What Did You Leave For Santa?

My daughter continues to surprise us. We were preparing for Santa's visit last night, setting out a snack. Traditionally we place out a couple of cookies, milk, and a small snack for the reindeer. However, in an unexpected turn, my daughter looks at me and says, "No, Santa not want cookies. Make him tummy sick." while rubbing her tummy and looking quite sad. "He need... nana with him's milk." So we put out a glass of milk, a banana and some baby carrots for the reindeer. Santa was pleased and left several nice gifts for the family. I guess there's room for changes in all traditions.

Warm Your Belly Rub

I do a fair amount of grilling throughout the year. I'll stand in rain, snow, hide from sleet, and bundle up as appropriate to complete a meal with some nicely grilled, preferably smoked, meat. In the course of dinners, I've played with various wet and dry preparations. The following recipe will be inflicted on my in-laws and relations via their Christmas stockings this year. It is my understanding that they enjoy a little kick to their spices so I aimed to deliver. This has been kitchen and friend tested and has received the "Scott Safe" label by the narrowest of margins.

My wife and I are admittedly spice snobs, we like fresh spices and frequent our local Penzy's Spices store.

With no further ado, here is a dry-rub blend I'm calling "Warm Your Belly Rub." (sized in parts)

12 parts Brown Sugar
4 parts Medium Hot Chili Powder
2 parts Ground Cumin
2 parts Ground Chipotle Chili Powder
2 parts Kosher Salt
2 parts Course Ground Black Pepper
2 parts Garlic Powder (not salt)
1 part Lemon Zest (I used a dried Lemon Peel)
1 part Ground Allspice

Surgery ?= Developmental Milestone?

Sorry to post a lot about the Little Trooper, but he decided to crawl and transition to/from sitting tonight. He wasn't full-on crawling before surgery. This isn't the first time he's made a transition to a new developmental milestone immediately following surgery, it's the 3rd!

Guess he's like me... wont' take a challenge without a good hard fight! We don't start tasks without finishing them... even if surgeries interrupt!

The Little Trooper Is Home.

Surprising all of us a little, Little Trooper was discharged this morning. He can eat whatever he feels like (although we'll probably ease his way back into solids). When I arrived to pick him and his mother up he was giggling and playing, rolling around the crib before I could change his diaper, and pretty much back to normal!

He's home now, taking a nap in his car seat from which I will not wake him. Time for the rest of us to recover.

An odd thing to celebrate.

Sometimes being a parent is just plain strange. Like tonight:
After 2 days of very very bad sleep schedules resulting from being with my son in the hospital pre- and post-op with the constant stream of checkups I am only barely qualified to even type this entry.

My wife came over after taking our daughter to her swimming lesson; bringing lunch for us. Sometime after she had arrived, we were taking turns holding the little trooper and eating lunch. I held first, then finished lunch. With things settled in, I decided it would be a decent time to shower and started preparing. I was about to step into the bathroom when I heard quite the rip from where they were sitting. Looking over, my wife confirmed my thoughts: it really *was* the little trooper! We figured it was just gas... exciting enough as that is as it actually came from the proper place. Instead, we started doing the happy dance as I checked out the results and found that we actually had encountered our first soiled diaper!

Now... bring on the paste and more frequent diaper changes.

The surgeons were happy when they came and did rounds. We had a further 2 examples for them to review and they were quite happy. If he keeps responding this strongly, he could be on clear liquids tomorrow, then breast milk. He might even be able to come home as soon as Tuesday evening! Surgery was Friday morning and we were expecting 3-5 days minimally with the operating surgeon hinting that, based on little trooper's reaction when the ostomy was first performed, that we'd be looking to the longer side of that range.

There may be more cheering in the future, but for now I must sign off as I believe my pillows are calling my name.