First swim

On the way to Kenosha for Thanksgiving, E had enough of the car about the time we hit Madison, so after letting him scream for about 90 minutes we decided to stop in Milwaukee and make the rest of the trip in the morning. One of the benefits was that the hotel had a pool, so we took E for his first swim. I don't know if he loved it, but I think he liked it. At a minimum, he didn't cry :-)

Grabbing

E is really starting to grab things now. It is so fun! For awhile he would see something new and root towards it, wanting so badly to put it in his mouth. Now he can grab it and get it there.

Car seat

I have been hesitant to post this lest I jinx myself, but ever since the first snowfall, E has been sooooo much happier in the carseat. It's like he saw the snow on the ground and decided all of a sudden the car wasn't so bad after all. He still isn't perfect, and he still needs the vacuum cleaner sound track (which we listened to for 5 hours on the way home from Kenosha), but he only screams about 25% of the time now. It is a huge improvement. And the other day he fell asleep on the way to the mall and I was able to take him in in the stroller. I remember thinking, "Oh. This is what it's like for most moms. I get the advantage of the stroller!"

It only lasted the 10 minutes until he woke up. I just remind myself how much I will miss it when he no longer wants to cuddle so close to me all the time!

Bedtime routine

In a vain attempt to improve sleeping patterns, we are trying to establish a little more of a bedtime routine for E. We often start as early as 6:30, because he is cranky and I am out of songs to sing!
We start with a bath. . .

 

. . . then dry him off with his duck towel. . . 

 . . . and give him a baby massage when he will tolerate it. He has started liking it much more once his dad started giving him a heater :-)

We swaddle him up, and then off to bed!

E's first snow!

So it snowed for the first time just over 2 weeks ago. It was a warm day, with super wet and heavy snow, and we took E out to play in it. He wasn't quite sure what to think. . .

 . . . until we set him down to make a snow angel. . .

. . . he hasn't played in the snow since :-)

All in all, though, E fared much better than the tree in our back yard. And the power cord, the fence, and the pergola, for that matter. These branches are from the gigantic pine tree in our back yard.

My favorite baby fashion accesory

I have fallen in love with baby leg warmers! They are super cute, and super functional.
Benefits of baby leg warmers:

1. They help the socks stay on
2. When worn without pants they make diaper changes a breeze
3. When worn with pants they keep E's legs extra warm 
4. Either way, they are super cute!
5. I'm sure they will make E a super 80's dancer! Which will be like the 60's to him.

Here is a pair of my favorites. I'm sure you will see more in upcoming photos!

Highland Park Library

Fridays at 10:30 the Highland Park Library, which is less than a mile from our house, has a story time. I kind of knew this existed, but didn't have high expectations so hadn't made it a priority. Boy was I wrong. I'm starting to realize that you can estimate the quality of the story time by the number of parking spaces available, and I had a to park half a block away for this one.
We arrived a little bit late, and the place was packed. Up front were two women with stuffed animals and puppets. Instead of reading books, they would act them out with the animals. Maybe the idea was that you could then get the books to take home and read with your child? There was music and singing, audience participation, funny voices. The kids were absolutely enthralled. We will definitely be back to this one!

Barnes and Noble

In keeping with my storytime theme, Everest and I went to the local Barnes and Noble. While they don't advertise a story time, they do actually host two each week - one on Thursday morning and one on Friday evening. We stopped in after a(nother) failed attempt at the gym's child care to find a grandmotherly woman reading books about dragons. It was your pretty typical story time, like what I remember from elementary school and what I expected. With some bonus moralizing at the end of the book (did we have that at library story time?) The two books she read were: If I had a Dragon and The Tale of Custard the Dragon.

If I had to give it a grade, I would say C for average. Everest was completely uninterested, and we did not stay for the end. Note, this is not a guage of quality, more of his mood :-)

Como Zoo

Last week we found our selves over by the zoo with a couple of hours to kill, so we stopped in. If you can get past the "zoo as cruelty to animals" thing, fall turns out to be a really cool time to go to the zoo. The bring most of the animals (i.e., the ones that live in Africa) indoors, so you can see them up-close and personal. The ones who like the cool weather stay outside, and they are super active. No great pictures of E here, but a couple fun ones of the animals.

Winter wear

I'm kind of dreading the winter. I have a hard enough dressing myself for the weather, and now I also have to dress a baby! So far, he doesn't seem to mind the cold, and some friendly neighbor (if it's you, can you please identify yourself?) dropped off a box of baby snowsuits. Here is E in my personal favorite.

I love the bear ears! Maybe I will just start thinking about it as one more chance to play dress-up with my son!

Red Balloon

Now that it is halfway over, allow me to announce November's theme - story time!

There are several story time's throughout the community. Most are sponsored by either a library or a bookstore, and I think I accidentaly stumbled upon the gold standard of story times with my very first visit.

The Red Balloon Book Store in St. Paul hosts 3 story times each week. One is geared toward infants, one to toddlers and a third to preschoolers. I'm not exactly sure what that means as far as an age breakdown, but I know E is an infant, so we went to that one.

The storytime is done by Sara Waters, who describes herself as a "children's librarian and mother." She is high energy, and puts on quite a show, complete with puppets, musical instruments, songs, books, silly hats. . . The list goes on! I'm not sure if E totally loved it, but I think in a few more months he will. Unfortunately, story time is on Tuesdays during our music class, so I don't know when we will be able to go again. Sara has a class on Thursdays that I think consists of another weekly story time, only with a much smaller audience. We tried to sign up, but she was full :-(

This will be hard to beat!

Mom's group

When on a car strike and it is snowing outside (no joke, it snowed this morning), the only solution is obviously to throw a party :-) Really, it just worked out that way.
We have a little mom's group/playdate that meets about every two weeks. Most of us met when we were pregnant, and it is a really great group of women. Maybe next time we'll get pictures of the moms, but for now a photo of the babes will have to do. They range in age from 2-4 months.

Choo Choo Bob

We took our walk on Monday northward, to Marshall avenue, where we discovered a true gem. Choo Choo Bob's is a small train store, with everything for the hobby enthusiast. A smart businessman, Bob knows it is important to hook kids at a young age, so in addition to the model trains set up, there is a play area in the back with 8 little tables set up with wooden train sets for kids to play in. Bob has also produced a DVD, which reminds me a bit of Mister Rogers with a train theme. Or maybe I just don't know enough kids shows to come up with a better comparison.

Best of all, when you walk in the door you are greeted by Engineer Paul in full uniform! We will definitely be coming back when E is old enough to appreciate it.

More pictures

Everest likes the leaves, so we like to photograph him there. We added pumpkins this time just to mix it up a bit. Here are a few of the highlights.

In the end, even the crinkling leaves were not enough. End of photo session.

8 hours!!

So sleep has been getting rougher and rougher. From the very beginning, E has slept for 4 or 5 hours the first chunk of the night, but for the last couple weeks it has been tough to get more than a 2 hour stretch. This means he is up at 11:00, 1:00, 3:00, and 5:00. A growth spurt you say? May be, but he only gained 3 ounces last week.
Last night, we put him down at 8:00 and he slept clear through until 4:15. I don't know why (could it have been the extra long naps yesterday, or the bottle at 3:30, or Suzy's magic touch?), but it gave me a ray of hope that one day I will be able to function like a normal person again.

Random pics

We're trying to be better parents and take more pictures of E. Here is a sampling.

Morning stretch - every morning when we unswaddle E, he does a big stretch and is super smiley. They are usually some of my favorite moments of the day, even if I am far from ready to get out of bed.

I don't even know when/where this pic was taken, but E is a happy little pirate!

Bath time!

Dad works his magic when E is at his crankiest. E is a blur in the original of this picture :-)

Mike's 10 year reunion and small car victories

Mike's 10 year college reunion was last week. We celebrated by going to Bethel's homecoming football game and then hanging out at Tony and Laura's with a bunch of Bethel friends. Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures, but here is one of E in his halloween costume. We broke it out early in honor of the game. More pics of this are surely to come!

We also had a small victory on the way to the game. First time ever E has fallen asleep in his carseat on the way to the game! He still screamed on the way home, but we are making progress!

Wraps

I've been getting more into wraps, and trying to vary the carries we use a bit. So far we have the front carry with two variables. E can face in or out, or have his legs out or in. We did a first attempt with a back carry just around the house for a bit. He's awfully cute, and it was quite liberating, but I felt like he needs to be just a bit more secure through the shoulders. We tried again another day, and E would have none of it. We will keep trying!

Hats

Apparently, I am struggling to replace the ruffled bonnet that provides E with shade on our long walks. I think E threw it on the ground during one of our walks because he was tired of strangers thinking he was a girl. Today he wore a little sock cap, which keeps the sun off his scalp, but doesn't do much for his face. It looks pretty adorable, though.

I purchased a sun hat from Amazon, which came in the mail today. The description indicated it was for a 6-12 month old, but when I showed it to Mike he thought it was for me :-) E's head apparently has a lot of growing to do in the next 3 months, but if he can keep it on, it will certainly block the shade! In the meantime, I'll keep searching. . .

Hats have got to be some of the most adorable baby gear, by the way, so bring on the Minnesota winter!

Treasures on St. Claire

Instead of walking down Grand Avenue today, I decided to change things up and take St. Claire. There is much less retail on St Claire, but I did manage to find 2 fantastic treasures that I would like to share.

The first, strictly for it's irony, is the Health Food store (not sure if you can see the sign below). I must admit, I walked in to see all manner of organic vegetables, gluten free cookies, and other hard to find items. How wrong I was. While the store did have a fridge with eggs and organic bread, the entire rest of the store was full of vitamins, essential oils, protein powders, and other non-food type items.

The second was just across the street, called ArtScaps. I had no idea what to expect, but was met by a treasure trove of randomness. Where else can you possibly buy the little plastic things that hang on hangers at Target to indicate the size? Or picture frame corners in bulk? Or tiles you can break up and use for mosaic? 

And they had multiple aisles of bins full of this stuff! the idea is that artists can come buy stuff for super cheap to use in their art. 

They also host birthday parties. For $125 you can bring up to ten kids to spend 2 hours doing a craft together, with all supplies included. She told me all of the stuff they sold was donated, and would have ended up in landfills otherwise. I asked how one went about donating. Apparently they are only interested in large quantities, and I cannot bring my extra paper towel tube or other random things to donate. I think I may get much use out of this in the future, when E is old enough for crafts!

Clarification

Just so we're clear, when I talk about walking I am not talking about pushing E happily in the stroller. He likes to be carried close! This is how we carry him, and yes, I covered 7 miles today. Baby weight? What baby weight!

 He can face in when it is time to sleep

But prefers to face out and see the world! Please ignore the frilly bonnet. I have been unable to find anything more masculine within 3 miles of our house, so we continue to wear this one. We lost it today, though. I think E may have thrown it on the ground in protest of the pink polka dots!

Fall leaves

This post has nothing to do with our walking adventures.

Good pictures of E are rare, as he is usually attached to my body and tough to photograph, or is pretty fussy when Mike gets home. Even though he is the cutest baby in the world, I am saving his first formal photo shoot for blackmail when he has his first girlfriend.

A few days ago we had a rare moment in time when he sat in the colorful fall leaves and let me take some pictures of him. Here are two of my favorites. I definitely need to do a better job of taking pictures of this kid!

Letter to Fellow Pedestrians

Dear sidewalk sharers,

Please do not be offended when I do not stop for you to ooh and aah at my baby. If he is fussing I am trying to get to a place I can soothe him. If he is asleep, it is a rare luxury and I do not want him to be woken either by the change of rhythm or strange voices. If he is awake and not fussing, I am usually trying to get somewhere and this is my very limited travel time where I can actually cover some distance.

If perchance he is awake and happy, and we have a few extra minutes to stop and chat, please resist the urge to kiss him and hold his hand. He is still very young and fragile, and his immune system has a long way to go.

Thank you,

A paranoid first-time mom

3 mile radius

So, the 3 mile radius may appear to be a randomly chosen distance, but it is, in fact, the exact distance from my house to one of my favorite baby places - the Blooma yoga studio and Health Foundations birthing center. It was part of my prenatal experience with birthing class and prenatal yoga, and now that Everest is here I go there for baby yoga classes, a mom's support group, and a weekly weigh-in with a lactation consultant. Today we attempted to go to a yoga class.

The class was at 10:00. We got a late start, but left by 9:00 and should have been able to make it. E, however, was not interested. After stopping to feed him and change his diaper, we decided to explore Grand Avenue instead. We made it 2.5 miles each way and it took 2 hours to get there, and an hour and a half to get home. We will have to leave earlier if we want to make it next week. Or take the bus :-)

Some highlights from the trip, in no particular order:
- I got an estimate on carpet for our back room of $1000, and think I will continue shopping Craigslist for a rug
- Found I am much more comfortable stopping on the steps of an apartment building to feed E and change diapers than the front yard of someone's house
- While the cheese shop by Macalaster has a very wide variety, they do not have chocolate cheese, which I have been craving ever since Heidi's
- E has a namesake restaurant at exactly 2.5 miles, where we met Dad for lunch - Everest on Grand
- I love the "stringed instrument" store that always has an old man in the front window building a violin. Except today. He was building something much bigger. One day I will go inside, but for now am a bit intimidated by a store that hand makes violins.
- Most of the stores I shop at are between 2.5 and 3 miles
- Kowalski's does not sell any type of pacifier
- Today's diaper bag was way too heavy; I must find something between spartan and huge that works for these long walks!
- E loves to look at trees while we walk

Always carry extra clothing

You may be wondering why my son is wearing a shirt that is 5 sizes too large for him and one sock?

Everest hates the car. It's not the car seat. He usually doesn't cry until he hears the engine start, or sees the car. Because of this we are taking a little hiatus from driving, unless necessary. Unfortunately, this restricts us to about a 3 mile radius from our home. In honor of this, the month of October will be themed local options. We'll hit as much as we can within the 3 mile radius.

Today was the first day of our "car fast", so I loaded him up in the Moby wrap, and took off for Ford Parkway. He fell asleep on the way, so we did a little shopping, and went to the library to feed him when he started to fuss. So far, so good. But I had made a critical error of packing the minimum that we might need in a diaper bag (i.e., 4 diapers, some wipes and 1 blanket). Everest had an explosive poo right after eating. In a matter of seconds it was all over him, me, and our only blanket. I stripped him down and changed his diaper. It was about noon at this point, and I didn't want him to be in the sun too much. If I'm completely honest, I was also a little self-conscious to be walking around with a naked baby.

As much as we do have, we do not have a baby clothing store in the area. I ducked into the consignment shop, but the littlest they had was a 3T. So, 3T shirt was, plus the one sock that was still poo-free. Once he was in the Moby, it just looked like I lost a sock, which happens all the time anyway, and was an aspiring football player with room for shoulder pads :-) We had lunch, did a little more shopping, and walked home.

Day 1 with no car, lesson learned, and I would call it a success!

Introduction

My name is Sarah, and this is my beautiful baby boy.

He is eleven weeks old today! So far, being a mom is wonderful, but has been much harder than I ever imagined. To help me keep my sense of humor about things, I am going to use this as an outlet. When things can't get any worse, I will amuse myself with thinking about how I can communicate it on my blog. I will also try to keep a running list of free and inexpensive things to do with babies in the Twin Cities, with a focus on my lovely St Paul neighborhood of Mac-Groveland, in the hopes that some other moms out there might find it to be a useful resource in trying to avoid homebound isolation. I hope you enjoy it!