The Daily Jo

Despite the fact that this is called the "Jo and Alex" blog, we all know it's really the "Aaron and Sometimes His Parents" blog. So, to save any grandparents/interested parties from having to read spiels about Max Payne or the like when really all they want to see is pictures of the baby, I've created my own separate blog. Originally the idea was to post something every day (thus the title) just to get me writing every day, but I don't know that I'm actually going to have time to do daily posts. But, too bad, the title stands.

Night Of The Living Baby

Aaron and I have been having some breastfeeding issues. To make a long story short, after weeks of fussing and refusal on his part and lots of pain and frustration on my part, we finally visited a lactation consultant (twice in one week, actually, but that's beside the point). Among other things, the consultant suspected that we might be having a yeast problem. To effectively treat this kind of yeast infection, both mother and baby must be treated, as it can go back and forth between them. She recommended using something called Gentian Violet for four to seven days; all that is required is to paint the baby's mouth with it then nurse, then voila, pain gone! Sounded simple enough.

So Saturday night, after Aaron's bath, we give it a try. I dip a Q-tip into the Gentian Violet and swab Aaron's mouth with it, letting him suck on it for a few seconds, just like the instructions the lactation person gave me said to do. Aaron's tongue starts going crazy--in Alex's words, "like a dog with peanut butter in his mouth"--and he starts gagging a little, presumably because the Gentian Violet tastes nasty. I look at the bottle and see a funny little note: "Keep out of the reach of children. If swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away."

Great...

Alex and I start panicking. Alex runs to get his cell phone and the number for Poison Control. I think there might have been some profanity involved, but I don't really remember because I was a little preoccupied by my own profanity and the fact that I had just poisoned my child. 

Alex comes back in with Poison Control on the line. Aaparently everything will be ok. Oral medications have strict standards, the Poison Control guy says, and whoever makes Gentian Violet just didn't want to adhere with them, ergo the warning. And Gentian Violet works great for yeast, he adds.

Needless to say, that was the end of the Gentian Violet experiment. 

There was one side effect, however: apparently Gentian Violet turns babies into zombies. Luckily, after a day or two of Aaron having a purple mouth and exclaiming "BRAINS!" (I can only assume that's what his goos and gaas meant),  the effects wore off. Now everything is back to normal, with the small exception of one pair of permanently purple footie pajamas.

Here are a few pictures of Zombie Aaron. These are actually from the morning after the craziness, so his mouth is actually quite a bit less purple than it was. Notice the purple jammies and the purple fists...

Aaron's Blessing, Take 2

Two weeks ago, on August 31, was Aaron's baby blessing. It was a great day; we had a wonderful time and were very happy that so many of our family and friends were able to come. Unfortunately, in all the hubbub of the day, we forgot to take pictures (d'oh!). I felt really sad about that (and I still do, a little). I mean, what kind of a mom forgets to take pictures on her baby's blessing day? Well, I've accepted that the kind of mom that forgets is the tired, distracted, hostess-bein' mom, so I guess I'm ok.

But I still wanted pictures. So this morning, two weeks later, we staged a few "blessing day" pictures. Aaron has been growing so fast, I could barely get his little outfit on. In fact, the neck of his shirt was a too small for his head; it scraped his face a little when I put it on, and he started crying. :-( He's ok though. It's a good thing we finally got around to taking those pictures though--a day later and I wouldn't have been able to get the clothes on at all!

So without further ado, here are some pictures of the little guy, mommy, and daddy:

And here's one of the back porch, still all set up for the party. Today, however, our only guest was Leia...

So there you have it. If anyone happens to have any pictures from the actual day, feel free to send them to us :-)

First Haircut

Thursday was Aaron's two month birthday. To celebrate, we decided to give him a haircut. His first haircut ever. Who has ever heard of a two-month-old needing a haircut? 

Here are some before pictures:

And after (not too bad for someone who has never cut anyone's hair before--especially not a wiggly baby's): 

Two Months

Aaron had his two month checkup today. At the baby checkups they do some measurements. I thought that I'd share them with you. He is 12 lbs 11 oz and 25.25 inches tall! I thought he'd weight a bit more than that but he is still in the 75% for his weight. But get this, his height.... 97% percentile!!!! What? Where'd that come from? I'm 5'7"... why didn't I get any 97% percentile height?

Another way to look at it: he has grown almost 5 inches in less than 2 months! (Redundancy incoming alert)...... WHAT? All I can say is that babies are crazy. Or at least my baby is crazy.

Another thing they did at this check up were his two month vaccinations. Boy, was that fun! He was so upset for hours, his legs (where the injections were administered) got a little red and puffy, needless to say it was a frightening day for under-warned, first time parents.

After some baby Tylenol, mommy cuddles, an exploding diaper, and finally some food he settled down and was pretty happy for the rest of the day. What a relief when he finally started being happy and smiling again.

Here are my two favorite pictures from today. He was showing off his new favorite activity.

Guilty Pleasures 2: The Fall of Ice Princess

In light of the insight presented in Alex's comment, I am amending my previous post: instead of watching Ice Princess, I will be watching the Max Payne movie. I can't wait to see Marky Mark as the title character. 

Now I must go and play Max Payne and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne in preparation.

  

Guilty Pleasures

I'm not particularly in touch with pop culture. I know about things like The Dark Knight, Harry Potter, and Oprah. Those, and whatever current fashion trends I glean (and sometimes laugh at) from my monthly fix of InStyle magazine. So it's not surprising that I didn't know about Twilight until the third installment was out; the hairdressers were talking about it while I was getting my hair dyed last year, in case you were wondering how it happened.

Now, I don't really consider myself a slave to fashion, but I must admit when millions of people are reading the same book, I get a little curious about it. So I read it. And scratched my head. And wondered why on earth this particular book was so popular. I mean, it was okay I guess, but I didn't understand why anyone who wasn't a thirteen-year-old girl would like it so much. It just didn't appeal to me, because not only am I not thirteen, I'm also not really what you'd call a romantic (and the book is basically Romance Novel Jr.).

That said, I am now for some reason intrigued by it again. Maybe it's because of the movie version that's coming out soon, or maybe because I recently discovered that an aunt of mine, who happens to be a remarkably intelligent and well read person, loves the series. So part of me wants to read the other books. Another part of me, however, doesn't want to get sucked in again only to be disappointed again. That part of me remembers the last time I read something--The DaVinci Code--just because it was popular only to discover how abysmal it was.

What to do? Do I give in to my curiosity and read the other books, or do I spend my very precious and rare spare time reading something that I'm pretty sure is actually good (and that I already own)? Or do I just disregard others' guilty pleasure and indulge my own? Perhaps the last option is the way to go. Ice Princess, here I come.