Sand, Sea Cucumbers and Sea Stars, Oh My!

Off we went to San Pedro to check out the sea critters of Southern California at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium


Beach babes




Enthralled with the touch tidepool. Mom petted a green anenome and a few sea stars.




Invertebrates are awesome!


Pointing to a warty sea cucumber with my toe


Octopus - friend or foe? Definitely friend.

The Constant Gardner

Addie offers some pointers on planting horsetail reeds in containers


Didi guards the perimeter
(She had this duty all afternoon when i accidentally left her outside)

Dollywood by Hollywood

Cap showed me how to download videos from our video camera, so here it is as promised -- me and Dolly singing to Addie. Didi is really enjoying it too.

Double Doctor Day

Addie had her 3 month check-up today. Cap took her because I had my final root canal procedure. Addie continues to be a healthy little munchkin. I was excited to see how much she had grown, but, as it turns out, it ain’t much. She grew a quarter of an inch and is now 23¾ inches and gained a pound to bring her to 11 lbs 10 oz. Doc says that she’s right in the middle of the growth and height charts. What's great about that? She still fits in her 0-3 month clothes!

Happy 3-month Birthday Adelaide!





While Addie was getting poked and prodded, I got to have my tooth gutted for the 4th time and then stuffed with cement. The swelling that has plagued me since a week ago Sunday is almost all gone. Twelve days is a long time to have an infection. Fortified with 4 more amoxicillin capsules, I hope that this will kill it off for good. Dr. Hakim did say though that because we’ve plugged the tooth there is a chance that the infection will grow and I’ll get puffed up again. If this happens, the solution is oral surgery. Stupid tooth.

We’re Going To Be Parents Again!

Gotcha! No, I am not pregnant. But we are going to be Godparents!

Reid and Scott have asked us to be Godparents to their little bundle of joy - William Sawyer Pierce. I am so honored. I love the idea that we’ll be a part of his life forever and have the wonderful opportunity to see Adelaide and Sawyer grow up together even if we live in different places. Reid and I have known each other since freshman year at Madeira and our friendship has grown since with the birth of our own children.

Sawyer, don’t pack your bags to Tibet yet. Even if we don’t go on a journey to the world’s most spiritual locations, Cap and I will honor our duties as Godparents and try to guide you along your path in other ways. On my Madeira senior yearbook page, I had a quote from Salinger:

"How in hell are you going to recognize a legitimate holy man when you see one if you don't even know a cup of consecrated chicken soup when it's right in front of your nose?" ~Franny and Zooey

May you find blessings in the everyday knowing that you are surrounded by people who love you.

Plinkity Plunk Music

Addie has 2 Baby Einstein cds and I hate them. I guess Addie is going to be dumb, because I refuse to play these things. Jeannine and I call them Plinkity Plunk music. Sure it's Mozart or whatever, but it sucks. All the classics have been transferred to a basic plink plank plunk sound. Maybe Einstein's family owns a xylophone business. Or maybe they just have the patent on the effect for synthesizers.

While she may not have the privilege of B.E. indoctrination, she has been exposed to a wide variety of music because that's what we listen to at home. I think she's partial to the ever lovely Dolly Parton, Mit to Bob Dylan which makes sense since Addie shares his birthday (Bob's that is) and my Mom to Bach. Addie and I sometimes have Karaoke sessions at home to Dolly, CSN&Y or John Denver. I look up the lyrics on the internet, crank up the ipod and then I belt out the tunes. She smiles. Isn't it nice that she likes my singing?! (we video taped me singing Dolly Parton's The Seeker to Addie but I don't know how to get it off the camera . . .Cap. Help!)

All Aboard the Sleep Train

Addie is 3 month old and that is old enough to sleep through the night. Theoretically. Her tummy is now mature that she can get all her nutrients during the day, and, like an adult, not need to snack in the middle of the night. Our plan is to train Addie to stop relying on her nighttime feeding and to get her to sleep though the night – all in our one bedroom apartment. The fear is that in the process I will go insane from her heart piercing cries and our upstairs neighbors will kill us.

It is here that we board the Sleep Train.

Sleeping Training Night 1:
On Monday night we put Addie to bed at 8:00 as usual but introduced a “Dream Feed” at 11:00. This is when Cap gives her a bottle while trying to keep her asleep. She slurped down the bottle and went back to sleep. We put her back in her bassinet without burping her because she’s so relaxed she doesn’t gulp in any air. I had feared this stage because she usually slept the longest on her own from 8:00 to anywhere from 1 to 3 pm.

After her dream feed, she slept until about 2:30 am at which point she fussed and flopped around and eventually cried. Operation Ignore was in place. This is heart-wrenching. She was so annoyed at being ignored that she engaged her Hulk powers and busted out of her Velcro swaddling. I was afraid that if I tried to fix it I’d arouse her more or that she’d just continue to do this all night prolonging her crying fit. To re-swaddle or not - mind you, she’s never slept without being tightly swaddled. I was frozen and unable to make any decisions. When Addie really cries I become incapacitated. Cap made the decision to just take off the swaddling and force her to calm herself. It worked! She cried herself back to sleep after maybe 20 minutes and then had another crying fit maybe 30 minutes later.

Still, I was more traumatized then Addie and had to go sleep on the couch where I was at least not one foot away from her sad susurrations. She slept until 6:30 at which point I was allowed to pick her up and feed her. She even went back to sleep until 8:30.

WOW. We did it. She went from 11 until 6:30 without eating. Now we need to get her to do it without waking and having a freak-out.

Sleeping Training Night 2. Operation Ignore is still in effect. Same thing. In to bed at 8:00 (now un-swaddled in cute footed pajamas), Dream Feed and then she slept until 4:30 when she fussed and whined for maybe 10 minutes. Improvement!

Sleeping Training Night 3: Same as night 2. She’s so close!

Tonight I have confidence that she can sleep straight though. This is the real deal and will hopefully be the pattern she will follow every night. I’m so proud of her ability to calm herself and I look forward to full nights of sleep myself.

The next thing to tackle will be moving her from her bassinet to her crib but one step at a time. I think I need to bring our neighbors a bottle of wine for not complaining during this process. Good wine makes good neighbors.

Sweet Dreams!

Things I Can Do (12 weeks)

• Smile
• Laugh a real "adult" laugh
• Coo
• Lift my head almost 90 degrees when lying on my stomach
• Lift my head when lying on my back
• Hold my head up (almost without looking like a bobblehead) when being held in sitting position
• Bring my hands together

Still practicing:

• Holding my head straight when held in sitting position
• Rolling over from lying on my back

Land of Enchantment

Cap, Sarah and Addie head to New Mexico for 5 nights to relax at my cousin Elizabeth and her husband's place. There were 15 Quaintons of varying generations gathered in the land of enchantment - we cooked, hiked, swam, roasted marshmallows and watched the sunset. I can't get over how beautiful and serene the landscape is in New Mexico. I know my heart is in the southwest.


sunset from the porch






the best way to spend an afternoon


addie gets some quality reading time in


fun with animal flashcards


pop pop and addie on the trail


diana goddess of the hunt


a picnic on a charred tree


nothing but blue skies do i see



hiking the continental divide


matthew and addie


jill, addie and the lazy mommy



daddy and addie down by the swimmin' hole


The seasoned travelers head home

Addie Rules the Playground

A Pain Worse Than Labor Part II: The Mommy Monster

The Good News: The pain is pretty much under control. The Bad News: The infection has spread to my gums and jaw bone and my face, as a result, is puffed up and swollen. I am Puss Face.

After my initial root canal on Sunday, my face began to swell. I'm on antiobotics but they don't seem to have done much good yet. My face was swollen enough on Monday that the endodontist wasn’t able to use Novocain or finish the root canal. He had to go back in with hair-like files, do his dirty work, and hope that the tooth “drains”. It’s now Wednesday and I still look like a lopsided monster.

On Wednesday I headed back to Dr. Hakim's office. He drained the abscess by making an incision in my gum and then squeezing out the offensive matter - rather disgusting although I secretly wish I could have seen what that looked like. He said the Novocain would only be 60% effective because of the infection and be prepared for some pain. I tried some yogic breathing and managed to get through the ordeal rather well.

I’m at home again having completed 3 of 4 dental appointments. Basically, I'm exhausted and a little freaked out that my face has been swollen for so long. Addie’s pediatrician said it was okay to continuing nursing her which is such a relief, although I’ll feel better when I’m not feeding her a chemical cocktail. (N.B. to nursing moms - have an emergency supply of milk ready in the freezer.)

Cap and I have been trying to figure out exactly what I resemble in my current state – animal, vegetable or mineral. I think a spell took a wrong turn in transfiguration class and I look half Sarah/half . . . squirrel, beaver, chipmunk, hound dog, platypus? Cap said I just looked like I’d been hit in the face with a football minus the bruises. Last night he amended that statement and said I looked more like a Who from Whoville which is being rather generous sense they are rather a cute breed.

Addie and Cap have both been wonderful during all of this. Cap has come home from work when I needed to rest, watched Addie in his office when I had an appointment, fed her bottles, and cooked me dinner.

Here I am complaining about a tooth when the truly brave Mitty had his kidney removed and handled the surgery and his recovery with grace.

A Pain Worse Than Labor

A toothache. I am in pain. Terrible pain. When I gave birth to Addie, I was in labor for 17 hours, pushed for over 2 and then had my placenta manually wrenched from my uterus. This seems worse. The stupid toothache started on Friday morning and by Friday night I decided it was time to pop a Motrin. Since then it has only escalated. Now it is Sunday and I have 49 minutes before I can take my next Vicodin. After I had Addie the only pain relief medication I took was Motrin (after the epidural of course). I decided I was such a tough cookie in the hospital that I didn’t need the Vicodin my doctor said I could have. Thankfully I kept the prescription though as I’ve sent Cap off to the pharmacy to cash in.

We flew back from our amazing trip to New Mexico yesterday. I was so sad to leave but under the circumstances it is for the better. I’d have been a real party pooper if I’d stayed. I popped Motrin the entire flight and sucked on ice cubes to numb my gums. I had been worried about taking pain medication because I didn’t want to dose my baby, but at about 1 am last night I said “screw this” and took 2. Cap informed me that we were going to call my dentist and make an emergency appointment today. I knew it was the only choice when even the Vicodin couldn’t fully cut the pain.

Dr. Wong met me at his office on Sunday morning, took x-rays and did a preliminary root canal to relive the pressure in my front tooth. Apparently I damaged the nerves on this tooth at the same time that I killed my other front tooth back in 1990 when I bonked my teeth on Jenny Crowell’s forehead.

I didn’t know that your nerves could be so raw that even Novocain couldn’t numb the pain. The drilling was awful and whimpered like a little puppy. I tried my Lamaze breathing exercises. Tomorrow I have to go to an endodontist to have the root canal finished and I expect more pain. At least with labor you know it has to end and the result is a beautiful baby.

Dr. Doodlaide

As your baby’s brain continues to develop rapidly, her ability to communicate grows. At 10 weeks, your baby may be able to talk with animals stuffed or otherwise. Not every baby develops at the same rate, however. Don’t be alarmed if this doesn’t happen for another few weeks.



What a smart baby we must have! We were able to capture on video Adelaide experimenting with this exact talent. She can spend many a morning enjoying long talks with her friends Crazy Lion, Silly Monkey and Funny Bunny as they float above her. What do they have to say? Well, that’s between them I suppose. Oddly, Addie and Didi don’t seem to want to chat although both of them continue to tell it like it is to us, albeit separately.

Being the good parents that we are, we want to encourage Addie’s skills and interests. Off to the Los Angeles Zoo we went last Saturday. Perhaps Addie also has ESP, because she chose to sleep almost the entire time only rousing long enough to be photographed by the elephant’s toosh and a safe distance from those maniacal giraffes. I had hoped she was going to find a kindred spirit with the baby orangutan (too cute!) but sadly mommy and baby orangutan went to find some shade in their underground quarters before Addie woke up. There is a brand new addition to the gerenuk posse that I had read about in my Zoo Bulletin, but sadly the baby must have been resting off exhibit. The gerenuks are my favorite animal at the zoo. Never heard of the graceful gerenuk? You’ll just have to come with us to see them for yourself.




I just know that Addie is going to grow up a friend of the critters - and maybe even Deeds will like her back.

Adelaide Quilt

The Mechanical Boob

It is 2:46 am and I’m typing with one hand sitting in our kitchen attached to an electric breast pump. I’ve become accustomed to typing with one hand but not in the wee hours of the morning. The pump makes this particular hum-wee noise with each pull as I watch my beleaguered nipple get sucked down a plastic horn. Mechanical breastfeeding is not exactly comfortable.

I’ve just fed Addie from the other side and this is now a rare chance to pump. At Dr. Woo’s orders we have to give her one bottle a day otherwise she may one day not take it. Since her second week, Cap has been feeding her 3 ounces in the morning giving him a chance to further bond with her and me the opportunity to sleep an extra hour. However, we had neglected our regular bottle feedings with our trips to Palm Desert and to San Diego. When we saw Dr. Woo at Addie’s 2 month appointment, he reminded us of the importance of these daily bottles and darn it if he wasn’t spot on. The very next morning guess who didn’t have any interest. Dr. Woo knows his stuff! At Addie’s two week appointment he correctly predicted that “we’ll probably notice she’s become fussy in the evenings.” Had he been walking by our apartment and hearing her wail? I knew I’d like Dr. Woo the minute he visited us in the hospital because we both favored the same black leather Dansko clogs. Ah, a kindred spirit. He did recommend that I not drink alcohol while breast feeding. What does he know?!

Janne asked me if I loved breastfeeding. I said I did but that isn’t totally honest. I love the opportunity it brings me to have my little, precious Adelaide all to myself. She’s so peaceful while feeding and only I can see her little eyes looking up at me. I remember feeding her in the hospital which difficult since she was more interested in sleeping then eating. But I remember her little steel gray eyes looking up at me like she was a little gnome I’d found in the wood - so little and innocent with her dark lashes and puff of hair. Now she makes this funny face before she latches on where she scrunches up her eyes and then lunges at me full force as if pouncing on her prey.

I was surprised and am still overwhelmed by how often she eats and sometimes I feel trapped by this constant need. Perhaps I should feel empowered that I’m the only one that can comfort her in this way. Instead, I find that I sometimes feel like my only identity is that of Feeder especially when strangers and even family ask me every time she cries if she is hungry. This complete reliance on me, and me alone, for her sustenance and therefore her growth and development is daunting, overwhelming and, well, just plain frightening.

With daycare fast approaching, I need to start stockpiling breast milk so tonight’s supply will go into the freezer. I’ll pump again tomorrow morning when Cap gives her a bottle and that goes for her morning feeding on Friday. Thankfully, with Cap’s daily persistence she took her entire bottle yesterday. What a good girl!
Now, back to sleep.