7 Quick Takes

Joining sweet Hallie who is filling in for Jen who is most certainly in our prayers (along with her little interior baby!) as she slowly and hopefully continues to recover from her health scare earlier this week. I miss her e-presence but I hope she is getting copious amounts of sleep as we all type our Quakes.

1. Let me start things off on the most important foot. There are so many people that I've met online that I would love to meet in real life and Lindsay is one of the lovely ladies at the very top of the list. She is a mother to seven kiddos and keeps an inspiring blog on (super!) motherhood.

It's a must-must-read for all moms. She recently posted about her cousin's son, John-Paul, who is in dire need of two expensive machines to treat his chronic seizures.

These machines are not covered by their insurance and they will gratefully accept all the help they can get to obtain these machines that are so vital to his continued health. I implore you to prayerfully consider donating to their John-Paul's cause. Thanks in advance!!

2. It took her a few days but Julia has gone from zero (aka: ignore/pretend he is invisible/deny his existence entirely) to hero ("was wong, fee-oh? Jew-ee-uhs here!") in the Theodore arena.

She's convinced he would really enjoy some cheese if we allowed and has reason to emerge from her cage every morning NOT wearing the look of "I hate life" ... while she investigates his whereabouts. She even carefully grabbed him by the scruff of the neck with the intention of walking him upstairs to change his diaper earlier this afternoon. Luckily, I was there to stop her but I don't have to tell you that sweetness knows no boundaries under our roof these days. Hopefully her baditude is gone for good.  Here's a clip (that might make you dizzy due to the angle switch up half way through) of her inaugural hold.

3. On the other hand, Sebastian is staying stagnant with his "nice touches" (I need a new phrase other than "nice touches" ... maybe "moderately kind pats" or "affirming strokes" -- no? I know) which border on domestic abuse.

Bash, Raggedy, and Scared Granny alllll kicking it.

I just think he doesn't know his own strength and he doesn't realize that he doesn't need to use the force of a lead paperweight to get his affectionate point across. He mostly steers clear of all things baby and is thrilled with all the unsupervised time he's got on his hands to get into messy mischief and stay in his footie pajams alllll day long. Here's a clip of some exceptionally kind and affirmative patting. Please forgive my first-thing-in-the-morn syrupy voice ... makes me cringe.

4. I know a lot of people don't love the newborn phase or aren't baby people in general (like the audiologist that came to check Theo's hearing and all but ran out of the room when Bash put his grubby paws out for her to please hold him ... ) but I am a total sucker for little tiny infants and I hope Theo stays the size of a teenage kitten forever!!!!!

oh, this doesn't scream "cuddly wuddly" to you?

Don't mind me and my normal. I won't deny that he is an odd looking little duck with his professional comb over, bebe chicken legs, beady little eyes, and his milky perma-grimace but I find the combo all very endearing and I'll stop before you grab your resident puke buck.

5. I debated being prudent and not sharing my nursing woes with you but I've got little else to share right now as it is sort of all-consuming. Without going into tooooo much detail, let's just say I've got enough milk to be Starbucks numero uno supplier if they suddenly started to market and sell lattes with a heavy pour of milk of the human variety. I'm drowning in cabbage leaves and hoping to regain some of my dignity, relatively pleasant odor, and pain-free living back in "5-7 days" (according to the lactation consultant and multiple reliable websites).

6. Julia and I indulged in a quick solo trip to Target last night to procure a humidifier filter and some teething gel. I was so happy to be behind the wheel of the van, in not-sweats, and among red-blooded strangers that I hardly noticed when the never not annoying Mambo #5 came on the radio. I aaaaalmost made the lethal and insane mistake of trying on some pants from the clearance rack but the "Theo is awake!!" alarm sounded via text from Simon. Ridiculous dressing room crisis very much averted, I'm sure. I'll try again in March or April.

7. I can't thank you enough for all of your sweet congratulatory emails and comments. It's been a superb week.

Go see Hallie for alllllllll the other posts.