A Jack first

4:50 in the morning. Jack has been in his bed since I fed him 30 minutes ago. he was sound asleep and all of a sudden he said" Ah. Goo." His first talk in his sleep. Not to mention that his ah goo sounded very direct and stern. I wanted to laugh outloud but did not want to wake up the boys. So I spent 10 minutes laughing to myself.

Goodbye Maternity Leave

Things that I will miss:
Waking up at 6 in the morning and not feel the rush that I have to get ready for work. Hanging out with Jack in the early morning, then watch him as his takes his first morning nap. Getting ready to meet an Oak Park mom for the day. Walking down East Ave and Jack sleeping in the stroller. Watching Price is Right. Watching The Godfather on AMC for the 5th time this week. Is that an appropriate movie to watch with a two month old? Downing my breakfast quickly before Jack gets in his fussy mood. Downing my lunch quickly before Jack wakes up. Story time as we lay on our bed. Diaper changes.And then changing his clothes twice or three times. Having the odd luxury of the hubby being at home on Wednesdays, and just hanging out. Saying goodbye to the hubby as he goes to work and I am feeding Jack on the rocking chair. Rocking him to sleep as the afternoon rolls by. Placing him in the bouncy chair as I try to fold the laundry and hoping that he stays Mr. Cool.( at first it was not easy, but now he is better.) Singing with Jack "NO MAS NIEVE!!!" (no more snow in Spanish) as we looked outside the window and yes, it would snow. Smiles at 3 in the afternoon. Trying to make him take a nap but staying on the rocking chair for almost an hour. Any movement and he would wake up and would not want to be put down. Lunches with my mom on her days off and talking about family. Those rare days that my sister would have a day off and we would hang out. Trips to Jewel. Errands to run. Walks to Lake Street. Just because. Taking his photo. Waiting for that perfect afternoon light to take a photo. Kissing his little face. Holding him when he cries.

I know all of this is stuff that we will still do. But now we only have weeknights and weekends to do this. I dreaded for this day to come. To all moms that get to stay home with their kids, they are very lucky ladies. Off to work I go. So now when the 4:30 bell rings, it will mean so much more cause I can rush home to see my family.

Two months...continued

I believe they were watching a Sox game at this time. Notice the expression on their faces.

Two months

Smiles are the best. Everyone knows this. But they become even better when they come from your child. An old wives's tale is that boys are hungrier and eat more than girls. That is very true. I thought babies are supposed to eat every three hours. So why is Jack eating every 1 1/2 to two hours? He went from level one diapers to level two diapers in one month. Who designs these babies clothes anyways? And why ( at least I think) is it that a pj that has a duck with a ribbon around his neck is so adorable? He has officially grown out of his newborn clothes. Make way now for the 3 -6 months clothes. His eyes are still blue. He has discovered his own fingers. His friends are Oliver, Sebastian, Hayley, and Benjamin thanks to the Oak Park Moms group. He got his two months shots. He took it like a pro. I cried. The doctor warned us that babies who get their shots either are fussy all day or they become very sleepy. It is 3:44 pm and he has now been sleeping for two hours. He sleeps for 6 hours straight at night. Car rides are still great but stroller rides are now iffy. I can't now always depend on a stroller for a good nap. He is becoming to be the most adorable kid we have ever seen. Other kids look different. He is now 13 lbs. He is getting out of that newborn fussy stage slowly but surely.

One more week til blah

My moms at Oak Park group have been trying to cheer me up that I am going back to work. They say that the moms that they do know that went back found the change in routine good. Thanks moms but I really do want to stay here. With my kid. Waking up, having the morning together and then having the afternoon out. It is too bad that I joined this moms group kind of late. But just as I was about to kick myself for joining late, I realized that this was the winter of discontent and even if I did join earlier, there was no way that I was going to go anywhere and meet anyone.



We did have a meeting today and it was the special infant chat session. It was a roomful of babies, all 6 months and under , all babbling, crying and talking at once. I thought that with the cries, Jack would wake up and join in the crying gang. Instead he woke up and seemed to be interested in the other babies. It was the first time that he has woken up and not looked at me. He didn't look at me for a good 5 minutes, which in mom time is forever.



Our first achievement this week is that Jack has discovered his fingers. He can now semi-gracefully place his fingers in his mouth and suck. He has also given his first hickey. Spike was holding him over his shoulder. Being in that position had Jack direct access to his arm. So he started to suck away . Later on as I was changing his diaper, I freaked out that there was some red rash -like spot on his arm. I inspected it to remember that Jack was sucking on that spot earlier and had a good laugh that he sucked it so well to give himself a hickey. Nice. I thought. Very nice.

Fussy? Not fussy.

I always get a bit nervous when I go out with him alone. I take about 5 servings of formula, about 10 diapers with me, even though we are going to be gone for about two hours, and three clothes for those just in case moments. I always think that he is going to choose that time to be at his most fussy and there will be non stop crying and I will be in the middle of the street with no where to feed him. This is what i think about when we go out.
Yesterday we did the "Meet my baby" day at my work. I would like to think that it was a big mistake to do that , but since everyone meet him and they now know of what an adorable baby looks like, then it wasn't such a mistake after all.
He was fussy. He happened to wake up at the exact moment that we arrived. And of course when one person sees him , then everyone else starts cooing over him and they get louder and louder, which upset him a bit more. I panicked and I am sure that it must have looked funny to someone else. New mom, holding her baby, trying to push the stroller and wanting to mix formula at the same time. Donna my co worker came out and I almost threw Jack to her and said
" Hey Donna! Nice to see you again. Can you carry him as I fix his milk?"
I chose my office to feed him , I got a nasty hello from my manager(because I told some other girl that I was coming into the office and not her) and quickly left.
He was fussy cause there was this bad air and vibe in that building and he felt it. As soon as we left he was a cool as the photo above. The day ended great with meeting Spike at navy Pier and having lunch at Charlie's Ale house. As soon as we came home everyone crashed for the rest of the night.

P.S

The last photo was taken by the husband. Although I am that good of a photographer as well.

wait... there are others like us????

My friend Aimee sent me this link to this meetup group online. I think the website is Meetup.com but there is an Oak Park moms group that is on this site. Since this has been the most horrible winter ever ( I can't say that enough ) I was a bit more than overjoyed when I went on this site. Basically, it is just a bunch of moms that gather together at places in Oak Park and just talk. My only friend this past 6 weeks has been the tv, Jack or my mom so we went to one of the gatherings yesterday. It felt like the first day of kindergarten. I was a bit nervous, I didn't know anyone and I didn't know of what to expect or if anyone would like me. When we walked in, there were two moms at the entrance so in my playful voice I said " Hey is this the Oak Park moms group?" They said yes and I joined in the conversation of how often do our babies have explosives. Explosives in mom's terms is when apparently they have so much poo that it "explodes" out of their diapers. See I learned something new that day. It turned out to be so refreshing to hear so many other moms say that this has been such a crappy winter, how no one has been out for so long, and how lonely it has been if we can't go out at all. Hey me too. I met this lady named Betsy who also has her first kid and we have our official mom lunch date on Friday. Horray!! I can actually have a real conversation with someone at 1 in the afternoon.