holiday milk

Did you know SuperTarget doesn't sell Eggnog? They only sell holiday milk. I'm not sure what holiday milk is, and I'm pretty sure I don't want to find out. Dave is upset because I keep calling his Eggnog holiday milk.

We put up our Christmas decorations today. In addition to everyone here having a FAKE TREE, I realized the custom is to have a tree in every window (!!!) or to put a wreath on every window outside of your house. Kooky considering how windy it is here all the time. Gusty, gusty--and dry and sunny. It never rains. Whatever!

Dave only has ONE MORE FINAL for this semester--and then HE'S DONE!!! Last week's final went 'pretty good' (which actually means it was 'super easy'--Dave is a master of understatment). Unfortunately, we don't find out his real scores until the end of the month.

Snuffles is wearing clothes sized for a 9-month old. Here are some fun pictures of the him:

memories

of sleep, mostly. That's all I can think about and compute lately.

We resolved our emergency plumbing situation. One of the pipes under a faucet had a crack in it and so, water leaked all over our living room. But, in customary M/I Homes style--they are already fixing it! It is phenomenal. They are wonderful home builders.

So--in other news--Dave's first really really big law school exam is TOMORROW! He says he is ready. Go Dave!

And--in yet other news, Isaac received one of many bedtime baths again last night, and he seems to scream a little less each time. See:










Cookie Monster is Isaac's friend.

Today after our 3 mile doggie walk, we are making delicious Chicken Enchiladas with Tomatillo sauce and fresh homemade salsa and guacamole. Oh--and delicious MARGARITAS! We wish you were here.

Miss you! Email us at schleiferkin@gmail.com.

the goose is getting fat

So--we did not serve Turducken at our house for Thanksgiving, and I hope you didn't either--it's much too disturbing. If you want Turkey, Duck and Chicken all at the same time (I don't know why you would), could you just serve them individually without stuffing them inside one another?

We DID, however, have lots of fun, lots of food, and now--lots of leftovers. I took pictures, but they're on an old fashioned camera where you have to develop the photos, and that's much too complicated at this point, so check back later for photos of Mary Lee, Wally and Becca Walawender and her SO, Kristin. Kristin made SUCH delicious pies. She is a very talented girl. And Becca is H*I*L*A*R*I*O*U*S. Overall, it was one of the most, if not the most enjoyable Thanksgiving I've ever had.

I really appreciated them all coming over. It was a big boost for my mom to be able to visit. She thought for years that she would never get to see Mary Lee in person again. They both have health considerations that make travel difficult. So--THANK YOU Mary Lee!

OMG, it's HAILING right now at our house. Weird, because there is never ANY precipitation here at all. Just strong winds. Not so fun on garbage day. IYGMD.

So--there ya go. Adam spent a lot of time with us over the weekend, and he was a tremendous boost to mommy because he could take care of baby and give mommy a happy break. We ate delicious Papusas with some sort of cabbage contraptions, and Dave studied 99.9999% of the time, because his tests are Friday and next week.

Happy pictures of Snuffles:

turducken?

So what's up with everyone's fascination with stuffing animals inside one another? I guess it's like deep frying your turkey was a few years back...

I am busily preparing for Thanksgiving.

Mulled cider is simmering on the stove...

There's a warm fire roaring in the fireplace...

The house is clean and straightened...

Delicious food is cooking in the oven.

And Dave will be home for 4 days HAPPY! (though, he's still studying intently so, he's HERE, but not really HERE if you know what I'm saying)...

We're having roasted root vegetable soup, turkey, stuffing--French-Canadian style, mashed Yukon Golds, haricots verts (a Martha recipe), delicious vege dishes that the guests are bringing, and pie of course.

Everytime I go to the store, everyone fawns all over Isaac and I realize how deeply satisfying it feels to have all the important things in life. My sweet family :) And for that, I am very, very THANKFUL.

I absolutely cannot wait until Christmas. It will be Isaac's first Christmas :) Dave and I are getting the tree this Friday.

Our FiOS has the best music stations--I started listening to the Christmas songs already. We can pipe the music throughout our house and it's so pleasant here...

We wish YOU were coming. And we're eagerly looking forward to visits this January from Aunts Mary and Chris, and over the holidays from our first friend in Seattle--Mr. Ben Willett.

We plan to take lots of pictures tomorrow--Dave is the family photographer and technical expert. I need to be able to refer back to them when life gets to be too much--which, I'm sure it will :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Miss you. Email us at schleiferkin@gmail.com.

the transformation of snuffles

Well, as many of you predicted, the babymoon is over! Snuffles has become a fussy fussy baby who cries a lot during the day and there's little I can do to comfort him. I feel so sad for him, he seems like he's so uncomfortable. I'm sure it's digestive distress and I wonder why they don't make baby medications to help with it.

If it goes on much longer, I'll look into switching formulas and talking to the doctor. :( Poor baby :(

He just gets cuter and cuter though. Even when he's screaming I just want to hug and squeeze him all the time.

We've compromised on the sleeping situation. Dave does the feedings after work and before midnight. I go to bed as soon as we get back from picking him up from the subway at night (like 9:00 pm) and I am lucky when I only have to get up at 2 am and 4 am for feedings. At 4, I cave and bring Isaac into bed with us, making extra sure he has plenty of breathing room. It seems to be working out.

The dogs are a different story! Lately Daisy has gotten very active at night. Last night I didn't sleep at all because of her barking, scratching and whimpering. I couldn't even keep everything quiet so Dave could sleep. It was a bad deal.

In Dave news, his good grades continue. Unlike other law schools, Dave has had assignments that do count toward his final grade. He keeps getting As. I am so proud of him. It really is remarkable. I certainly could not do what he's doing.

My Sally Homemaker routines have slid a bit with the changes in Lumbley's sleep and temprament. Dave is lucky to get a banana and a breakfast bar in the morning. And forget about lunch most days. Dinner is a sometimes event. We always seem to have something I've prepared, but the inspiration is lacking. There are papers on the table, so we're eating at the couch in front of the TV. Most times it's a one-dish meal, with no extras. And, it's shifts. Mom at 6:00, Dave after he gets home and me, randomly.

And my house--I am lucky if one area of one room is clean at a time at my previous standards. It's demoralizing.

Sleep deprivation is serious business. Lumbley just settled down, so I'm going to go snooze. More soon!

ok--I get it now

I am beginning to understand the stereotypical mixed feelings about parenthood that people experience :( I am still super excited about him and I think he's the greatest thing ever AND simultaneously, I'm like "ooooh...this is what people are talking about."

As much as I love my pumpkin---my little sweet pea won't sleep for the long stretches he's supposed to--according to the pediatric experts who write books.

We made the transition from the 24 hour marsupial (me) to using the crib at night around October 10th after stern warnings about SIDS from our Pediatrician. This meant that instead of getting quasi-half-awake sleep for a normal length of time, I started to get a pattern of sleep for an hour, feed/change/burp the baby for 2 hours, repeat all night. And I really felt the difference. I began to get really, really, really tired.

The books say if you focus on how the baby sleeps and setting up good habits, rather than focusing on how he eats, you will have a much more rested FAMILY. Also, many people seem to think that 3 month old babies should be able to sleep for 6-9 hour stretches and at 3 months, it's starting to be time to skip the nighttime feedings.

So, when I tried following that advice, the pattern was sleep for 50 minutes, give the baby the pacifier and help him get back to sleep for 10 minutes, repeat---EVERY HOUR---ALL NIGHT. Then, at 4 am, out of desperation, bring the baby into bed for trhe quasi-half-awake dangerous SIDS co-sleeping deal.

Fag-get-aba-it. We're back to feeding ever 3 hours--round the clock--with crib. And I want to cry.

I just remember my friend Ashley forewarning me about this. The sadness and desperation in her voice when she said she felt like she would never be rested ever again was palpable. And scary. I thought I'd get through it just fine, because of the previous jobs I've had which required all nighters on occasion---many, consecutive occasions at times.

Oh, how wrong I was. There is a difference between having a job--when you have to do the occasional or often all-nighter--and the constantcy and new lifestyle, permanent responsibility of being a parent. It's an entirely different deal. I don't mind the lack of sleep, I mind the feeling of disorganization and just how much harder everything is when you're tired and you get interrupted every time you are trying to do something!!!

I'm still very committed to Dave sleeping like a normal person. We have to have that for him to be able to handle his load. He is awesome. He does so much house-related and child-care stuff on nights and weekends. If I had his schedule, I would collapse when I didn't have to be 'on.' He does 14 - 16 hour days every day.

HOWEVER, this is all about to change. I am about to experience some personhood and temporary reprieve from full-time parenting/caregiving. Today, I:

--Got a baby jogger (happy!), now I can take dogs on serious walks (jogs?) with Isaac. No guilt about not walking the dogs anymore--and I can begin to chip away at my extra baby weight!!

--Found a caregiver for my mom so Dave and I can travel out of town to visit his parents

--Hired our neighbor for 'supervised' babysitting--she can come over while I'm home and I can get some stuff done.

Solving problems is a wonderful thing :) No sense becoming grouchy-pants :)

And, yeah, it took 3 months, but I finally understand. This is what people were talking about.

lunch with the deputy director

In the continuing unfoldment of my relations with mysterious and long-lost family members, today Isaac and I had lunch [delicious! here: http://www.tonicrestaurant.com/fb] with a cousin I haven't seen in over 30 years!

Ms. Becca Walawender and her significant other, Kristin. Becca's mom and my mom are cousins. And the closest thing either of them has to being sisters. My mom LOVES Mary Lee (Becca's mom) so much and it's kinda crazy that Becca and I didn't get to spend more time together as kids. (Refer to my earlier post about my Jerry Springer/Dr. Phil-esque childhood for context here) In a family of mostly BOYS, the four of us are the only girls!

Anywho---Becca and Kristin are super fun! And super interesting. Kristin just returned from Africa on a business trip--economic development work for regional farmers. And Becca just got promoted to Deputy Director of something important with the federal government.

I could've sat with them all day long and chatted the day away. After 6 months of not much socializing with ANY girlie peers--they were both a breath of fresh air. The exact infusion of wit, irony and irreverence that's loads of fun and rare to find.

They've both lived in San Fran and they understand the TOUGH transition from West Coast RELAXED and HAPPY culture and BREATHTAKING beauty to the East Coast opposite. If they can do it, so can I.

[Perhaps they will join us for Thanksgiving and regale us with their adventures in Africa. With Adam there, the conversation will be lively for sure!]

Dave studied while we had lunch and then we met up with him afterwards at the GW Law School. I got to see his classrooms, the library, and the campus. All very impressive. He was so proud and I enjoyed watching him point out all the sites to Isaac.

We all finished the day with a trip to Wegman's. Becca and Kristin went to the Fairfax one (I think) and we went to the Gainesville one. If you can't have Thriftway and Larry's, Wegman's will do. It was a good day.

We miss you. Email us at schleiferkin@gmail.com.