Our Little Invalid

Maya went for her four month checkup yesterday (a little early, but in time to get her shots before next week's big trip). She checked out great; she's growing like a weed: 90th percentile for height and 95th for weight. But, for some reason, Maya doesn't believe in "well-baby" visits. She got the beginnings of a cold Sunday night, and now she has the full-blown thing. She's lost her "voice," so in addition to the phlegmy breathing and hacky cough, she has the most pitiful almost silent cry. It's horrible. About the only thing that's making her happy today (other than napping in my lap) is her electonic star:

And from Maya's perspective:

If one toy goes with us on the trip next week, that's it.

More Progress

So they're threatening to be done with our backyard this week. That would be great, since we'll be gone next week. It will give the sod some time to get watered in before the dogs come home. Here are some updated pictures. First, the patio pavers. Then a couple of views of the patio.

The Live Music Capital of the World

Austin is known for it's live music. We're not really "plugged in," but we enjoy some music now and again. With the arrival of sweet Maya, we've been staying in more recently. But this week, we went out to the last night of "Blues on the Green" here in Austin. It's a free blues concert every other Wednesday all summer long. We took some sandwiches and sodas and enjoyed an hour or so before Maya thought it was time to call it quits.




We did get to meet an Austin... um... celebrity. Leslie wandered by and kneeled down next to Maya. She was a bit... um... overwhelemed and she started crying. You know what they say... "Keep Austin Weird."

On Bananas, Avocados, and Ethylene

So I found out my first or second year of graduate school that I was "allergic" to bananas. It was a weird sudden thing; I used to be able to eat bananas without any ill-effects, but, all of the sudden, even a bite of raw banana would send my stomach writhing in excruciating cramps. Over the next couple of years, I tried again a couple of times but always with the same results. So it was that I resigned myself to not eating bananas. Strangely enough, however, cooked bananas seem fine. (Which is stupendous, since I love banana bread... no nuts, please.)

At the time, I did some internet searching, but I really couldn't find much about the problem, so I just assumed I was some crazy freak of nature.

Fast forward several years...

Today, I had a very tasty "Turkey Chipotle Wrap" for lunch; it had turkey, cheese, avocado, lettuce, and some chipotle sauce. About fifteen minutes after finishing it, my stomach started to take a turn for the worse. I was initially concerned about food poisoning, but after another 15 minutes or so, it felt just like the banana reaction. So I did some searching. And it turns out the Internet has grown since 2001! There's quite a list of people with exactly the same symptoms (including onset in their 20s!). Some links on this page led me to some bona fide research (I actually read an article from the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology).

From what I could decipher, bananas, avocados, and kiwi (and some other fruits and veggies) contribute to something the literature calls the "latex-fruit syndrome." Scientists have isolated the problem to stem from an enzyme (a chitinase, if you're keeping score) present in lots of produce. The problem seems to be isolated to a particular group of fruits because these fruits produce ethylene, which hastens the ripening process. Something about the ethylene appears to be correlated with the chitinase causing things like severe stomach cramps. And, for the record, heating the fruit seems to inactivate the enzyme.

Ethylene produced by fruits to speed ripening is a natural process. As the concentration of the ambient ethylene increases, the fruit ripens more, and produces more ethylene, in a cycle. (This is why you put fruit in a paper bag to help it ripen; the bag concentrates the ethylene around the fruit.) However, fruit distributors are apparently using this to their advantage to control when the fruit ripens (because, clearly, they want it to be exactly ripe at the store). They pick the fruit early (before it's ripe) and then they can store it for longer periods of time. Right before they deliver it to the grocery store, they spray it down with ethylene, inducing that ripening process. Some people conjecture that this less natural ripening process contributes to the allergies. Some people with the allergy report that eating fruit they KNOW hasn't been sprayed with ethylene prevents the response.

For me, I'm not willing to take the chance. No bananas, avocado, or kiwi for me.

Learning to Think Before You Speak, Part 2

Oh, I love my job. I love the flexibility and creativity of it, and I love working with students. But the nature of the field is that it is sorely lacking in women. I have very few female colleagues. And usually it doesn't bother me. But my male colleagues are so oblivious to what they say and how it is perceived that it is, at times, annoying. Just now, I've received an email sent to a list of assistant professors addressed "Gents." Now, I am the only woman on this list, but he knows me and he should know I'm on the list--he should have known better. As another example, when I was ~5 months pregnant last year, a male colleague said to me in the elevator, "So, looks like you're cooking something up in there." Geez.

Now, both of these guys are people I'm generally friendly with, and I really honestly believe that they're not actively trying to keep women down. In fact, I don't believe that either of these guys is against promoting women to join the field (you may be surprised to learn that there are some people who still think a women's place is not in engineering). But if you happen to be in a field where your sex dominates (and I've heard this happens the other way around to men in female-dominated fields), have a care, and THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK!

The Center of Our World

Maya grows up a little each day. She coos and laughs now, in addition to her silent smiles. She's grown interested in things around her; she loves to lay on her exercise mat and bat at the things hanging from the cross bars. She loves sounds and funny faces. She can lay on her stomach and arch her back and look all around. She's not rolling over yet, but she will use your finger to pull herself over on her side. From there it's 50/50 whether she goes back to her back or on over to her stomach. She's great fun.

Making Progress

Here's a photo update on the work in the backyard. Things are not moving at the pace we had hoped (the dogs have been at Tim's mom's house for over a month now), but we're cautiously optimistic that they're progressing better now. Here's a welcome sight:

And two views of the rest of the work:

California

Last week, my mom and I took Maya to California. I had to attend a conference for work, so mom came along to watch over Maya while I had to work. We were in Anaheim, though we didn't go to Disneyland (we didn't think Maya would appreciate it). We did, however, go to Downtown Disney for dinner one night. My mom insisted on buying Maya some new friends; here's Maya getting acquainted with Eeyore:


We went out to dinner most nights; Maya got the chance to try out her chair some more; I think it's growing on her:


And, the last day we were there, mom found Maya's favorite place to nap. Mom put her on a blanket with the door to our balcony open. Maya loved the white noise, the breeze in her hair, and the sun on her cheeks:


We did go searching for the ocean (yeah, I know, just drive west), but we couldn't find a good place to access the beach. Oh well...next time.

Laura's Baby Shower

Our friends Laura and James are expecting Maya's new best friend Adelaide in September. Last weekend, we had a shower to celebrate the expected bundle of joy. Here are some photos from the occasion:

Maya's New Chair

Maya got another chair. It's not that we don't all still love the Bumbo, and it's great around the house. The new chair is for trips. It's really portable and attaches to any table. Maya's still growing into it, but for short periods of time, she really seems to love it. The real purpose was for the trip to Croatia, but we're spending some time getting her used to it. It's even great on the living room table:

A Small Rant... or... Learning to Think Before You Speak

So, the Juliens have been under the weather. Maya kicked her fever last Saturday. Then she got a little rash all over, which the doctor said was a perfectly normal effect of the virus. Whew. Sunday, I got a headache. I still had the headache when I woke up on Tuesday. It was different enough from headaches I've had before, that I decided to go to the doctor. His gut instinct told him I was fine, he said, but he said "if this were a multiple choice test, the correct answer would be 'cerebral hemorrhage'. So I'd like you to have a CT scan." I was really just looking for some kind of breast-feeding friendly pain-killer, but, OK, I'll have the CT scan. Fortunately, it was "unremarkable." Unfortunately, he and his colleagues could not find a headache medicine that was safe for Maya. Tylenol is it. It's slowly been taking the edge of the headache, but it is not gone by any means. Unfortunately again, though, the contrast solution for the CT scan is not breastfeeding friendly. So it meant Maya had to eat some formula. But that's fine; we've been really flexible in that respect anyway, and Maya's been a champ moving from breast to bottle and constantly back and forth (which, by the way, has made the transition to day care much better).

Here comes the rant part...

Yesterday, when we got home from day care, I noticed Maya had a different, though less extensive rash. I called the pediatrician's office to ask about it, and, to make a long story short, they wanted her to be seen in the urgent care clinic yesterday evening. I took Maya, and while we were waiting to see the doctor, Maya got hungry and fussy. So I took out the makings of a bottle, made it, and started feeding it to her. A woman across the way was waiting with her two small children. Here was her conversation with one of her children (I'm sitting with Maya about 10 feet in front of this family, facing them):

Child: Where'd the baby go?
Mom: They sat down, right over there. The baby is eating.
Child: Oh.
Mom: That baby is eating from a bottle. Did you ever eat from a bottle?
Child: (Silently stares at his mother)
Mom: No. You were a lucky baby.

This just about did me in. I leaned in to Maya and said, loud enough for anyone to hear: "Maya, I think you're a very lucky baby. And I'm a very lucky mommy."

This goes to the heart of the breastfeeding stigma that has made me angry for years (yes, even before I was a mother myself). You're no longer looked down upon if you breastfeed; you're looked down upon (severely) if you DON'T, no matter what the reason is. Yes, breastfeeding is (usually) better for your baby. Yes, it's likely better for the mother, too. Yes, even Maya gets the vast majority of her nutrition from breastmilk (though, often from a bottle). But there are many instances in which it is in fact better for the baby and/or the mother to use formula either temporarily or permanently. Not to mention that it's nobody's business but mine and Maya's doctor's what my baby eats. There is a very large and outspoken population that behaves much the same way as this woman in the doctor's office waiting room that should really learn to think before they speak.

Maya's rash, by the way, probably just a leftover from the virus. Everything else checked out great. We're going to see the doctor again tomorrow just to check in before Maya and I head to California with grandma...