Mommy and Baby group

It was the last day of the mommy and baby group so we posed the babies for a group shot. Quilt courtesy of Tita Judy.

Spa time with Daddy

Our roving camera snapped this spa time photo of Dexter. It's been hot, hot, hot in Toronto so a pre-bed bath to cool down and refresh is a must for the little guy.

Weight update

Dex is now 10 pounds and 12 ounces! Good checkup today but he was not a big fan of those two needles. Cried a lot and it took a bit to comfort him. Next doctor's appointment is in another two months.

Four Months

The little guy is now four months old. Can you believe it! Here's a couple more photos. He's at least doubled his weight, but, as Jon says, it's like the Newfoundland economy -- it's easy to show progress when you start with a small number. Dexter gets his second set of shots on Tuesday so I'll be able to tell how much he weighs then.

We've been getting out a bit more that's why there's less updates from us. Honestly, I don't know where the time goes!

Let's see... Some news: Dex is more active now and he seems to need less sleep during the day. At night, he is also able to last a little longer so I only need to get up once during the middle of the night now. Hurray!

The only other new thing is that on Thursdays, we have the mommy and baby day at the community centre. This has given me opportunity to meet other moms with babies the same age. Despite the fact that I think Dex is growing well, it was a real shock to see him beside other babies. It's tough not to compare him to other full-term babies, but I really see how much bigger the others are. I'll try not to stress about that.

The good news is that Dexter is such a sweet-natured little baby. He's happy most of the time and he is quite delightful. Now I know why God made babies so cute: no matter how exhausted I am, one little smile from Dexter makes me melt and I forget the extent of my sleep deprivation.

Green-eyed Monster

Jealousy, that green-eyed monster, is in our home in the form of a green-eyed cat named Fergus.

A little about Fergus. Jon and I adopted Fergus from the Collingwood Humane Society. I was looking for a Manx (a tailless breed of cat) and they had Ferguson. Fergus was afflicted with giardia or what is commonly known as beaver fever. Who knows where he got it? When Humane Society found him, he was living with an old woman in a home with 33 cats!

Anyway, we fostered this special needs black and white Manx and got first dibs for adoption. For the first month or so of Fergus' life with us, I nursed him back to health. It was tough work -- the giardia meant diarrhea and we had to be vigilant about keeping everything clean. After each visit to the box, I had to clean up Fergus (his paws and his bum), empty the contents of his litter box and disinfect the box and surrounding areas. Our garbage bin got so heavy with litter that the garbage guys actually refused to pick up my garbage one week.

Eventually, Fergus got completely healthy and since we spent some serious bonding time while I was wiping up his bum, we cemented the relationship: he was my cat and I was his human. All is well with the universe.

Things irreversibly changed on February 23, 2007. Fergus' human disappeared to the hospital and when she came home two days later, she was exhausted and slept a lot. She had no time for stretches or cuddles. She also started to disappear for ten to 14 hours a day. Two weeks of that, and here's the clincher: she came home with a crying baby who took over the house. Suddenly, there was chaos in the universe! Fergus was displaced. There is now a bassinet near where he used to sit. His littler box got moved from the office he shared with his human. He also encountered new house rules that were not to his liking. All the attention was being devoted to the small thing that does nothing more than cry, latch on to his human, and sleep. That was Fergus' previous job!

Fergus has been expressing his jealousy in a number of ways:
- whatever space recently vacated by his human, he occupies (this includes the bed, pillow, chair)
- if there is a space between the baby and his human, he will occupy (he squeezes himself between his human and the bassinet)
- if a new place has been created for baby, he will occupy (crib, bassinet, change table, car seat, stroller)
- if his human has been holding the baby for too long, he will bite his human

Increased attention from Jon seems insufficient. I think he wants things the way things were. Poor cat. Just think, he will look back on these days as the good old days once Dexter starts to get mobile and starts pestering the cats.