Saturday, April 28, 2007

"One Million Dollars!"


Dr. Evil's plan requires some intense thinking....and a lot of poop.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Devil child



Ah, the third week. A beautiful time. More recognition. More fun. And more screaming child who just won't sleep and won't tell anyone what the hell is wrong with her.

Zoe has reached that place where she shakes out her pacifier, then screams because she doesn't have it, then doesn't want it, then sleeps, then waits for you to go to sleep and then screams bloody murder.
Awesome!

Tomorrow she will end her third week on the earth and it's time to put some pics up.
Oh, yeah, she had her first REAL bath today. Since her umbilical finally came off, we can soak the girl. She loves the bath, boy. Calmly, happily soaking. Only when that super cold air blasted her damp body did she cry.

She's really a cool baby, y'know?


And a chip off her mother's block. Hoo boy, she's gonna be a drunkie.


Nana couldn't take it. She had to come down. Almost immediately. She flew down just for a couple days to hold baby Zoe and bake her broccoli casserole (of which recipe i now have, mwah ha ha ha!)


Beth's mom, Gail has been a godsend. Truly. Easy, helpful. And fun! And she has a complete reperatoire of cardiovasulary nightmare meals!



Oh, sure, you sleep now!

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Huckleberry's partner....

....is a little girl named Zoe.
When we got home from the hospital we knew that we were going to have to introduce the spazchow softly and carefully. Not that he has a temper or anything. He's a gentle soul, not aggressive at all. There is a reason why Goldens are America's favorite dog, you know.
I picked him up from casa Rutherford where he had been playing with his best friends, a pair of Jack Russells named Shenanigans and Doctor Doom. Doom is the leader of that pack. And the smallest. It's hysterical to watch because Huck outweighs them 64 pounds to 1 and yet, Doom can outsmart his oafishness every time.
I brought a blanket and hat that Zoe had been wearing in Hospital and showed it to Huck. He immediately thought it was a chew toy. But a quick "no" stopped that. And then I wrapped him in the blanket and kept telling him "Good Zoe."
Then off to home.
Huck has changed. Oh, he still burst through the front door like a bat out of hell and cried and whined with excitement when he saw Beth but everything seemed to stop when he got a whiff of the Zoester. He turned quizzical, quiet, soft, even more gentle. Like he just knew.
A few days later I was in the living room with Beth's mom, Gail, a sleeping Zoe and a resting Huckleberry. As is her wont, Zoe is just now trying out her new bowels. Pushing through that golden mother's milk is not an easy task and it hurts sometimes. So she cries. But it isn't real crying, it's just the frustrated and painful wail of someone trying to crap for the first few times in her life.
But, Huck shot up when he heard the cries. Without hesitation he headed straight to the bedroom and walked up to Beth, who was napping, as if to say, "Um, the baby is crying and you need to feed her. Now."
He is very conscious of her and how important she is. He doesn't seem jealous in the least. It's beautiful. Today he was cuddling with her after I changed her diaper.




Tomorrow we take her to her pediatrician for her first follow up. Mainly to check her weight and to make sure she's getting enough. And, also so she can finally meet her doc.

She also had her second bath and enjoyed some great tummy time basking in the sun on the counter of our new kitchen. This is the only picture I feel comfortable posting, since the net is filled with pervy a-holes who would steal the pic and sell it in Norway or something.


Monday, April 9, 2007

One week down.

This is spectacular. You know what? Having a baby in your forties is just that much better than having one when you are too young and too stupid to enjoy them. Sure, you have less energy and you looked better on no sleep, but now you just know so much more and care so much less about crap.
Even baby crap. (But, it's still barely smelly so, the best is yet to come.)
Zoe has been incredible. She sleeps a ton (no doubt due to the influx of pain meds her mother has to be on) and she eats like a Lulu/Goldberg. She's just sucking down mama's milk. Having a little trouble breast feeding, but I have a feeling she will latch on and get the hang of it soon.
And when she isn't sleeping, she isn't crying either. It's cool. She just opens her eyes and watches what's going on and takes it all in and when she does actually start to get fussy we just bust out the 5 S's from Dr. Karp's "Happiest Baby on the Block". Zoe LOVES to be on her side, but the crazy thing is when we do the (very) loud SHHHHHH. The White Noise that Karp recommends. She really does go into a trance, jolts out of her fuss and calms right down. Last time I tried it she went right back to sleep for another 2 hours. Crazy how that stuff works.

So today was a huge day for the Zoester. And Beth and me. The four of us, (Grandma Gail is with us this month) had to take her out to her first pediatrician visit. We love this pediatrician office. It's like what you would expect from a peds, cute pics, lots of stuffed animals, fish, the works, but the docs are terrif.
We met Dr. Nagle about 2 weeks ago and decided we had to go with him. Didn't matter that he was going out of town for Passover and might not be around for Zoe's entrance. We loved him. He was gentle and genteel and supportive and fun. AND! As soon as we told him about Liz and the CF scare, he decided to order a blood test that is the earliest test you can do before the sweat test. When we were leaving Beth saw him holding our file and emailing the rest of the pediatricians in the office with the information. Not only did he promise, but he followed through with that promise. Immediately.
Since he was out of town, Dr. Friedman was the first to come to the hospital. The spitting iamge of my grandfather, Dr. Friedman was the kind of doc whose bedside manner was just what you want: dismissive of hooey, supportive of new moms, quick with answers, oh, dang, too bad he is retiring at the end of May...
But then we met Dr. Crosby and she was just as great. And she was the one who saw Zoe today at the first office visit.
The blood test came back great. Really doesn't look like Zoe has CF. Said that her color was great, everything was perfect. The crazy thing was that, even though we kept hearing other infants wailing throughout the halls, Zoe-bee was quiet as a titmouse. She watched Dr.Crosby as she probed and prodded and never shed a tear. After the visit, blam she was out again.
Milestone down. Great day. Here are some pics. Don't worry, we'll take more.

We like to believe the smile is more than just gas


Zoe is greek for "gadgethead". Did you know that?




No, no, FrankenJew. Don't eat the baby!



Momma gets the hang of shutting up the cryer.

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Zoe. The Greek word for Life

This is it. This is the place to watch the world of Zoe. Less than a week old at this writing. Here we hope to update the world, show off the girl and give a peek at what it's like to grow up in Los Angeles in the early part of the 21st Century.
Let's get started, huh?