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Wednesday, March 28, 2007
how big is Isaac? Sooooo big!
We have developmental milestones happening left and right around here. It's so much fun to watch Isaac becoming more engaged with the world. He has, for example, figured out the concept of Buttons.
Tonight I set him down in his crib for a minute so that I could evict Gracie from his changing table and get him into his sleeper and ready for bed. He immediately rolled over on his side, stretched his arm way out, and started smacking the buttons on his crack-quarium, which was turned off.
Of course I put it into interactive mode and moved him a bit closer and let him flail away at it, which was the best thing EVER. Until, you know, it wasn't, when it was the most upsetting thing ever. Then we resumed our previously scheduled bedtime.
How big is that boy? Here is an illustration.
The top photo was taken tonight; that's a 3-6 month romper on him (it's pretty huge still, so it's all bunched up), and the one next to him is the preemie size that he's wearing in the lower photo, which was taken last December right after we brought him home. So, we have a lot more boy. And, uh, I like that little outfit.
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We like to give Isaac his meds during his late-afternoon Nudie Time. Usually, it goes pretty well. Today, it did not.
Last week, he learned how to projectile-cough out his meds. He's crafty; he'll act like he totally intends to swallow, and then BLAM, suddenly Mama's got Prilosec all over her glasses.
Nudie Time is the best, though. I throw a waterproof splatmat on the floor with a blanket on top, get him undressed, and he's a happy boy.
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the following takes place between 10:15 a.m. and noon
I'm in Sacramento today, to give a presentation on technology & church life at an episco-conference. I've actually gotten reasonably good at these things, despite the fact that I always freak out for about 48 hours beforehand.
The original plan was to bring Dennis and Isaac with me and have a little weekend trip, but that didn't really work out for a bunch of reasons, so I had a little solo road trip/Smiths singalong last night, and had my own nice hotel room where I sat and obsessed about my presentation and missed my baby.
I have to keep reminding myself that I'm still in detox from St. Ned's and need to watch the negativity; it's nothing horrible, just that standard thing that happens after you leave any long-term situation, where you are finally free to examine all the things you had to ignore to get through the day. But if you didn't know that you might think I was kind of a jerk.
I really, really like the new job. I'm in over my head technically and don't know where everything is, which means I get to spend my days essentially solving puzzles. And solving puzzles makes me happy. I need to do some serious cube renovation, though; I think I'm going to pull all my Simpsons action figures and playsets (aka "toys") out of storage, where they have been since we left Oakland, and set them up in there. I have too much space and not enough crap. Plus I will be able to explain concepts using Kang and Kodos as diagram tools. Let's say that Kang is the database, and then Boxing Homer comes over and asks for this record and hands it off to Itchy...
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Isaac has a big-boy crib! I put his crib together yesterday.
I also went to the baby-o-rama store to get him a mattress. In my visions of doing this, I just popped the mattress in the back seat of the beetle and brought it home. Apparently, my visions of this did not involve a, you know, baby. In his seat. In the back of the beetle. Ooops. I realized this while walking out of the store, pushing the stroller. I looked at the kid who was carrying the mattress out for me and said, hunh, I didn't really think this through.
Fortunately, we were able to make it work by pushing the passenger seat forward and moving the driver's seat up on the roof and, ok, I don't really know how it all worked, but I got the damn mattress AND the baby home.
We put a crib tent over the top of the crib, to avoid a reprise of this:
The Gracie and the Bea already have the changing table and the glider, and I don't think they need the crib, too. Also, they're always jumping on top of each other because they don't look where they're going, and no one needs cats diving on sleeping babies.
The other function of the crib tent was to teach me a tiny bit of humility; I had no problem getting the crib itself built, just me and my mighty allen wrench. I was feeling rather pleased with myself, in fact. Which is probably why I nearly blinded myself trying to get the tension rod into the rod pocket in the tent. Twice.
Isaac looks so tiny in his giant crib! He is pretty happy in there, though, mostly because he has one of those baby crack-quariums, with the moving fishies and the lights. Whatever, mama, just make the fishies go.
I start my new job tomorrow. I'm not nervous...of course I'm not...
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Isaac and I went to the Children's Discovery Museum with Ryan and Nathan today. We had a good time. There's a big baby and toddler area, including a little cove with mirrors, which Isaac enjoyed:
He's wearing one of his sillier outfits, a very Trek-esque jumpsuit, for his away mission on planet My Parents Are Dorks.
It's a cool museum, not too flashy but with fun things like a real fire truck and ambulence to check out, big bubble and water play areas and lots of sensory activities. There's even a chill-out room with cool colors and shadows on the wall from a light in the middle of the room; Isaac and I sat up there for a while when he got a little wound up. He also liked the big flower mobiles; if you want to get Isaac's attention, just hang something from the ceiling. The family memberships are really reasonable and I think we'll get one when Isaac starts walking.
I made a short video of Isaac babbling. It's not that exciting unless you're a serious Isaac fan. I don't expect it to be blowing up all over YouTube. It's probably not the next sneezing panda.
Isaac is five months old today! He celebrated by playing with his feet and giggling and having a bath.
I've started putting him in some of his 3-6 month clothes, which are a bit big but not huge on him. Since his adjusted age is 3 months, this is a happy thing. Although I may have gotten more wear out of NB and 0-3 size clothes than any mother in history. The hand-me-downs and consignment store things in those sizes tend to be almost perfect, since they're in and out of them so quickly.
It's warming up here and he's happy to hang out in a onesie at home anyway. We're suckers for the diaper and onesie look. All that yummy thigh chub.
I cleared out my cube at work today, since I didn't get to it yesterday. It's always interesting to do that kind of excavation, where you try to figure out what the various strata of paper piles mean. I found a copy of my wedding program, I must be in the 2004 layer... I'll go back in next week to turn in my badge and gun, or at least my church credit cards, but basically I am done. We're staying away for the rest of Lent and plan to return around Easter, just to give ourselves a bit of space.
I don't start the new job until a week from Monday, which gives me a little decompression time so that I can appear more sane for my first day. I know the week will just fly by, but I still have a giant to-do list for things around the house. And, you know, knitting.
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It's my last day @ St. Ned's, and my head is pretty much going to explode before I leave today. I have too much stuff to do and I haven't even started up the backhoe yet.
I will try to be a little less stressed when I get home, though, and follow the advice of this stroller manufacturer.
Before holding the baby, you should be composed enough to be able to look into the mirror and see if you have an angry expression on your face. Mothers too, may be irritable in the morning. It is understandable that a mother has no time to feel relaxed and composed after performing household chores in addition to caring for the baby. This is all the more the reason why it is necessary for the mother to be calm when holding her baby. Pretend you are a great actress and try to get a makeup on your heart.
Although they're not going to approve of our stay-at-home dad arrangement.
It is probably best that the father try not to interfere with the minor details of childcare. When the father also assumes the mother's role, there is a chance that the household may take on the characteristics of a home with two mothers and no father. In child rearing, it is also important to view the child from a broad perspective. Rather than mastering the mechanics of childcare, obtain proper knowledge about the child and be a presence which gives confidence and comfort to the mother's childcare.
It is the father's role to lighten the emotional burden of the mother in caring for the baby. He who realizes that the mother is too busy caring for the baby when the house is a mess, is a wonderful father. A father can play an important role in caring for the baby, even without changing diapers.
What do you think? Google translator, maybe?
I've just been given one of their strollers as a hand-me-down, and I think my favorite part is the slogan on the side: For Happiness of Worlds Babies.
We've had a fun weekend. Yesterday, Ryan and I went to the all-powerful White Elephant Sale in Oakland. We left Isaac and Nathan behind with the guys (Sausagefest!) and spent hours pawing through...a lot of crap. But I picked up some useful baby stuff, and a dictation machine to make transcribing interviews easier on Dennis the Writerboy, so it was a fine day. And we ate Superdogs while sitting on the curb, because that is what you do when you go to the WES.
Today, Dennis and I got to go out to breakfast together while his mom got a little GrandmaTime™ with the baby. It was our first date since we brought him home, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Isaac and Grandma both looked happy when we got home, so maybe we'll try to go to a movie soon.
We're both working hard to wind things down at St. Ned's. I had a couple of little panic attacks last week because there is So! Much! that I want to get done/document before I leave. It leaves me feeling a bit fragmented and confused. And I still need to rent a backhoe to clean out my cube. I have almost five years of debris in there. So frightening. I'm feeling guilty about leaving, of course. I have to keep reminding myself that God's default setting is not that everyone must work for the church, and that the vast majority of the people doing God's work aren't doing it in a church office.
