Squidbits
I'm afraid this month I've got (almost) nothin'. The Squid had a cold and an ear infection and was red-eyed and swampy and in need of extra attention, I was drowning in workstuff, the only pictures we've taken in weeks are documentation of the rash on his cheeks for the pediatrician (eczema, joy)...things have occurred to me, but then I haven't had the time to write them down (every moment seems filled with paperwork or Squid or chores or something) and so my usual long Squidbits post will probably be sorely abbreviated.
(One week later...okay, so maybe not. And I snapped a few of my trademark blurrycrappy photos in the last week, so we even have pictures! \o/ I will take pride in what achievements I can, okay?)
On developmental whatever: 18.3 pounds. 26.5 inches long. And by December he will be 18 inches around in his head, so I had better start knitting his Santa hat soon. He rolls over finally, though not regularly yet, and can push himself up on his arms, brava brava. Himself is in a race against the Squid's developmental curve to see if he can get the woodshop finished and the entertainment center redesigned before crawling (and the attendant button-pushing and cable-chewing) begins. Just as we've more-or-less adjusted to babyhood (immobile version), everything will change, of course. No rest for the wicked, &etc.
The Squid has figured out how to hold his own bottle for real now, and how to shake rattles, and is interested in helping to feed himself solids, if not even close to capable yet. I think he's teething, if the increased drool and fuss is anything to go by, but I can't feel any teeth poking up. Everything in sight disappears into his gaping maw, though, and to hold him is inevitably to feel that warm, wet, slimy feeling ambush some bit of you when you are not paying attention. The Era Of Hideous Plastic Toys has begun - he has this exersaucer thing that lets him stand up with support and rotate among several toy stations, and he really loves it, even though it's garish as all get out...or perhaps because of that, who knows. He likes some tasteful European wooden toys, too, and he likes to play in the laundry hamper, but I'm not one to let my aesthetic sense trump the variety of his enjoyment; we have the jungle mat and the godawful exersaucer and this plastic fish arch that plays music as well and I'm okay with that.
Snippet: Himself to me, after putting down a howling (and obviously exhausted) babe: "Why do babies hate sleep?"
On mamalife: I had to take a break from my beloved online mamas group this month, and I'm not sure if I'll return. They're a very knowledgeable and supportive group of women, and they were really helpful to me during my pregnancy and the early days of Squid. But...I don't know. I think of myself as a relatively negative person, but something about the negativity on the board was getting to me. We'll see how it goes; maybe a rest is all I need.
Not that it's all happy happy joy joy around here, of course. Parenting pushes the dominoes a little closer together in the rest of life. This work crunch was ugly, and it highlighted some division-of-labor issues that usually don't bother me, and the house got cluttered and I felt harried and cranky all the time and nothing and nobody got anyone's full attention. I lost my keys (we had to get the whole house re-keyed, >$600 in stupid tax), lost my paycheck (found it again, thank God), neglected my dog, forgot a dose of the baby's antibiotics, scheduled appointments on top of one another, missed a deadline (I haven't done that in...years) and bought a teal cardigan, thereby becoming a sartorial someone I had hoped never to be. (It had cables! And an awesome hood! And...never mind, I can't justify it.) September was just sort of grim in a variety of small ways. I lost my shit at one point entirely and spent a few days in tears.
October will be better: work will be quieter, I will go to LA to visit Grammy and two of my best friends, there is Hawaii for our friends R & K's wedding and to see my Uncle J, there is Halloween, and then the long winding ramp-up from there through Thanksgiving to Christmas, which is my favorite holiday in the history of ever. This was just a dip in life's rollercoaster (may it never go upside-down).
On the flip side: And of course there were still the sort of inexpressible moments when everything coalesces into a sharp burst of sweetness; one morning at 2:30 a.m., when I was drowning in work and had not yet been to bed, the poor poppet woke himself up coughing and we had a sleepy quiet snack with the lights on low. He flailed one paw up to pat at my face while he ate, and I caught it in my hand; he wrapped his tiny fingers around my thumb and we just sat and rocked and nursed and held hands until his eyes drooped closed. It's times like that my heart could just burst with how much I love this small person, who is slowly but surely becoming his own unique self.
I wrote all that, and then my deadlines passed, and then I finished my projects (sadly, in that order) and the Squid's Lola came to visit for a few days and I took off work and we hung out with the baby and ate awesome food and Himself and I had an honest-to-god date with a movie and dinner and everything. I'm finishing September out with a much better feeling than I had going in; tomorrow is my college alumni picnic for the local chapter, and my best friend from junior high/high school's bachelorette night at AsiaSF, and then next week I can start lining up my ducks again. It will be duck, duck, duck, goose, and then it's off and running for the next bout of chaos.
(One week later...okay, so maybe not. And I snapped a few of my trademark blurrycrappy photos in the last week, so we even have pictures! \o/ I will take pride in what achievements I can, okay?)
On developmental whatever: 18.3 pounds. 26.5 inches long. And by December he will be 18 inches around in his head, so I had better start knitting his Santa hat soon. He rolls over finally, though not regularly yet, and can push himself up on his arms, brava brava. Himself is in a race against the Squid's developmental curve to see if he can get the woodshop finished and the entertainment center redesigned before crawling (and the attendant button-pushing and cable-chewing) begins. Just as we've more-or-less adjusted to babyhood (immobile version), everything will change, of course. No rest for the wicked, &etc.
The Squid has figured out how to hold his own bottle for real now, and how to shake rattles, and is interested in helping to feed himself solids, if not even close to capable yet. I think he's teething, if the increased drool and fuss is anything to go by, but I can't feel any teeth poking up. Everything in sight disappears into his gaping maw, though, and to hold him is inevitably to feel that warm, wet, slimy feeling ambush some bit of you when you are not paying attention. The Era Of Hideous Plastic Toys has begun - he has this exersaucer thing that lets him stand up with support and rotate among several toy stations, and he really loves it, even though it's garish as all get out...or perhaps because of that, who knows. He likes some tasteful European wooden toys, too, and he likes to play in the laundry hamper, but I'm not one to let my aesthetic sense trump the variety of his enjoyment; we have the jungle mat and the godawful exersaucer and this plastic fish arch that plays music as well and I'm okay with that.
Snippet: Himself to me, after putting down a howling (and obviously exhausted) babe: "Why do babies hate sleep?"
On mamalife: I had to take a break from my beloved online mamas group this month, and I'm not sure if I'll return. They're a very knowledgeable and supportive group of women, and they were really helpful to me during my pregnancy and the early days of Squid. But...I don't know. I think of myself as a relatively negative person, but something about the negativity on the board was getting to me. We'll see how it goes; maybe a rest is all I need.
Not that it's all happy happy joy joy around here, of course. Parenting pushes the dominoes a little closer together in the rest of life. This work crunch was ugly, and it highlighted some division-of-labor issues that usually don't bother me, and the house got cluttered and I felt harried and cranky all the time and nothing and nobody got anyone's full attention. I lost my keys (we had to get the whole house re-keyed, >$600 in stupid tax), lost my paycheck (found it again, thank God), neglected my dog, forgot a dose of the baby's antibiotics, scheduled appointments on top of one another, missed a deadline (I haven't done that in...years) and bought a teal cardigan, thereby becoming a sartorial someone I had hoped never to be. (It had cables! And an awesome hood! And...never mind, I can't justify it.) September was just sort of grim in a variety of small ways. I lost my shit at one point entirely and spent a few days in tears.
October will be better: work will be quieter, I will go to LA to visit Grammy and two of my best friends, there is Hawaii for our friends R & K's wedding and to see my Uncle J, there is Halloween, and then the long winding ramp-up from there through Thanksgiving to Christmas, which is my favorite holiday in the history of ever. This was just a dip in life's rollercoaster (may it never go upside-down).
On the flip side: And of course there were still the sort of inexpressible moments when everything coalesces into a sharp burst of sweetness; one morning at 2:30 a.m., when I was drowning in work and had not yet been to bed, the poor poppet woke himself up coughing and we had a sleepy quiet snack with the lights on low. He flailed one paw up to pat at my face while he ate, and I caught it in my hand; he wrapped his tiny fingers around my thumb and we just sat and rocked and nursed and held hands until his eyes drooped closed. It's times like that my heart could just burst with how much I love this small person, who is slowly but surely becoming his own unique self.
I wrote all that, and then my deadlines passed, and then I finished my projects (sadly, in that order) and the Squid's Lola came to visit for a few days and I took off work and we hung out with the baby and ate awesome food and Himself and I had an honest-to-god date with a movie and dinner and everything. I'm finishing September out with a much better feeling than I had going in; tomorrow is my college alumni picnic for the local chapter, and my best friend from junior high/high school's bachelorette night at AsiaSF, and then next week I can start lining up my ducks again. It will be duck, duck, duck, goose, and then it's off and running for the next bout of chaos.
posted by The Stute Fish at 13:56
2 Comments:
It is good to hear from you. I love that last photo - what a sweet one he is. Enjoy the plump - this is really the height of perfect fat babyness. Once the crawling starts they slim out. Still cute, but oh that chub!
I love the chub and will miss it when it is gone, for sure! Also the immobility!
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