trip to Spring Lake

We went to Spring Lake on Saturday and came back Sunday evening. Baby Doodle slept almost the whole way in both directions and was hardly fussy at all. I was so happy. We were visiting my in-laws. We had a very good visit and baby Doodle put his foot in the ocean for the first time (pictured below). He is talking more and more and smiling every chance he gets, well, not quite that often. He has also learned to pout. It only took him 8 weeks to learn to stick his lower lip out and scowl with his eyebrows. Everyday he becomes more and more interesting and more and more cute! It brings me to tears sometimes when he's talking and smiling at me. He's also becoming more independent. Right now I'm listening to him through the monitor as he talks to his bear mobile over his crib. He's supposed to be sleeping, but with an eight-week old there's not much "supposed to" anything.

It is also quite wonderful to hear Mr. Doodlebug talking to him when they're alone together. This morning I got out of the shower and could hear Mr. Doodlebug talking to baby Doodle while he changed him. It was so sweet and adorable and made me love Mr. Doodlebug even more.

Yes, I am very lucky to have such a great family.
















Baby Doodle puts his foot in the Atlantic Ocean.
















Baby Doodle's favorite position.






















Another of Baby Doodle's favorite positions.

Pictures

Happy on a park bench on his changing pad. He now smiles reliably when I smile at him and occassionally at inanimate objects like the toys on his activity gym.


















Fiendling (on right) and baby Doodle looking almost identical and completely oblivious to each other.























Baby Doodle loves the outdoors. He looks intently at the trees and loves the wind against his skin. Spring is the perfect time to have a baby, I guess that's why it's nature's season of rebirth.

The OC Season Finale

The OC, one of my favorite shows, had an incredibly disappointing season finale. We knew one of the main characters was going to die because of the incessant reminders on Fox to watch the show last Thursday, but did the writers have to make it so predictable and cheezy? I had figured out that Marissa was going to bite the bullet as soon as she received the letter from her father asking her to live and work on a yaht for a year. I mean they wouldn't have someone die AND have Marissa gone, so it had to be Marissa. Then it didn't take long for the predictable plot to be launched. That is the Ryan fights with boy trying to mess with Marissa, Marissa tries to help Ryan, Marissa gets hurt, Ryan feels horrible and can't live with himself unless he beats someone else up plot. Yet another boy, Volcheck, was obsessed with Marissa and tried to run Ryan and her off the road with his car -- I don't remember if it was the one he stole the previous episode -- and it worked. Ryan and Marissa in Ryan's brand new car that his deadbeat mom bought for him for graduation go tumbling down the side of a cliff. Now here is where the plot goes from predictable to utterly cheezy. Ryan survives. He realizes that Marissa is seriously hurt and barely coherent. He manages to drag her from the car right before it goes up in flames. They show a 7 second shot of Ryan carrying Marissa's body away from the burning car. Orange and yellow flames filled the background while Marissa's body draped over 30-something year old Ryan's high school arms were in the foreground. Ryan is far enough away from the burning car to get on his knees, Marissa utters his name and then dies in his arms. It was so cliche and did not live up to the brilliant talent that I know those writers have -- look at season one.

I was glad to hear some of our old friends mentioned in the last episode though. Ryan recalled Oliver, and Julie remembered two of the horrific things she had done -- sleeping with her daughter's high school boyfriend, Luke, and blaming Ryan for shooting Trey (see predictable plot sequence above).

Before the final episode began I thought they might have had different plots going in different places -- Rhode Island, Berkley, Orange County -- next season, but now it is clear to me that no one is going to be able to go on with the grief of losing Marissa Cooper. Seth, Summer and Ryan, especially Ryan, will stay in the OC and either go to the local OC college or not attend college, which would be preposterous since they are all now preppy private school graduates. And Marissa's loser sister will become the focus of a Harbor High plot.

I am an optimistic person and have faith that season four of The OC will be almost as good as season one.

A trip to DC

We actually ventured out of Pennsylvania with baby Doodle this weekend. We took him to Washington, DC where Mr. Doodlebug and I met, used to live and still have many good friends. It was somewhat difficult and definitely tiring carting our little boy around the city in his carseat, which he hates. I think he doesn't like being told how he has to sit. Most parents use the car to calm their babies when nothing else will work. Our little Doodle becomes even more upset when put in the carseat and then the car. He's a baby after his grandfather's heart.

The trip from Philly to DC went very smoothly. I fed, burped and changed baby Doodle right before we left. He slept the whole way down until we got to Capitol Hill when he woke up and realized that he was hungry. We pulled over on 11th Street and I fed him in the back seat of the car. Then we continued on to the Russell Senate Office Building where we introduced baby Doodle to our former co-workers and current friends in the senator's office where Mr. Doodlebug and I used to work. I changed him on the floor of the senator's personal office and laid him on his chair for a photo op. Unfortunately, baby Doodle didn't get to meet the senator as he was in his home state. We left Capitol Hill for our friend's house where she and her 18-month old daughter were making us dinner. The daughter had bowls and plastic fruit and vegetables on the floor of the kitchen. She took quite an interest in 7-week old baby Doodle. She would ask me why he was crying, repeatedly tell me that he was "in his baby chair," and pointed out that my nursing pad was a baby yamaka. She was too cute. It will be exciting when baby Doodle starts talking. I don't know why I didn't take any pictures of their interactions.

I won't bore you with every detail of our trip. I'll just say that we were late to everything we went to and everyone we met up with. Luckily we have fabulous friends who understood that traveling with an infant is not easy and is quite unpredictable. On our trip home to Philly we had to stop 4 times to feed and/or burp baby Doodle. The whole trip took us from 3:30pm to 9:20pm. We should have been home at 5:00pm. To be fair to baby Doodle, we also had terrible traffic that we are attributing to college graduations, and we ate dinner at a Ruby Tuesdays the third time we stopped. Ruby Tuesdays has an excellent salad bar for a run-of-the-mill family restaurant and not-that-bad wine for $3.99 a glass. I felt awful for baby Doodle yesterday. He would turn bright red and scream so hard that he would lose his breath. We would pull off at the next exit and take him out of his seat. He would burp or be fed and then would go right back into the seat. At the restaurant he got to stretch out on the booth seat and get changed in the ladies room for the first time. He had a rough trip home and a tiring weekend, but he was adored by all and with his loving parents, which he appreciated.

Sleeping update: Baby Doodle has slept through the night 4 nights in a row. Thursday for 7.5 hours, Friday for 6.5 hours in our bed at our friend's house, Saturday 6 hours again at our friend's house, and last night for 8 hours in his cosleeper at our house. I hope this trend continues.










A tiny picture of baby Doodle getting changed in the senator's office.
















Baby Doodle participating in our conversation.
















The hated carseat, but it's okay because he's holding hands, well, finger with his friend.


















Neither baby Doodle nor Maddie are that interested in one another.

Yesterday was my first Mother's Day. Baby Doodle was pretty well-behaved, if that is the right term for a 6-week old's sleeping/playing/eating routine. My in-laws came over for a late lunch early dinner. We had some delicious prepared food from Whole Foods and a rich chocolate torte for dessert. Baby Doodle, with the help of Mr. Doodlebug, got me a dozen roses and a beautiful white gold locket. I'll have to get a picture of baby Doodle small enough to fit into it. Yes, Mother's Day was good.

The day after Mother's Day, today, has not been good. Baby Doodle has been cranky, crying and whining a lot. He was fussy on his changing table and when I reached for the pacifier I knocked over the breast pump that had been freshly filled with my milk. The whole 2 ounces spilled onto the floor in his room. I changed him and put him in a fresh outfit for the day, then cleaned up the milk while he cried. I brought him downstairs and placed him on a chair while I hooked up my carrier. In the 5 seconds that he was in the chair he peed through the side of his diaper, through his clean outfit and onto the livingroom chair's upholstry. It's too bad everyday isn't Mother's Day.

my talker

Today on his changing table baby Doodle and I spent 5 or 6 minutes talking to each other. Baby Doodle's "words" are very different from his whines and cries. He's known how to whine and cry since he was born 6 weeks ago today, but his words are much different. His words he contemplates, thinks about, predetermines what he's going to say. I can see in his eyes that he has to think about how to talk whereas when he cries or wimpers it just comes out. I can tell by watching him try to form his words that it takes a lot of effort. It's not as easy as his instinctual cries when one need or another is not being met. When baby Doodle talks he has to coordinate some muscles and/or tissue in his throat and esophagus. The most beautiful sounds emerge and he smiles. Sometimes he tries to say something by inhaling rather than exhaling and he gasps and then smiles. Then he tries again, usually successfully. I love our conversations. It is incredibly satisfying to have him actually respond to me now. He's growing up right before my eyes, and it is sad and thrilling at the same time.




















Here he is talking on his changing table in his monkey suit.

















I couldn't resist posting this picture. He's looking at himself in the mirror (that purple polka dot thing).

TiVo

I now know why TiVo is so important to new mothers, at least this new mother.

As is the routine around here, Mr. Doodlebug was in charge of baby Doodle during the after dinner hours of the evening, except for when baby Doodle is eating. As 9:20 pm rolled around Mr. Doodlebug was getting increasingly frustrated as baby Doodle cried and whined. 9:20 was the witching hour for us last night because the season finale of The Office was on. Mr. Doodlebug had temporarily forgotten his head expecting baby Doodle to quiet right down in order to pay attention to the best show on television. When he didn't Mr. Doodlebug gave me a look as if to say "give me the damned pacifier now so I can hear the important and hilarious lines of the show that I am missing while the baby wails." I handed it over, not that I was keeping it from him. I had every intention of doing everything I could to get the baby to keep quiet during our precious TV time.

Now to my point. I realized last night that I don't have this problem during the day or most nights because I watch just about all of my television via TiVo. Meaning I can pause when the baby is cranky and resume once I've quieted him, which usually means putting him on my breast. I TiVo just about everything I watch (The Apprentice, The Office, 24, The OC, The Daily Show, the Colbert Report, Oprah, and Seinfeld and 90210 reruns) and watch at my leisure. Luckily, we have last nights Office recorded on TiVo so we can watch it again for anything we missed. I have to say, and I don't take credit for vocalizing this observation first, The Office has the most realistic love story portrayed on television, and last night proved just how good it is. I love that show, can you tell?

My advice to anyone who plans to be a stay-at-home mother or father for any length of time is to get TiVo and use it wisely.

recipe blog

Last night as Mr. Doodlebug and I were eating a delicious vegetable lasagna that my mother-in-law made shortly after baby Doodle was born it occurred to me that "my public" might want to know how I make some of my standby meals and snacks. I started another blog with my recipes, www.doodlebugrecipes.blogspot.com. It begins with guacomole because on cinco de mayo my friend and I were comparing guacomole recipes. Tomorrow I'll post my tortilla pizza. It's exactly what it sounds like.

frustration to smiles to frustration

Baby Doodle had a rough night and therefore I had a rough night. The night continued into the day. He wouldn't sit in his swing for 5 minutes meaning no shower for me and definitely no running on my trampoline, yes I run on a trampoline. I tried moving him to the Boppy pillow and ran for two minutes when he started screaming. I moved him back to the swing which bought me another five minutes, then more screaming. Finally I gave up, rescued him from the swing, and brought him downstairs where I held and rocked him while eating lunch and checking my email. It took about 20 minutes to get him to sleep. Once he was sound asleep I brought him upstairs and ever so gently laid him in his crib. As soon as his head hit the mattress he was wide awake staring at me with his big blue eyes and smiling. I couldn't help but laugh. It was absurd the way he looked at me. It was as if he had never been sleeping. It was as if I wasn't trying to prolong his nap. He smiled at me like he had just woken up in the morning and was ready to start his day, when my mindset was to run while he slept quietly in his room. I tried lulling him with the mobile hanging above him. It only held his gaze for a minute and then he began screaming again. I changed his diaper and fed him while watching E!'s 50 Top Celebrity Confessions. It turns out E! considers getting a divorce a confession (as in Nick and Jessica). He fell asleep on my breast but then woke up when I changed position. I brought him downstairs again and put him in the stroller. We walked to the post office in peace. While in the post office he realized we weren't moving and the wind wasn't blowing on his feet and he began to cry, which quickly turned into a scream -- the kind of scream where he is barely breathing between wails. A customer called the PO while we were there and asked about the screaming baby. huh...
I calmed him in my arms and then headed home. He cried the whole way (about 15 minutes). He is now sleeping in the carrier while we sway and jiggle to Baby Beluga. It has been an extremely frustrating day thus far. He has woken up twice screaming for no apparent reason since I started writing this post. I hope Mr. Doodlebug can come home early tonight.
















Three days ago. A much happier day. This picture looks just like a picture of brother Doodlebug (Baby Doodle's uncle) when he was just a day old.
















Talking to his stuffed monkey hanging in the corner of the picture.

getting used to motherhood

I am adjusting to motherhood and have learned some tricks that make it easier.

1. The pacifier does what it is supposed to -- it pacifies baby Doodle when he's cranky.
2. Never leave the house without the pacifier.
3. Babies aren't embarrassed to be changed on Main Street in their strollers.
4. Swaddle baby Doodle at night so his arms don't jump and wake him up.
5. Baby Beluga by Raffi will calm him almost immediately.
6. Baby Doodle will always fall asleep in the baby carrier.
7. There is a big difference between 2 weeks and 5 weeks old.
8. No stage will last forever.
9. I can do other things while feeding him, like reading my book. I've taken to reading Human Capital to him while he eats.
10. Try to feed him before he reaches the frantic phase of hunger if at all possible.
11. If his body is close to me or Mr. Doodlebug he's generally happy.
12. Cold hands are the kiss of death.

pictures

In a milk coma at the park.
















That evil gas!

















So happy that it's cinco de mayo.
















Trying out the black & white feature on our camera.

















The most adorable feet you'll ever see, unless you have your own kids.

prices rising, and they're not for gas

This has been bothering me for quite a while, not that I'm going to the movies any more with baby Doodle in the picture, but I am reading the NY Times on line now more than ever.

It wasn’t long ago that going to a 7:15 p.m. movie would set you back $5.00. Not only have movie prices doubled in the last twenty years, it now costs full price to see a “matinee.” The latest trend among most movie theaters (Loews, Ritz etc…) is to charge matinee prices for only the first showing of the day leaving their costumers paying about $9.00 to see a movie in the traditional matinee time slots.

The very definition of matinee, according to my Webster’s dictionary, is “a musical or dramatic performance or social or public event held in the daytime and especially the afternoon.” It makes no reference to the “first showing of the day” which might be at 10:00 a.m. In fact the true definition of matinee specifically says that the performance is in the afternoon. Unless you want to wake up early, and request that your date do the same, on your only two days off from work for the sole purpose of seeing a movie not at half price, but at the bargain cost of $6.50, then you are stuck paying say $9.00 to see a movie at 1:30 in the afternoon.

With movie studios making more money and taking less time than ever to make their films it is a wonder why we are not only paying more to see a movie at the most popular time, the evening, but we are paying much more to see them in the afternoon.

In 1986 a gallon of milk in the United States cost $2.22, a dozen eggs cost $.87, and a first-class stamp cost $.22. Today, at least in Philadelphia, a gallon of milk cost $3.05, a dozen eggs cost $1.20, and a first-class stamp everywhere cost $.39. These rates of increase – 37%, 38%, and 50% respectively – are not astronomical, they are expected. The cost of going to the movies at night, however, has increased dramatically – 90% since 1986. The cost of a movie after the first showing, but before 5:00pm has increased by even more – 116% in the same time period.

Needless-to-say Mr. Doodlebug and I were annoyed yet again when we got out of the house on a miserable, cold, rainy Saturday afternoon in February to see Capote at 2:30 p.m. and were charged $9 each.

Clearly I don't forget easily; we saw Capote 3 months ago.

The New York Times web site now charges to read the columns by their famous columnists -- Maureen Dowd, Thomas Friedman, Paul Krugman etc . . . -- but not for the op-ed contributors -- those experts who submit columns about their particular fields. How much do they charge? $7.95 per month or $49.95 per year. I miss the days when you could read the whole paper on line not just the parts that won't generate revenue for the NYT.

That's enough ranting for one day.

One month birthday was yesterday, May 1