Theo and Anya sittin' in a tree

We just got back from spending a few short days back in Seattle for the wedding of our friends Huda and Uzma. It was great to be back although there was not nearly enough time and we didn't get a chance to see everyone we would have liked to but fortunately we will be back in August for yet another wedding.

Anya is Janet and Nitin's little girl, born 2 months before Theo. She is absolutely beautiful and we took lots of pictures to show at her and Theo's wedding!

My "day" so far

It's 10:13am. I put the word day in quotes above because when one is awake every 2-3 hours in the night, sometimes it doesn't feel like there are separate days, just a constant flowing of hours, some light, some dark. Theo "woke up" around 7:30 this morning and, not being ready to wake up myself, I decided to nurse him lying down in the bed so we could both drift back to sleep. I know this is a bad idea. I have told myself over and over again that while it may provide temporary relief, I pay for it later. How? [disclaimer: those who are easily grossed out should stop reading now] Massive amounts of chunky spit-up. He woke up and spit up all over himself so I changed him. Then I picked him up and he spit up again, this time missing himself but getting the bib, the burp cloth and, of course, me. I put him in his infant seat while I cleaned up and got ready to go get coffee because, on top of eveything, we had no coffee in the house so I was throwing on some clothes to walk over to the nearby coffee shop. While in his seat, he pooped but this was no normal poop. Nope. I opened up that outfit to change him and there was poop everywhere. Another outfit down. Strip the kid, wipe off all poop that got all over him during the changing process and start over. Pick him up to go get another outfit from his room (he still sleeps on our room and we use the bassinet changing table for now) at which point he throws up again. This time he only gets me minimally but he destroys his bib and in the process of trying to wipe him up, I am smearing spit up all over him because I grabbed the wrong end of the burp cloth. Clean that up, change his clothes and finally get out the door to my coffee. I notice on the way home that he is getting very sleepy so we get inside and I put him down in the crib. We are working on teaching him to self-soothe so I left him in there for awhile until he started to sound actually upset and not just annoyed. On my way in to check on him, I notice a huge chunk of cat vomit. Are you kidding? Clean that up, soothe the kid a little and walk away. My first victory of the day (well, I guess the second as I would count actually getting the coffee as a victory): Theo put himself to sleep with very little intervention from me. Thank God for small mercies.

Oh, and today marks 10 years since Rich and I started dating. I wish I could take my boy out for a luxurious dinner over which we could drink wine and reflect on the past decade, then maybe take a stroll through the neighborhood in the cold night and talk about the fact that we started in Tallahassee, FL and here we are now in New York City and all the places in between. Instead, we will probably order in, watch a movie and pray that the baby sleeps more than 3 hours "tonight".

Whew

It's been ages since I last posted and in that time I have discovered more people who read my blog than I thought making me feel a bit guilty that this page has been dormant for so long. First of all, Happy New Year. Better late than never. The last month was filled with preparing for our trip to Florida for Christmas. Christmas shopping isn't easy with an infant so it was spread out over a few weeks and done in small increments. The plane ride down was unbelievably easy with him. We stood in line at Newark for over an hour and a half, were delayed at the gate for 1/2 hour, delayed on the runway for over an hour and then had a 2+ hour trip and Theo was an angel the entire time, sleeping for all but maybe 30 minutes of the whole process. We spent 4 1/2 days in Jupiter with the Bonneaus, then Christmas Eve we flew up to Jacksonville - again, slept almost the entire time from check-in to arrival. We then spent another 4 days with my family which went by way to fast for me. Saw my mom, my brother, my dad and Susan came in from Austin, Theo met his great-grandfather and namesake, saw some of my best friends including Kelly B. and her girls, Kelly Roberts and John, Ama, Nick and his girlfriend Tatjana, Brian and Sheila and , of course, our Kiki whom we are spoiled enough to see pretty regularly in New York too. Theo was doted upon by everyone - aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and of course, grandparents. He held up pretty well in the hubbub but I could watch him begin to melt down as he got passed around from person to person - good with the first person, a little fussy with the next and downright pissed by the next and last person. Christmas night he had his first real major meltdown at my Aunt Daria's house just in time for dinner. He was inconsolable. We even took him around the neighborhood in the car which did quiet him down for a bit but didn't put him to sleep which is what he needed. Finally after an hour he was tired and hungry enough to nurse (he was so upset he wouldn't even do that before). He finally fell asleep and I sat pinned to the couch refusing to move for the next 3 hours until it was time for us to go home. Wow. It was something else.

We have been back for about a week now. Rich and I spent New Year's playing Scrabble (I won, ahem) and then collapsed in bed shortly after midnight. A few days later our friends Eric and Ana came for a short visit en route from San Fran to Dresden where they will be working at the Max Planck Institute for the next year. Hopefully we will find the time and money for a visit while they are there.

So now here we are in January of 2007. Many new things lie ahead for us. There are so many milestones in the first year: he's already getting close to rolling over, then we have crawling, eventually walking, teeth, solid food, laughter, playing, sitting up, maybe some early words. It's going to be a big year.

He's awake now so I must end this but I will try to be better about keeping this thing up to date.