Hello Mudduh Hello Fadduh: ILX Rolling Parenting Thread

Likewise I'm fairly socially awkward/enjoy being alone but am not as pathological about it as I used to be. Right now my baby doesn't seem to count as a person in that way, I really dig being alone with him. So maybe this will change as he starts to be his own person more. Having inlaws over more often (haha like once a month) is more of a pain than always being within boob's reach of a baby.

in somewhat related news, this week marks the beginning of the great sleep crackdown. my wife (who, because of our schedules, is mostly responsible for bedtime) has finally been persuaded that little dude needs to learn to go to sleep on his own, in his crib, instead of falling asleep next to her in bed. so we've had the predictable bouts of furious crying (accompanied twice by vomiting, because he got himself so worked up), but he seems to be grudgingly accepting his fate.

we've had the predictable bouts of furious crying (accompanied twice by vomiting, because he got himself so worked up), but he seems to be grudgingly accepting his fate.

CLASSIC, CLASSIC, CLASSIC!

http://static.flickr.com/34/119334906_602ba4e17d.jpg?v=0

We... or rather the inlaws bought us TWO play parks. (One for the shop and the other for our home.) She loves it! We've been fairing much better. As she's extremely active and likes to spread her arms and legs, the pram was too confined for her. The hell with swaddling, she likes to have her space.:-)Anyway, yeah, the park gives her the chance to play and also sleep and it gives me the opportunity to work and not carry her all the time. ;-)

She only wakes up one time in the night now! YAY! Once at 12 AM and then another time at around 3. One time she even managed to remain asleep until 7!

Oh yeah, we went for an echo. She was so good. And the specialist confirmed that Ophelia is doing great. :-)))

Re depression/time alone: I was very much afraid of post-natal depression as I'm prone to depression but I've done quite well. I realize that being tired does make me a bit bluesy at times, but I've got the perfect medication: my husband and child. :-)

http://static.flickr.com/35/119350712_50ab158f22_m.jpg http://static.flickr.com/53/119350700_2ba8e0feeb_m.jpg

Right now he's totally into mirrors, we have big mirrors in our house that he loves and also a small baby-safe plastic mirror that's good for a variety of places. If I put him on his belly facing that mirror, it's totally good for a half hour of entertainment. He also loves standing on a lap, and if you're sitting on the couch with the mirror behind it so that he can stand AND look at himself in the mirror, it's total baby crack.

We're doing good sleeping too, he's getting used to the crib and has a really solid nighttime schedule. He doesn't seem to want too much sleep in the daytime but this still varies.

The baby gym is great but she gets pissed off because she can't grab those play things (it's much higher up than the one in your pic, Teeny).

She loves the shop. I'm expecting that this is due to my family's genes: we're born shopkeepers.

I'm only half joking.

Ava just bloodied my nose - I was hanging upside-down off the daybed, making her laugh and she rammed a finger up a nostril... Pam thought it was hilarious. I had to crawl off to the bathroom with two sheets of kitchen roll. Ava showed fleeting concern and then went back to slapping the hoosier*.

(* - in the cabinet sense, not the Indiana resident sense).

Ava seems to have got over her little lunch trouble (protein? No thanks - unless it's dipped in yoghurt), mostly by letting her start to feed herself. It's messy. She thankfully still seems to need her two naps a day (many of the neighbourhood kids who go to nursery are down to one now), which allows us to get a bit more done around the house.

We're now looking at a total rewire in the house (had an inspection on Monday and the results were not good) so we may have to stay in a hotel or something for a week around Easter. It'll be our first holiday with the gal! Even if it's only 400 yards away...

The explosive joy of Louis in Teeny's pic! Wow!

http://static.flickr.com/46/114322358_ce7756e0a2.jpg

I think the brown stuff is ancient wallpaper from the days when people used to like living in parcels.

(I think I know the answer to this but I still want to hear it.)

She can also climb up things very easily...like the crate we use to protect the TV stand from her probing fingers. It's difficult to even leave the room for 30 seconds to boil a kettle now, she's so mischievous and hazard-seeking.

Here's Ava running around the Rachel Whiteread exhibit at the Tate Modern:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvsgyYrfqlI

Emma (10 1/2) has suffered her first sports-related injury, a foot deal from soccer. She'll be going into junior high in the fall, a science magnet school with a good reputation and a small student-teacher ratio; she is currently reading White Fang and The Castle of Cant and The Teddy Bear Habit; she pretends to be angry and petulant but she is really quite sweet and lovely.

Sammy (8 this summer) is in love with being Jewish, he actually cheers for anything having to do with Judaism -- except for Israel, which isn't "tolerant" enough. (Brainwashed? We live in Madison, Wisconsin, so you make the call.) He thinks "Young Frankenstein" and "Big Trouble in Little China" are hilarious good fun, so that's two of my top three favorite films ever; I wonder if he'd like Tarkovsky's "Nostalghia"? He is also looking forward to attending Yale (grrrr, traitor!) and becoming a Broadway star.

Louis is 4 months and some, he weighed in at 18 lbs at the doc a couple of days ago. He's really strong, he can sit up by himself for a few minutes at a time. He loves standing on a lap, especially if he can see the mirror behind the couch. He's got an incredible smile.

I'm enjoying being a stay at home mom to a remarkable degree, I'm probably going to quit my part-time job or at least go on hiatus for a while.

also the wrong people got elected to the school board this month so I'm pre-emptively worrying about the school situation again.

as for other things, it's funny to me to read the early posts on this thread, where kiddo wasn't even walking yet. he's fully mobile for a while now, which has made taking him to the playground a lot more fun for everyone. it's hilarious to just kind of tag along behind him and watch him play and start to interact with other kids. i basically try to just stay out of his way and keep him from getting hurt. there was a great moment last week where he was sitting in the sandbox, around a bunch of other kids, and was just playing with the sand and kind of looking out into space a little. it was cool to watch him think. and then he sort of snapped out of whatever reverie he was in and realized he hadn't done a spotcheck for a parent in a few minutes. brief flicker of uncertainty on his face, he stands up and does a quick scan of the scene -- and sees me sitting 4 feet away. then he got this big, reassured smile on his face, and sat back down to keep playing. it's a nice thing to know that just your mere presence is enough to keep a kid feeling secure.

http://static.flickr.com/52/127420130_bb7bd0a75a.jpg

Let's talk about...strollers! Specifically those accursed double-buggies, cos, er, we're going to need one later in the year. eBay seems the way to go (preying on those poor unfortunates who forget to make a reserve price) cos those Mutsi and Jane things are frighteningly expensive new. One in front, one behind is our preferred option; the double-width ones just seem designed to run peds off the pavement.

I am sure we will both have a lovely time.

Won't we?

I said, WON'T WE?

I wonder what you would have thought of our 3-year-old at the library the other day. He was making nice chit-chat with the librarian, telling her what kind of books he likes and whatnot. Then we walked away from the desk and he turned back and loudly said, "Oh, I want to tell you one more thing!... If you ever have a wedgy, just pull your underpants out of your BUTT!" I was mortified. I laughed so hard I cried. The whole children's room was in stitches.

We'll probably start testing solids (i.e. cereal) in the next week or so. Oh, the mess that is. Plus, it takes about five times as long to feed and you have to drag food stuff out of the house with you all the time...way more planning involved.

Teeny and Gypsy: the worry about school never ends. Ever. My three year old is starting to read and I had some private school snob come up to me and warn me that the public school would probably "give him a bad early reading experience." I wonder if that bitch rude woman heard me curse her under my breath as she walked off.