Back to the Arctic Tundra and Back to Work!

We got back last night from Florida and it was a really wonderful trip.  Here's some video of Brice in the pool.  As you can tell, I'm really attempting to influence him to be an olympic swimmer when he grows up.  Michael Phelps may have lost some sponsorships for a stupid reason, but he's still an amazing athlete in my mind.

Brice is really growing up quickly!  He appears to be getting his first tooth and now everything within his grasp goes right into his mouth.  His favorite thing to "taste" is fabric.  If you put him on your shoulder, he'll lick your sleeve.  If he's sleeping with a blanket, the blanket goes into his mouth.  I've started giving him washcloths to suck on and I've decided that this is the way to go.  If he gets attached and carries the washcloth as his security blanket, I know that I have ample supply in case one ever gets lost!

In baby news this week, I must first congratulate my sister and her husband, Andy.  They found out on Thursday that they will be having a little girl in July.  They are ahead of the game and have already selected the name Grace Sophia Loftus Carter and now I can start my countdown to July when I get to meet my lovely little niece!  Our friends Wassim and Erin gave birth to a sweet girl, Analisa on February 18.  We got to meet her on her first night home and she is so beautiful!  Quite the little sleeper too... I'm hoping for their sake that the good sleeping lasts.  Kirstin and her husband Ashley gave birth to their son, Lucas Benjamin Morgan on Wednesday, just one day before she was due to be induced.  I can't wait to see the little man!

My maternity leave is coming to a close and I head back to work on Monday.  I never thought that I would have such mixed emotions about going back.  On one hand, I love what I do and I love my co-workers, so I will be happy to see them all again.  On the other hand, Brice is still very little, and it pains me at the thought of leaving him for the entire day.  As some of you know, I have managed to secure a nanny to watch Brice at our house while I am at work. I didn't feel prepared to leave Brice at daycare.  In my mind, he's quite the handful (I'm sure that every mother thinks this of her children) and I'm happy that she'll be able to focus on Brice.   Despite my love for our nanny and my comfort with him being watched at our house, I'm sure I'll still cry about a half a dozen times between now and the time that I get to the office on Monday.  I'm seriously considering buying some waterproof mascara!  I'll update this week to let everyone know how it goes!

Many Congratulations!

Its been a very baby week for us!  First, we'd like to congratulate Kelly and Torry on the birth of their son Nathaniel Ross.  Little Nate rounds out the trio for me, Heather and Kelly as the three college roommates now have three fabulous sons.  Hopefully they'll all be buddies and if we keep our fingers crossed, perhaps they will be college roommates too.

I just got off the phone with Galen who reported that Jessica gave birth to their second daughter at noon today.  They were still deciding on names but I put in my vote for Vivienne Grace Antle.  We'll see what ends up on her birth certificate.  Joel and I determined that we are the root cause for the Antle babies to be born as little Sofie was born just after our wedding and we had planned to see Jess and Galen yesterday afternoon when they called to say they were heading to the hospital instead.

We're having dinner tonight with our friends Wassim and Erin.  Poor Erin is 1 day overdue with their daughter so perhaps we will have the same effect on them!

Brice hit the 10 week mark and is now over 15lbs.  This week he has found his smile, his laugh and his hands and is now enjoying shoving his fists into his mouth whenever he gets the chance.  We still are having some issues on the sleeping front but I'm remaining optimistic that he'll surprise us in the very near future by sleeping through the night.  

Here are some photos of Brice from this week:

Still a little apprehensive when it comes to his crib:

Chilling out in his new "big boy" stroller:

Brice loves his evening bath. We made sure to hide all the parts to keep this blog rated PG.

As I mentioned, Brice has found his smile.  Here he is showing it off:

All the babies doing tummy time during my mommy/baby yoga class.  There were eight babies this week and we were commenting that this is what that mother of the octuplets has to look forward too.  Wow!  

25 Random Things...

I've been tagged a couple of times on Facebook to list 25 random things about me. I figured that instead of posting there, I would post here in the hopes that some of you would also share some random facts.  Here you go:

1. 10 years ago I thought that I would never get married or have children. Now I can't imagine my life without Joel and Brice.
2. I believe that my husband is the smartest person that I know but I would never say that to his face.

3.  I will not answer my phone when I'm driving because it cuts into my singing with the radio time.

4.  In 1995 I was a guest on the CBS national morning show and I sat in the green room next to Val Kilmer.  He was promoting the movie Wyatt Earp and I was talking about racial prejudice in Greenwich.

5.  I was the most cynical cheerleader ever, yet somehow I managed to be voted captain.

6.  I share my birthday with my sister, Allyson, and I absolutely love that.  While we have totally different personalities, we are both classic Leos.

7.  Someday I would like to write a book and at this point I am seriously considering reaching out for help on where to start.

8.  In college, I hosted two radio shows.  One was called the Prisoner Request Hour and we would take requests from prisoners at Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary.  Needless to say, we played a lot of AC/DC and Metallica.

9.  On my other radio show, I had the honor of interviewing The Samples, Dave Matthews and Bob Dylan.  

10.  I have never wanted to run for political office but I can think of three friends that I would want to campaign for if they ever threw their hat in the ring.

11.  During my time at ABC I chased Monica Lewinsky on the back of a motorcycle, was given a sandwich by James Carville and was fired (and then instantly rehired) by Sam Donaldson.

12.  I have lived in four different states and have moved 16 times since graduating from college.

13.  I began my college career as an animal behavior major with the desire to write for National Geographic but I nearly failed every science course that I had to take.

14.  I consider my mom and my two sisters to be my best friends.  I tell them everything.

15.  I have carried a guitar with me for the past 12 years but I have no idea how to play it.

16.  I love to read and my favorite place to read is in the tub.  I have about three books that I can't wait to read sitting in the bathroom.

17.  I regret falling out of touch with my best friend from childhood.  Our parents are still friends but we haven't spoken in years.  I'm afraid to reach out to her for fear that she'll tell me what she really thinks of the girl I was in high school.

18.  I honestly believe that my son could be President of the United States, a professional hockey player or the scientist that discovers the cure for cancer... or all three simultaneously.

19. I actually really enjoy cooking but I still like eating more.

20.  I can't survive without dessert.  I tried to go a week without eating sugar and by day 3 my boss and husband both insisted that I get a candy bar.

21.  I can't go to bed at night with dirty dishes in the sink and I can't leave the house without making the bed.  This is all my father's fault.

22.  I love football and boating.  I credit my dad for teaching me all about these things and not treating me like a girly girl when I was growing up.

23.  I moved back to Connecticut from San Francisco but now I'm really thinking that I'd love to live in Los Angeles.

24.  I could not live without my blackberry, my blow dryer and my favorite pair of high heels.  

25.  I keep telling friends and family that we only want one more child, but in my mind, I think I'd like a bigger family.

We took Brice for his two month well baby appointment at the doctor.  I am happy to report that he is 14.5lbs and 24 inches long.  He had his first vaccinations, three shots and one oral, and was a champ throughout.  He cried briefly but once I gave him his bottle, he was all smiles again.  Here are a couple of photos from our trip to Florida and one for Grandma Elaine:

Playing with the MacBook...

Our computer died a couple of weeks ago and Joel and I decided to bite the bullet and get ourselves a fancy MacBook laptop. One of the applications is iMovie which lets you pull videos and photos to create cool videos. I messed around for about 30 minutes while Brice was sleeping the other night and created the following video (I'm no Ron Howard, but I have to admit, I did this without reading any instructions):

Yesterday, Brice and I went to our first mommy/baby yoga class in Fairfield. There were three other moms there with their babies and Brice was the youngest in the bunch at 7 weeks. All the moms were impressed at 1) his size 2) his eye contact and the fact that he stayed awake and engaged throughout the entire class and 3) my ability to get out of the house to get to the class with a 7 week old. It was good to get some positive feedback from women who had just been there but more importantly, it was GREAT to get out of the house and have some adult conversation.

Now, while Brice hates sleeping, he's a pretty easy baby otherwise. He hangs out, loves people watching and is overall really well behaved. Yesterday, he managed to accomplish the impossible. Gravity-defying poop. Joel had just left for work when I heard (and smelled) little Brice pass gas. I thought it might be time for a diaper change, so I put him on the changing table and started to remove clothing. That's when I saw it. Poop was actually coming out of the TOP of his onesie. It was all over his back, on his arms and even in his ears! I was a pretty good physics student but I just don't understand how this is possible. Needless to say, Brice got his second bath in 12 hours (I think he pooped just to get another bath).

I have more photos to add but we're having problems with the connection so I'll edit and add later. Enjoy!

Thank you David Hughes, wherever you are.

As a new parent, I spend a lot of time looking at my son and thinking about the empty slate that his is right now and how that slate will fill and change over the years.  This morning I took some time during the snow to think about my own slate.

Let me tell you a story.

It was 1991 and I was a wide-eyed high school freshman.  I still recall walking into Ms. Bazcek's Algebra I class that first day in fear.  See, Ms. Bazcek had practically failed me in Pre-Algebra just two years earlier and of course it was just my luck to get her again in high school.  Ms. Bazcek had assigned us seats in alphabetical order so I'm not sure if it was fate or dumb luck that sat me, Erica Friedlander, right next to David Hughes.  

David Hughes was a senior.  I know what you're saying.  A freshman and a senior in the same math class?  Joel will tell you that I add on my fingers and he's pretty much telling the truth.  David was no better and so to sit us next to one another was about the silliest thing Bazcek could have done.  

For the first couple of weeks, I did what I could to not make eye contact with David.  I went to a huge high school so it wasn't too common for a freshman and a senior to chat.  I noticed him coming and going though.  He had dark hair in a bowl cut, fair skin and freckles.  He was tall and lanky and he was perpetually drumming pencils, pens, fingers, anything on his desk.  He sometimes carried a trumpet around too.

Finally, one day he turned to me and asked, "So, did you hear the new Little Feat album?"  At the time, my taste in music landed somewhere between New Kids on the Block and Naughty By Nature.  I had no clue what he was talking about.  I told him that I didn't know who Little Feat was and, as Joel says, he looked at me like I had a lobster coming out of my head.  He pulled out his Sony walkman (yep, we still listened to tapes back then) and handed over the headphones. From that day forward, he would bring in mix tapes of his favorite tunes, The Eagles, Grateful Dead, Phish, Led Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers, Widespread Panic, and before class started, he'd give me a listen and a brief education on each band (Tidbit: The Phish "Picture of Nectar" album cover is an orange, but if you look closer, there's a picture of Saddam Hussein with a bullet hole in his forehead). 

Before Thanksgiving break, David invited me to go see Phish in concert in Port Chester.  My mom had taught David in her days as an elementary school teacher and she must have had fond memories of him because she agreed to let me go.  He drove us there in his old beat up Volkswagon.  I literally had to beat on the dashboard with my fist to get the heat to work.  The tickets to the concert cost $12 and we could sit anywhere.  Naturally, David wanted to be in the front row.  The lights went down and the crowd began to cheer as a mismatched group of musicians, including one long-haired man in a dress, took the stage.  From the first note I was hooked.  I loved to dance and this was a whole new thing.  Spinning, swaying, laughing... the audience seemed to move like an ocean to the beat.

I started buying my own tapes.  Big Head Todd and The Monsters, The Samples, Bob Marley.  I started going to concerts.  Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead.  I saw Phish 12 more times in concert after that first night.

David graduated that year and went on to the Citadel.  I remember getting a letter with pictures of him in his uniform with hair cut military style.  After that, we fell out of touch.  My love for music lived on though and even today I still pride myself on deviating a bit from the radio to find tunes that match my taste.

So the other day, when Brice was having a fussy afternoon and nothing I did would settle him down, I grabbed the Mac and went to iTunes to create a special playlist.  Somewhere between "Its Alright" by Big Head Todd and "Ripple" by Grateful Dead, Brice fell sleep with a smile on his face.

I wonder whatever became of David Hughes.  Is he in Iraq?  Afghanistan?  I hope that instead, he's got his own family and is sitting on his couch, bouncing his child on his knee, teaching him the lyrics to "Fee".  And so, in my state of groggy exhaustion, with a sleeping baby in my lap, I whisper, "Thank you David Hughes, wherever you are."

And, you're daily dose of Brice.  You can see that I'm trying to breed him to be the next Michael Phelps:

No sleep till Brooklyn

When Brice was first born, we used to sing "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" by the Beastie Boys to him because every time I would begin to feed him, he would fall asleep.  Needless to say, we have created a monster.  Between Brice's nighttime fussiness and daytime energy, I would assume that he is getting no more than 9 hours of sleep per day.  The "baby bible" that I've been referring to says they should be sleeping about 18 hours a day at this point.  Where oh where is my good sleeper!  I guess I got the good eater and the mediocre sleeper in the bunch.

In true mommy fashion, I decided to document all of the places where Brice is not sleeping. Here are some of my favorites.  

I will not sleep with my Auntie Jill (and yes, I am wearing my Kiss t-shirt)

I will not nap in my Moses basket.

I will not nap in my swing.

Papa will sleep in the chair though.

Finally, I decided to sleep with Auntie Jill, but only when Uncle Andy lets me talk on his iPhone.

One month old already...

Happy 2009!

Today is Brice's one month birthday! It is truly amazing how quickly the time passes and how big Brice is already. It is also a bit insane to stop and think about how much life has changed in such a short period of time.

We headed to Joel's parents' house in Bethesda for New Years since Joel had some time off from work. Big change #1: riding in the back seat of our car so that I could keep an eye on the little guy. Realization #1: our car is way too small. Even with the dogs riding shotgun, we hardly had enough space for all of us. Let the SUV research begin.

We had made plans to go to the Ladd's for New Years Eve. Brice hadn't slept much during the day and by 9pm, he was cranky and we were having a tough time putting him down. Big change #2: we ended up spending New Years on the couch in the basement having finally gotten the babe to sleep at 11pm. Realization #2: I didn't care because by that point, I was half asleep, covered in baby drool and incapable of socializing.

So, we headed back on Friday since Joel's whole family managed to come down with the same 24-hour bug that KOed me the week before. We spent a nice day on Saturday running errands. Big change #3: A meal out is now a quick trip to the diner. Realization #3: I wouldn't trade it for a million fancy dinners. Spending time watching Brice is so fun, even when I desperately need a warm meal and a nap.

I've also noticed its getting more and more difficult to update the blog as Brice spends so many hours awake and wanting attention. Big change #4: I am typing this update with one hand as Brice is sitting in my lap. Realization #4: There will only be so many days/weeks/years when he'll want to sit in my lap. Someday he's going to be embarrassed by me, so I'm going to enjoy this while I can!

I took some photos this morning to mark Brice's one month birthday. The frog PJs are sized for 6 month olds... we're going to go thru clothes like gangbusters.

"Rocking" out in his swing.

In an outfit clearly designed by someone who does not have children. This thing has more buttons and snaps than I've ever seen. Needless to say, the outfit was short lived once we had a diaper change.

Showing off his long arms and legs.