Our Last Week

This is is Silas's and my last week together before I go back to work. I have really enjoyed my maternity leave and being able to have so much time with him. I'm a little scared about how we will both deal with my working full time starting Monday, but I'm also excited about returning to work, especially given that I haven't actually been at work since August due to my being on bedrest so long before Silas was born. As many of you know, Silas will spend the first two weeks at the Child Care Center at my work, where I'll be able to see him (and nurse him) several times each day if I want to. Starting April 27, Matt will be on paternity leave for the next 18 weeks and will take over the child care/stay-at-home dad/spouse responsibilities, which we are both very excited about. At his request, I am busily compiling lists of various jobs and routines for Matt, including an average day's schedule of napping, eating, and playing; a list of household chores; recipes for meals we eat often; and potential projects for Matt to tackle if he's feeling industrious, including writing some of these blog entries. I'm sure he'll have some great stories to share.

We've had a lot of adventures in the last couple of weeks and I took some fabulous pictures to document those adventures. Unfortunately, I also accidentally deleted all of those pictures before uploading them last night, so, really, you'll just have to take my word for it. We've enjoyed the nice weather and have gone on lots of walks.

Heading out on the town with my Mama and my shades.

Scoping out the ladies and showing off my mad swinging skillz.

We've had playdates with our friends JJ and Sean, Betsy and Sam, and our college friends Alex and Meghan and their future twins, Buster and Guster (Meghan is 14 weeks pregnant, and I'm pretty confident they're not actually naming the babies Buster and Guster, especially given that they don't know the sexes yet). UNC won the NCAA championship, and, although Silas didn't stay up for the game, he practiced his Tarheels cheers and songs and wore his lucky Carolina shirt on each game day. I'm pretty sure his lucky shirt is responsible for our win, honestly.

WHOSE HOUSE???? HEELS HOUSE!!!!

On the developmental front, Silas has finally started sitting up on his own using his arms to support himself. This is known as "tripodding" and Matt has been VERY stressed out about Silas mastering this skill for some time. Silas had tripodded for me for a few seconds here and there early in the week, but was usually too tired or grumpy to demonstrate his new skill for Matt when he got home in the evenings. On Wednesday, however, Matt, Silas and I stopped by the Child Care Center at my work to drop off Silas's paperwork, to get a good tour, and to play for a little while, and Silas took one look at his new buddies Isaac and Mackenzie and their sitting skills (they're both around 7 months) and tripodded like a champion for several minutes while Matt hooted, shouted general words of encouragement, and demanded high fives from every adult in the room. I'm kind of amazed that the Child Care Center ladies are still agreeing to take care of him after that display, but they assure me that they've seen worse.

From the dense foliage of the TinyLove! playmat, one can barely make out a juvenile human practicing holding himself erect in a sitting position.

Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? The guy who can SIT BY HIMSELF, that's who!

Ignore this one. Mama just wanted to document my bald spot. Have I mentioned that she's evil?

Regarding napping (also known as "THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE"), Silas has regressed significantly and has refused to nap in his crib for the last couple of weeks, despite my dogged attempts to get him to. Seriously, people, I put him down in his crib for each nap and usually approximately one hour of jibber jabber/fussing/full blown screaming/swaddling/unswaddling/rocking/crying-it-out/singing/walking around later, give up and put him in his swing, carseat, or stroller to get him to sleep. I'm pretty concerned about what is going to happen next week at day care, but I guess we'll just have to see. During our tour of the Center they asked us if Silas was allergic to anything. Matt's response: "Just napping." They can't say we didn't warn them, I guess. Please think good thoughts that Silas gets with the program and naps really well for them next week so that they can all appreciate what a sweet, funny little person he really is.

Seriously, do you think anyone can resist this love machine?

He is also picking up new sounds. Hilariously, as soon as he learns a new consonant, that's pretty much all he says for the next several days. First, he got "da" down. For the next five days, all we heard from him all day long was, "Da dadada DADAda daaaadadada DA DA dada." Obviously he hasn't made the connection that Matt is his "dada," but that hasn't stopped Matt from being very superior about "dada" being uttered before "mama." Now, Silas has moved onto "ba" and everything is "BABABabababaaa ba BAba abbbaBABAba ba" all day long. I'm feeling pretty good that "ma" will be along shortly. Even if not, I'm pretty comfortable with my current position as the favorite (i.e., the food source) to let Matt gloat a little over Silas saying "dada" before "mama"--I'm magnanimous like that.