Potatoes in the Mist

I've been thinking of going to Maui for a while, and these pictures only fed my wanderlust. Unfortunately, a grueling flight with a baby is probably a bad idea. Although our friend R told us Hawaii is very family-friendly...lots of couples, some with children. Has anyone traveled long-distance with a baby and lived to tell the tale? If it weren't so far away, I would have gone there already! Also, I'm really enjoying the book I'm reading - Nice To Come Home To by Rebecca Flowers. It's a relief because the last few books I read weren't so good.

Just slept for a good chunk of time, then I had to get up and pump. Finished watching Sex and the City (the movie). Really enjoyed it. I didn't get a chance to see it in the theaters because I gave birth 4 days after it came out. D pretends not to like SATC for some reason. Maybe he thinks it would be unmanly. But he came over and watched the ending and then peppered me with questions. No one can resist well-done cheese. At one point, it almost brought tears to my eyes...Carrie behaved unselfishly for the first time ;)

The good news: E slept for 10 hours last night. The bad news: He fell asleep at 4:30 pm. Hopefully in time we can get him to bed at a normal hour...but he seems to decide when he's going to do his "long shift." He definitely has a mind of his own :)

Or then again, maybe not. I was walking with E to Old Navy when a reporter stopped me. There was a cameraman hovering in the background. The reporter started asking me about coupons, where I use them, and how much I save. Pretty fascinating, I know ;) The thing that amused me about this was, I almost always answer these questions, unless they are personal and embarrassing. This is the second time I've been questioned like this in New York (though all of this footage probably ended up on the cutting room floor). D, on the other hand, flees from the camera and would never give the reporter his name, as I ended up doing when she asked for it. The one sour note: "LOVE her!" exclaimed the reporter, and then she noticed E's blue onesie and socks. "Him," she quickly amended. E slept through the whole thing. When he finally did wake up, many blocks later, he was rhythmically licking the sun hood on the Ergo carrier. He makes me laugh :)

I have a little insomniac baby. It must be noted that last night he slept for 7 hours between feedings...unprecedented. But his bedtime is moving up. He used to conk out at 7 pm and now it's 8:19 and the little cherub is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in his crib. I gave him a pacifier, which will hopefully lull him to sleep. Breast milk no longer has a magic narcotic effect. P.S. Ok...maybe it does. He just needed some more.

So, folks, I did it. I got my hair colored - to cover up the gray strands. I still feel self-conscious about it - first time I got it done and all. But I think I will feel better once I've washed it and it resumes its natural shape. For some reason it always looks very straight, not wavy as usual, when I have it cut. The color's a little darker than it was before, but subtle enough that no one noticed it until I pointed it out.

D went to the foot doctor yesterday and the doctor congratulated him on E. Then the doctor tried to tell the receptionist about it, but according to D, she was catatonic. The doctor asked, "Did you hear me? Are you there?", but she ignored him. Then the doctor left and the receptionist decided to take an interest in the baby. "Do you have any pictures?" she asked D. D whipped out his iPhone and showed the receptionist a picture. "What plump thighs!" said the receptionist. Then D realized he had shown her a picture of my friend G's baby (taken at the baby gathering this past weekend). He was too embarrassed to correct his mistake. Incidentally, both of our babies have plump thighs :)

So some music holds E spellbound. I was playing Sarah McLachlan's new song and he was fascinated. (He actually likes the snippet on iTunes better than the song played in its entirety.) I tried singing "The Joker" by The Steve Miller Band to him. I changed my voice to make it deep and have a twang like Steve Miller's. He stared at me and then his brows furrowed and he started to scream. This morning I tried again - singing the song in my normal voice. He liked it, and even leaned forward as if he were trying to eat the song. He has no use for classical.

Here are some pics of my niece and E...they took to each other right away. Seeing them together sent me on a nostalgia trip...I held my niece when she was a baby!

Well, there were no planes, but the other things were featured in my weekend. On Friday, D and I headed up to the great north. The Acela was packed heading out of Penn Station. I was only able to get a seat in the quiet car (!) and D got one in the cafe car. When I sat down, I noticed the signs and said involuntarily, "This is the quiet car? Oh, damn," but the people near me laughed and reassured me that it was ok. And E promptly fell asleep. A couple of stops later, a conductor offered to reunite D and me in a non-quiet car. E woke up, but was placid. We shared a four-top with a couple of older women who fell in love with D. One of them wanted to hold E, and she seemed harmless, so I let her. Plus, she was next to me, on the inside seat, so she would have needed to climb over me if she were trying to steal him away ;) The train ride was uneventful; I fed him a bunch of times, and that was about it. However, E does not like cars. That was my biggest misconception before havin...

...although he's blurry because he likes to move his head.

I think the worst part of having a baby is the sleep deprivation...I thought three months was the magic point of sleeping through the night...but the thing is, I can't always get to sleep when he does. So I've decided not to dwell on it anymore. I'll get whatever sleep I can and deal with it. There is certainly a lot of buzz surrounding Sarah Palin...a lot of people in New York are up in arms about her, saying that no matter what she does, others think she walks on water. I do find her charismatic and interesting despite her craziness (banning books, etc.). I can't get too worked up about her pro-lifeness since I am that odd contradiction, a pro-lifer who votes pro-choice (figuring it's other women's business what they do). I would like to have a Democratic president in office, but I just don't think Obama will win.

So we're going to Boston this weekend for E to meet my extended family. My mother had to rent a room for it because there are a ton of people on her side. I'm hoping E will enjoy it and not melt down. And, and, and...it will be his first train ride. Yes, I'm a little anxious and that made me have insomnia last night -- even though E slept a bunch, I did not benefit a bit. It's probably time for that lobotomy. In other news, they're making a movie out of the book Towelhead . I'm shocked it doesn't have an NC-17 rating. I guess they did some artful editing to squeak by with an R.