No Sleep till Brooklyn

I've basically been saving this for about 4 months before breaking it out here. Although much more appropriate in prior months, our most recent sleep hurdles have come by way of baby monitor malfunction.

Endangered species - Blue Elephants



From the eyes of the predator.



This video does contain some funny clips but for me the gold is in the audio.



Really good seeing some old friends this past weekend.

Los Estados Unidos

We're baaaaaaaaaaaaack.

The journey back was just as crazy as suspected. The plan was to have a nice relaxing morning and get to the airport early. Things started to come unraveled when Fischer decided to start pushing up and looking out of the top of the bassinet. She looked like a little baby para-scope and was locked and loaded on mommy and daddy.



My sleepy state did not not help the situation by only offering up duck and cover techniques. So after multiple crying episodes and not much sleep it was time for her 5:30 wake up time.

She was exhausted so we thought we would just let her sleep in the room. As we have found out 2 exhausted parents and one well-rested baby definitely trumps the inverse. As Fischer Moss rested soundly in the room sleeping until 10:30 we sat outside held captive by the small mullet headed fisher. We sat on this weird chair with bloodshot eyes, un-showered, unable to enter our room where 2 large comfortable beds were empty.

This risky attempt, that almost made us miss our flight, paid off hugely when we successfully logged the whole 4 hour flight without a peep from Fischer. We had completely ran out of tricks just before landing.

Things settled down a bit in Columbus where some precious cargo was being moved.


And we even got a glimpse of things to come with our new nanny.


A fairly successful international move.

general torture, a birthday, and a 21 gun salute to alfalfa hairs

This blog post will be a little short as we are in the final stages of the packing. We're off to Georgia on Wed.

A notable change this week was the loss of the permanent alfalfa hairs. These hairs remained at full mast for over 4 months. Some parents may never experience this because their use of a what some people call a brush.



Happy birthday Renee, your present is my elastic bottom lip. Also while searching the video camera I discovered Renee had about 6 out-takes of this happy birthday video in English and Spanish. Hence torture in the title.



Our last amphibious trip to Punta Leona.

Beware of Face Eaters

This week was an amazing breakthrough. If you get the story from Renee we let her cry it out and Ferberized the little Fischer Moss. However the truth is that it was the first time where noises were made and no one immediately sprinted to her. Renee had been having a really tough time lately and came to me out of desperation needing help.

After thinking long and hard about the factors at play I couldn't help but remember her extensive history of animal training. When people and small children would come over to her house before we were together the cat would stalk and bite people repeatedly. Renee's reaction was normally something like - "I don't know he's rotten". When asked about her dog she had (Buck), the response was usually - "He was a nightmare, he pretty much ran my life".

So here we go
Night 1- Place Fischer in the crib, run away. Crying pretty hard on and off for about an hour and 15 min. Maybe as fathers, we just aren't effected the same way from the crying. Renee was in tears and also googling various psychology websites for the long-term psychological damage we were potentially doing. I was doing my best to fend off all possible obscure scenarios for hunger or gas Renee was throwing at me. Just before we broke down and went in to free her, our neighbor Andrea knocked on the door. Our Savior. This made us wait the critical 2 more minutes which was all little Fischer Moss needed to go to sleep.

Night 2-
Place Fischer in the crib, run away. Cried for only 30 minutes.

Night 3-
Place Fischer in the crib, run away. No crying, straight to sleep. Fiesta Time.


FACE EATER


Laugh #2 still a rare event- this is laugh 2 of only 2.

A sleepy terrorist

Just when you thought you had all the documents you need to leave this place in comes the Permiso de Salida. A beautifully crafted concept that can only be fumbled by the CR government. If you leave Costa Rica with a baby less than 2 years you must have this document to fly, even if you have matching passports. However to get the permiso you must first get a U.S. Passport. Required document - Original Birth certificate. Check.

So here we all are at Migracion (Immigration) to get the Permiso, first question was I now need the original birth certificate. Of course we explained that the U.S. Embassy took it. I then had to go back to the Registro Civil to get another original. Our biggest problem was trying to make it to the Registro and back before the Migracion closed (our entire reason for this San Jose trip). I was not happy about this or the lost opportunity to debate the concept of multiple originals with the government workers (isn't that copy?). As the day progressed we found ourself back in the park (where the hilarious diaper change took place reposted below)




staring at monsoon thunderstorm heading in while trying to shield Renee's boob from the general public. It all ended ok when we slipped back into Migracion just before they closed. Like most CR activities there are some redeeming qualities. One being the guard who sprinted across the parking lot to hold the umbrella over Fischer as we ran in.

Now back to some relaxin.

Public enemy #1 and #2

This week marked yet another reminder that you should burn any and all literature that uses the word "should" when referring to baby developmental milestones. Not only will you not be there but you will probably reverse direction. Just when we had reached a point where we desperately needed some redemption sleep, ICE to the rescue. Boasting 2 consecutive nights with power outages.

In the middle of this post I was reminded of something far more interesting while talking with Elijah and Raina. I had lost a past post which was on the names of the baby had Fischer been a boy. I must preface my list by saying that they were selected with an attempt to find obscure names that would be cool. However not even 4 months later my names list was resurrected and I saw the error in my ways. Here was my list which had me rolling with laughter.
Caelen
Torrey
Dempsey
Taro
Sy
Sidney
Royce
Osei

Thank God Renee was there to veto most of these.

I'll leave you with my all time favorite name I found while searching for names. Lisimba. It means one who is attached by a lion.

This week we also had her first laugh at the hands of Elijah. Although I was a little sad the first laugh wasn't at me, after further video review I had to admit what he was doing was really funny and actually made me laugh. The laugh has not been able to be replicated so this is the only footage of this rare event.

Replicas (Tito & Fischer)

The man formerly and falsely named Pop-Pop is now officially "Tito".

When I used to joke about my dad having a replica in Danny Milam I didn't know that this would be trumped by my daughter. The two together are classic. You can even see in the first video of the meeting she is trying to figure out who he is.

Fatherly Advice given to me by him when we found out Renee was pregnant.
1.Don't F with a pregnant women.
2.She's going to get big, but she ain't going to get real big.

Both of which are equally true as they are funny.

Here is the meeting of the replicas


The coveted feet are now reachable and pretty much occupy all her time.


Rockin out w/ Tito





We were all sad to see Tito go.