Humdrum Life

I don't know when I'll have enough time to post more than once a month!! When I have two hands, I usually have to choose a higher priority need than my blog. Sigh.

But I have a quick minute.

First, the pipsqueak is NOT a pipsqueak. He is a butterball! Though he is only 7 weeks old, I have had to pack up all the 0 to 3 months clothing, and some of the 3 to 6 month items are looking rather snug. He's actually not terribly chubby, but he's very long. It's nice to have a bigger baby because I don't panic when he doesn't really want to nurse.

In the last few days, the pipsqueak has finally started making that transition from a unresponsive blob to a smiling baby. I keep thinking, "I have to remember each moment of this, because I'm never doing this again." But of course the human memory doesn't work that way. I won't remember that special baby smell (the clean baby smell, I mean...lol) or how it feels to snuggle with him, because I don't really remember that with the squeaker. Oh well.

The squeaker is doing great. Quite spontaneously, he has decided that it's time to ditch the diapers. So he's been using the toilet and doing very well at it, though we still have an accident or two each day.

My very good friend gave the squeaker a wonderful puzzle when we saw her last week. It's a dinosaur floor puzzle, and the squeaker loves it. Best of all, it has its own carrying case.

"You can take it anywhere," said the squeaker earnestly.

"Where are you going to take it?" I asked.

"I was thinking I'd take it with us when we went to Africa," he replied. "I thought I'd show the pilot. He'd very very impressed by my puzzle."

I'm certainly impressed not only by the squeaker's great skill with the puzzle, but also by the quiet time that I get while he's busy putting it together.

Some observations...

...in a rare moment in which I have two hands:

1) Some baby clothes for babies 0 to 3 months are labeled "Not Intended for Sleepwear." Um...what do the manufacturers think babies that age spend their time doing?!?

2) The pipsqueak doesn't like to wear a soiled diaper. This means that he waits until I am changing him to poop...on me. It works well for him, but me -- not so much. Ugh.

3) The pipsqueak is very furry. It's not just the fuzzy little head -- he's furry all over. One on-line buddy has dubbed him the Furby. (But don't they have beaks?)

4) Having a baby in cold weather has the unfortunate consequence of limiting piggy time. The tiny piggies are the best baby part, but in chilly weather, they disappear into pajamas and clothing with feet. This deprives mama of precious piggy-smooching time.

5) But piggy deprivation is good from the squeaker's perspective, because he takes my threat of turning his piggies and the pipsqueak's piggies into "piggy pie" quite seriously. I think he is truly worried about it.

6) I know many people worry that it will be hard to love the second baby the way they have loved their first. I never worried about that, but now that the pipsqueak is here, I am finding it a little hard to adjust to being so unable to meet the squeaker's needs. Not so long ago, he was my baby, but now I find myself thinking, "Aren't you big enough to do that yourself?!?" And then I feel guilty for expecting so much from one who is still so little. I did not realize how much the new baby would change how I see my squeaker.

These are the kinds of things that are on my mind.