Nhamo in paradise

Happy 4 months!

The boy's first cold...

Our poor little guy has a cold.  Actually, as I write this he is actually starting to feel better.  He's currently sleeping on his Baba's chest and his breathing seems to be normal (and not snot filled.)  Poor guy didn't know what was happening to his body.  Can you image...being four months old and thinking you've finally got a grasp on what it's like to live in your body - and then suddenly you're body starts to ache and ooze.  It started Wednesday evening, with the sniffles and some cute little sneezes, and turned into a full blown disaster on friday.  The last two nights he has slept upright on my shoulders.  I needed to sleep upright anyway as I caught the darn bug myself.  Argh.  I usually kick these colds pretty quick, though, thanks to my great immune system and Ty's magical chicken soup (the trick is love and ginger.)  Now Ty is feeling sick, so I guess we will just let this thing run it's course.  My parents helped out this weekend, and the last report I got from mom was that she was going to the store to get some vitamin C for herself, as she can feel the symptoms sneaking up on her.  :-(  Sorry guys!  I learned something about myself while he was sick - I can't stand the sound of a  kiddo breathing through a snot-filled nose.  It was awful!!  And he can't 'blow' yet.  The nose sucker things just make him cry more, which makes them useless.  The worse part is mom says I didn't learn to blow my nose until I was eight.  How did she put up with me? 

The false hope of naps

There was a time (oh, say 4 moths ago before Gabriel was born) that I put a lot of trust in naps.  People would ask me 'When are you planning to write your dissertation?" When he naps, I would say.  Oh, how very naive I was in babyland.  Gabriel HATES to nap.  With a passion.  He sleeps great at night - giving us 10-11 hours, with just one small wake up in between.  But naps - not happening.  At least not unless he is sleeping on top of one of us.  And let me tell you, it's impossible to get any substantial writing down lying down in bed (trust me, I've tried!)

After the first two months (where Ty and I were on survival mode), I figured out how to do most everything I needed to around the house.  Awake or asleep, I would just plop Gabriel into the sling or the wrap and go about our chores.  I can make coffee, talk on the phone, fold laundry, vacuum, you name it - everything except WRITE.  And I have to write.  They won't let me call in my dissertation.  At first I thought Gabriel simply didn't want me to sit, so I tried putting my laptop up on a counter.  nope, no go.  After 5 minutes he informed me that this was 'boorrrring,' so the rule must be 'don't sit down and keep things interesting'.  The academic in me thinks about our evolutionary history and concludes that there simply wasn't very much typing going on for most of our ancestry development!

Luckily, my mom came over for four hours yesterday (benefits of working for the school - you get random days off) and let me get some work done.  My dad even tag teamed the help after he got off work.  Thanks guys!!! 

Hmmm....as I'm writing this the little guy is falling asleep in his swing.  I usually get a chance to jot words down in this blog after he goes asleep or in the morning when he is entertaining himself.  I was going to finish up this entry and then take him to the bed for a nap.  So now, the question is, do I leave him sleeping in the swing (which means he'll probably wake up sooner), or take him to his bed (he'll sleep better, but I won't get work done.)

First Hike

Saturday was one of those days you just don't want to end.  The boy let us sleep until 8:00am.  Ty made me salmon omeletes for breakfast (she makes the *best* omelettes I've ever tasted.)  We then set off for a hike on the butte.  Gabriel was a great little hiker the whole way (We were out about an hour.)  He was too small for the pack, however, so we had to improvise a booster seat.  After searching through the truck we finally found a piece of foam (I have no clue where it came from) that fit perfectly.  It allowed his head to just reach above the little chin guard.  From the back, you couldn't even tell there was a baby in there - until you looked down and saw two little feet hanging out.  :-)  I'll load picture later.  I haven't been on a hike in half a year, so I thought I'd be tired.  However, I was pleasantly surprised - I didn't even feel sore the next day.  Yeah me.

Something 'blue'

I love everything about this picture.  This is the view from one of the biggest buttes in town.  On a clear day, you can see the three sister mountain range.  Ty is wearing her favorite blue hat and her blue shirt shows off her ink - a very meaningful tattoo, full of spirit.  The last few weeks have been hard ones for our little family  - health issues, school, and all kinds of fun stuff. 

Today, however, is Shabbot.  This picture feels me with peace.  Right now, as I type this, I can hear my partner singing to our son. And, right now, in this moment, life is perfect.

Shabbot Shalom.  Peace be with you on this day.

Something 'borrowed'

Being poor graduate students, we were incredibly thankful for all the equipment and clothes donations we received.  Erica, a person in my program who is two years ahead of me, handed over the motherload.  Seriously, I don't what we would of done without her help.  Why do I put this in the 'borrowed' category?  Because several other students in my program are also considering having kiddos, so we have decided to use Erica's gift as a starting point for our own program 'baby stuff collection.'  After we grows out of all this wonderful stuff, we will put it in storage to wait for the next person in line.  Hence...we will all 'borrow' and contribute to an every baby growing stuff collection.  Some student 10 years from now is going to be so surprised! 

This is how our little guy looks in it now.

And I can't resist putting this picture up.  This was the first time he grabbed the ring on that toy.  As I was taking pictures, he pointed as if to say 'look what I can do!'

Something 'new'

There is always something 'new' going on with a wee one in the house.  This week Gabriel stared joining us at the table for mealtimes.  He did not, however, get to enjoy the salmon salad his baba made.  But that's okay, mama enjoyed it enough for two!

A side note regarding the picture:  minutes after I took this he reached dowm and grabbed my cup of water.  I saved it before he dumped it.  I'm still not used to him being able to grab things!

Something 'old'

Robin over at The Other Mother has organized a blogging carnival with a wedding theme.  In honor of Ty and I's recent domestic partnership (a hard found recent victory for Oregon families - which I'll blog more about later) I thought I'd jump in.  At our wedding 5 years ago, I never gave any thought to the 'something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.' tradition - so it will be fun to do this time around.  :-)  For 'something old,' I've chosen my favorite childhood book Home for a Bunny , by Margaret Wise Brown.  When our son was born, I new it would be one of the first stories I read to him.  I wanted to read to him from my original book - but mom informed me that I loved it to pieces - literally.  She actually saved a lot of the pages, but it's too old and worn to read to Gabriel.  So, he now has one of his very own, which I hope will be as loved as mine was. 

On a related note, six years ago Ty gave me this book: The Library by Sarah Stewert.  The last panel shows two older ladies, surrounded by books, with kitties curled up by the fire and plenty of coffee and scones to go around. It's one of my most treasured memories - the moment when I knew I had found my soulmate.  Believe it or not, she handed me that book at the airport, where I was about to get on a plane for a new life in another state.  As soon as the wheels of the plan took off, I began to sob.  I knew I was going the wrong way.  Four weeks later I showed up at her doorstep. 

I've been 'home' ever since.

Babywearing

I don't know what we'd do in this family without slings.  Gabriel goes into this nice little pocket sling in the mornings while I make coffee, start my toast, etc.  He also sleeps in this one rocked to sleep in shul on fridays.  Its our 'quick and easy' sling, ready at a moments notice.  (This is Gabriel's first snowfall!)

Here's another shot of our first ring sling.  For some reason I really like this picture.  I'm going to need to ask Ty to take the red eye out of it, though. 

Here is a great shot of Gabriel asleep in our Maya wrap.  This is the heavy duty babywearing apparatus.  It's a pain in the butt to put on, but once he's in it, I can do just about anything!  Up to just a few weeks ago, I could put him in this with his face towards my chest and he would sleep/nurse, etc contently and I could have both my my hands free.  Lately though, he wants to face forward.  His head control isn't as good as he thinks it is, though....so I have to support his head when he sleeps!  So much for both hands free. (learning how to nurse in the wrap deserves a post all it's own!)

What a difference

 

3 weeks versus 14 weeks

 

3 days vs 3 months