We had the girls at Target today and experienced an interesting phenomenon. We had just arrived, so L. was safely and snuggly strapped into her car seat in the main part of the cart while her sisters rode along on the back (we had one of those big-assed Target carts with the two seats that face forward behind the “normal” part of the cart. These things are awesome, except when you need to turn them.
So I bet you’re thinking, “Man, he’s got a new baby laying on his chest every night. He’s probably been watching a boatload of football and baseball.” Wrong. Unlike four years ago, when then three-month-old M. slept on me for hours at a time while I watched the Red Sox- Yankees and Cardinals - Astros do battle in their epic LCS, L. is a little too little to be able to hang on dad that long.
I have been doing a little more than just making bottles, feeding the baby, and changing diapers. In fact, I’ve been out working the past two Saturdays. Each week I covered a soccer game, first a sectional final and then a regional final, both times covering the same team. They won each time (apparently the curse of me covering a team and them losing has lifted) so it was fun to follow them, start to see patterns in their play, and have a better idea of how to frame my story the second week.
L. got to spend an hour in the Baby Bjorn yesterday and got her first bath last night. She snoozed in the Bjorn while we were cleaning the house and trying to keep her sisters under control. She screamed like she’s never screamed before in the bath. At least she smells better now.
L.’s poop has started to smell. Other than that, things are dandy here. We’re still sleeping ok at night. I’m pushing to force her to eat five ounces at a time, in hopes she gets up to 10 ponds quicker and perhaps starts sleeping all night. The fact she’s been throwing everything up about once a day from just three ounces makes it unlikely my plan will be adopted. It’s really annoying that even with the sun not coming up until around 8:00 here, M.
It’s hard to believe L.’s been with us for a week now. It’s been a busy time, with two of my out-of-town sisters-in-law coming to visit, the in-town relatives coming over often, and of course many more visits from friends and neighbors. It’s been fun but we’re happy that things are slowing down and we can begin taking some deep breaths and establishing our new normal. Here’s an attempt to update you on what we’ve experienced over the past week.
Things are going well. L. has slept quite well the past two nights, waking to eat around 11, 3, and 6 each night and often going back to sleep quickly after each feed. I’ve mostly kept the MacBook closed and in the office, but I have been adding some notes to a full update post on the events of the past week that I’ll share soon. I did want to go ahead and share this story, though.
Brought the girls (mom and baby) home yesterday, right on schedule. Everything is going well with both. L. prefers to lay on us, rather than in her bed, which meant it was about 4:30 this morning before I finally got to sleep. And S. spent much of the night in bed with M. and C., who were having their own issues. We’re missing the send the baby to the nursery option.
We’ve been busy around the house, getting everything cleaned, sorted, and stored in advance of the arrival of Baby Sister, some house guests, and the inevitable flood of visitors that will want to stare at the baby. In the rush, I forgot to put together my patented, much anticipated baseball playoff previews. As with my football previews, which are already about 75% worthless a month into the season, take these with a generous helping of salt.
The Royals finish fourth! The Royals finish fourth! Thanks to a blistering September, the mighty Kansas City Royals avoided the cellar in the American League Central. Believe it or not, this is the fourth time this decade the Royals have finished fourth. Maybe things aren’t so bad after all! It’s funny how the length of a baseball season can color your judgement, though. This was going to be yet another desultory R’s season, another year when the rebuilding project showed no signs of progress.
Another great list from the Onion AV Club. Naturally, it begs the question, what movies are on my list? In no particular order: Star Wars. I probably watched this 50 times between 1977 and 1984. I’ve seen it once all the way through since then. Chevy’s Classics. I’ll bundle the classic work of Chevy Chase together, since watching one often meant watching another immediately after. Includes Caddyshack, Vacation, Fletch, Fletch Lives, Spies Like Us, and Three Amigos.
If you didn’t flip by ESPN at any point on Sunday, you may not know that the final baseball game has been played at Yankee Stadium. ESPN devoted approximately 800 hours of programming to this historic event. The Yankees are missing the playoffs this year, so they had to fill their Yanks quota somehow. Anyway, lots of people shared their memories of Yankees Stadium over the past few days. I’ve never been there, but I have watched a game or two that has been played there.
M. took a bit of a tumble the other night. We were talking with the neighbors while our kids chased each other around and heard a solid smack, followed by screaming. M. caught her toes in the sidewalk as she was running and ended up face-down on the sidewalk. Not only did she skin her knees, but also her forehead hit the ground, leaving a nice, bloody welt. Just in time for her class' circus at school on Friday.
Going back to the first album I purchased with my own money for a moment, I’ll admit thinking about Def Leppard’s <em>Pyromania</em> made me a little nostalgic. So I fired up the iTunes Music Store. No <em>Pyromania</em> available there. Jump over to the Amazon MP3 Store. Not there either. So one of the biggest selling albums of the 80s - one of the top 100 selling albums of all-time for that matter - still isn’t available on either of the two biggest, legal, online music stores.
I don’t know how to feel about Lance Armstrong’s return. I tend to want my retired athletic heroes to stay retired. Call me old fashioned. But, I read an article during this summer’s Brett Favre drama that convinced me that the whole idea of legacy and pleasing the fans is a little silly. Each athlete should do what makes him or her happy, not what keeps our mental image of them intact.
Four hours of sweet freedom. That’s what we got today with the girls both going off to school. What a strange thing to have a completely quiet house in the middle of the day. I had to shut off my music junkie switch for awhile so I could enjoy this rare time of no noise. C. did great at school. S. had a meeting this morning, so I dropped C. off by myself.
In honor of M. starting school Wednesday, here are some stories about the kids. As promised, I will now reveal the curse word that C. has been using from time-to-time. When I drop something, knock something over, etc. my default curse is “Dammit.” I’ve learned to more mutter it than exclaim it since becoming a father, so I say it in a low voice, often through clenched teeth. Not too long ago, I noticed when C.
Admit it, you were glued to VH1 Classic’s 80 Hours of the ’80s this weekend (That is if you have VH1 Classic). Lord knows I was. I thought about e-mailing each of you individually to make sure you knew it was on. In between shows for the kids and doing things outside, I tried to check in on the A-Z run-through of some of the decade’s best videos all weekend. Most nights, while I was reading, I used it as my background music instead of my usual iTunes library.
Something very disappointing happened while my attentions were dominated by the Olympics: the Royals completely went into the tank. It wasn’t that long ago that they had a four game lead on the Indians for fourth place, and Detroit wasn’t too far ahead in third. Keep things going, and there was a chance for 75 wins and a third place finish, a perfect building block for next year and beyond. Instead, they’ve lost 15 of 18, have sustained some crippling injuries, and now look poised to continue the tradition of anti-excellence the franchise has forged over the past 20 years.
Sigh. The Olympics are over. What the hell do I do now? Actually, the Olympics didn’t dominate my time this year the way they did four years ago. But I had a two-week-old baby then and we just kind of sat on the couch for about 20 hours a day anyway. That year, the Olympics were a God-send. This year, once the girls watched their fill of morning TV, rather than switch to the games, I was trying to get them outside to do something fun and active.