Jude's first month visitors

Jude's firsts

Here's a tally of Jude's firsts:

3/30/2008		Jude's first blow-out (sorry, no pictures!)
3/23/2008		first Sunday at church
3/18/2008		first smile, and I promise it wasn't gas (OK, maybe it was!)
3/14/2008		first drive to grandpa and grandma K's!
3/13/2008		first database existence -- he received form mail from the hospital . . .how exciting to see his name in laser print!
3/12/2008		first ride in his stroller, mom and dad took him for a 3 mile walk!
3/9/2008		first time out to dinner to see my parents off (at the best Mexican place in town!)
3/8/2008		first bath
3/7/2008		first restaurant visit (Panera)
3/7/2008		lost umbilical cord stump (at the doctor's office)
3/7/2008		first cough
3/4/2008		first professional photos

An article at BabyCenter.com says that Jude should begin to lift his head while lying on his stomach, respond to sound and stare at faces. I'll update this post as more firsts happen. How exciting!

Photos from Jude's first month

Pecking order

It's Easter Sunday, and we're home now after a pretty good morning. We woke up and made it to church - I won't say on time - but in pretty good time. It was packed today as was expected, and we ended up taking a seat in the back corner. Jude did pretty well throughout service, but on occasion had to be taken outside to regain his composure.

I think I know how Amanda's brother-in-law Chad feels now when he's at church. I must have walked in and out of the worship room 3-5 times just to get Jude to quiet down. Needless to say, I didn't hear much of the pastor's message.

So we made it home and were ready for our typical Sunday afternoon routine. I went for a run with Pacey and Molly (the neighbor's dog) and Amanda headed for the couch with Jude for a nap. I'll give her this - she deserves every nap she can get nowadays. Sleeping two hours at a clip can't be easy, especially for someone who loves her sleep as much as my dearest.

After our run, Pacey and I took a shower and eventually made it down to the living room couch. They say there's nothing like spending time with one's familial unit. Bonding, I'm there! Pacey was begging to get up on the couch with us. With Amanda, Jude and myself already comfortable, where is she going to fit? We told her, "Sorry Pacey, baby Jude took your spot. There's no room for you Pacey!"

A few minutes went by and my wife thinks it's more important for her to take a nap on the couch than for me to sit next to her while I blog and watch the NCAA tournament. If she goes upstairs to nap, she says, she's going to wake up Jude in the process. It's too cold upstairs (under the blankets?!)

I'm thinking, "Whatever," but I say, "OK, I'm good with that." She wants to lay down on the full length couch to stretch out, so I moved the laptop and my beverage and set up over by the chair in the corner. After a while, I started to feel hungry, so I pulled some leftovers out to heat up for a quick afternoon snack.

While I'm in the kitchen, I hear Pacey get up on the couch. I'm thinking that only in the land of opposites would a man's dog have priority over his owner, but alas, I'm wrong. I've got to be at about 1000 words by now, and they say that's about what a picture is worth. See for yourself:

I love pizza!

In a previous post, I expounded upon my love for chili. I probably should have posted my love of pizza first. It really is my favorite food. What's not to like? All 5 food groups in one bite!

When making a pizza, adding the toppings seems to be the easy part. Although cheese can greatly influence your end product, I believe it's the crust that makes or breaks a pizza!

I read a recent article on CNN/Money that sparked my interest to improve upon the basic pizza crust recipe I'm currently using:

• 2 cups warm tap water (110-120° F)
  
• 2-1/4 tsp yeast (1 package)
  
• 1 tsp salt (times 2 if you like the taste of Pizza Hut crust)
  
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tb oil
• 3 cups flour (to start with)
• add pepper, garlic, onion powder, oregano, fennel seed, etc, to taste

If you're making a grocery list, add any or all of these to the list above:

• Pizza or spaghetti sauce
  
• Approx. one bag of shredded cheese per pizza (mozzarella or Italian 4-cheese)
  
• Breakfast or Italian sausage
• Pepperoni
• Olives
• Mushrooms
• Bacon
• Onion

Alternate toppings:

• Pineapple and ham
• BBQ sauce, chicken, green pepper and red onion
• Alfredo sauce, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, red onion
  

Back to the dough. There are quite a few dough recipes out there, including this and others. Whatever ingredients you end up with, here's how to combine them:

Combine the water and yeast together for 5 minutes or so until you see the yeast start to work. It will work itself up and get really foamy if you let it sit in warm water.

Note: Do not heat water above the boiling point. This can easily be done in the microwave as water heated in the microwave doesn't appear to be boiling EVEN THOUGH IT IS! There's a scientific term for this . . .it's called superheating, and it can be dangerous!

If you add yeast to boiling water, you'll kill it. When you cook your pizza, the toppings will brown but the dough will remain unleavened. It won't rise, and will stay raw even if you cook your pizza long enough to burn your pizza toppings. I found this out the hard way. Thanks to Chad and Allison for playing along!

Besides that one oversight, it's really not that difficult to make your own dough. Go ahead, give it a shot! After your yeast has had a chance to foam, add your foamy water to the rest of the ingredients listed above. I start mixing my dough in a bowl with a wooden spoon or stiff rubber spatula and, once the consistency gets thick enough so it's not sticking to everything, knead the dough the counter top (or a cutting board).

Be sure to sprinkle a layer of flour down before you do this or it'll turn into a sticky mess. Check out the previous kneading post from Wikipedia if you're not familiar with the process. Once the dough gets smooth and stretchy, it's time to let it sit. Or if you're not going to use all of it right away, now would be the time to put it in a freezer bag and throw in the freezer. This batch makes 2-13" pan-style pizzas, enough for 6 adults on average.

Like with pancakes and pancake batter, if you can let the dough sit for up to 30 minutes, your crust will turn out lighter and fluffier. Once the dough has risen, pull out a rolling pin and some cornmeal and roll it into a shape that will fit your pan.

Add toppings as desired and cook at 475 degrees for 10-12 minutes. I make my pizza on a pizza stone, which must be pre-heated with the oven to prevent it from cracking. If you're new to pizza stones, they're very easy to care for. Clean them by simply brushing off any residue. Do not use soap or your next pizza will taste like it!

Jude's Newborn Photo Shoot

We had Jude's newborn photos taken by a professional photographer last week. You can check out his photos at Your Reflection, My Style. If you're asked for a passcode, enter 'a' for Amanda and our last name, all as one word. Example: alastname.

Requests for autographs will not be granted. :)

Pacey's new dog collar

Pacey and I went on our usual 5 mile run on Saturday. This time of year, since the water has begun to thaw, there are tons of Canadian Geese and Mallard Ducks out. Pacey just loves it -- can't get enough of it.

So we're running along the creek and she spots a Mallard. For the next 10 minutes, I watched her run back and forth along a 40 yard stretch. That was probably where I made my mistake. We got home and were about to jump in the shower when I noticed that her tags were missing.

Her HomeAgain ID tag, county vaccination tag and standard $3 tag had all fallen off. I was surfing online and found a pretty cool slide-on tag at PetSmart.com (online only) for $15, but that seemed a bit pricey for a dog tag -- and after reading about it, it wouldn't have fit anyway.
Boomerang Tags sells this slide-on tag for $7.99 shipped, and it works with adjustable collars with plastic snaps, collars like hers. Now that's a deal! We haven't gotten it in the mail yet, but I'm looking forward to running without hearing the telltale jingle noise that her old tags previously made.

While I'm on the subject of deals, I'll mention that as I write, Amanda and I are sitting in front of the TV passively watching Deal or No Deal. Why does anyone stick it out past their 6 figure offer?! The last lady just walked away with $150 -- idiot!

Jude's 2-week wellness check-up

We took Jude to his 2-week wellness check-up today and learned that he is a healthy baby boy. Above is a photo of our doctor with baby Jude. (Look carefully and you'll see his big foot sticking out.) Turns out his Apgar score was 9 and 9 on the one and five-minute tests. Over 7 means he's normal. I'm going to hold our doctor to that! What does normal mean, anyway?!

He had impeccable timing with the losing of his umbilical cord stump . . .he lost it in her office during our appointment! Our doctor cauterized his belly button on the spot and said we could give him his first bath after 24 hours. She also asked if we wanted to keep it for his scrapbook, but we passed on the opportunity. Jude, I hope you're not upset with us!

Amanda and I also had the chance to ask all of those questions first-time parents ask. We were comforted to learn:

• Newborn babies shed, but it's not unhealthy dry skin. They've just been underwater for 9 months and, since air is dryer than embryonic fluid, begin to lose their outermost layer of skin. Sorry Jude, it's down to 3 layers like the rest of us! Our doctor advised that the best solution to his dry skin problem is to give him a bath or wipe him down with a warm, wet washcloth. Moisturizing lotion is OK, but not necessary.
• Feeding more than 10-15 minutes per side is enough, and we should have Jude should use a pacifier to pacify himself.
• Throwing up for a baby, even out of their nose and mouth, is somewhat normal. If it happens excessively, call the nurse hotline.
• She prefers we take a rectal temperature up to 3 months of age over temporal or ear thermometers. If his temperature gets over 100.4° F, call the nurse hotline. Guess who's on that duty?!
  
• other trivial things, like proper poop color, time between feedings, etc.
  

What I thought was the coolest things was that she gave us stats on how Jude ranks compared to his peers according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control). They have growth charts on their site which can be used to assess the growth of infants. Unfortunately, they do not separate out stats for babies based on race/ethnicity or whether they were breast fed or not. So our little caucasian baby competes with the african american, asian and hispanic babies on head circumference, length and weight. As of today, here's where he stands:

source: The Magic Foundation

Jude's percentile rankings:
Length-to-age: 63% (53.25 cm / 20.96 in)
Weight-to-age: 10.64% (3.14 kg / 6.92 lbs)
Head Circumference-to-age: 37.45% (36.4 cm / 14.33 in)

Sounds like we have a tall, skinny baby on our hands. Does that sound like his father?

(My plan is to update these charts over the next 36 months with his progress to show where he's at. I'll do that with a new post.)

Note: I tried using the Google Charts API and a few different online chart generators (here and here), but couldn't figure out how to create the type of charts you see above. The Excel file from The Magic Foundation was serviceable after a few aestethic edits. If anyone can help me figure out how to display this chart using Google Charts, please let me know! Dan?

Plantar Fasciitis

I'd have to say that plantar fasciitis is the devil's #2 weapon against man, right up there with pride! I had it for about 6 months back in 2004 and beat it for a while, only for it to flare up later.

After reading up on the injury, I learned that, essentially, the thick muscles and ligaments on the bottom of my feet had torn. This caused my feet to tingle with pain during the course of the day. The tissue would begin to repair itself while I slept, but every morning when I woke up, my first step out of bed would destroy any healing that had taken place. Wearing hard-soled dress shoes to work compounded the problem, but I didn't have any other option.

What cured my ailment, you ask? Well, thanks for allowing me to share! I tried rolling my foot over golf and tennis balls, but that only provided temporary relief. Anti-inflammatories weren't a 100% solution either.

I ended up wearing a Dynasplint night splint to bed for 3 months to get rid of it. (Talk about patience, Amanda was a saint for living through that!) The folks at Dynasplint say that the boot applies a "low-load, prolonged-duration stretch." This just means that, in addition to fixing the angle of my foot/calf in a stretched position, it would apply slight and continuous tension through the use of springs. Most of the boots I had seen in running magazines could fix my foot/calf at a fixed angle, but this pales in comparison to what the Dynasplint did.

While I wore the boot, I also gave up running cold turkey for another 6 months -- very hard for me to do. These days I'm back to running about 15 miles a week, mostly in 5 mile increments, and have been able to keep the injury at bay with the help of some good insoles.

I stumbled across Shock Doctor insoles. I forget what tuned me into their product, but I do remember calling the company and speaking to a vice-president about using the insoles to treat plantar fasciitis. Given my situation, he recommended the Ultra2 insoles. They have a very strong stabilizing structure going all the way up your big toe.

Many runners spend big bucks on custom orthotics. Luckily, I found something off the shelf that worked. And since there was no retailer in my area, they offered to send a free pair to try as long as I agreed to give my podiatrist a few extra pair. That's a deal!

On the point of tipping

No, this post isn't on the topic of our new baby, or a missive lamenting how we've reached our breaking point in the week hours of the morning. Today's topic is gratuities.

Why do we tip? If you're interested in the subject, a recent article from the Wall Street Journal offered a nice, historical perspective on tipping. Like many finance-related topics I find thought-provoking , this one gets at the economics and theory behind efficient markets. It was written on the subject of why we give gratuities and used Starbucks as an example company.

Of course, Wikipedia has an entry for gratuities as well. Some valid arguments against tipping as Americans know it (from the aforementioned sources):

• tipping encourages tax evasion
• tippers often factor superficial or non-performance factors into the tip (e.g., the quality of the food, the physical attractiveness of the server/tippee, the size of the bill, etc.)
• tipping encourages servility or submissiveness. Is that so bad? Submissiveness is practically absent from our culture today. I'd argue it is bad, only to the extent that it encourages intellectual laziness.

For me, I think it really comes down to the struggle between a few ideas. If we want to inspire high performance, especially in service-related businesses, what better way is there than for the recipient of the service to reward the server?

I'll ask the question, would it be better to base our gratuity on the amount of time the server spends on serving us? On the size of the bill (considering that more expensive menus often necessitate more skilled servers)? What is the best proxy for rewarding the quality of service we receive?

How do you determine how much to tip?

Back to Starbucks. Should we tip baristas that work for an employer that is known to offer well-paying jobs with respectable benefits? As the wsj article asked, who are we subsidizing when we tip? The employer or the employee?

The Hutter chin

Because my sister asked, I'll share that so far, we think Jude has been saved from inheriting the Hutter nose. However, there's a 99% chance he has the Hutter chin. See for yourself!

Our BabyPlus story

On their company website, the founder of the BabyPlus company boldly declares:

BabyPlus children have an intellectual, developmental, creative, and emotional advantage from the time they are born.

The site goes on to name several benefits of using BabyPlus:

• More readily nurse
• Display an increased ability to self soothe
• Are more interactive & responsive
• Are better relaxed and alert at birth

We used BabyPlus after our fertility doctor recommended it. Since he shares the same last name as the BabyPlus founder and president, there's a chance his endorsement may have been coerced.

That fact aside, we have noticed that Jude has been thus far the picture of a perfect baby. He's had no problems nursing, has been alert and awake during the day and sleeps well at night. Really, his biggest challenges to date have been with training his parents how to recognize a dirty diaper, how to swaddle tightly and in general how to recognize what he's trying to communicate to his rookie parents!

We've joked that we're not going to use BabyPlus on our second child so we can test to see if it really works! Kidding aside, it wasn't very difficult to add to Amanda's routine and I would think we'll probably use it again for child #2.