drooling down the bunny trail

I take a mean pleasure in the certainty that all of my colleagues are marking at this very minute. Work is so not where it's at. Unless the "it" is money; then work is the only place it's at.

Blake is doing several interesting new things these days. He's started to move his lips in strange new patterns like he's just discovered they move independently of his emotions. He may very well be teething, but I'm not sure that I'm ready for that yet. He's also developed a new smile, one that actually stretches his mouth charmingly rather than opens it wide & merrily.

the lip thing

A slightly psychotic example of Blake's new smile

But the most spectacular thing he's done lately is to effortlessly master the fine art of flipping from his back to his front. We've been watching his struggle with this for a few weeks now. His biggest stumbling block was the arm that he inevitably pinned under his body; he just couldn't get it out so that he could be fully on his tum. Yesterday he finally figured out how to position his arm so that he can free it within seconds and today we can't put him on his back without watching him flip right over almost immediately.

He's a very strong & smart baby.

It's been a totally awesome 5 days. Pixie & Joe came up to see Blakeroo this week, so I developed a sudden & extensive social life. They're gone now, and coincidentally I spent all day in the basement sleeping as much as possible. Au revoir, Madame Social Life!

On Thursday (a.k.a. Blake's 4-month birthday) I went to Baby Club with the whole nuclear family. The Boy has finished his regular semester and he's been very helpful with baby wrangling as a direct result. Of course, it's gotten a little weird at Baby Club in the past few weeks, what with a bunch of my mom friends more or less deciding to quit. I've been feeling upset about that for a few days, as I am first of all not ready to give up seeing the midwives' office every week and second of all not ready to admit that the wild tumult of the group isn't working as well as it used to. The idea that the Original Six pair up with another prenatal group made me very antsy - I don't like small groups because they remind me too much of junior high. But, everything falls apart, as the Boy reminds me almost constantly. The centre cannot hold and no amount of my unease will hot glue it back together.

But I think I made it worse on myself when I agreed to take over moderating the official group. Now that I've committed to the old model, I may very well find myself with the oldest baby as the weeks go on and the others drop out. Oh well. It's just that this is something I'm eminently qualified to do, and there are few enough things that I can transfer from teaching to the real world.

Anyway, after the latest Baby Club meeting a whole bunch of us descended on the restaurant to gab about this new wrinkle to our plans. Soon Kate pulled up with Ciaran, waving cheerfully as she got out of the car. It was a few minutes before the news trickled inside: Kate had locked her keys in the car. They were right next to Ciaran.

Crisis! Panic, horror & blood! Well, not blood. A dozen of us immediately went into high gear. Some tapped on the car window to keep the baby amused. Others went across the parking lot to get help from the Hertz office. The Boy called CAA. Pixie & Joe showed up in the middle of the bedlam, and Joe uttered five heroic words: "I can break into cars." We got a coat hanger from the dry cleaners & he went to work. Within 10 minutes, Ciaran was in his mom's arms (a single tear tracking down his little face) and Joe was covered in glory.

It was some entrance. We spent the next hour eating & drinking like the gods we are - then we went to the suburbs to hang out.

who loves baby?

check the cool skull t-shirt!

pixie's 3-D house of babies!

playing on the floor

"Maybe I'm just biased, but Blake was the cutest baby in the whole place." - Joe, commenting on lunch.

On Friday Pixie & Joe managed to leave before I even woke up. The Boy & I blearily gathered up a few essential items & headed into the city to see Stacy & Noizangel for the afternoon. This was Noizangel's first visit with the Blakenator and we all had a fabulous time stripping him to his diaper & introducing him to the cats. He tried to eat the one named Squid, but Squid was too fast for him. Nevertheless, Blake found the whole cat-eating experience just hilarious.

"it's a meet and greet, not a meet and EAT."

blake & noizangel are grave & meaningful

boy & blurry boo

me & the boo

(Thanks to Stacy for those shots! If you don't realize this by now, she rocks.)

In the evening we snatched up Stacy & headed over to Le Marche to meet up with Pixie et al. Before everyone had a chance to arrive, Stacy & I ate a lot of food and traded confidences. Throw in some dancing and you have my definition of a perfect night. Alas. Once the rest arrived, we got to bathe in repeated assurances that Blake is the cutest baby in the universe. Pixie, Corinne & Isa all made exaggerated "punched in the ovaries" motions when the topic came up. It was very cute.

"I'm a bad aunt." - Stacy

Le Marche itself is a pretty wonderful place to bring a baby. It was so noisy and chaotic in there that no one noticed a small raucous baby being passed along from lap to lap, even when he started to cry. I ate way too much and the three of us went home filled to the gills. I'm smiling just thinking about it.

a perfect night out

On Saturday I took the Boo into the city for Gila Monstre's sex toy wedding shower while the Boy went off with Pixie to visit their father. I arrived a good 2 hours early, thanks to my misunderstanding of a time change...but it turned out excellently for all that. I got to hang out & talk pregnancy with just Gila & her friend Maria, which was much more relaxing than a full-on party with people I didn't really know. But the party was very good too, and we had some interesting moments juggling a wiggly baby and the um, stock. Maria took over as Blake's new goth Aunt, which was doubly surprising since she apparently doesn't usually go crazy over babies. I tried on some lingerie that didn't fit or flatter my postpartum body, and attempted to consume my own weight in sushi & chocolate. A startlingly good time was had by all.

The only bad thing was that the girls headed over to the Garden after the shower and I couldn't go with them. I tried, I really did...but my parents had a total freaky flip out when I arrived home with the baby at 10:30 and announced my intention to get dressed and go back out for a few hours. The Boy wasn't terribly supportive either, so I just gave up. I don't mean to imply that I was serene - my mood was nuclear and I sulked in silence for a good hour after I took off my shoes for good. Still, it does make me think more clearly about what I need to do to get out there. I'll have to carefully choreograph my re-entry into club life, not just assume that everything will fall into place. I'm not the cat I used to be, I've got a kid, I'm 33, baby.

Well, 2 out of 3 isn't bad for a quotation.

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- Rocketbride's adventure of 4/12/2004 10:13:00 p.m.