margaretyagan

I turned 1 month old today.  Woo! 

Despite going to sleep a little bit earlier than usual, I made it until almost 1:00 before I woke up for my first feeding of the day.  Back to our usual schedule, Dad got up to give me my bottle.  He accidentally warmed it up a bit too much so we had to wait a bit for him to cool it back down.  Despite being back to the slow newborn nipple, I drank the 4+ ounces quite quickly.  Having just slept for a few hours, though, I wasn’t too tired.  It took me a good half an hour to get back to sleep — I was surprised Dad didn’t try the elevator trick that he pulled the last few nights.  If I can go downstairs in my diaper, why couldn’t he go down in his boxers?

I then got a good stretch of sleep until 3:45 or so, meaning that Mom got to sleep for almost 6 hours in a row!  That’s not too shabby.  I ate quickly and got back to bed all within an hour.  I got up at 5:30 and wrapped up that feeding just as Dad was getting up for work.  I had a really sleepy breakfast at 7:10 and then I went right back to sleep while Mom pumped and then got some more Z’s, too.   

After my 9:30 snack, I got some tummy-time in and then Mom hopped in the shower and I got took a quick nap.  I ate lunch at 11:30 and, that’s right, I slept again.  Hey, I’m not lazy – it’s my 1-month birthday.  I’m celebrating.  I had a long snack that started at 1:40 and didn’t really end until about an hour later.  I slept until 5:00, ate, and then slept.  Dad got home around 6:25 — and not one minute too soon.  In fact, I would have gotten started closer to 6:15, but Mom wanted to wait until Dad got in because he still doesn’t have a key.

I played on my activity mat and then had desert at 7:15.  Then Dad held me while he and Mom sat down to eat dinner.  Since I had done nothing but eat and sleep all day, I was anything but overstimulated and was in quite good spirits.  Apparently I was a bit too well behaved, because Mom decided that I was acting abnormally, which obviously meant that I was sick.  Dad was confused, and so was I.  So when I started crying, Dad let me cry long enough for Mom to admit that I was back to normal. 

Mom and I turned in for a nap at 8:30 and Dad stayed up and kept an eye on me in the living room.  I started crying about 8:45 and Dad wanted Mom to get a little more sleep so he turned to his newest trick — the elevator trip down to the lobby.  It worked pretty well in that my eyes were closed before we got off the elevator, but I woke up within a few minutes of getting back in the apartment.  After another attempt at calming me, I screamed loud enough to wake up Mom at about 9:25.  I ate and turned in for the night.

I woke up at 12:30 and ate my midnight snack.  This usually would have been Dad’s bottle feeding, but since Dad was in Boston last night I ate with Mom.  Since Mom was alone, I was on my best behavior.  I didn’t cry at all after the feeding, but it took me about half an hour to fall asleep.  I woke up again at 4:30 and barely woke enough to eat; I fell right back to sleep and slept until 7:45.  I had an extended breakfast with Mom because I kind of thought I was full and then a few minutes after she thought I was done I decided to go back for seconds.

The 10:00 hour was quite active.  I took a bath, which I’m starting to like more and more.  I didn’t cry at all, and more impressively, I didn’t pee or poop on anything.  Then I sat in my bouncy seat and hung out in the bathroom while Mom showered.  When we both got clean and dry we had some tummy-time.

Then I took a nap while Mom started making Dad a pecan pie for his birthday.  I woke up while she was in the middle of it, so I sat in my car seat next to the kitchen and watched her whip up a pecan pie.  Maybe someday I’ll make Dad a pie for Father’s Day.

I had lunch around noon and then I laid on the couch next to Mom while she ate.  Then I ate again around 1:15.  Around 2:00 two maintenance people came in to our apartment to clean the air filters.  I was kind of fussy while they were here until they turned on their industrial strength heavy-duty vacuum which lulled me right to sleep.  I ate again at 3:00.

As soon as I finished eating, Mom got me into my stroller (interestingly, no shoes this time) and we went to run more errands.  First we went to Magnolia Bakery to get cupcakes for Dad’s birthday.  Then we went to a liquor store to buy Dad some Fragolino Nando, a wine that Dad fell in love with when he and Mom were in Italy ten months ago.  Our next stop was Rite-Aid and then we went to Bed, Bath, & Beyond which I had been to a couple days ago.  Our last stop was Best Buy to return something that Dad had bought on Sunday.

We then walked around Central Park for a while until Dad came home (early) to meet us near the Columbus Circle subway stop.  We walked back to our apartment and I ate pretty much right away.  I felt great for about 20 minutes and I hung out with Dad and got caught up on the 36 hours or so that he had missed.  Then I got super cranky and it took me a while to calm down.  Dad carried me around while Mom made dinner.  After dinner was on the table, Mom took me and put the finishing touched on my dozing off to sleep and I sat in my carseat by the dining table as Mom and Dad ate dinner.

I slept through Dad’s birthday celebration (somehow 4 candles managed to represent 31 years; I still haven’t figured that one out).  Dad unwrapped me and I woke up enough to eat.  I went right back to sleep without making a sound.  Mom and Dad crawled in to bed just a few minutes later.

My Wednesday started when I woke up for a snack around 2:00 am.  Mom heard my whimpers and got Dad up to give me my bottle.  I got up again at 5:30 and ate a little, slept a little, ate a little, slept a little, and eventually took about an hour to finish eating.  Then I got to witness something really strange — Mom pumped milk into a bottle!  I was always wondering how those bottles got full every night, but I had never thought it actually came from Mom.  I felt kind of jealous, but I was too full to eat any more.

I took a nap while Mom ate breakfast and showered.  I had breakfast at 8:00 and then we both took much needed naps frmo 8:45 until 10:15, when I woke up to eat.  After my snack I was really alert and Mom and I had really good awake time.  I hung out in my swing, did tummy-time, and sat in my bouncy chair.  It was a lot of fun to play around with Mom.

I took a nap before my 2:00 snack and then we got dressed to go out.  Strangely, I learned about a new piece of clothing today — the shoe.  I had never before worn anything on my feet other than socks, but Mom dressed me in these cool new sneakers that I got from Great Aunt and Uncle Joanne and Mark.  I got in my stroller expecting to go to the park, as usual, but instead we ran errands relating to Dad’s upcoming birthday.

We got back just in time for me to eat at around 4:30 and then again at 6:00.  I did more tummy-time and hung out on my activity mat, which I’m definitely starting to like a lot more.  I ate again (no wonder I am gaining weight!) at 8:00.  Then, I got REALLY fussy.  Maybe it’s because Dad hadn’t shown up yet (little did I know this would be Dad’s first night away from me!) or maybe it’s just because I was too tired and overstimulated.  For about an hour, I cried off and on — stopping when Mom got me calm and then starting up again as soon as she put me down.

Finally, at 9:45 I pretty much ran out of energy.  I was pooped.  And that’s how my Wednesday ended.

Right after Dad’s and my third trip dow to the lobby in the elevator, I decided I was really hungry and that it was time to eat.  Mom and Dad had planned that Mom would do the next feeding, but when Dad brought me in to the bedroom, Mom pointed out that it might make more sense for Dad to do this feeding with the bottle and for Mom to do the next one.  Good idea, Mom!  So she went back to sleep and Dad went to the kitchen to prepare my bottle.

I have to say that Dad’s first two attempts at bottle-feeding were okay, but not oustanding.  After my triple-spit-up performance the night before, Dad decided (at Mom’s suggestion) to demote me back to the slow-flow newborn nipple.  That worked much better and although it took me a lot longer to finish the bottle, I handled it much better.  Also Dad has gotten a lot more comfortable burping me now that my neck is getting strong enough to hold up against his shoulder.  He held me upright for about 20 minutes after I finished eating and I got all the air out.

I got a really good stretch of sleep in from about 1:15 to 4:15.  And because Dad did the feeding before that, Mom actually got some sleep, too.  I woke up and ate with Mom at 4:15 and then slept well again until 8:15.  This was definitely the best I have slept since moving to New York.

I slept a little while Mom put together the replacement swing that arrived in the mail yesterday.  It’s way, way less cool than the swing I loved back home.  I got hungry again around 10 and had my mid-morning snack.  I was really wide awake and well-rested, so I had tummy-time with Mom on my activity mat.  I followed objects with my eyes really well and I turned my head from right to left with only a little bit of crying.  At 1pm I ate lunch then I was in a bad mood for a while until I finally fell asleep around 2:30.   Mom took a nap with me for about an hour until I ate again at 3:45pm.  When I took another little nap on the couch around 5:30, mom finally got around to eating lunch.   

Dad got home early today, around 6:00.  I was napping but he really wasn’t feeling well at all tonight; luckily, Mom was relatively well-rested and stepped up and took over.  I ate at 6:30 and again at 7:45 and 9:45.  I got really, really fussy until Dad took me down to the lobby, but I started screaming again as soon as I got back to the apartment.

I woke up just after the stroke of midnight, ready to eat.  As is becoming the usual, Dad woke up to do the first feeding of the night (only after Mom heard me and woke him up).  Wow, I think yesterday’s promotion to the faster nipple might have been a big mistake.  I drank the whole four ounce bottle in a matter of minutes.  Then Dad tried to get me to fall back asleep, but every time I came close to dozing off I spit up part of my meal.  Get drowsy, spit up.  Get drowsy, spit up.  Dad seemed to get a bit frustrated, but hey, that’s what he gets for rushing the feeding!

Finally I fell back asleep just before 1:00.  At about 3:00 am, I started making strange noises.  Mom got up to check on me and was shocked to see that I had rolled over on to my stomach.  (No, I’m not a super-baby; Dad’s swaddle was quite cylindrical and my bassinet has a slight dip in the middle.)  Mom put me “back to sleep” and I slept until 4:45.  This was the first night I slept more than 4 hours in a row since our move to NYC.  Too bad Mom didn’t get to sleep through it.

I wasn’t in the mood to go back to sleep and I kept Mom for a while and then ate breakfast at 6:45 and had some good awake time until 8:15, when I snacked again.  I fell asleep after eating but not for long enough for Mom to take a shower or anything.  I heard her telling Dad on the phone that she was going to take a nap, so I promptly got back up.  After eating at 10:15, I hung out in my bassinet while Mom showered.  She got dressed and then got me dressed and we headed out to see the doctor.

My new doctor’s office is located about 20 blocks north of our apartment and Mom decided to walk in the near freezing wind chill rather than take a cab or the germ-infested subway.  Dad met us there and had already checked us in by the time we arrived.  We sat in the waiting room with lots of other little people like me.  Finally a nurse called us in to exam room #6.  And let the adventure begin.

So the nurse asked to have me undressed and placed on the scale.  Does this happen to every other baby?  You all know what’s about to happen, right?  Dad undressed me and put me on the scale and about two seconds later, I peed.  All over the scale and all over myself.  Is this really a surprise to anyone?  As Mom rushed to get some paper towels Dad rescued me from my rapidly growing pee-pond.  He lifted me up to carry me over to the exam table and … you guessed it:  I pooped in mid-air.  I don’t know much warfare, but if you ever wanted to see the reenactment of a carpet bombing, you just needed to see me.  And it wasn’t just the floor I pooped on…I pooped all over the car sear, too.   Does Purell work to sanitize pooped-on fabric?  Dad sure seemed to think so.

Once sanity was restored, I was placed back on the scale.  I gained a full inch in height taking me up to 21.5″.  Then the nurse weighed me.  “8 pounds, 11 ounces,” she said.  You should have seen the look on Mom’s and Dad’s faces.  Their jaws dropped and they turned to each other.  Mom said, “Is that possible?  You mean 7 pounds, 11 ounces, right?”  Oh, no, I gained a full pound and a half in two weeks.  And my head just keeps getting bigger, too.

 So, two weeks ago I was 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles in weight, height, and head circumference.  Today I was 41%, 73%, and 77%.  No wonder I’ve been so hungry the last week — it really was a growth spurt!

I really like Dr. Gati a lot.  She came in and spent a really long time examining me and talking to Mom and Dad.  She wanted to give me my second Hepatitis B shot, but Mom and Dad (at Nana Yagan’s advice) resisted, much to my happiness.  So, I didn’t get a shot at this checkup.

 Mom & Dad were on cloud nine.  I don’t think I’ve seen them this outwardly happy since we left the hospital.  They practically skipped down Central Park West.  Dad hopped on the subway at 72nd Street and Mom and I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond. 

I ate at 2:00 and then took a nap while Mom ate lunch.  My 4:00 meal dragged into my 4:45 snack.  At 5:30, Mom’s and Dad’s friends Ali and Ryan came by.  Aunt Ali was so great and cuddly — she held me for over an hour.  Uncle Ryan is awesome, too.  He looks half like a grizzly bear and half like a captain lost at sea.  They brought me three books.  Maybe someday I’ll be able to read them!

Dad got home around 7:00 and moments later dinner arrived.  Aunt Ali & Uncle Ryan left just after 7:30 and I got my dinner just after they left.

At 9:00 Aunt Sara came and she was so excited to see me!  Then Uncle Marty came by and I hung out with both of them until I got hungry, around 10.  They brought me really cool stuff from Peru!  You can see the sweater in the picture.  Not sure if that’s a llama, camel, alpaca, or something else.  I also got a cool pair of slippers and a finger puppet.

Mom slept around 11:00 and Dad tried to keep me quiet but awake for a while until my next feeding.  Dad learned a new trick — he took me for three elevator rides in less than two hours.  Each time we got in the elevator, I fell asleep instantly.  We picked up the mail, got a package, and took a few laps around the lobby.

After about three hours of sleep, I woke up around 12:45 am, looking for a snack.  For the second night in a row Dad got up and fed me a bottle.  Drinking from a bottle is so much easier than drinking from Mom.  I even graduated from the newborn nipple to the one-month old nipple.  It’s so easy to drink that I could do it in my sleep — literally!  I drank almost a full four ounces and then I went right back to bed.  I couldn’t really get comfortable and Mom woke up around 2:00 to see if I wanted to eat, which I didn’t.  She kept getting up to try different things to get me to fall back asleep, but nothing really worked.  Finally at 3:45 or so, I was hungry enough to eat.  It took Mom about half an hour to get me to fall back to sleep, which I did for about an hour until I got hungry again, at 5:45.  I half-slept until about 7:00 when I started fussing again.  Mom had had enough and woke up Dad to take care of me.

Dad used his magic tricks and I fell asleep in a matter of minutes and I stayed asleep until about 9:15.  It helped that Dad let me sleep on the couch instead of putting me back in my bassinet.  Luckily, Mom got a couple hours of good sleep in.  When I woke up at 9:15, Dad gave me a bath in this wacky bath sling.  Not really sure what I think of that.  But I got clean and I didn’t pee or poo on anything, so I think that was a win all around.  Dad wrapped me up in a towel and brought me to mom to eat at around 9:30.  I was clean and full, so I went right back to sleep until around 12:15.  I think Mom and Dad wish my long stretches of sleep would be at night, like they were back in Chicago.

The rest of the afternoon was uneventful.  I ate and slept and ate and slept.  One highlight, if you can call it that, was when Dad carried me to the laundry room to get my clothes out of the dryer.  Woo!  I got some tummy-time in and came shockingly close to supporting my head with my own neck (Conor, you are my inspiration!).

At 5:00 Mom went to take a much-needed nap and Dad desperately tried to keep me amused (read: quiet).  He carried me around for about an hour.  We started out just doing laps in the apartment.  Then we did some work in the kitchen together.  Then we went downstairs to pick up the key to the mailbox and pick up a package.  I was impressed at how much Dad could do one-handed.  Finally, he pulled out the rainforest bouncer that had been sitting off to the side for weeks.  When we tried to use it before, my head just flopped over.  This time, though, it was perfect.  Not only does the seat bounce, but it vibrates!

I had dinner at 7:00 and sat in my bouncer next to Mom & Dad while they had dinner.  Then I watched the semi-finals of the womens NCAA basketball tournament — Stanford beat UConn!  I am now officially a huge Cardinal fan…maybe I’ll be playing in Maples Pavilion in 2026.  Mom’s already a member of the Brickyard Club, so I know she’d be at all my games.  Do you think they make onesies with Candice Wiggins‘ number on the back?  

I had supper at 9:30 and we all turned in for the night.

So, I’m going to shift my blog posts to cover real calendar days rather than my self-centered breakfast-to-breakfast days I’ve been writing up.  Who knew anything about calendars?

I never really got into a deep sleep after Dad put me in my bassinet.  At about 3:00, Mom noticed that I sounded congested and that I wasn’t breathing very comfortably.  So, she got up and used a nasal aspirator to “suck the snot of [my] nose” as she described it to me.   Since we were both up, Mom went ahead and fed me.  We finished up around 4:00 am.

Now that I could breathe I fell asleep really quickly and didn’t get up until about 6:30, when I got up for breakfast.  I couldn’t really get into a deep sleep, and I huffed and puffed until about 9:00, when I ate again.

Mom’s and Dad’s big goal for today was to get unpacked and settled in.  I was in a really good mood all morning and I hung out with Mom & Dad while they worked around the house.  I ate lunch at 12:00 and then took a little siesta until about 2:15.  I woke up from my nap to see Mom’s and Dad’s friend Isabelle.  I ate and then the four of us (Mom, Dad, Aunt Isabelle, and I) went out for a walk in Central Park.  On the way, we stopped at a cafe; Mom & Dad got sandwiches for lunch while Aunt Isabelle got a capuccino.

Next stop was the Park.  Dad kept letting my stroller roll ahead of him downhill while Mom would freak out that I was going to “roll off the sidewalk, hit the hotdog stand, flip over, and land on my head.”  Now, I don’t know much about probability or combinatorics or anything, but I gotta think Mom’s a bit paranoid.

The four of us hung out — well, they all hung out while I slept.  Then we headed back to our apartment.  When we got home, I ate with Mom and then, much to my surprise, we headed right back into the stroller and right back out the door!  This time we took a short walk to the Time Warner Center which is just a few blocks south of us and took the elevator down to Whole Foods.  Wow, this place was insane.  I couldn’t see much, though.

Mom was convinced that it was a threat to my health, safety, and security to go to “a place full of germs.”  So, Mom & Dad kept my stroller covered — think of it as Regan’s “star wars” plan, except for germs.  I’m glad to report that I made it out ok.  As soon as they finished shopping Dad stood in line (he was about 55th) to checkout and Mom whisked me out of harm’s way and we headed back home.

After being over-stimulated all day, I think I was justified in being pretty fussy.  I ate at 8:00 and 9:30. but was pretty cranky in between.  Mom & Dad were exhausted and we all turned in for the night around 10:00.

I had breakfast at 6:30 and then fussed for a little bit before going back to sleep.  I love being in charge of my own feeding schedule these days.  I get to eat when I want to eat and sleep when I want to sleep.  It was such a cold, gloomy day in NYC; I knew from the moment I got up that I wasn’t going to be leaving the apartment.  Anyway, I got a few hours of sleep and got up again at 10:00.

Then I had an extended feeding at 10:00 (this means that I pretended to be done; we got up; Mom changed my diaper; and then I ate again).  I didn’t finish eating until a little after 11:00. 

Having just taken a long nap and had a very filling meal, I was ready to play.  So, I hung out with Mom, did some tummy-time, and watched her as she started putting together my new swing.   I haven’t been turning my head quite as much I could be, but I’ve started focusing on and tracking objects with my eyes.  So now Mom and Dad are constantly putting random animals in front of me and moving them from side to side.

I had lunch at 1:00 and then took a pretty lengthy nap.  Mom cleaned up the kitchen, washed dishes, organized the cabinets, and kept unpacking.  I can’t believe she didn’t just take a nap!  Also, she put the food she usually gives me in a bottle and stuck it in the fridge.  I was so jealous!

I woke up at 4:30 and had dinner.  There was a little less food available than I would have liked so I ate again at 5:45.  The coincidence of my growth spurt and Mom stashing food in a bottle meant that I was hungry throughout most of the evening.  I ate again at 7:00 and then again 7:45.  Dad came home just before 7:00 with his arms full of goodies, mostly for him and Mom.  Did you forget about me, Dad?

Dad tried to finish assembling the swing (which Mom had assembled backward), but at the very end he discovered that it was missing a critical piece that held the seat up in the air.  Oops.  Thanks, Fisher-Price!

I snacked a couple more times, and then after my 10:00 pm feeding, Mom went to sleep and Dad stayed up with me in the living room.  I was a bit fussy, so Dad carried me around as he did laundry, straightened up the room a bit, and had a snack of his own (he seems to REALLY like hummus).  Then I slept while he did some work and watched Countdown.

Then, the weirdest thing happened.  I woke up around 2:00 am, totally starving.  I had eaten a bunch of little snacks all evening and then slept for four hours, so I needed some quality time with Mom!  Or at least so I thought.  Dad picked me up, sat on the couch, set up the boppy, and then — fed me a bottle full of Mom’s milk!  Whoa!  Drinking out of a bottle was so easy and so fun.  And Dad seemed so, so, so happy to be nourishing me and helping Mom get more sleep.

I got up for breakfast at 8:30.  Well, I tried getting up for breakfast at 8:00, but Mom tricked me into an extra half-hour of sleep (again) by cuddling with me in her bed.  After breakfast, we had another stream of repairmen into our apartment — at one point we had four men trying to fix the leaky gas stove.  In the process of replacing the valve, they were going to have to flood our apartment with gas.  One guy proposed that Mom and I hang out in the bedroom.  Mom thought it made a lot more sense to leave and hang out in the lobby.

I officially outgrew my first piece of clothing today!  My tummy has gotten so huge that it just flops right out.

I had an early lunch at about 11:00 and then I took a little nap.  Dad stopped by again to yell at our landlord again.  While Dad was dealing with that, Mom showered for the first time since getting to New York.  Dad played with me for a couple minutes and then he headed back to work.

I had a little snack around 1:00 before getting my sixth bath.  Mom had a new little device for me since my bathtub didn’t make the trip out to New York.  I really enjoyed this bath and didn’t cry at all until I got cold when Mom took me out.  Mom was especially thorough, making sure to really scour my armpits which had collected a fair amount of spitup over the last few days.  (I know, that’s gross.)

Mom dressed me up in a really girly-girl outfit.  Not sure what’s gotten in to her — maybe she’s already going stir-crazy hanging out in this little apartment with me!  Mom strapped me in to my stroller and we went for a walk in Central Park.  There were lots of kids out and the flowers were starting to bloom.  Mom took lots of pictures.  Then she ran into an old couple; the old man lectured Mom about letting me out of the house at such a young age.  Luckily his wife said “Honey, this is a new generation.”  Right she is.

I had a little snack and then took a short nap with Mom.  After another meal, tried to get me do tummy-time, which I turned into nap time.  Dad came home and then I had dinner around 7:00.  Mom & Dad had dinner (pizza, again, yum) and then the stole a two hour catnap beween 8:45 and 10:45.  I heard them debate whether it was worth moving from the floor to my bed, taking into account the risk of waking m up.  (They moved me and I didn’t wake up.)

I ate at 10:45, 12:45, & 3:30.  Mom, of course, got up with me each time.  The first two times I fell back asleep relatively easily, but I never really got into a deep slumber.  After my 3:30 snack, though, I kept fussing instead of falling asleep.  Mom finally woke Dad up and asked him to take care of me for a while, which he did.  Once he got me to sleep, he laid in bed half-awake making sure that Mom wouldn’t get up when I tossed and sighed.  I got up for breakfast just after Dad left for work, at about 6:30.

Wednesday was one of the most chaotic days of my life, making yesterday’s cross-country move seem like a walk in the park.  First of all, I was starving all day; it seemed like I was eating almost every hour.  I woke up for breakfast at 6:45 and noticed that Dad had already left for work.  Mom fed me and then I napped until 9:15, when I had my second breakfast of the morning.  Actually, I started to stir at abour 8:15 when Mom lifted me out of my bassinet and into bed with her.  She’s so cozy that we both got an extra hour of sleep.

Just about as soon as I finished eating at 9:15 I got hungry again and had a mid-morning snack at 10:15.  I am not sure Mom was ready for such an aggressive schedule on her first day home alone with me.  To make matters worse, I couldn’t really fall asleep so Mom walked around with me for a couple hours — she made me feel so much better.  She tried to sneak in a bowl of cereal of her own, but I needed her undivided attention.

I had lunch at 12:15 followed by dessert at 1:15.  Hey, it’s my three-week-old growth spurt!  Dad surprised us by stopping by, which was especially good for Mom because he took care of me while she ate left-over fried rice.  I couldn’t tell exactly what they were talking about, but they seemed pretty stressed.  They kept talking about “moving out” — but we just moved in!  I was confused.

Dad left to go back to work and then a stream of repair people came in and out of the apartment.  A plumber came in to fix the shower (it didn’t drain) and to try to fix the leaky toilet (he needed a part).  Then Carlos came in to fix one of the electrical outlets, the gas leaking out of the stove, the headboard that wasn’t even attached to Mom’s and Dad’s bed, and the towel rack that someone else had ripped off the wall.  I hadn’t realized just how many things were broken in our new home.  Then someone named Kelseng came in with plates, flatware, pots, and pans — much needed supplies, for sure.

Then Mom & I left the apartment to go for a walk.  When we got to the lobby I got to meet Uncle Marty!  Unlike many of our previous walks, this one seemed to have a mission.  Uncle Marty, in particular, gave himself two responsibilities: (1) to make sure I was breathing and (2) to protect me from “rogue vehicles.”  He argued that since the stroller crosses a street in front of Mom and since he claimed I didn’t have peripheral vision (whatever that means!), he needed to jut out in front of the stroller to ward off any oncoming vehicles.  I am not quite sure why he needed to make sure I was breathing, but he successfully “saved” me from a biker.  Thanks Uncle Marty!

On our way back home, we stopped at Duane Reade to get me some diaper rash ointment (thankfully, Mom didn’t buy Butt Paste).  As soon as we got home, I had dinner and then Dad showed up.

Uncle Marty was so nervous when he was holding me.  He did a great job making sure my head didn’t flop over and not dropping me.  Dad taught him the basics of the 5 S’s and Uncle Marty caught on very quickly.  I think I’m going to see a lot of him over the next few weeks, and I expect his form will improve dramatically.

After Marty left I had supper with Mom.  Mom was so exhausted that Dad took care of me while Mom went to bed.  I actually fell asleep pretty quickly in the living room, but Dad refused to move to my bassinet for fear of waking me up.  So, I slept on the couch for a couple hours while Mom got some Z’s.  Dad finally moved me in to my bassinet around 1:00 am and I slept until around 3:30 — a nice 4 and a half hour stretch.  I ate and slept for another couple of hours and then slept until 8:30 am.