Critter Update

As much as I really like our daycare provider, I’m a little concerned that since Duncan started going he’s jumping on the fast track to adulthood full throttle. C. (provider) tells us he’s remarkably alert for his age and (when awake) is totally enthralled with what the bigger kids are doing (all 5 and under). And he seems to love storytime. So far he’s been way ahead of his development norm physically – lifting his head by just a couple of weeks, pretty much able to control it by 8. Really wide-eyed, alert & tracking almost out of the gate. He’s recovered remarkably from our early bf’ing difficulties and is now proudly in the 75th weight %. Yesterday she said he was raising his head from a belly-down position for a really long time to watch the other kids. And he’s totally obsessed at home with trying to sit up. He’s taken a strong dislike to being on his back lately… almost as if he’s thinking “OK, I’ve memorized the plaster patterns on all the ceilings. Time to look at other stuff now”. Unfortunately some of that “other stuff” he’s absorbing involves the T.V. I didn’t think we’d have to start monitoring his TV exposure at 2 months!! He’s getting more and more verbal. Cooing, giggling, little nonsense phrasing when happy interspersed with adorable loud grunts when he’s not.

Grunting, is in fact the RiverClan family 2nd language. I’m the master (can carry on entire conversations with Curt in the mornings without my having to say a word) but D. apparently picked up quite a bit of the syntax in utero. He gets really pissed when we laugh at him though and shoots us amazingly expressive dirty looks.

I want to shout at him “NO! This is the best time of your life! Don’t grow up yet!!!” He’s just so damned adorable right now. Doesn’t cry much at all unless we disrupt his sleep schedule (then holy shit the screaming emerges!). Which is, by the way pretty ideal. One or two hour-long naps in the morning, a really long 3-4 hour nap in the afternoon and most nights, yes – he sleeps through from 8 pm to 5 or 6 am. The few nights he does wake up around 2 he goes back down pretty easily after nursing.

That’s not to say that I get a full night’s sleep, however. I still get up around 2 am to pump or else I soak my nightgown. And I usually have to conduct a few pacifier search & rescue missions throughout the night to keep him from fully breaking the surface of consciousness. I feel a little guilty about this “quick, plug the fuss-hole before he wakes up and realizes it’s gone!” but hey man, I need my sleep (and it’s an orthodontic pacifier!)

We have to really swaddle him up tight in his Miracle Blanket or he pulls a Houdini and gets his arms free to wave around the air like he don't care. Total props to GFriend, by the way… it really is miraculous how well that puppy works! He looks like an adorable little pupae when wrapped up in it. Or a burrito depending on how hungry I am. Though once when it was dirty I improvised with two long strips torn from an old sheet and that worked just as well.

I’m deathly afraid he’s the cosmic equivalent of a new parent loss leader, however. We’ll get suckered in to this procreating thing by a deceptively mellow and easy first baby and BAM!! get nailed with the spawn of Satan the next time around.

In other RiverClan news, Curt’s started his new job and is adjusting well. I got to go play with some used car salesmen over the weekend and traded in my 5 yr old bare bones, mechanically challenged non-A/C equipped 5 speed Ford Focus for a new bare bones 2005 Hyundai Sonata. It’s black. The front grille reminds me of Darth Vader so I’m leaning towards dubbing it either “the Vadermobile” or “Vader the Hun”. Like this only with a sunroof. The difference is a base model Hyundai comes with power everything; A/C; CD player; side airbags and a kick ass warranty. My Focus only came with a free coffee mug. They should have thrown in a bottle of Excedrin for all the headaches it caused as soon as the 36,000 mile warranty ran out. I've always bought American before but not this time. They failed me.

I know I’m a masochist and a total nutjob to actually enjoy trying to thwart their insidious little mind games but I do. I go in with massive internet research, pre-approved credit union financing and a serious chip on my shoulder. Oh, and my Dad for moral support. I left the love of my life at home for this one. To say Curt doesn’t do well with car dealers is an understatement. When I was a kid I used to be embarrassed by my Dad’s propensity for haggling. He’d try to haggle down anyone – even in stores where you’d never think it was an option. Then I saw it work one time and thought “fuck the embarrassment. Pride doesn’t pay the bills but that $200 he just saved will” and I’ve been a haggler myself ever since. So we tag teamed ‘em. Our salesdude had to bring in back up and then back up for the back up, a pizza and free stainless steel mug just to get me to sit down at the table. But I got the car I wanted at the price I wanted.

While in the bathroom hand expressing my grossly engorged breasts and watching that precious milk go down the drain (I’d left D. at home of course and didn’t bring my pump) I decided they were going to pay for every drop wasted. Then I thought I should have brought D. Might have cut their stupid stalling tactics short to have a screaming sleep-deprived infant in the showroom and a mom whip out her boob to feed him. But no, it wouldn’t have been fair to subject him to that.