Ack

I feel like my head is going to explode.

Nothing is set in stone. But the sheer amount of time that we have spent at car dealerships this past week probably means we'll be getting a new car soon. And it's all too much. TOO! MUCH! I thought we were just going out to buy some formula. Maybe some diapers. Instead, we test drove a few cars and kinda sorta fell in love with something that looks like this.



So we didn't buy any formula or diapers. But I did spend most of this evening walking around with an over tired baby who was slowly but surely getting hungrier and hungrier. I kept saying, "Look baby! Look at THIS CAR now!"

Blergh. I feel like an overstimulated baby too. AAAAAIIIIEEEE!!!!!

Traveling Circus

My parents live far away. It takes at least 13 hours to drive from our home to their home. Well, it takes 13 hours for Alex and me. We come from the same road trip philosophy of “No Stopping!” and Constant Attention to Speed. We like to brag about how quickly we can make it to places and look for ways to shave time off of our travel time. It’s like a game.

Then I got pregnant.

We traveled over Christmas when I was 7 months pregnant. My doctor said we had to stop every 2 hours so I could get out and walk around. This would keep me from getting blood clots in my legs. And since neither one of us fancied the thought of my blood clotting, we dutifully stopped every 2 hours and I walked around and went to the bathroom and admired the various snacks and drinks available at gas stations these days. The trip went surprisingly fast despite our new stopping schedule. We figured we’d be okay when the baby came and we had to stop for changing and feeding and screaming-stopping. It was a nice practice run.

And we were right. We made the trek down to my parents’ house earlier this month. And we have mellowed considerably in our strict travel ideas and time games. We stopped when we needed to and spent as much time out of the car as necessary. We didn’t check the clock for how well we were doing. We didn’t (grossly) speed to make up for lost time. We broke the trip up into two days and it really wasn’t bad at all.

While we were in Louisiana, I realized how important it was for Jack to spend as much time as possible with my grandmother. She’s my last living grandparent and I love her dearly. In a word, she is awesome. Plus, my parents are SERIOUSLY INTO Jack. SERIOUSLY. They want to spend time with him NOW and then SOME MORE LATER. And I want them to spend lots of time with them too.

So I started to get the crazy notion that I wanted to come visit again. Soon. And that maybe I could drive back down! By myself! Next month! I knew it would take a while, but I thought that if I took my time and broke the trip into two days, it would be doable. Not very much FUN, mind you, but doable. (And provide excellent blog material!) After all, isn’t this an advantage of “staying at home” with Jack? Being able to go out and do things that work and school always stopped me from doing before?

I began making the plan in my head and casually mentioned it to Alex during Day 1 of our journey home. He seemed surprised that I wanted to undertake such a journey by myself. Well, his actual reaction was, “Really? Ok?” And that was it. But whatever. I took it as surprise in wanting to drive for two days with an infant.

And then Day 2 of our journey home began. Jack was basically inconsolable for most of the day. We had to stop every hour and a half to take him out of the car seat. He was done. Absolutely, positively DONE. No more. NO MORE. When we stopped and took him out of his seat, he was fine. FINE. But the second we strapped him back in the seat, he would go nuts. We spent a vast majority of the day trying to calm him. One of us rode in the backseat at all times to help entertain and soothe him. And then traffic stopped. We spent two hours on I-65 in Kentucky just sitting. Sitting and sitting and sitting. Alex took Jack out of the car seat and changed him. And fed him. And held him while he slept. I sat in the driver’s seat futilely trying to update my Facebook status. It was just miserable. What should have been an 8 hour trip became 11 ½. And while we have mellowed out a lot about making good travel time, that pushed us to our limits. Somewhere around hour 9, I said, “Well, maybe I’ll have to fly down instead.”

Last night, I pulled the trigger. I bought a plane ticket. In eighteen days, I will be flying to Louisiana. With Jack. Without Alex. Me and my “infant in arms” are going to become seasoned travelers.

HELP ME.

It's also alliterative!

It's been a pretty laid back day here at the Sand Palace. The highlight of the day being this:

That'd be Floridian French Toast from First Watch. Bananas, kiwis, strawberries and wheat germ on french toast. Excellent!

That's How He Rolls

Me: Jack, will you roll over while we have three cameras trained on you?

Jack: No!

Me: Jack, will you roll over while your father and I are both home?

Jack: Whatevs, lady.

Me: Hey, you wanna hang out? Maybe read a book? Kick some toys?

Jack: Look what I can do! I can ROLL OVER!



Maybe we'll get a shot of him in action soon. So far, he's only done it when there isn't a camera in sight. It's like he KNOWS.

Seven Quick Takes - 7/24/09

So! I am totally going to start doing The Seven Quick Takes Friday that Jennifer at the Conversion Diary hosts. I found it via Emily and while I don’t want to actually add my link to the Mr. Linky she does, I think it’s a great idea because I am always coming up with random ideas for posts that are only half formed, but still constantly bounce around in my head. But not anymore! Now I can dump all the randomness on you every single Friday. JOY!

1. I am TOTALLY OBSESSED with Jordin Sparks’ new song, “Battlefield.” I KNOW. I can SEE YOU ROLLING YOUR EYES RIGHT NOW. But I cannot help it. In fact, I KEEP TYPING IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE OF IT. It is so freaking CATCHY. I have single handedly raised its YouTube hits by the thousands this week alone. I mean it is a great question. Why does love always feel like a battlefield? (Note: I don’t think love always feel like a battlefield. I’m pretty sure if you think your relationship is like a battlefield, then it’s time to LEAVE THE RELATIONSHIP, JORDIN.) And poor Alex, he doesn’t really like the song. Yet I force him to listen to it constantly. And then I sing it. And then I IM him the lyrics. Because I can’t let it go. It is an ADDICTION. (Here is a link to the video in case you REALLY want to know what I'm talking about. It is not a great song. I know this.)

You better go and get your armor!

2. Jack is soclose to rolling over it is RIDICULOUS. Every single time I lay him down, I think he’s about to roll over. But then he doesn’t quite get there. Alex and I have A LOT of gigabytes of the poor kid almost rolling over in both video and still picture form. I am sad that we are entering The Age of Mobility, because that means I can no longer leave him in one place and expect him to say stationary until I return. Now I have to be diligent, like I’m a parent or something.

A battlefield! A battlefield!

3. I have become fond of Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood. Like, I actually look forward to watching their show. Even though, when I think about it, some of the stuff seems set up and kind of fake…like their weird confrontation in the parking lot after Tori thought Dean had been injured bike riding. Funnily enough, in the past few weeks I have read about four other people (via twitter and random blog posts) who also like this show. So I’m not alone in my Tori and Dean love! In fact, I was actually excited to see that Tori was co-hosting the four millionth hour of The Today Show earlier this week. Even though I only watched a half hour of it the other day (see #4) because they were doing a segment on mommy bloggers. (I still managed to miss that interview. Instead, I saw a lovely segment on pick up lines. Same thing!)

Get your armor! Get your armor!

4. Speaking of TV, Jack LOVES IT. Which I hate because that means I cannot watch TV anymore. I don’t want my child spending his first year of life mindlessly watching hours of America’s Next Top Model and Snapped. (We only have free cable! Oxygen is our only fun channel!) So now we listen to a lot of music instead of sitting around in silence kicking toys and drinking bottles. It’s pretty funny though, because if the TV is on, he will find it and stare at it. Which is basically how I am too. I get easily distracted by a TV and I cannot be near one without watching it compulsively, all slack jawed and bleary eyed. So I guess he did get one thing from Momma. You can thank me later for that awesome trait, son.

Why does love always feel like a battlefield?

5. Lately, I have been listening to a Michael W. Smith channel I created on Pandora. I also have DC Talk as an influence on it. It is EXCELLENTLY OLD SCHOOL Christian music. (Newsboys, Audio Adrenaline, Steven Curtis Chapman.) I feel like I am in high school all over again. But in a good way.

A battlefield! A battlefield!

6. I am losing my hair in an insanely crazy way. I had read about post partum hair loss, but assumed it was either going to pass me by or not be so bad because my hair did not seem to be particularly lustrous throughout my pregnancy. Guess what? I was wrong. I could not have been MORE WRONG. I am constantly picking hair off my shirt and off of Jack. Or pulling stray hairs out of his hand or from his mouth. My hair is EVERYWHERE. It comes out in chunks when I shower. I am covered in it when I run my hands through my hair while I blow dry. (Note: I do not blow dry often anymore. Because HA! Who has the time?) My brush is full of my hair at all times, no matter how many times I clean it out. It’s like magic, because I promise I am not going bald. Where is all of the hair coming from? And when, WHEN will the shedding stop?

No really, GO GET YOUR ARMOR.

7. I love Kashi cereal. I’ve never been a really big cereal fan, mostly because I don’t like milk. And I hate how soggy cereal gets when in said milk. But the GoLean Crunch! Honey Flax Almond cereal? IS AMAZING. I crave it. Often. Early. Daily. I want some now but I’m out of it. So I’m blogging about it at 6 am on a Friday morning. This is my life, people. Awesomeness.

BATTLEFIELD!

Re Committment

So here’s my confession, I am ALWAYS writing blog posts in my head. Constantly. But I never sit down and actually POST them. For example, I had NO IDEA the last time I posted (previous to yesterday) was about Infinite Jest. WOW. That was a long time ago. I had written posts in my head about our trip to Louisiana, about Jack, about school, about life in general. But I had not posted any of them. AT ALL. So in my head, my blog is thriving. When in reality, the blog is laying fallow. Whoops.

My new goal is to blog every day. I’m hesitant to post this because I don’t want to state my goal and then fail miserably. (Much like Infinite Jest…a book in which I am on page 60 something? Reading! Not a priority anymore.) But I’ve been thinking about this and I really like my blog and I really like writing and I really like reading other people’s blogs. So I just need to get on it and DO IT. The internet has gotten me through some dark days over here at the Sand Palace and maybe I feel as though I should give back. If nothing else, it’s a nice creative outlet for me. A place to do something I’ve loved to do for a long time. A call back to the days when I was just Cora, not a Wife and a Mom. Not that those things are bad. They’re GREAT. But I feel as though doing things just for me that I like are necessary to my sanity so that I can be a great wife and mom. You know what I’m saying?

So here’s to a renewed commitment! I’ve got some ideas percolating for posts, some of which are probably SUPER BORING (I know! I’m such a tease!) But you know what? I like it. I’m writing. I’m posting. It’s good.

15 Weeks

I love the way he smiles at me in the morning.

His eyes light up. Like he’s just seen the most amazing thing ever.

I love how he holds onto my finger while he eats. He grasps it and does NOT.LET.GO. until he’s finished. I can’t get anything else done when I feed him.

I don’t mind.

I love how he buries his head in my chest when he’s tired. He rubs his tired little eyes before he inevitably smacks me with his head.

I love how he grabs my hand or arm or finger and gleefully brings it to his mouth. He usually is disappointed with the taste. But he does it anyway.

I love how he holds onto my shirt when I carry him. And when I change him. Even though sometimes I can’t get him to let go when I need to dump the diaper or grab a wipe.

I love how he giggles and coos. Sometimes it sounds like he’s saying “Hi!” He most often says “Guh!”

I love the way he smiles when his Daddy enters the room. And follows him when he walks away.

I love how he stretches when I take him out of the Swaddle Me. He stretches one arm WAAAAY out. Then the other one. And when you unwrap his feet, it’s full body joy as he stretches his legs as far as they can go.

I love how he smiles at me in the mirror. He notices me and grins. And then my heart melts into a million zillion little pieces.

I love him.