All at Once

Something you should know about Brian and I is that we tend to do everything at the same time. Like how we got married and bought a house within months of each other. I think he thrives under stress and at some point stress just makes me laugh so the more the merrier.

So, what are we doing all at once this time? Not only did we just have a baby... but we are moving to Atlanta. Yup - Brian and I, Evan, and the 4 cats are all packing up and shipping out. For some reason this move feels much more complicated (more on that in a later post) and so I figured why not also throw in a going-away party? Since we have friends all over the place, it would make more sense for us to do it. Oh yeah, and I'll make everything since I want to clean out my fridge and pantry.

And so, here we are. It's noon-thirty the day before our brunch, thankfully Evan has decided to take some sort of nap today (failed at the first attempt but the second one was definitely successful) and I want to share the insanity with you, because that is really the point of insanity - to share it.

To clean out my pantry and refrigerator I had to scour the Internet for recipes. Some, like the London Broil marinade, are tried and true, but some are new. But those of you reading this who will get to eat it, don't get too excited - for me, recipes are more of a suggestion. I've already altered one of the frittata recipes - yummy!

And this is the inside of my fridge. Look at all those eggs - lots of frittatas to make. My goal is to have all of this gone (or most of it) by Monday. I hope everyone is hungry!

This is my kitchen counter top which will become the coffee station. I'm a little anal about parties. I list out all of my dishes and drinks and set everything out as soon as possible to get it positioned and cleaned.

And the pear nectar will become Bellinis.

This is my dining room - more dishes waiting to be filled. Not sure where I'm going to put everything tonight but I'll know before I go to bed.

I'm sure a normal person would have just donated their food, had a few dinners with friends and moved on to their new city. But, I'm not normal and I believe in sharing food. Hopefully I can post pictures of an empty refrigerator on Monday.

It's Been a While...

Wow, it's been a while since I posted and a lot has happened (hence while it's been a while). I am going to try and be better about posting but don't look for a daily post.

To commemorate my return, I wanted to provide you with the top 10 reasons why I haven't been posting:

10. Laundry. Oh my goodness there is a lot of laundry. Burp bibs, onesies, towels, sheets, changing table pads, and anything else that can be pooped on, peed on, or spit up on. Laundry takes time.

9. Visitors. Apparently, when you have a baby people want to meet said baby. And while people will give you a break on your cleaning standards since you recently gave birth, they still need a place to sit and a bathroom to use. This all takes time people.

8. Sleeping. Sorry, but when baby slept so did mommy. There was no posting going on.

7. Leaving the house. This takes time and preparation when you first start you. You have to remember to get the diaper bag ready, get the baby ready, put the baby in his car seat, bring the car seat AND the diaper bag out to the car, go back in to get your car keys because you forgot them inside... etc.

6. Being with baby. Contrary to what anyone tells you, there is a lot to do with a newborn. I had to stare at him in awe for hours. I had to touch him to make sure he was real and check to make sure he was breathing and make sure I didn't miss one cute thing he did.

5. Routine. His changed. I used to blog at the same time everyday and then that time became an awake time. I never gave blogging a new slot.

4. Laundry... did I mention that there is a lot of laundry.

3. Computer. Ours is in our den. About 50 feet away from where Mr. Monkey Pants hangs out and there is a wall between. Therefore, I can't watch him and blog at the same time.

2. Life. Yeah, it's this little thing on my "to do" list every day. It includes cooking dinner every night (or almost every night), cleaning, running errands, taking care of 4 cats, 1 baby, and 1 husband, having fun, and all those other miscellaneous things.

And the #1 reason is...

1. You tell me, when you have free time would you rather post or spend it with Mr. Monkey Pants:

Aunt Amy Comes to Visit

(As narrated by Evan Brian)



Aunt Amy came to visit this week. She said she came down to help Mommy, but I know she came down to see how incredibly adorable I am. They all succumb to my good looks and charm.



Aunt Amy sounds a lot like Mommy... but only if Mommy took speed. I'm not sure I understood a word she said but I liked listening to her! People also say she looks like Mommy but I can tell the difference. Mommy is the one that smells like milk.



We did a lot of fun things while Aunt Amy was here. Aunt Amy and I went for a long walk while Mommy was getting an ultrasound (for an alleged abcess around her breast infection - there was nothing). We sang lots of silly songs together and we played on my play mat.



Here are some pictures of her visit:





Aunt Amy did a good job at changing my diaper and changing my clothes (I think we had to change my clothes this time because I peed all over myself - come on, I'm only 6 weeks old and it's a lot of fun).



I bet Aunt Amy has children of her own.


Aunt Amy gave me a bath in the big bath tub (comparable to my size). And look - no hammock. I was able to sit directly in the tub.



I love bath time. It reminds me of mommy's womb with all that fluid.




Aunt Amy was super comfy to take a nap on. How could I resist? I'd just had a big meal, my diaper was clean, and she was warm and willing.

But the most exciting part about Aunt Amy's visit is that I tried to sleep in my crib (instead of the bassinet, or swing, or vibrating seat). Aunt Amy was able to convince Mommy to let me try out my bedroom all by myself. I didn't like it so much the first few times, but I've been napping in there since yesterday.

It's kind of cool how Mommy can watch me sleep. Thankfully she has moved me down in the crib so I'm no longer a headless baby.

Aunt Amy left yesterday to go back to her own family. I'm sure glad she was able to visit. Maybe the next time she comes I'll be imnunized and swine flu will be gone so Mommy and Daddy will let me go out to fun places and we can all go together.

My Favorite Thing... So Far

My baby sleeps... I mean he REALLY sleeps. In fact, he sleeps so much that from the beginning I have had to wake him up to feed him. I know, this goes against the fundamental belief to not wake a sleeping baby, but to make sure he gets the nutrients he needs and doesn't go into some insulin shock or something, I have to wake him.

This has quickly turned into one of my favorite things. No, I'm not sadistic, but I am truly entertained by the faces Evan makes as he leaves his cocoon of sleep to feed.




I mean, look at this face. Here he is, just placed on his make-shift changing table and starting to stretch.

For some reason he LOVES to pucker his lips. I'm not sure if this is something I do a lot and he is mimicking. But he is damn cute!














And it continues. He has to stretch on both sides you know.







And we are still stretching but starting to become aware of the fact that waking up might not be all it's cracked up to be (and now Evan knows how Mommy feels at 3:00 in the morning with a crying baby).





And here it comes, cranky face. This is the face I get to let me know that Mr. Monkey Pants is NOT happy about waking up.













But just as quickly as it comes, it passes. And acceptance leads to peace. Right after this he opens his eyes, but that part isn't as cute as the stretching.

Hey - where did that snot go?

It Happened

This past Friday, it happened. Everyone said it would. And it isn’t that I didn’t believe them, but it just didn’t seem possible. Everyone’s story had similar threads, but I just couldn’t see how Evan would be able to play the starring role. The role that would cause him to be the hysterical screaming inconsolable baby. But, he did it and he earned an Oscar.

He had been getting progressively fussy all last week. I had absolutely no idea why, but he was still mostly sleeping through the night and when he did get fussy Daddy was still the magic potion. And then Friday came and it was as if he was just rehearsing all week for that moment.

It started around 9:30 PM. Brian had just fallen asleep on the floor (he has been finding it difficult to fall asleep) and Evan started to cry. At first there was nothing alarming about the crying, it seemed pretty normal. I woke up Brian and sent his behind to bed. I figured I would feed Evan, settle him and be off to bed myself soon. Wow, was I wrong.

Almost immediately after Brian went to bed, Evan let out his first blood curdling scream. On Friday, he was 30 days old and I had not yet heard this cry coming from him. His body was acting gassy (legs pulling up, hard abdomen, etc) so I figured it was gas and it would pass. I sat him in my lap (one of his favorite positions and a gas remover position) and he continued to scream. I put him on my shoulder, abdomen hard against the bone, and hit his back to help him release the gas. He continued to scream. I paced back and forth with him throughout the first floor, rocking him as I went. He continued to scream. I put him in his bouncy chair, turned on the vibration and now his screams had a vibrato effect to them. I took him into the guest bedroom and lay down with him on the bed. He continued to scream. Finally, I whipped out my fail-proof weapon, the boob. He didn’t even blink, just continued to scream. And, it was 11:00 PM and I was all out of bright ideas on how to soothe him, so I did the only thing that came naturally to me and started to cry.

Let me try to explain this to the few readers I have who don’t yet have children (because I know anyone who is reading this with children is shaking her head in understanding right about now). Society and nature teaches mothers that when babies cry, mothers respond and soothe. In most cases the mother does have the secret sauce (or whatever you want to call it) that will soothe their child. This feels natural and right. So, when you face a situation in which your powers have no effect (or at least no discernible effect) it rattles your confidence as a mother. Put on top of that the beautiful face of your baby, scrunched in pain, all red, with tears being squeezed out of the corner of his eyes and your heart starts to crack. Add the final piece de resistance of the scream, primordial and pain filled, and you are done. There is nothing quite like that. The worst part is you can’t tell if your baby knows you want to make it better and you wonder if he feels you just don’t care. Hence the tears.

And so we cried together, we walked together, and we rocked together on and off for about an hour. And yes, your math is correct, it is now about 12:00 PM.

So far we had gone through 2 stages of the inconsolable crying. Stage 1 was that I still believed as his mother I could make it better. Stage 2 was accepting I couldn’t make it better and crying out the emotions. I was about to enter Stage 3 – acceptance of the crying and emotional distancing.

The emotional distancing happens fairly slowly until you all the sudden realize you’ve been holding a screaming baby and watching TV but for the last 15 minutes all you heard was the TV. You realize nothing you do will make it better so you do nothing but be there. You have convinced yourself that your physical presence means something even if you can’t emotionally empathize anymore. Of course your 30 day old can’t tell you if you are right or wrong because he is too busy screaming.

And now we enter the final stage – exhaustion. At around 1:00 AM Evan had started to tire himself out. He would scream for 10 minutes and fall asleep for 5 minutes. I found that I too was falling asleep for those 5 minutes and then startled awake by his screaming. I was concerned that the startling would turn into dropping and I knew I had to call it a night. I had calculated that Brian had slept 3.5 hours and could sleep in tomorrow so it was time for tag team parenting. I went upstairs, woke up Brian, told him I didn’t care if he let Evan cry all night but someone had to make sure he didn’t fall on the tile and crack open his head and I went to sleep.

When I woke up, Brian told me Evan had pretty much pooped himself out and would sleep as long as Brian held him. IF Brian tried to put him down, bloody murder would return. And you think to yourself, how am I going to react to this baby today? How will I get over the frustration from last night?

And then you see this:



And you no longer care what happened because the only thing that matters is that your precious is no longer in pain.

Incidentally, last night was the first night we all slept through the night again. Recovery was a little bit longer than expected.