Life Changes and Girlfriends

One of my BGFs is in town right now. Every time she comes home, it's like a mini reunion, only, it never feels like she's been gone. We never skip a beat. At the same time, every time she comes home, we BGFs all play a game of catch up, and we always have something new to share.

This particular return home has been a while since her last return and things have changed quite a bit. She said something the other day that inspired this post. We were leaving a restaurant and she had been the last one to exit. She was looking for us and noticed us outside the doors already. Her thought was, "Are those my girlfriends?" She saw three grown up women and a stroller. "Yep, those are my girlfriends."

We used to be a bunch of goody-two-shoeses in crisp white dress shirts and kilts. And now here we are.

We went out again tonight and I'm feeling quite high. I admit, before D-nut was born, I felt a little bit sad at the thought that having a baby would change the way things were with my girlfriends. I thought I'd be giving up a lot of time with them, that maybe eventually we'd end up going on distantly with each other until they had kids and we were all back on the same stepping stone of life. That hasn't happened, and I'm so happy.

Tonight, our table had space for a stroller. Where we were didn't have a change table in the washroom. My girlfriends helped me change my baby's diaper by shielding off the rest of the world so that I could wipe my baby's poo in private. They lovingly doted on my son. Then they walked me and my son to our car.

What a wonderful set of girlfriends and a splendid set of aunts.

A Some Day moment

I have absolutely no green thumb. I have no plants in my possession because, well, they died. The herbs I buy and plant every summer die before I get really good use out of them. The trees I attempted to grow twice from our wedding did not survive. We have several left that are frozen and I'm reluctant to plant them.

But some day, I'd like to grow my own garden of pretty flowers, plus herbs and vegetables. Nothing huge or crazy, just something simple where I can just go outside and grab some fresh tomatoes and basil...and some lilies of the valley to pretty things up. Or something.

Thoughts on Mommyhood - Poo

Like I said, boys pee on everything.

I learned this weekend that they poo on everything too.

Mr.S has already been pooed on several times. One time, while he was changing his diaper, Mr.d (who I think I'll refer to from now on as D-nut, [like peanut] which is what we've been lovingly calling him at home) "sharted" (if you don't know what that means, click on the link), with a little more "sh" than "art", right at the point in the diaper change where there is no diaper covering his arsehole. Mr.S walked back into our bedroom with crap sprayed all over his t-shirt. (It was hilarious, I have to say.) Luckily, it was an old hole-ridden t-shirt, (what's with men being okay with wearing things out until they have holes in them and STILL wearing them?!) so he just [finally] threw it out.

This weekend though was a whole other level of poo disaster.

D-nut has managed to learn to poo OUTSIDE his diaper. We were at a birthday party yesterday and while Mr.S was holding him, he felt that his sock was wet. So he went to go change him. I didn't see my boys for half an hour. I went to go see if maybe they had decided to hang out elsewhere. Turned out, Mr.S had been cleaning up a poo mess the entire time. Yes, D-nut had pooed so much, it reached his socks. Somehow he got the diaper AND the outside of the diaper...AND outside the diaper shirt.

This weekend, he did it 3 times. One of the times, he almost entirely cleared the diaper, and it's not like he had a wedgie or anything.

Oh crap. Literally.

Coos, Waas, Baas, Poots

I'm still trying to believe the sounds of the newest track on my life's soundtrack. They're so sweet.

Old Spice

I am not a fan of Old Spice. My brother started using Old Spice deodorant when I was in my first trimester and the smell triggered my nausea. Most smells' strength faded as time went on, but the smell of his deodorant made me feel sick throughout the pregnancy. And then I had the baby and the smell still bugged me. (It was like he bought the tube at Costco or something. It was so big.) So I realized I just didn't like the smell in general. I'm sure they have a bunch of other scents that are more likable. Thankfully, he recently finished his stick and has moved on to another scent (and another brand too, I think?).

Bad scents aside, I particularly enjoy the Old Spice commercials...

And then, there are the Terry Crews Old Spice commercials. These are CRAZY! Enjoy!

(You might wanna go pee first before you press play.)

Surprisingly So by Amy Seeley

Surprisingly so

you are one of my favourite things

You are like a fairy tale world that's come to real life

You can see through me

like some sort of transparent material

How could it be

that in such a short time you've become one of my favorite things

The small town marching band is in the parade on independence day

proudly marching, stepping in time

wearing those hand-me-down uniforms

Everyone gathers on main street

expectantly waiting for their hometown hero

Don't you know

don't you know

that you are one of my most favorite things

like notebooks, portland and tea

And when you smile, you smile, you smile at me

you have no idea just how sweet it can be

So the band marches on

and we will sing along

There's comfort in knowing our similarities

We are captured in time, space and degrees of caution, wonder and awe

Like pirouettes drifting

like chocolate

like saccharine

you're unaware, appealing

like our friendship, I'll be content

Wednesdays, 9PM

I'm probably one of the few people who doesn't watch Glee. I know, GET OUT! right? Well, here's why. I can't leave my favourite new comedy, Modern Family. It's hilarious. I've even seen some of the episodes numerous times, even though it's just in the middle of its first season. If you haven't seen the show, you should try it out, maybe you can PVR it or something and watch it after Glee. (Is Glee even still on in the same time slot?)

Opening Pandora's (recipe)Box

I decided to finally try out a layered cheesecake after seeing a picture of one it in one of my magazines. I had completely forgotten that I wanted to try it out until I was reintroduced to it while flipping glossy pages.

While I do have to keep practising to get it to the perfect consistency, my first try turned out pretty good, I think. I just need to get my mind to stop working overtime, mixing and matching cheesecakes and layering them into a 10-layer cake.

(and then there's pie...)

I don't think I've ever said...

...how much I heart Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Even as The a-hole Comedian in The Watchmen, I liked him. He's so dreamy. Yum.

Thoughts on Mommyhood (and other things) - 1 month in

I'm just gonna do this randomly...because that's how my brain happens to be working right now.

• The human body, particularly the postpartum female human body, is VERY resilient.
• I sorta fear my next pregnancy because it seems I missed a good chunk of the horror this time around.
• Babies grow quickly...too quickly.
• Poo stains are easily removed if tended to quickly and with hot, hot water and detergent. Otherwise, expect a stain for sure (I'm talking about baby poo!).
• Boys pee on everything. It's no wonder when they're older, they really do pee on everything.
• We joke that babies have such a hard life, but when you think about it, it really must be tough -- imagine not being able to communicate properly and when you try, all that comes out is a cry or a coo; you can't clean up after yourself; you can't feed yourself; and you're launched into a totally different environment than the one you had been living in your entire life.
• You can't fully appreciate your breasts until you've leaked, squirted, been engorged, sore, tugged and pulled at.
• Babies' skin is SUPER sensitive.
• Hand lotion is very important. My hands are so dry from washing them so often, I think about covering them in Vaseline and wearing gloves all day.
• I could watch Mr.d squirming around all day long. Mr.S and I liken him to a potatobug because sometimes when you touch him, he squirms into a little ball. It's so cute. He also does this thing with his mouth and tongue where it looks like he's about to blow a bubble with bubble gum. Aw, heck, everything he does is so cute!!
• Even though I don't like hearing him cry, I know later on, when his cry changes, I'm going to miss the sound of this one.
• I miss peanut butter. I keep thinking of recipes with peanut butter and I wanna cry.
• I wonder what it's like to have a daughter.
• I had a thought yesterday -- this little baby boy is one day going to go through puberty and have really hairy legs.
• "He pooed on me this morning so I don't feel like going out." This is just one of the new crazy things that I say these days. I said this to my sister yesterday when she asked what our plans were for the day.
• Sucking out boogers is so much more effective than baby aspirators.
• I'm not baking half as much as I had hoped I would be. I think it's because Mr.d is so much sweeter than any cookie I could concoct.
• Bedhead. My choice hairstyle as of late.
• I can't believe our son is already 1 month old!!!!!

Momma and baby's day out

I'm about to go out shopping with my son. Right now, I'm sitting with a dirty, empty plate that was my lunch for breakfast and a tall empty glass of milk beside my computer. I'm all ready to go, but he's lying beside me, in only a diaper and a diaper shirt, sleeping so soundly. I feel like I don't want to wake him so that we can go to the mall...and I've been feeling like that all day. We were supposed to leave to be there when the mall opened. It's already the afternoon.

Yesterday was my first time being away from him since he was born. I had to run to the doctor and I didn't want to bring him in case there were a lot of sickies in the waiting room. While I sat waiting, I stared at the "Cellphone use not allowed" sign the entire time, praying the time would pass faster so I could call up my brother and make sure Mr.d was doing okay. Once my visit was over, I called right away. Yesterday was a whirlwind. We were busy all day since he also had an appointment with his doctor. I enjoy times like this though -- when we're just sitting around, and that's why I'm hesitant to wake him. I just sit around and watch him sometimes.

He's a mouth breather. I don't think it's because he's congested or anything. I did, however, pick out some boogies in the middle of the night last night. He was wide awake after I fed him and his nose was whistling with a boogie peeking in and out, in and out. I couldn't miss the opportunity. There's an unspoken satisfaction about getting rid of your child's boogies. They can breathe more clearly, they don't have something annoying them when they breathe (maybe it annoys us parents more than them haha) and there's also the feeling of triumphing over getting this big thing out of such a small space!

He's got baby acne. I'll admit it makes me a little sad to see how his skin has turned from the smoothness it was just a few days ago, but I look forward to when it'll turn back around. I know it's normal and temporary. (I've gotten really good at getting over things by remembering they're only temporary.) He has a bit on his right eyelid and it's making it fold kinda funny. Looks like he has his regular eyelid on one eye and a very Asian one on the other eye. When I'm really tired, my eye does that too.

He's growing a pretty belly. Although he'll probably never be one of those "Michelin babies" (I've never met a breastfed baby with such squeezability!), he's starting to really fill out. His cheeks are already starting to look like his father's (before Mr.S and I started dating, my friends and I had a codename for him -- "Brain", as in "Pinky and the Brain"). His thighs make me especially happy. They're not huge or squishy, but they're getting bigger and that's what makes me happy. His legs are pretty strong too. When I'm feeding him and he has something he can push his legs against, he does it. I have to sit farther and farther away from pillows or armrests so that he doesn't push away so much. He's "catapulting to bigger weights and lengths" according to his doctor, so I'm finding that I'm, for some reason, gauging his growth by his thighs. He's already got 4cm on his birth length and quite a bit on his birth weight. I wonder how long it'll be before/if we say goodbye to the 25th percentile.

At the same time, I don't want him to grow too fast. He's already gotten a bit long for me to easily flip him from one arm to the other when I'm holding him. His legs get stuck somewhere in the middle. He's already over 3 weeks old. 3 weeks ago feels a million years away but it also feels like it passed way too quickly.

Well, enough stalling, time to get on this Momma and Baby Day Out.