Flashback Friday #3

This is a somber Flashback Friday, because we must bid farewell to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, who died unexpectedly of cardiac arrest yesterday (June 25, 2009).

Instead of the usual method of photo selection, I wanted to post a picture that reminds me of Michael Jackson.












We played Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" as the bridal party was being
introduced.

RIP, Michael. Don't stop till you get enough.

Flashback Friday!

TGIF! Friday is the best, not least because it's time to enter the wayback machine and go back to some good old days. Just to be clear, the good old days are always being made. Right now will eventually be "the good old days" too, when some time has passed. :)


















The Sausage Cart.

This is the first picture that came up, and it's an interesting one. It's of a cart of meats and MOONSHINE that was brought by the parents of the bride at the wedding Raph and I attended in Warsaw, Poland. The wedding was in October, 2006. It was such an awesome trip. This is one of those flashbacks that needs more than one photo to describe. BTW, yes, we tried the moonshine, and YES it could light a fire without a match and put hair on your chest! Whooo!

The Sightseeing.

After (recovering from) the wedding, we spent some time in Warsaw seeing the sights. Eastern Europe is extraordinary, where the impact of WWII was so intense. So much was destroyed during the war, and the people who live there still talk in terms of "before" and "after" the war. It's absolutely beautiful, though. I would love to go back.

The Train to Wroclaw.

Raph, his parents, and I took a train to Wroclaw, which is the town his family is from. At the time, his grandfather still lived there, and we stayed with him for the rest of our trip. I loved traveling on the train! The ride was about 5 hours long. We thought we were getting a Haryy Potter-like compartment for the 4 of us, but we ended up having to walk through several cars, towing our luggage, before we found the car we were supposed to be in. It was super early in the morning, and people actually use these trains to commute from Warsaw to work. The first thing we did was go to the food car and grab some breakfast, and then we spent the rest of the time sitting watching the pastoral scenery. It was a lovely experience.
















The Rynek (Market Square).

This is where people used to meet back in the day. There are stores, cafes, restaurants, bars, you name it. Very quaint. Wroclaw is a university town, so there are lots of young people there, and it was bustling with activity.

The Family.

At Raph's grandfather's apartment in Wroclaw. I love this picture. Rest in peace, dziadzia.

Flashback Friday!

Happy Friday!

Thanks to all those lurkers who found the courage to peak out from behind their monitors and say hello! :)

Here's your Flashback Friday photo:















Raph and I (in our sexy yellow ponchos) are at the "Journey Behind the Falls" at Niagara Falls. We took a trip there for our first anniversary, May 7, 2006. Great trip! We love Niagara, and the wines up there are awesome. We even went back with a couple of friends in the fall of '07 for another wine-buying trip.

Raph is trying to highjack my post by telling me to say: "Raph sez: 'Niagara-on-the-Lake is the place to be.'"

Hmm...maybe we should take another trip there this fall...

Some Parenting Stuff

We knew going into this that parenting would be hard. There are so many responsibilities and things to think about, so many decisions to be made. We've been fortunate that Markus has been extremely healthy. I want to document a couple of parenthood moments that we consider minor rites of passage.

A few weeks ago (5/20), Markus had his first fever. Raph came home from work and noticed that Markus' head felt warm. We took his temperature (our first experience with the rectal thermometer and may I just give Raph MAD PROPS for doing the honors...) and then called the doctor's office - the temp was around 101 degrees. It was after hours, so we had to leave a message with the answering service, and the doctor on call got back to us within 20 minutes. We had already determined (and my mom concurred) that he just needed a little baby Tylenol and some rest, but we were glad to speak with the doctor and have that confirmed. She actually said to dose him every 4 hours throughout the night and come in if the fever didn't break the next day. Raph is pretty level-headed about this stuff so he was able to sleep, but I was too nervous to get a good night's sleep. I woke up a million times to check Markus and feel his head for fever. When I wasn't awake and checking the baby, I was dreaming about it! I decided we didn't need to keep dosing Markus after the first time, because his head felt normal again within an hour. Thank God, we weathered our first baby fever unscathed.

One big decision we've made recently is not to take Markus to a cranial specialist. He has positional plagiocephaly, which is a flattening of the head due to his having favored one position over the other while lying down. Markus lay his head to the right about 90% of the time from birth, and as often as we tried to turn it to the left to even it out, he would just turn it back. Before he was able to sit up, we gave him as much tummy time as he would tolerate, several times a day. But newborns spend lots of time on their backs putting pressure on the backs of their heads, and Markus' head now appears misshapen.

Our research shows there is no developmental detriment to allowing the head to grow and fill out naturally, but many doctors recommend that the child be taken to a cranial specialist, who will almost certainly recommend a helmet. We decided not to take this step because we don't want Markus to have to wear a helmet for 23 hours a day, for 3 summer months. Especially considering that this will only speed up the "rounding out" process, which we believe has already begun. Now that Markus sleeps 10 hours a night on his tummy, and plays sitting up most of the day, he is no longer putting pressure on the right side of his head regularly. When he naps, I always make sure to turn his head to the left if it's not already, to make sure that side gets a little pressure. Here's a picture of Markus' head from the top. What do you think?

For Lurkers - A Challenge!

The lovely blog you are reading right now has only a few "official" followers (you can see who they are on the right-hand side of the page). That said, we get few comments on our posts, so we're not really sure who is reading.

The Challenge: make yourself known to us! Comment on this post to say you're here and you're reading along. Don't forget to sign your name! :)

Here's a picture of Markus as a reward!

New Feature: Flashback Friday!

This blog has primarily been a house and baby blog, where Raph and I share experiences with new home ownership and new parenthood. However, we must remember that Raph and I had a life before we bought a house and had a baby! It's nice to reflect on some of the fun and interesting times we had that don't involve home repairs and the Diaper Count. So we bring you: Flashback Friday!

Every Friday we will bring you a photo from our "prior life" that will be automatically generated using Google Picasa. Basically, the Google picture screensaver searches my computer for random pictures and displays them. I will post the first one that comes up on the blog, as long as it's a good representation, and then post details about the photo. Sometimes more than one photo may be necessary to complete the story, so there may be more than one picture per post.

Of course, there will still be updates on the house (such as the new addition of a grill!) and Markus (he ate green beans for the first time today - and loved them!). This is just a way to feel less like permanent home-improvers and diaper-changers and remember a simpler, more carefree time.

Flashback Friday Post#1













This photo was taken September 14, 2005. Raph and I had been married for just over 4 months, but we'd never done the "engagement" photo session that was part of our wedding photography package. We never did order any of these pictures, but they gave them to us on cd so we could print them if we wanted. Raph and I celebrated our 4th anniversary in May and we couldn't be happier!