It's an actual post

Somebody call in the cavalry! Noah Mac and myself are on our own for the next two days. I encouraged Mr. Mark to go to NYC tonight to go see his former band mate perform. (YES – I’m INSANE!) He’ll return tomorrow but probably not until after we leave to go to my cousin’s place for a family thing. And then by the time we get back home he’ll be partying it up at Sean’s 30th birthday shindig so we’ll likely not see him until Sunday morning. This’ll be the partyingest weekend he’s had in years, and for years. Wish him fun, but also moderation and safety. Because what could be more rockin’ than that! And may the bitter cold of this evening remind him of the desolate chill of the indifferent outside world while we his family keep the home fires burning. Ahem…

What have we been up to? We hung at Wendy’s on Monday – Noah and Victor have begun playing really well with each other. They seem to have very complimentary personalities and have begun actually working together. It warms my heart. On Tuesday we went to a Barnes & Noble in NJ to buy Noah some books to introduce the idea of the new baby – and we really dug the store. They have an awesome train table and a daily story time so I think that it’ll definitely be a new favorite haunt. I’ve started babysitting our 18 month old neighbor Ella for a few hours every Wednesday – it’s a couple of extra bucks and keeps Noah busy to boot, so win/win. And then of course playgroup yesterday and our neighbor’s normal Friday playdate today. Tonight I invited a couple of neighborhood friends over for an evening pizza playdate –since Mark’s not coming home it won’t seem like the night with no relief or adult company.

So I’ve a list of things I’ve been meaning to blog about but damned if I can find my list. Guess I’ll wing it.

NURSING
Just recently when people started asking me if Noah was still nursing I started saying “Oh, no” before quickly changing the subject. And people say things like “OH! GOOD!” with a huge sigh of relief as if they had some vested interest and real concern for our wellbeing because we were still nursing. Like “Thank GOD! I knew if that kid nursed one more day he was totally going to turn into a brutal psycho murderer who had a penchant for dressing up like his Mama!” However I’m totally lying. Noah still nurses before his nap every day. The before bedtime nursing was dropped pretty painlessly before his second birthday, but the naptime one won’t die. Mostly because on the many occasions I have tried to put him down in his crib awake at naptime he has never slept. I’m guessing it’s the fact that it’s light out. In fact he’s spent over an hour on more than one occasion just hanging out in the crib without the slightest hint that he was going to nod off. And since I’m dead tired at naptime and need one myself I’ve not been willing to forego the nap. I do figure that a few napless days would wear him out enough for him to nod off one afternoon, but I’ve not felt energetic enough to attempt it. So, for now we still have that one measly nursing session. From what I understand it doesn’t pose any threat to the baby and I don’t mind it because I can see the end on the horizon.

Far more daunting to me is that in six months I will be nursing a newborn. GOD HELP ME! I’m scared. Now obviously I am a huge proponent and advocate for breastfeeding, and I totally intend on doing it as long as seems appropriate for the new baby and myself. BUT JEEZ – nursing an infant is a fulltime job. With Noah I didn’t think I would last to six months. It was painful and ALL THE TIME! My already too large breasts were astronomical. And I was leaking constantly. Plus I’m far too body conscious to whip out the girls in public places and as a result I felt confined to our home. And what the heck is Noah supposed to do while I’m nursing for an hour every three hours. I know I’ll make it through and it’s worth it and yadda, yadda, yadda… but GOD it’s not on my top ten favorite things to do.

And now things the boy has been up to:
- Reading. He likes to “read” some of his own books at bedtime and it’s about the most adorable thing going to listen to him recall some of the words and make up the stories as he goes along.
- Learning. He can identify all his capital letters and tell you what letters are in his name, though not in any particular order. We’re begun working on more number and lower case identification now.
- Sass. There is nothing Noah hates more than not being understood. And sometimes when I can’t make out a particular word he’s saying I’ll just sort of nod along and say “Oh” rather than have him clarify – and he always catches on and says “What I saying, Mama? What I saying?”
- Loving. He keeps excitedly saying things like “We’re having a baby, Mama!” and “I will play peekaboo and the baby will laugh.” He’s also tempered his fear of friend’s infants with obsession. After last week’s neighborhood playdate he began calling the long regarded Baby George by “Baby Ike” – the name of one of his playmate’s infant brother. Every time Mark and I would call the doll George he would correct us and say “Baby Ike!” It was quite a case of muddled identity. I did the only thing I could do to save us all – I bought another doll who was thus named Baby Ike so Baby George could have his moniker restored. Since all the new baby hubbub he’s been much more interested in the dolls. I decided on Sunday to buy him the doll bed I’d been considering buying from Ikea for some time. Before we got to the store I told him we were going to get George/Ike a bed – and he turned a corner in the Ikea showroom pointed to a well appointed Queen with three colorful comforters on it and said “Ike like that bed.”
- Eating. On Tuesday night we went out for Chinese food with our friends Jen & Mark. I guess we eat Chinese fairly frequently – it’s reasonably priced and delicious, and the restaurants are accustomed to catering to families. Plus Noah invariably asks to eat shrimp and dumplings when we go out. Recently we realized how often we eat Chinese when we were at a non-Chinese restaurant and when we told Noah we were getting the check he asked to eat the cookie. He also recently began pulling out the white Hershey flag from the chocolate Kisses and reading them as if they were fortunes. Oddly enough the fortune is always the same. It says “You are my baby sister.” You think it’s a premonition? Stay tuned til March 22 to find out – I’ve scheduled our ultrasound.