Phase "Not-the-Mama"

My brother once said that babies have two parents: the Mama and Not-the-Mama.  He observed this after my sister-in-law went back to work and Nate (my brother) spent weekends home alone with their infant son.  For upwards of 12 hours a day, the child my brother nicknamed "Mr. Screamy" screamed at him for no reason other than that he was Not-the-Mama.  Eventually, Mr. Screamy grew out of this stage.

Elijah has recently discovered that Nathan is Not-the-Mama.  I spend all day everyday cuddling, talking to, singing to, and playing with Elijah.  When Nathan comes home, I pass the baby off for bonding with his father, leave the room to work on dinner and within minutes, the screaming commences.  Thankfully it doesn't last 12 hours.  Nathan is getting pretty good at calming him down by singing, bouncing and walking.  And I'm glad it's happening now, when I'm still at home, instead of in a few weeks, when I'll be at work.

But it still breaks my heart.  Nathan is already such a great dad.  Every phone conversation we have while he is at work begins with "How's the little man?"  When he gets home, first thing he checks on Elijah.  I can't wait until this phase passes.



Yes, that is Elmo's voice.

My Poor Boys

Despite my best efforts, Elijah came down with some form of the same virus Nathan has.  I took Little Man to the doctor last Monday and was told he has bronchiolitis.  I returned the next day because he sounded a little worse, only to be told he was actually better.  We've been coping by keeping him upright as much as possible--have the pack-and-play propped up on books--and humidified.  We made a trip with my dad to walk-in care yesterday because it's been almost a week and he sounds the same.

The doctor there said that's just the way bronchiolitis is.  It hangs around for 7-10 days and the baby sounds a lot worse than he feels.  They did a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia, and it was slightly traumatic.  I had to hold him down while they took the images.  Poor little thing screamed so loudly Grandpa, who was sitting out in the waiting room, could hear him. 

Elijah's been coughing and wheezing for a while, but he slept 7 hours last night and actually does sound better today.

As for Nathan, he's been sick since the 8th and is still taking Musinex and Sudafed to get through his days.  I was sick when we were in the other state to pick Elijah up 7 weeks ago (seriously, 7 weeks?!), so I'm hoping that is protecting me now against whatever this is.

7 Quick Takes (vol. 4)

Yes, I'm late with this.  Today will be my baby faces edition.  All week I have been taking pictures of faces Elijah makes.

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He has started smiling, too, but only occasionally.  I haven't gotten a picture of it yet.

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 Pam calls this his "Cheerio mouth" and it cracks her up.

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 I'm pretty sure we can all figure out what he's doing here.

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 Poor sleepy baby!

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Tummy time is no longer completely hated.  He's started napping during it.

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 I think he was talking here. 

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In other news, Nathan has contracted, what I can only assume is a mild form of plague.  He has been aching and coughing for three days.  And yesterday he celebrated his 31st birthday by staying home and lying on the couch all day.  Elijah and I have been coping by not spending too much time around him and getting out of the house at least once a day to give him time to sleep without being woken up.

For more 7 Quick Takes visit Conversion Diary!

The Pinterest Challenge

I have 11 boards on Pinterest.  One of them is just called "Inspiration."  It's for all those great pictures of old buildings or cool libraries or interesting faces I come across that might spark a story some day.  The problem is, I haven't seriously written anything since before Elijah was born.  Now, I'm either too tired or too busy to think about it most of the time.

So, I have set myself a challenge.  I'm going to take each one of those pictures either individually or group some of them together and write short stories for them.  Just to get my imagination working again.  Hopefully, I'll even find time to put them up here.

One month old

Yay!  Happy one month, Elijah!

And so we begin the early-year-birthday onslaught.  Really, it started yesterday with our niece Sophie's second birthday.  We continue tomorrow when Craig, my father-in-law, celebrates his.  Looking ahead to next Thursday is my mother's birthday and a little further down the road we see Nathan's 31st on the 9th.  Just beyond that, we celebrate the first birthday of our Ides of March baby, our nephew Brian.

It's going to be a fun month!

7 Quick Takes (Vol. 3)

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I haven't figured out how to live in more than one room with an infant.  We set his swing up in our sun room, so that is where Elijah and I live during the day.  I set my laptop up in there and we literally don't leave that room until Nathan comes home unless we are running errands or Elijah is sleeping and I'm doing some small chores.

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The laptop sits on the coffee table and I have actually gotten really good at maneuvering around the Internet with my foot.  Not kidding.  I can't type or anything crazy like that, but the mouse is a touch pad and while I sit on the couch and hold Elijah, I can move the cursor around with my foot and click on things.  Usually it's just to change the Pandora station.

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The season finale of Downton Abbey broke my heart.  Poor Bates!  I hope it all blows over early next season.

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Elijah absolutely refuses to nap in the pack and play that we use for a bassinet.  He will nap just fine if I hold him for a while and then put him down in the swing.  But if I try to put him down in the pack and play, he will wake up within 5 to 10 minutes screaming.  He's too little yet for me to feel comfortable letting him cry it out.  At least he's napping somewhere.

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This week I have discovered two blogs I really enjoy.  One is brand new.  It's called Dough Boy, and is run by my brilliant sister and brother-in-law.  Yes, this is a shameless plug.  Eric and Elizabeth are foodie extraordinaires, in that they make a lot of what they eat from scratch.  They make their own sandwich bread (without a bread maker), crackers, and pizza dough.  Eric has also tried his hand at curing  bacon, and making cheese (against Elizabeth's wishes).  He brews beer and she has made dog biscuits for their beloved French Bulldog, Buddah.  I'd just like to mention that I wouldn't mind being a guinea pig for a test batch of homemade marshmallows, or more bacon.

The other blog is called Catholic Cuisine.  It's filled with ideas for recipes and meals to make to celebrate or honor feast days and specific liturgical seasons.  There are some really neat ideas that I want to try when Elijah gets older.

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We have quite a collection of Disney movies.   And lately, I have come into more respect for Hunchback of Notre Dame, previously one of my least favorites.  It's a very dark story and must have been hard to adapt.  I love that they let it  be a little darker than their other movies.  They didn't try to take away all its character.  Plus, the music is great.  Observe:

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 At four weeks, Elijah is following objects with his head and focusing more clearly.  He can hold his head up for longer periods of time and is pushing with his legs.  His eyes are very slowly getting lighter and his hair is a very pretty gold-red color.  He eats 3-4 oz at a time and has started staying awake longer.  He is wonderful!

For more 7 Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

You are Dust

A few months ago, I happened to think about Lent and I felt a happy rise in my heart.  I noted it, because Lent is usually my least favorite liturgical season.  Every year, I dread the coming of Ash Wednesday and the dark weeks ahead full of self-evaluation and meatless Fridays.  But this year felt different.  This year I was looking forward to the opportunity to work on my flaws and faults.  I didn't know yet what my Lenten resolutions were going to be, but I was eagerly anticipating them.

Then, life changed.  And to be honest, I haven't really spared much thought for Lent or resolutions since.  But at the eleventh hour last night, I resolved to try harder to say my Rosary daily.  I also resolved to more happily embrace my so-far-least favorite part of parenting, when Elijah wakes up at 8:30 ready to go for the day.  I know, that's not so early for most people, but it is a struggle for me to respond to my son joyfully.

I also thought about resolving to eat more healthily.  But that is such a nebulous proposition that it seems silly to make it.  So for now, let's say I'll work harder on portion control and trying to force a few vegetables in a week.

This morning, after I gave Elijah his morning bottle, I got dressed, loaded him into the car and we drove two towns over to where we go to church.  As we were driving, I thought to myself, here we are, in Lent again.  And it was back, that happy joyful feeling.  Welcome to Lent.

It's kind of worn off since 9 am, but Elijah got his first cross of ashes today.  And yeah, we leave them on all day.