laundry

What They Never Tell You, Chapter 71.5

You'll never have time to do laundry again. In fact, not only will you never do laundry again (except in dire emergencies, late at night -- note posting time -- while the baby sleeps, however briefly*), but you'll run in circles saying to your spouse, "Didn't she have a pair of pants? I know she must have a pair of pants!"

And let's just avoid discussing the socks, shall we? Because no matter how many pairs of socks you buy the child, she'll never have a single complete pair.


*And if she does sleep through the night, rest assured you won't, because your spouse will choose that night to resume a snoring habit that would make the 50-year old maple in your backyard tremble in Jungian fear.

Baby it's cold outside. (That's Jake & Dante next to Jacqui.)

sans bébé

Tonight Geoff came home from work and said, "Would you like a shower?" And I said "YES!" before the "ower"-sound even came out of his mouth, so it's a good thing that's really what he was offering. And then he said, "Would you like to go to Starbucks with your book afterwards, and I will stay here with the baby?"

And that's when I fell in love all over again. My Geoffrey's mother did raise him up right.

So I had a lovely shower, and then I dressed in clothes entirely inappropriate for breastfeeding -- I even wore a NECKLACE, and then I took Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell to my closest Starbucks. We didn't have to wait very long for a table with comfy chairs to become available, and then we spent several hours together, enjoying our Chantico (and a bottle of water). And a friend who works close by even stopped in to chat, and that was WONDERFUL.

Not that Geoff and I don't have adult conversations, but mostly they center around Jacqui, her amazing feats, and her bodily functions.

I was gone for about three and a half hours, I read almost 200 pages of my book, I had an adult conversation with another woman, and Geoff played with Jacqui, he fed her, and he put her to bed.

<voice="Madmartigan">I FEEL BETTER!</voice>

January 20 was my mom's birthday. We went out for seafood (well, I had grilled cheese; Jacqui had pureed sweet potatoes and string beans; everyone else had sea-carnage), and Jacqui clapped for the First Time Ever.

Geoff took this at my mom's house on her birthday. Other photos from earlier that night will undoubtedly follow -- it was a great night.

volumous

Dear baby,
If you're yelling so loudly that you need to cover your OWN ears to block the noise, it's time to turn it DOWN.

Love,
MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA!!!!!!

Jacqui is entirely unimpressed with this whole "snow" business.

ten months!

In the past month, she's learned to pull herself into a supported stand; she can take a couple of steps alongside whatever she's holding onto. She notices everything and points to learn what things are. She talks and sings and giggles and shrieks with laughter.

She eats BREAD now! And cheese, and cereal, and falafel (heh), and as babycenter.com advises: "anything small and edible that can dissolve in water, unlike a peanut."

And she drinks from a sippy-cup almost on her own. She'll hold it and suck on the top; sometimes she accidentally tilts it enough to get water in her mouth. If one of us helps with the angle, she can get mouthfuls and swallow them. (She also throws the sippy cup and anything else within reach. I figure if I haven't gotten tired of that game by now, I probably will survive til she's bored with it.)

At her grandma's house on Monday she crawled all over, stood against furniture, waved, laughed, sang, and played. She plays "I'm running away you better catch me!"; she plays "you can't see me"; she plays "I'm gonna eat you up!" -- she gave my mom kisses on her tummy! -- and "oh don't eat me up!"; she plays with food and toys and faces and fingers.

She's got the liveliest, deepest brown eyes there ever were. She sparkles.

The other night Geoff and Jacqui and I journeyed to Wegman's, which is a super-mega-grocery store. I didn't correct the bakery man who mistook her for a boy, because he was so impressed with her that he offered me extra bread samples to feed her.

She's experiencing separation anxiety and stranger anxiety, but when we visited a friend last week she felt comfortable enough to nap in a different baby's play-yard; she also let my friend's mom hold her.

Most nights, her daddy puts her to bed. Most nights, he ends up falling asleep in the rocker with her on his chest. It's the stuff sappy oil-paintings are made of. She hasn't been sleeping through the night lately; today I realized her other front top tooth has broken through. Maybe sometime soon (not tonight), she'll be able to sleep through again.

Jacqui was three days old in this photo. Isn't it too soon for me to be nostalgic for those (screaming baby, screaming nipples, can't stand up straight, can't go to the bathroom) days?

Having mastered the basic Stand, Jacqui attempts to skip ahead to Levitation.

A baby and a Grandma

little swimmer

We went back to the pool today after a nearly month-long hiatus. We went to a different rec center (15 minutes away) because ours (10 minutes away) was hosting a swim-meet. That extra five minutes was all Jacqui needed to fall asleep. She's always so surprised to wake up in the car and find herself both not at home AND not at her grandma's house.

She had a wonderful time in the pool! Instead of having a railed entrance ramp leading down into the shallow water, this pool has a shallow section that's ENTIRELY just -- ramp. You start at 0' and walk down down down into the water, eventually reaching 3'. So this baby had a wonderful time playing with us in the shallow water! She kicked and splashed a bit, and she LAUNCHED herself at her daddy a couple of times. When we say, "Ready to swim, Jacqui?" she lifts her chin way up and strains forward. When she's had enough for a bit, she turns herself inward toward whichever of us is holding her and rests.

They also have a wonderful jacuzzi-type spa there ... and I tell you, that alone was worth the price of admission. (We took turns; Jacqui went nowhere near THAT water!)

There was a display on the rec center bulletin board aimed at parents of infants. Apparently they've had a problem with people NOT putting their children in water-tight swim diapers; they've had NINETEEN accidents in the past four months! That is just insane! So now they offer free swim diapers at the check-in desk, in hopes of saving everyone else from these people.

I cannot imagine bringing a baby to a public pool without a water-tight diaper.

Jacqui and her Auntie Karen reading The Amazing Bone

snippets

Darth Baby
That's what she sounds like when she makes that back-of-the-throat static noise. I'm just waiting for her to say, "Teleport them INTO SPACE."

They're still there.
That's what I say to her when she pulls at the neckline of my shirt to peek inside. Satisfied, she grins.

Oh My Goodness.

We went to Sakura for sushi tonight -- my mom, Jacqui, and I. My mom had the spider roll that she does love, and I had avocado rolls. Well -- I had the avocado rolls that Jacqui couldn't finish. She ate the insides of at least 4 pieces; I lost count, because we were having far too much fun for MATH to be of concern. I pried them open and fed her the avocado and little bits of rice until she was DRUNK on them. She was so funny! She laughed and sang and talked and she ate avocado and rice until she couldn't hold herself up anymore. She'd lean back into my mom's hand, or else forward with her chin in my mom's other hand, and then open her mouth and call out for more sushi.

While she was doing all this, she came forward onto MY hand, and put her open mouth on the base of my thumb, the way she does. And that's when I felt it. The reason last night was such a horrible awful night that I hope she never repeats is because she cut at LEAST one of her top teeth. It's possible they BOTH came through!

This isn't well-written; I apologize. I'm sitting in my mom's computer room while she plays with Jacqui in the kitchen, and I can hear her corrupting her with Chicken Dance Ernie. I must go save my progeny from the chicken dance!

Pyramus and Thisbe

Happy New Year!