Turning off the lights

For a few reasons, including the desire for a new look, I've decided to switch this blog over to Wordpress.

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Buying stock in tissues

I am sick. Yes, again. And I'm really getting tired of this. This time it's a fairly minor (overall) head cold that has some pretty major sinus pain at times, which all began last night after dinner. I'm hoping it runs its course quickly and I can move on. It stinks to be sick on the weekend, but at least that makes it less likely I'll have to miss work because of it; I have plenty of sick time saved up, but I just hate using it all at once since after a while it starts to make me look bad.

But that's not all. Baby B also showed signs of a minor cold yesterday and today, though hers might be from teething. (I know most pediatricians say that cold-like symptoms are NOT related to teething, but with as many anecdotes as I've seen to support the possible connection, I'm not ruling it out personally.) She was also extremely fussy at dinnertime today, and I can see a bottom tooth very close to the surface, so I'm sure the pain is bothering her quite a bit. She woke up twice during the night last night, and she's already woken up once tonight--all very unusual for her. She has a new, different, and very distinct cry (it sounds like a cat that's being tortured) that we think we've identified as the teething pain cry, so that's helped us take the appropriate steps to alleviate her pain.

Despite our colds, we went to a local farm this afternoon for AutumnFest with some friends and had fun doing things like a hay ride, a corn maze, several farm animal exhibits, and a spooky farmhouse. The weather was perfect--sunny and mid- to upper 70s--if not very autumn-like. I'm definitely looking forward to enjoying the nice weather that the fall usually brings us, especially after such a hot and dry summer here.

When all else fails, shovel it

The other day, we gave Baby B some cut-up pieces of banana as her first real finger food, just to try it out and see how she did. She's got a real good pincer grasp, but since her fingers get wet from putting them in her mouth and because the bananas are slippery to start with, she sometimes has trouble picking it up. (Yes, I know about the trick of rolling the pieces in ground-up Cheerios or graham crackers, but we had neither at the time.) Rather quickly, Baby B figured out on her own that all she had to do was get her face down near her tray and push the piece of banana directly into her mouth without needing to pick it up. The Husband and I looked at each other in amazement as she did this not just once (which could have been a fluke), but two or three times in a row.

Is she very advanced, or what? ;)

We also recently gave her one of those mesh infant teething feeders, in which you put baby-appropriate foods (we used banana first and did papaya next) and they can eat them without fear of choking on big pieces. That went over very well, even though it is a pain in the rump to clean well.

Waiting no more

I went home for lunch today and on the answering machine was a message from that first (and original favorite) daycare we'd looked at--nearly 11 months ago--letting us know there's a spot in their infant room opening up soon and it's ours if we want it. We have to call back by tomorrow morning or else they're calling the next person. (Geez, thanks for giving us a little time; what if we'd been out of town? Apparently we were supposed to be waiting by the phone non-stop for their call.)

The big advantage to this other daycare is that we can see it from our back deck (which is fixed now, by the way), though our current daycare is about that same distance from my office (both of which are about 2 miles from our house). Also, the other daycare has not only a playground but a decent-sized indoor gym to allow for playtime during cold or other inclement weather.

However, I think we're going to stay where we are. We like the teachers and the director, and Baby B seems to like it there...and this other daycare is kind of an unknown at this point other than what we saw on our tour. Plus, I think the teachers at our current place would kill us if we took Baby B out, because they really like her a lot. When I recently told one of her teachers that my schedule was going to be changing, she panicked at first because she thought I was telling her that we didn't need to bring her there anymore, when in fact I was telling her that I'd be bringing her an additional day. She was outwardly relieved. If our current daycare were farther away or if we had any problems with it, I think we'd be more inclined to switch, but neither is the case for us.

Mostly I'm just amazed at how long we were on the waiting list--just short of a full year. It's a good thing we found out about our current daycare when we did and were able to get in there because I really don't know what we would have done otherwise. Things ended up working out just fine, despite the stress of not knowing if we'd have a daycare spot until right before I returned to work. I'd always heard about long waiting lists for daycares, but I always figured that was just in bigger metropolitan cities, not in my city. Boy was I wrong!

(Happy 8 months old, Baby B! I love you, my little Itty Bitty!)

Wordless Wednesday: A few of our (many) silly moments

To see more Wordless Wednesday participants, click here.

Stay away, bug!

I took Baby B to the pediatrician today for a follow-up appointment to check on her pneumonia and ear infections. I knew the pneumonia had cleared up within a couple of days (well, at least based on the visible symptoms), but I wasn't as sure about the ear infections since she's not really shown any signs of them besides a fever. However, the doctor said that everything looks clear and perfect with both her lungs and her ears, so that was nice to hear. Hopefully we've gotten this icky bug out of our house and we can finally enjoy some illness-free days.

While at the doctor's office, we went ahead and gave Baby B her first flu shot since they had them in the office already and it would save me an additional trip (and more time off work). The timing works out well because she'll be due for her booster next month at her nine-month appointment.

Oh, and I asked to have Baby B weighed while we were there, and she came in at 15 pounds, 6 1/2 ounces (with clothes on).

It goes both ways

Thus far in our child-rearing adventures, we've taken Baby B's lead on most things and develop our plan of action around her needs instead of what suits us best. As she's gotten older, it's become a lot easier to tell if what we're doing is satifactory to her; a big smile follows a fun splash in the bath, and a fast, happy grunt comes from her when she sees me lifting my shirt to feed her. I look to her for her approval to know that I'm doing things right and satifsying her various needs.

But it's interesting because it also goes the other way. When she's in the bath and clinks two toys together, she looks up at me to see if I've approved of her little noise experiment. When she crawls across the living room away from me, she steals a quick glance back at me to see if I'm watching her. When she takes a Puff from my hand and feeds herself, then chews it up, she looks up at me with her big eyes that ask eagerly, "Did I do it right, Mommy?"

We're caught up in an endless circle of looking for approval from each other to know if we're performing our respective jobs correctly. But at some point she will look for my approval, not find it because she is wanting to do something we do not find acceptable, but she'll still go about her actions anyway based on decisions she makes and reasons she will try to justify. My approval won't rate nearly as high as it does now...at least outwardly. And at some point I will look to her for approval, but she won't give it as freely because she'll be more concerned about the approval of her peers than the approval of her parents as she becomes her own person.

So much of parenting is outright fun, but so much of it is downright bittersweet.

Miss Independent

I like to (jokingly) ask Baby B when she's going to start pitching in around here: "When are you going to start making your own bottles?" "When are you going to get a job and pay for your own diapers?" "When are you going to drive yourself home from daycare?" Obviously the humor in all of it is that it's so ridiculous to expect such things from an itty-bitty baby.

But, she's on the verge of being able to feed herself, so we got her some Gerber Puffs to test out, since she can practice her pincer grip and chewing, but the Puffs melt in her mouth, so they dissolve if she can't quite figure it out. We started giving them to her a few days ago, and already she's made a big improvement. Her grip, while clumsy at times, is right on at other times. If she has the Puff between her thumb and forefinger, she can get it in her mouth pretty easily. However she's hilarious when she gets it in the middle of her hand and puts her whole hand in her mouth trying to get the Puff--yet somehow the Puff stays outside her mouth. Once she gets it in her mouth, she usually does attempt to chew it, so that makes me feel a little better about introducing real table food at some point (we're still undecided when we're going to do that, but probably when we introduce meat after going through the major fruits and veggies).

Who is this child who's starting to feed herself and who is crawling all over my house trying to explore every nook and cranny?

Post-fever musings

*I'm feeling much, much better today, with just a hint of soreness to my throat being my only current symptom. However, having a high-grade fever for three days has taken a toll on my milk supply and it's quite a bit lower than it was before. I'm trying to drink as much as I can to keep hydrated and help it rebound, but I'm not sure if it's going to help. My freezer supply is still excellent at this point, so Baby B will be getting milk for a while, but a big part of what I like about breastfeeding is getting to feed her myself, and it seems like those days may be more limited than I realized. Or, maybe not and I'm just being paranoid. I think I'm just trying to prepare myself for that inevitable day, whether it happens sooner or later.

*Speaking of milk, I recently found out that I'm going to be losing my locked room where I pump twice a day at work when that interview and testing room is turned into someone's office. My HR person assures me she's looking into other options, but I honestly don't know what she'll come up with that offers privacy besides the one-person bathroom in the basement. If I have to do that, I guess I could, but I'd rather switch to pumping just once during the day and just do it at home on my lunch break. I'm not going to be telling her that, though. I'm also not going to tell her that I'll need a place to pump for just four more months or so (at the most...it may not be worth it to pump much longer at work if this supply thing continues). If I tell her that, I'm afraid she won't take it as seriously and won't work to find me a spot.

*Since we were all feeling pretty well today, we loaded up in the car and made a shopping trip with the goal of buying fall/winter coats and shoes for Baby B. Our favorite gal had no shoes for a couple of reasons. One, I don't really see the point of shoes on babies before they're able to walk, especially in the summertime. Two, she's such a kicker that she takes socks off her feet within seconds of us putting them on, so there was really no point to shoes, either. She was happier without shoes, and there was no real point to have them, so we skipped them. But, we're coming upon cooler weather soon, and she can't go barefoot when she shovels our snow. Wait, I mean when she goes to school.

Our shopping trip was successful, and we found a cute brown coat appropriate for fall, an adorable hooded brown coat appropriate for winter, two pair of brown shoes, and one pair of pink shoes. With the exception of the pink shoes, everything we got was neutral on purpose just so it would go with pretty much anything. (Not that I'm overly concerned about "matching" with a baby, but I just thought it was going to look better.) We also picked up a few new toys, including a Taggies Clickety Twist rattle because she adores tags on everything and a DiscoverSounds universal remote control because she's so interested in our remotes (I like this one because it teaches numbers and phrases in three different languages).

*I recently realized that we had a fleecy sleep sack I'd picked up last winter, but we never used it because Baby B was too tiny. With it being cooler in the evenings now (well, for the most part), we've needed a way to keep Baby B warmer because she'd been waking up with cold tootsies. We tried this Carter's sleep sack and she loved it immediately. You should see the huge smile on her face every time we put her in it. (I like to call her a Sack o' Baby when she's wearing it.) A couple days ago, I found an auction on eBay for a set of five of these sleepers, and I had the winning (and only) bid of $10, so hopefully those will be on the way to us next week. A couple of them are "boy" colors (blues), but I seriously don't care about that. Sleep sacks that I got for $2 each compared to the $13 they charge at the store? Yeah, it can be whatever color!

Her new bud and her new bud

I'm, once again, reminded how quickly Baby B is growing up--and right before my very eyes. Until recently, Baby B's daycare class of eight infants had just one boy in it, but he's a bit of a bump on a log (oh, did I just say that? I meant to say he's quite a delightful, active, young fella). But some recent infant-room graduates made space for some newcomers, a couple of whom have a Y chromosome in their genetic makeup. One of them is ten or eleven months old, so he won't be in the room that much longer, but another, who is a mere four months old (but is the size of and moves around nearly as well as Baby B), will be sticking around for longer.

The teachers regale us with stories of Baby B and the boy we will call Squealy D. Apparently the two of them like to climb over each other and play. Apparently they like to "kiss" on each other. Apparently they like to squeal back and forth to each other, sometimes the lone ones awake when the rest of the babies are trying to nap.

Ah, young love.

I haven't seen them fully engaged in serious playtime yet, but when I picked up Baby B a few days ago, one of the teachers had Squealy D in her lap and Baby B was playing on the floor at her feet. Squealy D was making it quite clear with his excited grin and emphatic gestures toward the floor that he'd rather be down there with Baby B, and they were able to play tug o' war with a book before we needed to leave.

*******

Pretty much every day, I feel Baby B's gums, checking for signs of chompers aching to make an appearance. But nearly every day, my finger felt the gummy, slimy smoothness of a tooth-free jaw. Sometimes I've been convinced I might have felt something, but upon closer inspection, I realized it probably wasn't really anything more than just my hopeful imagination.

Until this morning.

I ran my finger across her gums this morning, expecting to feel the usual nothingness, when I cut my finger on something sharp and it started bleeding. Okay, just kidding. But my finger did catch on something it hadn't previously felt before. Doing my usual "get her to open her mouth without getting too annoyed with me" maneuver, I peered into her mouth to find the hint of a tooth to come shortly. Now, I know it's possible we'll stay at this stage for another month, or she could have a tooth pop through by the end of the weekend, but either way, it's exciting to have some progress. Look out, Squealy D...your new girlfriend's got a new weapon on the way!

Recovering

My fever broke for good earlier this morning, just after I got home from the doctor's office. (Wow, they must be really good!) They tested me for strep, but that came back negative. However, she said that probably 40% of initial tests come up with a false negative, so they're going to culture the sample overnight and let me know tomorrow if it turned out positive. The doctor was about 95% sure I have strep based on symptoms and my yucky-looking throat, so she gave me some medicine and sent me on my way. I'm still pretty drained and my throat is killing me, but I feel a lot better without that pesky fever. Assuming I feel like I do now, I'll be returning to work tomorrow.

My turn

Looks like it's my turn to be sick. I've had a fever since Tuesday morning (or Monday night, I can't remember), often going over 103. Also general achiness, chills and sweating (related to the fever, I'm sure), a mild sore throat that feels swollen, and some dizziness. I stayed home from work today, and if it's not gone by tomorrow morning, I'll give the doctor a call and go in. Going to bed now.

The invisible cord

We're very quickly coming upon the time in child-rearing where there's a shift from just caregiving and simple playing to bigger things like teaching right from wrong. We're moving toward a time where we can't laugh at every cute little thing that Baby B does, otherwise she'll take that as positive reinforcement and continue such behaviors. I'm not talking about major things like "say no to drugs"--not yet...she's not even eight months old, people!--but more along the lines of when she does things like throw toys from her highchair and grab the remote control or The Husband's glasses. It is endlessly adorable to me when I see her stretching her whole body in an effort to reach the remote that sits on the table, and I want to laugh each time she tosses a toy with conviction, knowing that I'll pick it up. However, she's now at the point that we need to start seting limits, telling her "no" when she does something that's not right, and then re-direct her behaviors to more positive ones so that she does something that's more acceptable.

But...but...I don't want to be the bad guy! I fully recognize that there needs to be a separation in the parent-child relationship, and I have to be seen by her as an authority figure worthy of her trust instead of as her playmate or best friend. But it makes me sad to think about that divide that needs to exist, because my instinct is to want to wrap her tightly with my arms and keep her close to me forever. With each new milestone--rolling over, sitting up, crawling, walking, etc.--she pulls a little farther from me, stretching the invisible umbilical cord of baby bonding that we've been so fortunate to share, until she finally snaps free from its grasp and becomes the independent woman she was destined to be all along. My ultimate job is not to protect her from the world, much as I'd like to, but to prepare her for it as best I can. Setting limits, which we need to start doing regularly, is like taking snips at that invisible cord, encouraging and aiding that inevitable divide.

It's not easy being clean

We've had pretty good luck with removing various stains--from diaper blowouts to spitup to fresh food--from Baby B's clothes by pre-treating with Shout gel. However, we recently met our match in the war on stains when we learned that fresh bananas are nearly impossible to remove from clothes, even with our beloved Shout. At the recommendation of a parent from one of my message boards, I tried Oxiclean (though a little skeptically).

There are several ways you can use OxiClean, and I started by adding a scoop to the stained laundry, but that didn't seem to remove the ick. Yesterday I tried method 2, which was soaking the clothes in a bowl with hot water and OxiClean, then running them through the washing machine again. I transferred the laundry from the bowl to the washing machine after a three-hour soak, and I was still a little skeptical because some of the stains still appeared to be hanging around. I was pleasantly surprised, however, to find that the stains had disappeared when I pulled them out of the dryer! I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that Baby B wouldn't be able to wear these clothes out anymore, but I'm very glad to have them back again.

Momma called the doctor and the doctor said, "What is it NOW?!"

Last week I spent a good portion of my week tending to doctor-related tasks. On Monday I had to meet with the geneticist during my (extended) lunch break. On Tuesday afternoon I had to take Baby B to the pediatrician for her pneumonia and ear infection. On Thursday morning I had to take The Husband to our family doctor because he became sick with the same thing Baby B had (though his symptoms ended up being different than hers). Tomorrow afternoon I'm scheduled for my repeat pap test (the doctor didn't get enough cells the first time around...grrr!), but because my period unexpectedly showed up on Friday, I may have to reschedule that appointment. I also have to take Baby B for a follow-up appointment for her pneumonia in just over a week.

With all these trips to the doctor, I was joking that The Dog must be feeling left out because we hadn't made a trip to the veterinarian. Well, guess what. It looks like I'm going to have to call the vet tomorrow and take him in because it appears as though he's got an infection at the base of the toenails on his back right paw, and he keeps trying to lick and chew at it, which is only making it worse. Naturally we noticed this about 10 minutes after the office closed on Saturday. So, it'll actually work out well if I need to cancel my ob/gyn appointment tomorrow in order to get him in to see the vet without having to take too much time off work (which I feel bad about since I had to work half-days for much of last week) or rush between appointments.

I know there are some people who have to go to the doctor more often and for more serious ailments than we've had to go for, but I'm ready for some time away.

Head of the class

We got a note on Friday from Baby B's daycare that she's been chosen as the Student of the Week for the week of September 24. This is something new they've recently started, and I was so excited at first because I thought, "Oh, wow, they must really love her if they picked her among the first." It was a little later that I laughed at myself and realized that they're probably just going in alphabetical order (the student chosen first has a last name beginning with A, and ours starts with B).

Anyway, on the morning of the 24th (the beginning of "her" week), we're supposed to bring in "a poster board filled with pictures of [Baby B] and everyone (and/or everything) that they love." The poster will be displayed in her classroom for her week, then they'll be displayed in the hallway for another week. I wouldn't really consider myself a creative person in general, but I'm actually excited about tackling this project. When I ran errands tonight, I picked up some scrapbooking stickers and cardstock to use along with our pictures. If it turns out okay, I'll try taking a picture of it to post here.

Periodically annoying

I figured something was up when my face started to break out earlier this week. During pregnancy and then after I had Baby B, my skin had been in great shape and I had thankfully avoided monthly breakouts. But a little breakout this week made me suspicious, and it turns out I was right. I had what amounted to a little bit of spotting last night, then earlier today it appears as though my period made its (undesired) return after a 16-month absence.

I realize I'm very fortunate that it stayed away this long, especially since I haven't nursed overnight in probably five months (at least), but I was hoping I wouldn't have to deal with it the entire time I was breastfeeding. I'll admit that I became spoiled on not having my period for so long that I'm kind of whiny about the fact that it looks like it's returned. So far it's very light, so it's possible it's just a spotting episode, but I'm guessing it's the real thing, especially considering my milk supply lately has been about half of what it used to be in the beginning.

****

Baby B returned to daycare today and was her usual, happy self. Unfortunately, The Husband ended up getting the same bacteria, though it's giving him different symptoms, and he's felt pretty miserable for about three days now. I'm glad Baby B made such a quick recovery, but I hope The Husband starts feeling better soon, too.

Let's take a stroll

I was thinking the other day that I'm very glad we made the decision not to get a travel system with a bulky stroller (well, bulkier than we knew we wanted) that goes along with the car seat. Not once in the past 7 1/2 months have I wished we could have plopped the car seat into a stroller; in fact, so far we don't really use our lightweight stroller all that much except sometimes on walks around the neighborhood. We've gotten much more use out of our Baby Bjorn, which definitely was money well-spent for us.

I know we'll start using the stroller more once Baby B outgrows her car seat but is too heavy for us to carry around all the time, but my point is that I'm glad we skipped the big stroller.

I'm sure I'll change my tune at some point, but I'm not a big fan of strollers in general. I don't know what it is, but something about a stroller makes people turn completely oblivious to their surroundings; I can't tell you how many times I've been run into with a stroller (when I was not in the way at all), yet then got a dirty look from the parent as though it were my fault. When we are around other people with our stroller, I try to make sure I'm very aware of everything around me and do my best not to hit anyone. It's funny how much of parenting is "let's not do what they did."

A pneu and better day

Baby B is doing well in her recovery from pneumonia and a double ear infection. Her breathing was much better today, and she didn't seem hampered by her illnesses. She even did some hands-and-knees crawling all over the living room, and she sat up from a horizontal position for the first time. She did have a couple meltdowns where she'd cry and cry and cry without any chance of being consoled--it's been a while since we've had to deal with that--but once it passed she was fine. The Husband and I again are doing a split schedule tomorrow and will keep her home from daycare, then we're hoping she'll be okay to go back on Friday (but don't worry, we'll keep her home if we need to). I called her daycare teacher this morning to let her know what the diagnosis was and to thank her for calling us yesterday afternoon when those symptoms came on so suddenly (which, I've now read, is typical of bacterial pneumonia).

Pneu ailment

Baby B had a slight cough this morning, but I didn't think much about it. Around 2:15 p.m., her daycare called me and said she was having trouble breathing, that it was shallow, labored, and congested. She also still had her cough and had a slight fever. I figured she was just getting another cold since she's exposed to so many germs at school, but I called the doctor and they were able to get us in at 4. I picked up Baby B and she definitely wasn't herself; she was still overall happy, but not normal and she looked sick in her eyes. I was a little annoyed to be going to the doctor, to be honest, since usually it turns out to be nothing and they just send us on our way, but ever since she had an ear infection, I've wanted to make sure we're careful since I know those can be chronic. No sense in taking any chances.

We went over her symptoms, they took her temperature (100.5), and the doctor listened to her chest and determined that she has pneumonia on her right side--on top of a double ear infection. Poor girl! No wonder she was making these awful wimpers all the way to the doctor's office. They gave us an antibiotic that should treat both ailments, and we'll keep her home from school at least for tomorrow for sure, maybe longer. They said we should call back if her fever reaches 105 or if she's taking 60 breaths or more per minute (she was doing 45 when they measured today). Before leaving the office, we did an oxygen test to make sure that was okay; if not, she would have been hospitalized. Thankfully that turned out fine.

This isn't the easiest week to be taking time off since two of my readers are out of the office, but basically it comes down to the fact that work just isn't as important as my pneumonia-stricken baby; The Husband and I will find a way to split the time off and make it work.

We stopped at the pharmacy, then I brought Baby B home and she was in fairly good spirits considering how rotten she feels. (Amazing how quickly she went downhill. I'm glad her teacher called us; she said she always likes to call when there's breathing problems like that since it could be pneumonia. Looks like she was right. I will definitely be thanking her.) I gave her a bath before feeding her one last time, then put her to bed, which went fairly well. Hopefully she'll sleep soundly tonight, which will help heal her.

************

Funny thing happened, though. Baby B and I were played before her bath, and she pulled herself to standing for the first time! Maybe she's just faking this whole pneumonia thing. ;)

Dormant geyser

I must say how nice it's been lately with Baby B having virtually no reflux issues. At one point, it was hard to imagine there'd ever be a time when we'd let Baby B go bibless during the day, but she pretty much just wears them to eat now. The pediatrician wants us to continue the Zantac until her nine-month appointment, but we've cut the dose in half and she seems to be doing well so far.

Baby B loved the peaches we gave her last week (actually, *I* loved the peaches, too), and we had our first night of carrots tonight and that went well, too. I had to add a little extra milk when I was blending the carrots, but I got it to a good consistency that Baby B was able to handle. We'll do a few more nights of carrots before tackling pears late in the week. We're really chugging right along on the food front.

Real weekends!

This is a big weekend for me because, well, I get real weekends for the first time in more than six years. When I first started at my current employer, I was hired part time as a Sunday proofreader, then I picked up four days during the week working on other projects. I moved to a different--full-time--position in the company within six months, which changed my hours to a Sunday through Thursday second-shift schedule. I got two days off in a row, which was good, but my days off did not coincide with anyone else I knew, and doing things during the week was impossible since I worked from 2 p.m. until at least 11 p.m. or midnight.

When I was promoted to chief copy editor in May 2005, I experienced another change in my schedule, working days Tuesday through Friday and on Sundays from noon until usually 10 p.m. (give or take). That was nice because I was back to first shift again, but having that Sunday in there really threw things off. Weekend trips were basically out because the only common day The Husband and I had off was Saturday, and taking off Sundays was nearly impossible. My weeks felt like they never ended because I got only one day off at a time, at least until I got a holiday off--I did not take vacation time because I was saving it for maternity leave--so I felt like I was in a continuous work cycle with no real break.

Without boring you with the details, the gist of it is that about a month and a half ago, my supervisors approached me and said they wanted to change my schedule to a Monday through Friday schedule (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) in order to focus on different projects. This was a dream come true--and a dream that I never thought would happen in a million years at this job since the magazine is published on Sunday nights and I had to be there for that. I was thrilled because that meant a return to real weekends, but I had to put up with a lot of crap from my proofreaders who had to pull together to take over my Sunday hours. On the heels of them covering for me during my three-month maternity leave, this did not go over well. In fact, they're still not happy about it, but it was made clear by my supervisors that this plan was going forward with or without them.

Now, the big drawback will be that I have to work Mondays, which I'd loved having off since it was a good time to run errands, schedule appointments, spend alone time, and spend time with Baby B without The Husband around--just us girls. Baby B will be going to daycare an extra day now, which kind of stinks, but she really does love it there, and now we'll be getting our money's worth there since we have to pay for five days a week whether we're there that much or not. I'm not really used to working five days in a row, either, so I'm sure at first my weeks are going to seem very looooooooong. I think I'll manage fine. :)

So this is my first weekend experiencing a real weekend! I barely know what to do with myself! I'm excited because a local bookstore does a baby storytime at 11:30 on Sunday mornings, which I couldn't attend before, but now that'll be an option. I'd like to do that maybe once a month or so. We chose not to go this weekend, but we'll definitely start soon. I'm just glad to have some extra time to spend with my family and to have the opportunity to take little weekend trips once again if we so choose.

Chunkers...Baby Chunkers

In Baby B's daycare class, there's another baby there--we'll call her Baby Chunkers--who is just four days younger than Baby B. It's amazing to see all the differences between the two of them and realize just how unique each baby is, even when they're very close in age. I call Baby Chunkers that because she has got to be twice the size of Baby B, who is pretty long and narrow. Okay, she's not really twice her size by weight, but she looks like she ate Baby B (and one or two of the other babies in the class). She's quite similar to the Weebles (remember them? They wobble, but they don't fall down) and as a result is very good at sitting up on her own because she's quite Yoda-like. Baby Chunkers cries every time someone else is getting a bottle because she wants it, and she isn't very active despite the teachers' efforts. Baby B is quite the opposite and is very active most of the day, always kicking, always laughing, always trying to crawl around--yet she's still a little wobbly when sitting up on her own (at least compared to Baby Chunkers), which Baby Chunkers has mastered. Each baby has certain things that they excel at, and it's fantastic to have a kid so close to Baby B's age to help remind us of that, but without letting ourselves get too much into the whole "my baby is better than your baby" thing (even if she is!).

Hug-a-bug

We were enjoying some nice post-dinner family time at the kitchen table earlier tonight, and I had Baby B in my lap, facing me, while The Husband finished eating. (Baby B tried peaches for the first time tonight, and they went over pretty well, just like most everything else she's tried.) All of a sudden, out of nowhere, she thrust her upper body toward my upper body and put her arms around my neck.

Wait, what was that? A hug? A real hug?

At first I thought it must have been just because she was tired and she was flinging herself in whatever direction was easier and that her arms just happened to end up around my neck. So I pulled her back and asked her if she would hug me. And she did the same thing: leaned forward into my upper body and put her arms around my neck. I pulled her back again. Again she did the same thing. We repeated this probably eight or ten times, with the result being the same each time.

I immediately felt a warm river of emotion rush through my body, reaching from toes to fingertips to the top of my head--but most of all to my heart. My baby was hugging me back! All of the affection I've shown her over the past 7+ months and now I'm going to get it in return?! Yes, sign me up, please! As if I wasn't already in love with her enough, it's reached completely new heights now.

Sway it is

One of the things we've done since the beginning to help soothe Baby B has been to hold her and sway back and forth since she likes the movement. After more than seven months of doing this, however, the swaying has begun to take over my non-baby time, too! I can't tell you how many times during the day I'll catch myself swaying at weird times--without Baby B--like in the shower, while blow-drying my hair, or while waiting in line at a store. It's become such a natural movement lately that it makes me wonder how long I've been doing it whenever I catch myself. I dan only guess what other people must think when I do this out in public. Of course, all those other parents out there probably get it!

Conventional fun

Our trip to Atlanta for Dragon*Con over the weekend was a complete success! Baby B did SO GOOD--much better than we ever anticipated! The large crowds didn't bother her, nor did any of the many people in costumes--in fact, she seemed quite drawn toward Stormtroopers. LOL

I've got a ton of thoughts in my head about the weekend, and I'm too tired to organize them into any kind of coherent post, so I'm just going to go over some random bullet points so I can change subjects quickly and easily.

*Baby B did great on the car ride down and back. The normally 6- to 7-hour drive took closer to 8 or 9 hours, but we took it slowly on purpose. We could have made it there faster if we'd tried, but we wanted plenty of breaks.

*I was amazed at how much Baby B was the center of attention when we were in a given location (especially elevators). Everyone said how cute she was, how she looked like a doll, how well-behaved she was, etc. I'm normally one to really shy away from attention, but part of me secretly loved this. It made me feel like a celebrity. In fact, many other convention-goers were even taking our picture! Look for us on the cover of People magazine! ;)

*One of the first events we attended was a musical performance by the Celtic band Emerald Rose, which Baby B loved. All through the show, she bounced and smiled, and make a tiny little spectacle of what a good time she was having.

*Baby B got fussy only once during the weekend when we were out at the convention, and only because she'd not napped during her normal morning naptime. An afternoon nap cured her just fine. We were able to keep her on a fairly consistent routine similar to what she has at home, so I'm sure that helped.

*Even though Baby B is a very good baby, she's still going to have some times when she cries. I found it very stressful to deal with crying in a hotel room, where you know that everyone in the adjoining rooms can hear it and is probably annoyed by it. She actually didn't cry all that much, but I was tense trying to get it to stop quickly so as not to bother our neighbors.

[The Husband would like to interject that he was very impressed by how quickly & quietly Baby B fell asleep, and how well she slept through the night. We were afraid the Pack 'n Play would be a poor substitute for the crib at home, but it seemed to do the trick!]

*I'm definitely glad we took the Baby Bjorn for the convention; it was so packed that there's no way we would've been happy with a stroller. We saw many families with strollers, but I honestly don't see how they did it without tearing out their hair.

*We got a picture with my favorite musician, Voltaire, which turned out to be a funny picture because I've got her in the Baby Bjorn standing next to him, and I didn't realize she'd grabbed his necklace, so there I am just cheesing away obliviously while she's trying to get his necklace in her mouth. He was a good sport and at least acted like he thought it was funny.