6 weeks

Dear Henry:

Today you are 6 weeks old.

6 freakin' weeks! I can't believe it. You're so precious to me and even on our rough days you bring such a joy and pride to my heart sometimes I swear it will burst.

You have several new cries. We've identified your other cries: the demanding feed me now or I will blow your ear drums out cry, the I have a gas bubble and need to toot/burp hybrid whine cry, the I'm tired and I can't figure out how to calm down to sleep cry and the I have a ditty-diapah please clean me up NOW cry. You really do have your own language!

We discovered the lost art of swaddling which works wonders on you. Thank you “The Happiest Baby on the Block”.

Your Daddy insists that I call your night gowns sleep shirts because boys don't wear gowns. Whatever. He doesn't know I change your outfit multiple times a day and sometimes even put styling gel in your hair. I do what I want. I'm a boss.

I am in love with your little face. You have such delicate features, everyone says you look like a little man already. You poor little thing, you have my thin lips, which are ADORABLE on you. Also, don't worry about it because seriously, after I had braces, they popped out and I had lips.

Also, on that note, I very much hope you do not inherit my vain gene and that you are humble and relaxed like your father. I will admit that you were outfit coordinated with your car seat today as we went to Target and Kroger. You also do very well in a shopping cart and usually sleep through our shopping outings (a possible sign you will be like Alan and hate shopping? Hmm?).

Your personality blooms every day. We play a game called “Kiss the Baby!” where I say “kiss the baby!” in a silly voice then kiss your face all over. It really gets you excited, smiling and cooing. You still love to chill out in on your changing table and boppy. That's where IT'S.AT.

We love you so much and are proud of your little milestones like last night when you slept 7 hours straight, when you discovered your hands and suck on your fingers and when you take interest in a toy.

I'm so glad you are here and the unique and sometimes challenging ways you have changed our life. It's a welcome change.

Reminder

You know, sometimes someone just needs to remind you who you are as a person. I was lucky enough to have a friend remind me that I am strong and confident and to speak up when I have something to say. Somewhere along the way I feel like I forgot and lost my way as a person. This friend gave me valuable advice and encouraging words and I feel like I now have the strength to do what's right for me. So thank you, friend!

And now...

I really hate the movies Braveheart, Gladiator, Dances With Wolves and Titanic. Why? Because they are played so much on TV and for some reason my husband always has to watch them even though we've seen them a million times. I hate re-watching movies.

I've kind of been stuck in the house since Wednesday. Technically I could go anywhere I want but there's not much you can do with a 5 week old when you're completely neurotic about the flu(s). Kroger and Target have been the only two places I've ventured out to and every time I hear someone cough I look around to see who it was and if they look sick. Isn't that horrible?!?

Sir Henry grew out of his first newborn sized outfit this week much to my surprise. It was kind of a sad moment for me! He's also discovered his hands and has spent the last couple of days sucking on his hand and fingers. It's really fascinating to see him realize that the hand he's chewing on is his. He also has a new, high pitched cry and whimper thing he does an it totally breaks my heart when I hear it. The cry means he needs to burp or toot and he's letting me know I need to pick him up and pat his back. Seriously! Amazing.

Yea, so...

This is what a Mother of a 5 week old looks like with an impacted wisdom tooth, an insanely amount of pending dental work and is fighting off a cold or sinus infection and seriously (TMI alert) over productive breasts. I'm not trying to get sympathy, just wanting to remember this day so that when I have another hard time I can look back on these few days and remind myself that it's not that bad.

Oh yes yes yes, I know it could be so much worse, blah blah blah. Standard disclaimer I feel like I should issue because I'm constantly seeking others approval and hope not to offend or irritate anyone.

But this is what I get to love on and snuggle with all day, every day. And it's so worth it.

WBW - February 07

It was Adam's birthday party and we were all celebrating at his posh apartment in Cary. I debuted a new Bettie Page look that night that I'm temped to go back to as it was sultry and sexy. But it does require a lot of dye and I'm just now back to my normal color after years of messing around.

Anyway, we were hanging out, drinking, playing quarters, asshole, getting drunk. And it was awesome. Miss those days.

Monday nights

My neighbors are so predictable with their anal lawn maintenance. I have no idea why I am so obsessed with them and their obsessiveness with their lawn and why it irritates, fascinates and borderline angers me. Perhaps it's my own inadequacy in the frequency of our OWN lawn maintenance which is seriously lacking any sort of motivation or desire to um...maintain.

But I digress.

I am serious when I tell you that on Halloween they taped off their lawn with yellow, almost crime scene, tape and placed notes on it that said “do not walk on grass”. Redic! I hope they got egged. My jaw dropped when I saw it. I thought a crime had been committed. I would have taken a picture and posted but I'm afraid of getting in trouble...like what if I accidentally published their address?

Sure as Sunday (or Wednesday) every Monday night they are out there raking and blowing leaves out of their treeless lawn. It really makes me want to blow all the leaves from our 5 oak tree leave littered lawn into theirs just to drive them nuts.

I also should note that our neighborhood has mainly houses built in the early 70' to late 80's and there is no HOA. It's not a fancy schmancy neighborhood by any means, not shabby or crime ridden either. It' not like Martha-fucking-Stewart lives next door.

I know I'm a total bitch for harboring such evil thoughts of these neighbors, I'm honestly not really sure what's wrong with me. Like I said, it must be a sincere feeling of inadequacy or deep rooted envy of their lawn for me to care so much.

Also, as I mentioned we have 5 oak trees in our front yard. The trees appear to have over 70% of their leaves left to fall and already our huge lawn is covered in inches of leaves. Alan and I will never, ever, ever make that mistake again. I think God was giggling at me the day we looked at the house 2 years ago and I said like a tree loving hippy, “Ohhhh, look at the BEEE-uuuu-tiful TREES! Oh my God I love them. Five! Five trees! So pretty” and I'm sure I had romantic notions of siting out there underneath the trees, picnicking.

RIGHT.

All Worth It

This makes all the rushing around, running ragged and feeling way overwhelmed worth it today. 5 weeks old tomorrow and we're getting "real" reactionary smiles and I LOVE IT!!

Random Sunday V1

Short list:

Things I love now that I am older:

Baskets: Give me a basket to put in my house and I will find some sort of shit to put in that wicker beauty.

Red Wine: Un-doing the hard work of my bi-yearly Cre.st Whitestrips.

Cleaning products: Ahhh, the smell of Cl.orox bleach. Reminds me of swim team and clean houses.

Quiet bars: Not that I'm frequenting them lately, but I love being able to converse with my friends in an indoor voice rather than yelling at them over horrible pop music avoiding boys that wear too much hair gel and wear too tight shirts.

Halloween....

Was awesome. Henry had a little bear costume he wore but it was too hot so he wore his skull and crossbones onesie all night. Yes, it was hot. Like 90% humidity and 78 and soooo muggy.

We went to a PART-AY – with real adults in fun costumes and I had a few glasses of wine and it was wickedly delicious. Alan's awesome, he didn't drink at all so I could let loose. He knows how important Halloween is to me.

Pictures posted later.

Other news:

My dear sweet son is losing his spiky hair that I put in a baby mohawk every day. It's chick-fluffiness is getting sparser and sparser. Ah, well. I've heard it grows back and I always have liked bald men....