Friday?

Is is really Friday already? This week has gone by SO fast. And with very little posting by me. Many apologies. I have actually been quite busy with work. It seems like everyone backed off when Gulliver was born and gave me a bit of space, but lately, I feel like I'm right back into things, full swing. Which is GREAT because it means we get money. And it means that I'm working and doing things that I enjoy. But it means that I'm not sleeping in till noon and eating bon bons all day long. What the heck?

One of my favorite moments of this week was when Murray rolled over my surgery foot in bed and when I cried out in pain, instead of apologizing, he said, "Huh. It'll subside." This is my new pat response for any complaint of his.

Tuesday of this week, Murray and I dropped Gulliver off at Grandma's and went to see Taken at the movies. I really needed to get out of the house. We actually quite enjoyed the movie. Of course as with any action film, there are things that you can pick apart (which is one of my favorite things about watching action movies). But I only had three things about this movie anyway. If you see the movie and want to know what they are, highlight the following secret text:

1) In Paris, the protagonist presents a French government business card to the Albanians but speaks to them in English (with no French accent) the entire time. What's up with that? Like they couldn't figure out right away that there's probably no Americans working in that part of the French government?

2) The rich dad sends the real dad to Paris on a private jet, but when the real dad brings his sexually exploited daughter home, they take a regular plane. What's up with that?

3) Apparently I can't remember my third point. But I know it was really good.

On Wednesday, Murray was sick and stayed home from work. So it kindof felt like an island Saturday in the middle of the week, especially considering we'd been out to the movies the night before. So I took advantage of Murray's ability to stay in bed and entertain Gulliver and I got some good housework done. And Murray listed a bunch of old books that he doesn't want anymore on Amazon (and sold 6 in less than 24 hours).

Here's Gulliver and company. One of these days we'll get a picture of him smiling with his friends.

Here's Gulliver standing. He hates being on his stomach and he doesn't like lying down more than necessary. He likes sitting up and standing.

Gulliver and his feet. I finally found a pair of pajamas that are not skin-tight on him. Unfortunately he's pretty much outgrown his Dwell pajamas already. Those were supposed to be 3-6 months!! He's barely 3 months. These pajamas are 9 months. Hopefully they'll last through the week.

And finally, here is Gulliver laughing with his Aunt Cici.

Hoppy Easter

Here is Gulliver in the only Easter outfit we were able to catch on camera. He pooed in every other Easter outfit before we had the chance to take his photo. Gulliver is wearing a hat made by Nemesis because she loves him.

Photo Catch-up Part 1: Park Day

Okay. I know I haven't posted in forever. I have been legitimately pretty busy and we were on vacation. So now I'm ready to give you a photo account of what we've been up to.

Here are some great pictures from our activities on Saturday. We went park hopping with Murray's family and the fact that it was raining meant that we got the parks to ourselves. Murray's family has found two great parks in the area. I was feeding Gulliver during one park visit, so I don't have pictures from there, but here are some pictures of a park that was so fun, even we adults couldn't resist playing on the equipment.





(Gulliver's first slide ride. I think that I have enough excitement in my expression for the two of us. Unfortunately for me, I recognize this expression from other pictures that have been taken of me in moments of extreme excitement.)

(You can't see my 9-yr-old nephew, but here I am, racing him up the rock wall. Because I don't let kids win.)

(And here's the coconut cake I made for Easter---the first ever cake I've made that actually turned out pretty.)

Gigantor

This weekend, Murray and I worked on Gulliver's baby announcement. Although I don't know what the point of posting it here is, because then you'll all have already seen it when you get it in the mail... Oh well. Here's one for your computers, and I'll be sending one (with his REAL NAME) for your fridges soon!

And here's some more pictures of Gulliver that I took while Murray was getting things set up to work on the announcement. They're different colors, but I'm sure that Murray will fix that someday.

Bath Time

Handicapped

Today Murray and I decided to go to lunch at Tucanos. Because he'd be going to work right afterward, we took separate vehicles. I drove with Gulliver. So when I got to the Riverwoods I noticed a parking spot right in front of Tucanos was about to become vacant. So I circled around the roundabout until the car began to pull out of the spot. Then, a car zipped in front of me and took the spot. Three able-bodied men in the prime of their life got out. I wanted to roll down the window, shake my cast at them and chuck dirty diapers in their faces. Or at least I considered politely rolling down the window and telling them that I'd been waiting for that spot and I had a cast and a child to carry.

Instead, I parked in the nearest free spot, fetched my spawn from the back seat, hobbled disabledly to Tucanos, and complained about someone stealing my parking spot to Murray, knowing full well that the three men were well within earshot. Because I can be passive-aggressive like that.

During lunch, I told Murray that I figured I could manage a grocery shopping trip to Walmart if I used one of those motorized carts.

Murray: No! You mean the ones that fat people use?

Me: Yeah. I think people might stare at me, though. [I said this meaning that I look able-bodied and if I'm wearing jeans, you have to actually look at my foot to realize that I have a huge cast.]

Murray: Yes! They will! I always stare at those people! I mean, I try not to stare at those people. But I do look.

Anyway, suffice it to say, Murray is not a fan of the idea of me using one of these motorized carts. He says that he doesn't want to be there for it. Oh, the humiliation!

On my way home, I thought more about my mobility issues. My cast comes off on Murray's birthday, but that means that I won't be mobile for birthday shopping. Hooray for internet shopping! But I figure I'd like to get out and look at some actual stores, and since my mother-in-law's two favorite things in the whole world are Gulliver and shopping (in that order) I figure that I'll just invite her to come shopping with us and it will be a win-win-win.

So I thought about a razor scooter. I always wanted one of those. In college, I had visions of me being the cool girl on a razor scooter, scooting between classes. But scooters were banned on campus, so there went my dream. Anyway, with a razor scooter, I could put my casted foot on the scooter and just scoot about! My casted foot isn't in any pain. It's just really annoying to try and walk on it. Anyway. A scooter is still an option. But I can't really scoot and carry a baby, so I'd have to reserve it for times when Murray has Gulliver, or we all go on a walk together or something.

So I called Murray.

Me: Hey. What if I get a little razor scooter?

Murray: Oh boy.

Me: Yeah. It would be better than the motorized cart. In fact, I could just go to Walmart, get the scooter and use it while I'm in the store, but not even buy it!

Murray: We could go into the store together, I could run to the toy section and grab one, you could use it, and then I'd run it back to the toy section when we're ready to go! We'd just never cross the cash register line with the scooter!

Me: OR, I can just borrow one from the neighbors. I know I've seen several strewn across their front lawn all summer long. I'll just go over there right now and ask to borrow one and in return, you can teach photoshop lessons.

Murray: OR, I can teach photoshop lessons in return for getting help putting up our Christmas lights! He leaves his up all year long. He could help us get ours up next week so that we're ready for the Christmas season early!

Anyway. I finally had one last brilliant idea. What about temporary handicapped parking? If I got temporary handicapped parking, I would purposely go out more just to be able to use it as much as possible in the next few weeks.

So I called my doctor's office, and guess what. I can totally get it. Yay! It just requires two more trips (one to my doctor's office to get the signature and one to the DMV) but then I'm totally, legitimately, legally handicapped for 2.5 whole weeks!




Aaaaaand now for the obligatory and completely unrelated pictures of the baby because let's not kid ourselves---when I'm not looking AT my baby himself, I like to look at pictures of him. Sometimes, I look at pictures of him WHILE I am holding him and looking at him and THAT is pretty much Nirvana.

(Me writing this blog post, showing you that I can have it all.)

(Murray coaxing smiles out of Gulliver.)

(Both of my men like to sleep in if I let them. Unfortunately for them, if I'm awake, I just want them to be awake and play/talk with/to me.)

(Gulliver dreaming of giving his sustaining vote.)

(The reason why I worry ten times a day about crushing my baby with my cast! Oh, and my knee only looks shapeless and undefined because of the camera angle, okay?)

Shake it out baby, now!

In yet another attempt to make our future children feel not as loved because we will never possibly be able to take as many pictures of them, here are some pictures of Gulliver doing his morning exercises. At this rate, he should be in much better shape than I am.




Here's Gulliver in an outfit that Murray's boss bought him. I know that Murray is a little wary of me treating a baby as an accessory, but I can't help but think that he'll look darling in this once he's filled it out a little (it is 3-6 months) and I'm wearing a yellow top, navy cardigan, and white pants. Bring on spring!

Work Avoidance Tactics

This morning I told little Gulliver that he was going to help me fold laundry. After all, it's almost all his and he should start pulling his own weight around here. So I put him in his bassinet while I went downstairs to grab the laundry and when I came back, this is what I found.


Ha. He thinks he can just nap through chore time! Not to be outdone, instead of folding laundry I went and took a shower. But Gulliver decided to wake up and cry. So I got him up and on the bed with me, ready to fold laundry.


But then he pooped his pants (or lack of pants). So I changed his diaper and found him his outfit for the day in the pile of clothes. And then he wanted to be fed. So I fed him. And then, we were ready to fold laundry together. And within seconds of me getting to work, this is what my #1 helper was doing:


So I folded all by my lonesome. Here is our finished work:


So I came into the office to blog about the experience, and within seconds of me leaving the room, he woke up and started to cry. This boy just likes to avoid work.

And here are some more photos!


Some more expressions. I finally got one with his tongue out. Of course, before I got out the camera, he was nothing but smiles. As soon as he laid eyes on the iPhone, he stopped performing.

This is the dress rehearsal for his baby blessing. I wanted to make sure that everything fit. His Mary Moo bought him the hat and sweater and matching booties. He's also practicing his cry for the main event.

I was enjoying some ice cream while cuddling Gulliver last night, and this was the result. What did I do about it, you ask? Well, at least Gulliver can never claim, like Joshua Giraffe, "My mommy doesn't lick me, even when I'm sticky."

Gulliver's Expressions II

Here's some more photos! You can see that I'm trying to catch some smiles. It's difficult to catch smiles because there is a lag on the iPhone's camera, which accounts for the wide range of expressions I get from Gulliver any time I try to capture just one.


There's no baby like snow baby. I took Gulliver for his first walk the other day and since it was very cold outside, I bundled him up in his snow suit. Of course, he didn't love that, but that doesn't matter since he fell asleep approximately 30 seconds into the walk anyway.

My sister-in-law is lending me their family bassinet while Gulliver is sleeping in our room. It came with a fabric cover that had a ruffle on top that kept getting into the basket and blocking my view of Gulliver. So I realized that I had extra fabric that just happened to magically match our bedroom, and I sewed together a new cover for the bassinet. And I didn't mind using my fabric either for something that I only have temporarily because I didn't have to cut it up much for this project, so basically when I'm done using this, I can just put it back in the fabric pile and reuse it for future projects. Hooray!

Gulliver is wearing the yellow submarine onesie that his dad bought for him today. And Murray is wearing a yellow submarine shirt. (Gulliver is unhappy in this picture because I accidentally pinched him while putting on his shirt!)

So that I could participate in the fun theme, I am wearing a yellow shirt. Maybe we'll go out for a night on the town tonight. I mean, why bother dressing matchy-matchy if no one is going to see?

Gulliver's Expressions

Here are some pictures from a photo shoot in bed this morning. Gulliver has lots of expressions. I think that he might be starting to smile socially, but it's hard to tell whether it's social or gas. I wasn't able to get any of his smiles anyway.


Speaking of gas, I have to say that Gulliver farts toots a lot. I don't know if this is typical of babies. He doesn't burp much at all. All of the gas seems to come out the other end, and he sounds like an adult. I can't wait to take him to church!

(Of course, I guess that just means that I can let loose in public and always just blame the baby.)

Baby Gulliver

Yay---we found a blog name for our sweet baby! He will hence forth be known as Gulliver on the blog. Sweet little Gulliver. My sister in law complained about a lack of pictures this weekend, so I'm putting more pictures on the blog. The first three are taken by Ootsie at our photo shoot when he was 1.5 weeks. The second two are from our photo shoot taken at 2.5 weeks. So far, no photo shoot has taken place for 3.5 weeks. We are bad parents.