the return to poop

when s had just been born, p and i were OBSESSED with baby poop. so much so, we read the NCT chart (complete with color pictures of the ideal poop for the first three weeks) religiously. i even blogged about it here.

ok, so we’re still obsessed with poop. i’m pretty sure we will be right up until the day s is completely potty trained. however, our little girl is finally getting the hang of it! now i know it’s not the most exciting of developmental leaps, but when a third of your child’s life consists of bodily functions, regularity is something to celebrate. once or twice a day, s will have a poop (YAY…only a few weeks ago we were counting the days between BMs, not hours). here are some of the telltale signs of an impending blowout:

grunting. this sign is hilarious and embarrassing in public. i remember laughing with the parents of a baby at the next table at a pub a few weeks ago who thought their son was the only one who grunted for england when he was having a poop.

hands on knees. s sure knows how to bear down and get ready for a poop. it’s super cute and grown-up looking.

focus. it’s as if someone is divulging the world’s greatest secrets and she is listening intently to every word.

the noise. when the poop comes, you sure know it. usually it’s accompanied by a blowout that creeps slowly out of the nappy onto perfectly white onesies and adorable pants. this both frustrates and excites my husband, who has an unnatural cleaning product fetish. currently he is soaking several pieces of clothing in stain remover. can anyone say Stay at Home Dad?!?! yes please!

you’d think that, with all these signs, we’d be able to potty train s early. in fact, i have a friend that practices elimination communication, or infant potty training. before you laugh about it, read her blog here. if i had more balls or patience, i would do the same for s! kudos to them! in the meantime, i am thankful for nappies and a husband who enjoys, or at least participates in, the changing process.

catch up

ok, so i said today was silent sunday, but i finally have something to say and can’t keep it in! sorry for being so quiet the last week. you know how you look back on a period of time and can’t remember any of it in detail? that’s how the last few days have felt.

s and i had a much needed rest this week and spent three days at home. we’ve been having some more problems with feeding, but have come to the conclusion that s is teething early and decides to use me as a teether (yum) instead of eating sometimes. so we soldier on.

we had some friends from oxford over to stay wednesday night so played host for them. mommy even had a g and t or two! mmmmmm. friday we went to a lunch thrown by some neighbors (more on the neighbors soon) and then met p for a chaplain’s tea in college. too much schmoozing. not enough cupcakes.

yesterday we ventured out onto midsummer common for cambridge’s annual strawberry fair. p carried s in the ergo and it was lovely being handsfree for a few hours. i’m pretty sure all three of us got high from the smells of patchouli and weed that permeated the air there. gotta love the hippies! we watched pulp fiction in the afternoon (my first time; hopefully s didn’t learn any naughty words) and ate p’s fantastic homemade pizza for dinner.

the plan today was the same as the last few sundays: to be a good vicar’s (chaplain’s!) wife and take s to church at college. it feels so nice to go regularly and to feel part of a community again. HOWEVER, about three seconds before we were supposed to leave the house, the kitchen ceiling collapsed five feet away from s and me. scary. think plane-crashing-into-the-bedroom-in-donnie-darko scary. but, we were running late and i needed to feed s before church. so, we left it. p celebrated and, after breakfast in his rooms, we went to lunch at las iguanas (since our entire kitchen was covered in a film of plaster and dust). yummmmy latin american food! we got home and my amazing hubby cleaned up the plaster on the kitchen floor while i took care of s…also because p was worried that if we were both in the kitchen at the same time the whole ceiling might fall down and we would die and leave s all alone. who’s the crazy one now?! then a perfect sunday afternoon with the family, watching the queen’s jubilee celebrations on tv.

tomorrow s gets to have cuddles with her godmommy! yay!

life is good. ❤

in other news, p has finally been able to give s a bottle! yay for bonding! yay for mommy breaktime!

smile watch 2012

capturing the elusive smile from s is like hunting bigfoot. for awhile, p and i thought it wasn’t going to happen. sure, she’d smile for us in the morning, after feeds, and when p made ridiculous faces at her. as soon as i stuck the camera in her face, however, i got nothing.

so in the mornings i’ve taken to whipping it out every other second. poor s; the paparazzi has descended. these are the versions of the baby smile most likely to appear:

the half laugh:

the cheeky chops:

the paparazzi pout:

although each of these smiles is more adorable than the last, none of them lives up to its full potential. what we are hunting is THE BIG ONE. a smile so adorable that the heart melts instantly. a truly happy smile. so far, we’ve only caught one of these smiles on film.

good enough for me! ❤