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3 months. Enjoy!

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What's Adina like?

Who knows how much of this will be accurate down the line, but we think we see some definite character traits.

First of all, she is, bli eyin hara (literally: "without the evil eye), a very easy baby.  She is often described as "gentle," which is the meaning of her name, Adina.  (Actually, after seeing this strong correlation, Noach/Omri and I are determined to start naming our children by easy-going character traits.)

I guess all babies seem funny, but I have to say it.  Each morning I wake up next to her (I rarely have the energy to get her back into her cradle after nursing at night) and watch her sleep.  When she wakes up, if I'm still there, she looks at me and is soon smiling as if we share the most fabulous secret in the world.  It's such an adult expression that I forget she's a baby for a while.  She loves cooing at people and stuffed animals.  Sometimes she'll lie in my bed as I'm getting ready in the morning and just coo at the room.

This morning, after getting up for a few minutes, I was crawling (sick) back into bed and found her sleeping on her back with her arms completely spread open.  At not even three months, she's managed to take up my. entire. spot. on the bed.

Oh... and sometimes she smiles like she's laughing at me.  I wouldn't be surprised.  

New pictures and videos on our Picasa album.

Vacation!

Our plans for next year are very up-in-the-air at the moment.  One thing that is up in the air is whether or not I will be able to be teaching next year.

So every day off now is like a trial day.  Can I do this?  Be home with the baby all day?

One concern was whether I would be productive.  I learned today to be more specific with my concerns.  Oh, I was productive.  Six or seven freshly made challot (challah loaves), heaps of chocolate chip cookies, cranberry and cranberry/blueberry scones.  Dinner just about on the table, hubs about to walk in the door... this was a full day of work, easily.  (Add in taking care of The Deentz and leaving the house tidy after all that baking!)

The problem is, this isn't the kind of productive I meant when I created that concern.

I meant, can I run the house, get good bonding time in with the baby (being a work-from-home-mom hardly pays if you're just shoving a toy in front of the baby and working the whole time) and DO MY JOB from home?

I hope today isn't cause for concern.

I have plenty to be doing and lots of exciting articles going up (stay tuned!).  But I just couldn't get myself to stay here in front of the computer.  The only argument in my defense is that this chair is AWFUL.  I literally start to ache within a minute of sitting down.  Maybe it's time to cash in the massage hubs bought me for last Rosh Chodesh........

So there's my conundrum of the day.  I've learned how to get off my tush and get to work... but how to stop getting to the wrong kind of work and refocus?

Ode to stretch marks

The baby may as well have scrawled "Adina wuz here" across my torso. Nevertheless, even though I vividly remember my horror over seeing on other mommies the battle scars of pregnancy, I love my shifted shape. Maybe because I got sick of passing for a highschooler, or maybe because this pregnancy was so difficult and scary that to come out unscathed would seem anticlimactic. But my stretch marks remind me that the stork did not do the heavy lifting on our baby girl. I did. Its surprisingly easy to overcome body issues once the body has been repurposed. It is not here for aesthetic pleasure. It housed a life, fed it and protected it and strengthened it. Stretch marks are my evidence of the amazing fact that Hashem had the wisdom to encase our skeletons in something that CAN stretch.

The downside, however, is that I still need to find the motivation to get my body back. Its so hard to be enthusiastic when I am sooo tired. I understand all those daytime talk show women who pointed to their children as when they started to lose control and gain weight. I understand them but do not want to be one of them. Hm... any ideas for inspiration?

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She's teensy!!

Its not worth trying to update this with everything from the last month of pregnancy, the labor, delivery, first days with her in the hospital, and our first week home. Suffice it to say, its been a whirlwind. These days we are sticking around the house, obsessing over our new little one, and learning to function without sleep. Conclusion... i had no idea a baby could be sooooo tiny!