Nola is one now. She has been for quite some time. Of course you would have had to infer such an event because it has been an eon and a half since the last time I updated my blog.

I’m thinking about ending this blog and starting a new one. I am a person who really likes to have a topic to write about. And not just a broad topic, but something very focused. That’s why I loved writing Maybe Baby in the first place - it was an infertility blog. Now, I’m not sure what it is. I still want to write about our lives, but it’s hard for me to do it without some organizing principle.

So, I’m floating around some ideas to various people. It might become about food and nutrition for kids since the biggest battle I fight right now is getting Nola to eat. Maybe it will be about the life of a work-at-home dad and focus in more on that aspect of my life. All I know is that I’m no good at open-ended topics, and every day when I open my laptop to update the blog, I draw a blank.

Until the time I launch that new blog, I will start writing here again, at least once a week. If anybody has any ideas as to a new blog idea from me, I’m all ears.

Now, in an attempt to rekindle some good will, I offer you cute pictures of Nola.

Filed under: Daddy Things, Oops …, Reinvention, Work/Life Balancing Act | 1 Comment »

Nola wears short shorts now that the mercury has threatened to rise to 80 degrees on the first day of April - my beloved mother’s birthday (Happy Birthday, Mom!). After two full days of snotting and wheezing and fevering, Nola seems to be back to normal and ready to show some leg, dairy be damned.

And now all she will talk about is going to the beach to build sand castles, take a swim and sip martinis until the sun goes down. So that is how we shall spend our day, or at least a variation thereof. I’m planning on giving her a bottle in the bath tub. It’s the best a work-at-home-dad who can’t swim and doesn’t give his daughter martinis can do.

I’m such a buzz kill.

Filed under: Daddy Style, Firsts, Nola Eleanor | 4 Comments »

At Nola’s one-year checkup, which came three weeks early due to our delayed vaccination schedule, our pediatrician told me to start giving her whole milk in her sippy cup during the day instead of bottles. She said to start slowly - 3 ounces or so - to make sure Nola took to the cow as well as she did to the human. Constance and I were both excited but cautious about the endeavor. We’d like to use one of our frozen embryos this year, which means Nola needs to start weaning. But it was such a big step, and I was concerned that she might have a bad reaction to dairy. I was worried I might have passed along my dairy allergy to my little bean sprout.

So we opted to start very slowly. We put one ounce in a sippy cup and decided that we’d do one ounce additional each day to make sure all was well. Upon the first drop coating her tongue, she started gagging and opened her mouth like an emergency door on an airplane. All of the milk came flying out the sides and onto the floor.

“I’m sure it’ll just take some time,” Constance said. “It’s such a different consistency than breast milk. I mean, it is breast milk, just not human milk. I really hope she’ll like it.”

Yesterday I decided to do a mash-up of regular milk with breast milk. At first I mixed at a 3-1 ounce ratio. First sip and Nola repeated the same messy moves from Sunday. At a ration of 7-1, however, she treated it like normal.

“Every few days I’ll just lessen the ratio until she gets used to milk,” I told Constance proudly. “And in a few weeks time we’ll be right where we’re supposed to be.”

After eating the one ounce of milk throughout the day, all seemed OK. However, when Nola woke up this morning, she had a fever of 100.4º, chest congestion and a runny nose. All of the symptoms I get when exposed to dairy due to my allergy. We clearly need to speak to our pediatrician prior to trying again to schedule an allergy test along with her one-year blood work-up.

Nola, I apologize in advance for all of the pizza and ice cream you won’t be eating in life. I always wondered how you’d grow up to resent me. Now I think I have a pretty clear idea.

Just make sure to smile at me just like that when you get angry with me. It will help ease the pain.

Filed under: 3rd Trimester, Daddy Things, Doctor, Doctor, Firsts | 7 Comments »

Nola is now walking about 50 percent of the time and loving every minute of it.

And, if you turn your computer sideways (come on, that’s easy - right?):

Every day she just gets more fun. Tennis with dad is only, what - 2 months away, tops?

Filed under: Firsts | 4 Comments »

Nola now has 5-1/2 teeth. Every single one was a hard fought victory for the both of us. My back is excited for that 1/2 tooth to drive our tally up to a nice, even 6 (Nola demands an inordinate amount of arm time when cutting teeth).

On Saturday, I celebrated my own toothy victory. After 25 months of pain and juvenalia, my braces came a tumbling off.

If you take a closer look, you will see that the teeth that used to tilt north, south, east, west and every direction in between are now standing at attention. And honestly, there are so many of them. I mean, I know I have as many as I’m supposed to have, but seeing them all in a row for the first time makes me feel like I have about 4 more than the norm.

I mean, that’s a lot of teeth!

The first thing I ate was an apple followed by a carrot that had not been cut up into flimsy sticks. I followed that up with a small handful of Dots. What I love most, however, is all of the extra space my lips have. It’s like moving from a condo to a manor house inside my mouth.

Nola laughed when she saw them for the first time. She always had been fascinated with my braces, scratching at them and pulling at the rubber bands. So when I smiled at her, she looked up at me and just cracked up. She laughed all day Saturday every time I offered up my pearly whites for further study.

Once they get whitened (coffee, tea and braces don’t mix all that well unless you like having white squares in the center of your teeth), I will feel confident about my smile for the first time ever. So don’t be surprised if I look extra happy from here on out. I mean, I gave up $5000 dollars and two years of my life for this and I plan on flaunting it at every turn.

Filed under: Daddy Things, Nola Eleanor, Reinvention | 6 Comments »

One of my favorite bloggers, Pamela Jeanne at A Fresh Start, needs your assistance.

Her powerful book, Silent Sorority, is up for a very cool honor. I received this message from PJ and wanted to pass it along to you all:

Your kind support encouraged me to move forward and write Silent Sorority.

Many, many thanks for your continued support. All the best, Pamela

So get out there and vote early and often.

And speaking of voting, the story I wrote for Chicago Parent magazine about the fear I have about passing my former obesity and eating issues on to Nola won the 2009 first prize in the personal essay category from the Parenting Publications of America. It’s called For The Love Of Nola - check it out if you haven’t already.

Filed under: Daddy Things, News from the Parent Front, Nola Eleanor, Other People Are Cool | 1 Comment »

Last night I couldn’t fall asleep because I had failed to eat enough following my run. Shepherds pie is tasty and all, but I’ve logged 10 miles over the last two days and frankly, I needed something more along the lines of a fat, juicy steak to satiate my appetite. One negative thing about being a work-at-home-dad is that my time to eat is usually brief and on-the-fly. I’ve lost weight since working from home because sometimes, I just don’t have time to make anything more than peanut butter smeared on the nearest flat, edible surface.

But I digress.

Since I couldn’t sleep, I turned on my trusty friend, Juan Antonio TV, and commenced watching TCM’s showing of the Haley Mills classic, The Parent Trap.

Now if you can put behind you the creepiness that ensues the moment the opening-credits puppet show begins, a lighthearted tone will sweep you away. It is quickly established that this will be another warm, throw-back, family-values Disney flick that makes you yearn for days of yore even though the rational side of you knows that the days of yore were just as bizarre as the days of now.

Normally when I watch this movie I’m reminded of my mother-in-law’s rant about the negative light it casts upon step mothers and how even more atrocious it is to send the message to kids that there is hope - your parents might get back together someday if you help manipulate the situation. Because really - aren’t all divorced couples still in love despite how much they hate each other?

Last night, however, it dawned on me for the first time that the aforementioned message is the least of my concerns with that film.

“Holy hell,” I thought to myself. “They got divorced and divided up their twins.”

I mean, can you honestly think of anything more vile and disgusting than breaking up with your spouse and saying, “Well, we have these two kids. Twins at that. I suppose the only fair thing to do is for each of us to take one.”

“Yes, that sounds fair to me so long as we do the same with our collection of Rodgers and Hammerstein vinyl.”

I mean are you for serious? These people should have had their children taking away from them. And worse still, say you’ve got 2 people who are just bat-shit crazy enough to go through with such a heinous thing - but what about the complicity of the grandparents? Honestly, I think I might be ruined for this film for the rest of my life.

I love me some Haley Mills almost as much as I love me some Shelly Long, but this is just too much. I always had been willing to forgive the dark paraplegic twist at the end of Pollyanna and the messed up message about reconciliation from The Parent Trap. I even forgive her for not continuing her role in Saved By The Bell beyond the initial run of Good Morning, Miss Bliss. But this I cannot abide.

I bid you adieu, The Parent Trap. Now that’s some f-ed up s@*t right there I tell you what.

Filed under: Daddy Things, Diversions, On a Rant | 5 Comments »

After writing Friday’s post, I hit publish, poured myself a glass of water splashed with grape juice, and then Nola walked from me to the refrigerator in five successive, successful steps. Apparently, I just needed to put her near-misses out into the electronic ether in order to give her the motivation to finally start walking.

Moments later, she took four steps to grab onto Marcy the dog’s jowls followed by five toddling steps to Constance, who missed the first two attempts while on a conference call. Thankfully, she was working from home and got to be there on the day our little girl started walking.

A lot has changed in the 10-plus months since Nola’s arrival and of all the milestones, this one was the coolest. Babies make it hard not to be cliche because, as much as you tell yourself that every baby walks and that every parent feels the same helium-filled swoon you felt the first time your baby walked, you still manage to feel like what just happened is the most important thing going on in the world despite tragic earthquakes, March Madness, ongoing war, and the Oscars. And it’s also impossible not to feel like your baby has done something truly monumental.

And you know what? That’s what makes it so damn great. It’s nothing but it’s everything.

I’m not one to brag, especially about something that happens so frequently and soon will become commonplace and ordinary in my own life. But for today, I would just like to take a second to brag about my smart, physically gifted daughter, Nola, who learned to walk last Friday.

Filed under: Daddy Things, Firsts, News from the Parent Front, Nola Eleanor | 5 Comments »