And he shall be called...

As Advent has led to Christmas, and Christmas is now passing, and we look to the celebration of the Feast of the Holy Family, we have heard and heard again the reading from Isaiah 9: 

² The people walking in darkness
    have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
    a light has dawned.
³ You have enlarged the nation
    and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
    as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice
    when dividing the plunder.
⁴ For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
    you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
    the bar across their shoulders,
    the rod of their oppressor.
⁵ Every warrior’s boot used in battle
    and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
    will be fuel for the fire.
⁶ For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷ Of the greatness of his government and peace
    there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
    and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
    with justice and righteousness
    from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
    will accomplish this.

The litany of names for the Lord prompted me to recollect the names we give to Attison (besides, obviously, Attison). 

And so, in the days of Jenny's chew toys, in the land of Pittsburgh, he is called: 

Buddy
Mr. Man. 
Mr. Dude
Stinks. 
Stank
Stinker
Boy (Mr. Boy)
Little
Sir Poops-a-lot
pooper
tooter
rooter tooter
Pretzel-Butt
Mr. Wiggles
Wigs
Chins
Poopsiclese
Bubbles
Squeaker
Dinosaur
Dipes (Short for Diaper-Man!)

we also address him by whatever article of clothing happens to have our (and/or his) attention at the moment
(for example: hey Mr. Socks).

or by whatever action he happens to be performing. (i.e. hello Yawns!)

or by whatever God-forsaken word happens to pop into our heads (especially in the middle of the night) (for example: Mr. Karate Tarts)

So, without further adieu, ladies and gents, I present Mr. Smiles:

Actually, when he gets that innocent, smug look ... he's probably pooping. Sorry.

But what really gets him relaxed, is Papa John:

... and his nose was made of cheese.

Around our house, we do a lot of diaper changing.

So Steph picked up a few of these arm and hammer odor neutralizers:

They're everywhere. (we got a ten pack).

And almost every time I see them, for a split second, I get excited because I think they are little cheeses:

::sigh::
Gets me every time!

(we'll keep you posted if I accidentally eat an air freshener.) (it could happen, especially in the middle of the night.)

You got questions, we got answers...

I thought I'd give some background as to how things roll around here at S Saint Clair a.k.a. Attison's house. 

Where does Attison sleep?
Here:

Actually, as you can tell from the picture, he grew out of that napper, so now he sleeps on the elevated bottom of the pack and play, which serves as a bassinet. 

Where does Attison hang out during the day?
Oh he has so many places to lay his little head.  In the rock and play, the bouncer, the swing, the boppy pillow, the chest carrier, or in loving arms.  

 Rock and Play

Bouncer

Where do you change his diapers?
As you saw above, there is a diaper changing station in the pack n play.  We also have a desk downstairs with the goods on it.  We have two cloth diaper laundry bags/bins that we dump the dirties in.  

Did you ever fix all of your cloth diaper problems?

Yes.  Well, no.  Kind of.  I think that some of the diapers that made it through our friend's two children have lost their diaperness.  We've purchased some replacement diapers that seem to be working well.  The main thing I've learned by reading online is that you just change them at least every 2 hours and they're less likely to leak.  While traveling this weekend we have found that Attison cries when his diaper is wet, something he doesn't really do in cloth diapers.  I could explain that more, but meh, who cares?

What size clothes is he wearing?
0-3 months, but barely.  When he stretches his legs out it is easy to see he won't be wearing them too much longer.  On to 3-6 mo.!

What other questions might you have for Attison?

Got all dressed up to go to church with Gram...

...Then I got exhausted. Tux nap.

Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey...

As I mentioned earlier, I got sick last week.  We thought it was food poisoning, but it wasn't.  This horrible bug sets both ends on fire, exploding towards dehydration at an alarming speed.  Then you remain wiped out and horribly dehydrated for much too long.  It is like playing chicken with your stomach, trying to figure out when it is safe to drink again.

Katy (a roommate) got the same thing two days later. Then Tim got it.  Then panic set in.  What if Attison gets it? What about the other two roommates?  I feel bad that the last two roommates not only had to watch us be sick, but that they are still being psychologically tortured, wondering if they will get it.

But this post isn't about sick, it is about milk.  After I got sick, my milk started coming in less. I've been pumping so that someday, when I'm mentally prepared, I can leave Attison for more than an hour.  After getting sick I was only able to pump 1 oz a day.  I didn't realize how dehydrated I was though because it took 4 days until I was getting 3-4 oz again. Now our freezer is filling up, fast.

I seem to have a pretty healthy milk supply, so I've been thinking about donating to a milk bank.  Unfortunately, not all women are able to produce enough milk for their babies.  To some extent, you can do things like eat healthy and drink lots of water to increase your supply, but it isn't a one-size-meets-all solution.  (We're not talking wet nurse here, I'll be shipping off bags of pumped milk)

A friend of ours pumps an extra 6 oz a day (which is a lot for those who don't know!) and donates to twins whose mother can't produce enough for her babies.  She does it though a national bank that connects donors to local recipients via facebook.

Why all this fuss about breast milk you might ask? Why not just use formula?  Well, breast milk is better for everybody.  It is healthier for babies because it combines not only nutrients but antibodies from mom to protect from disease.  Babies also benefit from skin-to-skin contact (also called Kangaroo care) that comes naturally with breastfeeding.  They have even started putting on formula containers "G***** recommends breastmilk as the best start for babies."  I feel kind of conflicted about that though, because although it is true and many people don't realize or care, there are plenty of mothers who know and understand, but just aren't able to breastfeed.

Well enough of that... If you are interested, here are a few links about the benefits of breastfeeding and Kangaroo care, plus the website about breastmilk donation.

http://www.womenshealth.gov/breastfeeding/why-breastfeeding-is-important/
http://www.kangaroomothercare.com/
http://www.eatsonfeets.org/#about

This is Attison, the breast pump base (with the scary attachments removed so you don't have to make the mental picture of how it works) and a puddle of "mom didn't change my diaper first thing this morning so I peed in her bed." 

And as a final thought - although the milk flows around here, the honey doesn't.  It's too cold and it crystallizes. The honey probably needs a blanket. 

Theres too many blankets!!

In college, Tim lived in a big house on Andover Terrace with a bunch of crazies friends.  We loved that so much that instead of buying a regular, old, single family house, we bought a big, old, single family house and have shared it with friends (and a few strangers) over these few years.

Please excuse the informality, I'm about to sum up 8 years and our chosen lifestyle and living arrangement in two paragraphs:

Some of our friends played instruments and started a band named it after the street - Andover Terrace.  They had house parties and that the band played, which caused the setting you see below - the furniture was all removed from one of the living rooms so the band could have plenty of room to rock. There were blankets - many, many blankets, because it was pretty much always cold (no one wanted to/could afford to pay a high gas bill).  Then there was this song:



A few things made it from Andover Terrace to S Saint Clair.  Obviously, our sentiment for living in community with friends.  Most of the furniture you see - the picture behind Patrick, the book cases, the foot rest.  That blanket Miranda dances with, it's around here somewhere.  The heat, well, we also keep it to a range of 64-67 degrees F.  We also have too many blankets.

So our darling little infant child wears at least two layers all the time, not to mention his giant bowling ball of a diaper.  He also gets covered in blankets when he sleeps alone, but usually feels the heat radiating off of one of the 5 people who take turns holding him.  He, like us, is pretty comfortable with this temperature, as he has spent all but 9 of his days here in this house.

When we visit other people's houses, they usually keep their heat a bit higher, like at 70 or 72.  So he probably doesn't need any blankets in those places.  If he is napping, alone, on an inanimate object, sure, blanket him up.  If his little fingers are cold, blanket him.  If you are going to leave the front door open because you may or may not have been raised in a barn, blanket!!  But other than that, discretion is advised.  I can't tell you how many times I've agreed to let someone hold this boy and before they even touch him they say "do you have a blanket?"
Well, yes I have a blanket, what'sit to ya?

This little baby says "give me a friggin blanket!"

This little baby says "nah, I'm fine."

And this little baby says "ZzzzZzzzZzzzzzzzz...that feels just right."

Mobile Mobile part 2!

Attison is looking at his mobile!  He loves it now that he can see it.  There is one face shaped tile that he tends to follow with his eyes when you move the mobile.  We are going to work on making ones that look like us to see if he likes those even more.