October

October is my favorite month, and not just because my birthday comes at the end of it. I love the colors and the cooler weather. Today we went out to capture the beauty of the fall leaves before they all blow off the trees or get snowed over!

This one reminds me of one we took last year. Oh what a difference a year makes!

Here's LG's first experience with a public swing.
Only after I downloaded these photos did I realize that those pants are navy blue, not black. Oh well.I love the look on his face here. He loves his mama!

Parenting in Public

As someone who was never particularly baby-crazy, it has come as a big surprise to me how much people loooooove babies. They want to coo over them and touch them (which freaks out ol' germaphobe me). Now, I don't deny that my little guy (LG) is absolutely wonderful and adorable, but really.

This week I got some interesting remarks.

1. From the middle-aged cashier in Walgreen's. After she cooed over how adorable he looked, sleeping in his wrap all snuggled against my chest, she said, "You're spoiling him!"

2. From the elderly mason at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center. "He doesn't sleep in your bed, does he? That's a no-no!" I'd like to see him try and transfer LG to his bassinet. It's always easy to give advice when you don't have a squalling infant voting on your behavior.

3. A random mom at the pancake house. "Does he sleep through the night?" When I admitted that he had, he just doesn't do it often, she practically burst into tears. "I need to hug you! You know my pain!" And we commiserated on hearing other parents of little babies talk about how their angels sleep for 12-hour stretches and agreed that they're all lying.

Well, look at this sweet guy. Who wouldn't want to spoil him?

So as much as I would be suited to having a baby who really prefers some alone time, thank you very much, I am going to be taking the long view of infancy. He's only this small for a short amount of time, and if wearing him and snuggling with him in bed (safely!) are spoiling him, then we'll just have to deal with one very spoiled toddler. God help us.

Hiatus over, but I have some things to think about

Coming back to this blog after a respectable 4-month maternity leave, I can't help but laugh at my last post. All I can think is, "Wow, the pregnant woman in that picture had no idea what was coming!"

But before I get back to posting pictures and such, I have a couple of issues to present:

1. My child's privacy. My sister mentioned this to me once. She posts pictures of her kids on her blog, but not their names. She had read something about allowing your children a certain amount of privacy despite your own internet presence. Do I post my baby's pictures here with his name? I have other friends who do that and presumably they don't have any problems. Do I just stick to posting him on Facebook (which Aaron is better about doing -- feel free to friend him if you think you're missing the pics!)?

2. I really, really wish I could sew or knit. Larger swaddling blankets could be done in a jiffy. I could knit that Santa hat that I've always loved so he could wear it in our Christmas cards. Or that pumpkin hat that I love. My sister and I have been saying how important it is to have a tangible skill in this economy, something you can do with your hands because you're all the more employable.

3. I had all sorts of child-rearing theories before my baby was born. I was definitely one of those opinionated childless people who just KNOWS how to raise a child (and I probably owe apologies to all of my friends with children for suffering through any advice I gave, although I hope I didn't do it too often). What happened? Not just the reality of actually raising a child -- the sleep deprivation made me forget all of my ideas I'd gotten from my Psych classes, observing friends, etc. The only thing I remember came friend a friend I made in college. She was a 60-something woman who'd come back to finish her degree after dropping out 40+ years before to get married. She said that her friends spent too much time thinking about all the ways they wanted to be different from their parents, and all that negative focus turned them into their parents. She believed you should remember one way in which you want to emulate your parents and one way in which you don't. That I can handle.

Due Date!

Baby Schiller is due today, Cinco de Mayo! Hopefully it won't be too long now. I'm doing really well, just feeling impatient to finally meet my baby.
Here's the latest picture of me, technically at 39.5 weeks:
I spent a lot of time walking last week to make sure I stay active and to encourage the baby to descend. This caused some concern with some semi-strangers I saw. Now, let me say that as much as I miss my friends in California and the West coast in general, one benefit of not seeing co-workers and friends regularly is I don't hear comments like, "You're HUGE!" and "Wow, haven't you had that baby yet?" (of course, none of my dear friends who read this blog would say those things anyway, right?). ;) However, on Friday, I went out walking and ran into an elderly woman who lives in our building. She took one look at me, laughed, and said, "Oh, bless your heart!" Then we went to the hardware store and an elderly man who works there said, "Get this woman a wheelchair!" I actually thought it was pretty funny. Milwaukee's elderly are concerned!

Now, I've managed to avoid putting cute kitty pictures on this blog of a couple of posts, so I think I'm overdue. How's this for an adorable pic of two of my boys?

And I'm happy to say that my parents have made it to Wisconsin, safe and sound. They brought a ton of baby stuff with them. Here is my father, trying to tell Taco that the stroller is not his new bed.

37 Weeks

Wow! Where has the time gone? April is nearly over. We're almost completely ready, and everything should come together very soon. I've had some minor swelling in my hands and legs, which means I can't wear my wedding ring any more, but at least my shoes still fit! I can still go on my walks, but I try to keep it to less than a half hour and my stamina is quite obviously less than it used to be. I also still sleep through most of the night, but I wake up around 5 a.m., starving! The cats are getting used to a little snack in the wee sma's. Anyway, here I am!I swear my hair looked cuter before I went out on the balcony. It was a gorgeous, but windy day. I heard a weatherman say that winter is over in Wisconsin, but spring isn't quite here. Although I've noticed that Wisconsinites stubbornly abide by the calendar when it comes to the seasons. In California, we used to say that spring arrived when the trees started blooming (or the first Santa Anas hit, whichever happened first). Here in Wisconsin, once the spring equinox has passed, it's spring, even if it's still snowing outside!

I Don't Feel This Big

I've gottten several requests for belly shots, so here I am at 31 weeks. Not much to see frontwise:
Whoa! Where did that belly come from? I get a surprise every time I look in the mirror, but that's nothing compared to seeing the photo documentation. I still feel like me, even though I can't sleep on my back or belly. A couple of weeks ago I caught a few acquaintances giving my belly suspicious looks. Just in the past week or two the cats have started stepping on my belly as they climb over me. I can't see my feet very well any more, and I've stopped trying to zip up my winter coat (until last week I was able to zip it before lunch, but not after lunch). The t-shirt I'm wearing in these pictures is not a maternity shirt, which also makes me want to reconsider some of my wardrobe once the baby's born and I've lost the baby weight. I mean, if I can wear something while essentially 8 months pregnant, do I really want to wear it normally?

In all seriousness, we're very excited. Baby will be coming sooner rather than later!

Acclimated

I wish I could remember what temperature it was last winter in San Diego when I pulled out my wool pea coat, scarf, and mittens. I suspect it was in the 40s or 50s, I know it was January because I was still working at my old university job. Our receptionist always laughed when I arrived in the morning because she had just returned from a winter trip to Germany.

I figured it would take me a full year to adjust to Milwaukee winters, but it ends up that I just needed a couple of arctic blasts. We had a major thaw this week with the warmest day getting up to 59 degrees. In San Diego I would have been pretty bundled up at that temperature -- at least a sweatshirt, probably a scarf and, in the evenings, maybe even fleece-lined jeans. Definitely socks.

What did I wear here? A t-shirt, thin cotton capris, and sandals. And it still seemed too hot!

Polar Bears are Crazy

Milwaukee has a long history of the Polar Bear Plunge. Apparently, 1916 was the first recorded year of people celebrating New Year's Day by swimming in Lake Michigan. We decided we had to see this for ourselves, so on New Year's Day we headed down to the beach (have you ever seen a frozen beach? I have!) to check it out:

See those big rocks out there? Those are chunks of ice. Can you see the dude in the red and black? He's the lifeguard. The funny thing was that the lake temperature was still about 10 degrees higher than the air temperature, but when you're talking about the difference between 27 degrees and 37 degrees, that's still cold. And you have to walk on the snow/ice just to get to the actual water!
Aaron models appropriate cold-weather gear. You can get a sense of the crowd behind him. Some people had erected tents and lit bonfires, but I wonder how long it really takes to warm up after something like that!