Five Months

After everything that happened last week, you know what rounded out my life this week? My grandfather was just diagnosed with cancer. Hey Universe -- thanks again!

On a brighter note, LL is doing much better. The temporary fix that the pediatrician recommended that we try while we wait for our appointment with the specialist seems to be working wonderfully, and LL's symptoms have completely disappeared. I'd rather not continue with this temp fix, since it isn't very enjoyable for anyone involved, but it's fairly small in the grand scheme of things, and if it works, then fine.

The new nanny worked two days this week, which means that I got to work two days this week. She's working out wonderfully. We're going to call her Rosie, because she's so happy and cheerful and LL adores walking around the park with her. And she reads lots of books to him, which he doesn't really get at Natasha's.

We're trying to examine our budget to see if we can keep Rosie on one or two days a week even after Natasha gets back. Natasha's daycare normally closes at 3:00, which is a bit early for me to end my workday. Having Rosie stay until 4:30 makes a huge difference in taking off the pressure for me to run to work, rush to get stuff done, and get out of the office on time. Even having just one a day each week when I can work a little bit later, or even go grocery shopping on my way home, seems like it would make a huge difference in my sanity.

For Valentine's Day, S and I stayed in and ate homemade risotto and watched a bad movie. It was nice. Every year, starting before we were even dating, S has bought me roses on Valentine's Day. He forgot this year, and I was kind of surprised to find that I didn't really care. I'm not sure what that means.

LL is five months old today. Sometime in the last five months I must have blinked or something, because he's suddenly looking less like a baby and more like a little boy. He enjoys tummy time for long stretches now, propped up on his elbows so he can look around, which makes him look... older. And his hair is filling in remarkably evenly, so it looks like he has a classic little boy haircut. People keep asking me whether we've cut his hair, but we haven't... it's just growing that way on its own. He's learning some games that I play with him, and reacts differently to different games. He knows Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Peek A Boo, and This Little Piggie, and How Big is LL. We video-chatted with my parents on the computer, and we got them to make funny animal noises to make LL laugh. He was very accomodating, even though Grandma's sheep sounded different than mine. And he gets all these complex facial expressions that give the strong impression that he's wise beyond his years.

Maybe he really is that wise. He wasn't just born yesterday.