Tidbits

I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed by work. Hoping to return to my usual whining/ranting soon. In the meantime, some bullet points:

- The fusspot's sleep is much improved. Sadly part of the solution is one I would have preferred to avoid for another few months. Turns out that she is a stomach sleeper. I have yet to succeed in getting her back into her crib as suggested, and at this point in my single-parenting adventure I will take any shortcut that increases my sleep time.

- The very same baby who gives my breasts the loudest karate yell and attacks them voraciously also happens to be a nature-lover when it comes to other foods. Tonight she gently patted her sweet potato for a good five minutes while I vocalized her precise sentiments, which went something like this "Dear sweet potato. You were a good sweet potato. I realize that you have left the comfort of the cool earth to provide entertainment for me between 6:00 and 6:05 pm while my mother scarfes down her dinner, and I appreciate your sacrifice. I recognize our respective roles in the universe and I respect your sacrifice. And now I will dig both my hands in and fling bits of sweet potato around the kitchen as part of your final rites."

- In other food news, are all these recommendations to give yourself/your constant companion "foods of every color" at a meal serious? Does it matter whether you chose a color for the day as long as you vary the food over a week? We seem to have a serious issue with single-color dinners. Last week we had variations on white: cauliflower, cheerios. Then variations on green: broccoli, grapes. Then variations on yellow: cheese, banana. Then variations on orange tonight: steamed carrots, sweet potato, orange hard cheese.

- The fusspot is entirely self-fed at this point (i.e. no purees, no spoons). But I had still been sticking to the simple, bland baby foods. On Sunday we went to a party and the host had made a delicious curry. It had sweet potatos in it, so I offered the fusspot one thinking she'd make a funny face given the curry on it (seriously, like you wouldn't do the same?). Instead she ate it enthusiastically plus about 10 more pieces and hummus with pepper in it and rice with coconut milk ... so apparently she will (almost certainly temporarily) be a foodie baby. Now if only I could get it together to start cooking again ...

- Best baby-feeding tip ever: put a plastic tablecloth under the high chair. As long as you treat it like table (no walking on it, wash it every night) you can return anything the baby drops without guilt. And I throw ours in the shower at least once a week.

- I went to see a friend's 11 day old baby today. And held the baby. I want a newborn. Oh yeah, and her oldest is not yet 2. 'Nuff said.

- I really need to stop being so judgemental. Having coffee with a professor, somehow ranting about the lack of institutional support for mothers at my university. Said something about how convenient it was that the fusspot was born before her due date. He perks up a bit and says something about how his daughter was a 27-weeker. I immediately try to correct any misperceptions, but it's clear he wants to talk about it. So I made some benign comment about how hard that must have been - trying to give him an opening to talk about it. And he's suddenly like "The NICU? Not a big deal at all." So I write him off as a silly old man who probably both had no idea how dangerous those places are and left the wringing of hands to his wife. It's not until a good 20 minutes later that I realize why he didn't think the NICU was a big deal. Turns out the early delivery was because his wife was sick. And she died before his daughter left the NICU. So yeah, I understand why it wasn't the worst thing for him. I really need to be more cautious about judging people.

- Speaking of non-judgemental, met a lovely woman with a special needs daughter. And it was just so refreshing how completely relaxed she was about it. The type of mother who says, yes my daughter had surgery and needs some special therapy and we truly have no idea what her capabilities will be in the future, but we're enjoying it now. More on this family and visit later.

- Also lovely. Over the weekend JD and I spent a good hour or so on skype while he ironed his shirts (background: we are enthusiastically quirky environmentalists. We are committeed to a large number of very random environmentally-friendly things like not owning a car and recycling, but we also do not restrict things like plane flights which I know are terrible for the environment. So we decided not to use the dry cleaner if at all possible which means that JD irons all of his own shirts. This is considered exceedingly odd in NYC and takes him a good hour every week. Luckily he is convinced that I cannot iron and so has never asked me to help ...). I fed the fusspot and sang her to sleep while JD ironed and ranted about the weather and politics and his friends. And it was almost like being home again. Because even with my crazy commute and his long work hours, we always spend at least an hour talking while he irons during the week. And it's one of those fabulous activities where you are really stuck for a long time so it's ok to let the conversation lapse and have silence for 20 minutes and then start talking again. It just made me think how nice it would be to live with my husband again.