weaning

"I have this reoccurring dream in which I have a moustache. I know it doesn't sound so bad, but I swear – I'm afraid to go to sleep."

- dave foley, "on the subject of me"

I've entered into the socially awkward phase of the common cold. I still have no energy (my normal motive power has been replaced with distilled crankiness) but my more obvious cold symptoms have deserted me. Good news, of course, but it also means that I have to continually explain why I don't want to do anything. Ever.

Thinking back, I seem to recall many periods of springtime energy lag. It used to kick in right when I left university for the working world, so I always chalked it up to cognitive dissonance. But maybe I just don't have any energy in the spring. It's a whole new kind of Seasonal Affective Disorder! Better or worse than winter depression: discuss.

Ah well. At least the world continues to bloom without my say-so. Over noon today we took the baby to the park. I had some kind of fuzzy idea that I'd show him the animals and the pretty flowers, but he conked out in the car & we wheeled him to a shady tree instead. While he slept the sleep of the just, the Boy & I sat under the trees & watched various goose-gosling & duck-duckling pairs interact on the pond. Geese & ducks are by no means cute in real life, but their offspring are just as fuzzy & endearingly awkward as we've all been led to believe. I could spend forever watching the goslings jump off a boulder & flap their stubby yellow wings...or seeing the wee ducklings zip around on the pond after their mother. There was an opportunistic male duck who tried to put the moves on the mama duck, causing the Boy (who ordinarily is a great supporter of raucous duck sex) to shout abuse at the interloper. I guess ducks don't have a problem when their girlfriends have babies. Neat.

After Blake woke up, we toured the barnyard until my headache urged us home. I'm pretty sure that Blake'll love that park once he gets big enough to toddle around on his own & shout names at the farm animals. Until then there are nice quiet benches. And I can always hope that my energy will come back one of these months.

Today was also Blake's first official spoonful of semisolids. I was really, really set on waiting to 6 months, but the mooching has become intolerable. After the park outing we stripped our hot sweaty baby down to his underwear & hung out in the basement to cool down. I was eating an apple and playing with Blake on the floor when he started reaching for my food. I let him suck on it a bit, which has become my habit. The big difference today was that he didn't let me continue eating. Everytime I took away the apple to get a bite, he would whine & reach for the fruit. I kind of figured that he was trying to tell me something.

We set up the cereal in the kitchen so that my mom could participate. (She was ecstatic.) He ended up eating 2 teaspoons of rice cereal before I decided to stop, and very little of it was drooled out again. I'm not sure that I want to do this every day from now on, but it was certainly fun to try a little bit of mush.

The Boy put him down to sleep a half-hour ago. I fully expect him to sleep through the night. Heh.

I spoon the gunk off his chin & invite him to try again

solid food AND my toes?! my mouth runneth over!

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- Rocketbride's adventure of 5/12/2004 08:42:00 p.m.