Big Shoes to Fill

me, mom, mama and mamoo- 4 generations!

I come from a long line of feisty spirited women. Bucking the norm has been handed down from one generation to the next. (Would you expect anything less from the descendants of a woman named Henri?) 

MaMa, mom, Caroline and me- 4 generations again!

The typical womanly characteristics you would expect from the matriarch of the family-cleaning, cooking, alphabetized chronologically-ordered photo albums of each family member- somehow have eluded the Gladden/Herrod genes that were handed down to me. But in their place I inherited a repertoire of skills and traits that I find far more endearing. Creativity, from my paternal grandmother Nell Douglas who unfortunately I never had the chance to know.  I've heard stories about her handy ways around a workshop, how she could fix/fabricate/create anything she dreamed up. My dad always claimed she was the original inventor of the skateboard....she built one for him when he was a kid long before they were mainstream. 


From my maternal grandmother, MaMa (that's may-may in case you were wondering) I inherited a definite disgust of all things kitchen-related and and an insatiable appetite for the great outdoors! Who has time to waste on pots and pans when there's a great big beautiful world out there?? Mama was never one to win anyone over with her cooking (just ask about the fabled 'goo dish' my grandfather complained of, or the ketchup growing fur in her fridge, or the quail from 1985 still frozen in her freezer threatening to make an appearance on the dinner table...) but her zest for travel and experiencing all the world has to offer makes her one of the most fun people I know. How many 80-something-year-old grandmothers do you know who would climb 300+ steps just for the pleasure of viewing a spectacular waterfall, or strap on a harness and helmet and go flying on a zipline? Only my MaMa! Just two weeks ago she returned from an expedition across the Atlantic to view the world-famous tulip gardens in Amsterdam. I owe my wanderlust and love of the natural world to MaMa.

Emily, me and MaMa in Costa Rica

MaMa looooves her great-grandaughter!

From my mom, I inherited ALL of my physical characteristics (from brown hair to tans-easily  to petite stature) and a can-do, why-not,  aptitude. She has never followed closely to what was 'typical' or 'expected'. She was famous for breaking the rules and challenging the norms.  (To this day, her favorite Christmas tradition is running all the red lights on the early Christmas morning drive to MaMa's house. Dangerous? Perhaps. Super fun? Definitely!!) At several points during my life I felt out of kilter, off the beaten path, not sure where I was headed. But my Mom always encouraged me in whatever direction I was headed, whether that was frolicking in Hawaii for the summer or changing my major in college or eloping with my husband on a private ceremony on the beach. Her attitude always was, and always will be, follow your heart. Don't worry about others' expectations. Without those words to live by my life would not be the same.

Mom and me circa 1979

Who goes hunting in every garden store in town to find
the perfect big metal chicken? My mom!

So I've got a lot to live up to in choosing what to pass down to my girl. Will she get my and MaMa's apalling lack of sense of direction? Will she get my and my mom's love for trashy made-for-tv movies and all things crafty? I only hope that when she's 30-something she'll be laughing and telling stories about all the crazy anti-mom things I did when she was growing up. And if she's burning the mystery meatloaf because she's too busy gabbing on the phone, telling me all about her latest hairbrained adventure, then I know I'll have been successful as a mother. 

Goodbye fourth trimester!

We made it! We survived the dreaded first 3 months, or 'fourth trimester' as it's sometimes called. It was a bumpy road but things are definitely improving. Her eating issues still haven't been solved, but otherwise she's a happy healthy girl. When she's not projectile vomiting or fussing in pain she is smiley smiley smiley! She will charm every stranger she comes across. Her vocalizations are a hoot...she's really getting serious about letting us know what she thinks! We practice having conversations and she is always a willing participant. It's so fun to watch her little personality unfold. I suspect once she learns how to talk she will never stop! 

I wish we had a house with a yard and a porch because she is loving being outside right now! Sitting on the porch swing, listening to birds, watching the trees, and strolling are all enjoyable activities. She even inherited my love of thunderstorms!! One day last week while we were at my grandmother's house she was being fussy, so we took her outside on the porch to watch the thunderstorm. She stopped crying immediately! Watch out Jim Cantore...there's another budding storm chaser in our household.

As my mom says, if we could just get her eating/pain issues solved she would be the world's best baby! We saw a new doctor (the 5th one thus far) a few weeks ago and he was incredibly helpful. He spent an entire hour with Bill and I talking about different tests, medicines, formulas, etc. It was so much good information that no one had ever bothered to sit down and tell us....it was always a 15 minute in-and-out-here's-some-new-medicine-come-back-in-3-weeks routine. This doctor was the first one that actually left us feeling informed and hopeful. I'm confident he will help us make her feel better. In the meantime though it's still a game of trial and error to pinpoint what's going on, and we can only change one variable at a time. At the last appointment he upped her Prevacid dosage (2 mLs, twice a day) but I can't see any improvement in her at all. I counted six separate screaming episodes while we were in Baton Rouge last week....one minute she's perfectly fine and content, and a split second later she is SCREAMING in pain and will continue to scream for 30-60 minutes. And of course the general fussy routine is still in full swing as well...eat,spit up, fuss and cry. Rinse and repeat alllll daaaaay looong. I just keep thinking this is a milk protein allergy, and until the doctor proves to me that it's NOT, I will keep bringing it up. Every time we changed her formula, she would do great and seem so much better for a few days. And then after a few days she would be back to her old fussy self. Acid reflux (which is what they say she has) doesn't act that way with formula changes. A milk protein allergy does. If it were 'just' reflux, she would spit up all day every day no matter what formula we tried. The fact that she would do better for a few days, and then go downhill again, has me convinced it's a milk allergy. (This would also explain her similar behavior when we switched from breastmilk to formula.)

The formula Wall O Shame.
You probably thought I was joking when I said we've tried every formula under the sun.

Notice the wet/dry line. Half her outfit is soaked from spit up! And this was
after only one feeding!! I do laundry in my sleep now.

Our next doctor appointment is Monday. We'll see what he wants to do next. Poor sweet baby girl. Happy 3 month birthday cutie patootie! 

Oh, and a little Winnie lagniappe too. He was scared to death we were going to drive off and leave him in Louisiana. He thought this would be an appropriate measure to make sure he didn't get left behind.

Noises, Music, and Melodies

We've discovered that noises can be friend or foe in our household. She's a pretty hearty sleeper and noises don't usually bother her. When she wants to sleep, she sleeps pretty hard. But occasionally something will startle her awake, and the saddest thing you've ever seen is a baby whose eyes pop wide open, and then the lip turns down and starts to quiver, and then the sad wailing begins. Exhibit A: when Bill comes home from work in the afternoon, Winnie always barks when he hears the garage door open. Sudden barking noises + sleeping baby = pug that is in danger of getting beaten. Exhibit B: while staying at my grandmother's house, after 30 minutes of swaddling/bouncing/rocking I finally finally got her to go down for her nap at 2:00. At 2:05, the yardman showed up. Not at 10:00 am or 3:34 pm or 6:42 pm or any other time of day when the baby WASN'T sleeping. Precisely at 2:05, a mere 5 minutes after she'd finally fallen asleep. And of course it was the day to break out the chainsaw to trim the azalea bushes, and blast away on the leaf blower to rid every square inch of the porch of any wayward leaves. Meanwhile the dogs inside the house were going beserk because they've spotted a black man wielding a chainsaw lurking in the bushes outside the house, and they felt the need to adequately warn us of the imminent danger of the situation. Complete barking chaos + sleeping baby = 2 dogs about to make a trip to the pound.


But some noises are absolutely mesmerizing to Caroline...windchimes, the sound of running water. Last night in the bathtub I turned the water on a slow flow which produced a nice splashy noise, and she shrieked in utter delight. She was clearly impressed with the water works and spent a good bit of time just staring at the falling water.


She also looooves music, specifically any music from the 60's or 70's , and anything we sing to her. During bathtime we listen to the Portuguese jazz singer Eliane Elias, and she loves it when I sing the songs to her. She tries to sing along with her little shrills and shrieks...too cute. I sing to her at naptime too, an impromptu little diddy I call 'The Anti-Nap Song.'


I don't want to nap today
I want to stay awake and play


I'm not going to sleep at all
let's go shopping and hit the mall


I'm not closing my eyes, no, no
I'd rather get in the car and go


I don't need to rest, I'm wide awake
you may think I am tired but I'm a good fake


I'm staying alert with all my might
but my eyes are heavy and I'm losing the fight



Maybe I'll doze for a moment or two
but wait, haha, I was fooling you


No sleep for me, too good to be true
no nap for me, and no rest for you!




Every morning we listen to some golden oldies as we get dressed, and she has the best time dancing along to the Temptations and Three Dog Night, etc. My girl has distinct musical tastes.

All these noises and music and singing are definitely helping her to become more vocal. She has been practicing talking and loves hearing the sound of her own voice. She gets a big kick out of 'talking' to Daddy...they did this for about 10 minutes the other night!