What the heck?!

So we spent the day inside, snuggling the baby and making delicious things in the oven. Theseus made a huge batch of his super-yummy granola (way better than any store-bought kind) and I finally roasted all the spaghetti squash seeds that had been waiting patiently in the fridge. The entire house smelled wonderful. So cozy.

Theseus also got some homework done and I did a couple loads of laundry. This evening, now that the baby has had a bath and is tucked in (until his 10 p.m. feeding), we're hanging out on the couch in front of the television. I don't feel like I accomplished very much, but that's ok. I've got big plans for tomorrow:

- making these cookies
- finishing my study sheet for Bio Lab
- begin study sheet for Chem
- vacuuming?
- begin Christmas shopping (online)

What an exciting life I lead! This post just about put me to sleep. I'll try to be more interesting tomorrow.

- Antiope

 
This week Austin discovered he can get places by rolling. Suddenly, the sweet little baby who would fall asleep in my arms has boundless energy and wants to roll and squirm his way across the world. So far we have been keeping him somewhat contained in a section of the family room we call "Baby Land," but I can see this won't last much longer. Items on the outer edges of Baby Land - a box of cat toys, our book shelves, the rocking chair - will have to be relocated once he realizes he's capable of the next stage of locomotion: crawling.

Where does the time go? He's 7 months and 1 week, 18 lbs with a growing mop of blonde hair, chunky thighs and a giant, crazy smile. I look at him and I can actually see him learning things. Seems like, seriously, yesterday that I was counting down days until my next ultrasound and waiting for Theseus to get home.

Crazy, right?

- Antiope

 
Thought I had something to say, got distracted, been staring at this blank page for like 4 hours.

I'll try again tomorrow. In the meantime:

- Antiope

 
Theseus has left for class, the baby is at day care, and I'm alone in the house in complete. silence.

Does that ever feel refreshing to you? Too often I have something on for background noise, whether it is the television or some music. Right now it is quiet enough in the house to hear a cat yawn in the other room and a car move across the bridge down the road. I can hear the wind and all the creaks our house makes. It's lovely, actually. I don't get to enjoy the silence very often (a consequence of having a 7 month old) so I try to savor it when I do.
    

 
for a red velvet cupcake right now. Someone please get on this!

- Antiope

Mice!

10/14/2011

1 Comment

 
Really?! Not again...

Thankfully we have very vigilant cats. Two mice have already fallen to Sweet Thing's deadly claws - she has edged out Fi as best hunter in the house. She caught the first one in the basement last night and brought it upstairs before we realized what was happening. She was skulking around with it in her mouth, growling at the other (jealous) cats so we coaxed her back downstairs and eventually took it away from her. She wasn't pleased, but wasn't as angry as Fi was last year when I had to take away three of his treasures. She caught another tonight and gave it to us pretty easily. I followed up with some cat treats.

Gross. Hope that was the last one for this season.

- Antiope

 
But first, a photo: I took this one last week. The focus is a little soft, but I like it. :)
So NY was great. Mer fed me lots of tea and fancy cookies, apples with cinnamon, homemade guacamole and more tea. I could drink a whole gallon of tea every day, I think. Peppermint, Earl Grey, Lady Grey, Lemon Ginger. We sat at her little table with the elephant on it and chatted and chatted and chatted. We spotted some deer, and on the last night, three raccoons.

On Saturday we took Austin to a little outdoor reenactment village (very much like Old Sturbridge Village) and he met some surly chickens and a few uninterested goats. The ladies there cooed at him, and he enjoyed being outdoors in such fine weather. Later we went to a Goodwill and found some treasures - a scientific beaker I'm going to use as a bathroom drinking glass, some nice mismatched plates for holding jewelry (I'm going to keep one by the bed and one by the sink), a lion costume for the baby, some weird ugly silk flowers I'm going to spray paint black and turn into spooky Halloween decorations. Treasures! On Sunday we attempted to go to a flea market - we got there, but it turned out to be far too hot and sunny for fair baby skin. We pushed him around for awhile, bought some lemonade and went back. Monday I collected all his items and drove back home to NJ.

Like I said in my last post, it was nice to be away for a few days to recharge. Austin was a bit out of sorts, though. He's been fighting a head/chest cold for a little while now, and is on medication for the beginnings of an ear infection (poor thing - the medication smells wretched). And I think he really missed Theseus while we were away; he's normally a really great traveller, very adaptive and agreeable, but he was a bit of a beast in the evenings in NY. He tossed all night and slept fitfully. I barely slept, trying to console him and keep him from waking the entire house. It made the trip - you guessed it - stressful and tiring. Still, I'm glad we did it, the little guy and I. The look on Theseus' face when we pulled into the driveway on Monday made it worth it. :)

Ok, the husband is pestering me to go to bed. Taking the Earl with me.

- Antiope

 
I love this weather.

I have some photos to post for you, but not as many as I'd hoped, and I can't post them right now as I have too much to do and not enough time to do it and here I am procrastinating anyway. Hopefully tomorrow, while it's raining, I will have enough time to sit down and download my photo card. I also have to work on completing some Halloween projects, so we'll see how far I get.

I don't have a lot of time, but I just wanted to type a couple lines for you to let you all know I'm back in NJ and feeling warm and happy. The time in NY with Mer was wonderful but stressful at the same time. Austin travels very well and he loves people and isn't afraid of anything, but doing all the carrying and feeding and scheduling and changing and soothing by myself was tiring. Mer helped as much as she could (she is such an amazing friend to me, she and J both) but I missed the wordless communication I have with Theseus. He starts unsnapping an outfit while I get a diaper and wipes. He carries the baby while I get the diaper bag. I set the baby up in his high chair while Theseus gets a bib. Two cogs moving together.

I came home to a really cool Halloween display in our yard (with lights!) and rearranged furniture inside the house. Theseus had also begun decorating inside, cleaned up the living and dining rooms, taken the air conditioner out of the bedroom, changed the sheets and remade the bed, separated the laundry by color (!) and washed most of it, disassembled and boxed up the baby accessories we no longer use, and had lunch waiting for me when I got back to the house.

He separated. the laundry. by color. I nearly fell over.

So it ended up being a little more stressful and tiring than I'd anticipated, but I'm glad I went away for a few days. Three nights apart let us both recharge. Next time, though, he gets the baby. :)

I'll write more about my time in NY tomorrow. Now: time to study!

- Antiope

 
Even though we just got back from a mini-vacation (Concord, MA for our 5 year wedding anniversary), I'm taking another one! I'm leaving in a little while to visit Mer in NY for a couple days. Theseus was wonderful and packed up all the baby supplies for me while I slept in/procrastinated/took a 3-day shower. He has been so great throughout this trainwreck - he makes me tea when I don't even realize I need a cup, lets me eat fruit salad for dinner, decorated the outside of our house for Halloween while I was at school. Right now he is feeding the baby while I sit here not packing my own clothes for this trip. Somehow he was blessed with inhuman patience.

So you won't hear from me for the next few days, but I will try to post some photos when I get back. I know I always say that and then I get too lazy/end up forgetting, but I feel like I owe you guys some photos. Austin grows about 5 inches and 3 pounds every day*, so if I don't take frequent photos, before you know it he'll be in college.

Theseus just asked if I was going to put pants on before I leave. Oh yeah. Blogging without pants.

Enjoy your weekend!

---

*slight exaggeration

- Antiope

 
I've been away - you probably noticed. A number of trains were rushing toward me and after the resulting, continuous, obvious train wreck, I mentally walked away. I had no other choice. I'd never felt so overwhelmed, so completely drained, so physically tired, so naggingly sick.