Lava Tushy

About a week ago, Daniel's diaper rash (which he had never really had before) turned into something of a lava field.  Kind of like this:

Life went downhill fast.  Daniel went completely crazy when we tried to change his diaper and we finally resorted to going to the pediatrician.  Low and behold, his diaper rash had turned into an actual burn (we weren't far off when we described his tushy as a lava field) and he was prescribed a special $320 cream.  We went through the cream in 2 days.  Diaper rash came back with a vengeance so the doctor then prescribed an actual burn ointment.

For 2 days, my baby screamed in pain when we changed him and we had to keep him naked as often as possible.  This meant putting waterproof pads on the floor and confining him to his room for the most of the day.  It sucked.  He did manage to poop right into Matt's pocket at one time, though.  That was pretty funny.

2 days ago at 4am we ended up bathing him when he woke up screaming with a poopy diaper.  Oy veh.  Did I mention that this was the day after we moved?? 

Today he is much better and super happy (thanks to going back on cream #1 which my insurance wouldn't cover so soon after the original prescription was filled, meaning I paid $320 for diaper rash ointment!) and his cute little tushy is getting back to normal.  I will definitely miss the naked time - but definitely not the screaming or cleaning up after him the way we might a puppy.

My Other Baby

As most of my loyal fans know, we just bought a house that has to be renovated from top to bottom (while we're living in it). I've chosen not to blog about it because, let's face it, I'm in denial. We move into this house in 2 days (Wednesday, March 24, 2010) and feeling overwhelmed may be the understatement of the year.

The idea of buying a brownstone (this is a brickstone, if we're being specific) and renovating it to make it exactly what I want has been a dream of mine since moving to New York City in 1996. I never thought that I'd be able to do it because all of the houses I salivated over in the West Village were millions and millions of dollars. Hello, Jersey City! We found a steal - something we never thought we'd find.

And now comes the renovation. I expect that it will take a year (Lord, I hope it's not longer) and I have no idea how we're going to pay for everything, but the project will result in the home of my dreams and the place where my family will grow.

I've never been able to fully comprehend or daydream about teaching my kids to cook until I picked out my kitchen cabinets and countertops. I could never truly imagine being a mom of kids old enough to run around in a park until I sat on my new stoop and looked at the newly renovated park and playground that is directly across the street from my new home.

I joke that I hope my marriage survives this move and renovation. But the truth is that we will have a home that will be filled with joy and love and it will be worth every drop of blood, sweat and tears that will go into it.

You'll all be able to witness a little bit of the renovation because HGTV is invading our lives and home and doing our first room for a new show called "Battle on the Block". Don't worry, there will be more blogging about the show and I'll let you know when it's going to air.

For the complete BEFORE pictures, check out this photo album by clicking on the picture below. Wish us luck! When it's done, you're invited to dinner!

260 9th Street Before

Conversations with Mimi

Daniel is ridiculously talkative these days. He's started to LOVE saying BA BA BA over and over again (which we love) and tonight we confirmed that he did actually say MA MA (though he wasn't saying it about me or to me) so we're still waiting patiently for the first real word.

My mother-in-law (Daniel's Mimi) has been staying at our apartment to help us pack up in preparation for our big move next Wednesday. I was able to record this fabulous conversation:

A Whole New Look

Tah-Dah! Welcome to the new layout of the blog (thank you, Blogger!). I can change backgrounds and themes whenever I want, so hopefully you'll never get bored (well, how could you ever possibly be bored looking at pictures and reading stories about this kid!?)

Happy 8 Months!

Another month already?? Noooooooo!

Ok, while I'm obviously thrilled to wish Daniel Bing a beautiful 8 month birthday, I just want him to stay a little baby, but I know that he is quickly becoming a little boy. I don't want to say that it makes me sad because I couldn't feel more proud of him or excited for his future, but I guess I just see the end of the baby road now that he is so mobile and growing so damn fast.

In the last few weeks Daniel not only started to crawl, but he fully pulls himself to standing and is now starting to try to creep around on his feet once he's up. He is so talkative and communicative and is forming very specific opinions which he is definitely not afraid to express! He's moved into a convertible carseat (bye-bye infant seat) and we already moved his crib lower because of the whole pulling himself up thing.

The funny, cute and not-so-cute things: falling asleep sitting up in his crib, waking up and playing by himself in his crib (rather than the usual immediate crying at 6:30am), first injury (ok - a small one, but still important... see his eye in a few pictures below), throwing fits (the not-so-cute kind), refusing to let me put on a diaper and PJs at night (REALLY not-so-cute).

Above everything else, there are two new things that I love more than anything (kind of selfish): 1. Daniel is resting his head on my shoulder and/or falling asleep on my shoulder which he hasn't done since he was a newborn; 2. He's becoming a little shy and buries his face in my chest when he feels that way. This second point happened this past weekend and it took me completely by surprise. For the first time I felt that he "needed" me in a cognitive way. This is more than needing a bottle or a boob when hungry. It's something so little that every kid does, but when it happened to me, I melted.

Here are some of the best shots from the last couple of weeks - and a video of Daniel enjoying one of those tunnels that his friend, Ari, loved when he was just slightly older than Daniel (if I'm doing my math correctly)!

Happy Birthday, my love. You're already keeping us on our toes!

Eating with Friends

Daniel and Oliver met in my new mom's group after Ollie's mom, Bridget, was kind enough to sit next to me and tell me that I wasn't crazy... new mommiehood is f-ing hard! Turns out that the boys have developed at basically the same rate so it's really funny to watch them hang. They're already showing signs of true friendship: eating together, crying together, holding hands and babbling a lot.

Here's a clip from a spontaneous lunch this past weekend at a local sushi joint. Obviously the adults were having as much fun as the babies!



In other news, this past week has been very exciting... Daniel has now begun to pull himself up (oy veh), go back to sitting from laying down and/or crawling AND he's going through his very first snotty-nose cold. Luckily the snot has not bothered him in the least! Also, he's still DAMN cute!