It's (Still) Snowing

OK hippies, where's global warming? I've been waiting patiently and it's still snowing. GIVE ME WARMER TEMPERATURES!!

And don't even start in with that bull phooey about how global warming actually makes it colder, because that doesn't make any fucking sense.

SciFriday

It's time for the first installation of SciFriday!

So, have you ever stubbed your toe or slammed your finger with a hammer, and while you're grunting and swearing, you grab onto your injured body part and squeeze it? You probably have. I think everyone has, or at least they've wanted to.

Squeezing an injured body part seems counterproductive. It seems like it would just make it hurt more.

However, squeezing (or putting pressure on) an injured body part actually makes it hurt less. This phenomenon is due to something called the gate-control theory of pain.

You've probably never wondered exactly how you feel things. Someone punches you in the face, and it hurts, right? Right. But what if, instead of punching you, someone simply strokes your face instead? Or pours cold water onto it? Or blows onto it? How do you know the difference? Or more importantly, how does your brain know the difference?

Well, under your skin, you have a metric ass ton of cells called sensory receptors, which are basically just specialized neurons.

picture from exploringnature.org

Sensory receptors aren't only present in skin; they're responsible for vision, hearing, blood pressure regulation, and about a zillion other things. If you didn't have these receptors, not only would you be blind, deaf, and unable to feel anything, your blood pressure would careen out of control and your blood's pH would fall or climb to much that you would die.

Take a gander at the picture up there (which is an awesome picture, might I add). If someone dumped cold water in your face, you'd know that it was cold because of thermoreceptors. If the water was between 35 and 20 degrees Celsius, the cold receptors in your skin would start pinging, sending messages to your brain that it's fuckin' cold send more blood! Strangely, temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) also make cold receptors ping, which makes you feel cold even when the stimulus is painfully hot.

So, we were talking about being punched in the face. When you are punched in the face, nociceptors are activated. Nociceptors have many jobs, one of which is to feel pain so that you can get away from it. They also activate autonomic responses, like an increase in blood pressure, heart rate, epinephrine, sweating, and other fun stuff (all of which play a role in allowing you to escape the cause of your pain, like a dinosaur). Nociceptor activation will also make you angry or scared. So if you get punched in the face and your heart starts thumping and you want to punch back, it's because those nociceptors that were activated during the punching have gone and woken up the caveman part of your brain.

You get punched. If we imagine that whoever punched you has no interest in escalating further, you are now left to stand there and whimper. Your first instinct (besides to retaliate) is to put your hand up to the tender spot. Your higher brain says "No don't touch it! It's sore and going to hurt more!" But your lizard brain just wants you to rub that sore spot as hard as you can.

Why, lizard brain, why?!

Because of the gate-control theory. That's Dr. Lizard Brain to you.

www.d.umn.edu

This is an illustration of the gate-control theory. On the left is unmodulated pain, or what happens when you don't press on your owies. Basically, all that is illustrating is that each nociceptor has an inhibitory interneuron - a neuron that would decrease the pain if only the nociceptor would let it. But the nociceptor's job isn't to not let you feel pain; the nociceptor needs you to know that something bad is happening so that you can get away from it and prevent injury! So the nociceptor has a built-in inhibiter of the inhibitory interneuron which disables the inhibitory interneuron, which allows the full pain signal to reach your brain.

Enter modulation! When you rub your skin after being punched, you're essentially telling your nociceptors "Yeah yeah I know, I got punched." Rubbing activates the A-beta fibers you see in purple in the illustration, and those fibers un-inhibit the inhibition of the inhibitory inte--- OK, those A-beta fibers make the inhibitory interneurons work, which then sends a modulated (read: weaker) pain signal to your brain.

The result: less pain! So the next time you get punched in the face, don't fight that urge to rub your owie.

Eureka!

So, I wrote a post about wanting to do a weekly thing, I just didn't know exactly what. But today while I was driving home from school, gleeful from learning all about gamma radiation, that I had one of those "a-ha!" moments.

Seven Months Old

Camille's milestones this month:

She can crawl!

She pulls up on low stuff and tries to stand. She doesn't quite have this standing thing down pat yet, but she sure tries it a lot.

She does handstands.

She can feed herself Cheerios.

She sleeps by herself in her crib.

Still no teefers, but they're almost here.

It's Snowing

More Handstands

I don't think this will ever get old.

Garden Update

So it's been a couple of weeks. But I did that on purpose, so there would be some kind of real progress to show!

Butterfly flower, jalapeno, tomato

Dead nasturtium.

Top to bottom: habanero, jalapeno, salvia/basil/jalapeno

Cucumber!

The tomatoes are growing in their second leaf set.

Nasturtium.

The smallest nasturtium's leaves are doing this weird
curl-up thing. I dunno what that means...

The Legend of Zombie Jesus

Warning: do not partake of this post unless you have a sense of humor. PS I don't actually believe that Jesus is a zombie (but I do believe in the Zombie Apocalypse, which is why I sleep with a chainsaw under my bed).

Antelope Island

I live in Salt Lake City. There's quite a large lake here.

It may or may not be the largest inland salt lake in the world.

Operation Single Sleeper, Regression

Last night, Camille woke up at 1am, which is business as usual. Normally, she goes right back to sleep.

But last night, she didn't go back to sleep. She stayed up crying until 4am.

I'm. So. Tired.

I think she's teething. She had better be teething, because otherwise she was screaming for 3 hours in the middle of the night for no reason. And if that's the case, she's grounded.

Bell Canyon Hike

It's a beautiful day! OK a little bit chilly, but nothing too terrible. And at least it's not raining!!

So, What Have You Done For the Earth Today?

Warning: if you believe that evolution is a load of dookie, then this post is not for you.

It's Earth Day!

The Cheerio Queen

She can feed herself Cheerios, which seems like a minor task but is in reality a big milestone. The pincer grip that everyone with an opposable thumb takes for granted is apparently pretty difficult to master. You know, when you're a baby and you have zero coordination.

Her success rate is about 1 in 5, but that's better than 0 in 5 like it was last week. She would grab a Cheerio in her fist and attempt to cram her entire fist in her mouth. Which, as many of us know from experience, isn't the best way to ingest food (unless you have a tiny fist or a gigantic mouth). Now, she grabs it between her thumb and forefinger (and occasionally her thumb and middle finger) and pops it in her mouth. Sometimes, the Cheerio will stick to her fingers and she won't be able to eat it. Or, she'll put it in her mouth but it will fall back out. Or, she'll try to feed her nose or cheek.

Right now, she has dumped out her Cheerios onto the floor and is busy trying to eat the cup that I put them in. Kids say eat the darndest things.

Something Someday

So, on a lot of blogs I read, there's something like a "Wordless Wednesday" or "Feel-Good Friday" or "Monkeyface Monday" that they do every week. It makes me wonder whether I should do something like that. More importantly, can I remember to do it every week? Probably not. I do a monthly SLC photo and I forget about that all the time. But maybe that's because it's only monthly; perhaps a weekly thing, being more frequent, would be easier to be reminded of.

If I decide to do it, though, what would it be? I wouldn't want to do any of the aforementioned days, because someone is already doing those (except Monkeyface Monday; I made that one up).

I was thinking "Pantsless Tuesday," but I don't know exactly what I would do while pantsless. I'm certainly not going to post pictures of my pantsless self on the Internet (you wouldn't want to see those pictures anyway!). Maybe Camille pantsless? But she's pantsless all the time, so there's nothing unique there.

I don't think it's supposed to be this hard to come up with a little fun weekly thing. Maybe that's a sign that I shouldn't do it.

Operation Single Sleeper, Phase Three

PROFIT!

Camille went to bed at 9 last night.

She got up at 2-ish and cried for a little bit, but she fell back asleep instantly once I put her binky back in her mouth.

She got up at 5, and I fed her. She went back to sleep until 8, and that's when we got up for the day.

It took a little while, and there were sleepless nights, but it feels great to have her sleeping by herself like a big girl. :)

The Business of Being Granola

Any pregnant woman has probably heard of or watched the documentary "The Business of Being Born." I watched it while I was pregnant, and it sent me into a frothing frenzy of rage against doctors and hospitals and traditional medicine: "How dare they tell me how to have my baby?! What the fuck do they even know?! Get your unnecessary interventions away from me!!"

Camille Can Crawl

Yep, you heard me correctly. She is capable of moving herself around on the floor. She usually isn't motivated to move just for the fun of it, but if we bait her with the TV clicker, she'll zoom around like it's the Indy 500.

It's not conventional crawling. She'll kinda fall forward and then pick herself back up, a few inches ahead of where she had been a moment ago. She continues that fall-then-get-up scoot until she reaches her final destination.

It's the beginning of something insane! Now I have to baby-proof.

Good-Bye, Seeds

All of my seeds have sprouted and been planted. Yes, even the habaneros! I was expecting a longer wait, but I'm happy to have been misled.

The cukes outgrew their plugs a few days ago, so I transferred them to proper pots. They'll be transplanted to their final growing spots once the weather warms up a bit more.

The cups are there so the cukes don't fall over.

Everything else is growing well. The nasturtium especially has really taken off! Last year they wouldn't even germinate, but this year they grow like crazy. Maybe it was all that therapy I made them go through.

The nasturtium is on the left.

The salvia and basil need to be thinned.

Too many plant babies, not enough space.

And by that, I mean I need to abort some. It's standard practice to plant 2-3 seeds in one hole, because it gives you better odds of having sprouts. Sometimes, only one will sprout, but sometimes, all three will. In that case, you wait until they're a couple inches tall, and then you kill the weaker ones.

Well, I'm a human being, so I'm naturally inclined to help weak things. And I'm an American, which makes me want to root for the underdog. So it's very hard for me to destroy some of my seedlings.

But unfortunately, Mother Nature demands that I reduce some seedlings out. She's kind of a hardcore bitch. Only the strong survive. But she's been doing this a lot longer than I have, so I guess I have to listen to her. The basil and salvia are still only about an inch tall, though, so I have some time yet to get myself ready for the killin'.

There is something known as "damping off" which refers to several plant maladies, but most commonly is what you call it when a seedling falls over and dies for no reason. It's Sudden Seedling Death Syndrome (SSDS). It's caused by a fungus in the soil or something like that. It happened to many of my seedlings last year because I was ignorant of a few things, and I've lost a couple this year (possibly not to damping off, but they sure did just fall over and croak for no reason). I decided to do something proactive about it, and I made a concoction of mostly water with a bit of hydrogen peroxide mixed in. I mist the seedlings with that, and also water them with it. Hopefully it works.

Olympus Hills Park

I've driven by this place a few times, and I finally decided that today, I would stop and check it out.

I'm pretty sure it's a fairly new place because everything still looks... well... new. It's maintained well and I didn't see any trash around (except in the fence by the highway but hey, whaddayagonnado?).

CUTECON Level: Critical

Butt-in-the-air sleep position.

Crawling: ur doin it rong.

Having this much fun is exhausting.

A Bigger Bit of Gigglepuss

Camille usually goes to bed at 9, but tonight she was pretty wired and didn't get tired until closer to 10. This is what she was doing during her past-bedtime activities.

I'd let her stay up all night if she stayed this happy!

Netflix Review: Tangled

This movie was adorable! I highly recommend it to anyone who likes Disney/Pixar movies.

As with all Disney movies that are based on Grimm Brothers' Fairy Tales, it deviates from the original, effed-up story so as not to frighten the childrens. Here is the rundown of how the story of Rapunzel was originally written.

Camille is a Squirt

Camille had her 6-month doctor's appointment today. Have I mentioned that I really like her pediatrician? Well, I have another reason for liking him now. I realized today that he nervous-rambles. Just. Like Me. It's always nice to see that someone who shares one of my shortcomings is successful in spite of it.

When she was weighed, I almost shit myself. 15 pounds. I thought she was 16 last time we went. So I spent about 10 minutes freaking out that Camille is wasting away and that the nurse was, at that very moment, calling CPS to take Camille away from us. Well, CPS was not called. Apparently, I've been smoking crack or something, because Camille was 14 pounds last time. She's not wasting away. I'm crazy.

Her stats for her 6-month checkup were:
23 percentile in weight.
30 percentile in height.
16 percentile in head circumference.

Last time, her stats were:
45 percentile in weight.
91 percentile in height.
18 percentile in head circumference.

SHE IS SHRINKING!

Or maybe I'm just (still) crazy.

In any case, the pediatrician said she looks great, if not a little boogery. She didn't get a shot today because I want to wait until she's all the way better. Camille refused to sit down for the entire appointment, choosing instead to stand on my lap and yell. Dr. Dude said he predicts that she'll be walking by 10 months. That means she has 4 months. She better get crackin'!

Now, I'm off to watch my newest Netflix arrival: Tangled! Standby for my review.

Get Your Measles Outta My Face

WARNING: this blog is angry and a little bit political. Proceed at your own risk!

Velocibaby Transformation: 71% Complete

Camille has a cold, and she has lost her voice. When she tries to make noise, she sounds like a baby velociraptor.

So on the velocibaby transformation checklist:

• Claws (check)
• Toenails (check)
• Growl (check)
• Screech (check)
• Teeth (not yet)
• Stalk (not yet)
• Uncanny problem-solving skills (not quite)

Any day now...

Razzlebaby

We had Belgian waffles with berries this morning, and Camille got to enjoy herself a few raspberries. She liked them so much, she tried to incorporate them into her very skin.

Sproutlings

My sproutling army is growing!

Cucumbers and tomatoes.

Butterfly flower, nasturtium, tomato, invisible jalapeno.

Salvia and basil.

Opinion: TTC TMI?

Most modern mothers with Internet access have ventured onto some kind of pregnancy/baby forum or website. These same mothers have probably seen the term "TTC" at some point, and many may have found themselves wondering WTF that meant.

Well, it means "Trying To Conceive," and is a common topic for pregnancy forums. There are discussions on how to make yourself more fertile, the best times to do it, the best foods to eat, what kind of underwear your man should or should not wear, and how to bang so you get a boy/girl/whatever.

I've been uncomfortable with the TTC topics ever since I figured out that TTC is synonymous with "having lots of unprotected sexy times" -- which took me about 3 seconds. It's not that I'm a prude or anything, but I still don't want to actively think about other people having sex. Jake says it's because I have a Mormon within me, aching to be free, but I think it's because I have a sense of propriety. 

Anyway, has anyone else ever had someone tell them they're "trying to have a baby," and actually thought about what that really means? Like, one of your friends is like "yeah we're trying to have a baby" and you've thought of that person and their spouse naked and getting busy? Because I do. I can't help it. It's instantaneous. I turn it off almost immediately, but it's still there, and sometimes it makes me want to pour bleach into my skull.

This is the kind of thing I wonder about when I'm bored.

Oh Happy Day

Today was my last day of Chemistry lab this semester!

My sentiments exactly, Mr. Simpson.

Not that Chemistry lab wasn't interesting and fun and all that crap. It was just at a very inconvenient time: 1pm to 3pm on Saturday. Yes, it did suck, thank you for your condolences. But it's over now. So yay!

SuperKitteh

It's kind of an old story, but it made me cry a little.

Boogers, Boogers Everywhere

And not a drop to drink. (cackle, now you're thinking about drinking boogers)

Camille developed a runny nose on Wednesday night, and it's still going strong. 

And by runny, I mean liquid boogers literally flowing out of both nostrils. The flowing tickles her, apparently, so she puts her little hammy baby hand into the boogers and smears them all over her upper lip and cheeks. Then it dries. Cleaning her up is becoming tiresome.

I thought she was sick, but according to my mom and the Internet, she's probably just teething. She doesn't have a fever or any other sign that she's sick besides the runny nose, and she's definitely chomping on everything she sees. I'm inclined to believe she's teething. Why teething causes a runny nose is beyond me, but whatever.

Snoozin' Baby

This is how Camille sleeps now, with her butt up in the air. Apparently it's easier to fart this way, so it relieves gas. I still think it's pretty cute, farting or no.

This Just In: Exciting News From My Kitchen's Sprout Center

So, I've determined that if you really want to feel like a gardening superstar, the only thing you need to do is get a cucumber seed wet and set it on a paper towel. That's it.

Operation Single Sleeper, Phase Two and a Half

Last night, Camille spent from 9pm to 7am in her own crib.

I got up three times (that I remember) to put her binky back in her mouth, flip her onto her back, and put her blanket on her. Then I woud scurry out of the room, she would cry for about 3 minutes (yes, I was timing it), and then... miracle of miracles! She would fall back asleep on her own!

This morning, Jake got up at Early O'Clock and did his thing, and when he was leaving he came to give me a kiss good-bye. I noticed that Camille wasn't in bed with us, and I said, "Is she still sleeping?" somewhat incredulously, to which he replied, "Yep."

He left and a minute later reappeared with Camille in his arms. Apparently, she hadn't been asleep, but had just been laying in her crib, talking to herself. He put her in bed with me and went to school, and I fed Camille and then we both fell asleep for another hour or so. It was nice. :)

Toys in Babyland

Camille is six months old, but we haven't really gotten her any new toys since... uhh... well, a while. We got her a new rattle and a squishy book for the plane trip to Florida, but those weren't really new toys - they were just new versions of toys she already had.

Camille has been on the verge of crawling for about a week now.
Should I get toys that encourage her to crawl and/or walk?

We're thinking that, instead of putting her in the baby tub, we should just fill the normal tub with a couple inches of water and let her splash around.
Should I get baby bath toys?

She likes to bang together measuring spoons in the kitchen.
Should I get actual baby toys that she can bang together?

All the websites say that, at her development, she should like stacking toys and toys that do something cool when she does something to them.
Should I get those toys?

Or does she already have enough toys? Should I not rely on toys to keep her entertained and instead interact with her more myself? If I do get toys, which ones are more important to get and will last longer? We don't have a ton of money to spend on baby toys, so I'd want to get toys that will have the greatest impact.

Ugh, who knew gaudily-colored plastic baby toys would cause me so much mental anguish?

Grow, My Sproutlings!

The cucumbers were sprouting a couple of days ago. I checked this morning, and the tomatoes, basil, and salvia are all sprouted. Yay! So I thought now would be a good time to get their future accommodations in order, and I went to Lowes.

News From the Frigid Front

Yes. It's snowing.

Germy Nate

It's April! The sun is shining! The birds are singing! The snow is melting!

On the Spring Equinox every year, I start getting things ready for gardening. Even though we live in an apartment, I still keep a little balcony salsa garden. Having live plants somewhere in my house is a requirement for my mental well-being. I survived the winter because of my fishtank plants, and now that spring is here, I can have terrestrial plants as well!

I still had a bunch of seeds from last year, so I did the "are they still good?" test. I filled a small bowl with water and dumped the seeds in. Those that floated got trashed. Those that sank got poured onto a paper towel, had extra water squeezed out, and then were place in plastic bags labeled with what kind of seeds they were. All of my seed packets from last year had at least a few that were still good, so it looks like I don't have to buy any seeds this year. Yay!

The plastic bags were stacked on each other and placed in our downstairs bathroom. It's dark and warm in there, and that's what germinating seeds like.

I did all that yesterday. I'm expecting the cucumbers to start sprouting any minute. Last year, they sprouted up out of soil in like 2 days and just went bananas. As of now, there have been no sprouts.

March in the Es El See

March Diaper Count

The diaper count for March was:

129 diapers total!

87 pee

42 poop

That's a 4.2 diaper per day average. A little less than January and February. It's still going to be a crapload (haha get it crapload?) of diapers at the end of the year.

The Cadillac of Vacuums

Jake and I spent some of our tax return on a new vacuum, because our old one sucks at sucking.

"I'm a terrible vacuum."

Operation Single Sleeper, Phase Two

Camille doesn't like sleeping by herself.  -_-

At Mommy & Me group on Wednesday, I asked the other mommies what they did to convince their baby that sleeping alone in a crib is fun and wonderful. I told them that we had Camille in her bassinet next to the bed because I'm still uncomfortable with her in a completely different room.

"Well," said one. "She's probably too big for the bassinet."

I assured her that Camille fit fine in the bassinet, and even had several inches to spare.

"No, that's not what I mean," she said. "Some babies sleep a whole lot better when they're in a big crib or big bed. They like the openness."