Book Club

I don't think I've written about book club yet. Laura invited me last spring. It's mainly a bunch of women she knows from here and there, and now I've gotten to know them too. It's always held in the city and I am definitely the only one with kids. Actually, until last month, I was the only married one too. That makes for an interesting time. On the one hand I miss my single (or at least childless) city days when I was skinny and fashionable and had a multitude of things to talk about other than cloth diapers or teething. But on the other hand, it gives me a chance to go out in the city and pretend I'm still that fascinating person. After the first meeting, I was literally giddy on the drive home. I called another mommy friend and said, 'It was so great. I actually had intelligent things to say and kept up with the witty banter'! 

So over the course of the spring and early summer they got to watch my belly growing bigger and bigger and said they were all eager for me to bring the baby to the next meeting, and yes, of course, you should feel free to breastfeed openly. Well, I took them up on their offer and brought Lincoln to the last meeting. I admit I was looking forward to showing up looking cute, hair actually done and make up actually on. So what that I didn't manage to keep my new dress spit up free. No one will look that closely anyway. I was also planning on showing off my effortless mother skills by nursing Lincoln to sleep and laying him peacefully down in the corner while I enjoyed a glass of wine and a good laugh. 

Funny how these little one's always like to keep us on our toes. I spent the far majority of the time with him in the sling, bouncing him and shushing him until he finally fell asleep, only to start crying again when I sat down. I was dripping with sweat and starving because I was barely able to eat a thing. I can only hope the smile on my face looked real enough instead of the anxiety strained one that it really was. I think I had them all hypnotized with the bouncing/rocking motion I was doing for about an hour straight, which I of course laughed off as my secret way to burn off the baby weight. (I said, followed by a fake but polite little chuckle.)

Well, hopefully I didn't scare any of them away from having children some day. And while I'm thankful they were open enough for me to bring him, I'll make sure to leave him home next time. I think book club is better when I can step outside my day to day life anyway. 

Sesame Place

Sto was finished with work early last
Friday so we decided to go to Sesame Place at the last minute. We were able to buy twilight passes for just the evening, which was a good thing because this place charges almost as much as Disney World. But let me tell you, it's no Disney! For being such a big deal, I've always thought it was odd that it's basically in the parking lot of the local mall.

But it is pretty cute once you get inside. We started wandering around with no real plan and decided on the carousel for our first ride. After an agonizingly long wait in line, Sto and Pippa rode on a pink horse. (Have I mentioned Pippa's current obsession is horses?) Though she looked quite serious throughout the whole ride, she was actually tickled pink. I know this because she threw a mini temper tantrum when the ride was over. Then we headed to Grover's World Tour (aka, The Tea Cups). After a surprisingly long wait for a relatively short line, Pippa enjoyed the ride with a little grin on her face. I  then passed Lincoln off to Sto and took my little girl on Big Bird's Balloon Race. But only after waiting far too long in line. When you start to memorize the music played during the ride you know you've been waiting too long. Seriously, who do they hire to work in this place?! Is 'snail's pace' a requirement? And we almost didn't get on because we didn't walk fast enough to a seat and they got filled up! But I was a little snotty and were able to share a booth with another family. I was NOT waiting another 10 minutes for a 3 minute ride!

So after our grand total of 3 rides we grabbed a quick dinner and headed home. Yup. That was the extent of our first visit to Sesame Place. I've learned a few valuable lessons. Mainly, to make a plan ahead of time. We should have gone to one of the shows. That way she could have seen Elmo in person! This is what I learned while chatting with other parents in line for our stupid ride. Probably it's just as well we didn't, though, because Pippa was scared of the Cookie Monster she saw walking around the park anyway. But live and learn, right? Next year we'll get a season's pass and go when it's the least crowded. Now, does anyone know when that is?

Our Life At 1 Month

 So it's been just over a month since Lincoln's birth. 5 weeks, exactly. So how are we doing? Great, overall! He is a total cutey and I'm pretty much obsessed with him. Having 2 under 2 is a challenge, as expected. We have our good days and bad days. Today was a good day so I'm willing to say that the good days outweigh the bad. But I was singing a different tune yesterday! I admit that much of what determines our day depends on how much sleep I've gotten and how willing Pippa is to walk instead of being carried.

Lincoln is doing fabulous, though he is 'colicky'. It's pretty typical colic, worse in the evenings, etc., and thankfully keeps his fussing to the day time. (Hope I'm not jinxing myself!). I've tried all of the usual things and nothing really seems to help. I wear him in the sling most evening and sometimes he falls asleep, sometimes he just cries on and off for a couple of hours as I prepare dinner and get Pippa ready for bed. He is finally going longer than 3 hours between feedings at night, too. Though his longest block of time (5 hours) generally starts around 6 so it doesn't give me much more sleep. But I really can't complain. It's very normal for this age. (Can you tell I'm reassuring myself?)

He is starting to reward us with those awesome, gummy smiles! He is so cute it almost makes me forget all the crying...but not quite. He's working hard on developing his eye sight as evidence by frequent funny crossed eye'd faces. It seems every time I go to take a picture, he crosses his eyes! I'd prefer not to have a million pictures like that! Really, I swear he has a sweet little face. He's also working hard on finding his thumb. Please let it happen soon!

He's growing like a weed thanks to all that great breast milk he's getting. His 1 month stats are: Height 21 inches (50%), Weight 10 lbs 5 oz (55%, little piggy!).