots 2-4, but stopped as soon as they were over.

Most important in her progress is that she has learned to smile!

Eat Your Corn Syrup

Ruby is, as I have probably mentioned in previous posts, an incredibly good natured baby. However, she has one issue that can turn her from an angelic cooing happy girl to a screaming hellion. In short, Ruby is the rootingist tootingist baby. The gas, which is simply entertaining when adults get it, is painful to infants. She will wake up from a sound sleep screaming and tooting. Our doctor recommended switching her formula to a lactose-free milk based version. My sister had mentioned that Good Start did best for all her children so I decided to try it first. There are no real firm directions on how to switch a baby's formula. The ever helpful can directions state "When switching formula, do it gradually." That is vague enough to bother my right brain. Does gradually mean mix it and the old formula in the same bottle or alternate bottles or what? Anyway, it was a moot point because even with half a bottle of it, she was miserable and screamed constantly instead of a little. Next, we tried Simolac Sensitive which is the lactose-free milk based version. She liked the taste so much better that it prompted me to read the ingredients.

Corn Syrup Solids, Sugar, Milk protein Isolate, Safflower oil, coconut oil, soy oil...

Whoa! I am feeding my baby liquid sugar. All the online research I did and books declared that it is perfectly fine to feed infants this and there would be no developmental results. The vitamins are the same. Just for fun, I tasted both this formula and the regular Simolac. I agree the Sensitive was sweeter, but I don't think I would want to drink either. However, bottles are kind of fun to drink out of. Wouldn't that be a cool bar? It would make sure you didn't drink too much at once. On second thought, it reminds me of when pacifiers were in for Raves. never mind.

Well, in the end, I don't care what its made of because she is so much better and since we switched she sleeps through the night fairly often. It does cost a little more, but what price, happy baby? Speaking of which, you always hear how expensive formula is. I was ready to really shell out the dough. However, it works out to about a dollar a bottle. Considering I've thrown down $4 on a mocha from Starbucks, I have a hard time getting worked up over feeding my baby for less than $10 a day.

Meet the Real Rosalynn

Recently, Ruby went to meet one of her namesakes, Rosalynn. Actually, Rosalynn has never used her name because her father wanted a boy. Therefore, he called her Boy. When she turned 13, he finally conceded that she was not going to be a boy and began calling her "Bo" which she was known as for the rest of her life. I would love to know what Bo's mother thought of all this. When I met Mama Bo, she was still sharp as a tack and told me a story of wanting to marry Jamey's grandfather. Jamey's grandfather proposed to Bo without asking her father's permission (I guess he thought he wouldn't get it.) Bo was on a toll bridge with her dad when she brought it up. By the end of crossing the bridge, her dad had consented that if she truly loved this boy, she could marry him. Bo was so excited she lost the toll ticket and they had to pay a large fine to exit the bridge.

Mama Bo is very happy at her new nursing home and it was very nice. She has horrible short term memory, but pretty good long term memory. It's a circle of life type realization when you take a baby to a nursing home. Both Ruby and Mama Bo require bibs to eat, lots of care from others and are happy with their lot in life. It's a good reminder to live life to the fullest while you are physically fit.
The nice thing about the short term memory is that you can tell Mama Bo over and over about her namesake and she is completely excited each and every time. Again, a trait Ruby shares except that she garters a little more information each time.

Ruby: What is that?!?
Ruby: Oh, my hand.
Ruby: What is that?!?
Ruby: Oh cool. A hand. What are those?!? Oh, fingers.

Hoody Towel of July!

It's amazing what you miss when you don't stay at home.

Jeff talked to our elderly, deaf next door neighbor who seemed inordinately interested in our empty trashcan. Apparently (dispite a piece of mail addressed to Jamey sticking to the inside), he believes that ours is his since his trash can is missing. Jeff assured him ours is not in the garage and is, in fact, the one on the street.

That hasn't stopped him from investigating it again after Jeff came inside. I tried to get a picture of him with his head in our baby-diaper scented trash can, but he finally gave up after checking 4 times. Maybe he found his. Anyhoo, he entertained me as I watched him from our dining room. It doesn't take much these days. Since I didn't get a picture, here is a hoody towel of July.

A Decent Proposal

November 27, 2006
Stacy had guessed Evan would propose on the vacation. Her major clue? Prior to departure, Stacy mentioned striking Antwerp, the diamond capitol, from our itinerary. Evan was insistent that we keep that destination. So Stacy felt confident she was right. It’s good that Evan did propose. Otherwise, Stacy might have kicked him.






November 27, 2006
Well, we didn't learn our lesson apparently. Despite all our beliefs to the contrary, our flight leaves at 12:15, not 12:57. Whoops. All the time we padded in for customs, tax forms, etc was gone. However, we managed to shop, drop off forms, shop some more and make it to the plane on time [and the plane had ice cream and a puppy (not all to eat, of course)]! It was a great trip and hopefully another one will be forthcoming to attend a wedding! About time!

November 27, 2006
The woman sitting next to us on the plane is bringing home an 8 week old Golden Retriever puppy. It's slept almost the whole way, and didn't receive any tranquilizers. Over the state on New York, it woke up and nibbled on some bread. Overall, the puppy performed a little better than Picasso did when we took him on a two hour flight.
Stacy interjects:
-Picasso was only 6 weeks old,
-had just been separated from his mom,
-and had less bonding time with us.

This ends our trip back in time. I'll return to the world of real-time (or near real-time for those I work with) blogging. When I catch up, I'll ready to go back in time again for a ski trip journal that has never been published. After that, I guess I will need a new vacation!

Romancing the Stone

By this point in the journal, Jamey and I are as entertained by Evan and Yvonne as we are by Belgium. Jamey captures the moments.











November 26, 2006
The art museum in Belgium is awesome. We had to rush through sections or we wouldn't have finished.
Some of the surrealist paintings and sculpture that we were interested in seeing weren't on display due to a special exhibit. In particular, we were disappointed to miss out on a large portion of the James Ensor paintings. Still there was plenty to entertain.
In the religious paintings, anything referring to the temptation of Saint Anthony Daade made it worth the walk through countless depictions of crucifixion.




November 26, 2006
Wittamer is the best hot chocolate in Belgium. This is the result of an extensive search starting in Brugge and ending in Brussels.
The secret is simple. Milk was getting in the way. Wittamer's takes just enough milk to melt the chocolate and you are then ready to enjoy your 5000 calorie drink.




November 26, 2006
We set out for some Christmas shopping, but many places are closed on Sunday. So instead, we shopped for ourselves at one of the few open stores that interested us.
Stacy got me a present for our anniversary. I bought her a present yesterday, so now we've both been sufficiently prized.

Tomorrow, a miniture time travel within this time travel as Evan recreates the proposal.