The most photographed child ever

I have one of those ridiculously large photo cards which holds about a billion images at a time. More than I can fit on one CD, I'm sure. And enough to keep me standing at the digital photo kiosk at Sam's Club for a full five minutes JUST waiting for the images to load so I can select the two dozen that I choose to print for the family. I cannot imagine what we did BEFORE digital cameras and ridiculously large-memory cards. Twenty-four exposures on a 35 mm, and not knowing how your pictures would look before getting them developed? Unfathomable.

Anyway, I thought I'd treat my two readers (yes, the list seems to be shrinking...I must be getting boring) with a new photo. So here it is.



I have the time to do this because the baby is staying overnight with my parents. And that is harder than I thought it would be.

Yes, she has stayed there before...the first night we came home with her, in fact. We were so exhausted, and they offered. It was glorious. But now that we are not so sleep deprived, it is hard to leave her for so long.

However, my parents are both off work for an entire week, and Mom asked that they be allowed to keep the baby overnight. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity for us to go out and see a movie, bake some cookies, do some cleaning, etc. But now, I just miss my baby.

*Sigh* I will still enjoy my full night of sleep. The baby sleeps for 6-7 hours at night now, but we still haven't accomplished any consistency about when that stretch occurs. So my body hasn't fully adjusted to a bedtime or wake time yet. But we're getting there.

Now here's another photo for those who actually read through all the above babbling.

I feel like a bad mom AND a bad employee

The baby is at the sitter today. Trial run, in preparation for a quickly approaching January 2nd, when I have to return to work for two months to transition in a new person to replace me. And between dropping her off and picking her up, running errands and attending meetings, I have allotted a full hour for being in the office. *Sigh* This is hard. And it won't get any easier when I have to be here for a full day.

This is only the fifth time I've tried to finish this entry...

This week has been rough. The baby has been cranky, leading to short naps and little time for mommy to get everything done.

We've been sick. We're talking all three of us down with the nastiest 24-hour flu I can remember. Luckily, after her first bout with vomiting and a bit of a fever, the baby slept through most of it. She bounced back pretty quickly. Lucky for us, because my husband and I were doing good to get ourselves upright long enough to feed her. That was our Tuesday. We are thankful that it is over.

We are much better now...finally starting to dig out from under the piles of mail and gifts that keep getting bigger. I'm hoping to get some sense of organization restored to the house this weekend.

I'm woefully behind on reading all of your blogs. I used to wonder why so many mommy blogs were so infrequent in new postings. Now I know. It is nearly impossible some days to even turn on the computer.

Enough complaining for today. Gotta go get something done while the baby sleeps.

I'm such a slacker.

It has been a long week.

Thanks be to God, the baby still sleeps well at night. However, the daytime hours have been a bit more challenging. She seems to have some sort of tummy pains right after eating. It's just happened a couple of times, but she screams for what seems like an eternity when this happens, and it's painful. She's also awake more and demanding to be held, which means that Mommy is not getting much done, but if it's all a trade-off for the good night sleeping, then I'll take it.

Milestones this week:

First bath on December 5th. She LOVES the water. She's just fascinated by all this warm wet stuff around her. Maybe it reminds her of the womb. At any rate, baths are definitely a good time.

Moving up to size one diapers (from newborn size). She's squeezing out of those tiny diapers. Size one is still a little big, but she'll quickly fit snug into those, I'm sure.

First all morning scream fest. She must have had some serious tummy problems, because she spit up everything and just CRIED. Arched her back and screamed. Lasted until about 2 p.m., and then she magically turned into the happy baby we are used to seeing. We are hoping not to revisit the screaming anytime soon.

All in all, we are coping well here. For now, I'll leave you with this.