Memories of Us

Friday Quick Takes

1.  Will is finally really starting to interact with Jake and by all appearances, seems to like him.  I haven't pushed Jake on Will at all, and have just been letting them coexist until he took an interest in the baby himself.  This is why we didn't have any pictures of the boys together until just recently.  Well, that and because when I did attempt to get a picture of the boys together for our Christmas card, this is what happened. Do you see how Jake is a little blurry?  That's because he's in motion, getting shoved off of Will's lap.  So, you know, I thought it best to NOT try that again until Will was on board with the whole big brother role.  And it would seem that he is starting to be.  It's so funny how baby toys become new and fun ALL OVER AGAIN.

That's a completely unprompted hug right there.  LOVE.

2.  I don't want to go into how we came to own a pink Little Tikes shopping cart, but we do.  Yes, I did say A PINK ONE.  I wasn't really psyched about it and I KNOW Jamie is considering sneaking off to paint it.  My mother admonished me that I am "of the generation that isn't supposed to care about things like that."  And I guess I don't.  It's just that pink still screams "GIRL!" no matter what generation you are.  Oh well.  He's in love with it, as he is with anything that has wheels and is meant to be pushed.  He keeps all his trucks in it.  It's blurry, but the joy in unmistakable. 

3.  I miss Charleston.  Like, a lot.  The longer I live here in New Jersey, the more I miss it.  The weather, the familiarity, our house.  Mostly I just miss my house.  I guess maybe I don't miss Charleston as much as just I miss our lifestyle there.  I miss living in a house.  Living in a town home is not the same.  My friend Cristin put it best when she described it as "living in a hallway."  It's not even that our town home is actually small, because it is probably kind of close to the size of our old house.  It's just the close proximity of neighbors, the lack of green space, the layout that makes it feel small.  Plus, I hate having two stories; having to open two safety gates whenever I need to go upstairs, having to take a noisy, slow stair-climbing toddler with me since he CANNOT BEAR to be apart from me and MUST go upstairs and also NEEDS to take a toy up there with us, usually a pink shopping cart full of trucks, OMG.  I miss that my kitchen was a whole kitchen and not just a corner of one end of the hallway that is our house.  I miss a decent sized backyard and so does Charlie.  I just miss my house.

4.  I got a Kindle for Christmas.  I am in danger of neglecting my children as a result.  Also, I am a closet teenie-bopper disguised as a 30 year old woman and the Kindle allows me to indulge freely in young adult literature without the shame of shopping in that portion of the book store.  Also, I can read silly romance novels when the mood strikes me and NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW!  Not that I do that often.  But, you know, I can now.  Anyway, so far this year I've read A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron which was so so good.  If you're a dog person, I HIGHLY recommend.  I then read all three books of the Trylle Triology by Amanda Hocking which was fun in a Twilight kind of way, though not as good as the Twilight series.  And I just finished the three books of The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins which I COULD NOT PUT DOWN.  Anyway, so YAY for Kindle!

5.  I bought a cover for my Kindle.  However I used the one-click buying thing.  And it sent it to my old house in Charleston.  UGH!  We got in contact with the buyer who said she shipped it to us when it arrived, but that was two weeks ago.  Not sure what to do.  Sadness.

6.  Will is getting SKINNY.  He's a good eater now in that he will try most anything and can eat most anything, what with his 12 chompers (4 of which are molars).  The problem is that he eats just a LITTLE of everything and then dumps his plate and starts throwing food on the floor.  At which point I cut him off.  SO FRUSTRATING!  I think, if I would let him, he'd live on milk alone.  And sometimes, when he WON'T EAT, I give in, because I'm just desperate for him to get the calories. 

7.  I'm still breastfeeding.  We're doing quite well with it, to be honest.  Once the stress of the early weeks and the travel/wedding was over, things really turned around for us.  He gets maybe a bottle of formula of day, and that's usually only on nights when Jamie takes the night feeding so I can sleep.  I'm honestly enjoying it.  Plus, I'm sure it's helped me lose my baby weight super fast.  That and chasing a toddler around.  However, I find breastfeeding so limiting to my wardrobe!  My mom uniform consists of a nursing sleep bra, a tank top, a hoodie, and jeans/yoga pants because anything else makes nursing a pain in the butt.  And what makes it worse is that I really do fit in to my old clothes now.  I'm actually 3 pounds lighter than I was when I got pregnant with Jake (not that I LOOK the same, hello deflated belly pouch, you disgust me).  Shopping might honestly be fun at this point.  Oh well.  I guess maybe once he nurses less frequently I'll venture out into the world of slightly more constrictive and more complicated clothing.  But for right now, ease of access is key.  Whatever.  At the rate we're making babies, I'll probably end up buying maternity clothes at that point anyway.  That was not an announcement, by the way.  I'm just saying.

Friday Quick Takes

1.  I don't like driving in New Jersey for two reasons.  First, the drivers here are mean and aggressive.  In the South, people are bad drivers because they are so busy trying to be courteous that they ignore right-of-way and all rules of the road.  That is annoying.  But up here, they are way too busy trying to get ahead to be NICE and would rather run you onto the shoulder of the road than move over into AN EMPTY LANE to let you on the turnpike.  And that is INFURIATING.  Second, some idiotic engineer decided that left turns are inefficient and thus made them illegal on most major roads.  So, you can literally SEE the store you want to go to, but if it's on the left side of the road, tough luck.  You have to find a place to do a U-turn using these stupid "jug handle" off-shoots that drop you out on a cross road.  Which means that instead of one left turn, I have to do a right turn and then TWO left turns (and wait for a traffic light!) before I can finally turn RIGHT into my destination.  It is so easy to get turned around!  Even my husband, who was a navigator on an airplane earlier in his career and has an amazing sense of direction, can get messed up with all the crazy turns and loops.  It's so dumb!

2.  We are all unpacked in our new home (now that we've been here a month and half!) except not a single thing is hung up on the wall.  Thus it does not feel like home.  I hate that.  But apparently not enough to do it myself.  Once upon a time, I would just grab a hammer and some nails and go to work.  But now I have a husband.  While it may be sexist and antiquated, I just feel like that's Jamie's job.  Especially when it comes to heavy stuff that requires drilling into studs.  Jamie really doesn't have that many jobs around here.  Essentially, if it requires a trip to a home improvement store, the use of a power tool, the lawn mower, or the grill, it is Jamie's job.  Of course, I am capable and assume those responsibilities when he's gone (except the grill, I don't even know how to turn it on) but when he's home, they are his domain.  He gets home in a few hours.  Thus I expect to have wall decor by the end of the weekend.

3.  I obviously had to switch to a new OB practice when we moved.  I miss my old doctor.  I miss the familiarity of my old practice.  I liked the way they did things there better than the way they do things here.  Perhaps that's because I KNEW what to expect there and because I had a wonderful experience with them throughout my first pregnancy and delivery.  I saw the same doctor for all my appointments throughout my pregnancy with Will.  While she didn't end up delivering me, I think I still prefered that way.  This practice has me seeing all five of the doctors.  While it means I won't have a stranger delivering me, it also means that I don't feel like any one of them is personally invested in me.  Plus, 4 of the doctors are men.  I'm not 100% comfortable with that yet.  I just really miss Charleston sometimes.

4.  I have 2.5 weeks until my due date.  I could be having this baby any day now!  I talked to Jamie about it the other day and it kind of surprised me when he said that he doesn't like to think about it.  That it scares him.  Not the baby part, the labor part.  Perhaps he just didn't tell me, but I don't believe he was as nervous when I was pregnant with Will.  I think watching me give birth to Will was an awakening for him.  It's ironic that having gone through it before and KNOWING what to expect makes me less scared this time but makes Jamie more scared.  I probably should have picked up on his feelings a while ago.  Looking back I remember one evening remarking to him about how big I was getting and he just staring at my belly and shaking his head.  When I asked him what he was thinking, instead of the sarcastic "chubby" remark I had expected, he said "It's just so dangerous."  I'll admit, growing a baby is dangerous work.  I've had those awful "what if" thoughts and wondered if my boys would be okay without me.  But the odds are in our favor and we've done everything possible to ensure that both baby and I are okay.  I don't want him to be scared.  It does make me feel very loved, however.

5.  Will loves trucks.  Actually, he loves all things with wheels on them, but especially trucks.  It really must be hardwired in the man-brain.  There is no other explanation for it.  I certainly didn't PUSH trucks on him.  I didn't even buy him a toy truck until we went to the neighbor's house when he was about 8 months old and he saw one and knew exactly how to play with it.  I was so surprised!  Anyway, we were staying at my parents' house for a majority of the time that Jamie was gone and Will has few toys there.  So, we went out to the toy store one day to kill some time.  We found a new truck.  He had SUCH fun pushing it up and down the store aisles and had a meltdown when I had to put him back in his stroller to pay and leave.  Anyway, this is how he looked all the way home. He held onto his new truck like his little life depended on it.  So adorable. 

6.  I've dug out all of Will's baby stuff and he is fascinated.  I wonder sometimes if he remembers things or if he's just enjoying them the way little boys do.  For instance, I caught him climbing in the infant car seat yesterday.

7.  We decided on a name.  Finally.

Friday Quick Takes

1.  My son LOVES to be naked.  We let him run around for a few minutes after his bath in the evenings wearing nothing but his birthday suit and it just might be the highlight of his day.  However, every time we do this I have to hold my breath and pray that he won't pee.  Usually my prayers go unanswered.  Fortunately the carpet in the townhouse we're renting is made of some kind of amazing impenetrable liquid-repelling material which allows me to quickly soak it up, leaving no trace of my my less than house-trained toddler behind.  The other night, however, Will decided to tell Charlie about his naked escapades and called out to the dog (who was downstairs) through the banister which overlooks the stairs and small landing.  I saw this happening and thought to myself, surely he won't pee because that is simply the worst place he could possibly do it and I can't be THAT unlucky.  Oh, but I am.  And he did.  Luckily (kind of?) I was there to quickly catch the unintentional flow and avert disaster.  Better cupped in my hands than sprayed all over the stairs.  Oh motherhood.

2.  I bought Will a Little Tikes Cozy Coup.    It is his best, most favorite, most awesome toy.  I KNEW that it would be a hit based on his love of steering wheels and his enjoyment of grocery carts with similar cars attached to the front.  I was holding off on buying it, however, intending to do so around the time our new little guy arrives in order to help Will have a happy association with this big change.  I just thought a positive distraction in the midst of the craziness would have been good.  However, we went to buy a toy chest at Toys R Us and I saw that it was on sale for 30% off and Will got in it and was so overjoyed and cried so miserably when I made him get out . . .  Thus, I bought it.  We got it home and I took it out of the box (FYI, it comes in a million! pieces!) and Will immediately found the steering wheel, figured out where it was supposed to go, stuck it in, and sat in the body of the car the entire time I tried to put it together (which made things extremely complicated).  In the end though, I was totally right and have no regrets about indulging my kid.  He loves it with a capital L.  Particularly turning the steering wheel with wild abandon and opening and closing the door.  It's fun to watch him enjoy it.  Buying him that car was just as much a present for myself as for him.  A happy child truly is the best gift ever.

3.  This baby gets the hiccups at LEAST once a day.  And he is big enough now that it literally shakes my whole body when he does.  It kind of drives me crazy.

4.  I wrote about it last time, but to reiterate, I am really worried about distinguishing false labor from the real thing this time around.  Mostly because I've been having a BUNCH of contractions.  In fact, I woke up the other night having them at 1 in the morning.  Like, big ouchie ones.  I honestly thought I was in labor for about an hour and was completely freaked out.  You see, Jamie is gone on a mission, I was alone, and I was loath to call my parents at that hour in case it was a false alarm.  So I kept track (they were regular but very far apart) for a while and eventually fell back asleep.  Which is to say, the contractions went away.  False alarm.  Thank goodness.  However, it did cement the fact that it really will be difficult to know if/when to actually call my parents to come and watch Will.  And it reminded me just how much labor hurts.  I hope Jamie is here next time that happens.  

5.  Apparently I'm having Non-Stress Tests (NST) at every weekly appointment from here on out.  I guess because he's a big baby?  Anyway, I was not aware that I would be getting one on Thursday morning and thus took my toddler with me to the appointment.  If you've never had one, a NST is where you lay there hooked up to monitors for 15 minutes or longer so they can track the baby's heart rate, movements, and any contractions.  So, you know, patience is not a toddler's strong suit.  It did not go over well.  Plus, all hooked up as I was, I couldn't get him snacks or pick up his sippy cup and car when he angrily threw them on the floor . . .  It sucked.  I won't be taking him on future appointments if at all possible.  

6.  I am really enjoying our new home.  We live in a great location, close to EVERYTHING we could want.  It's an adjustment living in a townhouse, what with the neighbors being so close and having no yard.  But our townhouse is very nice and we are settling in nicely.  I'm not thrilled about one of our neighbors.  I refer to her as the white trash neighbor.  In the month we've lived there, she has had a shouting match with her boyfriend in the freakin' driveway at least 3 times, all after 9 PM.  I'm psyching myself up to call the police and report a domestic dispute the next time it happens.  They seem very nice in the daylight hours so I feel kind of bad about it.  But I have limited tolerance for other people making their drama my problem.  Especially when my babies are trying to sleep.  And especially considering how often I will be there alone.  I don't need to feel scared of what's going on next door.

7.  Will has been napping better ever since I let him cry it out a few times.  However, despite rushing home from my appointment this Thursday to put him down, it just didn't happen.  Not sure why.  But he was determined not to nap.  See this face?  This is the face of NO.  Even though he was THIS tired.
So frustrating.  It's a good thing I love him so much.