Not Yet

Last night Orion was in a great mood. He'd had some yogurt that was cleaned off his face with puppy kisses. He was giggling and smiling and kicking his legs. It seemed like a good time for a test run.

I laid him on his belly on the chaise lounge and his legs immediately started pumping. A couple of times he got his knees up under him only to splat flat on the cushion when he tried to push for forward motion. Eventually he started pushing hard enough with his legs (but not moving his arms) that he was scooting backwards toward the open end of the lounge. I asked Doombot to move to the end so he could catch him if he tried to slip off.

Since Doombot is conditioned to do whatever I tell him to when it comes to baby safety, he moved into spotter position with a quickness. Then I watched his face fall.

"No. Not yet," he said. He picked up the squirrel and snuggled him in close. "I'm not ready for him to crawl now. Maybe some other day."

We're both starting to realize what it will mean to have an only child. This is the only baby who will ever eat his first yogurt. The only baby that will ever lay on his tummy with his limbs flailing around. The only one to eat his first finger food, pick his first pumkin, and the only one (someday soon) to begin to crawl.

Today at lunch, a woman was at the table next us with her son. He looked like he was about 11 or 12 years old. He ordered and ate his sandwich just like Doombot. First listing off all of the things he didn't want on it, then reluctantly agreeing when his companion asks, "So, just meat and cheese?" Then, again just like Doombot, he got excited about the availability of baked potato soup. At that point I realized that someday that will be me. Picking up the Squirrel early from school on a blustery Friday, maybe for a doctor's appointment, then talking about his science project over a steamy cup of soup.

Certainly, that will hold its own joy, just as watching my baby grow into a real live person fills me with warm amazement every single day. I just can't help missing the tiny infant who was here and gone so quickly, who I'll never get to hold again.

I just caught myself contemplating some of my life's deepest questions. Today, we're talking about...Lazytown.

1. Why is it called Lazytown? Are they saying that the fat kid and the video game guy are lazy? I pick up on nerdy, but not lazy.
2. Why are the girl, Sportacus, and the bad guy regular people but everyone else is a puppet?
3. Is Sportacus' accent fake?
4. When will they air the Mothers Day special that's just 30 minutes of Sportscus doing pushups shirtless? Seriously, that guy's triceps are delicious.

Try this again...

There are four half written posts sitting in my drafts. As it turns out, moving half way across the country, starting a new office from the ground up, and raising a baby from 4 months old to 6 months old is kind of time consuming. This blog isn't the only thing that's been collecting dust. You could build another whole cat/dog from the fur tumbleweeds in my house. It also turns out that carpet is marvelous for hiding shedded animal fur. I had no idea how much there was until the tile in here gave it nowhere to run.

So, what's new on the squirrel front? Let's see...He's eating solids now. So far what we've gotten to work is a breakfast of applesauce with carrots for lunch. You could say we've had limited success with feeding him dinner, if by limited success you mean that every time we've tried to feed him dinner he's woken up halfway through the night with horrible tummy aches. It's been a couple of weeks, and I've tried again tonight. We'll see how that goes!

Also on the squirrel front? Sitting. Well, sort of. He can sit, he just doesn't know it yet. I keep catching him sitting unassisted because he doesn't realize that he's moved away from whatever was propping him up. Of course, though, if you try to sit him up with no illusion of assistance he faceplants right on over. He'll get it soon though.

Not on the squirrel front? Sleeping through the fucking night. We've actually moved backwards. He's gone from getting up once overnight to eat to twice again. That's a big reason I decided to try a solid dinner tonight. He's gotten harder to get down to sleep, wakes up more throughout the night, and wakes up earlier and crankier in the morning than ever before. I'm going to give this No Cry Sleep Solution book one more crack then I'm going Ferber. I don't like it, but this kid hasn't had a decent nights sleep in his life and if I don't do something soon I'm convinced he'll be broken for life.

Overall, things are good though. Orion is gettin big and silly and happy. He's really waking up and growing into himself. Oklahoma is turning out to be pretty fun, as long as you get your ass out of town and experience it. We've gone to corn mazes, petting zoos, and two mountain ranges all in the last two weeks. Up above, that's Orion in his backack hiking in Devils Den in the Ozarks last week. How could I complain with that smile in my grill all the time?