Getting a clean diaper- and Daddy didn't think I should take this photo!
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- posted by Lenise @ 1:25 PM |

 

Leaning on Daddy's chest
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- posted by Lenise @ 1:24 PM |

 

Cradled in Daddy's legs
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- posted by Lenise @ 1:24 PM |

 

Jay watching Kostya
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- posted by Lenise @ 1:23 PM |

 

Happy 6th anniversary to my sweet husband!
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- posted by Lenise @ 8:14 PM |

 
New Baby Girl
For Dawn and Jason. I don't have any details, but I'm hoping they (and photos!) will be forthcoming. Congratulations Mom and Dad G!

- posted by Lenise @ 1:57 PM |

 

Sleepy boy
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- posted by Lenise @ 1:10 PM |

 

Tiny feet
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- posted by Lenise @ 1:09 PM |

 

A rare moment of feline amity
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- posted by Lenise @ 1:09 PM |

 
Parenting discovery of the day
"Urinated" can be a transitive verb. The polite usage is with the passive voice: "He's not the only one who's been urinated!"

- posted by Lenise @ 1:20 PM |

 
Catching up on old posts
I just saw a comment on the This Classical Life blog which bugs me enough that I am going to respond, though "Chrysalis" will probably never see my response. Here's the comment:

Post 3:Yes americans have domestic peace because they fight their wars in other people's countries.I also doubt that many americans living in poverty would agree either.
by: chrysalis (URL) on 2004-09-29 21:08:25

Talk about blame America first! Umm, maybe we have peace in this country because it's run well enough to make revolution a really bad idea! Also because we are fortunate enough to be a powerful nation which no rational enemy would dare attack using conventional warfare.

On the other hand, after September 11th, it is a debatable point whether we do have domestic peace. It is a testament to the administration, national intelligence, military, and law enforcement that we can largely answer that question affirmatively.

As for fighting wars in other people's countries, yes, we do. Many of us would argue that pre-war Iraq was hardly a peaceful place to begin with, and that many parts of Iraq are considerably more peaceful today than they were 2 years ago. Most of us would agree that Nazi Germany was NOT peaceful, and most folks don't harp about us "fight[ing our] wars in other people's countries" when it comes to WWII. Sometimes the powerful have a responsibility towards those with less power, and just being powerful doesn't mean we can fulfill our responsibility without harming some whom we wish to help. Look at law enforcement- not everyone convicted is guilty, but the vast majority are, and we'd be a lot worse off if we didn't try to punish the guilty!

Which leads me to the question of poverty. The urban impoverished are usually forced by economic circumstances to live in crime-ridden areas. I'm assuming this is what Chrysalis is alluding to by joining the question of poverty to the question of peace. Granted, we don't handle poverty and violence as successfully as, say, Germany, but then Germany (to my knowledge) doesn't have a large urban subculture which glorifies violence (gangsta rap, anyone?) or a sustained history of widespread racial tension and mutual antagonism (most Germans have been extremely, even morbidly, ashamed of the Nazis for the last 60 years). Add to this the fact that this subculture labels academic success as treachery, and it's easy to see how it flourishes, at least in the sense of proliferation. Just ask Bill Cosby.

- posted by Lenise @ 1:55 PM |

 
The Mouth
No need for me to take the quiz linked to on Yorkie Blog... Mine are Sore and Sorer. When I catch the guy who told Jay he's supposed to have a growth spurt at three weeks, I'll... probably nothing, since it was as likely to be me as anyone else, save God Himself, and in that case, I definitely had it coming.

Still, it isn't much fun to have a baby who spends every waking moment with his mouth open, either eating or demanding to be fed. I did get a couple of smiles out of him in the five minutes exception today which proves the rule. And Paul left around 9:00 this morning for what promises to be an 11-hour workday. Those little sample formula packets are looking mighty attractive. We'll see how many are left when Daddy gets home...

- posted by Lenise @ 1:09 PM |

 
Speaking of key mishaps
Angie's key story reminded me of something funny that happened to us a few years ago. We discovered a grave engineering flaw in Paul's '92 (?) Geo Prism. Something was wrong with his electrical system, and he found out the hard way that when it went wrong, the starter didn't get any power. Paul had had the car worked on, and it seemed to be ok for a while, but then one day on his way home (you guessed it) it started acting up again. It was getting on towards dinnertime on a Friday night, and he figured it'd have to wait anyway, so he'd just lock the car running in the front yard while we ate, and then he'd unlock it with my key and take it to a garage. So after dinner, he takes my key out, sticks it in the door, turns it, and... nothing happens. Neither of us could believe it, because who's ever heard of a car with no mechanical means of unlocking the door? What if your battery is low and you lock your car on a cold night, only to come out in the morning to no power? At least the push-down buttons were not the sunken kind, so you ought to be able to unlock it from the inside if that's where you were. Makes you wonder about these engineers, though!

- posted by Lenise @ 11:15 AM |

 
Non-baby related!!!
We saw a little of the early part of the 9/30(?) presidential candidate debate. Looked to me like W was simply flabbergasted at the gall and lack of any kind of shame in his opponent. It may not be an effective debating technique, but I sure sympathized with him, and that alone is worth something, it seems to me. Anyone else pick up on this? I know it's old news, but I've been somewhat cloistered, you might say.

- posted by Lenise @ 7:53 PM |

 
The scoop
on parenthood, as experienced by me, SO FAR. Good thing I don't believe in jinxing oneself, because we have a very sweet, mostly co-operative baby far as I can tell. The first night at home was very difficult, though.

Jay refused to go to sleep. He only seemed interested in eating and fussing. Eschewing the help of my parents, whom I (wrongly) assumed to be sleeping (at least in my mother's case), I finally turned to my hubby for a break sometime in the wee hours of the morning. Though I wasn't able to sleep while Paul tried in vain to lull our sobbing infant, I did feel fresher by the time he came in to tell me he thought Jay was hungry. So I spent most of the time between bedtime and sunrise sitting in the armchair in the nursery, either nursing or simply holding our new son, who would sleep in my arms, though not in the bassinet where he had happily spent several hours dozing earlier in the day.

As the sun began to rise, I took Jay to bed with me, and what do you know, he slept for a good 4(?) hours. The next night, after trying to put him in his bassinet a few times, each time only to have his sound sleep miraculously dissipated until the boy was howling (trust me on the miraculous part- this child could sleep through a tornado), we accepted the lesson of the previous night, and sure enough, he slept a good 5(?) hours snuggled between mom and dad.

Basically, our baby has been sleeping through the night since he was 4 days old. Paul didn't say that 'cause he didn't want to make y'all jealous, but I'm not above bragging on my boy. The trouble Paul DID allude to is this: we've been trying to go to bed at 10 PM. Turns out, Baby thinks 1 AM makes a better bedtime. But really, sleeping from 1 AM to 7AM (or even 2 to 6) is nothing to complain about with a newborn! It would be nice, though, if we had at least a queen bed...

And yes, they told us to wake him up to eat, but see tornado comment above. We were discharged from the hospital Friday, at which time he was down to 8 lbs, 6 oz, and had a pediatrician appt the following Monday, by which time he was back up to 8 lbs, 14, so he seems to be getting enough to eat.

Two things Baby Jay doesn't like: diaper changes and bathtime. If he's awake and full (in the belly, y'all!), he'll bear the diaper changes stoically, but otherwise there's a lot of fussing and kicking, even just from him.

- posted by Lenise @ 6:56 PM |

 
New links
in my blogroll: two dear college friends. Rummynation is the erudite on-line journal of a Russian history doctoral student, and Plus One is the rumination[s] of a [fairly] newly in-the-family-way professional woman, both in the metro DC area, and also good friends to each other. Cathy, now that I've linked to you, you need to post more!

- posted by Lenise @ 6:46 PM |

 
And Baby Makes Three
Well, as Paul mentioned, all the grandparents have been and gone. Here's where real life starts! So far we haven't done too badly- Baby Jay and I had about a 3.5 hour nap after his lunch. Then he had a little overflow, necessitating the 3rd wardrobe change of the day. He ate some more (he got some pre-change and just finished his early evening meal.) Now he is sleeping in my right arm. I'm making small strides towards ambidextrosity! I'm predicting he's a righty, based on the relative frequency with which he uses each arm to sock himself in the face :)

- posted by Lenise @ 6:23 PM |

 

And this is baby's first tub bath. So cute!
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- posted by Lenise @ 5:20 PM |

 

And this is how he fit inside the womb...
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- posted by Lenise @ 5:19 PM |

 

OK, OK. That's me with Baby Jay.
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- posted by Lenise @ 5:18 PM |