End of January-early March

Winter wonder land… All that time spent with Bob burning tires and spraying aerosol cans is finally paying off with the mild winter which we have tried to take advantage of. On the last day of January the balmy weather allowed us to head out for a family walk and then grilled steak for dinner. Nearing the last day of February we took advantage of a 60 degree and sunny Saturday and made our first trip to the playground near the house.  Someone loves slides and gets pouty if she can’t go down them, so Carolyn insisted we take Acadia for her first trip down the slide. Acadia made several solo runs then took Carolyn for a few tandem rides.  We then moved to the swing set, where I was surprised by Acadia’s reaction. She loved it when I pushed her higher and faster, Carolyn also surprised me by letting me push Acadia higher and faster, basically staring blankly with that “I’m not worried face”.

We’ve had several doctor appointments over the past few months.  One appointment was her 1 year check up; the other was with a geneticist.  The geneticist did not see anything that might explain Acadia’s petite size, but of course she still wants to see her in a year..  Our next doctor’s visit is with the gastroenterologist in mid March for what we hope will be the last time.  She is taking more “real food” and is now 17 lbs. 28 inches, which is below the “curve,” but as we and the doctors are realizing she has her own curve. Not sure where she gets this passive- resistant- nonconformist streak from.

Look ma no hands…she is still walking about with assistance from furniture and walls, but has made several uncoordinated (Carolyn’s genes) steps at home and day care. She is working on standing on her own, but only gets to her knees and then decides to walk on her knees. She has also taken to climbing on chairs, stools, the coffee table and anything else that allows her to hook a foot and lift up. This has also led to more spills and crying. She really enjoys sitting on anything that she can turn into a small chair or bench for herself. She has also become very good at entertaining herself when she is supposed to be sleeping, at least that is what we assume the thumping and talking we hear is all about.

Demon screams… She has started to get frustrated and does quite a bit of screaming when she wants something or has something taken away from her. And we, her dumb parents don’t know what she wants; she just screams until we find something to placate her.

March brings warmer and wetter weather, so I’m doing everything I can to take care of landscaping around the house and hopefully get some seeds started. March also brings several weeks of standardized testing for middle school kids, so I will be in “testing” mode while Carolyn continues to plan three preps and coordinate her trip to Europe over spring break.

January 2012

Figured the year’s first snow (really a dusting with ice) and the one-year check up are a good starting point to begin this year’s first update.  As I type, Acadia is dancing in the pack and play and waving to me while Carolyn vacuums the living room.  She loves playing with the cord for the vacuum so that may be the cause for her excitement.  Another possibility would be that she is enjoying Stevie Ray Vaughn’s version of Voodoo Child blaring from the laptop. She has become very interested in the laptop. When either Carolyn or I are on a computer she loves to come over and press keys and touch the screen.  We have discovered the wonders of using “technology” to engage her. Carolyn started with showing trailers to “Madagascar” and I took it to the next level letting her watch YouTube videos from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology-link included check it out… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rqi8W00mUA&feature=share .   She does some very good loon calls now.

She has also taken to playing with the TV or DVD remote, which was funny at first but once she started changing channels while I was watching ESPN it became an issue.  My solution was to get a few old remotes from work and let her play with them. She will point at the TV and push buttons and is occupied and I still get to watch TV…brilliant parenting if I do say so myself.

The one year doctor’s appointment which included numerous vaccinations went well. She weighed in at 15 pounds 14 ounces and 28 inches.  Still not really packing on the pounds, but the pediatrician did not seem too concerned and we still have an appointment with a geneticist and then back to the GI doctor.  Hopefully that will be it.  We are feeding her more “people” food after talking with the pediatrician.   Some favorites include Ritz crackers, either eating or throwing Cheerios and puffs, pancakes, waffles, mashed potatoes, vanilla yogurt, cottage cheese, bananas, and avocados. 

She is standing with assistance from whatever object she can use to help balance herself. She plays with all of her toys and books from Christmas and birthday, though the “toy” of choice this week is one of my old socks she pulled from the clothes basket.

The three of us are prepared for the AFC championship game to be played this afternoon. Carolyn has now been fully indoctrinated into the importance of following a set routine while watching Ravens games and tolerates all of my other rituals. She has also impressed me with her nacho making abilities.  We used the bye week to visit Bob and Gretchen in Annapolis which was a good time for me to prove to her I’m not the only nut job that changes his clothes during the middle of a game or has to sit in a specific seat in order to change the course of the game. 

It’s officially the middle of the school year and we are both going through the routine of grades and change of classes. We set a pattern of Carolyn working late a few nights a week when I am not occupied with Allied Bowling.  Allied sports are for students that are not typically eligible to participate in scholastic sports, most of which have a disability of some kind. All the kids ask about Acadia and hopefully will get to see her when Franklin plays Catonsville next month.  The routine lets Carolyn get work done at school and not have to bring it home so we all get to spend more time together.

The Christmas and New Year Holidays went well for all.  We kept it low key on all points and split time with both families.  The three of us ventured to Colonial Williamsburg a few days after Christmas. Overall a good time, unfortunately it seemed like we spent more time stuck in traffic on 95 then  walking around the town or relaxing.

New Years eve of course brought the kids first birthday. Again we kept it low key with close friends and family. Naturally we keep thinking to the future and how to handle a rather social holiday with a b-day. Carolyn and I got a chance to head out to Locust Point to meet friends for a few hours while my parents watched Acadia.  We were home by 11:30 and I had to wake Carolyn up for the ball drop…yeah a wild and crazy night.

Okay a few hours before game time so I have to start getting ready…hope the new Blog format works for all.

November-December 2011

 The Turkey Day / Week before Christmas addition of the Baby Mager update.

Turkey days was much less “hectic” than I had expected with the “family juggling” that had to be done.  Acadia got to see her cousins from both the Myers and Mager sides to include her second cousins from the Mager side. The day also provided the opportunity for Acadia to meet the only other “Mager girl” cousin Ava.  Over the weekend, we also got to visit with Carolyn’s Aunt Faith and Uncle Fritz in Gettysburg and spend some quality time in Fells for Oyster fest at Koopers’ with Carolyn’s sister Christina and her husband Dirk and their 5 yearold son Thomas. A good time was had by all, except for that incident between Thomas and the bartender.

At Thanksgiving Acadia could barely get up two stairs with assistance, but by the end of the first week of December she was climbing an entire flight of stairs with the agility of a paratrooper--wonder where she gets that from.  Carolyn and I have a pool going on when she will start walking.  She can pull herself up by holding onto furniture, pants leg, and unfortunately if I’m wearing shorts, my leg hair.

Fall weather is here and the sun is down by 4:30 so our family walks have been limited to a few morning outings in Patapsco Valley state park, which included a test run of the “Baby Back Pack”.  So that gave me the chance to put in all those good infantry (I’m carrying a house on my back) skills to work.

She is growing and putting on weight so much so that we can actually go three months without a trip to the specialists. Though the next doctor visit will be for genetic testing, which I assume will be some MD going “um mom’s 5’2” and dad’s 5’6” so she may be a little on the small side”… gee thanks doc by the way it hurts when I do this.  On a positive note she has now reached the size where she gives perfect little hugs. 

We didn’t have day care a few Fridays ago which allowed Carolyn and Acadia the chance to come visit me at school.  So I toured the school showing her off to co-workers and kids, which of course triggered every other kid to say “is that your baby?” which opened the door for some classic Mager middle school sarcasm.  Speaking of school I have several pictures of Acadia at school, one of which has gotten several good reactions from co-workers, specifically the ones that know the “Mager scowl” see the picture and judge for yourself.

Along with that ribbing I have gotten the “she’s a daddy’s girl” and “she has you wrapped around her finger” from numerous people. Which has triggered a reactionary need in me to practice saying “no”, “no way”, “hell no”, and “are you F@#$king crazy” for when she is older.

We have a few days before Christmas and a week or so before the big first birthday.  All of which will be the focus of the next update.

September 2011 9 months

Okay so the last update was at the end of August and mentioned some concerns with Acadia gaining weight. We went back to the specialist at UMAB in early September and had a bit of a scare. She had not gained enough weight and next thing I know the doctor is mentioning “feeding tube”. The purpose of which would have been to get the calories she needs directly in her.  Basically there was a miscommunication about whether or not we should continue breastfeeding, in addition to the increased calorie formula recipe. I argued with the doctor and he gave us a week to see what happens. I sort of felt like I had to defend our efforts and make it look as if we were not being negligent.  Sort of like being on the opposite end of one of those teacher-parent conferences where mom and dad swear they are checking the kid’s homework.

            So after spending a week of “how the hell do I get 28 ounces of formula into this kid” mode, which included waking her up early to feed, stopping breastfeeding a Jason generated teacher style behavior chart used to record every ounce of formula (aka chemicals I’m forced to feed my child) and a conversation with the nutritionist, we got her to gain 7 ounces in one week. We have been back three times and they decided to further increase her calorie intake with a formula recipe change. The end result is that she gained more weight and is now up to 14 pounds. Oh and she is no longer “malnourished” …yeah should have seen my face when the doctor dropped that one on us. We go back in November for what we hope is the last trip.

On a more up beat note, she has grown to 27 inches which has made her the perfect hugging size. She will wrap her arms around your neck and grab any available hair. Oh and she likes to use those two front teeth to bite dad’s nose.

We are now at the end of October and settled into the school year. Even got through the golf season and dealing with everyone’s favorite athletic director. Acadia is very active and loves to stand up by holding onto the fun square/activity cube or whatever the hell the thing is called. She has been to all, but one of our SOBO football games. Speaking of which, Carolyn has made a nice transition from playing soccer and ultimate Frisbee to football -- must have been those mandatory practices.  With this season of SOBO, Acadia has now joined what has become known as the Romper Room sideline which has had at times 8 children being monitored by whom ever is not in the game or the wife that is pregnant or just gave birth a few months ago. The best part is when all the kids go to the bar afterwards….have the times changed or what.

To focus more on mom and dad, we hit our one year anniversary on the 16^th of October which was celebrated by cashing in a Groupon to Azul 17 for a dinner  that included a tequila flight.  The next night we had sushi at RA. The following is Carolyn’s contribution-The big present to each other was buying into a crop share with winter home delivery – very exciting we’ll get produce, meat, eggs and a surprise product from a local business.  Now we’ll have more time to go to Home Depot and maybe even Bed, Bath and Beyond… Carolyn continues her attempt to domesticate, so we now have a matching bedroom set to include 50 FREAKEN PILLOWS THAT WE DON’T USE!!!!

            Other highlights from September and October include Acadia’s first O’s game, which also happened to be the last game of the season and the game that knocked the Sox out of the playoffs with the Rays win.  She also attended her first high school soccer game, where unfortunately Franklin lost to Catonsville 1-0 in the county championship. The highlight of the game was having a former student comedown from the bleachers to visit because she had heard “Mager has the cutest baby EVER!”.

Monday will be Acadia’s first Halloween and mom already got her a costume. I’m going to make you all wait for the pictures to find out what the costume is…just know my idea of dressing her up as the baby from Pet Cemetery was shot down. 

June-August 2011

Hey all, getting sometime to put out the baby update after realizing that the last one was in May.

So here goes a quick recap that will match some pictures that have already gone out and will be going out shortly

June ended a long school year and our time with Ms. Nancy, our awesome day care lady. We stuck with her for the whole month even though school was out because I had tech stuff to deal with at school and Carolyn had one of those week long 8-4 grad classes at Goucher. Prior to C starting her grad class, we took a nice trip to Solomon’s Island MD where every restaurant we went to someone was the center of the waitress’s attention, nice to know I still have it.

July sent me to Hog Island Audubon camp for the second summer in a row; this time as a volunteer. While I was in Maine, Acadia had a doctorr’s appointment. The doctor was a little worried that she had hit a plateau regarding weight gain for her height.  So with that we started her on formula and picked up the feeding schedule to include cereal and baby food three times a day.  It also meant more tests and two appointments in August one with our regular pediatrician and one with a specialist down at UMAB. 

Mom and baby flew up and joined me in Maine in mid July and we spent several days exploring Acadia national park, which included a trip to her namesake trail/mountain. The trail is way too steep to take her up so we settled on a few shots at the trail head.

We drove home over several days making sure to take a whole day to drive the coast of Maine and spend sometime at Hog Island, which meant someone’s first boat ride.

August brought the dreaded preparation for going back to school. Acadia started with her new daycare lady Ms. Barb in mid August. After a few rough days of not eating and being fussy she has settled into her routine and is doing well.  We had two more doctor’s appointments focusing on weight gain and making sure there are no “issues” preventing her from gaining weight. She had gained 1 pound since her appointment in July, which was good and the specialist we saw at UMAB is not worried and just had us meet with a nutritionist who gave us a plan for increasing her calorie intake, basically feeding her more formula. So it was a bit of a relief after discussing her eating habits with the specialists that it just came down to feeding her more, though my idea of introducing bacon was shot down. Better yet being at UMAB gave me an excuse to take the ladies to Trinacria Macaroni works on

Paca Street

for sandwiches and wine shopping.

The summer also saw Acadia get two front teeth, sit up on her own, a haircut, and a trip to the pool at Barb and Harris’, as well as an invite from the Gordon’s to the pool they belong to in Mt. Washington. She is also becoming incredibly mobile, to the point I want a bell on her so I don’t step on her while she is busy untying my shoe laces. I’m also thinking of putting swiffer cleaning pads on her clothes so she can at least clean up a little as she crawls.

May 2011

Okay folks, we just had the four month doctor visit so here is a new update. She is now a whopping 9 lbs. 15 oz, so we are rounding up and just going with the nice round number of 10 lbs. For those of you using the metric system that is 0.453 kilograms.  Along with the weight gain, she is now 24 inches long.

Acadia reached another milestone this month when she rolled over from her back to her belly -- that was for me. Mom thinks it was belly to back but as most of us know she confuses easily on these things.  

Her routine is pretty much the same eat, poop, sleep, but she is becoming a little mouthy. Basically she squawks and she has recently realized that certain “cries” will bring us in. For example someone just suckered daddy into coming over and pulling her out of her swing by crying and being fussy but as soon as daddy (the sucker) got her she was fine...go figure.

She is also starting to grab and hold onto things and “self sooth” by sucking on her thumbs which the doctor likes. She has become very found of “Monkey”, “Piglet”, and “Pinkey” two pseudo stuffed animals/blankets and a pink teething ring.

She got to go to two flag-football games enjoy the spring weather and some quality time with the teacher crew.  The use of her dirty diapers has become key in a new round of practical jokes. She has also gotten to spend sometime outside as dad works in the yard and spent most of this afternoon on the deck of granddad and grandmom Myers while mom and dad put in vegetables and mowed the lawn since both grandparents are away in Europe.

We have had to deal with a stressful hick-up with day care. Ms. Nancy has the option to go to four days a week so we either needed to find someone to do one day a week or a new person. So we basically had to start the daycare provider search all over again. Luckily after a dozen or so trys we found a lady not far from here on

Westchester Ave.

and will lock it up this week.  The bonus is she will take Acadia at 7:00 am.

Other big news is that I get to go back to “Bird Camp” for a week – this time as a volunteer. Not sure what I will be doing and don’t really care, it is a chance to go back to Hog Island for a week. Camp runs from July 14-19.  The plan after that is similar to what we did last summer. Carolyn and Acadia will fly up and I will pick them up in Bangor and then spend a week in Acadia National park / Bar Harbor then Portland and who knows where else on the ride home.

Almost forgot, we had our first Mother’s day….which in my view wasn’t that special because Carolyn gets breakfast and dinner made for her every weekend…so spoiled. 

2 Months

We had the two month “wellness visit” on Friday which consisted of the normal check up and some vaccinations (two needles). She is now up to 8 pounds 2 ounces and is 22 inches. She is growing but she’s still considered on the “small” side. Her next doctor’s visit is in two months.

Carolyn heads back to school next Monday the 14^th so we will be working harder to get on a schedule for feeding, pumping, and getting up and staying up at 5:00 a.m.  We will be stopping by Ms. Nancy’s (her daycare provider) to drop off supplies later this week.  The routine starting next week will be me dropping her of between 7:20-7:30 and hitting the beltway and hopefully getting to Towson by 8:00 and Carolyn picking her up in the afternoon.  Fortunately Acadia is not picky about how she is fed, but she is a messy bottle feeder – so thank goodness we have some small bibs she can wear.

We’ve debated and analyzed the possibility of Carolyn taking a leave of absence and staying home to be a full-time mom.  We could do it, but the financial situation would be stressful. This coupled with the uncertainty of the economy and the current attitude towards teachers and other public employees regarding pay and benefits makes contemplating living off of one salary a little too stressful.

Spring is coming and we have taken advantage of the weather by taking several family walks around the neighborhood and a trip to the trolley trail at the end of

Edmondson Avenue

.  Carolyn and Acadia have taken a few trips around Centennial Park with Grandma and Grandpa Myers.  Since Acadia appears to like being outdoors, I’m looking into a jogging stroller so she can have a smoother ride on uneven pavement.  We just need to find one that will take a car seat, because it will be a while before she is big enough to fit in the stroller.

I will be posting pictures from the past month, to include a trip to Fells Point for lunch with friends and “dad doing some yard work”.

6 Weeks

Okay 6 weeks down.  Everyone is doing well. She had to go back to retake a PKU test today (Monday). She did fine on one taken but something was a miss or went wrong on the other so she had to go in today for a little ankle prick .  While there she was weighed and is now 7lbs. 4 oz. She has moved out of all preemie clothing and will soon be out of her new born clothes.

We are still experiencing the “un-happy” hour of inconsolable fussing and crying for an hour or two in the morning and evening.

This past weekend was a fairly social one for her with Cousin Faith’s 1^st birthday on Saturday and a quality visit from Aunt Faye on Sunday.  Aunt Faye has the honor of being the first visitor to the house that got to see a wide awake and active Acadia, to include crying, staring, diaper change and a bath, the later the result of a diaper leak.  Till then she slept through everyone’s visit and woke as soon as everyone left.

This being her first Valentines Day she has received several cards and a generous gift from Aunt Neen. Mom got flowers and both girls will be taken to dinner on Friday.

With the warm weather today, which hopefully will stay, mom took her for her first walk around the neighborhood, just down the street and around the park. Hopefully the weather stays nice and she can get out with Carolyn’s parents for a stroll around Centennial park.

February 2011 1 Month

Hey all, just wanted to catch up since it has been 1 month since the kid hit the DZ. 

We had the one month doctors appointment on Tuesday. She is now up to 6 lbs. 12 oz. She was 16 inches when born and is now 21 inches.  We stopped putting her into the premy onesies about a week ago. She still swims in her clothes but nearly as bad and she is starting to fill in.

We are still on the routine of feeding about every 2 hours and she is sleeping for stretches of up to 4 hours. Mom started pumping this weekend and Acadia is fine with taking a bottle. She has  moved into the “I will just cry for an hour no matter what you do to console me” phase. Which we are dealing with and hoping it makes her sleep for longer stretches of time at night.

I went back to work last Monday, was kicking my self for not taking a longer leave but mother nature and / or global warming has helped out with several snow days. The extra time has given me more time to spend with mom and baby and work on the basement. Carolyn does not have to go back to work until March 14^th.

I’ll get more pictures out as soon as possible.

December 20th 2010

Baby Mager update 12-20-10

Okay,  I know I sent out an extensive weekly summary out yesterday (Sunday).  Figured I’d try keeping it short this week and get it out after each visit before getting distracted by something.

We had a sonogram and stress test today, all positive results.  The doctor at the office said she had spoken with our doctor and discussed that as long as no “issues” such as increased blood pressure or the onset of preeclampsia we are a go for inducing on the 39^th week (January 2^nd). 

We will confirm scheduling for the 2^nd later but as of now that is the plan. We will go to St. Agnes at 6:00 p.m and begin induction.  Then…….I think there is a stork involved. I wasn’t really paying attention at the birthing class so I’m not sure what happens. Hope they have Cliff Notes for this sort of thing.

Grandparent this is for you. I have set up a text group on my cell. Will txt updates when possible so make sure you are checking the cell phones.  I sent a pic message from the doctors today to test it.  Figure you guys can spread the word from there.

Pictures! Have a decent picture from the sonogram last week. We will make sure to bring it around during Christmas. Guess who’s nose she has?!?

December 19th 2010

Sorry for a delayed baby update. It’s been a very busy week.

As of last week the kid’s room is pretty much done, furniture came last weekend, and washed and put away all of the baby clothes we’ve received, so there are only a few minor things left to take care of.

Had two sonograms, one trip to the obstruction and one dead car battery this week.

The sonogram visits have become much longer because C and baby are on a monitor that measures the kids pulse/heart rate to ensure the baby has a steady heart rate and measures any contractions (bi physical and non-stress tests). I just hangout in the room fidgeting and playing with “anything not nailed down.”

The doctor’s visit on Thursday was a hassle because it was packed and the same day that Carolyn’s car battery died.  After her second jump start of the day, one in the AM and one at work, I met her at the office. When I saw the wait at the Doctors, I decided to run to Art’s who graciously took a Chevy into his garage and replaced the battery.

Thursday was the snow day and the last sonogram of the week. We meet at the house and took one car. I had gotten out an hour early, and it took C an hour to get here from Howard High. It then took us an hour to get from Catonsville to St. Agnes. We would have been on time to our appointment if a car hadn’t been blocking Maiden Choice between

Frederick Road

and

Wilkens Avenue

.  So we made a U-turn and took a scenic trip through Irvington, and it took us about 25 minutes to get from

Fredick Avenue

to the hospital.  In the end, we were only 20 minutes late.

Results of the Doctors visit are that Carolyn’s cervix is dilated at 1cm and beginning to “soften”, which will help with the induction on the 2^nd.  I was getting a car battery so I missed being in the room for this one. The doctor reviewed the information from the last sonogram and the baby was at 4.5 lbs and has dropped to the 5^th percentile.  No one in either the sonogram or doctor’s office seemed “worried” or concerned so we are not.

Doctor ordered another 24hr pee collection to check for proteins in her urine, which she is completing today. This is the second time “we” have done this; it’s a lot easier with the cold weather.

Swelling of her legs from the knee down is still an issue.

Sonogram update 12-9-10

Okay folks post sonogram weekly update.  Baby is now at 4.5 lbs. growing but not very quickly.

Fluid to the baby and heart rate are fine, so no real concerns. We are still set to induce on January 2nd  if, and I say if she does not come earlier. A possibility that was hammered home to me on Saturday when during our tour of St. Agnes a girl in the group, who was due in two weeks had her water break and delivered that night.

Mom is still starting to recover from the same a nasty cold (congestion and bad cough) I had.  She still has very swollen ankles and carpal tunnel in her right hand from fluid retention, other than that all is good.

We start biweekly sonograms on Monday and are scheduled through the 27th.