What I've Learned...Month 3 Edition

Well, I'm not so great at keeping up with this blogging thing.  I've committed myself to the once a month blog, and I'm not even good at keeping up with that.  At least I didn't over-extend myself and commit to a bi-weekly blog.  I can't imagine who would do such a thing.  

Three months have gone by!  I really can't believe it.  In some ways it seems like it has gone by so fast.  In others, it seems like a lifetime!  He seems so big to me now.  

I've learned that I love this kid's personality -- which is just now starting to show.  Nothing makes me happier than to come home at the end of the day and see his big smile.  I never thought I would be so cheesy, but it's true.  It doesn't matter how tired, stressed or just generally annoyed I am, if Hayden gives me the big cheese grin, I'm VERY happy.  Who knew I would be such a sap?  The big cheese grin is also coming more and more frequently these days.  It is still difficult to catch on camera, but he seems to really recognize Mommy and Daddy.  Love it!  

Also very amusing is Hayden's obsession with sticking out his tongue.  He does it ALL the time.  If you stick your tongue back out at him, he finds this very amusing.  He will make his "I'm-trying-really-hard-to-giggle" noise.  Also very cute.  

I've also learned that it is very normal for baby's hair to fall out.  Hayden was born with a lot of cute brown hair.  This hair was very much around during his newborn pics which were taken around 3 weeks old.  Now, Hayden is almost bald, but you can see his Eddie Munster-esque widow's peak.  I find this to be cute as well.  So, I guess the other thing I've learned is that everything my kid does, tries to do, has or doesn't have is extremely cute to me.  He's also extremely smart in my eyes.  So, I'm one of those parents.  He's started grasping his little play keys recently.   By my reaction, you would have thought he was reciting Shakespeare or performing difficult mathematical equations.  Still it was a big day at our house.  

Another big day at our house came on May 16 when Clark graduated from medical school.  We are so proud of Daddy.  You can tell just how proud Hayden is in this picture.  He even wore his best button-up shirt.  This great event made me reflect upon something else.  I've only called the pediatrician's office once since Hayden's birth.  This is amazing considering how incredibly paranoid/anal/obsessive compulsive I can be.  Don't get me wrong, when the swine flu was making its rounds, I definitely thought Hayden had it and I refused to take him Target to expose him to the obvious swine flu germs that were lurking there.  Here is where having a doctor Daddy is clutch.  He refused to let me call the pediatrician (smart move) and kept the peace at our house.  Way to go, Dr. Meador!  Seriously, we are so, so proud of Dad and his BIG accomplishment.  

I've also become reacquainted with sleep, and I quite like it.  I've been hesitant to say this out loud (or in print) for fear of jinxing it, but the little guy has been sleeping through the night for the past 3 weeks.  We've had 2 nights where he woke up at 5 or 5:30 (which is technically the morning) but for the most part he's sleeps until 6 or 7.  It is amazing.  This is clearly the best thing my child does.  

One thing my child does NOT do well is take long car rides.  Please do not be fooled by the angelic look on his face here.  You should be alerted to the obviously fake, forced smile on my face.  This weekend Clark and I took Hayden to Grammy and Grandpa's house in Lumberton.  This is a 5 1/2 hour car ride.  However, add Hayden to the mix and add an extra 2 hours.  Or it could just feel like an extra 2 hours, I'm not sure.  Frankly, I'm still suffering from post traumatic stress from the entire experience.  Hayden usually loves the car -- it puts him right to sleep.  I think this kid just knew this was way too long of a car ride.  He made it until Corsicana (about a 1/3 of the way there) and started screaming.  This required a stop.  A stop that lasted an hour.  I HATE stopping on long car rides.  I mean, seriously hate it.  This made my eye start twitching (a very bad sign).  After the hour long pit stop, we were off...screaming ensued.  Screaming ensued on and off for 2 more hours.  Terrible.  However, our stay in Lumberton was a lot of fun.  Grammy is now nicknamed "The Baby Hog."  You can forget holding him when she's around!  However, she is so helpful, we'll forgive her.  She got up at 6:30 both mornings to give him his morning bottle.  The car ride back to Ft. Worth was just as bad, so I won't recount it here.  We have a trip to Oklahoma City in 3 weeks.  Hopefully he'll magically get over his aversion to car rides longer than 2 hours.  

Lastly, I've learned that Harry Potter is much better the 700th time around.  I really love reading it aloud to Hayden every night.  We've started The Prisoner of Azkaban...I think this one is Hayden's favorite so far.  I can tell by the way his eyes start to roll back in his head when I start reading!  

Sunday Morning Snuggles

Good morning.  We had a special weekend this weekend.  Finally, I graduated from medical school.  Just a shade under a decade too.  Thankfully they do call me doctor now.  However, it doesn't really feel all that different.  I'm not really sure what I thought was going to happen as I walked across the stage.  I guess I thought some magical feeling or enlightening was supposed to be bestowed upon me as I walked across the stage, but it was just surprisingly ordinary.  Its been nice reflecting back on the past 4 years.  While they were the toughest most challenging 4 years of my life they have also been the best 4 years of my life and thus I will always look back on my time at TCOM very fondly and very proudly.  After all TCOM is where I became a husband, a dad, and a D.O..  

Hayden thinks these graduations are for the birds.  Too much fluff.  He was ready to go by this point.  
First family photo as Dr. Meador.

Thanks to everyone who has supported me and my family throughout medical school.  Your support, your thoughts, prayers and encouragement have helped me sustain and prevail.  

Now for the encore, RESIDENCY!!! Hopefully Hayden won't forget who I am when I'm working 80 hr/weeks and spending every 5th night at the hospital.  At least I have another month of daddy daycare before the real work begins.  

Humpday Happy Hour with Hayden

Well if it's THURSDAY it's Humpday and if it's Humpday it's another Happy Hour at Meador Bar and Grill est. 2/22/09 proprietor Hayden M. Meador.

Hey everybody.  Hope everyone is doing well.  Its been an exciting week over in our neck of the woods to say the least.  Lets start with this afternoon.  I got brave and took hayden to a Ranger afternoon ballgame all by myself.  And boy am I glad I did.  So I sacked him up and headed to the ballbark about 12:30, parked, strapped Hayden into the Baby Bjorn and strolled into the stadium.  I had 4 free tickets from Nolan Ryan that were set to expire if I didn't use them.  So I cash those in and had the ticket man scan all for so we could boost attendance figures.  I'm walking to my seats and ran into 3 residents from JPS that I will be working with starting in July.  I invited them to come sit with me since I had these extra seats.  Then we got to watch an incredible baseball game.  Great pitching and defense by both sides. The Rangers were down 2-0 going to the bottom of the 9th inning.  Leading off was Hank "the Hammer" Blalock, he smashes a homer. Then the baylor bear David Murphy hits a double.  That leads to Chris Davis.  He works the count full. Then takes a fastball and puts into the bleachers in Right center field.  Rangers walk off win, the 2nd night in a row.  I know Hayden won't remember this but to be able to witness a walkoff homer victory for the Rangers is a very exciting and special moment.  It took me 25 years to get to see that.  It took him less than 3 months.  Hayden has now attended 3 Rangers games in 3 months.  So he is on pace to see a lot of baseball games in his life.  

I'll check back in this weekend after graduation.  Hopefully we can find our camera charger so we can stop taking iphone pics.  I fixed our computer problem this week. Dumped the oldies and upgraded to the apple. Very nice.  

Sunday Morning Snuggles

Special Mother's Day Edition

Happy 1st Mothers Day honey. Hayden is one lucky boy to have a mother like you and I'm very lucky to have you as the mother of my child. We love you.

Hayden is ready to come kiss you and wake you up in bed now.

Happy Mother's day to all the moms out there. A special shout out to my mom. Happy Mothers day I love you can't wait until your visit this week.

Humpday Happy Hour with Hayden #8

Well if it's Wednesday it's Humpday and if it's Humpday it's another Happy Hour at Meador Bar and Grill est. 2/22/09 proprietor Hayden M. Meador.

Weekend wrap-up with Smiley:

Busy weekend this past weekend. We once again loaded up the Wagon queen family truckster and headed to Sherman for Saturday and Sunday. One of my good friends from High School was having a big engagement party. This was another big milestone for the Meador family. This would be the first night we utilized babysitters. We had lined up for Hayden's Aunt BB and KK to keep him while mommy and daddy went an imbibed beverages of the adult nature. I am surprised Kelly didn't claim this for her blog as it was a much bigger deal for her than me. Kelly had prepared a 25 minute lecture for BB and KK that included but not limited to burping, holding, rocking, bathing, bottling, bottle warming, feeding, diapering, and wiping. I tried to remind Kelly and myself that these women have raised children themselves and aren't totally wet behind the ears when it comes to this sort of thing. KK did this double with the twins who coincidentally babysat me for many years. Anyways the party was great and was great hanging out with old friends. Sunday we scattered back to Fort Worth quickly to try and catch some weekend R and R.

Daddy day care progresses. Weeks and days run together so I'm not sure I should even name my blog humpday because what hump am I getting over. The days change but the work remains the same. More like groundhog day.

Lots of good day baseball games to watch. I mainly posted this picture so everyone could view "The Beard" that was last week.

Like father like son.

This was Hayden tonight when I told him the Rangers were now in 1st place. Hopefully they hang on tonight to beat Oakland or else they will slip back a 0.5 game behind seattle.

Long time, no blog

Well, Clark has obviously been slacking on Sunday Morning Snuggles. His laziness knows no bounds. I've been slacking all around, but I have a legit excuse. This working mom thing is hard! Going back to work has been difficult...I miss the H a lot during the day -- especially since he's been so smiley lately. I call home to check in a couple of times a day, and I always want a smile update. For some reason, he's just not in a smiling mood when I get home.

The good news is, Hayden is sleeping pretty well. He's only getting up one time a night. He used to wake up at 2 or 2:30 and then again around 5 or 6. He's now only waking up around 3:30 or 4:30. Last night was an all time record -- he slept until 5 am! Part of me thinks this is a total fluke...but I'm hopeful for at least a 4 am or 4:30 am night tonight.

On top of being Mr. Smiles (when Mom isn't around) he's also Mr. Chatty. This kid coos himself silly. We call it "telling stories." If you're around him long enough, Hayden will tell you all kinds of stories, all consisting of "aaaaahhhhh." Entertaining stuff.

I'm also happy to report that Hayden and I have made it through Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I think he thoroughly enjoyed it. We've moved on to the Chamber of Secrets. I think he's a fan. I told Clark that I want to dress Hayden up as a snitch for Halloween. For all you non-HP fans out there, the snitch is a golden ball with wings that Harry chases in a wizard game called Quidditch. If you're completely geeked out by that, you're not alone, b/c Clark gave me a big thumbs down on that one. Whatever, I'm just trying to think outside the box.

The picture was taken tonight right before bedtime. I love the look on his face...it's so Hayden. Well, hopefully Clark will get back on his game and post again for Humpday Happy Hour ... and hopefully his post has nothing to do with Tummy Tubs. Those things are ridiculous.

Holy Cow--Tummy Tubs

ATTENTION: Rare end of week blog entry. Only something special could earn the right for a special blog entry.
As a stay-at-homer you run into lots of commercials, infomercials, information in watching day-time tv programming. Today was a wow moment. A product so awesome it has swept Europe for the past decade and is used in most other countries. Of course us silly Americans are the last to hear about it. Check this out its called a Tummy Tub, a hot tub to bathe babies in. Otherwise known as a 5 gallon bucket, but thats beside the point. I'm on the hunt for one of these.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30499759/

On You tube:


Not sure but I think Mateuszek likes it. I still can't figure out how these things don't tip over but they claim to have a low center of gravity. But if you watch the video Mat almost tumps over at the end. Tummy tubs also claim to have a slip resistant bottom. Other positives the tummy tub claims: Its womb like - I guess thats good; Keeps baby warm while bathing - sounds good; Helps them learn to stand up because they are lighter in water -- ok now your selling me; You can bathe them in this from newborn till 35 pounds -- ok, some good months of use there;

Obvious negatives from Dr. Meador: Still have to monitor bath time --ughh cant they do anything by themselves; Watch their heads - this is always daddy's job and his job appears to get harder with this product; When bath time gets confused with potty time --always a problem no matter what bathing system you choose; Still don't see how this doesn't tump over -- probably why this hasn't come to us Westerners yet due to the fact the manufacturers are probably scared to death of the LAWYERS on this continent.

To buy in America:
http://www.bathedwithlove.com/category.php?category_id=46

Honey can we have one! H would love this!