Pardon the Potty Mouth

Peyton is nine weeks old now and starting to get really fun. He coos, smiles and giggles but whenever we pull out the video camera to try to capture his cuteness, he always stops. Maybe he's camera shy, I don't know. Last night was the first time we managed to get him smiling and cooing on film. Pardon the potty talk but that seems to be the only way we can really get him going!

Happy Halloween!

To Get a Little Personal......

I read somewhere that because infants basically only eat, sleep and poop, parents become very obsessed with these functions. Thus, we find ourselves talking about poop way more than we imagined we would. Poor little P has had some issues lately in that department. The pediatrician suggested prune juice and since that hasn't worked, the next step was to try a glycerin suppository. Supposedly, once it's been administered, it works pretty quickly. So, I tried it tonight (we are still waiting for the results) and before I did, hubby and I were conversing. I told him the suppository would work quickly and we might have a blowout in little P's diaper to which hubby replied, "Can't you just put him on some newspaper? Why waste a good diaper if you know it's just going to get dirty in a few minutes?" My response? "He's not a puppy for heaven's sakes. We'll use a diaper!" So that's my only poop story for a good while, I promise.
On another note, we went and picked out a pumpkin the other day in anticipation for little P's first Halloween. He even got invited to an adult Halloween party this weekend. He's going with a cute little onesie that says, "this is my costume." Now I just need to come up with a good idea for my costume. I don't think taking a marker and writing "this is my costume" on a t-shirt will cut it. I'm just not cute enough to pull that off.

Little P Says to Rock the Vote

I have a confession to make. Even though I am almost 30, I have never voted. I was always away at school or never registered in the place where I was living during the times that the elections rolled around. However, since moving to Florida, I made sure to register in my county and yesterday, the hubby, little P and I went to early voting and cast our ballots. I realized that it was my duty as a US citizen as well as my duty as a mother to make sure I voted this year. You see, as soon as little P came into this world, I realized I had this new awesome responsibility as a parent. (This realization even caused me to break down in tears several times on our way home from the hospital; I just couldn't believe the nurses allowed the hubby and I to take this little creature home with us!) And I feel that an important aspect of being a good parent is to do everything possible to ensure the best future for my child and any future children. I might not be able to single-handedly fix all the problems this country is facing at the moment but at least I can try to help bring into office the best person to address the economic crisis, health care, education, the environment and foreign relations so that little P and his future sibs will have a wonderful world to live in. Sure I feel guilty for not taking advantage of my right to vote sooner but I am happy that I didn't let another opportunity pass me by and that I made little P a part of the experience too. After all, not many 6 week olds can say they've been to the polls.

I know, I know. I'm not keeping up with this blog like I should be. We've just had a lot of visitors lately, and I've actually been able to get out of the house a few times! Hubby's parents came for a visit when little P was about a week old.











Then hubby's sister and her boyfriend were down for a few days, and little P had his first experience bowling. Well, okay, he really only sat in his little car seat at the bowling alley and actually, he slept through the entire thing so he didn't even know he was there. Still, Mama bowled well and we all had fun.














Today, hubby's boss and his wife hosted a University of Tennessee football party/Noah's ark-themed baby shower for little P (how many babies get one of those?!?) They were so generous in putting together all the food and gifts and the most adorable cake I've ever seen.


And again, little P slept through 95% of the party so everyone said what an angel he is. Papa and I are just bracing for tonight thinking we may not be getting too much sleep since that's all he did today.
Aunty Busty (my sister) and her hubby are coming on Tuesday to meet their nephew. I know they'll spoil him rotten with hugs and kisses and cuddles and hopefully they'll spoil me rotten by mixing me up one of those delicious chocolate martinis they make. I've been craving one since I got pregnant. We can't wait for them to visit!

My Boy Knows How to Eat

Peyton went to the pediatrician this morning for his newborn check-up. He did well (aside from peeing on the exam table twice) and is now 8 lbs, 10 oz. That's almost a 1 pound weight gain in 4 days! I wasn't surprised he had surpassed his birth weight the way he's been eating lately. I know he needs to eat to grow but sometimes I want to tell him Momma's milk buffet is closed.
Grandma and Grandpa G are down from Virginia for a visit. I'll post more pictures soon.

I Think I'll Just Stay Home From Now On

Hello all! Sorry I've been a little MIA lately. A 7 pound, 12 ounce little bundle has been keeping me pretty busy. But, we did manage to take our maiden voyage out of the house today to WalMart of all places. And I discovered something that as a working woman I never realized before. All the idiots of the world shop at WalMart during the day while the rest of us are working. Or at least that's the case where I live. I wasn't feeling too well to begin with, as I'm still recovering from a pretty traumatic delivery but I managed to slowly make my way around the store gathering some essentials I needed. Then I got to the checkout, where some lady couldn't get her credit card to go through. Think she tried another card? No, instead the cashier turned on her blinking light and they proceeded to wait for a manager who didn't appear after 5 minutes. Thinking I could get through checkout more quickly in another line, I moved down to one with only one lady ahead of me. I loaded all my items on the belt before I realized what kind of a moron was in front of me. This lady had a full cart and wanted to pay for her items via several methods of payment. But mind you, she didn't want her total purchases to exceed $200 for some reason so once she saw the register at $204, she starting handing items back to the cashier to remove. Then, through broken English, she tried to explain to the cashier that she wanted $50 put on her credit card and that she would pay for the rest of the items with a check but she wanted a cell phone rung up separately. The cashier was confused but then again so was I, so I can't fault her for that. After swiping her credit card, writing out a check, having the cell phone rung up and discovering that she had now exceeded her limit on her credit card, the lady then wrote out a second check. Meanwhile, I'm starting to sweat profusely and get the shakes, probably from low blood sugar and overexerting myself, as I've pretty much laid in bed or around the house for the past week and can't handle all this exercise. Luckily, sweet Peyton was happily napping in his little car seat. When it was my turn, I paid for everything with just one method of payment and left the store with a new realization. I think my baby, who can't yet talk, walk or see more than a foot in front of his face, is already smarter than most of the people I've encountered today.
(A big thank you to Aunty Busty who filled in for me while I was giving birth. Peyton is a lucky boy to have such a crazy aunt!)

Baby Peyton: Day Two

Hello from a very proud Aunty Busty again. This will be my last update because the whole family will be home tomorrow and ready to do its own posting. After the excitement of Peyton's birth day, Day Two was extremely quiet.

Mama G. summed up with the day by saying, "We all took a nap together this afternoon. Mat was the only one who drooled though."

Proud grandparents from Papa G.'s side of the family will be headed down next week to meet the boy, while the grandparents on Mama G.'s side are already plotting their own trip. Peyton is the first grandchild on both sides of the family and everyone can't wait to meet him!

And Baby makes three!

Hello, it's Aunty Busty here (although you'll be shocked to learn that's not my real name). Wondering why I'm writing on the Gooch blog today? Well, read on (or just skip to the bold part for the gist of things...)

I've been answering all of Mama Gooch's calls for the last two weeks with, "Are you in labor?" And she has sighed and said, "No, not yet." So it was kind of poetic justice that I was woken up this morning and didn't think fast enough to say it when I answered her call... which happened to be the one time she would have answered with "yes."

Mama Gooch went into labor around 3 a.m. (and please don't ask her how she knew she was in labor because she told me and it's, uh, a little too gross to repeat...) And her son(!) was born 11 short hours later (OK, it felt short to me being a thousand miles away, but Mama G. says it didn't feel so short to her).

Peyton Mathew came crying into this world at 1:45 today, weighing 8 lbs, 8 ounces. Mama Gooch reports that "He is so cute." And Aunty Busty reports that he's loud because I could hear him clearly while on the phone with his mom.

Oh, and Mama G. did it without drugs. It wasn't by choice, mind you, because I think she would have gladly taken any sort of pharmaceutical assistance the nurses were offering, but she dilated too quickly to partake of anything stronger than some IV pain relievers.

And, now, the photos of the little man of the hour:

Insomnia

I've recently been plagued by random bouts on insomnia. Usually, I have no problem falling asleep but inevitably around 3:00 or 4:00am, I'm up and wide awake. It's amazing how much I can get accomplished in the wee hours of the morning when everyone else is slumbering but email and Facebook are only so much fun at that hour. I guess it's good practice for the sleepless nights that are to come, but still, I'd rather be catching my zzzzs! That is, if there's a place for me in bed.

I Can Take Constructive Criticism But This is Ridiculous

Every year, the company I work for conducts an employee satisfaction survey, polling its employees on all areas of their work. Today, in our senior management meeting, the whole administrative team reviewed the results of the survey. Nothing too surprising, considering the people who usually respond to surveys are the ones with the most grievances to get off their chests. That is, until we got to the verbatim comments section in which employees were free to write anything they wished. The HR Director said she'd be sending each manager their center's comments in an email for us to review but I just so happened to be sitting next to one of the senior managers who had a copy in front of her. So I asked to see them. At first, she shook her head and then she prefaced handing them over with a "Just remember, some employees say really stupid things," which made me really want to see what was on that piece of paper.

The very first comment I read from one of the employees I manage? "The Center Manager should dress more appropriately for work...." and after that, I don't even remember the rest. Now wait a minute, dress more appropriately?!? Sure, if I was prone to wearing low-cut shirts displaying cleavage or skirts that didn't cover enough leg or even midriffs that allowed my navel and tattoo to show, then I could understand what this person was getting at. But, for the entirety of 2008 I have been pregnant and wearing maternity clothes. It left me wondering, does my elastic waist-band pants offend someone? Or maybe it's the tent-like shirts with the little ribbons that tie in back that emphasize my bulging pregnant belly too much? Or maybe, just maybe, it's the open-toed shoes I am forced to wear as a result of my feet swelling to double their size by day's end? I gotta say, this left me quite stunned. Prior to getting pregnant, I was very conservative in my attire- skirts to the knees, button-down blouses, khaki pants- and I plan on returning to that style postpartum. But for now, I'm left wondering if maybe it's time to break out the mu-mus.......

Some Truths about Pregnancy

It's funny how you think you know all about something until it happens to you. For example, I have plenty of friends who have already had babies and I thought I knew the adventures pregnancy would hold. Ha, was I wrong. Every month brought something new that made me think, "now why has nobody ever told me this before?" Then I figured out maybe it's because I never knew to ask. So, I wanted to share just a few things that I've learned throughout the last 37 weeks of my life.
1. No matter how great of shape you are in, a trip from your bed to the couch can be the most exhausting 25 feet you'll ever walk.
2. Maternity clothes are not one size fits all. What fits you in the beginning won't necessary do the job in the end.
3. Hot flashes are not just for menopausal women; pregnant women get them too. So when your spouse complains that the house is 70 degrees and why does the ceiling fan need to be on all night too, it's okay to tell him to shut up or go sleep in the other room.
4. Pregnancy has a way of taking the nicest people and making them say the dumbest things. I mean, is it really necessary to tell me how big my rear end has gotten or that my face looks fatter, people?!? (And by the way, that's really not a smart thing to say to a pregnant woman when that pregnant woman is your boss).
5. Even the most adoring spouse is going to get scared to death of all the ways pregnancy changes the body. (Hubby never said anything per se but I've caught the shear look of terror on his face on multiple occasions).
6. By the end of pregnancy, intimacy with your spouse can be equated to a middle school dance (as my mother always said, "Make sure you leave room for the Holy Spirit!" Don't worry, Ma, with this belly, we have room for the Father, Son AND the Holy Spirit).
7. And lastly, you start missing parts of your body that you just always took for granted. Me? I miss my feet.

Well, Okay, My Blog Name is a Little Misleading...

When I say that baby makes three, I mean three human beings. Hubby and I already have 3 furry four-legged creatures of the canine sort running around, which makes for a very full household as you can imagine. They are truly our babies- they lounge on furniture, eat human food and sleep in our bed, many times forcing myself or the hubby to move to the guest room for some shut-eye. I have no idea how C, C & Big H are going to handle a baby in the house. It's already been a challenge to keep all the fun baby toys- teethers, rattles, stuffed animals- from them. Once there' s baby poo in the house....well, I won't even go there.

Anyways, welcome to my blog! I decided to try this new endeavor after my sis, KAT, had so much success with her blog. (Check it out at http://funnygals.blogspot.com) I can't promise I will be funnier than her. Hell, I know I won't be funnier than her. But, with all our family within flying distance only, I figured a blog would keep everyone up-to-date on the latest happenings in our crazy household. Hubby just surprised me with a video camera so once we figure out how to use it, I'll be posting videos up as well.

Little Goochie probably won't be making an appearance until around September 14th but until then, I'll be sharing the latest happenings involving hubby, myself and our spoiled rotten "practice children." I'm not sure any of us know what we are in for in just a mere few weeks....