Life's simple pleasures

Staying home all day with an infant that cannot communicate with me leaves me a lot of time to reflect on life. Lately, I've been thinking about some of life's simple pleasures that I find myself appreciating more than ever. This post is supposed to make you really enjoy your quality of life in comparison to mine.

1. Showers lasting more than 30 seconds. Sadly, 30-second showers have become the norm for me. I jump in and out as fast as possible in the fear that as soon as I turn the water on and drown out all other noise, that Harrison will start crying hysterically and I will be neglecting him. Also I must point out that 30-second showers may seem like an impossible feat, but for someone who only washes her hair one time on average per week, it is doable. If you think that's gross, so be it. You are really just jealous that my hair holds up looking freshly washed for an entire week.

2. Weekends. I always knew I loved weekends, but I have never appreciated them as much as I do now. Weekends for me mean that I have Dave to help with Harrison and I can do things much more easily, like blog, take a shower longer than 30 seconds, and drink my coffee in peace.

3. Live with Kelly and Michael. Am I pathetic that the thing I look forward to most every morning is a talk show? I'll answer that one for you- yes, I am. I find that my mood for the day is dependent on whether or not I was able to watch Kelly and Michael. The other day, the network was having broadcasting glitches, and switched between airing three different episodes. After about 5 minutes of cutting in and out, they landed on an old episode that I had already seen, instead of the new one. I was infuriated.

a match made in heaven

4. Winning. I really took being a Colts fan for granted back in the day. How great does going like 11-0 to start the season for 3 seasons in a row feel? Awesome. Even more awesome is winning the Superbowl. Now, I live on the edge every week in fear of a loss. Our losing record (1-2) right now is no fun. Its times like these that I don't even mind our bye week.

5. Living with my best girl friends in the best place on earth (...I'm obviously referring to Geneseo). Not that I don't love my life with Harrison and Dave, but there are definitely things I miss. Mainly I miss wearing their clothes, drinking wine and vegging out on the couch at least 3 nights a week, getting my makeup done for me, and dancing on chairs in the kitchen. Basically, I think what I'm saying is that I miss college. Big surprise. Sorry if I'm beginning to sound like a repetitive drone on that note. I'll get over it eventually.... I hope.

This really happened

A blog post without a picture of Harrison?? Never.

pooping.. 

Exhaustion

I don't remember being this tired...ever. Harrison has been the world's worst sleeper lately. The last three nights, for example, I was up at midnight, 2, 4, and again at 6. Then, when you factor in the 30-45 minutes it takes to feed him and get him back to sleep, that leaves about an hour inbetween of actual sleep. Then, to my joy, he is overtired during the day, and extra fussy. By fussy, picture someone screaming loudly in your face and thrashing around uncontrollably. Its fun.

This morning I accomplished my first successful sleepwalk. I had been feeding Harrison out in the living room so that I could watch the Today show, kinda dozed off, then decided it was a good idea to plop him down on the couch and continue my sleep in our bed. Woke up when Dave turned the light on to get dressed for work, utterly confused. I scared the shit out of him, and proceeded to stagger down the hall, to find Harrison patiently waiting to continue his meal. You are probably horrified at my parenting (or lack thereof) so I must point out that this was at most, 10 minutes. The kid was unscathed by the incident, so all's well that ends well.

 **Update: that was all written two days ago. It takes me approximately 3 days to complete a blog post, as I have to squeeze in typing sessions between Harrison's demands. See how dedicated I am? He must have heard me complaining about his horrible sleeping habits, because today he has graced me with not one, but two extra long naps. What a guy.

To ease my recent insanity, Dave and I had a date night last night. We went to the exact same restaurant as our last date night, got the exact same drinks (margaritas!!), and ordered the exact same meal. We like to be adventurous. The only difference was that this time, Dave's mom treated us. The free meal made everything taste better.

Tonight my sister is flying in from Baltimore! Literally could not be more excited. Highlights of the weekend to come: drinking wine (as I have elaborated on previously), delicious food and desserts (my mom is going all out with the cooking and stayed up til 1am last night preparing), meeting Kari aka Running Ricig, shopping spree with Alyssa, and being able to pass Harrison off to my family to rest my aching arms!

I don't have any pictures, so once again I will just throw in some cute Harrison pictures as filler! Enjoy.

Please Mom, no more pictures

He's also very excited for his Aunt's visit!

Weekend Blues

It's been kind of a depressing weekend for me. It was Geneseo's Alumni Weekend. As an alumni with a deep deep admiration for the place, not being able to go was less than favorable. What didn't help was seeing multiple Facebook posts from those that were going, bragging about how excited they were to be back in the magical land. I'm not blaming them though. Had I been going, I would have done the same thing. I'm just whining that it was like rubbing salt in the wound.

Instead of moping around all weekend though, I decided to be proactive. As in, already making plans for attending the Spring Alumni Weekend. These plans are kind of more in my head right now than actual, but it still counts. I also had one of my best friends come visit to help pull me out of my Geneseo-less depression. I lived with her for two years in Geneseo, so it was as if she brought Geneseo to me.

my glory days

What I love about that picture is that only one of us was wearing her own shirt. Oh how I miss the days of being able to select from a total of 4 wardrobes.

In addition to my visit from Curls (her nickname, that I bet you can figure out the origin of), I also had not one, but TWO people tell me that they were avid readers of my blog! You have no idea how happy this made me. One even said that they were laughing hysterically at it. Shoutout to my phantom readers.

So all in all, even though I wasn't able to frolick around my alma-matter, the weekend wasn't horrible. To top it all off, I had Dave swaddle me.

Pretty damn good impression of Harrison, if I do say so myself

Trying to pass for exciting

There really are not any exciting developments in my life, so I'll write about some lame developments and pretend they are much more interesting than they really are.

1. Harrison moved to a new bed. At only 8lbs, he outgrew his bassinet. Not really, but because he's such a wild child, it just wasn't working anymore. He would roll into the sides and cram himself, face down, into the crack between the bassinet and the mattress. This terrified me. I would wake up to see that and think he was dead. Also, he likes to flail his arms and legs and whack them on the sides of the bassinet. This would not only wake him up, but also wake up mommy and daddy, and when that happens, no one is happy. Therefore, we set up the Pack 'N Play in its place. 

Passed out

Last night was our first night trying out the new bed situation, and not jumping to any conclusions, but it seemed to work a little better. Instead of waking up 3 times throughout the night, he only woke up twice. Score. 

2. After searching endlessly for newborn-sized Halloween costumes that appeared to be nonexistent, I found some! Old Navy comes through once again. Dave and I are in disagreement about which one to get, so I am taking a poll. Elephant or Lion? 

I will wait to reveal which costume is chosen until Halloween. Everyone loves a good element of surprise.

Now I face the dilemma of what I should be for Halloween. 

3. My life is so boring, I have to wait weeks for exciting events. The next isn't until a week from today. Next thursday, Dave's mom is coming to stay overnight. She already offered to watch Harrison so that Dave and I can go out to dinner... and even better, it's her treat! Might have to recreate the entire Mexican fiesta that occurred the last time we left Harrison with parents to go to dinner. I really can't help that the margs and stuffed avocado are calling my name.

Next weekend is when Alyssa and Kari come to visit. I've actually been looking forward to this since before Harrison was born. This visit will be epic. It will be the first time my sister and I can drink wine together post-baby. We love wine. Even more than I love wine, I love drinking it with her.  I've specifically been saving a bottle of Apricot wine since the spring of my senior year for us to share and a year and a half later, the time is upon us. Not to toot my own horn, but I am very impressed at my self control in leaving a bottle of wine unopened this whole time. I could not. be. more. excited. 

Mommy is an alch-y and it concerns me

Crime of Mommyhood

Thank you for all the support about the neighbor from hell. I especially appreciated the threats. I think we are stuck with him until May, so I'm sure to have more stories about his psychosis to entertain you with.

Meanwhile, I have another venting session planned for this post. Here goes...

Dave and I have a friend that will remain nameless, that also recently had a baby. Throughout her pregnancy, this girl would constantly post outrageous claims that in no way, could be true. For example, she would post that at 12 weeks pregnant, she felt the baby's first kick. For you non-baby people, that is physically impossible. The absolute earliest kicks occur around the 16 week mark, and even that's rare. Lady, those "kicks" you felt were a strong case of gas. Sorry I'm not sorry.

Now that the baby is born, she is pulling the same shit. When her kid was 2 weeks old, she posted a status that enraged me beyond belief. I wish I could quote it on here verbatim, but in the slight chance she might stumble upon this blog, I'll paraphrase. It was something like that her baby was sleeping through the night every single night and never cried, ever. For someone whose baby was waking her up every two hours and cried pretty consistently throughout the day, this news was not taken lightly. Not only do I not believe that her baby never cried, because all babies cry, the fact that she was claiming her newborn child was sleeping through the night at 2 weeks of life is simply neglect. Infants that young need to eat every 2-3 hours. To me, what that status was saying is that she was not being a very good mother, and that, I can live with. The lesson here is probably not to make outrageous claims to a sleep deprived, hormonal, new mom.

Last night, during a 3am feeding nonetheless, I see another one. She claims that her 6 week old had rolled over three times. I immediately dropped Facebook, and referenced a monthly milestone chart for newborns. The verdict is in- advanced babies may roll over as early as 3 months, but most do not until 5-6 months. Girl be cray cray.

Incase She Who Must Not Be Named does read this- you know who you are. No one believes that your baby is performing miracles. I'm all for bragging about how cute your own kid is, because let's face it, I do it all the time, but she is simply committing a crime of mommyhood.

See? Cutest kid ever. I don't lie. 

We do have exciting news though! Harrison has moved out of newborn size diapers and onto size 1! He has hit the 8lb mark, fatty. 8lbs is really a huge milestone for us- new diapers, 0-3 month clothing instead of newborn, and my favorite: he can now fit the baby carrier! Meaning, I MIGHT be able to put him in it and use BOTH of my hands!! Imagine that!

Trying to capture the pure HORROR on the kid's face

I hate my neighbor

Update on the annoying, overly sensitive downstairs neighbor: Yesterday was football Sunday, so normal football Sunday activities commenced, like watching football, having a couple friends over, and eating... nothing crazy. Around 2pm, like a normal person, I got hungry and decided to make some lunch. As I'm making my grilled cheese, I hear pounding coming from directly below me. I didn't think much of it... at first. However, after I took a few more steps, the pounding continued, and this time more violently. I'm hoping you can guess what I'm about to tell you. Yes, you are correct. It was our psychotic neighbor down below pounding on his ceiling in retaliation to the horrible, unacceptable sounds of a person walking above him.

At this point, I was pissed. Obviously the act of making lunch in one's kitchen is an unforgivable crime.  Not to mention doing so at the ungodly hour of two o'clock in the afternoon. Plus, for those of you that haven't seen my kitchen, it is TINY. Like, I'm talking two people is a crowd. The length of the entire kitchen spans probably 6 steps. This is why I cannot fathom how standing by the stovetop, taking occasional steps to the refrigerator in the process of making a grilled cheese was THAT disruptive to him.

I wish

This guy is clearly out of his mind, and an awful candidate for apartment living. If you don't want to hear people walking above you, don't opt for a first floor apartment. Or, better yet, don't live in an apartment building that is very clearly poorly built, where the walls and floors are paper thin. Once again, like the last time, both parties were home all day, so if he really had a problem, he could have easily come up the stairs and said something to us. I was about to go give him a piece of my mind before I realized that wasting the energy on him wasn't worth it. You just can't argue with crazy.

To make matters worse, we had a sleeping baby in the other room that took FOREVER to fall asleep, and if his pounding had woken Harrison up, I would have flipped shit.

So there you have it for that rant.

In better news, I had my 6 week postpartum check-up today and everything looks good! I can't believe its already been 6 weeks since having the little one! Time flies.

Realizations

First I have to point out the obvious- that I changed the design of the blog! I like it better, except that I can't figure out how to get the image at the top of the page centered. Does anyone have any suggestions  or know how to do that??

Onto my realizations. Most, if not all, of them are about motherhood. Go figure.

1. Motherhood has made me more in tune with my inner ape.

No, seriously. For one, I almost always have a little ape attached to some part of my body. Secondly, I have become very efficient at picking things up with my feet. Burp cloths, bibs, my phone. You really fine tune these skills with you are constantly left with only one open arm. Makes me appreciate the evolution theory.

Essentially Harrison and I

2. Having a baby makes you extremely popular. 

I got a taste of this in the final days of my pregnancy when my phone was blowing up like no other with people asking me if the baby had come yet. Now that he has come, my popularity has reached a new level. I have at least one, if not multiple, visitors a day. They come bearing gifts, flowers, food, etc. My Facebook posts now get, on average, 45 likes. For now, while the little man has no idea what's going on, I'll pretend that all of this attention is still just for me (because it's not like he can appreciate it).

3. Breastfeeding has pros and cons. 

Pros: 

• best diet plan ever and burns something like 500 calories a day. I am constantly hungry, but losing weight at the same time!
• extremely beneficial for the baby

Cons:

• middle of the night feedings. Dave gets to sleep, while I am up for about an hour every two-three hours. you do the math. (I can tell you what that equals: no sleep)
• being Harrison's food slave

4. I function a lot better than I thought I would on minimal sleep.

Once I get my coffee, that is. Part two of this realization is that I knew I loved coffee before, but I can't even tell you how necessary it is to my functionality as a human being. That being said, I am one serious zombie prior to my caffeine fix. But afterwards, I almost feel normal. I've finally arrived at the point where I have just adjusted to the lack of sleep. Instead of being groggy and sleepy all day, I have been productive when Harrison naps (something I thought would NEVER happen!). I clean the apartment, blog, run errands, cook dinner... basically you can just call me the world's best housewife girlfriend. For the record though- I miss sleep more than I can even express.

5. Smiles are GREAT.

Harrison has been smiling for real lately! He must have read that blog post. He had me like keeled over laughing this morning with his little, random, contagious smiles. Not to mention that this was my pre-coffee zombie stage when I want to kill everything that is in my path, so the fact that he had me not only smiling, but laughing, is amazing. I guess that's the voodoo magic that babies have. 

I'm going to be a ladies man and you can't stop me

already practicing the prime of his asian. So proud. 

random assortment

I have a random assortment of topics to discuss today, so bear with me. 

1. Tonight is the first night of football! Horray!! I am a devoted fan of the NFL, specifically the Colts. And when I say the Colts, what I probably mean (although I'm ashamed to admit) is Peyton Manning's Colts. You know, the Superbowl winning, practically unstoppable team from Indy. A brief history of why I became a fan- a guy friend of mine in middle school forced me to watch a football game with him. At the time, all I knew was that I detested football. It was a Bills vs. Colts game, and since he was a Bills fan, I chose to root for the Colts to spite him. And so there you have it.

As excited as I am for the start of the season, I'm also facing an inner dilemma. I have never known the Colts without Manning, so going through my first season sans Peyton is distressing me a little. Its like, I love watching the guy play (I mean really, who doesn't?), so am I going to turn pro-Broncos against my own will? I have nothing against the Broncos other than that they stole our beloved quarterback, and that they are not the Colts. 

Who knows. All I know is that if I'm being honest, if it weren't for all the Colts gear I own, I would probably just jump ship and completely devote myself to whichever team Peyton is on. However, I have way too much Colts merchandise to desert them. Andrew Luck, please give us a decent season.

2. Thought I would share the results of our dinner date from the last blog post. Mexican and margs was pretty much the world's best choice for my first night out on the town post-baby. We dropped Harrison off at my parent's as he was screaming crying, leaving me a nervous wreck. It was my first time leaving him and he was wailing, what do you expect?? Come back to find him sound asleep on my mom, so safe to say he was in good hands. Our meal was amazing, the margarita was delicious, and I only texted my mom twice while we were gone to check in. Successful evening I'd say.

Stuffed avocado yum yum

much deserved margarita!! (I realize it looks exactly like white wine)

3. This past weekend, we brought Harrison to Pennslyvania to meet my gram/his great-gram. The video of their first encounter is on my sister's blog, and it is hysterical. My gram is one funny lady

pretty sure at this point they were both asleep

The drive is about 3 and a half hours, so normally I could cruise through that. I used to be one of those psycho drivers that absolutely REFUSED to make stops for anything besides gas (I'm also a pro at holding my pee so that helped) but now that philosophy is completely out the window. 3 and a half hour car rides mean stopping at least once for a feeding.

daddy and Harrison after a long day of travelling

this is my happy-to-be-alive-for-one-whole-month photo!

A trip to the Zoo

If you don't already know this about me, I LOVE animals. Therefore, I love zoos. Yesterday was a gorgeous day out, so we decided to take Harrison on his first trip to the zoo, for my enjoyment more than his. I made SURE to document the entire trip for the baby book, but more importantly, for the blog. Duh. 

Thrilled to be there

Dave with his people

Rhinos are pretty adorbs

One of my many obsessions in life is penguins. They are just so great.

THE ESSENCE OF LIFE

Just like a big kitten?

Prime of my Asian... Tourist

Attempting a family portrait. Fail.

The highlight of the trip was easily this occurrence. Some background explanation is needed here. The other day we were watching Rob Dyrdek's new show, Ridiculousness (insert a plug for how much I love Rob Dyrdek. It's a lot). Basically, the show is just a compilation of hilarious videos from the internet. One video he showed was of these two turtles mating,  where the turtle on top (which I'm assuming is the male) was making these really funny grunting noises. Well, we got to experience that in live action. It was quite the sight to see. I tried taking a video, but Harrison's crying in the background drowned out the turtle sex noises. Safe to say Harrison's first trip to the zoo was a success, complete with the passionate love making of tortoises.