Happy birthday to my wonderful, sweet, funny, brilliant, delightful husband. I love you!

I couldn't ask for a more loving and dedicated parenting partner than abovenyquist. He more than pulls his weight--takes his fair share of baby duty, and gives me breaks when I need them. I knew when I married him he'd make good daddy material--how right I turned out to be!

I love you, dear. Happy Fathers' Day.

I am upstairs in my sewing room, which has windows overlooking the deck roof. Aaron is outside in the swingy chair on the deck. I know this, because I went outside to check, after hearing the ominous creaking noise coming through the roof and my windows.

I had one of those terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad days today. Biggest challenges lately:

Communication - It's so hard for me when Z cries and I can't figure out why. After a certain amount of this, I just sort of stare at him helplessly. We're still working with the baby sign, but I have a hard time being consistent with it. Some days I do a lot of signing with him, and others it goes clear out of my head. It's not that I'm too tired to do it, I just *forget*.

Biting - I feel like I spend all day repeating, "No bite! No bite!" I try to give him other things to bite on, like the cold chew toys, but sometimes it's not just teething--he bit my hand today when I blocked his access to a cabinet in the bathroom. The sign of aggression really worries me.

Separation anxiety - I can't leave the room any more. Ever. Even for a minute. Even the Baby Einstein videos don't work to distract him anymore. I have to take him in the bathroom with me. It makes it virtually impossible to get any housework done--I can't carry both Z and a heavy bag of laundry up the stairs at the same time. Sure, I could put him in the play yard and let him cry, knowing he's safe, but in the five minutes it takes me to go up and down the stairs, the fuss escalates to a full-blown screaming fit that takes another 15 minutes to calm down.

Bedtime - This is Aaron's duty, so I can't complain about it for my own sake, but I have to note that, for all those books that say babies need routine, establish a bedtime routine, yadda yadda, I say, "thpppt." Z now *recognizes* the bedtime routine, and starts to resist as soon as it starts. The soothing music, the rocking, the darkened room--as soon as Aaron gets him into the room and starts the music, Z starts to squirm and cry. The world is too interesting to go to sleep!

Aaron, by the way, is amazing. He carries everything so gracefully--the crushing responsibility of his job, the resistance to bedtime, even the freaking out spouse. I wish I could figure out how he does it, so I can do it too.

Phone conversation with Aaron today:

Me: I'm downtown, I just took Z to the aquarium.
Aaron: Oh! Did you show Z the whales?
Me: Yeah, we saw the whales, and the garden eels, and the otters and everything. It was fun!
Aaron: What did Z think?
Me: He fell asleep.

Item: Z likes blueberries.

Item: Aaron was feeding Z blueberries last night.

Item: I can't find the rest of the blueberries.

"Honey, did you take the blueberries with you when you went out?"
"No, Z ate them."
"ALL of them??"
"Um...was that bad?"

Item: Be glad I'm not posting a picture of the resulting diaper. Suffice to say, no smurfs were harmed.

Aaron went to work Wednesday "not feeling so great," and came home running a fever. In the morning, guess what little almost-one-year old was running a 101 degree fever?

So far I have escaped the spring version of the plague of 09, and I am tiptoeing around the house, disinfecting my hands at every opportunity, in the hopes that my good luck will continue. The boyz are feeling better today, and hopefully *that* trend will continue so we are all well enough for Z's birthday tomorrow. My mom flew in from NJ to celebrate with us, and so far she's not sick either. Everyone keep your fingers crossed!

(Oh, and he never did recover from jet lag, in either direction, so we haven't had a complete night's sleep since *before* the trip to Cali.)

Actually, this is a few weeks old:

One of these things is just like the other!





And be sure and check out Aaron's blog for some video of Z giggling!

Have I mentioned I have the best husband in the world? I certainly had the best husband in the room today, at any rate. Of course, there were only three, but I bet if there'd been more, he'd still have ranked right up there. Why?

Today we took a class called "Baby Essentials," so now we know, theoretically, how to change a diaper and bathe and swaddle a baby. Provided, that is, that the baby's made of plastic, doesn't move, and doesn't cry. Aaron did a fair job w/ the swaddling, but that wasn't what qualified him for the "Best Husband" award.

No, but here's what did: as the other couples straggled into the room, two, it turned out, knew each other from work. The wives greeted each other in those high-pitched, enthusiastic feminine tones; the guys, on the other hand, gruffly exchanged, "hi, how ya doin's?" There was talk of other classes the couples had taken, and one guy exclaimed to his colleague's wife, "You're makin' him do too much!" The words "dragged in by my wife" were uttered. And so on, like that. One insisted on taking pictures, with his cell phone, of the other dad swaddling and diapering, etc, to pass around work for the purpose of embarrassing him.

And this, friends, is why I had the best husband in the room. Aaron never once has complained of me "dragging him into" a class--he knows just as little about babies as I do, and is pretty damn excited about this whole baby thing, and is not too testosterone-laden to admit either one. I did all the research and scheduling, but he's right there with me all the way.

In Mr. Cell-Phone Camera's defense, he did pretty well w/ the bathing and swaddling and all, and asked a number of quite intelligent questions. Which leads me to believe that this whole "dragged in by my wife" thing is merely a smokescreen, so men don't have to give up their rough, tough, uber-masculine mystique. Oy. Mundanes.

The Creature has been extraordinarily active for the last several weeks. In addition to thumps and bumps, I sometimes get these long, protracted squimy motions, like he's rolling over. The kicks are getting stronger and more frequent, and often occur in several places at once. Either he's growing extra limbs, or he's simultaneously playing DDR and Guitar Hero.

The midwife said on Wednesday that everything is progressing normally, and my measurements are just right, though I seem to be gaining a bit too much weight--I'm up to a 35 lb gain already, which is supposed to be enough for the entire pregnancy! The baby, she siad, weighs about 3.5 pounds right now. He's turned head down, with his butt on my right side. We even got to hear his heartbeat speed up when he kicked, and slow down slightly when he stopped. :)

Once night I was lying in bed, spooned up behind Aaron, and got one of those mega-thumps. "Heh-heh," I giggled, "The baby's kickin' your ass."

Squee! Aaron felt the baby kick for the first time last night!!

Aaron: 15-inch Macbook weigh like brick. Bang on table.
Me: Why you not use articles?
Aaron: Not like. Articles bad.
Me: Why you not use auxiliary verbs?
Aaron: [pause] Not know what is.
Me: Ha! Why you not use pronouns??
Aaron: Pronouns evil. Stole lunch money. Vow revenge.

Why our child may never speak standard English:

Aaron: what clocks BPUGAO? what clocks plane zoom zoom?
Me: plane go zoom 10:30 clocks

All he needs is a pair of sandals and a magic lamp!

Conversation between me and Aaron last night:

Me: How come our silverware drawer is stuck open?
Aaron: Is it?
Me: Yeah, it won't close farther than this.
Aaron: Huh.
Me: I think this is a Boy Job. C'mon, you're an engineer.
Aaron: I do electrons.
Me: Well, maybe there are some stuck in the drawer.

Public Broadcasting Atlanta covers the local filk scene. And Aaron's in the video! (So am I, but only very briefly, singing with a group.)

He's gone and designed another Special Topics class!