Baby wrangling

Man, I gotta tell you, wrangling a baby means being on your A-Game... ALL THE TIME. Got my teeth brushed? NOT GOOD ENOUGH! Gotta brush Peanut's teeth (seriously) Got my self washed? NOT GOOD ENOUGH! Is it Peanut's bath day? Got my lunch made? NOT GOOD ENOUGH! Make her breakfast, and snack, and lunch, and snack... and always be one meal ahead because, of course, her meals, though repetitive, are all frozen. Also, see naps, clothes, cleaning, etc etc. But I love it, it's awesome. Also, what's with all my friends who don't put any baby pictures on facebook? I understand that they're not really secure, but what's the consequence? Anyhoo, must go cook.

Doin' great!

I actually feel the best I think I've ever felt. That may jinx me, but it doesn't change the fact that it's true.

What I learned last night

Peanut has a "witching hour", every night, at about 6-8 pm. Yah, I know, that's two hours. Feels like twenty. I have relied, in the past, on the three Bs: Bottle, Butt, and Burp. NONE OF THOSE WORK DURING THE WITCHING HOUR. So last night, after two hours of shaken-baby-proofing (as in, I got through that without shaking her, the rest will be easy!) I just swaddled her and put her in her crib. And I thought two thoughts: 1) whiskey. 2) Google. Drank some whiskey, and googled "why won't my baby stop crying". It's a REALLY COMMON GOOGLE SEARCH. That, in and of itself, is pretty helpful. And what I found is: Babies get overstimulated, and it's not what I thought it would be like. When they start looking away, and refusing the bottle, and being grumpy, they WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE AND UNSTIMULATED. I had this naive assumption that babies require constant stimulus and company... apaprently not. So I re-wrapped her according to excellent instructions, propped her on her side according to excellent instructions, put her static noise on according to excellent instructions, turned off her light according to excellent instructions (which she normally hates), and LEFT HER ALONE. She stopped crying immediately. So I had more whiskey. When the PM came home, Peanut was totally asleep, and woke to be fed with much happiness, and then slept another six hours. I are smarter. We'll try it again tonight under the watchful eye of the PM, though without her hands-on support, and we'll see if it works again, or is needed again!

Winter blast!

It is -43 celcius here today, take into account the windchill. That's cold. If you're not in the wind, it's tolerable; otherwise, you gonna die. Or wish you were dead, anyway. Peanut is a champion sleeper. This is a thing that continues to amaze. She sleeps 5-7 hours a night, uninterrupted. She is also thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis close to smiling at me. When she does, I will be forever putty in her fingers. She does sorta half-smile now, but not the same giant grins that I see in other babies. Soon... I have three weeks of work left before I go on Pat Leave, which will be awesome. I am looking forward to the massive amounts of energy I experience on Saturdays being a daily occurrence. As long as she keeps sleeping, of course. I will hope to get the dining room and basements crafted into something nice, and maybe even do some landscaping in a gentle fashion around the place. And that is all there is to say about that. Three weeks left. PS. That will be the first time since... 1999... I think? that I have not been full-time employed, and the first time since 1996 that I don't have to leave the house during the day

Winter!

Lots of fun this week. I was in Southern City three days ago talking about my job. I am good at that. So good that I think the folks in Southern City are going to adopt some of my ways of doing things. It's very encouraging. Also, it's very timely because I drove over a parking barricade and wrecked one wheel on Priscilla The Prius and that was very humbling, and I needed the encouragement. The Project Manager, Peanut, and I went to the mountains, which was also lover-ly. Peanut thinks the mountains look like the inside of my coat, because that's pretty much all she saw. We did take her out to a ver' fancy restaurant though, and she was very quiet and pretty much the belle of the ball. I have learned that, if you cover yourself and be discrete, you can breastfeed anywhere. It's not that people can't tell, so you get away with it, it's that people realize what is happening, but aren't confronted with the biological reality, which does make lots of people uncomfortable. The Project Manager says that anytime a substance is coming out of your body, be it milk or whatever, people will be uncomfortable. I think she is wise. We then drove back to Prairie Metropolis, and hit a bejeezly big snowstorm. Worst. Drive. Ever. But we lived. Yesterday was the busiest we can be, there was church, 6 hours of rehearsal, then church again, then cleaning up at the church, then we went home and ate soup and drank a bottle of wine. I have a headache. 4 weeks to parental leave.

Work Anger

Dear sweet heavenly Jebus. We got a new printer at work, and it is very snazzy and works very well. The interface is new, and some people don't like that, and so they asked our IT guys to reinstall new drivers that would make the interface look like the old interface. So the IT guys did that... and now there's an old interface for the new printer that makes it look like the old printer. And everyone is happy. Except... ... NO ONE CAN FUCKING PRINT ANYTHING. And the people who don't like the new printer are taking this as evidence that "See, I told you didn't work right" "You assholes", I thunder mutely, "It doesn't work right because you fucking broke it." Also, Peanut came back from her vacation today. She's not noticeably bigger, or anything, but she is noticeably more alert. She's awesome. Tonight is our first evening at home just Daddy and Her... and some board game players.

My basement!

Is almost a basement again! It is almost cleaned out, and almost cleaned out enough to actually use to sit in, relax in, be my office in, etc. I need to figure out how to paint the ceiling and so forth, and do the final fixes on the electrical while the thing is still exposed, then there's paint and so forth to do. Also, secret compartments. And windows. This is very exciting, and was a product of a few days off from my amazing job over Christmas. Peanut is doing well, but, frankly... kinda boring. I really wish she'd hurry up and start, you know, DOING SOMETHING. I suppose I will have to be patient.