asteroid B612

Well, it's been a busy week, but much better than last week...

On the sleeping front:
I was at my end last week, too long with too little sleep. We had been cosleeping for the first two weeks, but I was gradually getting him into the PacknPlay. We went back to cosleeping, and life is so much better. He went from sleeping 2 hours to 4-5 hours with only slight stirring in the middle of that in one night. I haven't really figured out to nurse effectively in bed. Sometimes he gets it, other times not. But sleeping is better, so I'm not complaining. You can't blame him. When his natural tendency is to curl up, lying him on his back isn't the most comfy.

On the social front:
My dad grows plants for a living, as everyone in his family has since my grear-great-grandfather opened a green house in Baltimore. He had a trade show nearby, so we went to ooh and aaah at his display of perennials and to show off Ellis to distant relatives and close friends at their respective booths.

And yesterday. I applied the skills of my trade and served as judge for a little composition contest among the piano students of a woman at church.

I also got a hair cut. I feel more grown-up.

On the work front:
I'm having to reconceive of Me as Student. It's all changed. More later.

My dancing star is getting bigger:

After listening to his mom and dad read Harry Potter all week, Ellis attempts to summon his pacifier by nonverbal spell. Little does he know that HP is actually pretend, and he is soon thwarted. After which, he resorts to more common means of pacifier summoning. First, looking cute. Second, crying. The latter makes effectual his desire.

This week we had a real spate of visitors come to see Ellis. In fact, it got to be kind of much. It was lovely to see each and every person, but combined with the fact that sleep has been eluding me for quite some time, I reached my limit. So when I woke up yesterday morning with a plugged duct, I screeched things to a halt and went to bed cancelling all engagements. Seems to have worked, and I desperately needed the rest.

Just having visitors is something of a phenomenon. This just didn't happen in New Orleans, which may as well have been the edge of the universe. It was a place that one had to purposefully go to. Philly is quite the opposite. It is a crossroad and a city in the vicinity. It's near things and a place people pass through. As a result, I've seen more old friends and such in the few weeks we've been here than I think I did in our entire four years in NOLA. It's definitely fun, but when I am reasonably rested.

Nighttime still continues to be a bit of a challenge. We're still waking up every couple of hours. But that's ok. At five and half weeks, Ellis is probably just over eight pounds. The reason he wakes up so much is because his little tummy can hold only so much before refills are necessary. His tummy is the size of a typical newborn now, so I kind of feel like we're at point zero now. I'm not upset or anything. This is just the way it is, and I'll be patient as he grows, knowing that every time i feed him is another step along that path of growth. But after five and half weeks of getting like four hours of sleep a night all broken up into hour chunks, I feel a bit worn down. Maybe I'll just get used to it. But in the meantime, I think I'm just going to continue to take life slowly. I simply cannot have four visitors in one day and make dinner.

On a lighter note. We're really enjoying HP6; not done with it yet. I like how how Linnea put it, "reading a book with the whole world".

So yesterday's outcome:

We did indeed go thrifting, and I got tons of stuff for a grand total of $20. Gotta love it. I had heard of this one store off of Germantown Ave, so that's where we went. Unfortunately, we couldn't try things on, so I got a variety of sizes wh. is probably good, b/c there's a couple of things to meet me halfway between Now and Old Clothes. I did find a couple of pairs of drawstring linen pants: absolutely perfect for my body/summer weather. So overall I declare the mission a success.

On the way home we stopped at Border's to get HP6. I expected it to be plastered all over the store, but no, you had to ask for a copy from behind the desk. We usually read our HP's outloud. It's fun to share the experience; we don't fight over the book; and I don't read so stinkin' fast that I miss parts. But I've had a sore throat from sleepless nights, so we'll see how long this lasts.

We're also addicted to this BBC scotland show "Monarch of th Glen", wh. we get off of netflix. Had to get in our token episodes.

After a tough day of shopping.

On Sunday we visited a new church...an OPC mission work that is more 'urban' in focus, i guess. We'll see if it's something we want to commit to. We like the idea of being in a mission work.

No! not the mamarazzi again!

Should we...

...go to the thrift store to find me some "transitional" clothes (i.e. between maternity and size 6)?

...go to Borders/Starbucks to see if there are any copies of HP6 left? and then veg for two days reading it?

...both of the above? one of the above?

...be really good and work on a paper? (not!)

...think about it all day until it's over and we haven't done anything?

I didn't get a chance to blog on Thursday, so Happy Bastille Day!!! Last year I was in Paris with AlisonF, and it was way fun. This year I contented myself with a baby shower.

My cousins in Lancaster threw us a baby shower and many friends from the area came. It was a lot of fun to be seeing people again. People I've mostly gotten to know over series of school breaks at home. These handful of people, though, I always genuinely looked forward to seeing again, and I was touched that they would come out after all these years to celebrate Ellis's birth. And Ellis got quite a haul, too. All stuff we could use/needed, so that was great! One lady even sewed the most adorable overalls with a sailboat on them for him!!! We spent the night in Lancaster, (Ellis's first sleep over!) and came back yesterday.

This morning, my phone rang, and my fabuloso friend Sarah called to say she was on the NJ Turnpike on her way from Connecticut to Chattanooga. She stopped in for an hour. It was so fun to see her!! I'm so glad she'll be a short driving distance away now, since she's moving to CT.

Not much else going on. It's nice to have a bit more energy. Will be nicer to get out of maternity clothes.

I kind of didn't get a chance to finish. Archiving the belly pics. Glad not to be hauling around that load anymore.

We've had our first bath this week, thanks to the advent of the belly button. It wasn't Ellis's most favorite event of the day.

Yesterday we went to visit his peer group, too. There's a couple of people I know from Cov who've had baby boys in the last couple of months, so I went over there to chat and hang out a bit. Fun to sit around and nurse with someone else. How weird is that?! definitely new phase of life.

My Guys.
The hardest thing we do in a day is wake up.

For the record: Ellis actually looks like Chris. Since most of my readership knows me better than him they think he looks like me, but really he looks like Chris. When Ellis does look like me, I think it's the eyes. Not so much their physical features, but their manner and expression.

Either way, though, I think he is one cute boy!

This is the day I was going to begin lookin' for the boy. Though I had hoped he would be born on the 14th for Bastille Day. ;-)