4 years and 10 days...

Until I turn 4-0.
What the what?  That's insane!!

Anyway, long time no write.  Life has been busy, true.  Busier all the time.  The little dude agrees.  He's been dragging himself across the floor for more than a month now.  I'm not sure he'll ever get what I consider "real crawling" down.  It might always be a modified worm.  Either way, he's mobile.  Mobile enough to roll right off the changing table and if that wasn't enough to scare the life out of me...  Our first and hopefully only ambulance ride.  I feel a little silly about that now, but not really.  How could I have taken him anywhere myself?  He couldn't keep his eyes open, couldn't see or hear me, was vomiting and wimpering.  I couldn't really put the boy in his rear facing car seat and just hope he stayed awake until we got to a hospital.  Right?

Suffice it to say that it was an incredibly traumatic experience for all of us.  At his 9 month check-up this morning, our pediatrician said that we will need to be the most vigilant in watching him during the next 9 months as it will take him at least that long to develop any sort of impulse control.  Huh.  I'm nervous that we won't do a good job keeping an eye on him/keeping him safe.  I suppose we need to spend some time doing some serious baby-proofing. 

What else is going on?  Been super busy at work these days.  Planning an event that I dreamed up in addition to taking care of my routine tasks.  Why do I dream up additional work for myself you might ask.  Well, it's the only thing keeping me going at this point, on the work front.  It's new, challenging, a little exciting...  I'm so frustrated with my supervisor and his inability supervising, I could tear out all of my hair and his.  And he's got a lot of hair.  (As I do.)

So, work's busy.  Big D is busy with regular work and then theater stuff on top of that, so we haven't had much relaxing hang out time as of late.  Poo.  One more week and then things may settle down a bit.

My one remaining grand parent has developed something called "Sundowners", which seems to mean she goes completely insane as soon as the sun starts to set. Her sanity doesn't resume until the sun rises the following day.  This is a bizarre phenomenon.  I don't understand how this works or why this happens.  Would it still happen if she couldn't see the sun/moon?  Is it like turning into a werewolf, only less cool?   I'm sure my mom would tell me it's nothing like werewolf.  Wish I lived closer so I could be of some help or support to her.  She's done pretty much all the care taking for both of her parents during their final years and it's really worn her down.

Our baby will be 1 year old in less than 3 months.  That seems completely ridiculous.  I find that so hard to believe.  At 25lbs, he doesn't seem that much like a baby anymore.  Huh.  I'm a bit conflicted about weaning.  I fancy us all sleeping through the night (but mostly me since I haven't had the opportunity to do that in 9 long months) but I also enjoy our quiet time together at night when he nurses.  And, it's only 1x night which is sooooo much better than when he was a wee tiny baby.  I barely even remember what he was like then.

Earlier this evening, when I was feeding the dude some dinner (lentils, which he liked & spinach, which he continues to dislike), there was a horrible crash of what sounded like heavy metal items.  I happened to be on the phone with my mom at the time and she thought it may have been a traffic accident outside. It felt so close, I was (and still am) certain that the noise came from inside our house.  I hate this kind of stuff - scary stuff that you can't see.  Ugh.  It's like a movie.  Anyway, I walked all over the housing hold the phone and talking to my mom.  Didn't find a thing.  And no, it wasn't a traffic accident.  The only other thing it could be is a person or animal hiding out under the crawlspace at the back of our house.  I took a brief walk out there but didn't feel brave enough to go poking around by myself.  If that was the case though, wouldn't there have been foot prints (animal or human) in the snow?

I am totally creeping myself out.
 

In my next life, I don't want to be a procrastinator

That is all.

I gotta get some sleep

Somehow, I forgot to include the following event in the few blog posts I've written this year.   This accomplishment was significant for me because I have an overwhelming fear of heights.  When I'm in a high place, it's as if the very top of my head is the heaviest part of my body.  I feel I have no choice but to fall from where ever I am.  I know it's ridiculous.  My colleague, Roger, who was filling in for me while I was out on maternity leave, planned a reflection and team building day for our exiting service members at a high ropes course. (!?!?!)  Yeah, I would've never taken anyone there.  We spent most of the day on ropes so low to the ground that I didn't expect anything like our high ropes course.  When I first set eyes on it, I immediately began to panic.  I sat out, gave someone else my harness, tried to breathe and not cry.  But eventually I gave in and flipped the hell out.  I started bawling.  "I can't do this, I can't do this.  I'm too afraid."  The facilitators reassured me that I didn't have to do anything that I wasn't comfortable with, which was cool.  We had such a great group of AmeriCorps members last year.  They totally supported me and somehow I managed to do this.  I made it through the whole course. 

There are lots of things that I never thought I'd be able to do - and some of them I truly haven't done or even tried.  I've also tried a good many things and succeeded at more than I thought I could.  It's a good reminder that people are adaptible, flexible and resilient.  It's been a year of new and unexpected challenges and today, I'm feeling pretty okay about it all.  A few days ago, maybe not so much.  Right now, I'm treading water and feeling good.   

Today

Today marks 7 months since we tossed the nickname Le Tigre aside.  Can't believe it's been that long.  Crazy! 

And, while searching for pics on our camera, I came across a series of these from last January's Fake Thanksgiving with the Schluetermetz family and Uncle Rico.  Boy do I miss these guys.  (Sorry - didn't have the time/energy to crop it.)  Strange to think that next time we hang out, there will be another person in the photo...

I've been away from work since last Wednesday - a total of 5 days.  And yet, I think I'm more stressed out now than I was when I left work.  It's pretty much all I've thought about, which is just so stupid.  Why?  Ugh.  Why do I spend time worrying about work when I have all kinds of stuff going on right here in front of my face?  People that I enjoy being with.  And yet, I gave in to stupid work stress instead of enjoying what's here now.  It's almost like I wasted 5 days.  Pretty stupid.

Thanksgiving Eve

I feel like I can't post anything these days unless I include some photos, so here are some older ones - from the summer, I think.  When I haven't much to do, I enjoy flipping through photos and watching the little video clips of the dude's life thus far.  I can't believe he's nearly 7 months old.  Blows my mind.

Speaking of blowing my mind, we got some "adult" furniture for our living room recently.  What is adult furniture?  Well, it's not a lumpy, stained futon and a bunch of other random stuff.  It's an upholstered couch, chair and loveseat with pillows - and they all match for once.  I had no idea it would feel so nice to have things that matched and were in good shape.  But damn, it feels nice.  And, it's used stuff too, which feels even better.  I'll still be sad when the dude pukes on it or draws on it, but not that sad.

Not too much else going on these days.  Turkey day is tomorrow and this is the first year ever that we're actually doing NOTHING.  Strange and a little sad, but again it's not that sad.  The dude does not do that well on long car rides, so lengthy travel was out.  Katie, the north American wanderer, is currently wandering in Africa so our most recent Thanksgiving tradition was off the radar.  I suppose it's fitting that we need to come up with our own thing - but we might just be tired enough and lazy enough to consider it nothing more than another day, at least this year.    I can only speak for myself, and I think I am just tired enough and lazy enough to do nothing.  :)

You know, 7 months ago when I went on maternity leave, I had a hard time disengaging from work but I looked forward to being away for a while and hoped that some things would straighten themselves out during my absence.  But reality was not that kind, of course.  Nothing was different when I returned - it was just messier than when I'd left because things had been ignored for many moons.  I've been back to work for more than 4 months now and it feels like everything is just sliding down into a big black pit.  My job has always had its ups and downs - highs and lows - times with heavy stress and other times with little stress.  But I've generally been able to maintain a positive outlook, felt that things would improve despite the current hardship.  I'm not sure I feel that now - or it might just be that I have so many other things going on in my life that I can't take on that much stress and deal with it as well.  I'm dealing poorly at the moment, and that feels bad.  I have yet to figure out what to do about it.  Do I go to the CEO and talk about my concerns or is that just shooting myself in the foot?  I'm not trusting enough to find out at the moment.

And, the fact that I was just sitting here with my eyes closed and my arms crossed, resting peacefully, tells me that I need to go to sleep.  Good night!

Quiet Sunday

Just looking through photos of Samuel's first 3 months and I stumbled upon this one.  It's from July, so it's  not recent - but I like it.  The dude and I spend a lot of time rocking in this chair.  It's a family heirloom from my Mom's grandparents.  Super comfy rocker.

Not too much going on.  Samuel's currently sleeping.  He's been asleep since about 6pm, which ain't too shabby.  Not sure what to do with myself for the rest of the evening.  I'm pretty tired, so I might call it an early night.  He'll be up early anyhow since daylight savings time just ended and his sleep has not adjusted yet. 

Um...  yeah, not really inspired to write anything at the moment.  I feel happy.  Enjoying family life and having a baby/kid.  Looking forward to all the fun things we will do someday in the future (playing games, etc), feeling a little sad that the dude is growing up so fast, and I'm really looking forward to hanging out with him again when he wakes up. 

Other than that, I think I would be way more productive at home if I was more organized with my home tasks.  If I wrote down the things I could do when I have a few minutes, and then if I actually did them, that would be pretty amazing.  I'm considering taking this on.  Got a new planner at work - the Un Calendar - which has helped me be a bit more organized with work stuff and I'm appreciating it.  But, I'm a dork and I very much enjoy writing things down, making lists and organizing things, so... 

Chocolate ice cream?

 "Hey there, fat little man!  You don't look like you miss too many meals."

That's how this random guy at this morning's farmer's market greeted Samuel, who is indeed looking especially tubby and well fed these days. 

The days are just flying by.  In the past 6 weeks, my Mom stayed for 12 days, Dan's parents stayed for 4 days and Dan's sister and her hubby stayed for a few days this past week.  Late August was crazy busy at work, preparing for the new crew.  The beginning of September was similarly crazy, orienting the new crew.  And now, life is just rolling on by.  I keep thinking that the days will slow down at some point, leaving me with plenty of time to catch up on all the errands I semi-desparately need to do.  The top of the list includes: get a haircut (I have that post-pregnancy hair falling out thing going on), get some new glasses (the paint is chipping off my frames something fierce), get some new work shoes (the soles are almost completely unglued on the oldies).  Alas, I'm not sure how to do all these things with Samuel in tow.  I probably need to figure that out.

So, the boy is now 5 months old.  Crazy.  He really does change ALL the time.  It's pretty wild.  Tonight, as I was preparing dinner, I happened to notice him falling asleep on the baby monitor.  (Yes, ours has a camera.  Don't judge - it's handy and I like it!)  For some reason, I felt so incredibly happy and lucky as I watched him drift off to sleep.  I can't believe I have a kid.  And, he's so great and happy and all around wonderful.  Even though he peed all over me while I was getting him ready for a bath tonight.  Huh.  How is it that I feel like I'm floating and I'm drowning almost simultaneously?  Being present in the moment with him brings on the floating and when I realize all of the other things I need to accomplish (working from home several hours per week being one of them), I feel my head go under water a little bit.

I have to work tomorrow.  Not looking forward to it.  Taking Samuel along because Dan's working and it's a Sunday.  I hang out with him on Sunday and I don't intend to lose my hanging out with him time just because I have to go to work.  We'll see how that pans out.  ;)

So far, Dan's and my schedules have worked out decently in terms of allowing us to cover child care needs (with the exception of all the visiting Grandparent babysitters).  Our schedules overlap this Tuesday soSamuel is going to spend it in the care of someone else and that just feels weird.  My ex-colleague's hubby, who is a stay-at-home-dad is going to watch him.  Hope it goes well and he doesn't flip out when I have to leave him.

Trying to figure out how to get him to sleep through the night - or at least longer than 4 hours.  He had some "regular" 6 and 7 hour sleeps a few months ago but they have not returned.  I can't stomach the "cry it out" thing - at least not yet.  At the same time, there's something in me telling me we need to do it and get it over with.  He really doesn't need to eat every 4 hours, 3 hours, 2 hours during the night.  He's just having trouble staying asleep.  Ugh.  I do not look forward to it.  I know he needs to be able to sleep well on his own and I totally support that.  I'm also selfish and I don't want to lose any more of my sleep than absolutely necessary.  I want the sleep thing to be easy.