memorial day

We went to visit Paula. She bought us tickets to a movie and babysat Waylon. We saw what to expect with Rena. Waylon did really good for first time being babysat. My mom did not show up. You had a big zit. Mama put natural medicine and Breastmilk on it. You been kind of fussy, teething most likely with a bit of constipation.

cutie toot

Pootie-toot you are growing so fast. I’ve been taking all kinds of pictures of you and some videos and posting them to your facebook page for your nana and friends to see. You are just so damn cute it’s unbearable. Sometimes I just want to suck your cheeks right off your face. This morning you woke up with me before work and I got to suck on your face a bit, which was great. You smile but otherwise don’t seem to really care for the face sucking. A few days ago we were French kissing because everytime I kissed you, you stuck your tongue in my mouth. Before, you would suck on my lip. It cracks me up when you suck on my lip and go cross-eyed looking at my face.

home depot grannies

Well your new favorite thing now is sticking your tongue out and blowing raspberries. You do this especially fervently when you are protesting something, like being put down, being put in the car seat, being in the car seat too long, being in the sling too long, etc.

We took you to Home Depot yesterday (you’ve been to this store about a dozen times already) and I was wearing you in the sling. An older lady who worked there named Anita came over to us to see you like a moth to a flame. You were irresistibly cute peeping out from the fabric and looking at her shyly. I could tell she was a grandma (and she confirmed this) and wanted to play with you. We chatted a bit and you began to smile at her and at the same time fuss at being in the sling (it was hot in there) so I took you out. She immediately wanted to hold you so I handed you over.

You must have some kind of granny pheromone because the both of you just lit up with joy. You were touching her face and smiling and giggling, and she was loving it. She asked me if you had a grandmother in your life and I told her the situation which she was sad about. It is a shame. Chris and I explained to her a little bit about what happened and she felt bad for you. But she said anytime you wanted to visit a granny, we could bring you to that Home Depot! LOL. I love the way you interact with some people. You usually smile but I always expect you to fuss but instead you surprise us all by being delightful and cute. Your shy guy smile is too cute. But when you smile really big and laugh, it melts hearts. You enjoy looking at other people and to my relief, like being held by other people too. Or maybe it depends on the person, maybe you can sense their level of comfort with babies and that relaxes you. I hope this means you will do good and enjoy daycare because I want you to have that interaction.

You started to get cranky towards the end of the day and I decided to put you down a bit early. It took forever to settle you down to sleep, but you didn’t cry, you just squirmed and grunted and hummed to yourself a lot. As you were getting closer to sleep, you blew raspberries on my nipple.

momo

This week has been lots of stuff going on. I brought home the kitten, which went surprisingly well. Mama was very busy at work so I was afraid all this would be too overwhelming but things went OK. Your papa and I had one big fight this week. But as usual, we made up. We both agree that we need to stop fighting and treat each other better for your sake and I hope that we can. He’s made a lot of changes and we both have more to make. I’m trying my damndest to understand and support him. Anyways, this is about you and not him so let’s get to the fun part.

So, yesterday mama and papa had an absolutely delightful new experience with you. I was holding you up to the mirror because you like to look into it. It makes you smile and laugh. I usually smile really big and say, “who’s that baby??” and you think it’s a real riot. This time I stuck my tongue out at you in the mirror. And to my complete amazement, you stuck your tongue out back at me. I was totally thrilled. We stuck our tongues out at each other over and over. Then your papa came into the room and I showed him what you did and he was so impressed that we took you over to the bed and played stick your tongue out over and over. And you really did it!! You stuck your little tongue out as far as you could and smiled really big. You even tried to copy us blowing raspberries. I swear there is nothing cuter than you sticking your tongue out. We just couldn’t stop getting you to do it, but eventually you got tired of it.

You notice the new kitty and have reached out for him but he doesn’t quite grab your attention like Bibi does. You do think his soft fur is ticklish, though.

mother's day

 Yesterday was my first Mother’s Day. It was raining all weekend so it was a very sleepy lazy day where we mostly slept and sat under the back patio roof and watched the rain. It was nice. You sat in your swing and listened to the raindrops quietly. You were pretty interested in the rain. You just love being outside, and that makes me happy. I want you to love being in nature and feel how comforting it is. I used to look up at the sky and feel comforted. I love the rain and thunderstorms. The only weather I don’t really like is wind. Too much wind is annoying. Anyways, we relaxed all weekend and took some pictures. I spoke a while on the phone to my sister and Kim. I hardly talk on the phone anymore. We took a couple of videos of you laughing while being tickled, and playing with Bibi. You are fascinated by the dog, and laugh at her antics. I hope having a cat doesn’t become the worst idea of the year.


You really like it when I carry you around in the sling I made. You sit on my hip and look around, peeping out from under the sling. If I take you to the grocery store, you are looking at all the veggies and meats but then quickly fall asleep once I start going up and down the canned foods aisle. You think the “bboop!” noise at the checkout scanner is funny. You are getting better at riding in the car, but you still have your limits. I wonder how you will do in an airplane?

This weekend you ate avocados and really liked them. I also made you oatmeal with bananas and a pinch of cinnamon. You were very interested in the graham cracker I was eating so I let you suck on it. I think you will love graham crackers. Papa cooked me a nice mother’s day dinner – filet mignon wrapped in bacon, asparagus with balsamic dressing and baked sweet potato. This is one of my favorite meals, and it was delicious. Your papa tries hard to be a good daddy and a good partner with what he has and I really appreciate that. Other times he’s a complete dickhead. We still love him. You love your papa very much, I can tell. Sometimes you only have eyes for him. In your sleep, you reach out and touch him. Only he can make you laugh so hard you choke. I think you are a lucky kid to have a mom and dad who love you as much as we do. When you cry, we come running. We make sure you are comfortable, happy, and interested in something. We take you places and show you new things. We show you off to everyone with pride.


I love how eager you are to nurse. When we were all lying in bed, your papa held you hovering over my boob and your little mouth opened and you craned your neck and tried to stretch yourself closer to me, aiming your mouth at my nipple, your eyes on the prize. It was too funny. I love it when you fall asleep at the boob, drunk on milk. Sometimes when that happens I can take my boob out of your mouth and see your tongue still curled up where my nipple was. I love the slightly sour milk smelling breath you have. When I kiss you, you suck on my lip, and we end up sucking each other’s faces. You keep your little eyes open and fixed on my eyes, and then both of us go cross-eyed.

Crawling is going to happen very soon. You can army crawl a few feet and turn yourself around. You can go forward but not backward, which really pisses you off when you get stuck in a corner. You refuse to sit still during a diaper change. Oh yeah, that reminds me…the other day you shat on me! I was letting you air out after a diaper change. You had pooped a small nugget. I let you lay there for a sec, then I picked you up and stood you on your feet. I was sitting Indian style on the floor, holding you steady, when I felt hot wetness on my foot. I look down and there was a steamy pile of poo and you were peeing on me. Your papa was in the kitchen and all I could do was say, emergency! Emergency! Your papa had to take the blanket you were on outside and hose it off. You and I went straight into the bathtub. Daddy thought it was funny and that I deserved it. I hope you poop on him next.

mayfest

This past weekend we went to Mayfest  in Carrolton, Ga. I made it a point to mention that I wanted to take you there several times in the days before so that your dad wouldn’t prevent us from going by being a lazy slacker and then using ignorance as an excuse. I digress. So we drove there, which was about a 20 minute drive, and you were good. We listened to country music on the way, which is your favorite. We got there and parked right away in a parking garage and walked right into the square where they had built a nice new amphitheatre. There were a bunch of people on stage playing drums and bongos and a bunch of people in front of the stage dancing to the music. We sat on some really green and new fake grass. You scowled around, looking at everything around you in your usual contempt. We were having a good time and enjoying being out. Then we walked along the streets to look at the different booths. There were sponsor companies handing out free stuff like pens and notepads. There was a bunch of booths selling pottery and artwork and baby clothes and plants. There were also booths that sold fried foods like funnel cakes and ribbon fries. We got a funnel cake (at the very end).

It was hot as hell that day and we were rotating you from the stroller to the sling. I had to fan you and hold the fan so the top of your mostly bald little head wouldn’t fry in the sun. You were pretty content and happy most of the time, although you do get tired of being in your stroller and a few times I think you got overheated. Luckily, mama packed a special treat for you – frozen nanners and strawberries in your mesh teether and you LOVED it. When we sat down on a curb under a tree to cool down I decided to nurse you because you were a little bit fussy. Your papa didn’t want me to, but I did. After a little while longer, you got really tired so we decided Mayfest was over. We all had a good time.

Your papa finally finished building the roof over the back patio and installed the swing that we got for you. Now it’s really nice to sit out back and you really like your new swing. The face you made when we first pushed you in it was hilarious, your eyes got wide and your mouth stretched back like “wwoooaah!” Your papa and I got a good laugh out of that. But once you got used to swinging you were all smiles.

You are much more mobile now, and I think you are well on your way to crawling. I’ve seen you practice by lifting your butt up in the air and curling your legs up under your body. You just can’t seem to coordinate your arms with your legs to go forward. You are also practicing chewing, which is funny because the food we feed you is totally pureed. But you smack your lips and chew your food anyways. Mama’s going to get you those dissolvable puffs to practice eating with. We need to buy you a high chair soon. Mama did buy you some books though; a couple of the hard cardboard ones with sesame street characters and a couple of soft Elmo bathtime books. Oh yeah, and you like to watch bubbles, just like me. Your eyes are still a deep blue, with a bit of green and/or brown in the center. I wonder what color they will eventually be….

You seem to have a new thing now before you will fall asleep. I don’t know what it is but you really cry for several minutes as I’m rocking you to sleep. You just won’t settle down without a bit of a fight. I play the country station on the clock radio and rock you in the glider, holding you against my chest with your legs wrapped around my tummy and you just shake your head back and forth, scrunch your little face up and fuss. Luckily, after a few minutes you pass out. Then I move you onto the bed and lie next to you to nurse you in case sleep doesn’t take. Then I tuck you in and sneak out of the room. You usually sleep soundly without a peep for 20 minutes to an hour. If I’m gone too long you can sense it and you will wake up screaming so I try to go back and lay with you before that happens. For the first time ever last night I laid you down while you were still fussing and you soothed yourself to sleep, halleluiah. I’m hoping we can start using your crib for you to sleep in cause we are paranoid about you rolling right off the bed now.

It looks like we’ll be getting a new kitten here shortly. One of the guys I work with came over to my desk and showed me pictures of 3 black & white kittens that he was giving away. So I asked your papa what he thought and I figured he would say NO but he wanted a new kitty! So we went over to David’s house out in Winston to look at the kittens. We met David’s wife, a very nice lady, who used to work in a pediatricians office. She held you and loved on you and you were so happy and loving the attention. This was surprising to me because it was a bit past your bedtime and you were fussy. But you were an angel with her and she just adored you. Anyways, we picked out the mostly white kitten with the blackish-brownish patches and the black tail. We are thinking about naming him Moriarty. Moe for short. We’ll probably end up calling him Mo-Mo or moo-moo. Anyways you weren’t all that interested in the kitten, although you did reach out to touch him.

You know what cracks me up? Anytime my boob is within range of your head you try to latch on. It doesn’t matter what position I am in, or you are in. If I’m not paying attention and I happen to be topless, I find myself suddenly nursing you! It’s like you are a little magnet to my boob. I love you.

still no sleep

Last night was not so great. You woke up at 2:30 and were crying a bit. You were fussy before bed, too and I think it was from teething. Mama is so tired today, I didn’t get enough sleep. Your papa got mad at being woken in the middle of the night so we fought and I decided to just get up and get ready for work at 4:30. I hope you went back to sleep and had a good day today. Mama loves you.

walmart shopping

Yesterday after work I took you to Walmart in hopes that you would sleep the entire time because you needed to nap and I needed to get stuff. You stayed awake the entire time, nodding off briefly right before I checked out. I thought for sure you’d get cranky on me but you didn’t. I took you down the toy aisle because I’ve wanted to get you some new toys, especially this one ball-like toy that vibrates and makes funny noises but the thing is made of hard plastic and pretty heavy and I think you would just end up hurting yourself. You sat in your seat largely unimpressed by the stuff in the toy aisle until we got to Rockin’ Elmo. When I pushed his buttons and he began to move and sing, you actually cracked a smile.

Mama got you some bubbles. I always loved bubbles and I have a feeling you will too. You did seem pretty interested in them when I blew some next to your pack n play later that day. You did not go to bed until past 8 pm, which is unusually late especially since you didn’t nap much. You have this new thing now where you screech and yell and generally behave like a monkey when it’s naptime. It’s cute. Go ahead and wear yourself out, little bugger. As long as you sleep through the night you can swing off the chandelier for all I care. The next things I am going to get you are a high chair and maybe a bumbo. I’m also going to get you some soft toys and a mirror.