Today Falco and I were stopped at a traffic light while driving to the grocery store. It was around 5 p.m. and the sun was shining brightly into our west-facing windows. Falco had the sun right in his eyes and was fussing a little, possibly because of the sun and possibly just because he fusses in the car sometimes. I could see all this in the mirror I have in the back seat to be able to see him while I’m driving and was telling him that we would be moving out of the sun soon. Anyway, I hear the car next to me honking its horn, and I look over to see the guy in the passenger seat yelling and waving to get my attention. I roll down my window, and he tells me that my baby is very uncomfortable right now because the sun is in his eyes. I just said, “Yes, I know, but there isn’t really anything I can do about it right now. Thanks.” I think he was still talking as I rolled my window back up and didn’t look at him until the light finally turned green. I think this was the first time I had a stranger comment on my apparently poor parenting skills. I’m not sure what he proposed I should do about the situation while I was driving, but, luckily, Falco somehow survived the 60 seconds of sun exposure.

Today Falco went in for his recheck, and we found out that we got some bad information at his last visit. First of all, today his weight was 14 pounds, 11 ounces. It is very unlikely that he gained 11 ounces in a week given how much he eats, so his weight was probably somehow measured wrong at the last appointment. So, his weight is perfect and no cause for worry. Secondly, that “tooth” is not a tooth at all. I showed it to the nurse practitioner today, and she said it was an Epstein pearl. Upon further research, it sounds like it’s really a Bohn’s nodule. Either way, it’s not a tooth and I’m surprised his doctor didn’t realize that when she saw it. Basically, at the visit today we were told that we are doing a great job with him and there is no reason to be concerned about his feeding or weight. Good news! He was also ultra cute at his appointment. He did have moments of fussiness here and there because he was ready for a nap, but for the most part he was smiling and laughing at everyone. They all said how adorable he was, and I have to agree.

Rosco has developed the annoying habit of staying outside forever when we let the dogs out instead of coming right back in with Adelaide. Yesterday, he did that and we forgot he was out there. We left to go get lunch at Mel’s Diner (AKA “the restaurant” since it’s the only one we ever go to). A few minutes after we got home, Matt reported that Rosco had run away. Then we realized that he had been left outside the entire time we were gone, a couple of hours. Matt went out to look for him in the highly windy and cold weather at our place while I stayed home with Falco.

Then, I remembered that when we were driving home I happened to notice an Animal Care and Control van driving away from a house about a block from us, but I didn’t think much of it at the time. I called them to report Rosco missing and ask if they happened to pick him up. The lady said that he was already there. So, we had to all load up in the car and go pick Rosco up from the slammer. Matt went in to post his bail while I sat in the car with Falco. He had to pay some fees and prove that he was our dog and then walk through the entire place and look at every dog until he postively IDed him. It seems pretty easy to ID the dog with a disfiguring underbite and a cloudy-blue right eye that he can’t see out of.

When Rosco finally made it out, he didn’t look much worse for wear after his ride in the paddywagon and time spent in the clink. He was only in his cell for about 45 minutes before we sprung him. Matt said that Rosco probably thought this was the best day of his life and he couldn’t wait to run away again.

I finally updated Falco’s weekly journal (sorry for being two weeks
behind). Also, I uploaded February photos to the gallery. I added
links to your right for our galleries, so just click there to see all
the pictures to date. I’ll always post to let you know when I add
new ones, but Matt is sneaky about adding his and doesn’t tell anyone
so you just have to periodically check every month or so.

Falco is teething! Not only is this starting pretty early at 3-1/2 months, but he is getting a tooth that he shouldn’t get until way later. Normally babies get their two bottom center incisors first, then the top two incisors, then bottom lateral incisors, then top lateral incisors, followed by molars and finally canines. Our boy is getting a bottom molar as his first tooth. He hasn’t been eating well and has seemed fussy and uncomfortable, so yesterday I felt around in his mouth and felt something hard. I looked and saw two little white dots on his gum where it looked like a tooth poking through.

I took him to the doctor today, and she confirmed that it is in fact a tooth. She was a little concerned about the fact that he isn’t eating very well, so we have to keep a feeding log for a week and go back to review just how much he eats every day. Today he was only 14 pounds, which was a little less than she would have liked. I hope that his appetite will pick up and his weight will have gone up at his next visit. I actually don’t think it’s an appetite problem exactly but that it hurts his mouth to eat. Poor little guy!

Remember when I talked about how great Falco had been sleeping lately? Well, that comes and goes, at least in the nap department. He’ll have a couple of days where he goes to sleep for naps with no problem and sleeps for an hour and a half or so for each nap. Then, there are days like today when he sleeps maybe a total of an hour and a half all day long, and yet he acts tired and cranky all day because he hasn’t gotten enough rest. Those days are frustrating, let me tell you. I have heard and read that daytime sleep gets a lot better for babies at five or six months, so I hope that will hold true for us.

As for nighttime sleep, he still does pretty well, but sleeping through the night was a one-time thing. He needs to eat once per night and sometimes he needs his pacifier once or twice in addition to that feeding. He does a very good job with the bedtime routine though, and I really think we have it pretty good at night even though he’s not sleeping straight through. Going to bed at night and sleeping until morning is a distant memory for me, but I’m sure it will happen again someday.

Today is our tenth wedding anniversary! I’m proud and excited to be celebrating this milestone with Matt. As luck would have it, we got to spend the day together today. Matt might not consider it to be so lucky because the reason we’re together is that he is home sick with a cold. I’m not glad he’s sick but happy we’re together. Falco is being less than a dream when it comes to naps today, but he did let us sleep until 7:00 this morning and isn’t being too bad. We might try to go to an early anniversary dinner if he cooperates.

To celebrate this occassion, we’re getting new wedding rings. We were broke students when we got married, so we didn’t get fancy, nice rings. We’ve said for years that we’d get new ones at #10, and it’s finally here. I’ll post photos of our new bling when they get here.

Oh, and speaking of Matt’s cold, I got it first. I was sick last week and then Matt started getting sick on Monday or Tuesday. As soon as I felt it coming on, I was sure that Falco would get it and dreaded having a sick baby. Amazingly enough, he still hasn’t shown any sign of a cold (knock on wood). I thought babies were supposed to be immunocompromised, so I thought he would surely catch anything he was exposed to. I don’t know how he can be around us sickies and stay well. I know it’s just a matter of time before he gets sick for the first time, and I’m not looking forward to it!

Just a reminder: Falco’s new monthly photo is up. It looks like his neck grew longer in the last month!

Falco slept through the night for the first time last night! He went to bed at 7:00, and I got him up to feed him at 10:00 before we went to bed and didn’t feed him again until 6:00 a.m. I did go in and give him his pacifier at 1:00, but he went right back to sleep. He has never skipped that 2 a.m. feeding before, so this is a big accomplishment for him and it came out of the blue. We’ll have to see if it was a fluke thing or if it will start being the norm for him.