Spooooky baby!!

Baseball Fever

Ruby went to her first M's game this week with me, my mom, Rose and her daughter Ann for a mother-daughter outing. Ann got the tickets through work and they were good ones! I was a little worried that a foul ball would knock her in the head but none came our way. The M's lost but it was a fun game nonetheless and Ruby was a champ. She's even got the gear! Today was spent with some of my mommy pals who came over to make books for our babies. About 6 people and their babes came and we spent most of the time gabbing and ogling our babies. It was a fun little get together and I hope that we can have more in the future. Ruby spent her first full night in her crib. She did fine....it was a little harder for me. After all, it is the first time she's been so far away from me during the night EVER. So, I confess that I got up several times and went and checked on her in the night. She's nearly outgrown her basket and the night before last, she was so noisy sucking on her fingers, I couldn't stand it. Speaking of, Ruby has really discovered her hands. She pops them in her mouth and energetically sucks them. Though her thumb hasn't yet unfolded, she is starting to grab things and I think it's only a matter of time before she's putting anything and everything in her mouth. Her head control is better and better too. I can't believe that she's going to be four months old next week! Yesterday, she spent playing with Grandma Genie and Auntie Rose, looking at the flowers in the arboretum. She's been well taken care of by Grandma and I think she'll be sorry when she's gone home. I know I will be!

Hip Baby

Ruby's New Trick

This was filmed on May 11th and Ruby is 14 weeks and two days old. She's been doing this every once in a while for the past couple of weeks but this was the first time I got it on video.

Schedules...schedules

Ruby and Dustin have been having lots of fun togther and he's gotten to experience all of the highs and lows of staying home with an infant. It has definitely made going back to work much easier knowing that she is with her dear dad. Dustin just got a jogger stroller so that they can go careening around Green Lake together after he picks her up from daycare and we are sort of hammering out some kind of schedule. Schedule. Oh what a word. I am a person who enjoys a schedule. Not a rigid one, mind you - I can be flexible - but I do like some routine and general expectations. I like to read the Seattle Times in the moring while I drink my coffee..the NW Life section first, then sports, then the rest as much as I can stand it. I like to have at least 15 minutes on my break at work where I can just relax and think. I like knowing what time I am having dinner each night. Having an infant means that all that schedule stuff gets thrown out the window. At first it was hard to adjust to that but I really embraced it for a while there. It was so freeing to get to just chuck all of that out the window and just enjoy being with Ruby and letting her lead the way. But, I realize that I missed some of the good routines so had been trying to add them back in within reason. Now that I am back to work, the scheduling thing is out of control. Because my schedule is different day to day, I have to figure out when she's going to eat, when I'm going to pump as well as figure in the trip to daycare while fitting in a feed once I get there. It's this constant nagging fear -- What if I pump too late? What if she eats too late? Will I not have enough milk? Will she starve before I get home? Ugh. My hope is that it will get a lot easier as we do it longer. It has too. People DO do this everyday --I can't be the only one stressed out by this. Right? Sigh... Work is actually great and despite it all, I am enjoying being back. It's been really great seeing the patrons again (the kids have grown a lot!) and I cannot wait to start storytime again! So, it's not all bad. Don't mean to be a whiner :-) It's nice that my schedule is such that I don't work more than two days in a row. Anyway, I think it's just one of those things that you have mixed feelings about no matter what and some days it's good and others it's bad. I know one thing for sure....I really miss the adventures with Sarah and Cecilia and meeting up with Dannette, Wanda, Kerry, Misha and all the other moms. I guess I just have to start a new routine of outings with them on Fridays! Probably all of this focus on this is because today was Ruby's FIRST DAY at daycare. Here she is ready to go. Dustin and I both dropped her off and though it was hard, I have such a positive feeling towards the caregivers that I didn't worry too much. Anyway, it appeared that she did just fine and I am really really happy we were able to ease into this whole daycare thing. She will go the next two Tuesdays and then after that, we'll be on our regular weekly schedule of three times a week. Not too bad! It definitely helps doing it little by little. Well, my next post will be much more upbeat and interesting and less whiney, I promise! Here's a picture of her that I just love. She's not grabbing things independently yet but the expression on her face is priceless!

New Perspective

So, when you have a baby (or kids for that matter), you begin to view the world from a whole different angle. When you are home, where you once might have been aghast at wearing a shirt you wore the day before, now it's "Well, this one doesn't have as much spit up on it and that pee spot is dried so no one will know...." When you are out, you plan your strategy not by where you want to go first or what's closest but by where you want to be when it's time to nurse or change a diaper and which places have the nicest bathrooms. You also know where every bathroom is within a mile (this started with pregnancy). I discovered that Babys-R-Us has a delightful "Mother's Room" with soft lighting, rocking chairs, comfy couches and changing tables. I am, as a rule, not a huge fan of BRU but I like their attention to these details and it did give me a little soft spot in my heart for them. Then again, I would expect no less of a place that wants parents to spend large amounts of money on lots and lots of crap, most of which you don't need. You also tend to gravitate towards places that are welcoming to the sight of one or more babies coming into their place of business. I swear, some places you can see the fear in their eyes when a group of us has walked in. Some of the places that have been especially great are Capers in West Seattle, Elliot Bay Brewery, Stellar Pizza, the afore mentioned Chocolati and Sugar Rush (also in W Seattle). I am sure there are many more! I hate to be so focussed on "what's a great place to take a baby" but when you pretty much have to take your baby anywhere in order to actually talk to any grown-ups it's so nice to walk into a place and the staff/owners are happy to have you and it's not Chuck E. Cheese or The Rainforest Cafe. Of course, it helps that whenever my group goes anywhere with our large group of babies, our babies are so adorable and well behaved that people can't help but be impressed. Yah! Does anyone else have any other suggestions for great places in Seattle to take a baby/child for a bite and some grown up interaction?

Last Gasp

Well, my last week of maternity leave was quite a joy really and I enjoyed every last second of it. We started off with our last baby storytime at the beautiful Central library with the multi-talented Betsy. We walked away with some good little songs to sing and activities to do at home. I also squirreled away tips and tricks for my own storytimes when I start doing them again next week. It was a lot of fun for all of us! Even Dustin got in on the action for a couple of them!

On Tuesday, we went to the Spanish playgroup in Wallingford and met up with Sarah and Renee. Afterwards, Wanda met up with us and we had some delicious sushi....mmmm! We felt the need for a little chocolate (you know, to get that sushi taste out of our mouths) and went over to Chocolati for some coffee and a cookie. What a great little place. Not only was the service spectacular, their chocolate covered candied ginger is the bomb! Here's a pic of Renee and Wanda and their babes just as we were finishing up our treats.

We kept up our usual Wednesday activity, going to Next Months (the continuation of First Weeks) and then visiting at the UW to the crew in the Romance Language division. Made me realize how much I miss those people...not the job, mind you.. just the people! :-) And then Sarah, Danette and I took the babes to the movies on Thursday in Bellevue. We saw "Hot Fuzz" and while much more gory than I had anticipated, I enjoyed it very much because it was funny and made me laugh and made me forget the pit in my stomach everytime I remembered I was going back to work in two days. Friday was spent going for a long walk, ending up at the library (ironic eh) and enjoying beautiful spring sunshine.

And that brings us to today...drudge. Ok, not really but kinda. I realized that the feeding/pumping schedule coupled with the work schedule is going to be a big pain in the patoot since my schedule is different depending upon the day. It was hard to leave Ruby but I knew that she was going to have a wonderful time with Dustin and that Dustin also needs to experience Ruby the way I have the past few months. I think they had fun today! He brought her by for an afternoon feed and that helped my anxiety level a bit. It is a bit surreal being at work, not pregnant and knowing I have this other life at home. But, on the upside, it's nice to be back in the swing of things again and seeing familiar faces at the library. One young patron, who while often challenging, is also a favorite of mine, welcomed me back with a big handshake and that was quite nice. Buuut...that being said, I think it's going to get harder before it gets easier to leave the munchkin especially once we are doing daycare exclusively. Sigh...there's just no easy solution to this career/motherhood pickle.

And here's our little Red Sox fan. More soon....