boondocks boulevard: Let's Get Caught Up

It's been a while (by my standards). Here's what's new:

Not really very much.

I had a quite enjoyable evening with the ladies at Pizza Picazzo on Wednesday to celebrate Elaine's early birthday before Baby Luke arrives later this month. The guys got together for mutual support while watching their own children and enjoyed one of the wonderful creations by Papa Murphy's. A win for everybody.

We had a family dinner at my parents' house Thursday night. It was noisy and chaotic and delicious and fun and great...just the usual. The baby was cranky, the toddlers were full of energy, and the adults were jolly while enjoying adult beverages. Cruz pointed at a Michelob Ultra in the can and said "Uncle's juice."

Saturday was a big day out starting with Charlie's first birthday party and ending with Hazel's first birthday party, and a meeting with Gavin's daycare provider in the middle. For a very long day it went surprisingly well. I'm slowly gaining confidence in taking the baby out. Dylan was with me the whole day, so as long as I have back-up it's really no big deal.

Other than that, we've stayed pretty close to home, which has been good for ol' G. He got out a lot last week and was a little over-stimulated I think. But he's been doing pretty great otherwise. We could use some more sleep, but I've been able to sneak in a cat nap here and there and feel pretty good for the most part. I am still constantly tackling tasks around the house when I should really just slow down and enjoy this time and be rested. I'm pretty sure this is due in part to the fact that I'm not burning all that energy at work and the gym like before. It has to go somewhere, you know. I think I'll be less psycho when life gets a little more normal. Dylan only had to work two days this week, and having the extra set of hands and eyes while I shower, eat, and do endless chores has been amazing.

I've even managed to get creative. You should see G's birth announcement show up in your mailbox pretty soon. My mom took the baby's pictures while I assisted, and then I designed the announcement myself in Illustrator and had it printed. Why would I waste all the time to do that when I could have just ordered a really cute announcement online? Because I wanted to. I've also gotten my hands dirty in some other fun crafts for the baby and his cousins.

I still have a lot of complaining to do about how time-consuming breastfeeding is and how it completely interferes with having a normal life and getting out at all. But I'm starting to realize how very lucky I am with this whole newborn phase. The baby is a little difficult because all new babies are, but he could be so much worse. And Dylan works long hours when he's at work, but he has a lot of days off, too, and he's been known to fix me breakfast, coffee, lunch, etc., and feed the baby bottles and hang out with him for long stretches of time while I do other things. Then the other day I opened the front door to water the plants and found a tiny package from Helen Ficalora, my favorite little jewelry store in New York. In it were the two most important letters for my gold necklace. Dylan had ordered for me as, what he calls, a "mom gift." Dang, that was so nice of him, and I'm so excited about my necklace.

And now to the obligatory pictures of Baby Gavin. He is six weeks old and going through that phase of random bald patches and baby acne, but as his mom I still see perfection when I look at him.