late night chats

Last night I got up a little before 2 to feed Nate. In the middle of his snack, he looked up at me and said, "Ga."

I replied, "Ga."

Nate responded with, "Ga."

So I said, "I'm not supposed to talk to you now. It's night and you are supposed to go back to bed."

"Ga."

"They said I should interact with you as little as possible so you will sleep. You are going to get me in trouble!"

"Ga."

"This is too cute. This is the first time we've had a conversation. Could we do this in the morning instead?"

"Ga."

I interpreted that as agreement and off we happily went back to bed. If we could do that every night, waking up at 2am would be much nicer!

reprieve

Nate went from Crankenstein to Sleeping Beauty last night. He was fussy most of the evening and went down to sleep as usual. Like the worst night EVER!, he woke up 45 minutes later. But this time, he cried for 20-25 minutes and then went back to sleep. For NINE HOURS! Whee!

crankenstein

Saturday night was the worst night EVER! Nate went to bed as usual, but woke up 45 minutes later and screamed inconsolably until 1am. We both tried to calm him down but nothing seemed to work, so we just hung out attempting to rest to the soothing sounds of Crankenstein. He did end up sleeping for the second half of the night, at least. Last night was a bit better, although we had trouble early on getting him to go to sleep. It's odd, because he was getting into a routine, falling asleep around 9 and waking around 4 to eat, but now he's back to waking at 12 or 1. I'm sure it's completely intentional - another way of keeping his parents in line and somewhat unrested. Maybe he thinks if we're half asleep we'll accidentally slip him a few mini eggs instead of milk? Or a handful of Plocky's!

there's trouble right here in flower city

I have a few problems, one of which is entirely Sol's fault:















These are the best chips EVER. And can you believe it, they can actually talk! Perhaps you can hear them? Listen closely. It's rather faint, since I have shut them up inside a drawer, but if you listen closely enough you'll hear it, "Neva! Neva! Come eat us! We are ever so tasty!" Oh, that doesn't sound like chips? Maybe you are confusing what you are hearing with my second problem:















It is Easter candy season again. And they are making Cadbury mini eggs in dark chocoalte. At first glance I was excited, because dark chocolate is HEALTHY! Well, healthier than milk chocolate. But to my surprise the dark eggs actually contain more saturated fat than the regular ones. They are also oddly dark colors, not quite befitting the pastels of springtime to come.

Problem three is more of a ghost of problems future. See, little Nate spent a good 20 minutes rolling from side to side this morning, and actually pivoted in a circle at the same time. He hasn't flipped from back to belly yet, but this seems like the first step. He's also grabbing his feet, which is cool. Yes, those little things down there are attached to you too! :)

beware! graphic material below

Warning! Anyone disinterested in hearing about the strange things breasts (more specifically, mine) do after you've had a baby, please stop reading now. Thank you.

Part of my grumpiness today was because not only was Nate up for longer than I appreciated last night but when he cries it makes me lactate. So I can either sleep in my nursing bra or tempt fate in just a t-shirt. I tried that last night with disturbing results. After being drenched twice last night by Nate's midnight snacks, I was none too pleased. In that spirit, I thought I'd share this comic I stumbled upon:


Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

mommy the grouch

He may look sweet and innocent, but underneath that adorable exterior lies a cranky beast. And it decided to show its face last night, and is still inhabiting our sweet little baby through the morning. Really, I think he's just overtired, but he's so grouchy that he is keeping himself awake crying and getting more and more worked up. Which has, in turn, made me quite grumpy. This morning, after he screamed through 25% of the night (and ate through another 25%), Mommy and Daddy Grouch remarked that typically Baby Grouch's best time of the day is first thing in the morning. Boy, are we in for one doozy of a day today!

Well, I should get back to my crying baby. I'll write again when we have excorsized the cranky demons.

don't pull his finger

The other night we were driving home and Nathaniel was starving, having gone a whole three hours without eating. So Thad, sitting in the front passenger seat, decided to try and calm down Nate, in the middle of the back seat facing backward, by letting him (Nate) suck on his (Thad's) finger. It worked, and we had a relatively peaceful drive. The next morning, though, Thad realized that he could no longer bend his finger all the way and thinks that he sprained it. Ha! That is one of the funniest injuries ever recorded.

When babies are born they have oddly sweet smelling poo. I was under the impression that it doesn't smell that bad until they start eating solid foods. It seems that I was mistaken. Sometime within the past month Nate's poo started smelling bad. Luckily this coincided with a diminished frequency of poo, so we are only subjected to the putrescence every couple of days. However, just to tide us over in the meantime, he has become incredibly gassy. And along with the more rancid-smelling poo comes rancid-smelling farts. And those come with amazing frequency. So much so that last night Thad remarked that our adorable little buddy smells "like a public restroom." Ah, the joys of parenthood!

saturday gras

Last night we went to Laura and Steve's Mardi Gras party, which was lots of fun and quite yummy. I got to eat my first gumbo (seafood-free, of course!) and it was great to get out of the house and visit friends. Unfortunately, Nate got a little out of control, the little party animal. Maybe he was drinking Hurricanes behind our backs? By the end of the evening he was muttering incoherently and we actually had to carry him out of the house! He must have worn himself out, though, because he slept through the night again - yay! Check out all the beads he racked up:




















































Today we stayed in because I am in mourning. Theo Epstein, the GM of the Red Sox and my ex-future husband, had the nerve to go out and get married. Can you believe that?! Harumph. Nate's grumpy about it too.




















But seriously, Jean and Dave came over for brunch and then Sol stopped in for an afternoon visit. I was apparently incapable of taking good pictures of anyone - sorry. It's great to see people, here or out of the house. We will have to do this more often because it is not only really nice to spend time with people we like, but it's good for Nate to experience new people and it's great for me because it's not just the same old day-to-day of me and the buddy hanging out in the house all day.

hi

Welcome to our new cousin Tessa Jane over at Asco Adventures! Early reports is that everyone is doing well. Yay!

valentine's snow

A few years ago Thad and I were visiting our sister-in-law Joanna's family in Baltimore over Valentine's Day and got snowed in and we ended up shoveling their street. It's not that snowy here (yet) but we are getting hit with the snowstorm that's currently engulfing the northeast. This pic isn't all new snow, but obviously it's piling up here. It is currently a balmy 14 and somewhat breezy, so there's also a bunch of drifting. Once the storm passes our forecast goes back to the same old, same old - "lake effect snow with blowing and drifting." I swear, our seven day outlook has exactly the same thing every day. Little grey clouds with snowflakes.

Earlier today the dogs needed to go out and when we let them back in they knocked a bunch of snow in the sliding door track. Thad had the bright idea to blow the snow back out the door and instead blew it all over his face. This picture doesn't do it justice:














I think there are two main feelings about Valentine's Day: people either love it or hate it. I'd have to guess that Nate is in the latter group. He welcomed in the holiday by crying and fussing for an hour or so. Despite this anti-holiday grumpiness he wanted to wish everyone a happy valentine's day. Since he can't talk, he tried to sign:

quarterly update: 3 months

Today Nate iss three months old. There are these great quarterly updates that were developed by a designer who was anxious for information on her new neices and nephews but realized that new parents have a limited amount of time and energy to update friends and family on their children. I love these, but can't really justify the cost, so here's my digital version of the three month update. For anyone interested in the real thing, you can find them here: http://www.elumdesigns.com/stationery/18/19

current nicknames: Nate, The Buddy, Drooly Puss Jr
eyes: charcoal, not quite blue, not quite brown
hair: pretty bald with a dark brown fuzz
feature most like mom's: impatience
feature most like dad's: flatulence
burps: more than dad
passes gas: more than dad(!)
cries: more than mom
smiles when: in the mornings, people smile at him, he looks at his purple giraffe
favorite toy: the purple giraffe on his gimini, tigger rattle
favorite song: I've Been Working on the Railroad, You Are My Sunshine
father has: fed with bottle, dressed, changed diaper, watched sports on tv, and done TONS of laundry!
mother has: fed with bottle, dressed, changed diaper, watched sports on tv
greatest achievements to date: rolled over, slept through the night (once), title of cutest baby ever
ways baby likes to get around: car seat, front carrier and baby sling, but prefers to be carried
when baby poops face looks: red as a beet, often followed by a smile
things mom and dad miss the most: sleeping, romance, going to the movies, dining out (or in at the table), talking in full sentences
best thing about being new parents: cool little guy living in our house

great grandma

My grandmother, who passed away a week after Nate was born, would have turned 93 today. I'm celebrating her life by telling Nate lots of stories about her. I'm sure he is listening with rapt attention and as soon as he can speak will be able to repeat them word for word. In her honor, tonight we will be eating spaghetti and meatballs (well, Thad and I will. Nate gets milk, as usual!)

Your moment of zen...

bum update

Well, it's been a few weeks since Nate's bum seemed to be improving and we are thrilled to report that he now seems to have a happy, healthy bum! It's still a little pink where the rash was, but it's covered in a layer of baby soft skin. Hooray!

fresh air

I am including this picture of Thad and I, looking incredibly unattractive, with Nate, who has somehow managed to turn out cute despite our genes, to prove that we actually left the house. Sol actually forwarded it on from his band's show last night and pointed out that Nate is the only one paying attention to the band! One our way in we ran into Kate and Dylan from bleisenblog so we got to compare babies for a few minutes.

The fact that we left the house is fabulous because it has been so cold recently that Nate and at least one of his parents have been house-bound for the last couple of weeks. It is also fabulous because apparently the rest of Upstate New York is covered in blanket upon blanket of snow while we have the same 8-ish inches we've had all of 2007. So for those of you out of this area, no fears about us being blockaded in our house by wild lake-effect snow.

Here are some other recent picures of Nate that have no story behind them, so I will stop writing now.

hot stove

Upon reading cousin Liz's last blog entry I was reminded about the emptiness I feel during the baseball off season. The past few years have been fun, though, because of the hot stove (ie the off season when lots of trades and contract deals take place). This year, though, I've been out of touch because of this great little person who has hijacked my life. Anyway, I thought I'd take a minute to check out what's going on and I found out that my dear Trot Nixon will be playing in Cleveland next year. This is no big surprise, but I was saddened anyway. He's been a great player - fun to watch, easy to cheer for, etc. So I tip my hat (which I wear relatively often since I don't shower anymore and I am convinced that a hat will mask the odor and oiliness) to good old Trot.

On a similar note, until 2004 when the Red Sox FINALLY won the World Series my dad used to say that he felt like an awful father because he had raised me and my sister as Sox fans. Being a Sox fan dooms you to a lifetime of heartbreak, frustration, and misery, all things that you try to sheild your children from. I'd like to say that it builds character, but that's just something I say to soothe myself while I retreat to a corner and lick my wounds. That said, I still feel the need to teach my child right from wrong, and therefore Nate already has more Sox gear than I do. Little hats, onesies, pacifiers, wrist rattles, etc. So to get ready for the impending season, here are some pictures of Nate in some of his little outfits. Go Sox!

how could i forget?!

Nate slept through the night! This past Saturday, he went from around 9:30pm until 6:45am. Woo hoo! I, of course, did not sleep through the night. I kept waking up wondering why Nate hadn't woken up yet. Sigh. And I've learned that one full night of sleep does not a rested parent make. Anyway, we're taking it as a sign of the good things to come!

weekend recap

This past weekend Grandma and Grandpop (my parents), Aunt Jean (my sister), and Great Grandpa (my grandfather) came up to visit Nate. Great Grandpa was SO sweet with the baby, and was really the only person who could consistently calm him down. He'd walk around the house holding Nate and singing to him. He's always been quite the singer and I remember most of the songs from when I was a kid. "Eh Cumpari," "K-K-K-Katie," "Heart of my Heart," "The Bear Went Over the Mountain," etc. We went out to the market on Saturday and froze our patooties off. This made sitting down to dinner a bit uncomfortable (ha!) Seriously, it was really cold. Our house, however, is a balmy 70-something because of Nate, so we just opted to stay inside for the weekend and hang around the house. We celebrated Great Grandpa's and Grandpop's birthdays Saturday night with homemade spaghetti and meatballs - yum!

We watched the Super Bowl on Sunday, which ended up being a Super Bore. The game started out well but ended up being a blow out and no one played particularly well, and the commercials stunk too. Apparently the fan favorite was the Budwiser ad with the crabs. Really? I thought that one was odd. I much preferred the dog one. Oh well, no accounting for taste. The only redeeming part of the game was that my dad now owes me yet another beer because I once again won a bet against him. And hopefully people will stop whining about Peyton Manning now. He's won his ring. Hooray. Let's all move on.

42 hours and counting

Our little sweetie pie is a ticking time bomb. We haven't had a poop in over 42 hours. This is apparently quite normal once babies' immune systems start to mature, so I'm not worried about Nate's health. I am, however, concerned about the impending explosion. Kaboom!

can you believe he's 94?!

Here are a couple of pictures of Nathaniel Rocco with the original Rocco.

let it snow, let it snow

It is very snowy and cold here. I'm assuming not as snowy and cold as in VT, but snowy and cold nonetheless. Usually I am a huge fan of winter, and I love having a fresh coat of snow on things each day, because it looks so beautiful. But I am now being schooled in the rigors of having a baby in the winter, and I am going stir crazy. It's challenging getting around with Nate, so we are spending a lot of time at home. Some of my concerns are realistic and others are just brought upon myself by my new "maternal instincts" (aka "unfounded worries"). I'm paranoid about slipping on the ice and dropping him in some busy parking lot - perhaps I should walk around with crampons? But it really is a bit too cold and sloppy out to take a walk. Or at least, a walk more than 5-10 minutes. I think, though, I will be brave and go out to CVS later today (for more desitin, of course!) Parenthood has really made me go wild!