Over easy

MILESTONE (5/26/05, 5:30 am): Just in the last week, the boy has started turning over from back to tummy with regularity. In fact, he's even started to try pulling himself up from a sitting position.

While this is all fine and dandy, not to mention thrilling, Dad has yet to fully "baby-proof" the house, and the idea of a soon-to-be-mobile Crazy Legs is causing his heart to skip several beats.

The rollercoaster ride continues!

We're headed north to the homebase of Grandparents W for the Memorial Day weekend. Hope everyone has a safe and relaxing holiday!

Come back Mary Poppins

As Colin approaches middle age (well, he's over 7 months now), we've got to come to terms with actually raising this kid as opposed to just cleaning up after him. While we've been enjoying the salad days of babyhood, the prospect of an older Colin holding his breath till he gets what he wants, or crying, biting or hitting when he gets frustrated is still only a passing thought. I don't think Heidi or I have begun to figure out how we will handle discipline problems.

Which is, of course, why we turn to the ultimate omniscient source: Reality Television, specifically, ABC's Supernanny and FOX's Nanny 911. These wonder women can snap a crying child into shape in a matter of 60 minutes of heavily edited footage, and still have time to roll their eyes in wonderment at the idiotic parents that have to be taught the simple lessons of handling their obnoxious, socially deviant offspring.

I am almost always sympathetic with the poor parents. From the single mother to the couple who had 23 kids, these folks are all desperately in over their head. Seriously, how can any parents function without the services of a snooty British nanny?



I hope we never have to resort to exposing our terrible parenting skills on a national level (and certainly not on FOX - home of American Idol and Joe Millionaire). However, if we find that we just can't cope with Colin's antics, and are willing to sell our souls for the potential monetary or merchandise rewards for looking foolish in front of the world, that's when you'll know we've completely lost our minds.

Thank goodness Colin can't even talk back yet.

Happy Mother's Day!

Today is my first Mother's Day as a mom and the thought that keeps going through my mind is, "Wow. People are giving me presents and flowers and stuff. I should have done this a long time ago!"

Actually, it is a nice excuse to sit back and reflect a bit on how the past 7 months has changed not only my day-to-day life, but also my life in the larger sense. Yeah, so Spoon is playing at the Vic on June 11th. Who cares? I've seen 'em before. Going to the movies? I don't think so. That's what Netflix is for. These things are nothing compared to playing a hyped-up, intense game of Peek-a-Boo with Colin. It's even more fun playing a game of Airplane when Patrick flies Colin around the house chasing me down a la North by Northwest.

Mother's Day has also has made me think an awful lot about how amazing our mothers are. Patrick and I were talking this morning about how much patience both of our mothers had to have when we were just newborns and our older sisters were in their "terrible twos". I can't imagine what a logistical nightmare it had to have been just to go to the grocery store. I wouldn't have the strength.

With just 7 months under my mothering belt, I have nothing but admiration for those who balance more than one young child at a time and especially for single parents (dads included). This is a lot of work. But it's work that actually does feel very natural when I didn't think that it would. It's work that at least right now doesn't seem like it shows very many immediate rewards. BUT the payoff comes in having a happy, healthy baby boy who is becoming more and more curious every day about the world and all the people in it. It's a huge payoff and I'm loving every minute of it. Even the minutes that I spend picking up rattles and toys from the floor for the 373rd time in five minutes.

So, we send a great big thanks, great big hugs and much love to our moms today! Love you!!