Halloween Parade

Today we took Will for his first Halloween parade. We ended up missing the actual parade because it didn't go as late as was advertised, but we saw a lot of costumed kids along the parade route and at the end-of-parade party. We got a couple of compliments on how cute Will looked in his duck costume, a present from Jess. But don't worry that we're giving away his Halloween costume before the actual holiday. He has another costume! But I'm afraid you'll have to wait at least until Wednesday for pictures of that. Oh, also, please don't make fun of the hair on Matt's neck. He's embarrassed enough about it. Probably embarrassed enough even to do something about it soon.

Six Weeks Old

Today was chilly and windy, but Will and I went for a walk to test out his new outdoor outfit (see above). He looked awfully cute and didn't get cold at all during our lovely walk through Old Town Alexandria.

Tomorrow my parents are coming for a few days, which will be fun. It gets lonely being home alone with someone who doesn't talk and cries kind of a lot. Well, he is starting to talk, which is really neat, but it's not the kind of talking that makes for long conversations. Will is getting more fun as he gets older, but he's still a very small baby, so it's mostly up to me to entertain the two of us all day. That is not always easy, and he surely lets me know it when he is bored. But he is also starting to smile at me, which makes it all worth it.

Beautiful weekend

This weekend Megan and Debbie and Eric came to meet Will. It was a gorgeous fall weekend and on Sunday we took a nice walk. You can't really tell from this picture that Will enjoyed the walk, but I think he did. For the rest of the weekend we mostly just hung out, which was perfect since everyone was tired and it's nice to just chat and catch up with people you don't see all that frequently. Will is looking forward to seeing this gang again, along with Liz, in December.

One-month birthday

The day Will was born (and the two days before) felt like a very, very long dream, and I have a hard time believing that that dream happened a full month ago. After the first fourteen hours of not sleeping due to strong but irregular contractions, I was sure that the baby would never come and I'd be in pain for the rest of my life. Twelve hours later we were off to the hospital. A few hours after that the midwife broke my water, and I was still pretty sure the baby would never be born. And an hour after that I didn't care if the baby would ever be born as long as they would just let me die. But they wouldn't, and after an hour and a half of pushing Will was born. We didn't find out in advance if the baby was a boy or a girl, but the midwife assumed it was a girl and kept saying, "Here she comes, that's the way, she's almost here, keep pushing!" And then Will popped out and they told me it was a boy and put him on my chest, where I saw him and held him for the first time. And that was a whole month ago. I've never been so tired or happy in my life.

Well, Will has chosen to celebrate his one-month birthday by crying during every waking, non-eating moment of the afternoon and evening. He was surprisingly calm in the morning, though. I think he's just feeling his age and it makes him cranky. I think he has some gas, but I'm not sure that it is the entire reason for his distemper. I think it's just one of those days. I hope tomorrow isn't. Life with a little baby is hard, but after a month it sort of feels like this how it always was. I guess that means we're getting better at it.

Last Week

This is what Will looked like for most of last week. He had some pretty serious gas going through him. I felt horrible for him and didn't know how to help, except to feed him pretty much all the time. And that is how it came to pass that I watched almost all of season one of Veronica Mars last Tuesday and Wednesday. The really bad gas was over by Thursday, and since then things have been much more peaceful around here. He still cries loudly sometimes, farts, and then feels better. You can tell he takes after his father. Because I overdosed on M&Ms the day before the really bad gas episode, I have taken the brave step of cutting chocolate out of my diet. After enough good days have passed I'll probably give up the ban and experiment with reintroducing small amounts of chocolate. I am only human, after all.