Desmond emulates my monkey-style typing technique.

Then you know when that nice man offers to help you, “Especially because you have a baby” he says, and you tell him you’ve got a long way to go, but thank you, he kind of smiles sadly and drives away?  And then you’re doing pretty good, the baby is asleep in the back-pack thing and the rain is letting up and you’re really hauling ass down the sidewalk (all things considered) and then you plow right into the bushes that grow on either side of the sidewalk because they haven’t been pruned in a while?  And then a couple blocks later you realized that not only is your “new” bed covered in holly leaves and little twigs but is also now carrying the contents of that spider’s nest you disrupted?  And not only do you have millions of tiny baby spiders crawling all over the bed you’re forced to carry, but you are also carrying the maimed bodies of two parent spiders whose bodies you can’t seem to humanely get rid of? And you’re all, “AAAHHH!!   SPIDERS EVERYWHERE!!”

And you know when you constantly have to get off the sidewalk for people, because your bed takes up the entire thing, and you have to stand in the muddy grass (because it’s Seattle after all and the mud never seems to go away) and you foolishly decided to wear flats with no socks because you’re in denial that it’s February, and you finally make it home and clean off your now soaked, filthy spider bed with vinegar and rags until you can bear to bring it into your house?

Desmond has vacillated wildly in his sleeping patterns, but everything really went downhill in a flash in November, when we spent a couple of nights away from home with him, and then returned to find out the heat in our building was out, and it was too cold for him to sleep alone (yes, it was that freaking cold).  Anyway, then all sorts of wretched developmental milestones started approaching and the sleeping got worse, until eventually he was sleeping for only thirty minutes at a time and waking up screaming.  It was bad.

Yes, we could just let Des keep on not-sleeping like this, hoping he’ll grow out of it, but we started to think it was a little cruel.  I personally know what it’s like to wake up exhausted after a night of fitful sleep, and I don’t like seeing Des all cranky and screaming because he is over-tired ALL THE TIME.  Like I said there are many forms of sleep training, from the severe (put your baby to bed, leave the room and don’t come back ’till the morning) to the mild (pick your baby up and snuggle them then lie them back down and then pick them back up if they cry and repeat until you both fall down dead).

We chose a middle of the road one: we put Des to bed, and then I left, while Joo-Young sat by the crib, in it for the long haul, committed to not picking him up, but still there to tell him calmly to “go to sleep”  The idea was that Desmond might be confused, or really, really pissed off, but he wouldn’t be alone in the dark and scared.  Guess how long it took before he put himself to sleep?  GUESS!!!

18 MINUTES!

Can you even believe it?  He hasn’t woken up once and it’s been almost three hours.  Miracle, thy name is sleep training.

Here what I can’t eat:  Chinese food, Thai food, Mexican food, French food, any food that tastes good.

Here’s what I can eat: Swiss Chard.

But… for this little man I guess it’s worth it. pre-yam

post yams

Also, from here on out, this is how I’m going to think about pears and yams:

You can see the beginnings of his allergic reaction on his cheeks during his post-yam bath– basically a return of the dreaded eczema.  His eczema was never a huge problem as long as we put him in mittens at night (otherwise he’d scratch himself), but it kept flaring up and then mysteriously getting better, but we didn’t know what was causing it.  Finally I decided to go on what’s called an elimination diet, in which I cut out all foods that might be causing the problem.  First I just tried dairy, replacing it with almond milk, but then the eczema got way, way worse, so rather than do trial and error for months and months, I just decided to go for it.  I’m currently not eating: dairy, soy, eggs, tree-nuts (including coconuts) peanuts, fish, wheat , oats or corn.

Before we introduced him to yams his eczema was almost completely healed just by me cutting out all delicious foods from my diet (go figure), so I guess we’re onto something, but it sucks to have to keep a diet this restricted while still trying to maintain enough calories to feed him.  The idea is that we will start to introduce foods back into my diet and test to see if he has a reaction.  This is further  complicated by the introductions of solids into his diet.  Yes, we could wait and delay solids, but this baby is enormous and he wants to eat like every hour, so the sooner he’s eating food the better for me.  Basically we are going to stagger it.  If he has no reaction to pears for two days, then I get to introduce something back into my diet and then we wait another two or three days to see if he’s affected.  If he’s not, then we get to introduce him to another food and so forth.  It’s like the most tedious game of checkers imaginable (because, you know, checkers is such a thrilling game to begin with).

I jogged one block and had to stop because my lungs felt like they were on fire.  Then I walk-wheezed for another block until I got up the courage to try it again.  On, off, on, off, I made it the eight blocks to Volunteer park where I  foolishly attempted to jog up a slight incline and then had to stop.  The upside about jogging with a baby is, if you’re too winded you can always stop and pretend to check in on him while you catch your breath.  We took the “long” way home–another ten blocks.  All told I jogged maybe ten blocks total of the twenty or so we covered, and it felt awful.  I’ve never been into any form of exercise, but with the commitment of new running shoes and a stroller I feel compelled to keep at it.  It’s got to stop being tortuous soon right?  I mean, some people actually like to run?  Right?

Unfortunately (ha ha)  there are no photos of me in my radical jogging get-up, but here are some from our park visit.

Is it OK to love Starbucks just a little when they have rooms like this?

Mamas and babies should always wear matching shoes, don’t you think? (P.S.  I got married in those shoes)

Desmond is so not impressed.

Tra la la

This is a giant tunnel that the city of Seattle has dug in the attempts to get up to speed on mass transit.  We’re pretty jazzed about it.

Joo-Young looks at the menu although I promise you, he knows what he wants to order and it’s kind of gross.  Unless you like raw quail eggs atop sea urchin, and then it’s kind of delicious.

Last photo, in which my father threatens me with chopsticks and I move my hands really fast.

                                                                                             Elf-baby and Mama

                                                                                                                                                         I know it’s mean… but do you think it’s possible for babies to sometimes look a little…gross??

                                                                                                                                                           We’re working on sitting up, which means we often end up sideways.

                                                                                                                                                          But hey, that’s OK, once we’re sideways we can practice our push-ups.