Stephen says, "hey, that's me smiling back at me"

Looking in the Mirror

Adventures in Plano

Stephen and I set out to go to Plano this morning for a sonogram to check out his hips. I was born with Ehlers-Danlos, a genetic disorder, and have a 50-50 chance of giving it to my children. Because of Ehlers-Danlos, which affects the collagen in the body, I was born with dislocated hips. I was slightly concerned that Stephen might have this, but it turns out he's fine. In fact in the last couple of days, he's begun to put weight on his legs when I hold him in the standing position. It only lasts a couple of seconds, but I was pretty impressed.

Plano is far. Granted, it only took about 25 minutes to get home, but it took about an hour getting there because of traffic. Stephen was pretty good in the car as long as I went above 30mph. The Plano imaging place is right next to Prestonwood Baptist Church, which I mistook for another hospital because it is so large and according to its website has 28,000 members (average attendance 14,000). This is just beyond me.

Old Photos, New Fun Format

Thanksgiving

We all enjoyed our Thanksgiving at our friend Sarah Smaardyk and Eric Bell's house. We had 20 people for dinner. I cooked my favorite, sour cream apple pie, that I've been making now for 16 years, Sean smoked a turkey, and Nancy made wonderful stuffing. I made corn souffle, but someone inadvertantly turned off the oven and the souffle fell in route to dinner, but it turned out o.k. regardless. Stephen did really well, sleeping a lot, and enjoying his own turkey dinner. Sean's turkey just keeps getting better by the year. We might have to have a turkey-off to see if the oven roasted beats the smoked. We have a lot to be thankful for this year.

Reading Declines

During my daily reading on the New York Times online, I came across this article:

Study Links Drop in Test Scores to a Decline in Time Spent Reading
By MOTOKO RICH
Americans appear to be reading less for fun, and as that happens, their reading test scores are declining, according to a new report by the National Endowment for the Arts

As someone who came from a family where we all read the paper every morning and all enjoy reading as adults, I find this very troubling. Granted, I probably didn't read much for fun until I graduated from law school, but that has more to do with the fact that I had to read volumes of stuff for school and relished the opportunity when I graduated to read stuff I actually liked. Reading case law is entirely different from sitting down and devouring a book. I'm lucky that Sean likes to read too. We get two newspapers every day and the New York Times on Sunday in addition to reading books. I guess we are in the minority.

We plan to read to Stephen every night and have him read the newspaper with us once he's old enough to read.

Into the Wild

I'm listening these days to Eddie Vedder's (Pearl Jam) soundtrack to the movie version of Into the Wild, the book by Jon Krakauer about the true story of Christopher McCandless. Christopher graduated from Sean's and my alma mater, Emory University, in 1992, sold all of his possessions and went on an adventure that ended in Alaska, where he died, probably poisoned by a molded berry that he ate. Sean and I both loved the book and really enjoyed the movie, although of course the book is better because it is more comprehensive. He explores that while Christopher's quest was probably rooted in some elements of mental illness or family trauma, many men and/or boys take off on big adventures which turn out to be of importance only to themselves. It is then that they tend to get on with life. This view of male coming of age is shared in a similar way by the author of another book that I read this year, Wonder of Boys by Michael Gurian.

Granny Smith gives Stephen a bath

Granny Smith came to Dallas from Virginia to take care of little Stephen. I got my nails done for the first time since his birth, went shopping for new clothes, and even got a date night with Sean at Stephan Pyles restaurant, which was wonderful, even though he might spell Stephen wrong. ;) Granny Smith also helped us give him a bath. He doesn't mind the bath too much, but really does not like being cold afterward. Thanks mom for a wonderful weekend. It was so nice to be normal people as well as parents.

On another note, our townhouses are set to go on the market on Monday even though they are not yet ready to be occupied yet, we are putting them on the market anyway. So exciting. As you can see, Raven likes visiting the job site.

Lola likes tummy time too

More on Growing

In response to some of the comments from the last blog entry and just in general from a public health standpoint, I think the concept of "normal weight gain" for infants is very interesting, especially when we are living in a country where over 50% of adults are overweight. I'm not particularly concerned as to whether or not Stephen is of 'normal weight' for his age, but merely as a concept for public health interventions.

Studies have shown that breastfeeding may lead to less obesity in later stages of childhood and beyond (Owen CG, Martin RM, Whincup PH, Smith GD, Cook DG. Effect of Infant Feeding on the risk of obesity across the life course: a quantitative review of published evidence. Pediatrics. May 2005, Vol 115 (5): 1367–1377). Even though the U.S. Surgeon General recommends nursing for at least 6 months exclusively, the rate of breastfeeding exclusively at 6 months as of 2003 was only 14%, partially because of maternity leave (mothers who return to work full time are less likely to nurse exclusively).

I wondered if these charts were considering that the majority of US children are not exclusively breastfed and found this on the CDC website for frequently asked questions:

The 2000 CDC growth charts can be used to assess the growth of exclusively breast-fed infants, however when interpreting the growth pattern one must take into account that mode of infant feeding can influence infant growth. In general, exclusively breast-fed infants tend to gain weight more rapidly in the first 2 to 3 months. From 6 to 12 months breast-fed infants tend to weigh less than formula-fed infants.

The 2000 CDC Growth Chart reference population includes data for both formula-fed and breast-fed infants, proportional to the distribution of breast- and formula-fed infants in the population. During the past two decades, approximately one-half of all infants in the United States received some breast milk and approximately one-third were breast-fed for 3 months or more. A Working Group of the World Health Organization is collecting data at seven international study centers to develop a new set of international growth charts for infants and preschoolers through age 5 years. These charts will be based on the growth of exclusively or predominantly breast-fed children.

Perhaps the growth charts when Sean and I were children did not take into account exclusively breastfed children. Now, the CDC recommends that breastfeeding promotion be a part of obesity prevention campaigns. Apparently, public health and science are catching up to common sense (breast fed and formula fed babies gain weight differently)

What's Normal for weight gain?

I am pretty sure that every new mom is concerned about how much food their baby is getting and if it is "enough." It is hard to tell through breastfeeding how much food is actually getting in there and that just makes it harder. For Stephen, there are good days and there are not so good days at nursing. There are times when he just wants to suck the life out of me and then there are times that he just wants to hang out there and cries when I take him off, while I'm thinking to myself, "I need to take a shower." Thinking about it, the same thing happens with adults...there are times that I'm really hungry and days where I'm just not that hungry; there's no reason to think that the same thing doesn't happen with children.

Today, I went on the CDC website and looked at the growth chart for boys ages 0-36 months, and he is doing fine. At 3 weeks, 5 days, he was 8 pounds, 6 ounces, in the 25th percentile. Considering I have had challenges nursing for the first week at least, this is normal. It's good to reassure myself that he is not going to be undernourished and that he is just fine.

Stephen questions whether or not it is easy going green

This morning Stephen read the Wall Street Journal special section entitled, "Consumers Guide to Going Green"

Greening of America

How are you contributing to the Greening of America? Here's some of the ways that my family has contributed:

• This past week, my sister attended the Green Build conference in Chicago


• Mom and Dad both drive hybrid cars


• I am trying to remember to use reusable grocery bags when going to the grocery store


• I have added a signature to my emails: "Please think of the environment before printing this email"


• I recycle everything Dallas County allows


• David has only put 7,000 miles on his car in the past 2 years


• Sean and I have owned (although not currently) one car for a total of almost 2 years


• Sean and I get our electricity from a company that puts wind and hydroelectric power back into the grid for the electricity we use.

Boys Weekend with Stephen A.

This weekend, my brother David and my dad Stephen B. came to visit and take Stephen A. to his first Rice football game. Of course, mom and dad came along and we had a great time. Sean first showed us around the progress of 4144 Emerson project, which makes me quite proud that we had and have the guts to go through with the project. There is something about seeing the physical results of the project that is very satisfying. Now that it is November, we've been conceiving of this project and planning for about 11 months now, so it is rewarding to see the work continuing on. The Rice/SMU football game was very exciting and very well attended by Rice alumni. Rice won by a last second field goal after SMU thought that time had already expired from the previous play. Stephen was very good all through the game, although I think he may have been a little over stimulated by the noise and excitment, but he was a true champ. Sean and Dave grilled a fabulous meal of gorgeous steaks and shrimp from Central Market paired with a 2003 Katheryn Hall wine that we had saved from the Smith family trip to Napa during Christmas 2005. A perfect end to a great boys weekend (with me, as new mom attending). Today, the boys played golf and at least tried to watch the Redskins game before leaving.

First Trip to Houston

This weekend, we took Stephen for his first visit to Sean's parent's house in Katy, just west of Houston. Nanna Eidson, Aunt Summer, and family friend Millie Smaardyk had a baby viewing/shower, gathering 25 adoring women to look at Stephen. His adoring fans were just thrilled to get a look at him and he took it all in stride.

Ridiculously large haloween costume

If you can't tell, he is supposed to be a pea in the pod.

More Cute Photos

These were the best of today's pictures: