Ahoy Mateys

It's amazing to me just how quickly Kirk's movement abilities are changing. Friday he developed this goofy side crawl where he crawls using one knee and pushes with the other foot. It's very piraty. And he can go fast. But it's also worn a popped blister on his big toe.

Then Saturday was my birthday party and there were tons of kids. Kirk really wasn't interested in the smaller babies or the bigger boys and girls. And then his buddy Henry arrived. It was amazing how quickly Kirk paid attention. They haven't seen each other in several months but it was almost as though they remembered. And Henry knows how to crawl properly. Which Kirk definitely copied. He would take off across the yard for the decomposing stick I had already pulled out of his mouth. Now that he's on his own again, he's mostly back to his pirate crawl, but he'll do it right for short bits. We keep the gate up by the stairs at all times now.

But Kirk didn't get to play with Henry the whole time. He started being a total bully, just like when he was playing with Esther several weeks ago. Maybe it's because they're all so much closer in age? Kirk and Henry were hanging out on the blanket I had set out for all the babies, complete with toys. And Kirk would grab at Henry and try to bite his shoulder. It was hilarious! But then he did it again. And again. And again. Not so hilarious. So I had to take Kirk away. He went over to visit one of the doggies instead and got his entire head licked. Also hilarious.

It was so much fun having so many kids at my party. For several years now, whenever we'd all be together at a party or a barbeque or something, we'd talk about how soon enough we'll be having our kids running around while we're drinking and talking. And as a few of us began to reproduce, the family friendly party never materialized. I'm proud to have made the first for our group finally happen. Hopefully it won't be the last.

It was a little hard on Kirk though. All those people and kids were at his house. He didn't get to just go home and have quiet and calm. And it's taken him a while to recover. And he's being naughty, too. He's started screaming. Not just on occasion to see how loud he can get. That's been going on for a while. No, he's screaming to see if he gets a reaction. Or, as Mr. b would put it, he's fucking with us. Out to breakfast with our out-of-town guest yesterday morning was tough. None of the usual tricks--bottle, holding, toys, food--did any good to stop the screaming. I can ignore him at home but not out in public. I walked over to the deserted side of the joint to scold him. Not like it made any difference.

And after a truly shitty night's sleep last night, where Kirk was up multiple times and wouldn't stay asleep because he wanted to sleep in our bed or while being held in the recliner in his room, he's back to more screaming. Hopefully it's just a breakfast thing. Yeah right.

I'm Not Dead

Wow. It's been a while. Real life got turned to 11 and relief is still several weeks off. So, for the 6 of you that still check here, read at your own risk. It's going to be a rather disjointed attempt at some catch-up.

Georgia was fantastic. Kirk was a great little traveler. We always had someone sitting in the back seat with him so that he had entertainment when he wasn't sleeping. He ate several meals in the minivan, too. And occasionally, like while stuck in traffic in Chattanooga, we'd take him out of his seat to climb around in the back. My dad dutifully pretended that there wasn't an unbelted passenger on his watch. Driver's Ed teacher you know. But it worked out so nicely we plan to do the same thing in December and all drive to Texas for Xmas.

But Kirk did not sleep well the whole time we were gone. I think it was the unfamiliar surroundings. You can only handle so much weirdness at once, and if you're road weary on top of it, well, that's not a good combination. He did better while we were staying at my cousin's house since that was a few days in the same spot. And there was a kitty. She was the best kitten ever. We all wanted to bring her home.

We'd take turns keeping Kirk in bed with us when he wasn't sleeping in his pack n' play in the hotels. I guess the two beds thing comes in handy after all! I had a hard time getting any decent sleep with him laying next to me. So I was pretty wrecked by the time we got home and had to take an extra day off work to recover. (Kirk went to Auntie Daycare that day so I could actually rest.) Then it turned out the episode of House I had recorded while we were gone featured a newborn getting smothered by his mom and dying from complications. Mr. b and I had a hard time with that one.

Thankfully, we're all in good health. Well, Kirk is on antibiotics again. We took him in on Monday because he had been batting his ear all weekend. That's one of his tired tics so it was hard to know if we were being alarmist or not. Turned out, once again, no ear infection. But he has some sort of not-quite-strep throat infection. Apparently his tonsils were disgusting, one worse than the other, and white spots. All pretty classic strep signs, right? But the strep test was negative. The doctor decided to put him on Amoxicillin anyway since it was obviously something.

It's way harder getting Kirk to take his medicine than when he had the nose infection. This time the dispenser is one of those hollow tube spoon things, and not a dropper. He no likey.

He's also continuing his campaign for skipping crawling. Though he inches closer to actual proper crawling as he's doing it. He'll take a couple of crawl steps and then sit. Or roll. Or go up to his feet and gorilla walk. He actually gets around quite well with his series of goofy-ass moves. Especially when you include pulling himself up on furniture and walking along the edge. The Squirrel is not amused. This means she is no longer safe just because she's up high.

Weightless

I’ve started counting calories. I figure I can Weight Watchers myself for free if I just do it. I’m not trying to actually cut calories right now, just get a feel for what my average intake is. But since I only started last Monday, I don’t really have enough data yet. And I’m also leaving on a road trip this afternoon so there’ll be a gap in the information. I’m not being hard on myself about perfect record keeping. I’ve decided that even if I don’t have calorie info, as long as I keep the food diary aspect of it going, that’s good enough.

I did the math and found out just what I need to loose. I gained 22 pounds during the pregnancy. Then, while breastfeeding and not paying any attention at all to what I ingested, I managed to gain back the weight of the baby, placenta, and water, as well as an additional 4 pounds. No fair! You’re supposed to loose weight while nursing!

I was aiming to have half of the baby/nursing weight gone by my cousin’s wedding on Saturday. I’ve lost 12 pounds so I’m very close. But I doubt I’ll hit it exactly, what with no exercise and gas station food. But still, I think I’m doing well. Once the baby weight is off I need to keep going though. According to my BMI, I was 5 pounds over my max weight to begin with.

I can tell a difference with some of my clothes. I’m back to wearing my pre-preggo belts finally. The first pair of back-to-works pants I bought need to have belt loops added because I need to wear a belt with them now. But it’s hard to know if I actually went down a size or not because women’s clothing sizing is so retarded and varies from store to store, from brand to brand, from item to item. Pants shopping is the bane of all of our existences!

I just need to keep up as much activity as I can manage to fit in a busy working mom’s schedule. I take the stairs at work. I go for a walk in the afternoon around our campus. I try to do at least one 10 minute pilates routine at night. Every little bit helps!

Let's Get Physical

Kirk's mobile now. I wouldn't say that he's crawling, exactly. But he's definitely mobile. He's got this whole system of not entirely fluid movements, from sitting to climbing to rolling to crawling-esque that get him all about on the floor. So he's not going to disappear from sight, like when he's in his walker, but he definitely can get around. Especially on the hardwood floors. There he doesn't even have to stay up in proper crawling position. He can just pull himself along on his belly using only his arms.

So now I'm fully and completely aware of how dirty the floors are at any given moment. And it's not like we're particularly slobby or have a whole menagerie or anything. But one little kitty does shed and hardwood does tend to collect dust bunnies. I'm going out of my head! I'm constantly looking at a new spot of crumbs or whatever and wondering, "Didn't I just clean that?" It's ridiculous. I'm going to turn into my father. He's totally obsessed with clean floors. One poor year we did all our gift shopping at the dollar store and got him a mini dust pan and mini hand broom. He still has it! It's like the best present he ever got.

Good Luck Charm

I find it interesting the different levels of freaked-outedness that other parents of young babies show regarding what their baby puts in his mouth. Mr. b and I are very lax. Kirk was out in the yard last night while Mr. b was putting up gutters. (Murphy’s Law states that the day you buy said gutters, because you don’t have any on the house at all, it will then rain non-stop for 3 days so you can’t put them up.) He was eating grass and dandelions and clovers the whole time. He thought it was great! He had spit-covered clovers glued all over his head and neck! I wasn’t at all concerned. Why should I be? Those are all edible plants and we never did put weed n’ feed down on the lawn so it’s chemical free. Of course when I took him inside for a pants change I found he was sucking on a rock. Oops!

Contrast with my brother and his wife. They were washing their son’s hands after their own dog licked him. Because they didn’t want him putting dog saliva in his mouth. The dog was all o’er Kirk, licking his hands, face, whatever. Kirk loved it!

Don’t leave me!

I think Kirk might be going into the dreaded Separation Anxiety phase. I don’t know. I haven’t been keeping up on the reading in his instruction manual so I’m not sure what to be expecting this chapter. But he’s definitely freaking out when I leave him behind to go into another room. Yesterday morning I had to bring him into the bedroom with me while I was getting ready for work. He wouldn’t just play toys by himself in the living room like normal. And he’s been crying when I put him into his car seat and then shut his door and go around to the driver’s side. And bed time! Sheesh. He’s been getting worse and worse there. Last night he fell asleep just fine. But woke up 2 hours later at 10:00pm and wouldn’t go back to sleep. I tried. Then Mr. b gave him a bottle. Then I tried again. As soon as you’d leave his room he’d start crying. I finally gave up and brought him into bed after an hour of that crap. “Just let them cry themselves to sleep” isn’t an option. He wails and then pauses to catch his breath or play with a crib toy and then starts up again. He gets himself too worked up to fall asleep on his own. So I transferred him back to his crib at about Midnight but even then he woke up just enough to fuss a bit about it.

Mr. b says he’s fucking with us. I don’t know. It’s weird though. And makes me worried about our upcoming road trip to Georgia. I had assumed he’d be fine since we’re renting a van and driving down there with my folks. So there will always be someone in the back to hang out with him. We’ll see.

Then again, Mr. b just claimed that Kirk is “broken” because he hasn’t started crawling. He’s totally spending all his R&D on standing and walking. His balance is still crap but he’s beginning to haul himself up by climbing up Mommy and he will walk along the edge of furniture if you stand him up there. And he does wheelies in his walker by picking up the entire frickin’ thing while he’s running around in it!