it's friday!

what a whirlwind week it was! at the start of this week, mark and i had grand plans to spend quality time together each night. monday was a craigslist night. tuesday was TV. wednesday was a surprise girls night out to the kennedy center. thursday was late night at the office for mark. and now it's friday. we haven't even had dinner together all week! except for chick fil a on monday night, which ended up coming back up at 3am (overshare?)

it's been a nutty week, but a good one. we are tired, we are kind of a mess, but we are well-loved. and that's what counts, right?

oh, lest i forget, did i mention henry and i both went to the doctor today? we both have pink eye. it's super sad and all that, but i secretly like that we share diseases. what he has, i have and vice versa. i love little henny pot so much i could cry. oh wait i am! oh...no, wait, that's just my watery pink eye.

baby sleep. advice?

I know all babies are different. I know.
I'd still like your advice, though. we are coming up on 6 months in a few weeks, the age at which many books say most babies are old enough to sleep through the night and understand how to learn to sleep better.

Henry will usually go to sleep pretty well between 7-8pm. We put him down in his crib and he will fall asleep in 5-15 minutes after a little singing or belly patting or shushing, and after a lot of re-putting in his paci. So I think we're doing pretty good in that department. But it's the staying asleep that's getting us right now. He typically wakes up around 11pm, and then between 2-3 more times throughout the night, and often has trouble getting resettled.

At 6 months, I'd like to help him learn how to sleep through the night, just waking up once to eat. I know he can do it - he does it occasionally, and it's awesome when it happens. Also, when he wakes up, I typically only feed him 1 or 2 of the times he's up, so I know he only needs the 1 feeding.

I'm also not ready to let him cry it out for too long, mainly because I feel like it wouldn't work for him. He's very high spirited and I am pretty sure he'd just cry all night long, and I just couldn't do that right now.

How did you get your babies to start sleeping through the night? I'm reading a bunch of sleep books, but none of them really make sense to me. I feel like everyone is the world must be sleeping better than me and Mark and I can't believe we've made it almost 6 months on minimal sleep. When I think back on what I used to think tired felt like, I just laugh at what a wuss I was. I didn't know tired.

Help?

new week.

this past weekend was an awesome sandwich with lame meat.
we had friends over for dinner on friday and i successfully cooked buttery fish and roasted asparagus, and made a new spinach salad with blackberries, avocado, and other yummies with a red wine vinegrette. dessert was a ganache poundcake which we sliced using a very sharp knife into teeny slivers, so we could eat like 5 pieces per person. it made me feel awesome.
saturday we woke up at 7am with Henry boy, and we went for a little walk around our neighborhood to check out the new farmers market, bought some farm fresh eggs, then came home and made egg sandwiches. then i jaunted into georgetown for furniture shopping while mark stayed home with the babe (which was lucky for me because he had a blowout while i was gone. could you imagine if i had brought him with!) that night i watched episodes of the new girl on Hulu. have you been watching it? we didn't like it at first, but it has been so funny lately.
sunday was sleeping in for mama, big breakfast for all of us, long nap for Henry, church, and the night ended in lameness. mark and i can't agree about house stuff, so we just end up bickering about it. i hate it.
so our house is a wreck because we can't decide where to put anything, i have a new chair that i (kind of) love and he does not like, and this weekend rain didn't motivate us to get to the stores we need to in order to finish putting the house together.
anyway, what i could really use is another saturday like right now. anyone have one available?

ps - to top it off, we both admitted over the weekend that we hate the couch! the couch we agonized over and waited 3 months to have delivered. we are so messed up.

this week.

How is it Thursday already? This has been a crazy busy week, and one full of fun impromptu activities.

Tuesday I asked Mark to come home early from work to put Henry to bed while I had a "me" date. I took myself shopping in Georgetown, grocery shopping at Trader Joe's where I bought myself doughnuts and some chocolate treats, then when I got home I read a magazine. It was a lovely lovely date, and I think I'll be asking myself out again real soon.

Wednesday our friends invited us to a baseball game using some VIP tickets scored from the office. We bouged it up in the President's Club, eating mounds of (free) food, popcorn and candy, and enjoying the amazing seats behind homeplate. I think I'm forever ruined for baseball games and goodness knows if I can ever enjoy the $15 seats again. I mean people just brought you FREE FOOD and ICE CREAM and whatever you wanted all night. Mark ate so much that when I met him for lunch today, he said he was still full. It was truly gluttonous. We decided on the way home that Mark would rather have 1 night of pure, unending gluttony in exchange for 2 weeks of groceries (which was about the face value of the tickets). Anyway, we had a great time and our friend was sweet enough to come over and hang out at our house while Henry slept soundly upstairs. It always amazes me when last minute plans can work out like that.

And now it's Thursday and we have a fun weekend planned, complete with hopefully doing something to my hair. Since Henry, my hair has been falling out all over the place and I look like I have feathers for hair. Ick.

And I'll leave you with a video of Henry bouncing in his new jump jump. I've never seen anything else elicit such smiles and excitement from this guy, and I don't think he is even a little miffed that he has to jump on top of a book to touch the floor. Sorry for the weird format.

5 months.

Henry boy, 5 months looks so good on you. You are kicking, smiling, yelling, singing, grabbing, laughing, and just being all around a pretty cute little guy.

A few things you've learned lately:
1. You are just barely learning how to sit up on your own. As in, just yesterday. You don't tip over immediately anymore, you can hold your sit up for about 5 seconds before tipping over.
2. You grabbed your foot yesterday. You are discovering other parts of your body, too, as evidenced by that diaper change yesterday (Don't pull on it, baby!)
3. You learned how to bounce last week. Nanny has been letting you play in the little jumper toy and she saw you bouncing and laughing! She said you looked so proud of yourself (I'm sure you were). So we quickly purchased a little jumper for you to play in at home, and oh the smiles and laughs we hear now! We never wanted all those plastic baby stuff taking over our house, yet, here we are and I don't even care - we just want you to be happy!

Speaking of happy, we know that Mr. Henry is a happy boy, but if it's not the hardest thing to get that boy to crack a smile, let alone a LAUGH. he is stone face henry, mr. serious, living up to his serious name, Henry George. He smiles a bunch when he wakes up, and occasionally I can get him to laugh by tickling under his arms or neck. But he really makes you work for it!

He is happy to be looking. He just wants to look at everything (he has since he was a tiny baby!), and soak it all in. We sit on the front steps most evenings and just watch the neighbors and puppies and kitties. It seems to really calm him, so obviously we do it quite a bit.
Still not a great sleeper, we are working on it. We phased him out of his swaddle this month in anticipation of him rolling over, which he has yet to do, but gets SO close. His naps are getting better and he sleeps through the night at least 1-2 times a week. The other morning, we woke up at 7am, brought him into bed with us, and he slept another THREE HOURS. Yes, we all slept in on Saturday morning until 10am. It was the best present anyone has ever given me. Thanks Henry.
He is a great eater, and we think this is the month to start him on solids. He's starting to grab at food, so we think it's almost time. He grabbed at the sacrament tray yesterday in church, so either he's hungry, or he's ready to be a devout follower of Christ. Then he grabbed my plate yesterday, and nearly got a handful of my singapore noodles. Mark and I looked at each other and said, "It begins!".
He talks up a storm these days. Just started with the mamamamamama the other day, and the lip trills, too. It's so adorable, I just find myself listening and laughing most of the time. 

I am obsessed with his chubby legs, his chubby arms, his fat cheeks, and his roly poly belly. I just want to cuddle up with him all day long and squeeze that chunky baby! And every day that passes, I just think he looks more and more like Mark. It's so cute. Happy 5 months, Hen!

desperate scousewives

Last night one of Marks old friends from growing up stopped by. Him and his wife are now living in Liverpool, (back in the US for a couple weeks to eat Mexican food and drink mountain dew) and apparently they are not as much in love with it as I think I would be. To me, England = beauty, regal everything, lovely accents, architecture, etc. Well, apparently Liverpool is a little different. Marks friends introduced us to Desperate Scousewives (they call some people in Liverpool "scouse") Not sure why?. These Liverpule accents are insane. England meets Scotland meets...I don't know? I'm so bad at deciphering English accents anyway (I have to watch The Office - british version -  with subtitles), so this is a new level of confusion. Ha.

updates

We are finally making some progress on moving in, and making our house a home. This past weekend, we schlepped it up to IKEA and some vintage furniture stores to make some purchases. We came away with some success - bookcase, rugs, curtains, and my favorite thing - a Scottie dog bust. Because who doesn't need a bust of a cute dog sitting in their living room?! Henry was an actual edible delight all of Saturday, just grinning and smiling away as we sped through the stores. I just find lately when I'm with Henry all I want to do is give him a bajillion kisses on his fat cheeks. Lucky for me, he thinks it's funny and will indulge me in my affections. 

So - I've been trying to round up inspiration for the house on Pinterest, and I'm hoping to have a lot more done by the end of the month. I have big plans for a container garden on our patio, and we're on the hunt for a good desk for the office. And I'm trolling ebay and etsy for a nice rug for the living room. If you have any good sources for finding interesting homewares, I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

90s nostalgia.

Fifteen years ago I heard, for the first time, a band called Spiritualized.
They called themselves "chamber pop, or dream pop". Their album, Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space, changed my life. Their sound was so full, lyrics not at all cloying, and their overall sound was so unique that I just fell head over heels.

Spiritualized is releasing a new album in a few days - Sweet Heart Sweet Light - available for First Listen on NPR here. Listening to this band today still gives me that feeling, the one I felt back in my teenage years, of finding that new band that changed my outlook on the world around me. I crave that feeling sometimes. Plus this band still sounds so 90's, in the era of Dinosaur Jr, Sebadoh, Mercury Rev - all those bands that shaped my youth.

If you sometimes have 90's nostalgia, just pop this record on this morning, throw on your all black uniform, and sink back into your chair to be transported by Spiritualized. 90's rant.


ps which bands transport you back to your high school/early college years?

back to my old self...sorta.

i was telling mark last night that i feel like my old self again. carefree, go with the flow, spontaneous me. you see, when baby arrived, i adopted this hyper vigilant anxiety based on henry's inability to sleep well and tendency to get fussy after about an hour of being awake. i felt afraid to leave, and even though i would go out and run errands when i was on maternity leave, i did so with so much anxiety in the pit of my stomach that my the time i got home, both baby and i would be crying and exhausted.

last week, i decided i wanted to have some fun, gosh darn it. throw caution to the wind, and just accept the fact that we have a baby and babies cry sometimes, and we would all be fine if we just adjusted a little. so we threw a small dinner party last week. and i still had anxiety because i felt i couldn't be a great hostess and be as attentive as i felt i needed to be to Henry, but you know what? it was ok. and we were all ok. and it was fun. and henry liked hanging out with new people (and so did mom and dad!). this week, we had a spontaneous outing with some friends to see a night time exhibit on the National Mall, last night i went to my friends house with Henry for a delicious dinner and fun ladies night, and Friday we are doing another dinner.

lest you think i'm bragging about my social calendar, please know that we have not done dinner/outings/etc. with other people in a very long time. so maybe i'm going a little overboard, but i'm just so excited that i'm losing the fear. sure, the anxiety is still there, but i'm finding more peace. it makes me so happy to know i can just take little Hen wherever i go (within reason, of course), and he will still be a happy, well-adjusted baby. so what if he's up past his bedtime for a night or two. happier me = better mother = better wife = happier me.

i just feel like i'm finally turning a corner. it's such a relief to meet myself on the other side of that corner. do you know what i mean?

Wriggly, screamy, heart-melting baby.

This baby is becoming quite active. We are having so much fun together! He can't keep his socks on to save his life, and he LOVES Carrot, which makes my heart soar. I had always hoped my baby would love Carrot.

happy monday.

since henry is on the verge of rolling over any day now, we decided to phase him out of his swaddle. "it's time", i thought.
"mwah hahaha", henry thought.

we spent the majority of the weekend tending to too short naps and night sleeps on account of wandering hands scratching the face and hitting the face and etc.

last night, Mark sliced his everloving thumb off. just the tip, mind you, but where blood is concerned, it didn't make a whole hell of a difference. since i pass out at the sight of blood, i promptly excused myself to cry, and M drove himself to the emergency room where he spent the wee hours of the morning.

so there he was, not sleeping in the ER, then back home with his cartoon sized, bandaged thumb. and there i was, not sleeping in our bed, shushing and rocking and feeding henry back to sleep every hour.
what a NIGHT.
what a WEEKEND.

but i have to admit, even the hardest of nights are still sweet. i just love that little boy, and i love that husband of mine. and now when i ask him how he's doing, i get a big. huge. gauzey. thumbs up.

here's to a good week!