5 Months!

Our favorite baby buddy is five months old today!

And today our little 5-month old figured out a new trick: wrapping himself up in a blanket and covering up his face just enough so that we couldn't see that he was watching TV.  Yep, he's our kid, alright.

We all just love him the most.  Mitch has even decided not to eat him.

*Charlie, if you are reading this far, far in the future.  You are awesome.  I'm glad we're friends now.

The Day of 1000 Tears

That was maybe a little melodramatic.  I mean, maybe there were only 500 tears.

If you haven't noticed from reading this little blog, I am a little bit into my dog.  A few weeks after Charlie was born, I was talking to Matt about how I didn't feel that overwhelming gushy love for him yet--that I loved Charlie, of course, but didn't have that heart swelling goofy love yet.  "I love him like I love you," I told Matt, to which he replied, "So you love Charlie the way you love me, but you don't love either of us the way you love Mitch?"  Yeah, kind of.

That sounds awful, doesn't it?  Shoot.  I think that I probably love them all equally, but Mitch and I are soulmates.  Plus, Mitch is like 99% positive.  He greets me at the door when I get home, he drops his furbody into the crook of my knees when we're on the couch.  He sings songs with me and eats yogurt dots with me and licks the tears off my face when I'm crying.

Oh, the crying.  I've been a little bit of a hot mess ever since I found out my Mitch needed surgery.  And it wasn't really because I feared the surgery, but it was more because I know how much he gets stressed out at the vet, and it broke my heart to think of him in some cold metal kennel without me, how he wouldn't know what was going on.  The dog is neurotic and a big weenie anyway--I mean, he cowers when you close the lid of his treat jar too loudly.

And then I did a very stupid thing and started looking up his little tumor thing online and got myself all scared and nervous about what this could mean.  Even though I know that he'll probably be fine, and I know that the vet seemed to think this was pretty routine, I didn't do a very good job of keeping my mind from going places I shouldn't let it go.

So there were some tears.

And then I got up this morning and dropped off my baby dog at the vet, and there were more tears.

And then I came home and told Matt about dropping my baby dog off at the vet, and there were more tears.

And then I got it together, went to work for 2 hours (dream work day), came home and called the vet to see how the surgery had gone.  The vet put me on hold, and this was the song that was playing as their on-hold music.



Are you f'ing kidding me?  That was the song I used to listen to when I was in high school and wanted to cry.  Great.  Also, vet, don't let that song come on ever again.

So, duh, more tears.

And then Matt tried to cheer me up by having me look at these 21 Pictures That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity.  He said they'd cheered him up earlier.  And they were quite heartwarming, but in a sad happy kind of way.  Like, the second one was about Japanese senior citizens who volunteered to go into the nuclear plant so that young people wouldn't expose themselves to radiation.

Cue the waterworks.

So Matt showed me this commercial.



More tears.

And then Matt had to call the vet to check on Mitch because I was too much of a mess.

Mitch was fine, but groggy.  More tears.   This time just because.

So while until the time that I could go get him, we watched part of the HBO documentary about George H.W. Bush.  What part did we catch?  Oh, just the part about how his 4-year old daughter died from leukemia.  Jesus H. Christ!

Finally, I got to go get my pup, and when they brought him out he was wobbly and pitiful.  He immediately plopped down on the floor and his vision must've been fuzzy because he didn't really respond to me at first, but then after about minute he smelled me and stood up and his tail started wagging and he seemed happier.  Still the most pitiful thing you've ever seen, with his light whimpers and lampshade and watery eyes.  He was crying, too!

I told you were are soulmates!

I'm so grateful that I have time off work to spend at home with my sweet furbaby, and the 10 days that he'll have to wear his cone collar can't go by fast enough.

Please send him your love and happiest of thoughts!

Weekday Fun

Here's what's awesome right now.

1.  Matt and I are rocking the socks off of parenthood so far, if I do say so myself.  We've always made a great team, and the last few days have even been fun.  Shoot, I slept for 9 hours last night (not all at once, but still), and little CSF is a pretty chill baby.  It's early yet, we know, but our incredible abilities to nap and our time management skillz are really coming in handy right now.

2.  The Elvis Presley Pandora station.  Charlie loves it.  

3.  Dog brothers.

4.  Mad Men.  We finally saw the season premiere (watched it in about 3 different installments), and it did not disappoint.  What did you think?

5.  Birthdays!  Yesterday was 31 for me, and while there wasn't much partying down, it was a nice day full of good food and snuggles and presents and love.  And about 30 minutes after I realized that I'd forgotten to go to Back in the Day Bakery to pick up some cupcakes for myself, a wonderful friend stopped by with 4 cupcakes and a card!  Shoot yeah!

Birthday present from super husband!

6.  The cutest baby this side of the Mississippi.

Hope you're doing well and getting lots of sleep!  

Weekend Fun

Oh, you know what we don't have yet?  A baby.  Last Monday's doctor's appointment left Matt and me both in a little panic after our doctor and nurses all seemed to act like little CSF would be arriving sooner rather than later, so we rushed all last week to get every pre-baby task completed.  I was instructed to take it easy (after doc offered to just let me go to the hospital and have the baby on Thursday if we wanted) and to try to make it to the 26th when doc will be back from vacation (WTF, doctor? You can't go on vacation until April!).  So I've been trying to slow down and not do anything too strenuous.  By the way, I can't really remember the last time I was upset because I couldn't ellipt.

But the weather this week has been amazing and happy, and our windows have been open, the cookies have been delicious*, and the dog has been trying to melt our hears with his cuteness.  We sat out the St. Pat's celebration (though I hear that our sweet Savannah really outdid herself this year) and instead focused on tying up loose ends around the house and doing some baby reading.  As much as I would be thrilled to be finished being pregnant and to meet our boy, I know that it's better to try to get as close to our due date as possible (mostly because of the boy's lung development and the fact that the longer I can go, the less time I'll have to spend at school at the end of the year).  So we're chilin' out max and relaxin' all cool and all--and I'm getting pretty bored with it, quite frankly.  I give myself a little pep talk/reminder about every 2 hours that it's better to wait, it's better to wait. . .

Here's what it's looking like around these parts lately.

 If I lean forward, I can see my toes!  Also, I am forever covered in dog fur.

 Lizard hunting.

Kept seeing these yogurt dot things on Pinterest, and, honestly, I thought they were pretty gimmicky.  But Shecky and I were talking about them, and I decided to give them a try.  The verdict: awesomeness.  They're fun and easy and addictive and taste like they're way worse for you than they are.  Mitch is a big fan, too!

So that's what our life is looking like in these last days before our boy comes, the calm before the storm, if you will.  

What have you been up to?  

*Made the Back in the Day Bakery chocolate chip cookies again.  Made half with chocolate chips and half with Reese's Pieces.  I've eaten approximately 6 a day since Thursday.  Shoot.

Weekend Fun

It's kind of weird to be sitting here recapping the weekend since the most important part of the weekend is still going on, but I don't really care about the Super Bowl.  I did see the halftime show, though, and decided that when I'm finished being pregnant I'm totes getting myself a highwire (tightwire?) and learning to bounce on it.  Also, I was pleased to see that ol' Madonna sang my favorite song about fellatio*.  Matt's off watching the game at a friends' house, and I considered going (only because there was going to be pizza there), but decided not to because I needed to stay home with Mitch.

Why did I have to stay home with Mitch?  Oh, because I'm just the worst mother who's ever lived.

Let's back up.  See, in our house, we're not huge medicine takers.  I mean, we take it when we need it, but we try to only take it when we actually need it need it.  Like, if I have a headache, I'll drink water first or take a nap before I pop a pill to get it to go away.  Anyway, I've applied my little silly medicine philosophy to my pup as well, so I only give him his flea medicine when he needs it (i.e., when I see a flea on him).  And his flea medicine is insanely powerful--like, we live in bug central and I haven't given him his flea meds since May.  But then I saw a flea on him yesterday and decided to give him the pill.  But I didn't remember, probably because I hadn't done this in like nine months, that he was supposed to take it on a full stomach.  So he got really sick.  Puking a lot, weak, pitiful, confused, whining, uncomfortable--sick.  And it was my fault.  And we were up until about 5 a.m. last night/this morning trying to get him to feel better, and I don't know if I've ever felt so guilty about anything in my life.  He's fine now, but I'm so riddled with guilt that I've refused to leave the house all day.  So there's that little awful anecdote to make me question my ability to parent a dog child, much less a human child.  

Aside from the fact that I poisoned my favorite creature on the planet, the weekend was pretty nice.  The weather's been out of control nice, and we've had lots of tasty food, and I was really productive and got to cross lots of stuff off of my giant to-do list (wish Matt hadn't written "try to kill Mitch" on the list--shoot), and we ate lots of good food and I even ellipted for the first time in two weeks (was totes secretly hoping that ellipting would be too hard and I would get winded doing it and then pass out so that I wouldn't be able to do it until after baby was here, but, mother eff, it was fantastic and I feel fantastic and my back and legs actually hurt less now).  

Here's what it's looked like around here.

Matt: Mitch, you better be careful sitting there.  Someone's going to come and try to buy you.

Cupcaking.

 Mmmmmmm. . .grilled buffalo chicken salad.  

That's Super Bowl food for people who have to go get weighed on Tuesday.

Nursery sneak peek, complete with name hints!  Mitch has been jonesin' for that Moose with Socks since July, and I think that after this weekend I might just give it to him.

I'm actually looking forward to this coming week.  Damn you, ellipting endorphins!  What about you?  Big plans for the week ahead?

*Everyone agrees that the song is about that, right?  Like, how can it not be?

Weekend Fun

This weekend was as lovely as the week preceding it was annoying.  After four days of work that turned me into a cranky, grumpy, mean, horrible shrew, the last couple of days have been lazy and warm and delicious and perfect.  And in only five more days (or 111 hours, but, really, who's counting?), I'll be on Christmas break, which is basically the best thing ever.

Today was especially wonderful.  I watched 5 episodes of Parenthood (and even got Matt sucked into it), snuggled with my cuddle soulmate pup, and I tried to see just how many things Matt would get for me so that I wouldn't have to get off of the couch.  (He drew the line at bedpan.  We don't even have a bedpan.)  We stayed in our pajamas until late afternoon and ordered delivery so that we wouldn't have to do anything but lie around in our cozy, Christmasy living room.

Here's what it's looking like around here these days.

Some of the Christmas decor didn't survive the Savannah summer. 

Get out of here with the beauty that is snowflake-shaped marshmallows! 

 Completely in love with the Christmas tree.  It was the first one we looked at, and it is perfect.

 Because 1-800-Pet-Meds boxes come with a treat inside, Mitch has decided that all packages contain treats for him.

Brown sugaring.  Did you know that brown sugar is just white sugar with molasses?  I didn't know that until recently, and now I'm determined never to buy brown sugar again.

Omigod, this dinner was delicious.  Adapted from this recipe, except that we used the juice from two lemons and, since we needed bacon fat anyway, we went ahead and added 1/3 lb. bacon, too.  

Hope you have a great week.  And I hope the next 111 hours go by in a flash!

Happy Happy, Joy Joy!

Here's what I love right now.

1.  I love that I will be picking up my baby sister in like eleven hours.  You remember her, right?  Here's what she looks like.

2.  I love that Thanksgiving is fast approaching, and that we have a low-stress-high-gluttony holiday planned.  I also love that I have like 22 pounds of cranberries (oh, Sam's club. . .) and I get to have fun thinking of ways to use them (sorbet? pancakes? so many ideas!).

3.  I love the little lizards who have been hanging out on my screens all day.

4.  I love that my husband will lovingly nudge me in the direction of ellipting without calling me a cow--even when I try to avoid ellipting by pretending to have fainting spells.  I also love that he will bring me mini snickers bars to eat while I am on the elliptical.

5.  I love using the handicapped bathroom.  I especially love it when it means I get my very own sink.

6.  I love these happy dogs.

7.  I love pot roast.

8.  I love that I took my car into the shop this morning, and then got a coupon for $50 from our mechanic in the mail before I went to pick up the car.  I also love our mechanic.

9.  I LOVE having a whole week off of work.

10.  I love that I spent hours cleaning the house today, and that my house is cleaner than it's been in months, and that I had the windows open all day because we had a high of 80 degrees today--and the highs all week are supposed to be in the 70's and 80's.

Fun days ahead!  Don't be mad if you don't hear from us.  There should be lots to share upon our return.  Eat turkey until it hurts and drink a glass of wine (or five) for me!

But It's So Cute!

I know I'm not supposed to let the dog eat things right off the table, but when Mitch received these special doggy Halloween cookies in the mail (from the best English teacher of all time!), I just couldn't resist.

I promise I'll be more strict with our second-born.