Male Animals Are More Likely To Eat Their Young

Why is it that male animals are more likely to eat their young? I find it hysterical that the two new Dad's in our family, who are both hugely responsible for taking care of their babies, have been both caught acting as though eatting their young is both a possibility and something that could happen at any moment.

Thank goodness we know they both are silly and very loving and responsible Dads.

Now That I'm Not Pregnant Any More I Can Say...

I was huge!

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Anyone who knows me well, or probably even just a little bit, knows that by the 5th month of my pregnancy I was very hypersensitive to people's comments at how big I was and how big my baby was going to be. I tried to let it go and not let it bother me but I couldn't help but take it as an affront to my ability to have a healthy baby. People around me were commenting on how much they had gained and over gained in their pregnancies and I couldn't help the need to justify myself every time someone commented on my girth.

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I did a fantastic job of gaining weight, meaning, I gained exactly as much as I was supposed to. They say on average you should gain 25 to 35 pounds. I entered the hospital at 32 lbs. I also didn't carry high or low, but straight out in front. I felt judged. I felt like my baby was being judged and he didn't even get to prove himself yet. Even when the baby had dropped in my abdomen so low that my doctor was concerned he might come out faster than I could make it the 10 blocks to the hospital, from my work, coworkers were commenting on how they didn't think he had dropped enough.

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Come to think of it, a couple weeks before I had Padon I passed, at the Bus Transit Center, some strange man who took one look at me and said "Hhheeeeyyyyy!" (Like Wanda from In Living Color; for those of you old enough to remember the TV show) "Hang in there girl!" I have no idea what face I was making as I weeble-wobbled myself through the station on my way to work, but I hadn't realized that I was exuding my tiredness and achiness.

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So now that Padon has been born a small (to me), 7 lbs 2 oz, and two months later I have just about lost all of my pregnancy weight I look back at the pictures and see, well yes, I was rather large. In some pictures I do look down right huge. I can tell you now, though, that were I to get pregnant again I think I may be as sensitive again. I know that I shouldn't be but I can't get over people's audacity to comment on weight and looks when otherwise it would be culturally unacceptable.

All fairness to Walter, in this picture, he is being silly and making himself look pregnant.

I love him!

Baby Shower Pictures

My very fabulous and extraordinary friend, Erin, threw me a fabulous baby shower on the 20th of May. Ton's of pictures were taken but until recently I hadn't seen any of them.

That'll teach me not to bring a camera....

Looking back over them brings great memories of all the wonderful people that were able to come and the good time that we had.

Erin put out such a spread of delicious food: Fresh enormous strawberries, her mom made a delicious walnut cake (yumm just thinking about it), asparagus, cheese and mushroom quiche, and other wonderful things I can't remember...

Not only was it awesome having wonderful friends like Liz , Leah, and Judy come , but my Aunts, Mom, and Sisters too were able to share the special day with me. My Aunt Barbara came out from New York and I was so touched that she was able to come.

Milred, Barbara, Mom, Me, Jane, Sarah

The party also made for a wonderful opportunity to get an updated picture of myself and my sisters, together.

I can't believe how awesome everyone was and Walter and I were given everything we could possibly need for Padon. We have yet to buy him clothes and have only purchased a couple things, making him, so far, a pretty cheap baby.

My friends and family are so awesome, I just love'm!

Dad's Birthday

Happy 53rd Birthday Dad!

Back together again!

I don't think that's milk he's drinking...
Often the best way to console an inconsolable and gassy baby is to fly him.
No really! Just try it!

Did you see me swimming in the lake??!! I was swimming!
Did you see me getting eatten alive by the mosquitos? They were every where.....
Nice comfy snuggles...or my hair is stuck in your beard like velcro....

Yep, time to go home...

Can't get enough of the sleeping pictures!!!!!!

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Ok, I can't get enough of the sleeping pictures. Babies are precious enough but when sleeping they seem to exude a preciousness that I seem to need to take bazillion pictures of. Some of my favorites are below:

Oh, yes....There will be more to follow in the near future....

Out with the Ducks

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First Smile

How wonderful it is when your baby turns to you for the first time and smiles this big watermelon smile!

Padon smiled first to Walter in response to him laughing and we both melted. With exuberant high pitched coos of "Padon, well look at you!" he just kept on smiling. I was melting with awe and jealousy and found myself tearing up at my love for them both. It was a big mile stone for me because I feel that Padon's smile and how often he smiles speaks volumes for his character and I wonder if he will be a child who laughs and smiles often even on the cloudiest of days.

I love how his smile comes when least expected and about the cutest things. For example I laid him in his bouncy seat and the little red dog with black and white feet and tummy, attached to the toy bar over the seat, was swinging back and forth with its own big watermelon smile and Padon looked at it and smiled so big as if the little red dog had just whispered a joke only a baby could understand. I loved it!

Fourth of July

The fourth of July came so fast! It was great to see the family again but at the same time it was a reminder to me of how close I was to having to go back to work. I was given 6 weeks off through our short term disabiliy at work and was obligated to be back to work by the 16th of July. It was such a depressing thought that I would have to go back to getting up at 4am and my two hour commute (one way), not to mention business dress attire, no nose piercing, and a job that I had been feeling very unsatisfied in for over a year. *Sigh*

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The 4th of July party at my Mom's house, though, is always a good time and involves all the neighbors around the lake, that my Mom's house sits on, setting off a ton of fireworks for a spectacular and free show for us. It was so much fun to dress Padon for the 4th and I wish I had gotten a better picture. He arrived to the party in a 4th of July onesie that his Aunt Sarah had bought for him, navy blue pants, red and white stripped socks, and a red and white stripped hat. He looked so awesome.

He also brought a bit of Colic with him, however, and so in an attempt to get one good picture before his face cumbled into grimaces of painful gassy rumbles I changed him quickly into his swimming shorts (hey we were at a lake) and the hat and booties his Great (can you believe it?) Aunt Mildred gave him. I really wanted to be able to show her how cute he looked since her office gave her flak about the hat. I think it is too cute.

I laugh at this picture every time I look at it. Those little froggy legs are too funny.

It was amazing again to see the difference in Padon and Gregory. Sarah and I hung out and swapped our baby stories while everyone hung out in the back yard, kayaking, canoeing, paddle boating, munching on the good eats, and just having a good time.

We eventually laid the babes down together in the pack-n-play and it made for such a cute picture.

I have to say that babies and fireworks are amazing! Last year I ended up spending a good portion of time in the house because the dog decided that she had had enough of the explosions. It really was a surprise because she had been attending SCA events since she was 6 months old and had become accustomed to the loud sounds created by shields crashing together which can be really loud. I fully intended to have to hang out in the house again with the baby and dog but as the neighbors discharged their cannon for the 4th time (yes canon and the concusion from the blast was incredible) I started to wonder if maybe the doctor had been wrong and my wee bean was deaf. He didn't jump or flinch a single time. I did however! OMG! At one point I was holding Padon and one of the Cannons went off. I jumped and squeezed him to me in a protective bear hug. Startled I realized I had reacted in such a way that if continued in the future I would teach him to be afraid of big noises. So I looked into his face and with the biggest smile and happy voice I could muster said "Wow! Wasn't that Fun?!" I could have killed the neighbors but at the same time they didn't ask me to bring my baby and there has been a cannon every year.

Father's Day

Father's Day was the first time since Padon was born that we really had a chance to get together with the family and it kind of felt like we were presenting him all over again. We put him in the most adorable red outfit with my favorite bright green socks and his tiny white shoes and he wore it just long enough for everyone to see it, say how how cute and small he looked and then he spit up all over it and a outfit change was needed.It was amazing to see the difference between Gregory and Padon and what a difference two months makes when you are a small baby. I find it amazing to look back at the pictures and see how small he was because each transition is so subtle when you are there all the time.

It also seemed to be an extra special day seeing as it was Walter's first Father's Day. To prepare him for it Padon and I slept on the couch the whole night so that Walter could have completely uninterrupted sleep (A total luxary for us now). He woke up very surprised, pleased, and grateful. It was really great and what a life transition to be in my parents house with not just my father but two other new Dad's and it felt really good to see how our family had grown.

My Mom to celebrate the two new Dad's gave Both Walter and Wayne a ceramic sculpture of a Dad squatted down with a little boy climbing on his back. It was such a nice thought and it looks so cute in our house.

First Family Outting

It took me four weeks to feel myself again. It was the strangest feeling. I just woke up one morning and finally felt rested and full of energy. I felt like I had been cooped up in the house for too long even though we had run lots of errands with Padon. It was a beautiful weekend and it seemed a perfect opportunity to go to the Pike Place Market in Seattle. We packed up the diaper bag and tried out our new "Ultimate Baby Sling" and made our way to the Everett Transit Center.

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In order to get good parking in the city on a weekend without paying a fortune you have to leave bright and early and we haven't been able to master that yet with Padon so taking the bus into the city seemed the right thing to do. I printed out a schedule and off we went. It was great and a piece of cake. The day was so sunny and we wandered through the vendors dreaming about the purchases we would like to make and the purchases we would have made when we were teenagers. We had to take a picture by the bronze pig and it made me excited to make it a tradition to have Padon's picture taken by the pig every year.

Walter really wanted to stop by the Irish Pub we had eatten at before called Kells and so we made a bee-line for some good Irish grub for dinner. It was the first time I had had a real beer since I had gotten pregnant and it was awesome! Padon was hungry and between the two of us it made for a great photo opportunity.

Walter and I are proud WSU Cougars and often make jokes about the drinking stereotype associated with our beloved school. We would love for Padon to be a Coug too so we had to prepare him for his future.

We ended our meal singing Padon an Irish tune we learned through the SCA called The Barley Mow.We ended our afternoon down on the water front to take some pictures and then made our way back to where we thought our bus would be.
The screwy part was when we got out of the car in Everett I put the bus schedule in the "Ultimate Baby Sling" bag and attached it to the diaper bag and then it became an out of site out of mind thing. When we went back to catch our bus it was a one way street going in the wrong direction and there was no north bound bus stop to be found. I looked through the diaper bag and couldn't find the schedule that would have the address and started to panic. Walter thought he remembered me leaving it in the car and we quickly realized we would have to find a kiosk of some sort that would tell us what buses were running and where. In Seattle, however, the major bus system is the Metro and while we could take a Metro bus it would take us twice as long to get home because they don't go as far north as we live and what we really needed was a Sound Transit bus. Sound Transit brouchures were no where to be found. We must have wandered around for two hours before we opted on a Metro bus that I knew would take us to a Sound Transit station. Minutes later, Walter the wonderful man that he is, found our Sound Transit bus stop and we parked our butts for the next hour and waited, having missed it by seconds.

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The sad thing was we had been down town for hours. So long that what was left of Padon's milk after our dinner had gone sour and he was getting hungry. We had never gotten down nursing from the breast and impromptu nursing never went over well. I did my best but we tried and failed, tried and failed (mind you with a crying and frantic baby) and Walter ended up making a mad dash to a local pharmacy to hopefully buy a nipple shield (the only way I could nurse Padon with any success). He came back however with a nipple to a bottle that had the biggest bottom to it he could find because they didn't have the nipple shield. It was no easy task to get it to stay and get Padon fixed on it but it worked. I wouldn't recommend it and we did still end up on the bus with a crying baby for half the way and the other bus riders weren't very pleased with us. It was definitely a lesson for us new parents. Even if you want to feed your baby exclusively breast milk, always carry formula for the emergencies.
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You can imagine how stupid I felt when we walked in our house and started putting stuff away. The minute I touched the sling's bag I remembered and could have just died. It was a great trip, though, and we really look forward to doing it again.