First week back

I did it. I went back to work and survived. In fact, a large part of me actually enjoyed it.
Even better was that David survived and seemed to enjoy being Mr. Mom. It certainly warms the heart to come home and see the toothless grin when Sam recognizes that I have returned!

Grandma and Grandpa R have returned from their month long RV odyssey. Yeah! It is strangly desolate when they are gone - we can't exchange waves from the kitchen windows. We are all glad that they have come back safely. And I know that they are happy to see Sam again.

Aargh. I have the absolute WORST time writing thank you cards in a timely manner. We did a pretty good job getting all of the cards out for gifts that came before Sam did, but so many people have given us things since then. To anyone reading - Thank you! Thank you! I haven't forgotten you and your wonderful gifts - I just haven't gotten to the actual task of writing the cards! They are coming...I promise!
Speaking of gifts, check out the Marilyn Monroe bathrobe:

What a little diva, eh?

I'm looking forward to tomorrow - my sister in law, niece and I were all pregnant at the same time. Tomorrow we are all getting the little ones together for the first time. Also Grandma and Grandpa M will be there, as well as David's older sister, Kay. We are hoping to see our other niece (and nephew) since she is pregnant also. It's crazy - David's side of the family hasn't had a child in 20 years and now all of a sudden there are four babies! We are having a potluck, so David and I will make one of our new favorite recipes: curry and coconut veggies over rice.

One last note - I have heard that people are having a hard time posting comments. So I thought I would give a little lesson:

Click on Post Comment.
Type your comment.
Click on the "No Blogger Account? Sign up here".
Choose a user name, create a password and then re-type it, Choose a Display name (what will appear when you leave a comment), then type your email address and click on the "I accept terms" box.
Click on the continue button. This is where is looks like you have to create a blog, you don't. Go ahead and X out of this screen (close the window). You can now hit Login and Publish using the User name and password you just set up. (Or hit Preview first to see how it will look. You can see that your Display name shows up - not your user name (unless you made them the same!)).

Viola!

Betrayal

Alas, the age of the Dansko must come to an end. For years you have been on my feet day in and day out. I have run you ragged: soles worn, scuffed toes, the stitching on your leather uppers coming undone. Sure, I had twisted off of your heights in an embarrassing display of clumsiness more than once. But I still had my sights on a new pair, your replacement. Perhaps blue to match my jeans, or another black pair. (You can never have too many pairs of black shoes.)
But no.
You betrayed me. You, a snugli and a gravel road became my worst nightmare come true.
Luckily, from the depths of my subconscious, my body reacted faster than I knew it could. Sam was safe, with not even a bump or a bruise to show your betrayal. Thank God. If she had been hurt you would have rued the day you were handstitched. Since she is unscathed (no thanks to you) I will give you the burial you deserve:

Another Tuesday: 10 weeks

It's shaping up to be a nice night. We are listening to Crosby, Stills, Nash and making homemade goat cheese and scallion ravioli. mmmmm... We just got back from visiting Grandma R. (Bringing Sam along certainly helps with the conversation!) I'm going to start a fire and we'll play some yahtzee after dinner. A wonderful recipe for a cozy fall night.

The last few days have been fun sprinkled with drops of doctor and dental appointments. We are knocking the appointments off the list (but how come one visit begets two more? Now I remember why I always put off going to the doctor!). Samantha has grown another inch - now at 23 inches and 12 and a half pounds at her two month visit. Guess we don't have to worry about my "supply" - she is still in the 75th-90th percentile of growth.

Sunday we went to another brunch with the same group of friends that gave us our last "child-free" brunch back in July. Sammy did great - she was passed around to each person and Richard was the lucky guy who put her to sleep! (And I was able to have the vanilla French toast with marscapone this time - no more GD!!)

After that I took Sam to a housewarming party. The house belongs to my buddy from the pre-natal yoga class. She is due at the end of November. So exciting! What a nice house they have. And the nursery is all nice and tidy :-)

Monday started with two appointments - a chiro and taking the car in. After dropping a wad of cash at the car place we went over to the cousin's house for our Monday night visit. Yummy sloppy joes!

Janey and I took the cousins to go see Elizabethtown at the Reelmoms showing this morning at a local movie theater. How cool! A theater full of moms and their infants. No need to worry about fussiness cuz we were all in the same boat.
Oh yeah - Janey and I hit Value Village during our Monday visit. All I can say is stayed tuned for Hallowe'en...

Happy Belated Two Months Old!

People warned us that time would fly by. It has, and once I go back to work, I can only imagine it will speed by even more quickly. Yesterday, as we were eating breakfast at a restaurant we used to haunt in our pre-marriage days, it dawned on me how far we had come: we have been married for five years (approaching six), we have purchased a house, we both have very flexible work hours, and we have Samantha. Pretty amazing. Even in the last two months we seem to have come a long way: my shoulders no longer crawl (as far) up my neck from stress when Samantha cries (though it helps that she doesn't cry as often...or as loudly as she used to!), when we took Samantha to that party on her 6th day of life we had no clue what to bring - now we are packing the diaper bag like champs, and when her pacifier falls out of her mouth, half the time it is because she is smiling.

Here is Sam with a new friend:The handle of the swing (not the animals, mind you) has been added to her group of friends, along with the mask on the wall of the living room and, of course, the ceiling fan.

I go back to work in 16 days. I have mixed feelings about this. I am sad about missing time with Samantha, but I am excited to go back to a to-do list that I can control. In anticipation of the limited time, I have taken S's list as inspiration and made some appointments of my own. I have made the following appointments:

• Sam's pediatrician
• David's dentist
• My dentist
• My physical at my new primary physician
• My eye appt
• David's eye appt
• taking my car in
• and drum roll please...my haircut!

Should be busy. But it will also feel good knowing that these things are taken care of for awhile.

Sammy. Today has been a trying day for you, and therefore, for us as well. But I wouldn't trade these last two months in for anything. Happy 2 months! I love you.

My favorite kind of day

I decided that I wanted a few black and white "art" shots of Samantha. A whole memory-stick later, we've got some good ones to share. They are interspersed throughout this post randomly.



Yesterday was a perfect rut-buster. Our sweet Sammy had a little snack at 5am and then slept until 7. Then she had breakfast and a short nap that lasted for just the right amount of time. We dolled her all up in her outfit and went out to a relatively spontaneous breakfast with Bryan and Tara. I had my favorite bar-room eggs (lemon chicken sausage, green onions, gorgonzola and scrambled eggs...yummm). Samantha was awake and smiling the whole time. When she started making noises I held her and she fell asleep in my arms. Ahhh.

We got home and had a nice quiet mid-morning: a ballgame, crossword puzzles, playing with Sammy once she woke from her nap. Very enjoyable.

In the afternoon we went to a Greek festival at a local orthodox church: the whole church and yard was filled with people, Greek music and fantastic smells from the fantastic food. We stood and ate while Sammy napped in her snugli: pastitso, spanokopita, avgolemono soup, kalamari and, later, baklava and a wonderful calorie-free custard, butter and sugar pastry that I can never remember the name of. Galatabuoro-something or other. We watched awkward adolescents dancing a traditional folkdance (they were great, but I can just imagine the weeks of practicing that led up to it: "mom, I don't want to wear this outfit, mom, I'm sick of dancing, mom, no-one else in school has to do this dumb dancing". I'm glad they kept at it because they were fun to watch!). Then the kindergartners got their chance on the stage - hilarious!

Back home for some more quiet time while we waited for my friend Kim to come over for a visit. She brought the new book lovers edition of Trivial Pursuit. What fun! A Trivial Pursuit game that David didn't automatically run away with! :-) (I'm teasing you David, you know I am envious of your memory...)

All in all it was a fun day.