Week in Review – 27 October 2013

I still can’t get over just how BALD this child is on top. The ladies in my family usually have kids with gloriously thick hair, even Pete had a nice healthy head-ful of the stuff. So anyway it is kinda jarring to me every time I look at this poor kid. I totally blame my husband’s genes on that one.

I don’t know if people have bald babies in his family, but whatever he’s getting blamed anyway 😉

Mmm, donut.

This week flew by, I guess that’s how it goes when you fill your days with housework, newborn feedings, burpings, rocking, and endless diaper changes. IT’S ALL SO GLAMOROUS AND YOU ARE MADLY JEALOUS OF ME I AM AWARE. The fussy period has hit, a bit earlier than with Pete (bummer), so as the day creeps to evening I get that lovely feeling of dread, wondering how long the fussing last that evening. Hopefully this means we also blow past this period faster than we did with Pete.

I have filled my days by watching Gossip Girl – I watched a grand total of 3 episodes before maternity leave. Yes, total. Three. In my whole life. I am now well into the 5th season, and I have to admit: it’s a lot better than I thought it would be. The fashion and New-York-centric storylines make the show worth watching, but also the dialogue can be rather sly and smart at times, and a few of the characters are fun to root for in a “they are huge a-holes but vastly entertaining” kinda way. All of which bring the rest of the bad acting and soap-opera antics up from being total worthless drek. Also, David O. Russell has made a few cameos (??), and if he’s willing to make an appearance then a show is okay in my book. I have about 20-ish episodes to go, and then I need to find some other show on Netflix/Amazon to play all day long as background music to my temporary role of stay-at-home mom. I am taking any and all suggestions, people.

So other than ALL THAT EXCITEMENT: the weekend started on Friday at our house. The boys had doctor appointments and admittedly: I was antsy about herding both out there and keeping them both quietly occupied all day while Scott worked from home (Pete’s school was out for fall break). So Scott took the day off as well, and helped to do the doctor visits. My sweet chubby baby is growing like a weed – not only has he grown an inch and a half since birth, he’s also well surpassed his birth weight, weighing in at a hefty 10 lbs. 1 oz. OBESE BABY ALERT.

I must admit, that was a little surprising considering he’s not quite like his brother when it comes to eating. It takes him awhile to finish a feeding, for one. For another, he’s totally picky – he hates bottles, HATES. A huge rack full of the old Dr. Brown bottles from Pete’s babyhood, and all are worthless. We busted out these boob-shaped ones (I know, kill me now) and he tolerates them at best. Although you better heat up that milk to the temperature he’s accustomed to, or he won’t tolerate it. He hates Mylicon when we’ve tried to give him that for gas, and I mean COME ON KID IT TASTES LIKE CANDY. I have a feeling that Linus will be our picky eater, sadly.

Since we were all home, we went ahead and hit up the downtown trick or treat that afternoon. This was a dress rehearsal of sorts for Pete’s Optimus Prime costume. And boy, but was it a learning experience. The cuffs I made (big red squares to make his forearms seem more robot-y) were bulky, so we tossed them back in the car. The mask we bought to go with the costume (I was not making that, sorry) was too long, and didn’t fit on his head with the boxy body of the costume. So I shoved it in my purse and we just stuck to the blue stocking cap. THEN one of the boots fell off, after about 5 feet of walking. Er, oops. The other boot sustained major damage on the walk, ripping in-between his legs and scuffing badly on the bottom. And we lost both exhaust pipes on the body, both got caught on random strangers while walking State St. and ripped right off.

That being said: Pete took all damage in stride, assuring us that Optimus is ‘repairable’, and carrying on as if his costume was not indeed falling apart at the seams. He had a blast.

We stopped at the Children’s Museum so I could feed Linus, and Pete discovered the one design flaw that he had trouble coping with: he couldn’t reach his mouth. So his candy consumption was not what he would have liked, I had to hand-feed it to him like a baby bird. He also begged me to scratch the side of his nose and his head a few times. Poor child.

Also this week, Scott took Pete in for a hair cut, and he came home with yet another bizarre cut. It is now my personal duty to take this child in to get his hair cut, as the ‘stylists’ cannot be trusted and someone have to bring the big threats to get something normal. He is seriously sporting Anthony Michael Hall’s hair from Sixteen Candles, except not even as awesomely bad as that. Like, shorter. But just as dorky. The kid has a lot of cowlicks and curly hair, you’d think they’d know better than to cut it so… well, weird. Guh.

Ugh, bad hair I can’t even look at it.

ANYWAY. That was our Friday. Saturday my cousin Mike came by to meet the new baby and chat for awhile. Pete now adores him. After he left Pete informed me he wants to send Mike a postcard, so I guess I better get that dude’s address.

Sunday we hit up Boo at the Zoo. I busted out my glue gun the night before and you better believe I reinforced the crap out of that costume. With exhaust pipes re-attached, boots lifted and re-cut/glued, and front plates re-enforced: we were off for Trick or Treating Part II.

And I am happy to say: the costume bits all made it back home in one piece. BOOYAH.

Or: BOOM. Or whatever other random thing the kids were saying for a hot minute that the grown-ups are now lamely copying.

Linus was the Great Pumpkin for this round of Trick or Treating, mainly because (1) I had a pumpkin hat, (2) my sister sent a jack-o-lantern onesie in her care package to us, and (3) I had enough time while standing in line at the zoo to scribble those words on a piece of white paper to pin to the baby carrier (using Pete’s boxy costume as a writing table, no less). Poor neglected second child, sorry your costume sucks this year and isn’t as awesome as Pete’s first Halloween costume.

My favorite part of the day: running into the Klements racing sausages. The last time I saw them was in 2007 I think? At a mixer at the SETAC annual meeting, of all places. Anyway, it had been much too long since I saw my beloved Brett Wurst in person.

After a long (loooooong) day at the zoo, we hit up AJ Bombers for a late lunch. Mad Sconnie burger, YUM.

And that about sums things up. Linus and I skipped Pete’s last soccer game this afternoon, someone had to start dinner and besides, the witching hour descended (so ready for that stage to be over, for reals). And here we are! Hopefully I have more fun and exciting things for you next week 🙂 Until then…