Children's book fail

How many bananas do you see?























Schadenfreude is delightful.

(Image courtesy of the excellent site FAILBlog.)

Nine pounds, nine ounces

Woohoo! We don't have to go back to the doctor until our two month wellness check (which is really only in two weeks, but nonetheless). Slane is eating like a champ and growing!

Today we also went to Tulip Time. Slane did really well and slept through most of the parade. She met some aunts and uncles and cousins for the first time, and some friends too. She even got her picture taken with some tulips. The cutest part: it started to storm as we were leaving, and even though she was being pushed through the rain (the canopy was up) she was laughing and smiling. I hope that means the thunder doesn't scare her. The most frustrating part, after finding a bathroom and claiming it to pump (still measuring ounces), I apparently took too long. The patrons waiting in line went to get the manager to check on the person in the bathroom. My fault-I thought rechargeable batteries would work in the pump and they didn't so I had to plug in...People were banging on the door and I kept saying "just a minute" but they didn't hear me. When I finally left the bathroom, I just berated the people in line about having respect for a breastfeeding mother seeking a little privacy. Then I left as quickly as possible.

There are things I should be doing,

but taking some time for myself seems like a better idea. The bottles to clean and dishes to do will still be there later. I doubt tomorrow's babysitter notices the mess.

Slane is gaining weight. I hate that I have to give her formula (no place in the budget for that), and am disappointed by my own lack of production, but it does mean she is gaining weight. Right now she is eating about half breast milk (measured out in bottles, of course) and half formula. It makes life more convenient and less convenient in different ways. Now I have to pump a lot (had to borrow an electric pump) and that is less convenient because I need to be in a more private place to do that. Before, I could just cover Slane with a blanket and go about my business while feeding. Now I can feed her whenever and wherever we are, and before I couldn't always feed right when she was hungry (like when I was in the middle of a piano lesson, though I did feed her once during a lesson). It has been a tough adjustment for all of us.

The Incredibles and Jack-Jack's clever super power

As I sit here at 2:30 a.m. feeding Miss Slane, I am reminded of a conversation MamaCue and I had about the excellent animated film The Incredibles, directed by genius Brad Bird. (SPOILER ALERT: This post reveals the secret super power of Jack-Jack, a character in the film which came out in 2004.) Thursday, we watched it for the first time since Slane was born.

Here's a brief synopsis: superheroes who once lived among us now must live "normal" lives, maintaining their super identities a secret. Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl, now Bob and Helen Parr, have two super children and an infant: Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack. In interviews, Bird admits raising his own family was inspiration for The Incredibles' super powers. A father (Mr. Incredible) thinks he needs to be strong, providing and defending for his family. A mother (Elastigirl) must be flexible as she is stretched to her limits. Some adolescent girls (Violet) want to be invisible, while some little boys (Dash) are full of boundless energy.

I don't remember how Bird explained Jack-Jack's super powers, but now that we have an infant, we get why Jack-Jack has the super powers he reveals in the film. During a feeding, Sara shared her revelation about his powers. "The fact that he can go from fire, to dead weight, to monster: Slane does all of those things! It's what babies do."

They also poop through their outfits and spit up twice -- at least that's what Slane has done since I started typing this post on the Blackberry. And wear four changes of clothes in an hour. Maybe we can all return to sleep now?

Soft spots and blowholes:

DaddyCue (after singing to Slane and giving her a kiss on the forehead): Did that just blow your mind?

(Slane stares blankly at DaddyCue.)

MamaCue: No, daddy. If that had blown her mind, her soft spot would open up like a whale's blowhole and start spouting things.

DaddyCue: Uhh...right. Thanks for that image. Blech.

(Photo Credit: Daylife.com/Getty Images)

things I want to say but don't have time to in 5 minutes or less

So, I have a list of things I want to blog about, but time to myself is almost nil (does in the shower count?). I want to talk about the lady who parked in the expectant/new mother spot in front of us and her youngest kid was at least 8, or what it was like in the OB wing, or my frustration with this whole feeding thing and me not producing enough milk, or how blessed we have been with gifts, meals, and general help, or how we would continue to use cloth diapers if we had time to wash the ones that have been dirty for about a week, or how the soy allergy is going, or just how cute Slane is, or the fact that Q goes back to work next week, and how will I accomplish things that we aren't accomplishing with both of us home, especially now that our baby has turned cranky and I can't feed her one handed anymore, or the thank you notes I keep trying to get to (we really are working on that).

But my five minutes are up and I have a piano student at the door...maybe in another 4 weeks when I get 5 more minutes of free time.

Why can't we sleep? (Emphasis on we.)

I love that Slane is a cuddler, except a bedtime. This would be the third time tonight I have rocked her to sleep. Let's hope she stays asleep when I put her in her crib. Daddy needs sleep, too.