Manic Monday

Spent the whole day yesterday trying to get W to sleep. I don't think he slept more than 2 hours total the entire time!! I'd feed him...play with him....wrap him up and put him in his crib like always. Only he would cry his ass off the second his tush touched the mattress. So I'd rock him in my arms, which is no easy feat, by the way. He weighs a good 13 lbs. and after about 30 seconds of swaying this way and that, you feel like you're arms are going to detach from their sockets. Why don't you try using the baby swing. Um...duh. Like I haven't tried?!! If you don't have anything helpful to say...just shut up. Anyway, it turns out he was having a growth spurt. So instead of sleeping...he just wants to eat again. And again. And again. The good part, of course, was that he passed the eff out later that night!! Which means a good 3 hours of sleep for me!! Mr. Sandman, give me a frickin dream!

"Get. In. My. Belly!!!!" Growth spurt or glutton. You decide.

Here's W doing tummy time. Clearly, he's taking a break.

Good effort, son. Good effort.

W has also been staying up longer during the day. Not really fussing..but just being awake. Which is fine except with babies, you always feel a bit like you're auditioning. Does he like me? Am I funny? Am I entertaining? Oh gosh, am I being boring? What else can I do to keep you happy? Honestly, it's exhausting!!

Sometimes, he's good just hanging out by himself, but it doesn't last long. He's still smiling and cooing, but he's also starting to giggle a little!! It's not a full-blown laugh just yet...but you can totally tell he's trying to get his chest behind it. So cute! And I can already tell he's gonna be a big chatterbox! He's making vowel sounds "ooooh. aaay-oh" and moving his mouth trying so hard to get words out. The other night...he just started...talking...to P. Not any words that are comprehensible to us, of course. But it was more than just one sound at a time. He just spit out a few sentences of baby talk in his sweet little voice. Like he was just commenting on the weather or something. Our jaws dropped. He hasn't chatted us up since...but what a glimpse. :)

"What on God's earth are you talking about?" (I get this look a lot)

I guess the biggest thing on our minds these days, other than the baby, is finding a home for us....just us. It's no big secret that we want to move out of my parents' house. But after W came along, the desperation has reached an all-time high. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to breastfeed while living with people you can't be topless around?!?! They don't tell you that in those nursing books. Must live with people who can see your boobs. I mean, I'm confined to the baby room pretty much the entire day because of this inconvenience. I even had a lock installed because my folks don't know what it means to knock before entering. Even when they do knock, they don't wait for you to say come in or stay out. That is just one example of how they are slowing trying to drive me insane. It's bad enough my folks make me crazy, but to be confined to a small room with too much furniture and no TV....it's become a prison for me. I daydream of playing with W in a sunlit living room or walking the neighborhood every afternoon with stroller in one hand and dog leash in the other. Mostly I just pack, mentally. *sigh*

So, P and I have been looking for this dream oasis called Freedom. It's the perfect time to buy, too. But our budget doesn't permit us many options. And my frugality has peaked beyond belief. Every dollar we spend is like pulling teeth to me. I keep thinking...that dollar could be going towards our future home. With the holidays coming up and all these random events, we just keep spending and it KILLS me. I spent this past year sacrificing my own celebrations to save up for our baby. We didn't do anything for Valentine's Day, totally skipped my first Mother's Day, and did squat for our wedding anniversary. And I'm a sentimental fool to say the least, so giving up such celebrations was no easy thing for me. In fact, it was downright depressing. But I have half a mind to do the same with my birthday next month. Dinner with friends...or a house of our own. Hmmm...let me waste a few minutes to contemplate the obvious. That's how BADLY I want to move out. Other than the baby, this is what keeps me up at night. If I could go back in time for one hour, it would be to tell my younger self how insanely difficult it is to live with our parents and to start saving every single penny....cuz you're gonna want to move out PRONTO!

Here he is, wearing stuff I knit for him.