2007 May « 2 Mommies and 2 Boys

Cacophony of light and sound

May 17, 2007 at 9:58 pm (Uncategorized)

There’s nothing like being awaken in the middle of the night by not only noise, but by lights!!

It’s sort of like going from quiet shut-eye dreamland into a disco. It’s rather startling.

We have the Sights and Sounds baby monitor. It not only provides sound but also lights up in comparison to the various degrees of noise coming from the baby’s room.

At the same time, we also have this in our bedroom.

Yes, we have The Clapper.

Yes, we are incredibly lazy people.

But, seriously, how many of you get into bed, look at each other, then play rock, paper, scissors to see who’s going to get back up to turn the light off?

I digress.

After one has been awaken from dreamland courtesy of a baby’s “soft” cry and a light show in your face from the monitor on the nightstand, it’s particularly dream shattering when you fall back to sleep and said baby starts said “soft” cry again and The Clapper does its magic.

CRY on

CRY off

CRY on

CRY off

CRY on

CRY off

5 Comments

Mother’s Day pictures

May 16, 2007 at 3:07 pm (Uncategorized)

Of course, I waited until he had spit up on himself to take pictures.

Click HERE for pictures from our weekend!

In other news, we are back on the Gentlease formula.

Poor kid has been crying hours and hours a day due to digestion/inability to burp problems with the AR formula. We figured, since he was on the Zantac, we should try something that might be easier for him. However, it doesn’t stay down very well.

We feel bad. This poor kid. He’s happy 1/2 the day and inconsolable the other 1/2. Holding him on his belly in the football position seems to be the only thing that works.

I sure hope he outgrows this all soon.

8 Comments

Mother’s Day recap

May 14, 2007 at 2:20 pm (family (like it or not), holidays)

Happy Belated Mother’s Day to all of my internet mommy friends out there!

Mother’s Day has come and gone and I’m exhausted.

I’ll have to post some pictures because Andrew was A-flippin-dorable yesterday.
In typical Holly & Lois fashion, our weekend was jam-packed.

On Thursday night, I had about 4-5 hours of sleep after I was reviewing a commercial lease until almost 1 am. That started my need for a long sleep that was never satisfied.

My buddy from law school, Tbot, came into town 10 pm Friday night. We did shopping and running around Saturday while Lois took Andrew to Spie’s house for her daughter’s First Communion party. Lois’ cousin, his wife and their 7 month old son came over for dinner Saturday night. We had chicken alfredo with prosciotto (Lois cooked, of course) and we had steaks (which I overcooked).

After dinner Saturday night, we set about cooking casseroles for brunch the next morning. By midnight, we had our cheesy-potato casserole, a broccoli-egg-cheese casserole (the recipe is for asparagus) and a sausage-prosciotto-egg-cheese casserole ready for baking. I can post recipes if anyone is interested!

Sunday, we hit the ground running. Gave Andrew a bath, cooked the casseroles, did laundry, got Andrew in the car, and were all at Lois’ brother’s house by 11 am in 2 separate cars. Brunch was good, Lois mother was ok but still pushed Lois’ buttons enough to give her another boost of resolve to stand up to her.

I left with Andrew at 2:45 pm to have lunch with my mom and her golf buddies. And didn’t get home from there until 5 pm. Then Lois, uncle came over with his wife and their 12 year old son.

I wandered off to call my grandmother about the time Uncle Pete started telling Tracy about his pro-gun, anti-immigrants, pro-Bush agenda.

And guess what….

I know I’ve been meaning to do it for months, but I never could.

I told my grandmother.

I was on the phone with my grandmother for almost an hour then I told her that I really wanted to share something with her. I think I might have stumbled a little but I told her that Lois had a baby and that I’m adopting him.

I’ll let her put the rest together.

She didn’t freak out. She asked his name and when he was born and we carried about our conversation for another 20 minutes on all different things. At the end, we talked about us visiting them in So.Cal. again, maybe in the Fall and I asked her if she wanted me to send a picture or two to her of the baby. She said yes and that I could even email her.

What a relief. I didn’t think I could keep talking to her on the phone about every part of our lives and not tell her that I have a son. I can’t believe I let it go this long!

I was going to send her a letter back in November and my mother talked me out of it. She told me that I have to do it in person. Then, when my mom was visiting her in April, she announced that she would tell her mother in person – which never happened because for some reason, my brother talked her out of doing it.

I’ll give her time to have it all sink in and see what she brings up in our next conversation. My grandmother is pretty sharp, but she is very politically conservative and prejudiced. I’ve been out to California to visit several times in the past several years and Lois always comes with me. We’ve never talked about it, and I’ve never felt the need to. She accepted us as we were (pretending to be roommates).

I was still on the phone with my grandmother when Lois’ uncle left. It was probably close to 8 pm, and I was exhausted. After some leftover Chinese food, we were in bed by 10 pm.

The boy was cranky and tired after napping a total of about 1.5 hours all day! And after only being down for 30 minutes at 10 pm, he spit out his binky and I broke the “no eye contact rule” when I tried to put it back in his mouth. He thought it was play time and giggled and smiled at me for 5 minutes. Damn, kid, go to sleep!

I woke up at 5 am because of Andrew and really “got up” at 5:45 to get in the shower and get Tbot to the train station. We had a fun visit, and I think she might have been a little overwhelmed with what our ‘normal weekends’ are like.

- – -

Lois tried to tell me that she didn’t do anything for me. She is wonderful in every way, but she’s not quite the present-giving or romantic one by any stretch. She surprised me with 2 cards, one from her and one from Andrew. I actually cried. Then, she got me a desk organizer with all these places for pictures of him – and she got me an hour massage gift certificate!!!! Love you honey!

I think I didn’t pretty well myself in the mommy appreciation category. I’ll have to post some pictures later!
- – -

We keep going back and forth over what we are calling ourselves with Andrew. We’ve talked about Momma and Mommy and other variations. Lately, we’ve been sticking to Momma L. and Momma H. – maybe that’s the winning ticket – who knows.

- – -

In other news, I’m back on the bus y’all. I decided that I am going to start Weight Watchers. No more excuses.

11 Comments

too fast

May 11, 2007 at 2:59 pm (Uncategorized)

Remember how one of my 7 things about myself is that I like to go fast?

I got a killer speeding ticket this morning. The cop didn’t even ask me a single question, just took my license and registration, wrote me the ticket then sent me on my way.

I guess I was hoping that all of the cop stickers on my windshield or the metal CT cop badge on my license plate would at least result in small break.

Nada.

83 in a 65.

Dammit.

$294.00

Not really sure where that money’s going to come from.

Sigh.

16 Comments

can’t get enough of him?

May 11, 2007 at 12:41 am (Uncategorized)

8 Comments

Momma’s got a new phone!

May 10, 2007 at 3:16 pm (therapy, toys for mommy)

Happy Mother’s Day to me!

I didn’t really want things to happen this way and was hoping to get a new cell phone sometime in the Fall. But, shit happens, so we adjust.

On Sunday, this phone bit the dust.

I had cancelled my email service when I switched jobs, so I really didn’t need such an obnoxious phone. I hated having to respond to emails RIGHT AWAY and my current firm doesn’t require it. Plus, they have loaner Blackberrys when someone goes on vacation anyway.

I just wanted a phone! So, Momma Loey decided this was the perfect opportunity to get me a regular phone.

After 45 minutes at the Sprint store and some 35 minutes arguing with customer service about my plan, Mommy Holly got a new phone!

In other news, we did the therapy visit on Tuesday night. I really liked her, but we might change to someone else who is within our insurance network.

It went well. She was very positive about our relationship with each other, saying it didn’t seem like what we needed was couple’s therapy, but more individual therapy.

It was pretty obvious what the elephant in the room was. I was told to be patient and supportive as we deal with this problem. And I promise to be exactly that, supportive and patient.

4 Comments

He sleeps

May 9, 2007 at 1:56 pm (sleep, what is sleep?)

102_0997

Originally uploaded by hollykr1976.

Andrew has been a fairly decent sleeper, if you consider 4 hour increments a good night’s sleep.

I put him down at night and he’s pretty easy. When he’s looking tired, I bring him up to his crib, put on the Ocean Wonders Aquarium and put him down with a binky. You usually hear him suck on the binky for a while – every so often he fusses a little if he’s awake too long after the aquarium stopped, so I’ll go in there and turn it back on one more time.

That’s it. No rocking to sleep, no singing to sleep, he just goes down on his own. However, I have noticed that his crib (and swing) are the only places he will sleep for a long period of time. He does not sleep in the pack n’ play for more than 5-10 minutes. (We will need to fix this before family week in Provincetown).

Now, I tell you all this because last night, something miraculous happened. And I know that we should not get overly excited yet.

However….

He slept for 8 hours.

I put him down a little before 10 pm. He woke up at 3:30 am, fussed a little and went back to bed without us having to get up. At 4:30, he woke up and fussed, Lois went in and gave him a binky. He went back to sleep until 6 am.

So, 10 pm – 6 am was pretty much sleep.

THEN, he had a bottle at 6 am and went back to sleep until 9 am! So Momma Loey got some sleep this morning!
OMG!

Could this be a new trend? We were so happy the previous 2 nights when he slept for 6 hours at a time instead of the usual 4.

I’ve had friends tell me that all of their kids slept for 12 hours a night by 6 weeks. Whatever!

Maybe we’ve turned a corner…hopefully….please…

13 Comments

3 months old!

May 8, 2007 at 1:56 pm (fabulous photography, so fashionable, the size of the boy)

Andrew is 3 months old today! (We’re going by date now, not actual time passed.) And he’s getting so big! He started in Newborn size, then blew through 0-3 in about a month and is now in 3-6 (which is not really big on him) and in Size 2 diapers. Here’s a picture of Andrew from the Ronald McDonald House walk at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital this weekend.

This is where K* was born and had his first heart surgery, so it’s a very special place for us!

Check out Andrew’s outfit, he’s so fashionable in K*’s hand-me-downs.

6 Comments

A little taggie

May 6, 2007 at 1:41 pm (Me-Me)

I’ve been tagged by Casey!I’m amazed that she thinks I have something interesting to write!

First, the rules:
Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to blog about their seven things and post the rules as well. At the end of your post, choose 7 people to tag and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog! OK, here we go….

I’m slightly competitive. And it’s not healthy competitive. I beat Lois 423 times at 2 player Tetris, and when she beat me once, I got mad and was snippy with her the rest of the night. I think I definitely get this from my father – I have memories of a Scrabble board flying across the room of a motel during a family vacation. Sometimes I wonder if I would push my own grandmother down to beat her to something. It became so un-fun being competitive. I played Div I tennis in college and got so frustrated, I gave up something that really was such a huge part of who I am/was.
I like going fast. My new car probably is not the best thing for me. After college, I wanted to go into the Navy to fly F16s, if it wasn’t for my eyesight, my life would probably be very different right now. For the past 8 years, I’ve wanted a motorcycle. A Ducati Monster 620 or 698 to be exact. Lois’ view of this is something like this “no f^%king way!” Let’s just say I’m a little accident prone and guess I should be thinking more along the lines of staying around to watch Andrew grow up.
I am not confident. I sit in my office at work and wonder if they will figure out that I am not this smart, great lawyer. I wonder if they will figure out that I am far from a super star.
I’m in a medical journal. I think it’s a UC Irvine medical journal. I’ve never actually read it. It had something to with meningitis I had when I was an infant.
I want to go back to school. I always wanted to get a PhD in public policy or sociology and teach as adjunct professor at a local small college. I would teach something like Law & Society. Or I would get an MSW for fun and volunteer time at Women and Families Center.
I’m terrified of fire. There were 2 fires in my condo development when I lived in Jersey, both fires were in buildings right next to mine. A neighbor of mine died trying to save her cats. I will never forget the smell, the heat and seeing how fast it took out 6-8 condos with each fire. Fire is the one reason I fought Lois about buying a condo. I didn’t want shared walls. I didn’t want to lose everything, including our lives, if a neighbor left a candle burning. When we got into our new place and used the oven for the first time, it smelled like something was burning, I made Lois crazy making sure nothing was burning anywhere. Now, we live in a townhouse condo (with the bedrooms upstairs) and I am ordering one of those “rope fire ladders” for the bedrooms.
I talk too much. I talk even more when beer is involved. And sometimes, I’m not even sure why. It’s not like I really have that many important things to say.

Now, Who should I tag next? There’s so many people I want to see responses for, and I know many of you have been “interviewed” lately. Here goes, I’m tagging Shannon, Stacey, Nailgirl, Gretch, J, Meg and SW.

9 Comments

moms

May 4, 2007 at 8:45 pm (therapy)

I had a nice conversation with my mother today.

It started out when she called me to ask me what I had tried to email her. We had been sending emails back and forth about any therapists or counselors she knew in the area. One of my emails got blocked by her school system’s sexual harassment/discrimination spam blocker software.

Apparently, the term “gay friendly” sent off sirens and red flags everywhere. What hoopla will be caused now that the Superintendent of Schools is getting emails from her daughter with the word “gay” in them!?!!?

I digress.

I did have a nice chat with her. She was a psychologist before she became a big time educator. She told me that she was proud of me for taking the step to see a therapist (I did find one that does couples counselling and gay/lesbian issues and made an appointment for Tues. – Lois is very agreeable to go).

And she made sure to tell me that I need to not push. I need to understand that this will all take time and I need to be patient and understanding and supportive.

I guess I needed to hear that.

She also was against us just changing his name now and telling Lois’ mother down the road. She said we should only make that move when we are “ready for the consequences” of that move.

I also left a message for our lawyer today to get the adoption going. Our probate judge in our town is trying to do things the difficult way, so she needs a little cajoling. I figure that sicking the best gay/lesbian rights lawyer in the state on her is a cool move.

I always felt negative about therapy (even though I was a peer counselor in high school) and only in the last few years have I understood how important mental health is. I am not worried about our relationship. This is something we definitely need to resolve and not shove under the rug, but I can honestly say that I don’t think either one of us is going to give up because this part is “too hard.”

Again, I thank you all for your support!

9 Comments

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