Fenway, here we come!

Getting ready to take off for our first summer vacation ... to see Dave Matthews Band and Willy Nelson at The Green Monster!

I'm actually more excited for Willy, but DMB is pretty dang sweet, too. Husband is more excited for DMB, and baby ... it'll be his first concert so we have some ear protection for him to wear in case it gets too loud. Though I'm a little more concerned about second-hand high from the other concert goers though, hopefully it's not too much of a pot-fest.

We have our first plane change; I've flown with baby twice so far but both trips were direct flights. This will be a bit more of a challenge. Should be fun. I picked up a special nursing cover for the flight. I had trouble with the blanket slipping when nursing the babe on the other flights (and with looky loos) so we'll see how it works. I'll admit I thought they were hokey before, but if it works, it was totally worth it.

Birthday

My birthday is fast approaching. It's kind of weird getting a reminder that another year has passed. Looking back to last year, we had just found out we were pregnant, and I was in the throes of morning sickness. We had what seemed like forever until baby was coming, and the possibilities and excitement were endless. We kept it quiet for a while to make sure it was going to "stick," so at this point last year it was our little secret.

I feel a little wistful and even a bit sad looking back to that time. I'm not sure why, as this year we are deep within a very happy and joyful time in our lives (if also somewhat stressful and tiring!). Our little package has arrived, and he made it safe and sound. Yet I miss, just a bit, that time of wonder of the unknown and the incredible anticipation I felt. It makes me feel bad for being so grumpy about being preggo at the time. I did not enjoy being pregnant for the most part (the kicking and baby movements aside of course), yet I miss it too. It's a bit like Christmas; on xmas day I am always a bit sad as well, as all the crazy build-up comes to an abrupt halt.

Old photos

Looking at some old photos my mom's friend emailed up, it's plain as day to see where baby gets his super chunk thighs and cheeks from ... ME!! He might not look much like me at first glance, but he is indeed spawned from my chunk-o gene pool. Luckily for him (and me I might add) it appeared I grew out of that stage before pre-school, so hopefully he will too. Although fat is one of the many looks only babies can pull off (fat, bald, overalls, tantrums ...).

Clothing sizing

Why are baby clothes sized so funky? Is it too much to ask for them to be relatively close? I guess since adult clothes are so creatively sized, it should come as no suprise that kiddo clothes are too. I put a brand new size 6 month (summer) romper on him yesterday and it was too small. What a waste!

It doesn't help that the little squirt has been going through one of his elongating growth spurts. He seems to grow one direction at a time; he'll chunk out, then lean out as he gets longer, then start the whole thing over again. Right now he's channeling Kobe Bryant (or his daddy) in the height department, though he still has pleasantly plump cheeks and thighs.

It's Official

Dreft is way better than seventh generation laundry detergent. Stupid hippie soap.

Mom's Day

Yesterday was my first mother's day, and it was awesome! I was a little nervous as I had planned a small brunch in honor of the occasion. I've never hosted a brunch and wasn't sure how much of a hassle it was going to end up being. But it was a blast and I was so happy I hosted it. I had the day shift off of work (though not last night's midnight shift) so I got to sleep in a bit with my man and my little man. Made a quick run to the store, and then we set up for the gig. I finally got to use all my vintage pink table linens, which I'd been collecting especially for this event for a while. And my mom, sisters, a girlfriend, and a cousin all joined in the fun. Even my crazy pets were on their best behavior.

My swell husband got me a nice gift, the best part being he took today off of work so I could actually sleep after the midshift! He made breakfast this morning when I got up too. Needless to say, all of this coupled with the persistent springtime sunshine we're being blessed with has put a new spring in my step.

Work

Back to work again today; being a Thursday it's my "Monday." Juggling work and baby is as hard as everybody says it is. There's no break, 'cause you are always on. A friend who is a stay-at-home dad gets a break now and again as his wife and him share weekends, so they can take turns getting out on their own, or at least splitting baby duties (and good thing, since they now have two kids under the age of three). But Baby Daddy and I don't have things quite so easy (oops, did I say easy? Wrong word, nothing is easy in baby land no matter how you divvy up things). We work opposite schedules with no shared time off, so there are no weekends. We chose this, of course, for the good of baby, and we have the comfort of the second paycheck to cushion our heads when they're throbbing from lack of sleep and baby wail. But I keep looking for the easy button. No wonder Circuit City went out of business, they were selling something that doesn't exist.

Missing out

In my pre-baby life I sometimes wondered what, if anything, I would miss out on in my life as a parent. Of course, then I assumed "missing out" would pertain to exciting things like world travel or surreptitiously puking into a beer bottle at closing time (so I wouldn't get tossed out, of course).

But today I found out what I would actually miss out on. And it all has to do with something I always thought--was sure--was a myth: mommy brain. It starts out in the early days of pregnancy. All sneaky-like too, so you don't even know you're missing part of your brain until it's gone. Maybe it got ralphed out or peed out during the super fun of the first trimester. I don't know. What I do know is that I used to have a brain and I WANT IT BACK!

I missed yesterday's election. It was a little bitty one, a mayoral run-off. But I wouldn't have voted for the dude that won, and I wanted my indignation heard! Even if it would have made no difference in the outcome. But I didn't vote, because I forgot about the election. I could have cast my ballot against the man who will be our mayor, who is all for what essentially is a poor tax, and done so just a few blocks from home. But instead I was changing poopy diapers.

So this is what it's like

Sleeping through the night, that is. Or STTN if you follow the baby boards. Baby slept from 10:30 p.m. last night to 6:30 a.m. this morning without a single midnight snack. What a breakthrough! Not that I'm expecting to see it again anytime soon, but what a relief.

This was my first complete night of sleep since, well, sometime early third trimester. If I hadn't been working off a major sleep deficit from Sunday night's midshift, I'm sure I'd feel like a million bucks right now. I feel like at least 5 bucks though, so definitely a vast improvement over yesterday, when in comparison (after 2 hours of broken sleep) I felt like I owed a loan shark named Vinnie a thousand bucks. Not bad.

The end of seventh gen laundry detergent!

The jug of seventh generation laundry detergent hosted its grand finale today, in a load of dog bed covers and throw rugs. Good riddance!

Don't get me wrong. I mean, I bought it for a reason. To keep baby's clothes all gentle on his sweet baby skin, to keep a little less petroleum and whatnot from my septic. But Martha was right--don't buy hippie laundry or dishwasher detergent. It doesn't work. It made his clothes super faded and the colors bled, and it did not remove stains or anything except for the dye in his clothes. If I wanted baby to look like a dirty hippie, well ... ok, I guess he kind of DID look like one. But no more.

On to Dreft ...