Isn't it Ironic

The car is packed. The diaper bag, water bottle, snacks, borrowed baby stuff that we are returning - all in the car. The dog has been out, peed, eaten a biscuit, and is back asleep. We are ready to go. Except for one thing. A BABY. Who is STILL SLEEPING!!! :-)

Seriously, this is the first time in about 2 1/2 months that this child has slept for more than 30 minutes for a nap, unassisted by me. And, of course, it happens on the morning that I really wanted to leave the house at 9AM so we could go see Larysa and Shari. Ah, but of course! Thanks Dex!

But, hey. I'll take it! Yay for ONE long nap! When he wakes up I will toss him in his car seat and we're outta here. Til then I shall sit here and wonder what happened different this morning that caused this miracle to occur.

I could have written this

I didn't. But I could have. Because this is TOTALLY me. What do I DO with this child all day? Besides curse under my breath "why are you NOT SLEEPING again!!"

http://www.alphamom.com/smackdown/2009/05/the_sahm_gig_what_am_i_suppose.php#comments

And, I suppose, I could clean the house...

Eight Billion Photos From This Past Weekend

Yes, I realize the past few posts seem to feature more CoCo pictures than Dexter pictures. Sorry! CoCo is cute, too, and old, and slightly neglected. So she needs to be included here, too. I shall now remedy your lack of Dexter pictures with a gazillion photos from Mother's Day weekend. What seems to be conspicuously missing? Any photos of a new MOTHER. With her SON. On her FIRST MOTHER'S DAY. BOOOOOOOO.

I suppose it's my fault. I should have picked up the camera, placed it in John's hands, and said "Here, honey. How about you take a picture of me and my son on Mother's Day? Because it's kind of a nice memento." But I didn't. So I have no pictures of Dex and I. Which makes me kind of sad. We'll have to see what Nonna took. Maybe she got a photo of us while we were at brunch on Sunday.

Anyway, enjoy! Dexter is still cute, cute, cute!

Check out my super huge muscles. I break out of swaddles.

The boy's got crazy eyes and kicky feet

This one's for you, Aunt Jeanne. Wanted to show off my frog outfit one more time because it almost DOESN'T FIT!! Size 3 - 6, too small!

OK, I know. I know it's blurry. But it is currently my only proof that CoCo might kind of like her brother. Other than the picture I have in my head of Dexter reaching up and grabbing CoCo's ear, and CoCo just looking at me like "Dude. MOM. This thing has my ear!"

I am wearing a cool motorcycle tee shirt (and some drool) for my Dad. Happy Birthday, Dad!

One should never move the Pack-n-Play. Bad idea. Icky.

Two peas in a pod, part 1

Two peas in a pod, part 2

Two peas in a pod, part 3

Happy Birthday, sweetie. Dex will try not to spit on you today.

I'm wearing my jailhouse pants. Sitting on the big boy chair. Predicting my future as a star athlete.

My bib. It is so true. Nonna is a pushover.

Fox, socks, Knox, box

Aunt Christy and I show off our devilishly good looks

Aunt Christy proves that I am Superman ALL the time - not just when I am busting out of my swaddle.

Aunt Christy's quick finger on the shutter caught just a glimpse of smile from me. On camera! Unheard of!
I am squeezable...

PS - lest you think John did NOTHING for me for Mother's Day, that's not true. Sorry if I gave that impression. He gave me flowers. And a very nice card that made me cry. So he did good work. He just needs to take a bit more control of the camera situation in the Norman house, lest Dexter think that he only had a DAD growing up, because that's all there's pictures of...

Reinforcement

I love love love our Miracle Blanket. It keeps Dexter bundled up, arms confined, so he can get some sleep. It's easy to keep one arm out, and one leg out. My only complaint to the Miracle Blanket folks is that the foot bag is too short for my long legged boy. So really, only one leg fits in there right now. But otherwise - Miracle Blankets rock.

Except that Dex has superpowers, apparently. And Mr. Superman is completely capable of unswaddling himself from this seeming inescapable straight jacket by the end of a night of sleep, leaving both arms out and flailing wildly and letting blanket ends wrap around the child's neck. Which 1) freaks Mom out a bit and 2) leaves Dexter saying "Ow, stop hitting me. OW, who is hitting me? OWWWW - why are you hitting me?" to his flaily arms at about 5AM.

So I needed to find some Kryptonite for Superman. I first thought I'd just take a roll of duct tape up to his room and tape him in to his swaddle. But then I found this:

(enters stage right singing "Here I come to save the day!")

And the velcro option (notice it is INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH velcro) seems to be working. For the past three nights we have no escaping boy. The first night I used the velcro option I had a boy who was still sound sound asleep at 7AM, which hasn't happened for, oh, a good three weeks. Hooray for Kryptonite! Til John goes and breaks it. He is apparently too weak to separate the velcro pieces, so he just pulled the velcro tab right off the blanket. No worries - he will fix it. Mostly because I am A) useless with a needle and thread and B) should not be trusted with glue of any sort. And either of those two options seem to be the only solution for fixing the velcro.

We had a very celebrate-y weekend, with our anniversary on Thursday, John's birthday on Friday, and Mother's Day on Sunday. Plus John's parents and sister were in town and staying with us, so we had a very full house. Meaning Dex slept in his Pack-n-Play in our room. Which means I got zero sleep, because for about four hours a night the boy just grunts and groans and picks his little legs up and then BAM crashes them back down on the mattress. Which means? I really really need a nap. And of course it's gorgeous outside, and of course I shall feel bad that I will be napping instead of doing something productive outside. Too bad! I shall soon be kicking the cute little dog off her position at the end of the sofa, so I can take a nap. Sorry, CoCo.

Why, Mom? Why are you going to make me move?

The Left Thumb - it's the New Right Thumb

Over the weekend Dexter was trying to suck on his left thumb - he's been a right thumb-ed boy til now. He only got it once or twice. Til this evening. And now he is ALL ABOUT the left thumb. Right thumb be damned! Which is cool, as now he can be all ambi-thumb-trous. Or something. Hmmm. Ambi-DEX-trous. HA!

Also in the last week Dexter has become quite the Chatty Cathy. He is currently up babbling away in his crib (he's supposed to be sleeping, but babbling is WAY more fun). He babbles when playing now, too. I have it on video, for your viewing pleasure. But to get it up here I have to:

1) Finalize the disk in the camcorder. Which is not yet full, and thus prevents any further taping on the disk. Annoying. Especially as I am running out of disks. Hey - good Mother's Day present if you're my husband and are reading this...
2) Put material from disk on to computer
3) Edit material so you are not completely bored
4) Upload to Blogger

So, I figure that'll take me a good year or so to do. You'll have to use your imagination for now. As Aunt Maria can attest - it's ridiculously cute!

And also - CoCo is an ENORMOUS sissy. Still shivering with her two-week-old buzz cut.

I am NOT a sissy. I am just old and hairless, and thus COLD...

OMG!

On Friday Dex had a bath, then was doing some naked tummy time to dry his butt out and to give me a chance to giggle at his lack of butt cheeks. So he was on his tummy and then, all of the sudden, he wasn't! The boy rolled over. Cool! I don't think he has any idea how he did it, and it probably won't happen again for a while. But, still - my boy is growing up! I am not sure I am quite ready for a mobile child yet. No more leaving Dex on the bed while I run to the bathroom!

We enjoyed a weekend with Aunt Maria - who loves playing with, feeding, and putting Dex to bed. Awesome. John and I went out to dinner. Gotta love when Aunt Maria visits!

Three Month Promises

Dear Dexter,

Three months. Three whole months we've survived, little boy. Not even just survived. Thrived. Enjoyed. Had fun with. Impressive, eh? Everyone says that after the first three months everything gets easier. Well, as the first three months weren't that bad, I figure the rest of our lives will be gravy, right?

So to celebrate three months of our being together (kind of sounds like a high school boyfriend/girlfriend love note, right?), I have a few promises for you. Hopefully you'll hold up your end of the bargain.

1) I promise to keep making silly faces if you promise to keep laughing when I do so. Like for the rest of your life. Or at least until you're 18.

2) I promise to keep singing silly songs with made-up words (what ARE the real words to "Hush little baby, don't say a word"?) if you promise not to tell Dad what I am doing. He already thinks I am nuts. Let's not tell him what words we try to rhyme with "orange."

3) I promise to keep nursing you if you promise to keep gaining ridiculous amounts of weight and keep eating a billion ounces of milk per feeding.

4) Along that same thread, the breast feeding shall only continue if you can remember to NOT eat Mom's nipple off. So, promise me you'll keep working on that, ok bud?

5) I promise to try not to obsess about short naps, if you promise to continue to sleep through the night.

6) I promise to keep you in fresh clean diapers, if you promise to not pee on me when I change you. Pee in the bath tub - no problem. But how about not on Mom's fresh new pajamas.

7) I promise not to tell Dad about all the spit-up on the couch, if you just promise you won't POOP on the couch.

8) I promise to always love you to pieces. You don't have to promise to do the same, but I hope you will.

I love you, little boy. Happy three month birthday.

Love,
Mom

Check me out, double fisting my gym as I kick my heels up
Owww! Someone's biting my ear! (aka, another one of those photos we'll be sure to show your first girlfriend...)
Dexter. It's what's for dinner.
Happy Birthday to me!