Those of you who know me know that I do not handle stress very effectively. Today's post will give you a little insight into this if you do not know me that well.
First up, my son. When we visited with Nick last week, my adorable little nephew, who is three weeks younger than my son, was pushing up and holding himself up on his arms like the champ that he is. Now, I have been very good about not comparing my son's achievements with my nephew's. I realize that each child develops at his own rate. However, my sister then showed me an adorable little picture of Nick that had been taken for his 4-month photo, he was up on his arms in the push-up. My over-protective, worry-wart mom gene kicked into high gear. Jack is nearing 6-months and he was not pushing up on his arms.
So, we (meaning me) became vigilant, almost drill sergeant-ish about tummy time. We had at least two sessions a day. I was down on the floor demonstrating, cheering, possibly scaring my son into wanting to see the world from his tummy. And it worked!
We still have some work to do, but I am no longer worried that my son has no upper body strength or is destined to eat with his toes.
While I'm writing about eating, I'll tell you about Jack's teething. Yep, we are pretty sure he's teething. After much deducing, it's the only explanation for the constant chomping on anything that gets near his mouth, the puddles of drool that collect everywhere he stays for more than 30 seconds, and the new high-pitched squeal that makes him sound like a squeaky toy that has no off switch. I think this new whine is payback for the years I spent whining to my parents about how life isn't fair. I don't know that grown-up boys whine about that to their mothers, so they have to get the whining in early. I read somewhere that teething can take 6-8 weeks before the tooth actually appears. If that is the case, Jack and I have a long summer ahead of us. Of course, all of his teeth won't be in until he's two, so I guess I should take this as training. The good news is that we can distract him a lot of the time and get him to smile. He can't whine while he is smiling.
Next stressful scenario... the yard. Steve and I and Breyer moved into this beautiful home a little over a year ago. One of the reasons we were so excited to move here was the yard. Steve was excited about mowing the lawn. I was excited about planting flowers and vegetables.
So, one year later, here is our "beautiful" landscaping.
That's right, we grow weeds better than anyone else in the neighborhood. In our defense, we did just have a baby and last summer I wasn't allowed to lift anything over 15 lbs.
Luckily, there has been one inkling of success: strawberries!
Steve found two patches of wild strawberries growing in the yard. We're keeping an eye on them so we can try them out once they've ripened.
In the meantime, Cathy was kind enough to come over and help us get started on reclaiming our yard. We weeded and mulched around our oak tree next to the driveway. Steve weeded and Cathy, Steve and I mulched and cleaned up around the mailbox. Then Cathy and I planted zinnias and salvia in some pots on the front porch. I haven't taken pictures yet because I want to see if I can get them to grow. So far, a week later, all of the porch flowers are still alive. We planted two zinnia in some window boxes that have not fared as well, and I think it's due to a lack of sun light. The porch gets much more sun.
Steve has done a wonderful job mowing the lawn on a regular basis. I guess it's just the gardening I need to focus on.
This week, I made it my goal to figure out childcare for Jack for next fall. We visited two centers near our house: Goddard School and Bright Horizons. I'm pretty proud of myself because I have been putting this off for a quite a while. I didn't want to think about what daycare would be like and I didn't want to figure out all of the questions I should ask. But I did it this week, and it really wasn't that bad. I won't go into all of the gory details, but we are one giant step closer to making a decision. I was happy with both places that I visited.
On a happy note, while we were visiting Goddard, the owner, who was giving us the tour, commented on how much Jack looked like me. I was pretty darned excited. I don't know if she would have said this had Steve been with us, but I'm taking it anyway!
While Jack is starting to look more like me, Steve is starting to look more like Jack.
I realize that since I have been home for summer break, I am blogging a lot more. I really enjoy it. It's fun to write the little stories of the day and hear that others are reading it.
Even more so than writing, I am enjoying reading others' blogs. That's my new hobby while Jack naps; I just read the blogs of everyone I know until he wakes up. I guess that's why I like journalism so much. I just love stories.
