A day at the zoo

Heather and I met Annie, Marcus, Cara and Max at the zoo today. (The hilarious part of going is that it takes longer to get us in and out of the car than it takes to drive over there...)

We had a lovely time, although Heather did nap quite a bit. She was asleep by the time we got to the lions...
She was not interested in seeing them from another side, either.
She was not impressed by the elephants.
She woke up a little bit in the monkey house (might have been the smell), but the nap she had just finished didn't keep her from yawning at them.
After lunch, she fell asleep again in the aquarium. Hopefully this turtle didn't feel snubbed.

(Note: I attempted a similar shot by the penguins, but there were too many enthusiastic children running around for me to get a good picture safely)


Halfway through the aquarium, Heather wasn't the only one asleep. All three strollers contained sleeping children. :-)
The outside air seemed to revive Heather a little. The polar bears were very cute and pretty active. But there is that yawn again... (you'd think we never let her sleep!)
Next was the white-tailed deer habitat. She must like them since she's awake and not yawning...

By the end of the day it was so warm that we were able to remove all sweaters, hats and blankets! Lovely sun!

Progress photo

My first sweater for Heather so far...

Cleaning

I may have more time later...depending on when the carpet cleaners show up and whether or not Heather can nap while they're working, but I want to do what I can for the moment.

I've spent much of the past few days cleaning up around here. We are having most of the carpets in the house cleaned today, as well as the living room sofa. The cats definitely know that something is up, but they are trying to take their morning naps as usual after following me around all morning as I did the last of the straightening up.

I admit that all of this straigtening and removing (or redepositing) of clutter makes me want to do a real clean sweep around here. On one hand, the place feels kind of cold and empty without any knick knacks or other personal items sitting around. On the other, the rooms feel bigger without any piles of clutter. And the non-carpeted places that became dumping grounds for stuff remind me that we have too much.

So far, I think I've done a good job of keeping Heather's things organized and manageable. We already have a couple boxes of baby things for donation (formula samples, too-small or poor-fitting diapers, extra blankets, etc) and I want to stay on top of her stuff. Somehow, before her stuff gets out of control and before she gets much bigger, R and I need to get a handle on our stuff, too.

The other thing that will help is putting back together the front room on the third floor (currently gutted and in need of electrical work, drywall patching and floor patching) so it can become a family room and accept some of the things that don't really belong on the first floor but end up there because it is the space we "live" in.

Yes, it's true

I'm officially a mom.

R was holding Heather facing out near me. And when she spit up, as a reflex, I put out my hand and caught it. And then immediately said "Ewww". We were in the kitchen, over the tile floor...I really could have just let it drop.

Eeeeewwwwww

That pretty much seals it, doesn't it?

Behind

I hate getting behind on my posting, it is so hard to catch up...and I feel like there is so much to say!

...I started this post this afternoon, and you can see what happened. Foiled again. Technically, Heather is in bed and I could post now. But I have to get up early tomorrow to go get a massage (!), so I must head to bed.

Let me just tease you with some upcoming topics:

Heather meets her great-grandparents, great aunts, great uncle and many cousins and family friends

Amy works on her first sweater for Heather

Heading back to work soon, preparing for babysitters

Photos of the latest clapotis (and its uses) and the log cabin blanket

How I hate routines

Stats

Heather at 2 months and 1 day:

10 lb, 0 oz
22 1/2" long
37 cm head circumference

Still has cradle cap (bad mommy!), but is otherwise in great shape

Loved the apparently tasty oral vaccine
Cried (though not any louder than I've heard before) and turned red during 3 shots

Was happy to eat afterward and collapsed with sleep in my arms on the way to the car

Was fussy in the evening because she missed her afternoon nap, but finally had an evening nap on daddy and slept fine after a midnight snack

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

Today Heather met my coworkers and they all think she's beautiful. The receptionist called all of the females in the office to come meet her soon after we arrived. After she did a little fussing, several men showed up to say hi, too. We also visited the owner of the coffee shop in my building and the yarn shop across the street. It was a fun outing.

Tomorrow is another playdate with Max and Marcus. If her afternoon nap pattern continues, I should be able to get some knitting done while she sleeps. :-)

2 months, 2/3rds and Easter

I wasn't going to post until I had taken pictures of recent finished knitting to post, but that's one thing I never got to this weekend. So maybe that will make my next post...

Heather turned 2 months old yesterday. Since I've never really know a 8 week old baby before, it is hard to know if anything we see is part of Heather's personality or just typical baby stuff. The good news is that she finally seems to be accepting of her need for sleep. For nearly a week, she's slept 6-7 hours in a row overnight and for the past few days she's taken a significant nap in the afternoon, with catnaps between other feedings. She's also become much more alert - looking and toys and faces - and she seems to enjoy when R and I talk to her. I even read her a book the other night, although her interest seemed to be in my voice and not in the pages of the book. We're also beginning to hear sounds other than just crying. Some happy noises and some sounds of frustration that are not really cries.

Sadly, I'm 2/3rds of the way through my maternity leave. I'm not dreading going back to work, but I am going to miss the time that I've had with Heather. And now that she's napping, I'm going to miss the time to get things done around here. Also, R and I are going to have to fight over her in the evenings after work...at the moment, R gets her as much as he wants in the evening since I've had her all day. :-)

We had a nice visit with my parents over the weekend. Having the help enabled me to get some very overdue cleaning done, do some knitting, and get caught up on the processing of Heather's gifts. (That in itself is practically a full time job!) I have more thank you notes to write again, but I hope to bang those out in the next couple of days.

We had a very nice time on Heather's first Easter with R's family and my parents. R's aunt hosted Easter dinner and there was a pretty good turnout. It was nice for Heather to meet more of her family and I always enjoy the opportunity to get out of the house. (I'm trying not to be bitter about the cold weather that has kept us indoors for the past week!)

This afternoon is Heather's next pediatrician appointment and her first round of shots. Not looking forward to the shots, but I'm guessing that they will be more traumatic for me than for her. :-)

The photo shows the last time she'll wear this particular newborn sized outfit. The first time she wore it I had to hike up the pants like an old man.

Hair

I think Heather's hair is coming in. A week or two ago, the top of her scalp was totally bald, and now the same area looks like she got a buzz cut. The hair on the back and sides is about the same as it was at birth...so maybe that stuff is permanent and is going to start growing when the rest catches up? It will be interesting to see.

Last night I went with Amanda to see "Sweet Charity" starring Molly Ringwald. Overall it was a fine show. The plot was thin, but the Neil Simon comedy was funny. Oscar's clausterphobia bit in the elevator made me laugh so hard that I cried. Kudos to Guy Adkins for his fine work. The dancing was also very cool. Much of the choreography was very 60's, but there were also pugilist and marching band styles as well. My biggest gripe with the show was the costumes. Every character wore the same costume for the entire show, despite the passage of time. As if the audience is too dumb to keep track of the characters unless they wear the same thing the whole time. For those who are curious, Molly was fine. She did what she needed to do but she didn't blow me away.

Just one show left on the subscription. AlterBoyz in May.

Busy, fun weekend

First, the Harlot. Heather and I were running a little later than planned, but Amanda had been kind enough to save us a seat in the third row and within minutes all the ladies near us were cooing over Heather's cuteness. Can't blame them. :-)

With Heather in the baby bjorn, I was able to knit while we waited for the event to start and for about the first 15 minutes of the speech. But it was a bit tiring to knit without resting my arms on the bjorn, so I didn't knit beyond that.

Stephanie was wonderful. She seemed to be a little nervous at first, but she relaxed within a few minutes when it became clear that we all thought she was funny and engaging as always. (I've read about 30 pages of the book so far, and it's great, too!) I think she spoke for about an hour, and given that Heather was asleep the whole time I would have been happy for her to speak for another hour. I haven't laughed that hard in quite a while!

Heather and I had been assigned to Group C for signatures, but Stephanie requested that those with kid be allowed to jump ahead in line. Since Heather was still asleep, I didn't butt my way to the front, but we did join Group A. Of course, just as we got to the head of the line for our turn, Heather woke up. So Stephanie and I didn't have too long to chat because I knew Heather would want to eat pronto. We did get our picture taken (I'm holding Heather's knitting needles :-) I don't usually stand in profile for pictures...that was for Heather's benefit!)

While Amanda was in line, Heather ate. And then the three of us spent some time talking with Julia and Amanda got some Heather time. Even after a diaper change, Heather continued to be fussy, and that was what prompted Stephanie to come over and demonstrate the Harlot-patented "calming butt pat". It works fabulously well, and though Amanda had a little difficulty with the rhythm at first, but I can tell you that Amanda successfully calmed Heather the following afternoon with her new knowledge. :-) Overall, a wonderful evening, and Heather and I are honored to be mentioned in Stephanie's post about the event.

(Although, I admit, I'm a little intimidated to bring up the content around here. My Harlot teaser post garnered a record number of comments and it leads me to believe that quite a few people probably lurked over here from the Stephanie's link and my comments. Hopefully I can rise to the occasion!)

Saturday was fun as well. R, Heather and I attended Marcus' first birthday party. It was a fun afternoon and Heather's first party. It's great that she has a few older friends who can let us (and eventually her) know what toys are most fun. :-)

Heather and Max:

Marcus, with his parents, after eating his cake:

Heather with her Dad:
I'm a few rows away from started the Clapotis decreases. If I don't have it finished by the weekend, I'll finish it over the weekend. :-)

Now I'm off to read other accounts of these fun events!