Camera - It's fixed...I think.

So the lens had been stuck open and the picture on the LCD screen was very blurry. After a few seconds the camera would beep and LCD would read, lens error, restart camera. When I restarted the camera it would produce the same blurry picture and repeat. This was and sometimes still is my problem. My advice. Don't buy a Canon Powershot CD1000 digital ELPH or any camera that has a lens that telescopes every time you turn it on or off. (That is if you ever plan on taking it out of the container) I will have to preface this by saying, it takes great pictures and I love it but there is a serious design flaw.

Here's what I found when I googled it.....paraphrased of course. After looking on various chat rooms regarding my error message, I've found that I have a few options to explore. Number 1, remove the battery, put it back in and then restart. No dice. Number 2, hit (with moderate force) on a the end where your battery is housed. This didn't work for me but fixed the problem for some people. Number 3 and the winning option, twist and pull(lightly) on the telescoping lens and it with click and all will be better. That is until it gets stuck again, and it has. Great design! A word of caution, don't toggle from camera, to video, to picture review while the camera is on....it makes the lens go in and out, gets stuck and gives this error alot! Number 4, send it to Canon. If a warranty would cover this problem, which it appears by reading these chats that it doesn't, you could send it into Canon. Since I don't have a warranty, I took it apart and looked at it just long enough to realize that I should put it back together. For the record, it's not a good idea. I was able to get it back together and it still works.

So far, no need for a new camera, but I've added it to the budget.

Lens error. Restart camera.

My day is officially ruined. What will I do? My camera won't stop giving me this message. I think I'm going to cry. Never mind, Zachary's awake, he'll cry for me.

Skin vs. Plastic...

Not even a debate. Zachary hates plastic nipples. Unfortunately in this case of breastfeeding vs bottle feeding he'll have to concede at some point. So far, no concession seems likely. He screams, pukes, chokes, and overall refuses to calm down during bottle feeding times. All I have to do is put the nipple to his lip or cheek and he flies into a fit of madness and screaming. I've only tried three times and only gotten him to suck and swallow once.....I know it will happen again but it's frustrating. I'm sure he feels much more frustrated than I! Especially judging by the time it takes him to stop crying in between tries.

Since I don't remember this transition with Dylan, I'm having to go back to square one and try my luck at it. The only thing I remember with Dylan was he took a bottle no problem...I'm sure that I blocked out the first few attempts due to the huge failures that they were.

So I looked up on Asksears.com and found that you shouldn't put the nipple in his mouth but let him take it by himself. Mistake #1. Tricia and I had a feeling he wasn't eating much during some of his feedings. This almost proves that he's really not hungry but just looking for mommy and Zachary time. I don't blame him. I've been looking for Mommy time for some time now. Just occupying the same space with cats, kids and mommy DOESN'T count!

Expecting Zachary to follow the same "pattern" with bottle feeding as breastfeeding. Mistake #2. So, wer'e less than 10 minutes since the last failed attempt, he normally naps from 9ish to 2ish with a breastfeeding stop in the middle, he's sitting in his swing chair looking at the ceiling fan and completely happy. (this is until I write this down)



I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to relearn this process because I forgot everything and because I've pushed one baby through this phase, I'm thinking that I know everything. Mistake #3.


He just started fussing. Should I try again? Did the Berenstein bears go into the Spooky Old Tree? Yes! He dares!

Never mind. He feel asleep. Pattern schmattern. Baby's are difficult.

Struggling a bit....but ok.

Over the past week, Dylan and I have had a similar stomach virus. Dealing with the two of us plus a three week old baby has made Tricia feel like a caged animal. Today she demanded a trip outside our home. We went to the mall to exchange some of Zachary's gifts and have some non-dairy lunch. The good news? Dylan was hungry for lunch, he ate his lunch of penne pasta and marinara sauce and afterwards produced his first solid in a week.

The measurables from the last week include but are not limited to......no breakfast food was eaten, three pukes on the kitchen table, lost track of toilet deposits, one daddy toilet/bed-ridden for one day, no broccoli was eaten, and the kicker....he was in a great mood the whole time!(the same can not be said about the daddy) I should qualify this by saying, he was already a bit more irritable from the arrival of Zachary and we are still in the process of figuring out where the stomach virus disposition and the Zachary displacement emotions differ. Oh well, we have a number of years to figure that out....the Zachary displacement emotions that is.

Kickball.

Kickball is coming to a close and I've finally reached a level of carelessness. We haven't won a game all year, most of the time it's by double digits, and we never have as many players as the other teams (11). Normally, and throughout the early part of the year this bothered me but now, while drinking and sharing a 6-pack of Old Style, I can handle getting throttled and be found laughing while endearing the past aggravation.

Tonight the final was 17-4 but only because they played a Keystone cops routine in the final inning to let us cut the lead to 13. The silver-lining? We scored first. I'm happy with that and I made a couple of good catches and pegged a runner rounding first from right field.

In other news.....HB Dad's group is turning over. I'm bummed. It's happened twice already. Some of the friends Dylan and I have made are still part of our playtimes/travels and others are not. Where are they going? Some families are moving, kids are getting to rambunctious for the space, and others are having to make different childcare arrangements. I wish them all well and hope that our paths cross often with ample amounts of beer, cheese, and conversation.

Market Rage and other nonsense.

I can't remember who I was talking to or why we were talking about it but recently there was an article printed somewhere about the do's and don'ts of the Dane County Farmer's Market (DCFM). The only don't I can remember from this conversation was not to go against traffic which is an absolute must. But, I'm hoping something on the list resembled the situation me and my family encountered this past weekend.

So, this past week we were on the square, later than normal(10am), and the foot traffic got tremendously crowded. I remembered this conversation and wanted to make an addendum to the article that provided suitable and immediate punishment to the violators of these don'ts. The main cause of my market rage was two specific incidents where a group of people, presumably long lost relatives from another space and time, found each other and couldn't help but clog up the entire sidewalk while a perfectly good track of grass and shade was available mere feet from their current location. I asked Tricia if I could fit the stroller with a ram and provide a much needed path through the dam of humanity. With the hope that the people would fly apart like pins off of a bowling ball. She responded by laughing. I responded by being cranky and finding the quickest way out of the crowd and into the parking ramp. In my defense if this had happened during one of the first two legs of the square I would have been fine but this happened towards the end of the third leg and by that time my patience is usually shot.

Has anybody seen the guy that walks around the square chanting about every country(he actually sings the same chant and puts the name of the country in the chant. It's even alphabetical so you can test your knowledge of the country's of the world) in the world and wishing them peace and harmony? I'm just wondering because if I would have had to listen to that along with the reunion meetings, someone would have been injured. Nothing bad really but the backs of their legs would've had tire marks.

The other nonsense I was referring to in the title is about pressure associated with nursing and lack of a proper rotation. Zachary had fallen asleep while nursing on the second side and Tricia was coaxing him to nurse so the tension/pressure would be relieved. So, I asked what it felt like. She responded by describing the feeling like your stomach feels after you eat a very filling meal. Thinking I'm smart and having to always put things in my own words, to show comprehension, I offered it's like the difference between the way a normal butt cheek feels in comparison to one that has swollen from a bee bite. She responded with....no, not really. I still think my reference is pretty close.

Bored. Nonsense. It's a feeling blah

Oh the wonderful chair Nana provided. Feast your eyes on the heavenly chair that allows Tricia to sit without a doughnut and be in the sun. This was our nap time activity for today.

Doing nothing? Hardly. I was checking the shudder speed on the back end of the sun filter to check for......Of course, we're doing nothing. Unless you count noticing the lack of stain of the deck, lack of railing on the deck, the lack of green plants and flowers in the flower bed, or the funny way my feet feel in the sun, as something. Sure, we're bored and perfectly happy noticing the things that we just can't find time to notice during any other time in our lives.

This is usually the special smirk for, let's go upstairs and have mommy and daddy time. Today it meant, Tricia, you're really swell. Wanna hang out on our deck and stare into the abyss? Oh, and take pictures of each other doing so.

I'm so sorry you wasted your time reading this.