margaretyagan

This was my first full week in Chicago with Mom back at work on her regular full-time schedule.  It was helpful to have few days last week to get used to the new routine and the long holiday weekend  let me get all caught up and ready for my new pattern.

Monday was a bit special because Dad worked from home.  Nana and Grandpa were still in charge of taking care of me, but it was nice to get to see Dad when he came upstairs to get a snack or take a break.  Monday morning I sat in our front yard with Mom.  The grass really needs to be cut!  But it was nice no to have to go the park to be outside.  I’ve heard rumors that we have a nice roof deck, but I’ve never been up there! 

Dad had to run an errand that he let me join him on.  He had to run to the bank a few blocks away.  I hadn’t been outside too much because of the rain, so he just threw on the Baby Bjorn and off we went!  It was a fun little break, even though it was pretty hot and muggy.

I was in an especially good mood on Tuesday morning and Nana and I spent more time than usual out in the front yard.  Nana and Grandpa had yet to experience on my Super Poops, but that all changed right before lunch when I unloaded quite a large on.  They did a great job cleaning me up and seemed to cheer me on to do even bigger poops in the future!  I reached a new milestone today, grabbing my left foot with my left hand while laying on my back.  Not sure if I have a right foot yet…my right hand is still groping around!

My sleeping schedule has been quite erratic since the move back to Chicago, and the travel last weekend didn’t help much.  On Wednesday I took two really long naps (2 hours and 2.5 hours) and had a big poop.  Not sure what anyone can ask for in a day, but I felt like I accomplished a lot today.

On Thursday I got a special bonus: Mom stuck around until 7:45 am because she had a retreat downtown and didn’t have to drive out to the office.  I got an extra feeding with Mom in before she left and she ended up coming home earlier (4:30) so I had a really short day.  I ate and got a bath from Mom, but then Mom had to go to a dinner for work, so for the first time ever, Nana and Grandpa did my goodnight routine!  They did a great job, and I slept in my bassinet until Mom came home.

Tomorrow I turn four months old!

Thursday morning was pretty cool.  I woke up and ate with Mom as usual, but I was surprised to see that Dad was home, too.  And I was really confused when Mom didn’t get dressed and rush out the door after my second feeding of the morning.  To top it all off, when I got downstairs, Nana and Grandpa were ready to play with me.

Mom and Dad went down the office to work and my morning was pretty much like any other weekday, except that I ate with Mom instead of out of a bottle.  Around 2:15, Mom started running around the house, putting her clothes and all of my stuff in suitcases and boxes!  Were we moving back to New York!? 

Dad put me in my carseat and took me out our car which had been filled up with all my stuff.  The traffic was really bad and I was pretty fussy for about 45 minutes, until we got to Romeoville, where we stopped and I ate with Mom.  Right after our stop, traffic cleared up pretty nicely and we “made great time” (which I think means that Dad broke the law!).  I slept the entire way from Romeoville to Dow, which gave Mom and Dad plenty of time to catch up — which they needed since they hadn’t spent much time together over the last 10 days.

When I woke we up, I was in Dow and was greeted by Grandpa Droste and Aunt Sarah.  Despite having just slept for over four hours, I fell right to sleep after Mom fed me.

On Friday (July 4!), I hung out of most the day with Aunt Claire (who got in after I fell asleep) and Aunt Sarah, while Mom, Dad, and Grandma Sherry worked in the kitchen.  In the afternoon, I took a nap in the big bed with Dad.  After I woke up, I went to the mall with Mom & Grandpa.  I assumed I’d be going shopping with them, but as soon as we got there, I got handed off to A/C and A/S who took me to meet Aunt Sarah’s friend Tyka and her kids.

On Saturday, Grandma Sherry hosted a party — where I was the guest of honor!  I met so many new family members:  Great Uncle Michael, Great Aunt Karen, 2nd-cousin Nicholas; great great aunt Phyllis; great great uncle Ronald & great great aunt Maxine; 2/c Stephen and his fiancee Stephanie; Sandra & Nellie Roberts; and Joyce Goetten with her granddaughters Holly and Heather.  Whew!

But my favorite was great grandpa Harris!  He made really cool noises that made me laugh so much.  We also took a Harris family 4-generation picture to go with the Droste family 4-generation picture I took back in March.

As if it wasn’t enough meeting a dozen new people today, we then headed off to my second-cousin Scott’s wedding.  My great aunt Bonnie is pretty cool.  Right before the ceremony started, great aunt bonnie swiped me out of Dad’s arms and  hung out with me in the hallway throughout the whole time.

After the ceremony, we went to great grandma droste’s house until it was time for the reception.  I took a nap with Grandma Sherry and then we headed out to the reception.

The reception was a ton of fun.  I can’t even begin to list the relatives I met because I think there were about 1,000,000,000 of them (I think Dad doesn’t even know all of them…maybe not Mom!!).

It was really cool to see Great Grandma Droste and Great Aunt Debbie for the second time.  And I finally got to meet my Great Aunt Jackie who I’ve heard so much about!

Other highlights included going into the picture booth with a few different people and Dad took me out on the dance floor.  The biggest lowlight was being stabbed by a corsage worn by the mother of the bride!  It felt like I was getting vaccinated!

Sunday was pretty boring; we had breakfast at Hickory Grove and then hit the road.  I slept most of the way, except for a quick stop at the McDonald’s in Bloomington, IL.  The night was pretty hectic as Mom got ready for a week at work, Dad got ready for some business meetings, and Nana and Grandpa arrived for another week of hanging out with me!

This week was one of the craziest of my life — right up there with our move from Chicago to New York when I was just three weeks old!  Dad was still at his friend’s bachelor party, so Mom and I made our first trick to Dominick’s together.

Dad, Nana, & Grandpa Yagan arrived at amost the exact same time, right before dinner.  It was definitely a stressful night, because the next day was Mom’s first back at work, Dad had to travel for work, and I was going to be spending the whole day with Nana and Grandpa.

When Monday morning came around, Mom and I executed the plan we had practiced the previous week.  Mom fed me and I hung out with her while she got ready to go to work.  I made it a little bit easier for her to leave by going back to sleep after I ate.  When I finally woke back up – Mom was gone!  I was sad at first, but excited to get to hang out with Nana and Grandpa.

They definitely put a lot of energy into learning my schedule and making sure to keep me active and entertained all day.   Nana and I went for a walk to Wicker Park (during which I took a nice nap)  in the morning and Nana was all over tummy-time (I thought I’d get out of that!).   It was definitely strange to get used to a new feeding schedule, both since I ate from a bottle all day and because we’re all still trying to figure out how much I’m supposed to be eating!

All-in-all, the week ended up going much better than anyone could have expected!  Nana and Grandpa seemed to really enjoy hanging out with me and I really enjoyed having so much attention.  I’m so lucky to be in such good care.

Mom got home and was expecting me to jump up and down to see her, but since I can’t jump and down, I pretty much just kept going with my day rather than giving her the props she was hoping for! 

Tuesday morning was a bit harder for Mom to leave because I was up and happy when she had to walk out the door.  Nana and I headed out to the park at 7:20!  Talk about being a morning person.  The day went pretty smoothly otherwise, as did Wednesday.  The week definitely went really really well and I think everyone involved is relieved and relaxed to have it behind us and excited to get into a routine.

I owe all of my loyal bloggees, a deep apology.  It’s been about three weeks since my last post.  Many of you have have checked in on me … and many of you have wondered whether the blog was dead.  Well, it’s back!  I missed everyone!

So, a few housekeeping issues.  Both to get caught up and going forward, I’m going to be doing a blog post for groups of days that are pretty similar.  So, sometimes a whole week will be grouped together, and other times a day will get it’s own post (like my 4 month birthday!).

Here we go!

I spent these days getting settled back in to my house.  I totally forgot that I had my own room after sharing Mom’s and Dad’s room for the last three months.  On Tuesday, Mom and I took a trip to Target and made sure we bought enough stuff so I could officially take over the entire first floor of our house.  Because Mom was going back to work the next week — and Nana and Grandpa Yagan were going to be taking care of me — we wanted to make sure that I had all the things I need to spend an entire day on the main floor without Nana or Grandpa having to carry me up or down the stairs.  Generally, Mom and I tried to use this week to practice getting into a routine that we’ll follow next week when she’s going back to work.

Also on Tuesday, I met Mom’s friend (and former co-worker) Kyle.  Kyle and Mom and I went for a walk.  She’s super nice and I was pretty well-behaved until the very end when I got really fussy.  Kyle came in for a bit, I was pretty hysterical until after I ate.

The big event on Wednesday was a trip to Mom’s office.  It got off to an inauspicious beginning when we pulled out of the driveway without a pacifier!  Luckily, Mom quickly realized it pretty quickly and we turned around to get it.  I still wasn’t used to the whole car thing.  I hated the fact that I have to ride backward and that I can’t see Mom.  So, I cried a bunch, but Mom cheered me up by singing all the way there — at least until I fell asleep.

I really liked Mom’s office and all the people I met there.  We hung out for about an hour and I was on my best behavior.  It was good to see where Mom will be when she’s not around next week!

When we got back home, I perched on the back of the couch, looking out the window.  And right before my eyes, Mom’s friend Kyle, her friend Tim, and Tim’s sister all walked right by our house!  We invited them in for a bit and I got to meet two more people.

The highlights of the next couple days included two new seat/toy contraptions that look like a lot of fun.  The first is a bumbo chair, which is designed to help me learn how to sit up (and more neck practice!).  The other is the Rainforest Jumperoo. (If you ever want to amuse yourself, read some of the parent reviews of the jumperoo!  One parent writes “My son wants to be in it from the time he wakes up until we put him to bed at night.”)  The Jumperoo itself isn’t new (Aunt Sarah put it together before I was even born!), but Mom just decided I was big enough to give it a try.  I like ’em both a lot, but I’m still getting used to them.

Dad had a bachelor party to go to, so Mom and I got to hang out alone on Saturday.  We took a walk to La Pasadita,  a local Mexican joint. Can’t really tell you much about the food, other than that it tasted good as milk a few hours later.

The day ended with a bath.  Since I had outgrown the bath sling I used in New York, I have a new foam bath thingy.  I like it a lot more because I get to be a lot closer to the water and actually feel wetness other than just from the washcloth.  The bath got a little complicated when I pooped in it! (And you thought I was going to write my first blog post in three weeks and NOT talk about my poop?  Please!)

Well, Mom was quick on her feet and immediately grabbed me out of the soapy, poopy water.  She held me in one hand and tried to rinse me off with the other.  Problem was, I pretty slick and I slipped out of hands!  I didn’t fall, but I kind of slid down the side of the bathtub a bit.  Mom freaked out a lot more than I did and must have apologized a hundred times.  She felt so bad that she didn’t enforce my bedtime and I got to hangout and play with her much later than usual.

In fact, I was in such a good mood, that Mom thought I was delirious as a result of the slip.  She called Nana Yagan, who told her that unusually good spirits is not something she should worry about.

All in all, it was a very good week.  I had a pretty irrgeular sleeping schedule, but by the time Sunday rolled around I was pretty well settled in.

I did a pretty good job sleeping last night, just one wake up for a bottle.  Dad was much less fun today as he was busy working.  But one highlight was that I got to meet (well, re-meet) Grandpa Yagan!  He had a doctor’s appointment  in the afternoon and had gotten in late last night.  I had a good time getting to know him.  He was pretty quick to learn my favorite positions and we got along really well.  I guess I’m just pretty comfortable around new people.

Dad left for a couple hours to go to a meeting and I hung out with Mom and Grandpa.  During the afternoon, Dad took a break from work to let me sit on the back of the couch and look out the window, but while doing that, he accidentally bumped my head against the window.  It hurt so much and just got me in a bad mood.  Of course, he eventually just handed me off to Mom and got back to work.

One of the highlights of the day was having our first Chicago visitor (whom I can remember, anyway): Nick!  Nick drove all the way from Milwaukee just to meet me!  That was really nice of him.  I was so excited to meet him that as soon as Mom handed me to him, I spit up — and quite a voluminous one, if I may say so — all over his button-down shirt.  The button-down shirt must be a pretty big deal, because Mom had been talking about for several minutes — how she never sees Nick so dressed up and how nice he looked.  well, I can’t think of a better way to accessorize than spit up!

I went to sleep really early (around 8:00) and Mom and Dad were very quick to follow.

I got up pretty early and ate with Mom.  Luckily, I don’t get too worried about time zones — I just eat and sleep whenever I want.  After I ate, Dad offered to hang out with me while Mom got some more rest.  Despite no longer being in NYC, Dad’s tricks don’t change too much.  We did some rolling around on the floor (I can roll on to my back from about 135 degrees on each side — a little better from my right side than my left) and then as soon as I got fussy, he loaded me up in my stroller and took off (with his laptop) to Starbucks.  Dad was wearing a SparkNotes.com tee shirt and the barista was so excited to meet Dad.  Not sure what the big deal is, anyway.  I slept for a while and Dad worked.

I got up pretty hungry and Dad sprinted back to the house and took me up to Mom.  In the afternoon, Mom went shopping for work clothes and I hung out with Dad.  I discovered a new favorite hobby — sitting on the back of the red couch and looking out the window.  I just sat there for about 20 minutes, watching people and cars go by.  Sometimes people would see a baby in the window (Dad crouched on the couch so no one could see him) and had all kinds of surprising reactions.  When people waved to me, Dad would lift my hand in a wave back to them — one woman freaked out!

I hung out in the kitchen while Dad cooked some food for dinner and Mom tried on the clothes she bought.  When it came time for dinner, Mom tried to time it so I wouldn’t be hungry until after Mom and Dad ate, but again, they should know better than to micromanage my schedule!  I screamed just as the hot food made it to the table and it all got cold while Mom fed me.

I got my first bath in my real bathtub (instead of the bath sling I was using in NYC).  It was really awesome to feel like a big baby instead of a tiny little infant.  I still haven’t had a Chicago poop, but you know you’ll read about it hear as soon as it happens!

 The morning got off to a very early start when Dad’s alarm went off around 4:00 am.  Mom took care of feeding me and getting me dressed while Dad frantically packed up my pack-and-play and all of the other things that couldn’t get packed last night.  We had a mini-van waiting for us downstairs at 5:30 and after stuffing all nine (!) of our bags and boxes (plus my stroller!) in to the back, we said good-bye to A/C and headed to LaGuardia.

I napped on the ride in to Queens while Mom and Dad complained about how tired they were.  Mom has status on United (though she claims not to be an elitist, she sure likes being Executive Premier!) so we got to go right up to the front of the line and check 5 bags for free (instead of just two!).  We got through security really easily and were at the gate with an hour and a half to spare.  We tried to fly stand-by on the earlier flight, but the agent wouldn’t let us because we had checked bags.

So we waited.  Dad used me as a prop to convince the gate agent to gate-check three of our four carry-ons.  I really like flying on planes.  We were lucky to get an empty seat between Mom and Dad, so I got to sprawl out when I wasn’t feeding with Mom.  Mom and Dad were so much less stressed than they were when we flew out to NYC three months ago.

We landed, got our bags, and called our mini-van taxi for ride home!  We pulled up to the house and Mom took me inside while Dad unloaded.  After making sure that Mom’s treasure trove of milk made it safely (only a few drops had thawed) into our freezer, we went right up to my room.  I had forgotten how big and colorful and fun my nursery is!  And the glider is so much more comfortable for feeding.  A changing table?  That’s so cool, too.

Mom and Dad spent most of the day unpacking and settling in.  I took a while to get adjusted to my new bed, my new swing, and my new surroundings in general.  I got pretty fussy when Mom and Dad tried to take me out for dinner (come on, guys, I was so tired!), but otherwise the afternoon and evening were pretty uneventful.  We were all exhausted and crashed pretty early.

Today was dominated by the forceful explusion of bodily fluids and solids and lava-like-mudpie-colored-avalanche-flowing-sludgy-slimy-uncategorizable-stuff.

 I spit up about a dozen times, including one that wend so far down Mom’s body and clothing that Ali had to wipe Mom down with a burp cloth.

I also had my biggest poop EVER.  The poop process consumed five different diapers.  Each time Mom though I was done and started changing me, I would project more excrement toward her, requiring yet another diaper change.

Well, the big news is that today’s my last day in New York!  I enjoyed my almost three full months here and barely remember anything about Chicago.  I’m excited to get back to my own crib and get my own room back!

I slept through the night longer than I have in weeks, not getting up until 5:30 in the mornig (and ate with Mom).  I had an unofficial doctor’s appointment this morning.  Unofficial because it’s not a scheduled check-up, but rather a special appointment with a nurse to get a couple shots that I was supposed to get at my 2-month appointment but that Mom and Dad decided to put off for a while.

A/C walked us to the doctor’s appointment on her way to her babysitting gig.  We waited  half an hour in the cramped waiting room before the nurse came in.  Mom asked her to weigh me, which seemed to really annoy the nurse, so Mom didn’t push the issue to get my length and head circumference.  I weighed in at 13 lb., 3 oz, which puts me in the 64th percentile.

I got two vaccines today: HIB and Polio.  Mom and Dad have been reading a book and talking with other parents about vaccine strategy, so I hope they’re doing the right thing!

On the way home, we stopped first by the Food Emporium (for milk) and then the Lincoln Center farmers’ market (for a strawberry-rhubarb tart).  I got home and ate and then took a long 3.5 hour nap in the afternoon — which really helped me recover from my shots.  My tummy-time was very strange today — I didn’t lift my head at all, but I also didn’t scream at all.  I just happily sucked my fingers.

I was so hungry that I ate 5 times between 3:30 (when I woke up from my long nap) and 8:30 when I went to sleep.  Right before eating, I had a bath with Mom.

But the big news today (the last couple days, really), is that I have started laughing!  Not a ton, and not on demand, but a couple times each day I’ll let out a real laugh.  Mom, Dad, and A/C seem so, so happy when I laugh – they’re going to love it when I laugh regularly!

I made it!   My goal when starting my blog was to post daily for the first 100 days.  While I’ve missed a day here and there, I’m proud to say that I’ve never fallen more than two days behind I’ve blogged about every single day of my life to date.  From now on, I’ll still be posting quite often, but it probably won’t be daily.  My blog will still cover all of the important events and be a fun place to record what I’m thinking and doing.

On to today.  I woke up at 4:00 for my bottle with Dad and fell back asleep quite quickly until 7 when I got up and ate with Mom.  Uncle Danny spent most of the day here with us and even learned how to swaddle me with the Miracle Blanket.

I slept shockingly little today — only about 1.5 hours after I had breakfast.  Fortunately, I was in a much better mood than I usually am when I can’t fall asleep, probably because I ate 10 times!

A/C, Mom, and I went for a walk in the afternoon.  It was too cold and wet to sit in the park, so we went to LensCrafters and then we walked randomly around the Upper West Side, stopping by Magnolia’s for the last time.  Mom and A/C split a banana pudding and seemed really happy!

Mom and Dad went out to dinner with Chris and Jennie — but I wasn’t invited even though Jennie likes me so much!  I was pretty well behaved hanging out with A/C until just before Mom and Dad got back home, when I threw a little tantrum.  Mom and Dad came in and Dad scooped me up and turned on “Baby Got Back” and danced my tears away.  Aunt Claire and Uncle Danny were pretty much in shock that it was so easy to settle me down, though A/C pointed out that Dad’s booty shook quite a bit more than mine did!  I ate with Mom and turned in for the night before 9:00.