One Wondrous Thing Tuesday, Mar 24 2009 

Parenting , GeekLady 8:52 pm

There was one wondrous thing that happened last week. In fact, not only is it it happening right now, as I type these words, it’s enabling me to type these very words.

GeekBaby has started sleeping in his crib.

That’s right, he’s gone from requiring the human mattress (or worse, screaming for 30 minutes in the crib until he passed out from exhaustion) for his brief naps to sleeping with minimal fuss in his crib. And then, last week, it was like *that*, 5 minutes of half hearted fussing and rooting around in the crib, then he’s asleep. For a long time too, I’ve actually had to go in at the two hour point to check if he was still alive.

I don’t know what to do with myself when he takes a two hour nap. He has never taken a two hour nap before in all 8 months of his life. Right now I’m spending half my time rejoicing that he sleeps, and the other half fretting over him only going to sleep with his wee face pressed into the mattress/blanket/my old teddy bear.

Well, I figured out what I was going to do with my hour. I just squandered it watching the last half of the second episode of The Prisoner.


 

I knew that it would come back to bite me… Monday, Mar 23 2009 

Musings and Parenting , GeekLady 2:10 pm

So I’m halfway through a treatise on how I don’t find motherhood very hard and, even though I wasn’t being smug, it came back to bite me on the butt anyway. Last week was just impossible.

I have a baby that insists on crawling all over me whenever I’m within reach. If he can’t reach me (for instance, when I’m in a chair, he pulls himself up as close as he can get and hollers. And when I pick him up, he immediately goes for my Touch, keyboard, mouse, pen, knitting needles… essentially anything I’m trying to work with.

I got a few things done on my days off, but not a lot. Then the weekend and misery in the incarnation of the coronavirus struck. I was sick for my sister’s entire spring break visit, and didn’t get to spend any real time with her. Fortunately she was happy to play with the baby, allowing me to be miserable all by my lonesome.

So yeah, last week was a buster of a week, with a lot of stuff I wanted to do that didn’t get done, and a lot of sickness and grumpiness and crankiness.

And, looking back, what I regret the most was not my failure to clean the bathroom or get the laundry done, but that I spent so much time working on a silly new blog re-theme and banner, and didn’t snuggle my baby at every opportunity that presented itself.


 

Awesome Stroller Bag Wednesday, Mar 4 2009 

Projects and Sewing , , , GeekLady 8:00 am

Those of you who researched strollers rather than shopped for them know that they offer various amenities to parents.  Amenities above and beyond the wheeling-baby-around part.  Some are off roaders.  Some have sequins and rhinestones, others mp3 players.  Most of them have cup holders, except for some of the really expensive strollers, coughBugaboocough, which are apparently too good for cup holders.

When we bought the Maclaren, there was this organizer thing velcroed to the back.  When I asked if this came with the stroller, I got an “oh no, that’s separate.  And $30.” response.

Sorry,I draw the line at spending $30 on a velcroed on stroller organizer.

As it turns out, I had this tote bag from wrybaby.com that fit perfectly between the stroller handles. (more…)

 

The Speed of Mischief Tuesday, Mar 3 2009 

Kids! , , GeekLady 2:44 pm

GeekBaby started crawling on Valentine’s Day.

He’s now quite proficient at it, he chases the OBall and empty coke bottles across the floor, he follows me around the kitchen getting underfoot, he goes up and down the two steps between the TV room and our bedroom.  He’s in to everything.  Everything.

Oh, and he pulled an outlet plate off the wall.

I’m not kidding.  I heard silence, applied the principle of Silent Small Children = Trouble, and checked on him.  This is what I found:

Alright, Im in!

Alright, I'm in!

Cheese it, its the cops!

Cheese it, it's the cops!

Seriously, how do you baby proof against this?  I’d love to know.

 

Welcome to Lent… Tuesday, Mar 3 2009 

Catholicism and Life GeekLady 1:33 pm

…leave your sacrifices at the door.  No Dr. Pepper, butter, sarcasm, or whatever else you’ve given up allowed.

This year, I’ve given up butter.  I won’t add butter to anything, I won’t cook anything with butter in it, and to as far an extent as possible, I won’t eat anything that was probably made with butter, but I’m not going to stress about this point too much.  That last bit means I won’t sweat the waiters about whether something was made with butter, but that I just won’t select cookies, texas toast, or other things I know usually require butter.  No popcorn with butter.  (Boo.)

Then at Easter, I’m making a big batch of scones.

I was told (by someone in this marriage who shall remain nameless (not me)) that was a kind of wussy thing to give up, but upon further questioning admitted to fears that it would their diet.

It’s really part of a two-fold sacrifice, because the other thing I’m giving up for Lent is the rest of my pregnancy weight.

It’s not about how I look, I like how I look, when I remember to think about it.  It’s not necessarily about how I feel, hefting a twenty pound baby around has benefits for one’s stamina after all.  It’s not even about that Stupid Wii Fit board mocking me, like some twisted Nintendo version of Clippy.

It’s just that I know those extra 15 pounds are not good for me.  I have two more months left in 9 months up, 9 months down.  I’ll put these 40 days of Lent to good use in dropping them.

Then I’ll gain it all back eating those scones.