Preparing to rejoin the real world...

Well it’s been 7 weeks and I’m sad to report that I only have a week and a half left of maternity leave to enjoy with this little guy in our happy baby bubble of poo, giggles and naps. Alas, the real world calls…

As the gravity of that statement starts to set in I am realizing several things…

1) I am freaking out - how could it have gone by so fast?! What will it be like to spend an entire day without Wyatt, but thinking about him, and then do it again, day after day after day?!

2) None of my clothes fit and I’ve made a life rule never to wear sweatpants in public (of course I made that rule long before I was pregnant…). As a stair-step back to the real world I have already made an effort to change out of my ‘house-wear’ before BD comes home. I decided the least I could do for the guy is make an effort to look nice! But it did take me four weeks to come to the point where I conceded that his need to see me in something other than sweatpants and t shirts (and perhaps with a little mascara) outweighed the desire to wrap myself in a cocoon of elastic-topped comfort all day, every day.

3) I’m going to have to master the breast pump in short order and get over my fear of a salesman walking in on me while I have my shirt pulled up to my armpits, this contraption strapped to my chest and of course, the inescapable rythmic soundtrack phhhhhh-ssssssss, phhhhhh-ssssssss, phhhhhh-ssssssss…

But first things first, I’m off to get my hair dyed this afternoon for the first time in 9 months!

And then, to the mall!

--Tagged under: tthe real world...--

While napping babies sleep...

Wyatt is enjoying his ‘I got mom up too early and am finally going back to sleep’ nap so I thought I’d try and catch up on a little blogging. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in 6 weeks is that if you’re going to get anything done you better have a plan and jump right in when that baby’s eyelids finally close! Of course, it’s a constant battle between the urge to get things done and the urge to sleep…

Anyhow, it seems like time is flying by and I just realized that Thanksgiving is next week… that’s WAY too soon, especially since it means I’ll be heading back to work only a week and a half later :( But let’s not focus on that just yet, there’s still time to enjoy the mommy life and the gift of being home with this little man during his early days, and for now there’s a Thanksgiving meal to plan!

Some of BD’s family will be visiting so we’re having my family down from Maine and we’re hosting our first Thanksgiving. The menu still needs to be set (again - how did it sneak up so quickly?!) but it’s sure to include some of the delicious pear butter my mom and I canned on Monday (hello transition!)

My Mom and I found a recipe on a great canning website, Canning Jars Etc. for pear butter and jumped right in. At first we were concerned after we added the spices because the new flavors were overwhelming (even though we used a little less that the recipe called for) and the delicacy of the pear was lost. But the longer it cooked and thickened and condensed the smoother and more pleasing the butter became. The flavors really melded and in the end we were really happy with the outcome - I think I might like it even more than the apple butter we made last time! Next we’re thinking we’ll choose one fruit and several different recipes and make a few batches in order to try variations - we’re really excited to try the cranberry pear and gingered pear recipes we ran across… mmmm…

That’s just a quick update and now I have to decide whether I’m going to use the remainder of this free time to take a nap myself or make some banana bread, I have some bananas trying to rot on my counter and this is the crucial time to be proactive or accept them for lost…

--Tagged under: canning...--

--Tagged under: thanksgiving...--

Newest embroidery… I worked on this little guy during my weekend of contractions and haven’t touched it since. But I have plans to finish it tomorrow and post on etsy for sale!

Newest embroidery…

I worked on this little guy during my weekend of contractions and haven’t touched it since. But I have plans to finish it tomorrow and post on etsy for sale!

--Tagged under: embroidery...--

I bought two digital copies of this awesome book online (one for me and one for my mom) today. Thanks EcoChic for bringing Leslie and her genius to my attention! The book is a treasure trove of great recipes, ideas and thoughts on green cleaning. The recipes are so easy and it’s worth the little bit of extra effort to know you’re keeping toxins that can affect your family’s health and your child’s development out of your home. Plus it’s another fun project and lord knows I can’t get enough of those! If you decide you need a copy of your own use the code AskBarb to get 30% off of your order! I’ll let you know how my green cleaning revolution works out… Also, here’s an interesting link that touches on cleaning chemicals. This woman works to raise awareness about toxins we encounter daily in and out of the home in an effort to advocate safe alternatives. Also take a minute to check out the website the article is on, it’s full of fun and helpful tidbits and updated daily! http://www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/chemical-free-kids/deirdre-imus-47081804

I bought two digital copies of this awesome book online (one for me and one for my mom) today. Thanks EcoChic for bringing Leslie and her genius to my attention! The book is a treasure trove of great recipes, ideas and thoughts on green cleaning. The recipes are so easy and it’s worth the little bit of extra effort to know you’re keeping toxins that can affect your family’s health and your child’s development out of your home. Plus it’s another fun project and lord knows I can’t get enough of those! If you decide you need a copy of your own use the code AskBarb to get 30% off of your order!

I’ll let you know how my green cleaning revolution works out…

Also, here’s an interesting link that touches on cleaning chemicals. This woman works to raise awareness about toxins we encounter daily in and out of the home in an effort to advocate safe alternatives. Also take a minute to check out the website the article is on, it’s full of fun and helpful tidbits and updated daily!

http://www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/chemical-free-kids/deirdre-imus-47081804

--Tagged under: ecoendeavor...--

Just finished some quality ‘tummy time’ with baby. Step one to his world domination, must build up neck muscles. One really cannot go far without neck muscles.

--Tagged under: tummy time...--

October Benevolent Postcard Society mailing [sort of]! This postcard was supposed to be sent on October 1st and is now being sent on Nov 2nd which I do feel bad about… the whole ‘having a baby’ event really threw off my month! None-the-less I have some mailer’s guilt and so, Nicki from Montana , if you’re reading this, I hope you will forgive me my tardiness and I hope the postcard, featuring stunning Boston sites, is nice enough to make up for it! The sites include the Charles River, the orange dinosaur from Rt. 1 mini golf, an airplane (seeing as I live right next to the airport and right under the landing pattern this is a big part of Boston life for me!) and a tasty lobster, perhaps from the Barking Crab, which I highly recommend Nicki, if you come to Boston! And last, but not least, the Zakim Bridge (though perhaps not exact in it’s rendering…)

October Benevolent Postcard Society mailing [sort of]!

This postcard was supposed to be sent on October 1st and is now being sent on Nov 2nd which I do feel bad about… the whole ‘having a baby’ event really threw off my month! None-the-less I have some mailer’s guilt and so, Nicki from Montana , if you’re reading this, I hope you will forgive me my tardiness and I hope the postcard, featuring stunning Boston sites, is nice enough to make up for it! The sites include the Charles River, the orange dinosaur from Rt. 1 mini golf, an airplane (seeing as I live right next to the airport and right under the landing pattern this is a big part of Boston life for me!) and a tasty lobster, perhaps from the Barking Crab, which I highly recommend Nicki, if you come to Boston! And last, but not least, the Zakim Bridge (though perhaps not exact in it’s rendering…)

--Tagged under: benevolent postcard society...--

Wyatt’s first Halloween!

I love Halloween and this is the first year I’ve been home playing adult and answering the door for trick or treaters. I was SO excited and after buying (and then eating) a bag of candy a week early (amateur mistake, shoulda seen that outcome a mile away!), insisting that we buy another LARGE back of candy for the hoards of kids I was certain would pound down our door, and dressing Wyatt up in his adorable Halloween costume we waited, we carved some pumpkins, we waited some more and more… the entire night we only had TWO trick or treaters and they came together! But the good news is that we had fun anyway. BD’s mom was visiting and we ate all sorts of tasty treats while cooing over Wyatt’s adorableness. The first pic isn’t Halloween but it looks like it should be - we decided Wyatt must have been crying because of the horrendous season the Redskins are having. The Frog and Pumpkin costumes were courtesy of my parents who couldn’t decide which one they liked better and each had a favorite so they bought both! Wyatt spent the day as a pumpkin and looked right at home in the fall foliage during our outing to Walden Pond (though he slept through the entire event) and then morphed into a frog just in time for all of the trick or treaters we never had (I’m not bitter!)

--Tagged under: halloween...--

The first REAL smile!

Okay, so I recognize it’s supposed to be too early for a REAL smile but I swear I got one intended just for mommy last night and I just won’t hear any arguments to the contrary! Wyatt was on my Dad’s knee ‘galloping’ on the infant version of the Pony Express, so I got down and started bouncing on my own imaginary horse right next to him. Wyatt was looking at me and when I started to bounce and discuss my ride with him he lit up with one of his beautiful smiles! I swear, I live for those smiles even though until last night they’ve only occurred as he was falling asleep while breastfeeding or ‘filling a diaper’ (there just isn’t a tasteful way to say that).

--Tagged under: smile...--

3 Week update, Apologies, Diapers, Baby Ba Dunk A Dunk and so much more...

Firstly, for those of you who have been eagerly awaiting the next installment of mommy news with baited breath (hi mom!), I apologize for my tardiness in blog updates. I have been severely delinquent in my email/blogging/general correspondence and computering since Wyatt’s arrival. So please accept my apologies and know that I shall try in earnest to amend my ways!

Okay - so it’s the end of day three in the cloth diapering world and I think we’ve pretty much got the hang of it though we’re still working to master leaks and there have been multiple nighttime ‘soakers’ and one incident in which I was feeding Wyatt in the car outside of a fabric store and suddenly felt a peculiar warm wetness… never a good feeling in any circumstance! That was the day I learned the obvious lesson to carry extra baby clothes in the diaper bag (extra mommy clothes would have been nice too!)

At this moment I really must pause to say how proud I am of BD and his cloth efforts - he has even wrung out a couple of diapers in the toilet with only a minimal amount of dramatic gagging sound effects! Really his main complaint has been Wyatt’s new, um, silhouette. I have to admit that after we stretched a sleeper over his clothed-diapered figure for the first time my mom and I could not stop laughing and she started singing the theme from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, due to Wyatt’s distinct pear-shape. Fortunately I think he’s adorable enough to pull it off ;)

WYATT SCOTT NELSEN Born October 5th, 2009 at 3:05pm. 7lbs. 11oz. 20” long WE FINALLY HAVE A BABY!!

WYATT SCOTT NELSEN

Born October 5th, 2009 at 3:05pm.

7lbs. 11oz.

20” long

WE FINALLY HAVE A BABY!!

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