lights

Stephanie's picture of Zoe from our trip to AZ makes me realize how amazing things are with a baby. Time feels like it literally freezes and simultaneously whizzes by -- and is tracked not by the clock, but by the little things zoe learns each day.

All babies love lights, and Zoe is no exception -- the Christmas tree drew this to our attention. So we took her to the Mesa LDS Temple to see the display one night, and the Phoenix Zoo-Lights display another. It was so fun to watch her captivated by the stuff. A few days after we returned to LA, at her 2 month doctors appt, her dr noticed that her neck was stiff and that she did not like to turn her face to the right... so when I got home, I dug out a strand of Christmas lights and hung them to the right of her swing. Sure enough, she looks right when they are plugged in.

She and I have been going on LONG walks every other day in the evening. She loves to see the street lights and car lights and it wears her out until she drifts off for a nap in my sling. I walk about 2 miles. I just Google-Mapped my distance. I thought it would be more :(

I hope to keep it up. I start back at work on Monday.

Oh, and me and my Legendary Husband are going out on a date Monday night with Scott to see Do-Make-Say-Think and have a sitter. Woot!

side-by-side with Marissa

Eva sent me a pic of her daughter Marissa and I asked myself... when did Zoe where THAT shirt? Oh, it's not her. Ha ha. Apparently Zoe gets her features from Eva and her husband Roger... how did THAT happen?

facebook makes blog obsolete

I hardly ever post here, because -- well... the title kind of says it all. I don't know if anyone reads this anymore. I have my doubts because I got a lot of haranguing about not showing and pictures of myself pregnant (which I did not share with the more public facebook crowd) that were readily available here.

Just in case I have internet audience that does not follow facebook, this is what has been going down since Mr. Walker Texas Ranger came around: burping, feeding, diapering, cleaning up messes that seem to appear out of nowhere due to too little space and too much baby gear, and the oft sought 3 hour nap.... repeat. My life feels a little monotone. Seriously. Kudos to you SHM's for your ability to thrive in this environment. Me? I need to go to work. I absolutely LOVE the hour or so that Zoe sleeps in my arms every day. And the fact that no one can soothe her better than me. However, the flip side of that is that I am the only one that can soothe her....

As we speak, I am taking a "day off" -- which means several contiguous hours of not being on call. I am on my second glass of wine. It took my one and a half hours to drink the first because the baby got too fussy for daddy to handle and it broke my heart, so I came out of retirement to help.

But back to small breaks in the monotony in the last couple of weeks... I have this plan to have Zoe's portait taken every month for her first year. The pictures above are for month 2. I need to invest about $100 and have a couple more professional shoots in order to be able to do the photography myself. (I watch what they do and get a pretty good idea of how to pose and set up the shots -- and Mark already has most of the equipment I need.)

May I recommend "Gran Torino" to anyone who has not watched it. I stayed away because I don't like car movies. It is NOT a car movie. Don't stay away. It is definitely going to win some oscars. (Mark just told me it was from last year and went up for best picture but didn't win... it got ROBBED!)

I am reading "Girlfriends Guide to Surviving the First Year of Motherhood" by Vicki Iovine. Very funny. I read it before Zoe was born and it really freaked me out; this was the most scary moment being pregnant. There are some things you just should not know before the baby is born that are easier to deal with when you are holding such a precious and amazing person in your arms -- but are insane to contemplate when you aren't. Now it is just seriously hilarious. So many things she says are just weirdly true. Like, how does she know that I only hold the baby up against my shoulder on the left side? I seriously CAN'T hold her on the right. I tried. It's not possible. Apparently that is universally true of all women. Who knew?

Anyhoo -- here we are. Our kiddo is 10 weeks old! I go back to work in two more weeks. Time really does fly.