lunchtime antics

We are blessed with a good eater.  Today he stayed home from the nanny share onaccounta some pink eye.  But even crusty, he's adorable.

Six Months!

You know how it is kind of annoying when people are all, "I don't know where the time goes, I can't believe s/he's already XX months old!" And you secretly think, "Dude, time is a constant. It's no freaking mystery." And then you look at the cute pictures and make a nice remark and go on with your day?

Well, DUDE, I CAN'T BELIEVE HE'S ALREADY SIX MONTHS! WHERE DOES THE FREAKING TIME GO???? The boy is amazing. I can hardly get over it. He has two teeth, can get from lying to sitting, from sitting to crawling and from crawling to just about anywhere. He's still a little bald pinhead, but long and lean-- 27.5 inches and 16.5 lbs.-- with luscious green-grey eyes and a smile that he makes you work for. But when he smiles the whole world lights up, especially if he crinkles his nose. He is eating everything we put before him: grilled salmon, fruit salad, broccoli, pasta, even baguette.

He still nurses all night long, so I have got to find a way to change that if I ever want to be fertile again for Speetus 2.0. He has outgrown his corner crib now that he can go from lying to sitting to standing in 6 seconds, and threatens to topple over the rail reaching after a cat or a fallen toy. I think he may have spent a total of 2 hours in it actually sleeping if you add up all the 15-minute naps he's taken there for the last six months. It's super cute, though and I hope to pass it on to someone who will make better use of it....

Because....that is one of the things we're gonna have to get rid of for the move!!

We are thisclose to being in contract, and we have every reason to believe that this deal will go through quickly and easily. So very soon-- within a couple of months-- we should be packing and moving our collective butts to Western Mass! It's not ideal-- we would have liked to get more money-- but we can't control the market and we suspect that things will get worse before they get better, so selling now seemed like the most prudent path. This will enable us to pay off all our personal debt, my goddamn student loans (I was on the $500 a month FOREVER plan) AND have a nice cushion for when we buy again (or to invest if we decide to rent for an indeterminant period while the market does its thing.) I have to convince my boss- once we are fully in contract-- that it would be great for him if I continued to work from a distance, maybe travelling in every couple of weeks. That way I could keep my salary and the family insurance, and Speedy could take care of the boy and take her time finding work in the area.

I can't tell you what a load off this is, and how excited I am at the prospect of living somewhere green and spacious, without this looming mountain of bills to pay each and every month.

Now this is what you have been waiting for. It is from May 8, and I think it was one of the last official baby pictures we got of him. Now he looks like a toddler. I am obviously very behind in updating photos on my computer, but I love this one.

Overwhelmed

Sorry... the non-challenge completely overwhelmed me. And I went on vacation. And the Boy and I both got sick. So, there is not so much creativity flowing in these parts as snot.

The big news: we're officially on the baby-led weaning program, which I am loving, not only because it's so easy, but because it's ridiculously cute. To whit:

Also, he is standing like a pro, "walking" (with assistance), and trying desperately to master the art of crawling. This mostly consists of him launching himself face-first at whatever object has caught his attention, usually a dog.

Catching up

Day 1: A picture of where you blog.

This is it, folks. Note the shadowy thing to my left is the Pack n Play, and the flowers and black thing in the right fore are actually on a coffee table. This is our living room. The black thing is the breast pump bag and you can just see two fresh bottles that I didn't quite frame out of the photo. This may be one of the only photos of a room that I have ever posted without an animal making a cameo in the background. Not seen is Oyster, snoozing in the Pack n Play.

Day 2: High school.

Puffer's experience most closely resembles mine. Except chubby. I was anorexic (to the point of hospitalization) in middle school, and in high school I continued my disordered eating, but by then it was socially acceptable-- desirable, even. Despite that, I was awkward and unpopular. I went to a private school and made friends with the theater crowd and the choir, even though I was decidedly lacking in both acting and singing talent. I also made friends with the drop-outs, pot-smokers and goth-style wiccans that hung out on the retail strip near my school to round out my social circle. I was a slut, sleeping with both inappropriate boys (older, smarmy) and my straight girlfriends. I went to prom with my gay gay gay boy BFF (on the right) and spent the night groping my straight straight straight girl BFF. *le sigh.*

Mary Gauthier said it best:

I hated High school, I prayed it would end.
The jocks and their girls, it was their world, I didn't fit in.
Mama said, "Baby, it's the best school that money can buy,
Hold your head up, be strong, c'mon Mary, try."

Day 3: Guilty pleasure:
Icanhascheezburger. How does it make me laugh every stinkin' time?

First Tooth!

Thanks to Adventures I have the perfect onesie to mark the occasion.  Slow down, little Speedster :( Mamas just got used to having your gummy little smile to brighten our days.  It's now officially a little less gummy.

The UNresponse

Well, you see, I will be intermittently participating in the UNchallenge (thanks to Strawberry and Offering of Love!) But not today!

I already feel like time is slipping away. To put this in perspective, I want to share what we are dealing with these days:


1) Speedy’s impending unemployment, which was—surprise!—pre-empted by her DUAL-employment, when she TOTALLY FREAKED OUT (not that I blame her) about the looming joblessness and went out and got a new job at 4 a.m. that started, like, the next day. While she still had job #1 and all….

2) The Endless Open House. OMG, this is NOT the time to sell, folks. Did I not learn this lesson last year??? The EOH means that we have to keep our place freaking spit-shined every minute of every day, especially on the weekends. No small feat when we have three dogs (Oh, Ozzie….) and four cats, and, oh yeah, the boy. And when Speedy is working all the time (see #1).

3) My freelance bonanza. Don’t get excited, unless you want to be writing direct mail to the 75-year-old conservative-leaning demographic who cannot get enough of keywords like “patriot”, “hero”, and “values”. But they pay. And more importantly, they pay ME. I have to admit I get a kick out of the fact that I—me! Little ol’ Bkln lesbian, who is sitting, most likely, in a nursing bra and underwear—am writing this stuff. I do have my limits, however, and declined a gig writing for the RNC.

4) House hunting. Mostly in theory, and on the internets in previously described attire. But still, time-consuming, and emotionally draining.

5) The boy, the boy, the boy. Did I mention the boy? And oh, how we adore him. But law, what a load of work he is! The cooing, the fawning.  The endless adoring.  It can really put a f'in' crimp in your day, lemme tell you.

I hate that I have so fallen down on blogging. How typical! Have a kid and disappear… I will come back. Now that the Stupid Work Conference is behind us and we are slowly, slowly getting our shit together, I will come back. First, I hope, with a video of the boy and some seltzer water. I want to get on that brilliant suggestion, stat!

Oh, btw... This pumping 3x a day is totally working.  (see that big area with no data points?  That was when things all went to shit and I couldn't even remember to write anything down.)