The post immunisation post (and a griffin)

After crossing the 2 month barrier Marty was rewarded by the Texas government with a bath of immunisations...in 5 separate injections! The little trooper did remarkably well and put his mums to shame (I held him down and tried not to faint while Josie huddled in the corner!) Prior to the shots the nurse gave him some infant tylenol (panadol) in cherry flavour!! The poor bugger, the first thing he tastes other than breast milk is nasty cherry flavouring - blergh. Anyway, he did me proud by sicking most of it back up; a discerning palate already.

He's 11 weeks today (how did that happen?!) but he was 9 weeks when we went in for the shots, which means he also had his 2 month measures taken. At 9 weeks he weighed in at 12 pounds 4oz or 5.56kg (50th percentile) and 23 inches or 58.4cm long (also 50th percentile) so it seems he is entirely normal! The doctor didn't believe the figures (because he still looks chunky) so measured him again, but nope, still normal as anything. I guess he just isn't dense ;)

Here's a family photo we manage to shoot just before walking out the door to go to the doctor.

In other news we've managed to get the Roo not only sleeping for solid 6 hour blocks in the night but also sleeping in his cot! Ok, so his Poggie still wakes up every half an hour to make sure he's breathing but I'm sure I'll get over that soon, right?

Also, I bought a griffin... Not just any griffin either, but a giant griffin puppet! It was there, I was there, it was on sale and I'm a total sucker not only for puppets but also for animals whose existence is denied by some ignorant folks. I'm guessing he was on sale because your average punter here doesn't know what a griffin is unless it has a Harry Potter label on it.

Taking suggestions on a name for him...other than Grif!

Got milk?

Because we sure do! Mama Boo the milking cow has slowed down somewhat but she could probably go to Vegas for a week before Roo would start getting hungry.

Just a sample of out milk bank!

And of course I doubt I could get away with posting without there being a photo of Mr Roo so here's one of his big marsupial eyes. Ignore the naked mole rat! Oh wait, that's my beloved...

Whatchoo lookin at people?

Finally, a food post!!

Ah my blog, how I've missed you. Let me break the chain of fawning Marty posts with a food post! Actually, not just one but three food posts all neatly wrapped into one like a blog-lasagna.

First off I have to thank Gourmet magazine, to which we subscribe, for our latest dinner fabulousa. I don't often cook by following recipes but this one grabbed me by name alone - Figgy piggy Cornish hen! I've been bursting to find an excuse to cook Cornish hen for a while - they're not really Cornish, just young chickens. I won't repeat the recipe in detail here since it isn't mine (although I'm hoping it'll appear on their website soon) but the best thing about it is that it is incredibly quick, simple and delicious! Basically I took a bird, halved it and seasoned it (salt/pepper). Meanwhile I crisped up some bacon (or what passes for bacon in the US), then some garlic slivers in the bacon fat, then the bird halves skin side down in the bacon fat until the skin browned. Then I simply roasted the bird (450F) with some halved black figs (delicious and in season here right now) and some thyme sprigs. Served it with mash and a sauce made from the bird/fig juices and the frypan residue, along with some white wine and lemon juice - brilliant!

Little miss figgy piggy in all her faux-Cornish glory

Secondly, this is a shout out to everyone who lives in San Antonio to get out of your HEB monopoly on the supermarket routine and get yourself down to Tim's Oriental and Seafood Market on Bandera Road just past the Huebner intersection. This place is a gem, I just love it. Not only is it a really extensive Asian grocer (and I really do mean extensive) it also sells fresh seafood (including live crabs) as well as whole Peking duck for only $15.99 each and the most delicious sticky BBQ pork and crispy roast pork belly. The other amazing thing is this place is recession heaven - no matter what I purchase my bill always seems to be about $25 (well, except when I buy a duck and a slab of roast pork on top of everything else and then the beloved opens the shopping bags before I've had a chance to warn her of said purchases...but that's another story.)

Here are a couple of examples of recent expeditions:

Clockwise from the top - bamboo shoots, enoki mushrooms, lap chong sausages, huge and delicious dried shiitake, flat rice noodles made in Houston and so good for chow fun, fresh shiitake, spring onion, bitter greens whose name I forget... All up ~$16

Again, clockwise from the top - frozen udon noodles of the highest caliber (meaning chewy and bouncy and perfect, not those crap ones that break when you even point a chopstick in their direction), baby bok choy, magically mysterious but delicious little bags of preserved vegetable that I love snacking on at work, more dried shiitake, tiny hot peppers, more rice noodles, gyoza, tofu balls (silken in the middle, fried on the outside), more lap chong and more enoki. Total bill - $23

There are so many reasons I love Tim's. The fresh vegies are wonderful and you never know what will be there. We've bought delicious fresh water chestnuts, sweet coconuts, all manner of greens, and the shiitake and enoki are just wonderful! And so cheap. I love bamboo and Tim's keeps me supplied with about 15 different kinds, from fresh frozen to brined to dried to hot-pickled. The ingredients cover Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Filipino and so much more. Not only that but you can also find tins of milo and Cafe Du Monde coffee with chicory from New Orleans amongst many other gems.

And finally (because no post can be completely Marty-free) I have to say well done to Mum for guessing the profession!

Master Chef Marty Roo mixing it up in the house!

As much as his Poggie might like to dream, I doubt I could ever really handle it as a profession, but who knows, he might! I'd be happy if he became a carpenter but he's going to have to do some pretty fast talking to convince me he wants to do a PhD!

Guess the profession

Marty is wearing a 'potential future profession' outfit - can you guess what might be on the front? Aunty Mona isn't allowed to answer since she bought the outfit!

Also, here's a super short and unedited clip of the Roo chilling out. He hasn't done a lot of that lately. Mr Grumpy pants has taken to being an insomniac and drama llama but I'm sure he'll calm down soon! (I have to believe that). Anyhow, here's his happy face :)

Fish is fish (live action!)

As promised, video number 2 in the Marty Roo series - Marty Roo the incredible fish boy shows off his swim shorts and his new slimline body!



Check it out, you know you want to. And I promise the music isn't Playschool this time!

How cute? (aka stalling for time...)

I know I'm long overdue for an update. I'm long overdue for all sorts of things! I have some very cute footage to post but I have to make it all pretty first so for now you're going to have to deal with this teaser shot of the incredible fish-boy.

Our little fish - and that swim diaper/nappy is brilliant!

Marty has changed so much the past few weeks. He's lost his hamster cheeks, he's sleeping 5 hours blocks during the night but his hair is still entirely untamable. He's totally got the hang of the smiling thing now and will smile away at anything, like the wall, for hours. Here he is helping me put his toys in his toy-box. Of course we had to try a few out...

Nom nom nom

What?

What am I, on parole? Get this bear off me!

So, footage coming as soon as I have time to throw it together. But for now, bottoms up!

A boy by any other name

Jo and I are known for naming things. Our cars, our computers, even our fridge! In fact, almost everything in our house has a name. For example, at our place Morpheus is a sheep that speaks like the ocean, Fat Birdy is a rather large and random ornament only recently outdone by Fatter Birdie... well you get the idea. The point is, Mr Roo is no exception. He has a ridiculously long list of nicknames and it was only after I started jotting them down that I realised quite how out of control this nomenclature really is. Here are the ones I can remember, in no particular order.

• Rooey
• Roo
• Marty Roo
• Tuesday

(ok so the first few are obvious...bear with me)

• Mardi
• Fizzlecrank (corrupted World of Warcraft reference)
• Sailor Jim
• Bub
• Squeaky monkey
• Boy
• Legend of the squeaker
• Puddin/Pud/pudding bowl
• Tigertron
• Stank the Crank
• Pygmy suckerfish
• Blue eyes
• Buggie
• Screamer
• Farty Marty
• Spotty
• Papi
• Gaseous Maximus
• Squirmy worm
• Mr Wiggle
• Fish
• Snuffy puppy
• Billy
• Fussy lumpkins
• Chubby chops
• Glow bug
• Squarker
• Gar (Legend of the Seeker ref)
• Baby starfish
• Grumpelstiltskin
• Snooks/snooky poops
• Grunter
• Roofus farty bird
• Squeak
• Captain Smiley

And those are just the ones I can remember!

In other news Marty continues to be a water boy, throwing himself into baths and showers with much gusto. A couple of days ago we had him in his bath and he was locking his head back as far as we'd let him and swishing his hair around in the water! He came out looking like Beaker from the muppets!

Like a fish in water

This boy sure loves a bath!

Feeling hot hot hot

Thought you might like to read today's weather warning, give you a little sense of how insane this summer has been. 100 degrees F is roughly 38C, so a touch over body temperature meaning it is miserable! 96F on the other hand is lovely!

Special weather statement

National weather service Austin/San Antonio TX
1122 AM CDT Monday August 24 2009

...Hot afternoons highs will continue today...

More hot afternoon highs will come today...as highs rise to the 100 degree mark again in a long trend that has continued since June. Afternoon highs today will be between 5 and 10 degrees above average for late August...and will be near to slightly above the record daily high for august 24th. The heat index this afternoon to the early evening will rise to near 106. Overnight lows tonight will be in the 70s.

The last recorded high for San Antonio on August 24: 101 in 1988

As of August 23rd, 2009 the number of 100 degree days for this year was as follows:
54 at San Antonio International airport
65 at San Antonio Stinson field
63 at Austin Mabry
61 at Del Rio

Weather service recommendations:
Use of light weight and light colored clothing...using enough water to deal with the summer heat...and trying to avoid outdoor activity at the hottest time of the day will make it easier to deal with the hot afternoons. Also check on the children and elderly and make sure pets have shade and plenty of water.

Jacwabbit's recommendations:
Crank the A/C then take a watermelon and half a mint bush, blend and drink. Sadly I'm at work instead!

Spot update

As we thought, the Roo's spots are nothing more than bothersome prickly heat, which you can apparently treat with diaper cream (who knew?). We'll settle for keeping him cool since it doesn't seem to be bothering him at all. Still no sign of any major break in the weather although we did have a lovely mini-storm early Friday morning with lots of lightning and really loud thunder! Marty startled once and then was totally chilled about it - more interested in watching the flashes and listening to Mrs Bick while we changed his bottom. I say 'we' loosely because I was suffering somewhat less than silently in bed with a tummy bug. Nothing major, just one of those low grade ones that makes you feel like you constantly want to vomit without the satisfaction of ever reaching that full level of misery. Luckily Jo wasn't struck down until later that day, by which point I was much improved (and on a mission to buy a Peking duck - but that's another story)

We had a great weekend. The Roo slept well and played hard. On Saturday night I had a mini belated birthday party where we ate lots of good food and played the Aussie version of Trivial Pursuit (in teams, each team with a non-Australian 'handicap'). Our friend Joanne ordered the game online and luckily it arrived the day of the party or we would have been stuck with the American version which is close to impossible unless you know that habits of Fox news broadcasters from the mid 80s. Marty did so well at just hanging out with us all, even while intense political 'debates' raged overhead.

Here are some pics from today's playtime. Yep, he has mastered independent eyebrow control and often pulls a less than faintly skeptical face at his Poggie and her antics. I have never managed the eyebrow thing.

Playtime in his big boy diaper

'Can I eat it?'

'Ok Poggie, I get that one is a turtle but if this other one is a bug, how come it only has 4 legs?'

Yeah Boppy, what's with the 4 legged bugs??

Awwww

(and to all of you who skipped straight down to the photos...shame on you!)

I ain't no fatty!

Well only a little. Jo did recently dream that she had to go and get him out of the hamster tank... But just to make sure that y'all don't think Marty is a fatty pudding based on that last (unfortunately angled) photo, here's some more recent pics that I was saving...

Hanging out with his sleep bunny

We've been practicing smiling but this is more likely wind. Still, he does have a terribly cute and disarming smile!

We're off to see the pediatrician tomorrow because he has a rash down his neck, shoulders and back. It is most likely heat rash given that it is still so bloody hot, but they want to be sure. We don't mind, his doctor rocks and it will be good to touch base with him and just reassure ourselves that all is well. Will keep you posted as usual!

The daily workout

Love me?

Skype

Quick note to say that Jo, the Roo and I are back on Skype. Just look for jacwabbit or click on the button on the side of the blog (although not 100% sure that works, especially the 'status'. Best plan is try calling or send a chat first and if we have free hands we'll answer and if not we'll try to make a time to chat properly!

And just a reminder of who you might catch on the webcam - nope that's not Buddha!

Can't guarantee he won't be screaming tho...

The eyes have it

Sorry for the posting delay. Long story short the card reader in my computer - the thing I rely on to strip images off my cameras - kicked the bucket in a blaze of 'device not recognised' errors which lead to me not simply fixing the problem by opening up the computer, unplugging it, spitting on the contacts and reconnecting it... nonono the minute I got in there and realised how dusty it was I had to take the whole bloody thing apart piece by piece and clean every last dust bunny out of there! Who knew the heat sink would be so hard to reseat and so central to the whole working computer thing...

Anyhow, we're all good now but I'm too tired to post properly so instead I'll respond to the question we keep getting asked which is 'what colour are Marty's eyes?'. The answer is deep navy blue around the outer iris fading to steel blue in the middle, but you have to be in the right light, so I hope you'll settle for this close up. The question I want answered is what colour will they eventually become!?


Oh yeah, and this is what happens when we try to take a family photo while rushing out the door on little to no sleep and another 40+ degree day...

Ahh familial bliss...

Wool lite

Mr Handsome dressed up in one of his gorgeous knitted gifts against the draft of the A/C

Just a super quick post to get another couple of pics up. No real major news at this point. It is still stupidly hot - 40+ (100F) every day and over 30 at nights. It sure has been a crazy summer! The Roo is doing well and growing his way out of most of his wardrobe. He turned 1 month today and I'm sure he's hit the 10 pound mark but his weight gain is in the healthy rather than the 'supersize me' range. We had a horrible night Sunday (why is it always the night before I have to go to work) but a much better night last night (bliss!)

Friends of ours from New Zealand gave Marty a 'sleep sheep' which I was somewhat facetious about early on, mostly because it was a sheep (lame giggles). But now I take it all back - the sheep, who we have dubbed Morpheus, is a godsend! It plays different kinds of white noise that help baby sleep and he totally loves the ocean waves one. And the best thing is that they even sound good to us, so Morpheus is probably helping all three of us sleep better! It does have one option for 'mother's heartbeat' which sounds disturbingly like someone sloshing vast quantities of blood through plastic gutters... Not so soothing, at least not to me!

Morpheus the sleep sheep

Water baby

A fine summer evening on our deck

Firstly, apologies for getting the wiggly woo stuck in everyone's head, even mine! I was going to use Feist's 1 2 3 4 but my video editor didn't like the mp4 format. I'll try to be more considerate next time, or not :D

One of the perks of being up at 4am. Josie spotted the tree outside our deck shaking and discovered there were two raccoons having a lovely time! She came in to see if I wanted to hop up and see them too and I was heard to mutter something along the lines of "it's probably better if I don't". Hehe, I was tired!

It has been pretty busy here, probably no great surprise. We took the Roofus Farty Bird to see the lactation consultant Friday and that went really well. Because of the high bilirubin in those first days and the need to pump him full of food to clear it from his system we've been both breastfeeding and expressing/bottle feeding (which is lovely because I get to help!) He's only having breast milk and he does feed well on the breast, we just wanted to make sure it was working consistently (sometimes you'd think we had him in thumbscrews from the hollering!) Jo got 100 gold stars for milk production (we will soon need a new freezer) and he has absolutely no problems with weight gain (he was 9 pounds 11, nearly a pound up from last week!) and of course he fed perfectly on the breast while being observed. It was helpful though, we got some good tips on positioning him (because he's %$#@ heavy now) and some new super slow bottle teats.

Last night we took Marty to his first party and he did so well! He was chipper, he fed and had lots of cuddles. We didn't get close to making it through the queue of people who would have liked a cuddle but there'll be a next time! Jo and I were both impressed by how well he did! He wore the stripy outfit with the crab on it that he was swimming in a few weeks back and it was nearly too small to get the poppers done up!!

But back to the title of this post. Master Martyn is certainly a water baby. He loves it! I'm pretty sure he'd stay in the bath all day if only we were strong enough to hold his puddin head aloft for that long!

This was the first bath of many...

And he just loved it and was so chilled out!

So we took him in the shower...

And he loved that so much he kept his eyes open the whole time!

Little water baby!

Let's all do the wiggly Roo

Just a little something for all the patient Marty fans out there. I figured it was time for a little live Roo action!

You asked for it...

Y'all keep asking for pics of us with Marty Roo, well here they are! In between work, eating, cleaning and looking after the Roo this is what we spend most of our time doing:

Yep, attempting to sleep!

Things I have recently learned:

• I don't mind poop but I hate the smell of baby vomit.
• It can take 3 hours to watch a 45 minute show.
• Marty's fingernails grow insanely fast and they aren't soft!
• He has supersonic hearing but only for the soft fall of a freshly dunked teabag into the sink and apparently this noise is incredibly painful as it invariably sets off the screaming.
• The batteries in PT Cruisers are buried behind 90% of the engine> Random maybe but it died yesterday and if it weren't for the power of the internets I wouldn't have been able to find the bally battery let alone replace it. Who puts the battery under the air filter??

And since my blog was derailed by the masses screaming for pictures with the mummies (arrrr) you will all have to wait until tomorrow for the cute post. Oh and lesson number 43, tomorrow can be days away...

Oh ok you can have this one too - mostly because I forced poor Josie to get dressed so that I could take her photo for you all!

A quick postscript on the crying:
While I'm here. Of course, we're only letting him cry when we're absolutely sure there isn't a reason for it other than Mr Fussy Monkey wants to be awake and even then we only let him do it for about 5 minutes and we never let it go to the full scream. He has a different kind of cry for hunger, wet and wind and quite a different cry for pain (someone still needs to learn cause and effect - he pokes himself in the eye and then screams at us like we did it!) Actually, on the whole he doesn't cry much at all (yet) and not for long - but he does have his fussy moments where even he doesn't seem to know what he wants other than to tell you he's mad. We hear you boy.

Spots!

I regret to inform you all that Master Martyn cannot possibly appear on the blog today due to a slight case of baby acne. I just don't have time to photoshop out all those spots!

As a consolation here is some news:

The poor Roo has had a sore tummy or stingy poo because he's been out of sorts the last 48 hours. Lots of grizzle grumps and some unusual crying. Not really sure whether it was something Jo ate or he got too hot (Tuesday was a scorcher and the AC had trouble keeping up) but he's much better now so whatever it was is out of his system. Lets just say that he didn't learn his formidable farting ability from me!

Self soothing was our friend last night. We'd been patting and pacing to soothe the little screamer to sleep but it was pretty hit and miss success wise and often left Jo sleeping with him in the other room, not daring to move unless he started up again. Last night we opted for putting him down in the crib next to us and trying to ignore the piteous cries for 5 mins, and hallelujah! It worked! It may never work again but last night was sleep punctuated by feeding rather than vice versa.

I've been slow roasting a sticky soy and five spice marinated hunk of pork all day so that we can have pulled sticky pork over noodles tonight. The entire house now smells edible!

Oh ok so I wasn't serious about no photos! But this will have to tide you over until tomorrow's mega-cute post...

Peace

Bye Bye Bili!

We took Marty Roo to see our fabulous pediatrician today (he's a great guy, I'd recommend him to anyone!) Our instructions had been to keep him off the bili blanket from last Thursday (when we had the last blood draw) until today so that he could look for signs of worsening bili levels (colouring and lethargy mostly). The fabulous news is that he passed with flying colours (not yellow ones!) His nose still looks a little jaundiced but the rest of him is pink and delicious and there's hardly any sign on that sickening lethargy.

The other test he aced was the scales. Last time we visited (8 days ago) he was still 7 pounds 15 oz, 4oz off his birthweigh of 8 pounds 3 oz. Today he weighed in at a grand 8 pounds 12 ounces!! That's 9oz over his birthweight in 2 weeks!! Ladies and gents, we have a puddin... an alert, active and danged strong little puddin!

Someone to watch over him - The Roo with his friend Rubin the Bili-slaying dragon

We caught up on some much needed sleep today, well after Marty stopped screaming and the delivery guy returned the wallaby to its mother ship. It seems he has an innate sense to detect the moment his Mama sits down with a cup of tea and usually takes these opportunities to display his "I'm fussy you must comfort me" side. He has a similar sense for the second his Poggie's head hits the pillow.

Dude, this swing business in exhausting!

'Dis my squeaky monkey face

Happy Birthday to Me

Chocolate mousse birthday cake and coffee - oh my!

Yup, today is Poggie's birthday. Somewhat overshadowed but a lovely day nonetheless and made even more so by being able to cuddle the Roo at will. At the moment he's on his sheepy basking in an evening sunbeam while his Mama naps in the other room - bliss!

Getting some natural light therapy and looking like a washed up deckhand...

Marty did his best to play nice for my birthday, sleeping really well last night and only waking up to feed (and not scream). He started to kick into the scream cycle early in the evening, but we decided to take a shot at swaddling him tight and laying him in the crib and it worked like a charm! Mind you, that doesn't mean it'll work tonight but one night of good sleep blocks was wonderful.

Ok, now for some more pics to keep y'all happy. Again, thanks for all the comments, we love hearing from you!!

Such trusting little hands

Mr big eyes!

Blissed out on a sunbeam