Crack in the ceiling

Our living room doesn't normally look like this. Yes, the baby play things are a new addition but so is the scaffolding holding the ceiling up!
Our ceilings in this room have always sagged because of the trusses, but it wasn't until today that I looked up and saw a huge crack in the ceiling. Needless to say, I crapped my pants (sorry to be so blunt). My dad came over and hoisted the wall up, and Sunday the whole thing will get fixed (not just the crack, but the actual sagging ceiling.)
And just when you thought home improvement was done for a while...

Music class for babies

Am I ready for Playdates and Mommy & Me classes?

As the weather gets colder, and the walks in the stroller become few and far between (or non-existent), I have been researching things to do with a baby once the holidays are behind us.  I have this feeling that January - February - March will be these dreary, blistery days where I'm stuck in the house with a baby starving for conversation and Vitamin D.

I found some "Mommy" groups in my town, but I don't feel ready to go down that path...yet. And I don't want to "force" friendships with people just because they have a newborn.  So what should I do?

Music classes?  This seems to be the only thing my park district has for babies under 18 months old, so we've signed on.  We have a demo class tomorrow, 3 sing-a-long classes in December, and I plan on signing us up for the next session in January-March. They have a class especially for 0-9months that I hope I'm not too late in joining (I'm sure I'm not the only one dreading January.)

I hope tomorrow's demo class goes well and that Wes won't either be sleeping and/or cranky because he can't sleep...

Cutting a baby's nails (or "Trimming tiny moving daggers")

This is just one of the million things no one tells you about Baby Care. 

Sure, the books all say "cut their nails." And the lady at the hospital said, "Cut their nails."  But no one really tells you that cutting the nails of a 3 month old is like shooting at a bulls-eye blindfolded: you just clip clip clip and hope you get something resembling a nail and not a finger.  His little hands don't know how to stay still yet, or he's grabbing on to me while kicking me with his tiny doughy feet.  This small, somewhat trivial task, will eat up a whole morning.  No wonder I'm staying home, I have to cut my kid's nails.  And the only reason I'm cutting them is because he likes to grab my arm now and his tiny daggers almost punctured a vein.  Between his nails and the cats claws, I look like Gulliver after an attack by the Lilliputians. 

I could wait until he's ready to pass out for a nap, but my scarred arms are too busy rocking him to sleep. Maybe I'll enlist Matt's help... two gown ups holding tiny hands... could be comical.

It took me ten minutes to cut the baby's nails this morning.  I think I only succeeded at cutting 3 of them.  Only 7 more to go. That should occupy me until about 11AM.

The many faces of Dominic Wesley: 3months 1week 4days old

A year ago...

November 5, 2010

... we conceived this little guy. Two weeks earlier I had miscarried our 3rd pregnancy, but my hopes were high that a 2010 baby was my destiny. We weren't trying though, instead waiting for my next period (which after a miscarry could take any number of days). It was truly providence that this just happened -- even the doctors and nurses said, "It was just meant to be."

typing 1-handed

sometimes this is the only way you're going to get on the computer...

Vote for Wes on November 3rd!

Go to the Gerber website to vote for Wesley (aka: Dominic Wesley) starting November 3rd!