A life ruled by a 20 pound tyrant, the number 200, and more...

Well here we are, 200 posts since I moved my Western attitude to the East coast. Thanks for everyone who has read my various and sundry ramblings. I appreciate your time and the connection to the outside world.

My life continues to be ruled by my 20+ pound tyrant. Oliver has begun to "talk", making little vocal stylings at all hours of day and night, trying out his mouth and vocal cords. His talking is quite darling when the sun is out, so long as you are not trying to speak to anyone yourself. However, he has begun to wake up at an ungodly early hour to regale his father and I with tales of wild baby tribes living deep in the jungle and god only knows what else. He now does this almost every day. He is very, very loud.

So I drearily wave goodbye to the sleep I finally began to catch up on. I welcome back the bleary-eyed, leaving my keys in the freezer, sleepless self. I get lots of smiles to make up for the lack of sleep, along with a lot of baby giggles. I am also getting regular lectures on the deplorable treatment of babies in this culture, a loud demand for an increase in snuggle time, and the joy of watching Oliver talk to this sister.

We are also nursing nigh constantly now, as opposed to the previous 3 months of slightly less than nigh constant nursing. Has anyone else out there had a Mongo baby? He is over 20 pounds and only 3 and a half months old. He grew out of his 9 months clothes in one week, and is now wearing 12-18 month clothes. I need a support group for moms of amazon babies. I need answers to questions like, “is it realistic to presume I can continue to breast-feed an infant this large without supplementing?” I need a unlimited gift certificate to Baby Gap. I need a massage therapist to deal with my aching back and shoulder muscles. Mostly, I think I need other women to tell me how they handled having huge children.

Lee is doing very well at his job, his career has taken new twists and turns that I don't fully to understand. He is happy, he is stressed, he rarely programs, but manages large numbers of people programming a large array of projects. He has days when he can't even sit at his desk to wolf down a sandwich. He is amazing and I am very proud of him.

Marlena is happily engaged in being a big sister. Her brother is completely fascinated by her and watches her all the time. Therefore, she has begun to view his existence as highly positive, instead of dubious. He has done well, knowing which person to kiss up to for extra love and attention. She dotes on him, holds him all the time, and gets many drooly kisses for all her love and hard work. It is really neat, being able to watch their relationship develop. I always felt my brother and I had a little secret world, separate from our parents, and I really hope Marlena and Oliver have a similar connection.

My foot is better, I can walk really well on it, but I still can't stand to have the spot touched. Sigh. I hate adding things to do to my list of things to do, there are already so many things to do! I guess I will try and visit a doctor soon. Feh.

Mom was out here for a wonderful week. We had a perfect day at the beach with Marlena and Oliver. Mom and I took turns taking Marlena into the water, where we squealed and splashed. While mom was in the water with her, Oliver and I lay down under the umbrella and watched the sky. It was pretty magical. He loved to be there in the little wind-break I made him out of bags and towels. He kept smiling and looking around at all the new sounds. Then mom took over and Marlena and I spent a while getting wet and giggling. She is such fun at the beach, perfectly happy to run in and out of the waves for as long as anyone will let her. I was completely refreshed after the visit.

On the home-front, we finally got the dishwasher and dryer repaired, which is wonderful, though the combination of the repair person and the cable guy having appointments today has rendered my chances at a shower negligible. The repair guy was in and out in less than an hour. However, Scott, the cable guy, well actually the Fios guy, is still here, having had to bring the cables over three telephone poles and across the street. He got here first, and I began to feel pretty bad for him when it hit 1:30 and he was still installing. I decided it was only polite to feed him. After all, they do not have any information warning against the feeding of a cable guy on the website and he had been here working all morning. He seemed happy to sit and enjoy a very sticky peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a cold glass of ice water while basking in our air conditioning. I even stuck a few ginger snaps on his plate.

Happily, I can now do dishes with minimum hassle, and I will be able to dry my clothes too. Yay! I can take down the temporary clothesline I created in our sitting room! Now all I need is a Wife, and my domestic life will be complete.