Laid Off & Iris has a cold

Yesterday was my last day at WaMu so I'm home today with Iris. She's had a cold this week so we decided to keep her home today in the hopes that she'll sleep more & feel better quicker.

She's been developing very quickly lately and can now push herself up from the floor into a standing position without needing to grab ahold of any furniture. She also knows the hand signs for please, eat and more. I taught her the drinky-drinky hand motion for when she wants a drink but not sure if its's the approved hand sign for babies.

If you don't know what the drinky-drinky move is, John Candy does it at the beginning of this Planes Trains & Automobiles clip:

Ways to fill up your Tivo

Sunday kicks off TCM's 31 Days of Oscars. Here's your chance to catch up with every Oscar-winning movie you've been meaning to watch. Here's a link to the entire schedule. This isn't a list of Best Movie, simply any movie that won an Oscar for an actor/acctress, director, etc.

Guy in town

Sometimes when watching the Food Network, I catch segments of "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives." I love watching the host, Guy Fiori, wax poetic, about a chili dog, chipped beef, a greasy burger, etc. He's in Seattle shooting segments but I only heard of one place he's been at, Georgia's Greek Deli (which is up a few blocks from our friends, Pat and Robin). Wonder if he's ever been to Beth's, the home of the 12-egg omelet?

Civic duty

A few weeks ago, much to our surprise, Jim and I received ballots in the mail. What/who are voting for now? Much to our disgust, it's a special election for the Director of Elections. A ballot for a single item?! The estimated cost for this mail-only ballot is $3 million. Now I've found out more about the candidates and the only person who hasn't been fired, reprimanded, or charged with crime is a 61-year-old former bank operations manager. Jim and I simply recylced our ballot, and hang our head low in shame that we're not bothering to vote. Read more in the Seattle PI and here.

Amazing Race - Season 14

Next month starts the 14th installment of the Amazing Race. The latest racers were just announced. I love it that Mike White is racing with his 68-year-old dad. Yes, the Mike White who's written Chuck and Buck, The Good Girl, School of Rock, Nacho Libre (to name just a few). The last celebrity racers were Robbie Fulk's son and father-in-law. I doubt the show will be around long enough for Jim or I to do with Iris.

Iris in the park

Iris is beginning to walk. She still prefers to crawl because she can get around faster that way.

Iris's Allergies

Iris went to the allergist for the first time and poor little girl had to get poked 20 times with diffeent substances. Then they come back 15 minutes later & measure the size of the welts produced and use the sizes to determine what she's allergic to.

First the good news. Iris is not allergic to:
Wheat (phew--we were worried about that one)
Salmon (living in Seattle this is very good news)
Hazelnuts
Walnuts
Pecans
Dust mites

Now the not so good. Iris is allergic to:
Cow's Milk (we already knew this--it was her strongest reaction)
Eggs (we knew this one too)
Tuna (slight reaction so she might still be able to eat)
Almonds
Brazil Nuts
Cashews
Sesame
Peanuts
Soybeans (Dr. thinks this may be a false positive due to her reaction to peanuts & said we can try her on a bit of soymilk to see how she takes it)
Cat dander (not too bad on this one so Freddy's still safe)
Dog dander (stronger reaction than to the cat dander)

I guess that explains why her skin was so red & irritated the whole time we were in Texas over July 4th--we stayed at my sister's house with her 2 longhaired cats & big fluffy dog. We blamed it on the heat & humidity but maybe it was the pet dander.

There's not much we can do about it for now other than avoid the things she's allergic to and have her re-tested in 6 months or a year and see if there's been any changes. Kind of a bummer that there's no better treatment available right now.

This is Irene giving her 2 cents: Mom was working today so it was only Dad who got to see the torture of Iris. I can't believe she has these allergies. I nursed her exclusively for her first 6 months, and have continued nursing her even now that she's 1 year old. I can't imagine what her allergies or skin condition would be like if I didn't bother. :(

Congrats Dad!

My dad won his Fantasy Football League this year (unlike me, who's never finished higher than 2nd). Here's a shot of the trophy awarding ceremony: Congratulations Dad!

Iris's first successful use of a straw

Mmmmmmm. Yummy apple juice!

Here's what Iris thinks of the snow

Hmmm...not really sure about this "sled" thing, but I'm willing to give it a try
OK- I've decided. I DON'T like it! Isn't this sled really just one of Fred's old litter boxes? YUCK! Get me out of here!

I guess this is OK as long as you don't put me down in that white stuff

I said DON'T put me down!!!

Seriously! Get me out of this stuff!

On another snow related note, I've been giving Irene crap for the past 8 years about the shovel she made us buy the first time it snowed at our new house. All this time, I've shoveled the driveway unlike our neighbors, who trusted that the snow would melt in the next day or two, and it pretty much always did.

Well, that shovel has gotten lots of use this week by us and a some of those shovel-less neighbors. I pledged to never bust her chops about that shovel again (or the 20-pound bag of salt she also made us buy--that's all used up now).

Trekking in the snow

Dressed for Scandinavian Christmas

Our back deck

I am officially sick of snow

Seattle = Winter Wonderland

Snowing today

I stayed home w/Iris and my sister Denise yesterday because it was supposed to snow but we didn't see a flake. To make up for that, I drove in this morning with Irene even though it's snowing pretty good: Iris's daycare is closed again today so she's home with Aunty Geeg & enjoying snack timeIs it too soon to start telling her to chew with her mouth closed?

Absolute Final Moustache Post

My sister Geegy arrived last night and shortly after getting home from the airport I shaved off my stache. And you know what, I kinda miss it. It may make a return appearance sometime soon.

moustacheno moustacheBig thanks again to everyone who donated. My moustache raised $445 to help in the fight against prostate cancer.

(note: these pics were taken with Geegy's iphone. Mine is still not back from the iphone hospital, which I am pretty PO'd about)

Thanksgiving in Oregon

One Year Check-up

Iris had her 1-year check up yesterday and toughed out a series of five shots--that's the most she's ever gotten and she was not so happy about it and didn't sleep through the night last night either.

Just as as we heard at her 9 month check up, she's developing well and everything looks good. I don't have any recent photos to post (my iphone is still in hospital) but we'll try to get some new ones posted this weekend.

Here are her stats:

1 year
Length 28.5" (25th percentile - 2 inches taller than 3 months ago - yay!)
Weight 18 lbs, 9.5 ozs. (10-25th - maybe down a little from being sick last week)
Cranium 48 cm (95th+) yep.

9 months
Length 26.5" (between 10th-25th percentile)
Weight 16 lbs, 15.5 ozs. (10-25th)
Cranium 47.5 cm (95th+)

Our baby girl is still among the league leaders in cranium size.

6 months
Length 24.75" (between 10th-25th percentile)
Weight 14 lbs, 12.5 ozs. (25th-50th)
Cranium 45.25 cm (95th+)

4 months
Length 23.75" (between 25th-50th percentile)
Weight 12 lbs, 5.5 ozs. (25th)
Cranium 42.75cm (90-95th)

2 months
Length 22.25" (50th percentile)
Weight 10 lbs, 8 ozs. (25th-50th)

Birth 11/21/2007 6:51 AM
Length 19.5" (50th percentile)
Weight 6 lbs, 15.4 ozs. (25th)

103 degrees

Now that Iris is finally 1, she's been transitioning out of the infant room to the young toddler room at her daycare. Being around other kids where she's the youngest has exposed her to all sorts of new things including more virulent crud. Iris has been sick with a fever, usually peaking at 102 degrees, since early Tuesday morning. Luckily Tylenol and Motrin work wonders for fevers. We hear that a few kids at the daycare have had this and it lasts 3-5 days.

Jim and I have been scrambling to figure out who gets to stay home with her. It's been tough. Fortunately there's a daycare at one of the hospitals in town that'll take moderately sick kids. It's been hard to get her in because a child as young as Iris limits the number of kids they can take for the day due to the lower adult to child ratio.

She's been good spirits overall but she gets fussy when it's time for her next dose of drugs. She hasn't been sleeping well either so she looks tired all time. The poor girl :(

Moustache Wrap Up

Movember is over but I'll be keeping the stache until at least December 15 when my sister Denise arrives in Seattle for her Christmas visit. She made that a condition of her donation to the cause, and I'm OK with it. maybe I'll keep it forever!

Unfortunately, I can't provide an up to date photo because I dropped my iphone the other day & it's on the way to the iphone hospital in Kansas to get looked at. Hopefuly they won't need to transfer it to the iphone morgue--I should know in a couple days how serious it is & have it back by the end of the week if it's not too bad (fingers crossed). Since I can't put a photo of my own awesome stache, here are some more of my moustache role models, from the movie Tombstone

How freakin' awesome are those moustaches??!!

Please make a donation if you can by clicking on the icon below.
Donations will be accepted thru December 9. Thanks!

Addendum: I found this site today - check out those crazy award winning moustaches and beards. I'm not quite ready for the big time yet.