4 posts tagged “jack”

Ate sooo much good stuff this weekend, now I need to find the time and energy to write it all up! And maybe join a gym... The short version: cheese bar, pulled pork & ice cream at the dairy farm, crepes, amazing cocktails, wrapped up with great steak, wine, cheese and friends for Sunday dinner.

In other news, sister-in-law left this am, ending the month of non-stop family time. My dad was in town first half of month, then we went to NY last weekend for Passover, and then sis-in-law came down this past weekend. Whew. The monkey is still asking for his Uncle T, so I guess we have to go to NY more than once a year... The road trip did go much more smoothly this time around, though. The main trouble spot was the grandparents' highly un-child friendly apartment. We stayed with Uncle T, so it was only a problem while over for meals.

And now I'm enjoying a quiet, rainy Monday at home ... waiting to hear status on kitty, who conveniently decided to get sick on the day of his previously-scheduled annual check up. He seems to be having a flare-up of a urinary condition that was supposed to be resolved by major surgery he had two years ago ... apparently it was not.

At 12 weeks tomorrow, Owen has really started showing an interest in his toys and gadgets, even if it's just to put them in his mouth. Which is also where you'll often find his first two fingers, thumb, or both fists. He seems to be in the early stages of teething (or so random strangers tell me when we're out and he's slurping on my shoulder and/or the bjorn) -- he's drooling everywhere and sucks or chews on whatever he can get in his mouth. z (he just typed that!) He's also interested in the tv and computer -- especially when there are pictures of him to look at. He leans forward and reaches for things with his index finger and thumb. He loves to sit up, with a little help from the boppy. He "chats" with his toys and shrieks when he's excited. His favorite color is definitely red. He's been sleeping nights in his crib for two weeks now -- naps are still a work in progress. He's sleeping 6-8 hours a night, plus 3 more after a feeding. And he has the cutest fuzzy head.

In my earlier post on mom types, I left off one of the most common: the Martha Mom. This is the part of my mom personality that necessitated the baking of homemade treats for the Halloween party. Those who knew me pre-baby would likely have guessed that's the type of mom I'd be. But my desire to have an organized house and dinner on the table when Dad comes home from work has run headlong into what the nurse who facilitates our new mom's group called the "arsenic hour." Apparently that's the name for the 4 o'clock hour, when kids are fussiest and hungry and mom's trying to get dinner ready and feels tempted to pour arsenic into her tea (or something like that). Sure enough, 4pm to 7pm is Owen's fussy period of the day. We go through a good 3-6 wet diapers then - and Owen HATES wet diapers so you have to change them immediately - the cats and dog get antsy because they want their dinner & walk (and they haven't figured out the time change so they've started acting up an hour earlier now). Whatever grand dinner plans I had go by the wayside as I'm bouncing, rocking, swaying Owen to attempt to coax him into his evening nap and counting down the minutes until his dad arrives home to deal with the pets. Then I feel bad that dad comes home from work to a house full of tired and cranky people/pets and no dinner in sight.

In one of our first trips to the grocery, an older women told me that she remembered when her first was a baby, and she'd make dinner during his morning nap so it just had to be reheated later. How silly, I thought -- surely in a few weeks Owen will entertain himself in his swing while I cook. Foolish, naive me!

So, yesterday during Owen's morning nap I finally baked the pie I'd been planning since I bought apples on our trip to the farm 2 weeks ago. Then I bjorned him at the grocery to lull him into a deep afternoon nap and prepped the ingredients for dinner. Since he miraculously continued napping well past 4pm I even chopped up my veggies, after being inspired by this photo to try to avoid the routine discovery of unidentifiable rotting produce I never got around to eating.

All this was helped by Owen sleeping a solid 8 hours the night before, of course. The combination of sleep and successfully preparing a meal made me feel a bit more like the mom I wanted to be. We'll see how long it is before that happens again. ;-)

Thought I'd post pictures of the furbabies while they're enjoying the final days of being our only children.

The cats seem unimpressed with the baby stuff so far, but they spend most of their day sunning in the sun room anyway so maybe they won't notice :).

Callie has been very interested in the babies we've seen at St. Elmo's (coffee shop) lately, so we're hoping she'll learn to like her new sibling.

She's very protective of her cats - always tries to defend Rox when Jack's bullying her - so I'm sure she'll be a good big sister.