It was a long drive

This is what I found when I came down from my shower this morning:

Oh! One other funny story (about me and my foibles, not Graham)

So we were in Target today, and there is a woman checking out in front of me. She's buying a comforter and some sheet sets. She is paying when I notice that there is another sheet set in the bottom of her cart that she has not paid for. Scandoolious! She even catches my eye while I have the whole moral quandary play out in my head. Do I narc her out? Can't Target spare a sheet set? But seriously, that's stealing! squeals my inner Camp Fire Girl. I decide that if it was a mistake, she'll figure it out when she gets to the car and come back in and pay for it. And if it wasn't a mistake, so be it. But I am definitely shaking my head inside at the moral depravity of today's soccer moms.

So it was a little shameful when I got to the car and found the $1.99 pack of diaper pail deodorizers from Babies 'R Us still in the stroller bag. Which I hadn't paid for. And did I go back to pay for them? I did not.

Something else that should have been totally obvious, but wasn't

Packing a baby up for a week's vacation (regardless of having the keys to the brand new Porsche) is hard. We're going home for my cousin's wedding in Providence, and decided to stay for a week to get lots of grandparent and friend time in. I have been adding to the list of Things That Must Not Be Forgotten all week. This list includes but is not limited to:

• Diapers and wipes for the car
• Extra dipes and wipes for a week
• Toy for the carseat
• Toys for the activity gym
• Activity gym
• Reflux medicine
• Vitamins
• Sunscreen (which, ack! it's cancer one way, cancer the other)
• Swim diapers
• Rice cereal
• Spoons
• Bottles
• Formula
• Breast pump and pump parts
• Sterilizer bags
• Bath towels and washcloths, plus baby wash and bath accoutrement
  
• Spit rags
• Bibs
• All variety of clothes, including bathing suits
• Hats
• Co-sleeper and co-sleeper sheets
• Stroller
• Blankers
• Monitors
• Baby Bjorn
• Plastic bag for the cooler with teething rings and binkies
• Baby Tylenol (for the teething)
  
• Diaper disposal bags
• Changing pad and cover
• Nail clipper
• Moby wrap

And we're not even bringing a highchair, a crib, baby umbrella/sun tent, exersaucer, swing, books, etc. that are all parts of our daily routine because the grandparents have been nice enough to provide for us. Phew! I'm also trying to be cheap and healthy(er) by packing snacks and sandwiches for us instead of buying road food like usual, so we've got a cooler in the backseat as well. At this rate, Joe and I will be like island natives and wear only bathing suits the whole week long because that's all we have room for in the car. Anyway, I will try to post next week, as I am sure there will be lots of cute pictures of Graham with various relatives and friends, but I may just be too relaxed what with all the grandparent baby help. Or I may collapse under the weight of all our luggage. I'd say it's a 50/50 shot.

In other news

Lots of little tidbits here and there....

1) So this is where we went on an abbreviated hike for our anniversary. It's this crazy area of erosion on the shore of Lake Ontario that has produced cliffs and bluffs and strange earth formations. The hike was abbreviated because recent storms had knocked down trees across the path, and everywhere there are signs saying "DO NOT LEAVE THE PATH - THIS IS SERIOUSLY AN UNSTABLE BLUFF AND YOU WILL FALL TO YOUR DEATH." So we didn't want to cut around the fallen trees. And, you know, die or something. I took this picture of one of the bluffs from the beach, and the picture doesn't do it justice. It was also about to thunderstorm, and the whole feel was just completely apocalyptic.
2) Graham is finally happier on his belly now. Not thrilled every second, but not crying instantly either. I pulled the tough mommy act last night and we decided that he has slept on his tummy before, and he could do it again. So we let him cry it out...for a total of six minutes before he fell sound asleep. Hooray! And this morning he very happily played with his Buzz Bug toy in front of him on his tummy for about ten minutes while I washed dishes. Double hooray! So I guess we can wait on him remembering how to roll the other way. As Candice pointed out, be careful what you wish for, because 360 degree rolling means a whole new level of baby mobility (and probably requires babyproofing to a certain degree).

3) Which, dag, babies are expensive, huh? Have you seen this? Have you heard about this? I just went and did a little shopping yesterday for our upcoming trip home to MA next week and also just because he needed a few things because he is getting oh so much bigger and older. I think I got the following: breast pads to make sure I had enough for the trip, baby wipes, sunscreen, an SPF shirt and swim diaper cover (that were both on sale), more rice cereal (because the kid is an eating machine now), new bibs (a messy eating machine), more of the spoons he likes (a messy eating machine who is starting to have opinions), a few teething rings, and maybe a few other odds and ends. And it was $100! One hundred dollars! Are you kidding me? Kids these days! Spoiled rotten!

Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad!

We celebrated our three-year anniversary today (although the actual day isn't until Wednesday) and when we got home Graham gave us this for the best present ever:

And we cried and cried and cried.

Grahambo triptych

Relaxing back into normal

The photo above is actually an older one (whew! over a month old, now that I look at the date) but I didn't take any new pictures yesterday. Plus he's so happy and funny here...he almost always gets excited when he gets in his carseat (it's like we have a puppy). I've been trying from the beginning to make getting strapped in sound like a really good time, and Joe caught me the other day squealing what I always do: "Are you ready to go on adventures (...i think we were going to cvs...) with mommy? Do you looooove adventures? Who loves adventures wich his mama? Is it yoooou? I tink it is!" at the top of my best baby voice register. But hey, Graham loves it, so I am willing to take a bit of joshing from my husband (who has been known to squeal a time or two himself).

Graham is finally back to a relatively normal sleeping schedule, although he is still flipping himself over a fair amount. He slept from 7 pm - 6 am last night, and is now taking a little extra nap with his dad while I got a much-needed shower in. Speaking of which, I need to file something in the "no one ever told me this would happen, until thank goodness, Candice filled me in" bin: my hair continues to fall out in giant clumps, every day. It started when he was about 3 and a half months old, and hasn't quit yet. Good lord! Even the gray hairs are starting to fall out (and those ones are tenacious). When I got out of the shower this morning, I had literally a handful of hair that I pulled from the drain cover. I was going to take a picture of it for the blog, but really, I think you probably all come here for the cute pictures of Graham, not for the grossness of post-partum.

We also got our webcam yesterday, and signed up for Skype, so now we can video-call the grandparents, which is very exciting for them. Last night Grandma Big K watched Graham eat his rice cereal! Maybe today she can see the flipping in action.

No rest for the really, really, seriously, weary

Graham is really sticking to his guns on this flipping-over-every-chance-I-get-
but-then-being-extremely-angry-about-it thing. I keep trying to let him figure it out, but then he starts screaming and dropping his head on the floor and I pick him up and soothe him back to semi-normal. Joe and I are just hoping that this is going to suss itself out soon, because it has been a long time since he slept through the night. First, it was an enormous growth spurt. Then it was an enormous heat wave. Now it's the flipping. The flipping flipping. Sigh.

The one positive thing in the world of sleeping is that our new windows are getting installed tomorrow. Huzzah! The enormous heat wave was an extra issue because we have about 1000000000x the limit of lead in the paint on our windows, including the window in his room. So we couldn't put a fan or an air conditioner in there, lest we want to blow in lead dust and out IQ points, so to speak. Hence, the need for new windows. (Plus the windows are all old and crappy, and our heating bill will thank us come winter.) So he's been sleeping back in our room for a few weeks, which is good for exactly no one. So hopefully, tomorrow night he will be back in his room with his new little personal A/C and lovely temperature control. And Joe and I will happily be back to sweltering in our room. We're also getting rid of these death traps tomorrow (they have no screens or storms, and unlatch in a stiff breeze, and are conveniently located about 3 inches from the floor):
and that will finally put to rest one of my most-often repeated pregnancy nightmares, in which my unborn child crawled out the window to fall to his death. Isn't pregnancy fun?

Happy Father's Day!

Joe has just been showered with fathery goodness this weekend! Graham has officially decided it is his mission in life to flip over onto his belly whenever possible (read: multiple times in every nap; also 3, 5 and 7 am) and then to forget that he does know how to flip back over. Not so much sleeping this past evening.

But, Joe did get some sweet Dad's Day swag. Graham hooked him up with the MLB Extra Innings half season package so they can watch the Sox together:

And Joe also finally got his "I have a kid now, and he's pretty freaking awesome!" commemorative tattoo:

It's Graham's five month footprint, and we all love it. Even the tough guy at the tattoo shop got a little misty-eyed when we told him Graham's story. So hooray for dads and grandpas everywhere! We moms think you rock.

Aaaahhhhhh

I am sighing with pleasure because, for the moment, everything is peaceful in our house. Graham woke up at about 6:30, and I brought him downstairs to eat so Joe could sleep in a bit (a Father's Day weekend gift that, provided I remain both patient and kind by tomorrow, will be a repeat for the actual Father's Day). We played around on his activity gym and in the exersaucer after that (he just figured out this morning that he can make his motion-sensitive music thingie go on by slapping the poles of the activity gym with his hands, in addition to kicking with his feet). And then we went outside and it was so beautiful -- we had an amazing thunderstorm last night, and everything was wet and shining. So I decided to take a little early morning walk around the neighborhood with G in the baby carrier...and by the time we got 3/4 around the block, he was asleep. So now he is back upstairs sleeping with Joe and I have a nice rare moment of alone time. Lovely.

Of course, it wouldn't be accurate to say that the walk was entirely bucolic and perfect...I tried to be the hippie, earth-loving mama that I only wish I could be and show Graham this beautiful tree that we walked by with all of these clusters of white-yellow flowers. And I ended up showering us both with pollen. Which I hope I managed to get the bulk of off his fingers before said fingers went back in his mouth. I might be spending some of my precious alone time googling "fragrant tree toxic baby pollen" or something to that effect.

Finally, one funny baby note - G has been rolling over a lot lately, both ways, but hasn't quite gotten good at rescuing himself if he rolls over onto his tummy completely from his back. Which is how we found him when he started yelping last night at 10. He started out like this in the bed:
And ended up like this (the squiggly lines are supposed to indicate that he was face-down, I guess): And he managed to completely freak himself out.

To do: blog

Every single day, it's on my list! Because he's just growing and changing so quickly, I feel like every day there is some new accomplishment to share. Yesterday he ate his whole serving of rice cereal (and wanted more!). He fell in love with his super-soft stuffed puppy. He got to finally meet his wonderful friends Jess and Jennie, and fell in love with them too. He hung out with his buddy Ava and got cranky with this little heat wave we're having. And for a few moments, he stood up in his exersaucer all by himself! Of course, then he thunked back down (that's why the back is padded with a blanket...) but I was so proud of our little man. All the cliches are true. They do grow up so fast, you won't believe how quickly it goes, and you can't imagine how much love you have in your heart.

Not so much Mommy and me, as Mommy and Mommy

Warning: this post has very little to do with Graham.

I'm sure every mom-blog on the planet has posted on this topic, but right now I am a snake-charmin', bible-thumpin', revival-tent-puttin-uppin' convert on the concept of me time. Time (and frankly, a little bit of money) to put in to actually feeling relaxed, and perhaps even attractive, again. I am not the best when it comes to this, even before I had Graham. I think the last time I really put a good deal of effort into my everyday appearance was...college? Maybe? I mean, a lot of effort went into looking good for my wedding, but that was an over-the-top, one day only kind of effort. So I am finally getting ready to start running again, and my (actual) friend Kelly told me about ExerciseTV OnDemand, and my (only in my head) friend Kelly Kapoor told me about this:
It's a heated eyelash curler, which I love for all of its ridiculousness and self-involvement. And my real real true friend, Maura, put it in an envelope and sent it to me. And I am going to curl the crap out of my eyelashes.

Updateration

"Oh, Mommy, you trickster you! This isn't my regular breast milk...it's got rice cereal in it!"

Dad and Graham together on cereal day #2

Graham and friend, pre-bath

We've had an eventful past week - a growth spurt to end all growth spurts (requiring formula follow-up after breastfeeds, waking up at 3 am again after weeks of sleeping through the night, and some serious crankitude), which led to calling the pediatrician and getting permission to start rice cereal, a visit from Joe's parents, and now today, sleepiness to end all sleepiness, which is allowing me to finally, finally update the blog.

I've been thinking a lot lately about what I think are probably typical mom concerns. You know, I leave him at his activity gym while I fix lunch for myself, and when I finish eating, he's still happily kicking away. Do I interrupt and start interacting with him so I don't feel guilty about basically leaving him to his own devices, or do I do what I know I should and sit next to him but let him amuse himself, because that's an important skill? Do we need to bring him to more different places more often, even though he shuts down at first and it makes him crankier later on, because he needs to be more socially comfortable? Is that a rash around his mouth (worrying about an allergic reaction to the rice cereal), or just the baby acne? And so on. I don't think I am an over-worrier, per se, but we spent the first two months of his life analyzing every blip, boing, and beep of his monitors...every tiny fraction of an ounce of breastmilk he took...every noise he made every second we were around him. It's just hard to break myself of the habit.

Speaking of worrying, I put our names on waiting lists for daycare starting in January. How am I possibly going to be able to leave him with someone else for 40 hours a week? There's also practical concerns, in that he will still be more susceptible to RSV for the coming winter season as well. Can we responsibly put him in a daycare center, the bastion of cold and flu? And once you start looking at daycare in people's homes, it's terrifying how many have been reported for one infraction or another. I think the solution is for Joe to quit his job (hi honey! just kidding!) or for Dave and Evan (hi guys!) to start a Daddy Day Care. Or, maybe I can tele-commute for the rest of my third year rotations? No? Didn't think so.

p.s. I feel like I should give Joe his due credit for the bear that is hanging out with Graham in the last photo...that is Graham's first ever stuffed animal. Joe bought it the night he arrived back in Boston after driving through the night from Rochester. He wanted me to keep it with me all through my hospital stay so that it would smell like me, and then Graham would have something that smelled like his mom when he was in the NICU. And I did - I slept with the bear (as much as I could have slept that week), used him to prop up my belly in the uncomfortable bed, put him under my head so that I could read while not moving a fraction of an inch (for a few days, every time I moved, Graham would roll over on his cord and his heart would slow down, which alerted a giant team of nurses to come in and maneuver me and all my monitors around). So while we didn't end up putting the bear in his NICU bed, it absolutely is Graham's favorite. And I'd like to think that is all due to his amazing dad.