Two months.

Elliott's new trick this month is being full of smiles, and so expressive!



We cannot get enough of these grins. He's particularly happy in the morning, which is a wonderful way to start the day. The interaction, even just with facial expressions, makes this stage more fun than the last. He's discovered mobiles, and his favorite activity is to lie on the pack & play changing table and kick and coo at the mobile above it. This can entertain him for a very long time, which is great as I get ready in the morning.

My official maternity leave ended during this month, and I went from playing "stay-at-home mom" to playing "work-at-home mom" for a few weeks. Elliott's gotten to hang out with his Grammy for a few hours a day either at my house or hers while I've been working, and he's been good for her, of course. I think she likes him, too :)

Elliott continues to grow before our eyes. He's getting too long for many of his 0-3 month sleepers. At an appointment a week & a half ago, he was 12 lbs 2 oz, over 50% over his birth weight- in other news, he's heavy to carry around! I suppose my muscles will grow with him! We're doing more babywearing around the house with the Moby wrap & Ergo carrier. Just a couple days ago was my first time wearing him in a store, and he fell right to sleep, and all the cashiers smiled at him. When it's warmer out, carrying him in a carrier will be so much easier than the car seat! With the snow & cold, though, it's easier to keep him warm bundled in the car seat, as much as I hate to lug it around.

Elliott first took a bottle this month at 6 weeks old, from Daddy. He's had a few more since then- they're still practicing, and I'm practicing pumping in anticipation of returning to work soon, trying to build a freezer stash. We've been using cloth diapers this entire month, and have a laundry routine down- it's not nearly as big a deal as I thought it would be. Also, they're really, really cute.

I've got a few posts floating around in my head- about working at home, about breastfeeding in the news, about home improvement adventures... hopefully I'll get them written down soon. In the meantime, though, I'll keep a supply of cute baby pictures coming, promise.

Borrowing

Almost 2 months later, and sometimes I don't think think it's real- that we can really, really keep him. I imagine we're borrowing him, and someone will come and take him away to his rightful home- we're just babysitting him for a time. That this parenthood thing is a dream - a big, wonderful blur that will pass. But it's not.



I like him. I'm glad he gets to stay.

What's the world going to look like?

Although I've been playing 'stay at home mom' (and, more recently, 'work at home mom') these last couple months, I've done my best to keep up with world events, as to not totally live in a bubble. World news as of late has gotten me thinking- what will the world look like when this baby sleeping on my lap learns world geography? There's turmoil in so many countries all of a sudden- what will come of it? Will new nations exist? Will the same nations exist, but look very different than they do today?

CNN has an 'unrest in the Middle East' primer of sorts, and includes these countries:

Egypt
Bahrain
Tunisia
Iraq
Iran
Libya
Morocco
Algeria
Sudan
Yemen
Djibouti
Jordan
Kuwait
Syria
Palestine

That's a long list! It's funny how, to 'spread democracy' to these countries, cell phones and social media and grassroots movements seem to be having more of an effect than Western invasions. As a kid, I had a globe that included the USSR, and was missing the former Soviet republics that didn't exist until I was 6 or 7. I better wait to buy Elliott his first globe until after this all settles down!

From Elliott

Elliott wanted me to wish you all a happy Valentines Day! Who could ask for a cuter Cupid??




Love, Elliott.

Six Weeks

This pretty much sums up my life right now. No complaints, though.

Six Weeks Old
by Christopher Morley

HE is so small he does not know
The summer sun, the winter snow;
The spring that ebbs and comes again,
All this is far beyond his ken.

A little world he feels and sees:
His mother's arms, his mother's knees;
He hides his face against her breast,
And does not care to learn the rest.

There's plenty of "winter snow" here- and ice! Oh the ice! I was literally iced in last week, from Tuesday to Saturday- the garage wouldn't open to let the car out. We survived though, and, a a bonus, the house is now really clean.

Based on articles, it seems like so many things happen at six weeks, and my 'newborn' is now a 'baby'. He's definitely more expressive, and I'm loving the fleeting smiles we're getting. He had his first bottle Saturday, and that (thankfully) went well. I really don't have much else to report since, as I mentioned, I haven't left the house in a while.

While looking up the above poem, I found a short essay by the same author that made me laugh.

Holiday Smartphone Adventures

I'm a bit of a gadget geek, in my own way. I think that new technology is fascinating, and, thanks to my dad who has worked for a cell phone company most of my life, I've followed advances in mobile device features for a long time. On the other hand, I'm also a cheapskate, and I never have been able to justify paying extra on our cell phone plan for the frivolity of being connected to the internet when not in front of a computer. Thanks to my Peek, I had email on the go, and that was enough for me. I still thought the technology was way cool, though.

When I heard my friend Cherie was planning to have an event in conjunction with Verizon Wireless for local bloggers to try out new phones based on Google's Android platform, I was pretty excited. I mean, I am Google loyalist, with Gmail, Picasa, Google Voice, Google Calendar- my entire online life is rolled up in Google, The Android project sounded pretty cool, and, even though the rest of my family has iPhones, I liked what I was hearing about the open-source operating system. I looked forward to checking out the new devices, even at the risk of being disowned by my dad for going to a Verizon-sponsored event.

Turns out, attendees were given phones to take home to try out for six weeks! The six week trial period ended pretty much on my due date, so I was curious how having a smartphone would make the holidays easier while being 9 months pregnant.I ended up with a Motorola Droid2 phone, a new-ish model exclusive to Verizon, with a slide-out keyboard. While I wasn't thrilled with the battery life of this model, I did like the hardware keyboard and the size of the phone (Though, admittedly, I didn't actually use it as a phone, since I still had my regular cell phone with my regular phone number. Reportedly, Verizon phones don't do data and voice at the same time terribly well.) Mostly, I loved being connected all the time. From a gadget perspective, the Droid2 was really cool.

Where smartphones really differentiate themselves, though, is by the operating system- Apple, Android, Windows 7, Palm, Blackberry (are there others?)- and the applications available. I was impressed with Android. The interface was intuitive, and the free apps available in the Marketplace were just what I needed. Throughout the holidays, a few made our lives a little easier, beyond the expected email and Twitter apps:

• Mint.com - I'm an avid Mint user- I love being able to see all our accounts, including our mortgage, retirement, and credit card, all in one place. We recently refinanced our mortgage, and there was some miscommunication about how the payment would deduct from our accounts at the beginning. Checking the app on the phone helped us catch an error on a Saturday morning and rectify it the same day. The app also helped us keep track of gift spending on the go!
• Amazon - We did about half our Christmas shopping online this year, but when it came time for me shopping for Josh, I did it all in brick-and-mortar stores. All kinds of sales were going on, but I still wanted to make sure I was getting a good deal. Amazon's app allows the user to photograph the product or UPC code and finds the same product on Amazon. This price check saved me money, because I was able to tell when a "sale" wasn't actually a great deal!
• Angry Birds - Josh got kind of addicted to this game.
• Application development- At work, my company was developing an Android app, and, thanks to my handy dandy Droid2, I was able to help with the testing stage of development. It was neat to be able to see that aspect of the open-source operating system too- the ease of app development. 
• Contraction Timer - As I mentioned in my birth story, this ended up being invaluable. I used it the entire way through my labor to time contractions, to know when we should call the midwife, go to the birth center, and to keep track of the pace of labor once we were there. Without this app, I'm not sure how we would have been able to time contractions for the hours and hours that was needed.

I had to give the phone back about a week after Elliott was born... and, not too many days later, Josh was convinced enough that having a smartphone was worthwhile and that Android was robust and easy to use, that we went out and got him an Android smartphone (with AT&T, free with an upgrade & contract renewal) As for me? Josh got me an iPod Touch for my birthday- all the advantages of a smartphone (when on WiFi), none of the monthly costs. Apple's operating system has some pros and cons compared to Google's, but that's for another post- this one has certainly become long enough!

P.S. I have an iPod Touch now, so if anyone wants to play Words With Friends, my name is keepingfeet

P.P.S.

Thanks to Verizon for letting me borrow the Droid2 for 6 weeks & providing a data plan & service for this #VzWhAPPy event. This post is my honest, uncompensated opinion- promise.