They must laugh deep down inside

Tonight, the baby got her bath and then ate and was drifting peacefully off to sleep in my arms. So, I sat her up to get that last burp before she was totally out. And, I ended up wearing most of what she had eaten. Lovely. Off to be changed, both of us, and then back into the chair with a super-happy and wide awake E. Cautiously, I let her eat again, hoping we wouldn't have a repeat performance. Content, she drifted off again and was soon that wonderful dead weight that sleeping babies are. Off to bed she went. No sooner had I tiptoed out of the bedroom, a car alarm went off. Right below the window. Un-happy and wide awake E. After shutting all the windows and reluctantly turning the AC on, we headed back to the chair. And rocked, and rocked, and rocked. Finally, she was that lovely dead weight in my arms again. I slid slowly out of the chair and began the shuffle towards the bassinet. It's a very calculated shuffle, only the feet can move, and perhaps a little sway of the hips, but nothing of the upper body can so much as twitch. The bedroom was dark and I silently congratulated myself for navigating around the chair and between the bed without stubbing my toes. And then it happened. Out from under the bed, shot the furball known as Rascal. He had all the room in the world, but clearly, between my feet was the most logical path to take. In a desperate attempt to catch my balance without flailing my arms wildly, and thusly dropping the baby, I twisted around to land myself sitting on the bed and managed to knock a whole stack of things off the chest. Which promptly woke the baby. And she cried. The bottom-lip-quivering-make-you-want-to-cry-too-cause-it's-so-pitiful cry. She was, of course, wide awake.

So, again I shuffled down the hallway and back to the chair, where our new little routine started all over again. And the cats slept soundly at my feet, most likely plotting their next ambush.

Do you wake the sleeping baby?

It's all my fault. I should have known better than to wrap E up in my handy-dandy Ultimate Baby Wrap, which I have finally figured out how to use, and take the trash out. And then take a walk around the complex. And look at the pool. And then go out on the balcony and play with my plants. And sit in my chair and watch the sun set.

Cause now it's 10pm and I have a soundly sleeping baby on me. A baby that still needs her bath and to eat before going to bed for the night. And I know that once I wake her up for that, we're going to be staying up for a while. And I'm kinda ready for sleep now, not later.

I am seeing a pattern with her though. Bedtime is going to be moved way up from 9 to more like 7. 7 is when she usually passes out on her own, and then I end up waking her to give her a bath, and then she is up for a while. Bath time is officially now at 6. It's a good thing I don't have a life anymore.

Blossom Time

Due to a very cranky baby that was fighting sleeping with all her might, and the lingering after affects of the dental work on Friday, I got so little sleep last night that I'm only going to count the three hours I got this morning from 6 to 9. Some time in the middle of the night I turned off my alarm, reasoning that if I ever did manage to sleep, it was definitely going to take precedence over going to church. And, it did.

When I finally drug myself out of bed, along with the bright-eyed and chipper E, I stuck her in the bouncy seat and took my shower, hoping it would wake me up just a bit more. Then I came out and played with her on the floor. During the all important tummy time, she passed out. And I think I may have too :-) But, Lucy kept an eye on her for me.



After I woke up from that little nap, complete with carpet marks on my face, we headed up to my mom's. From there we went down to CF to watch the parade. E slept through half of it, even with the bagpipes, and my mom yelled at some kids that ran right into her (literally ran, not just bumped). We also spent a considerable amount of time commenting on how not one of the parents there was controlling their child, allowing them to stand in the middle of the street and almost get run over multiple times, despite tons of other people telling them to stand back. But, it was fun.



After a while of being awake, E decided she had had enough fun for the day and passed out again :-) So, mom and I headed off in search of Gyros. Which we found. And they were messy and delicious. I've had my fix to last me until fair.

Pain in the . . .

Went to the dentist this morning to get my wicked toothaches checked out. I expected to just pop in, get a few x-rays and schedule my next visit to do the dirty work. So, E went with me. Turned out, I needed two root canals, and the dentist just happened to be buddies with the oral surgeon next door. So, he makes a phone call and presto! I'm in the chair waiting for this guy who is not only going to fit me in and get it done today, but he's also doing it free of charge, following the generous precedent the dentist set (awesome, awesome people - they want to support the spouses of deployed military and are providing services for free). So, there I am, making frantic phone calls, trying to find someone who is at home. I finally got a hold of my dad and he was nice enough to leave work early to come watch E while I got worked on. Poor guy. I had no idea that a) E would cry the entire time (I walked out and held her for a minute during a break and she immediately stopped - someone loves their mommy!) and that b) I would be there for THREE HOURS. Apparently, Novicane (yes, I have no idea how to spell that) does not do a thing for me. It took two hours and four different anesthetics to get me numb. That was a blast. I owe my dad big time.

So, here I sit, with my stiff jaw and throbbing gums (five hundred needle pokes will do a number on ya).

My mom came down to hang out with me and help with the baby in case I was a little too out of it. At one point E was looking exceptionally adorable and she wanted to take a picture. She turned on my camera and a big old error message popped up. "Card is not initialized". Turns out this damn new computer decided to be a pain in my ass once again and screw up the card the last time I transfered pictures. Fabulous. Now I have to hope that someone can get the picture back off of it and that the whole card isn't ruined. That will not make me happy.

I keep saying it - I love the thought of this computer, but it is doing nothing but causing me headaches right now. I do not like things that try to think for me.

Cuddles

After a nearly sleepless night due to a wicked toothache, I spent this morning in the most glorious way possible. Sound asleep, with my own little snuggle-bunny curled up on my chest. There is only one thing that could be more cozy that a happy and content baby lightly snoring in your ear - and that would be to have a bed-hogging husband snoring in the other.

I'll be the first to admit that I am going to be paying down the road, as I instill bad habit upon bad habit within our little girl. Sleeping on me, being rocked to sleep, only getting out half a cry before being scooped up and consoled. She has no idea, but I am already wrapped around her chubby little finger. Let's just hope those chubby little fingers stay far away from her mouth, then that will be at least one habit I don't have to break someday.

Today was a highly unproductive day. Still in pain, I have to wait til tomorrow to see a dentist, and even then I don't think anything will be done til next week. Not a happy camper am I. In fact, I'd almost go so far as to say this is the worst pain in my life so far. Seriously.

Back to our day though. Unproductive. Aside from time spent being fed and having diaper after diaper changed, the baby played on the playmat for a while . . .


And slept . . .


While I played around in my beautiful garden (I'm convinced my neighbors think I'm crazy - I'll have to take a picture from the outside).

And that was the day. Now, I'm fighting with the new computer, and am really annoyed that it doesn't want to let me sort my photos the way I want. I hate when computers think for you.

The Begining of the End

It's the end of the world as we know it . . . The countdown is on. Too bad we don't actually have a date to count down to. So, we'll count up. The closer to 365 we get, the closer to the end we are.

It's day 3. Whoo-hoo.

R&R was over one day, the next the baby hit one month. It really does seem as if time is flying by. I don't want her to grow up too quick, but the faster time passes, the faster Misha will be home. It's apparently all give and take with this time thing.

Each day the baby teaches me something new. It may be about myself, about her, about bodily functions, anything. She amazes me every minute. Sometimes she even causes me to amaze myself. Today I was discussing the fears I had had before she was born - not loving her, not knowing what to do with her, even not wanting her - and now, I can hardly fathom how I could have felt any of those things. Fears are still there - being a bad mother, not talking to her enough, being boring, not providing enough stimulation for her on my own - but the love I feel for her just grows and grows. It's quite sappy, I know.

Today I learned:
1) If you're patient, she will sleep. And then you can too.

2) Jeans will dry in three minutes with the hairdryer on them, after the 'explosion' has been washed out of them.

3) 8 am is now officially morning. Not 11 or 12. Those days are long gone. (And I think they left with Misha).

4) Glasses or contacts really should be worn when changing a diaper. Just to prevent wondering why one's hand is now all wet.

5)The customer service person at Target will only take as long as possible to do a simple return when the baby is very, very unhappy.

Had it not rained, we woud have gone on a nice walk in the park. But, it rained. So, we hung out at Grandma's (she officially declared herself not Grandma today, but hasn't come up with a better name yet, so Grandma still stands). Yesterday however, I strapped on the Baby Bjorn and we walked up the road to the grocery store (I got some cherries, and they are quite delicious). E was not the happy camper, as I stuck an adorable hat on her head to keep the sun out of her eyes. She's sticking to her guns on the whole hat hating thing. But she was pretty damn cute.

The walk was a wonderful thing, cause by the time we got back, she was passed out. And so I got a nap too. Naps are great.