Back to the Bachelor Pad

Well, it wasn't so bad as I had feared, but our place did need a bit of tidying up after a week of just baby and dad. Tillie was only kind of sticky, but I still enjoy giving her a little wash in the sink. She just loves it!

Flashback

I went out with good friends in Boston tonight. It's almost as if I never left, never graduated, never moved back south, never bought a house, never had a child, never experienced craft night, never witnessed lymphoma, never felt as close to Scott as I do now. My family members are going through so much change: cross-town, cross-country, and inter-continental moves; new babies; growth; illness; recovery. You'd think they would have been the steady rock in my life, but it is really my once-new-now-old friends from Boston (and to some extent my once-old-now-renewed friends from Austin) who provide the foundation of stability that I must consult periodically as a litmus test of values. We're all on the same trajectories that started their barely salient arcs a couple of years ago, only we are better, clearer, a few degrees closer to the apogees of our lifes' paths. I love seeing how we've just eased into the next stage.

And now for something completely different...Tillie rolling around at Emily's house, enjoying the spotlight (Ain't she cute?!):

Aches

I'm out of town away from Tillie for the first time and oh how it aches! It never ceases to amaze me how primitive my feelings for her are. Scott told me about this sensation on his first trip away from her, and I just didn't get it until it happened to me. We video-conferenced yesterday so I could see and talk to her, but it seemed to do more harm than good. I just REALLY want to squeeze her little thighs and hold her little hands and kiss on her little face and feel the weight of her little body against mine and smell her little, fuzzy head and make her smile and flap her arms with excitement. I MISS HER! Man, I feel it in my stomach, like when you fall in unrequited love for the first time when you are a teen. Every time I see a mom on the street here in Boston, I just want to take her baby for a few minutes. Just a few minutes--I swear I won't kidnap her--I just need a little baby fix...but I probably would get arrested. Sigh. I'll be home soon.

Pics from last week until I see her again...

Hot Crossed Buns

Oh it is so hot! It was not this hot last year this time. I need a margarita. I need a parasol. I need a pool in my backyard. It is even hotter when you are lugging around a sweaty baby. Why did both Scott and I have the same misconception that babies didn’t sweat a lot? Ours is quite steamy and drippy and wilty. Here is the only solution:

Sadly, it works only for cooling Tillie. Her parents languish still.

Baby Gangsta Behind Bars

New sunglasses make me too cool to be in focus.

What's up with the baby gang sign?

Drool Air

Traveling with a baby wasn’t as bad as I thought. Sure she cried for a bit, which is an irritation for a few rows of people, but it wasn’t for very long. And it was for good reason. I never fully understood how uncomfortable a flight is for a baby. Not only is there the ear popping thing, which I hear is quite painful on little baby ear canals, but it is also very loud, there is very little kicking room, food does not come quickly enough, and Mom’s lap is just not nearly as comfortable as one’s own crib. So, only 20 or 30 min of crying on a 4-hour flight sandwiched by 2 hours of airport and car-seat bustle—she practically won a baby congeniality contest in my book! On the way back she didn’t even cry longer than 5 minutes. (I had figured out a few tricks.) My general conclusions:
1. My baby is extremely easy compared to others.
2. People who complain too much about babies on planes are big babies.

The trip to Seattle was great fun! Tillie got to meet her cousin Maddy, who is the most precious little thing. So tiny, so quiet, so smiley and blinky and thoughtful—I forgot that little babies can be so sweet. Lil’ Miss Tills has gotten a little more rambunctious in her old age. Scroll down and admire!

The Cousins Chilax

Tia Chovy and La Petite Princesse

Cuz Cuties

Walkies with Unka Tom

Cute in Movie Form

Learning to Play the Fingermaphone:


Drumming and then Cranking Out in True Punk Style (sorry, have to look sideways on this one):


Rockin' the Exersaucer:

Star Wars

Learning to eat finger food is a surprisingly difficult task. These little puffed star baby snacks are fun and tasty. They evaporate in your mouth almost instantly, but they also kind of stick to you if you are moist, like Tillie often is.

Practice moving those pincers!

If you shove a handful in, at least one or two will make it.

The raking it into your mouth method also works.

The stars won this battle, but not necessarily the war.

Someone enjoys cleaning up afterward.

Brilliance

Sorry to brag, but I reverse engineered this star wars baby sling for my husband using a store-bought sling that a friend gave us, and I feel it is my most brilliant feat of thread of late. Not only does it have Princess Leia on it, but it fits both Scott and I and is fully reversible for when we're not feeling so nerdy-fan-boy in our parenting.

Mutter's Day

Tillie with her grandma:

My first mother's day felt pretty special. Tillie's not old enough to do anything for me, but her daddy made me breakfast and let me sleep in. Now that is a treat! I tried to put together something smashing for my own mom. However, it was a typical mother's-day-gift semi-fiasco saved by mom herself in that I had elaborate plans to spoil her with wow-mom iced cupcakes but then had to call her for help at the last minute when I messed up the icing recipe and needed her to bring more sugar. Has anything changed?!

Also, I really wanted to do the Texas tradition of taking pictures of your kid in a field of bluebonnets, the Texas state flower. Somehow, I managed to miss bluebonnet season. Usually it is pretty apparent, but I guess I hadn't been driving on any highways lately so the nice lady at the wild flower center had to break it to me that they were all gone. Well, not ALL of them! I managed to find ONE, sad little half-alive bluebonnet a few blocks from my house. Here're Tillie's first bluebonnet pictures:

Well, at least we had a lovely day with my sister and her family.

Tillie's first couple of swings:

Tillie's first swim:

Role Models

Food Expressionism

An Evening Out

Biology Lesson

Food Cubed

My latest elaborate and ridiculous hobby: making and freezing baby foods. There's nothing ridiculous about making baby food, but freezing it into fun shapes is for my pleasure only. Tillie never seems to notice how her food is stored, hee, hee.

Freezing the purees:

Yam star, chicken cattiatore cube, carrot star, and apricot heart:

Internal Revedrool Service

Ug, so stressed...can barely deal. At least there is cute in my life. Perhaps I should share:

Perfessor Tillium

Tot Watchers

We took Tillie in for her 6-month checkup and it is official—she has to go on a little baby diet! Apparently, 42 ounces of formula a day is a little much for our 19.5-pound circus queen. So, she will be switching to a diet of mostly solid foods. That’s three squares a day! Both mommy and baby went swimsuit shopping to “celebrate.” Baby looked much cuter in hers than mommy, so someone else will be going on a diet, too. Holler if you are interested in scheming with me about Weight Watchers. I’m going to start on Monday.

This issue of Women’s Health magazine arrived last week addressed to Tillie, no kidding!

Conversations with Tills

Myahm myahm myahm...this duck is tasty.

I'm sorry, did you say something?

Nuh uh, really!

John

My good friend lost her step father last Monday. It is such a painful loss because he wasn’t old enough to die, and his illness—cancer—seemed to play an unfairly significant part of the last years of his life.

My favorite memories of John were when his step-daughter and I were teenagers. She would throw very lovely dinner parties—a precocious diversion for a teen and one of the things I have always admired about her—and John and her mother would chat a bit with us early in the evening but then leave us to our thing. I remember talking with him about science and computers mostly. I also remember feeling very adult while conversing with him. In retrospect it might be because he was a professor and accustomed to young interlocutors, but also, he is such a warm, friendly guy.

Hearing about John’s death and some other really dreadful news about a friend’s health have really made this last week tough. Coming back to Austin has been quite wonderful for me in that I am back in touch with some very dear friends. It has also made me realize how much it hurts when your community hurts.

I knew John through his wife’s child. How many people will I know through Tillie?

John M. Slatin

[Image from: http://blog.fawny.org/2005/03/06/portraits/]

Twice the Cute

This post is long overdue—I’ve had a hell of a week. All the more reason to post this toute suite!

Cousin Writer came to town again. What’s cuter than a baby? A pile of babies! Okay, well two is not really a pile, but it is certainly a lot of cute.

Aunt Karen's pics:

Pay-per-View Baby Boxing?

Baby Gourmand

Baby foods Tillie has eaten: rice, apples, pears, bananas, sweet potatoes, carrots, and peaches.

Next week it will be: oats, peas, and prunes.

There are really only a limited number of items that come prepared as baby food. And, let me tell you, the strained, jarred stuff does not taste as good as the real thing. I kind of want to mush up some fresh stuff myself for her. What could I make? I think it would be pretty easy to whip some avocados (like naked guacamole). And, I bet I could make pureed raspberries. That seems like it would go well with oat cereal. As long as I have the food processor and strainer out, I might as well make her some asparagus mash, strained blueberries, and mashed potatoes.

Oh when oh when will she be old enough for some real Texas barbecue? She probably needs some teeth first. As soon as she gets that first little pearly white, I’ll take her to Ruby’s. Then she’ll really know how wonderful food is!

Pretty Eyes

Sham Shamrock

Tillie inspects greenness of felt Trifolium dubium specimen.