Sweet Yet Sour

I realized today that I use the blogs of my friends to keep up with their lives.  Especially now that I am spending more time at home and less time out in the world socializing I need these easy to get updates.  And then I thought, “Well, duh, maybe I should do the same for my friends.”  We’ll see how long this lasts, but here’s what is going on these days in the Munhall house.

1. Anna is more chatty and smiley these days than she has ever been.  She’s much more fun now and a there’s a lot less crying.  Except at bedtime or naptime, when she screams through all of her bedtime stories because she does not want to go to bed.  I’m getting used to this and I simply read through the stories in the same tone of voice, despite the fact that she is yelling in my ear.   I know that as soon I get to the middle of the last story, (which is always the same – “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, by Eric Carle) she will have closed her eyes and stopped crying with resignation.  She apparently laughed last week while Mike was changing her diaper, but I missed it and she hasn’t laughed since.  She does little laugh attempts but no real laughing for me.

2.  This last Saturday we were supposed to host a “Childbirth Preparation Class Reunion” at our house.  All of our classmates, their babies and our teacher were coming.  However, on Friday it became evident that Anna was sick, and after calling and talking to our pediatrican’s nurse, we decided she has some sort of stomach virus.   So we cancelled the reunion and stocked up on pediatric electrolyte drink and hunkered down for Anna being sick.

When we do reschedule the reunion it will be exciting to see everyone and the babies (there’s twin girls, three boys and our Anna).  I’m hoping there will more than just talk of labor and delivery, but it will be fun to see how everyone else’s labor went.  I am also looking forward to talking with other women who are staying home to see how they are coping.  I have been trying desperately this week to finish decorating Anna’s room in preparation.  I’m just not a decorator, so before Anna arrived all we had was furniture in a white room.  It’s still like that, but I’m trying to get some stuff hung up so the walls aren’t bare.

3. My parents have been visiting Wyoming a lot this summer hanging out in my Aunt and Uncle’s house by Reservoir No. 1 (very original name, eh) and just relaxing.  This is the first summer that I can ever remember when my dad did not teach his usual summer Organic Chemistry class.  He’s always taught in the summer ever since we were kids so this is a big change to have him not teaching. Mom is doing really well and is finally feeling well enough to get back to quilting.  I’m hoping she will finish the two quilts she is working on for Anna sometime soon.

4. Sunday night someone got into Mike’s car and took his GPS.  They didn’t seem to take anything else, but they left a nice tarp (not a fair trade!).  When Mike got home from work on Monday night we called the Sheriff’s office to have someone come and take a report, just in case they recovered the GPS at some point.  I’m sure it was just a roving band of teenagers and there’s a good chance that the car was unlocked, but still it was a nice GPS and Mike really used it a fair amount.  The deputy that was sent out to take the report was so, how do I put this, “policeman-like”.  He had no sense of humor, and kept scolding us for possibly leaving the car unlocked.  Every other sentence he said started, “This is America, so you can leave your car unlocked if you want but…”  Oh bite me, we accidentally left the car unlocked.  I don’t think I have ever, nor will I ever, leave something unlocked thinking to myself that it’s my right as an American citizen to the pursuit of possible burglary.

5. I had a brief conversation on Thursday with a business analyst that I used to work with at my former job.  She’s apparently working for a consulting company and said she might have some part time QA work in the next few months.   Hopefully we can work something out when the time comes.

6.  I am going a little more stir crazy that I thought I would staying home with Anna.  For the moment, she’s not very happy in her car seat for very long, and she pretty much has to stay in the car seat when we go out, unless I want to carry her and only have the use of one hand.  I feel guilty going out and making her stay in the car seat, so I have avoided going out at all.  I realize that I need to get over this and just get out, but there’s also not much you can do with a 3 month old.  I can’t really take her to the zoo or the museum and have her be excited about any of the things that she sees.  I can’t wait until she can at least go in a front pack carrier or something so that she can be out of the car seat and we can look at things together.

Until she can completely hold her head up I can’t put her in the pack, so I keep telling her to work on her neck muscles…  It’s a difficult transition moving from when I could go wherever I wanted to feeling that I need to be mindful of the baby, when she needs to eat and sleep next and how long she will be able to be in the car seat before she gets upset.

7.  I bought a sign the other day that says, “A spoiled rotten Greyhound lives here.” for our front porch.  Lately with the heat though, I doubt that Cash would think that he is spoiled.  Anna’s schedule dictates that I don’t usually have time to walk him until about 10 a.m., unless I want to walk him at 5 a.m., which I don’t.  This means that it’s pretty hot by the time we go out for the walk and even though he likes the walk, he pants all the way through.  We’re making up for it by giving him chicken jerky treats every day and every once in a while I sneak him a little cheese.

That’s all the news from here I think.  I’m off to bed for a little snooze until Anna wakes me up for a feeding…