We are NOT the Partridge Family!

I know this is a little late, but Anne hasn't had power in a while and this is for her.



Aunt Anne, can I be your personal penguin?

A Few Things

Things that are hard:

Keeping up with this blog while working third shift and taking care of my son.  Can you tell?  I've been back to work since my last post and in all that time I haven't found a moment when I had the time and energy to update.  We've just come through the two most trying weeks of life since we brought Elijah home.  And my least favorite part about them has been:

When other people have to step in to help take care of Elijah.  We are really lucky to live close to both my parents and Nathan's parents.  We are also lucky that they are all crazy about our little guy and don't mind watching him for us.  That said, I hate it when I have to ask them to.  If being back at work has done anything it has made me more aware of time.  I only have so much time at home with him now, and I want it all.  So what if I've only slept 2 hours in the last 24?  I want my baby, damn it.

Taking care of the house.  Not in general, mind.  Just while I was on thirds.  I would get home from work, feed the baby and take a nap with him.  After that, the days are kind of a blur of playing with him and wishing Nathan would get home.  Then, when Nathan got him, I dragged myself up to bed to sleep until I had to wake up for work.  House chores kind of fell away.  I washed bottles only when we didn't have any clean and the laundry definitely piled up untended.

Admitting how happy I am to be on seconds.  I love third shift...love it.  I love the hours, the work, the people.  Everything about third shift is great.  Or was.  But now, I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to be working from 3 to 11.  I get to sleep like a normal person, and wake up at a normal hour.  I get to play with my son and not have a haze of exhaustion keeping me from enjoying myself.  I am so happy to be on seconds.

Things that are great:

Elijah's progress.  We went out for a birthday dinner tonight and as we sat at the table, me holding Elijah, my plate started sliding towards me.  I looked down and his tiny hand was clamped around the edge.  He has started rolling over and can sit relatively straight for periods of time, while he's supported.  He laughs--my favorite sound ever.  He has started vocalizing a lot more and we think he might be starting to get a tooth.  And he sleeps through the night for the most part.  He's just great.

Nathan.  I have Nathan.  How lucky am I?

Getting books for my birthday.  All Our Worldly Goods by Irene Nemirovsky and Your Personal Penguin by Sandra Boynton.  Yes, that last one was for Elijah, but I don't care.  I love it.

Doctor Who.  Nathan used to tell me I should watch Doctor Who.  He said I'd love it, but I ignored him, because it seemed like such a strange show.  But he was right.  I started watching it when Elijah was about a month old and we were still spending quite a bit of time in the sun room.  I love it.  More than I've loved any show for quite a while, I love it.  And in case you have any Doctor Who background and you're curious: 9 is by far my favorite, but I also love 11.

English folk music: Kate Rusby, June Tabor, Seth Lakeman, Eddi Reader, Smithfield Fair, all great.  Can't get enough of them.

The Mama

First of all....

Seriously, how cute is he?

We've been home for just over a week now and Elijah is just over two weeks old.  This world of motherhood is an interesting place.  It's a strange feeling to be making all the decisions for another person.  I remember even as we were driving to Birthmother's home state, I was thinking about his name and said to Nathan, "How does one person go about creating an identity for another person?"  What if he hates his name?  What if he would rather be called "Eli?"  I hate nicknames so I've refused to use it.  Nathan said something to the effect of, "Because you have to."

I realize that Elijah's identity is already inside his little person, but it will be up to us to help shape and make him into an individual.  There are all kinds of questions floating around in my head now.  What if we don't hold him enough?  What if he is allergic to cats?  Do we feed him too much?  What if we are playing the wrong kind of music?

Nathan is all about music, so I added a "Disney" channel to my Pandora stations.  But I don't know if Disney is "right" at this age.  So I added a "lullaby" station.

Even though it was one of the most inconvenient things I've ever had to do, I kind of miss living in that hotel in Birthmother's home state.  Life was a lot simpler there.  All we had to do was hold and play with Elijah and make sure all our paperwork was moving from place to place.  Here, we have to do things like dishes, laundry and bills.  I have to cook meals and clean up around the house.  I have a certain longing for the days of sitting around staring at the baby.  But I still do that quite a bit!

But things around here have settled into what almost might be called a routine.  Nathan took over middle-of-the-night baby duty for the weekend, so I got to sleep.  If there is a perk to formula feeding, that's it.  We have been enjoying receiving all kinds of family and friends who want to meet Elijah and ask us how we are doing.   

Being the Mama is definitely more than I expected it would ever be.

More Neil

Can't help it...I've been addicted lately, and this is one of my favorites.

Neil

This has been in my head for days.  If I loved it less, that might annoy me.

A Musical Soul

I surprised myself the other day with asking Nathan if he wanted to buy a piano.  Wait, what?  See, it's still surprising.

I've been noticing lately that every time we go over to his parents' house, Nathan always settles down in front of the piano and plays "Rainbow Connection,"  one of his favorite songs.  The other day began a full-house search for the sheet music for "Ashokan Farewell" (that song that plays over and over during the Ken Burns Civil War series).  It's another one of his favorites.  We didn't end up finding it and I forget what he ended up playing instead.

He even tries to get me to play, but I can only handle either the top or bottom parts of Heart and Soul and when he tries to play the other part I get thrown off.

Nathan has always been musical: he played French horn in high school band and has been playing piano since grade school, not to mention singing in choir.

Lately he's even found a little protege.  Our niece, Sophie, loves the piano.  Every time he starts playing she has to be right there watching and banging away on the other end of the keyboard.  She even insisted once that her high chair be moved so she could watch him play.

I happened to glance at the newspaper the last time we were leaving his Mom and Dad's house and saw that someone is selling a Story and Clark upright piano for $100.  We're going to wait until it gets a little closer to Thanksgiving and call about coming to see it.

If we choose to buy it, hopefully we can get my brother-in-law's help moving it after the holiday.