Flood in Manayunk

Our area of Philadelphia was partially flooded yesterday due to a deluge of rain over the past few days. Mr. Doodlebug, baby Doodle and I went down to check things out after dinner last night. We were disappointed not to see more destruction and higher waters, but I guess that's a good thing. The Schuylkill River was brown, very high, and moving rapidly. It only ran over its banks on the lower part of Main Street where the Manayunk Brewery is and onto Kelly Drive. Part of Main Street and Kelly Drive are still closed today while officials pump the water out. To where do they pump the water? Back into the Schuylkill? It seems that the Schuylkill can't take any more water. hmmm


















































The police wouldn't let us get any closer than this to the flooded part of Main Street. You can see the water on the street beyond the news vans.

Our trip to Vermont and other thoughts

I started this post on Monday, June 26, but because baby Doodle did not sleep more than 20 minutes at a time yesterday I'm still working on it.

Baby Doodle, Mr. D and I got back last night from Long Island and Vermont where gramginia lives. Baby Doodle got to meet his only living great grandparent, my mother's father, and was enchanted by him. He smiled and cooed like crazy when my grandpa was talking to him. Baby Doodle is very interested in new people, especially interesting ones like my grandfather. BD got to meet many many family members and friends over the last ten days. He met four of his great aunts and two cousins once removed. (Those are my first cousins -- my cousins' kids and BD will be second cousins. Cousins are once, twice, three times removed depending on how many generations seperate them -- so my cousins are BD's cousins once removed, my cousins and BD's kids will be cousins twice removed, and my cousins' grandkids and my grandkids will be third cousins.) I hope this doesn't further confuse your understanding of the family tree.

From Long Island BD and I drove to Vermont with my mother and Mr. Doodlebug drove home to work Monday and Tuesday. He drove up to Vermont on Tuesday night to be with us for the remainder of the week. Our third anniversary was Wednesday, more on that later. My mother and I got to her house last Monday and she promptly came down with a 102 degree fever. So my hope of having full time help with BD for an entire week and her hope of getting to spend a week cuddling, kissing and caring for BD were dashed. We left Saturday morning for Uncle Doodlebug's house in Essex Junction, Vermont. We had planned to attend our friends' wedding (in Vergennes at 2:00) and reception (in Charlotte -- that's the Vermont pronunciation, Shar Lot -- at 5:00), but as the time drew closer I realized that I couldn't leave BD with my brother and his girlfriend for eight hours. First of all, I had not pumped nearly enough milk to feed BD four times so he would have to have formula to supplement his meals. I was afraid that he would become constipated from the formula, which is known to happen. I was afraid that BD wouldn't drink smoothly from a bottle even though he had been practicing in preparation for this trip. I was also afraid that if he did drink smoothly from the bottle he wouldn't want to eat from my breasts any more because it is so much easier to get milk from a bottle than from my nipple. So for all of these reasons we skipped the ceremony and went to the reception. It was definitely the right decision, though BD did very well with my brother and his nurse girlfriend.

Baby Doodle developed like crazy while we were away. He can now hold his hands together, in fact he seems to prefer it. He can hold a toy and put it in his mouth, as he does with his clasped hands. He can laugh! He has smiled a lot in the last month, but now he can laugh, too. My brother was the first to discover it. He laughed for the first time when Uncle Doodlebug was in the middle of changing his diaper and he squirted an arced stream of pee into the air and onto the floor. He found this to be quite funny. He laughed again the next morning when Uncle Doodlebug was talking to him and I was holding him allowing me to verify that he can in fact laugh. He seems to really like his only uncle, which is good as his uncle is crazy about him. BD laughed a third time to me that same day, but he hasn't done it since we've been home. He can also drink from a bottle without the slightest problem and digested the little formula that he had just fine -- of course it was mixed with breastmilk, the best stuff on earth.

So June 21 is summer solstice, the longest day of the year and Mr. D and my anniversary. We were planning to go out to eat at a good restaurant in Rutland, Vermont, but my mother was sick and we couldn't leave BD behind. Instead we went to our friends' house in Killington to have pizza, beer and Ben and Jerry's with them.

Mr. Doodlebug and I have been married for three years. So much has happened in those three years -- I went back to school and got my Masters degree in secondary education, I taught for a year at a middle school outside DC which was the worst experience of my life, we moved to Philadelphia uprooting our entire existence and transplanting it in a place where we knew no one, and we had a baby. It's hard to say what would be if such and such hadn't happened or if you had never met so and so, but I know that my life is good because I'm married to Mr. D. He is utterly devoted to me, and I to him. We have helped each other get through some depressing and difficult things, but most of the time we lead a content life. We compliment each other. He is very tolerant and I am not so tolerant, he avoids conflict and I am argumentative, he doesn't mind eating the older food in the fridge (or rather he minds but does it anyway) and I do, we both love our son in a way that he will never fully understand until he has his own children. And we love each other. We're well suited for one another. There is no one else in the world I would rather spend my days and years with. Here's to living many more happy years together.





















On our way to the wedding reception leaving baby Doodle for the first appreciable amount of time.
















Mr. Doodlebug and BD in Vermont, one of the most beautiful places on earth, but so so far away, at least that's how it seems when you have a 12-week old.
















BD talking to his great grandfather.

















This was part of the Vermont section of the drive from Essex Junction, (near Burlington) to Philadelphia. No wonder it took us 9 hours to get home.

bike race

Yesterday was the Philadelphia International bike race. The toughest and most spectator-popular section of the course is in my neighborhood. The racers go up "the wall," the steep hill running from Main Street Manayunk to Pechin Street in Roxborough. My in-laws came over for a birthday breakfast (they're three days apart in age) and we walked a few blocks to watch the cyclists climb the wall with such ease it doesn't seem human. They go around the course 10 times! We watched 6 laps from 5 different locations; the best being the second turn they make after climbing the wall. They lean over so far it is amazing that gravity doesn't pull them to the ground.

This was our first bike race living in Philly. The whole neighborhood is transformed into one enormous block party. People have BBQs and start drinking at 9:00am and the open container law is ignored by the hundreds of police officers placed around the course.

my new identity

Saturday I went to get my hair cut in a salon. I haven't gotten my hair cut and styled in a salon since 1993. I had my hair "done" for my wedding nearly 3 years ago and for a friend's wedding that same year, but I haven't had it cut at a real salon in 13 years. My mother cut it a few times since then, and I have been to the Hair Cuttery or equally shoddy hair cutting establishment regularly over those 13 years.

Going to the salon was also the first real time I spent without baby Doodle. I had run to the post office when he was 3 weeks old and I went grocery shopping a few weeks ago while Mr. Doodlebug stayed with him, but Saturday I was gone for a whole 2 hours without my little guy. I felt the need to tell both the man who "checked me in" and my new hair stylist that I have a two month old baby at home. It never occurred to me to carry a picture of baby Doodle with me because the actual baby is with me almost all of the time. But if I had a picture I undoubtedly would have shown it off. And then my hair stylist would have obligingly said "oh how cute," whether she thought he was cute or not.

It is like my identity is no longer what it used to be. I am a mother now and though I know I am capable of talking about things other than my son and babies, I find it difficult. I spend sooo much time with baby Doodle that I've become one of those people who talks about their kids a lot. He is my life now, and I'm happy about that.

bathroom humor

Yesterday baby Doodle and I had two funny diaper changing experiences. First, I had put him down on the changing table and though I had gotten out of the habit of putting a cloth over his penis to avoid any squirts while he was exposed, I had done it this time. I removed the dirty diaper, cleaned him up and as I was reaching for the clean diaper I moved my hand holding the cloth. BD took advantage of that precise moment to squirt pee on the changing pad, his outfit and the wall. I grabbed the cloth and quickly covered him. When I looked down at him he was looking up at me with a huge grin as if to say "gotcha."

Several hours later BD had just finished eating and he was sitting up, with my assistance, on my lap sideways with his butt in between my legs and his legs hanging over the side of mine. I was on the phone with my mother when he let out a loud and vibrating fart. He smiled with delight. Then he did it again, and smiled again. This continued for about three minutes. When it seemed he was finished I got off the phone and brought him to the changing table. As I was lying him down I noticed that the whole of one side and some of the other side of his pants were stained with yellow poop. Then I saw that my pants where he had been resting were also poop-stained. He smiled, of course. I did a load of laundry with both of our clothes.

Doing laundry is a never ending task around here now.
















Relaxing during tummy time.
















Quality time with dad.

Random thoughts

Yesterday baby Doodle and I went to see The Break Up with Vince Vaughn who I love and Jennifer Aniston who Mr. Doodlebug loves. It was Reel Moms movie day at a theater in Cherry Hill. The movie itself was okay -- most of the best scenes are in the trailor -- but the fun of actually going to the movies was great.

I never thought I would be one of those people who buys personalized cups and towels and other items of which most people have too many, but I purchased my in-laws mugs with BD's picture on them for their birthdays which are two days apart and coming up at then end of the week. They came in the mail yesterday and I actually think BD's grandparents are going to love them. I mean who wouldn't want to see BD's beautiful face staring at them when their drinking their morning coffee? Now we have to think about Father's Day presents.

Mr. Doodlebug is looking for a new job. One that doesn't pay as much as his current job. Last night on his way home from work he figured out how much we spend a year to live. I haven't done that in a long time and Mr. D never had. It was startling to see that so much of our money is spent on "necessities". It's amazing how much is spent on bills (electricity, gas, mortgage, DSL, cell phones, landline, and the list goes on). Now that we have a third member of the family things might be a little tight around here for a while. But the money doesn't matter as long as we can afford to live in our newly purchased house. I want Mr. D to be happy. He spends the vast majority of his days at the office and if being at the office makes him miserable then I want him to escape and find a job that he won't mind going to, maybe even like going to.

I often wonder if anyone is truly happy in their jobs because so many of our friends are not, but there must be people who are happy to go to work. My brother was happy tending bar in Vermont and Nantucket. My father-in-law seems to genuinely like his job and doesn't care that it takes him 2 hours to get there and 2 hours to get back! A few friends in DC like their jobs. I know that it is possible. I wish that Mr. D could find something that makes him happy. He deserves it. The three of us will be perfectly happy to live on less money as long as our breadwinner is happy making it.

2 months ago

Baby Doodle is two months old today. This morning I went to the drug store to buy baby tylonol to give him tomorrow before his doctor appointment where he will get a number of shots. He has been very well behaved so far today. It is clear that he has matured now that he's a whole two months old. BD now smiles when anyone smiles at him, he coos and gurgles excitedly as he kicks his feet and moves his arms about, he loves it when I crawl my fingers up his chest and touch his tiny button nose while saying "boop." We met a former pediatric nurse at the Memorial Day parade that marched through our neighborhood on Monday. She said that BD has very good muscle tone and that his soft spot and head ridges are normal. She also asked to hold him. It was the first time a stranger was so bold as to ask to hold our little guy.

To celebrate baby Doodle-eve we went to a Rendell fundraiser. BD was a big hit. We were hesitant about bringing him at first, but Mr. Doodlebug and I were in the mood for some "free" -- we paid $100 to get in, remember it's a fundraiser -- food and alcohol. It was fun and BD loved the music and looking at all the people.

It is hot as hell in Philly. Mr. D and I lugged the smaller of our two air conditioners up three flights of stairs and secured it in the window in our bedroom where the three of us sleep. To be completely accurate Mr. D carried it up two flights and I helped him with the middle set. Man that thing was heavy! If this week is any indication of how hot this summer is going to be, we're in for a hellish few months.
















Baby Doodle is not quite as excited as his mother to be meeting the governor.