Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Seeing things

Lately, I wear a bandana to bed to try and control my shedding. While I was pregnant, I stopped shedding hair. It was fabulous. But now my head is making up for lost time and shedding double what I used to. I know. Wierd. Anyway, there's no good way to keep anything on my head while I sleep. My pins, rubber bands, and bandanas all slip off in the night, so I don't even know why I bother.

Well there's the prelude to my story. Last night around 4 am, I woke up with the baby next to me, and I thought, hm I should move her to the other side and feed her with my other boob (which was uncomfortably full). I sat up in the dark, and right by the baby's butt and feet, I saw a big dark pile of something with whitish specks, and in my foggy state, I immediately assumed that somehow Ruby had a giant blowout and it squooged out of her diaper. So I reached for a rag, covered the giant poo pile, and after considering whether I should wake her or not, I decided that I wasn't going to sleep for another couple hours with the stink. So I took her to the other room, flipped on the light, and surveyed what I fully expected to be a giant mess. Lo and behold, she was completely clean. As Ruby blinked confusedly at me, I opened her diaper, and wondered how all the poo could have gotten on the bed while keeping her diaper spotless. Completely puzzled, but still convinced that the stuff on the bed was poo, I went back to the bedroom with a wide-eyed and cheerful baby, switched on the light (sorry jonner), and carefully lifted the rag off of it. It was my bandana. How it traveled way down there is beyond me, but there it was, pretending to be a giant pile of poo. I swear, I could smell it.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Oh my god

I am blown away by a sticky blast of smiling-in-her-sleep-cuteness.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Rimsky Pestypest




Rimsky has been the biggest of all pests lately. He is officially "Pestypest". When he's not napping, he's frolicking with Coco and ripping out giant tufts of his hair which roll around the house like fluffy white tumbleweed, trying to climb up the door frames, chewing on the blind cords, running around like a crazy mini pony and knocking over stuff, sitting in the crib and playing with the baby rattle, scratching and crying at the door when I'm trying to put the baby to sleep, provoking Bailey, and the other day, he actually hung on the wooden trim above our stairs and pulled it off. But then yesterday while Jonner and I were sitting together on the couch, he came and squirmed his way in between us and immediately went to sleep. He's so cute.



Coco and Bailey are also well. Coco seems to think that Bailey is his bestest friend, but Bailey isn't interested in anything except humping him. I guess that's a kind of interest. Anyway, Coco is always approaching her and trying to get her to play with him, but she just won't bite.

Still managing to stay cool/warm/cool

Despite the crazy weather (from 90 to 40 then back up again within 4 days), we are all healthy.

We joined a CSA (community supported agriculture) recently, and we get a box of whatever veggies are in season once every two weeks. It's been pretty great. We weren't able to use all the black radishes or the sorrel, but we were able to use the asparagus, chives, spinach, ramps, sunchokes, herbs, and salad mix. It helps you figure out how to make different things and also try new veggies. For instance, ramps (a kind of wild onion) are now one of my favorite veggies-- I think they taste better than chives, green onions, or regular onions. Mmmm.



OK, the non baby related subjects are exhausted. Heh. Ruby is getting smarter and heavier, as would be expected--but it's weirdly exciting for me to watch. I feel like those overly excitable kids at the zoo: Look mom looklooklook! That bear just BLINKED! My favorite moments are when she smiles and babbles at me after nursing. It's so beautiful and exciting--it just turns me into a great big mushy puddle of love. But then the not so mushy thoughts enter my head: is this the last time she'll be really grateful for things that I do for her? When she's not even fully cognizant? Is that the only time people are truly thankful for their mothers--when they're babies? Will she take me for granted from now on, and when she gets me chocolates for future mother's days, will it be from obligation and not out of appreciation? Will I be spending the next 20 years dedicated to raising a decent human being, and only get some crappy mugs and flowers in return? Maybe. But if I can get one of those big, bright, out-of-this-world smiles every once in a while, I think I can handle it.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Mother's Day

Yes, I had a good mother's day. Ruby got me a bouquet, a card, and a brand new sewer. I wish. But she did give me a great big toothless smile. It was great.

But speaking of sewers, we've got a lovely multi-thousand dollar problem on our hands. We have a large crack in our sewer pipe under our sidewalk. And all the horrible problems that come with it. I can't even bring myself to elaborate.

Besides that, there's not a lot out of the ordinary going on here.

Monday, May 07, 2007

Happy May Day

Yesterday was May Day, one of the most special days of the year. It's hard to say how awesome it is unless you actually are there. Every year I am surprised again by how much I enjoy it. Ruby was there, of course, which totally screwed up her nap schedule. But then she slept for 7 and a half hours at night, which totally surprised me. (Of course, I couldn't enjoy it because half way through, my boobs got totally engorged and painful, so I had to pump in the middle of the night, and then I couldn't get back to sleep, etc, etc)

There are some new photos up on the flickr site.

Friday, May 04, 2007

The doctor says

...that Ruby is the most amazing baby ever! Well, that's what I heard, at any rate. I guess her brain is growing great, her weight is up, she's taller and stronger than average, and it sounds like she's going to be able to turn herself over soon. Any day now, she's going to be singing Sweet Home Alabama and turning cartwheels too.

It's kind of crazy to think that all that growth is happening when the only thing going into her is this thin whitish liquid from my boobs.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Yay!

So Jonner went out and got me this book that his sister recommended, called the No Cry Sleep Solution. Well, there was this one little part in the book that talked about picking up on my baby's sleepy cues (rubbing eyes, eyes glazing over, yawning) and then hurrying up and getting her to bed. Because babies have a really short sleepy window, you have to get them then; otherwise, they get their second wind which makes them insanely wakeful and cranky to boot. Of all the advice in the book, that was what made the biggest difference. I've been keeping a sleep log since THE DAY THE BOOK CAME, and she's been sleeping so much better. Her naps during the day are often 2 to 3 hours long as opposed to the measly 45 minutes or half hour they used to be. Every night for the last week, she's slept at least 4 to 5 hours in a row, and with nursing in bed, I get a pretty decent night's sleep. Interrupted, but decent. The first two days, I couldn't believe it. For naps, when the second hour hit, I'd run up to her in a panic, thinking she had suffocated or something. But no, SHE WAS SLEEPING! I felt (and still feel) like a rock star.