A *Brief Hiatus and Angus's First Business Trip

This is the longest I've gone without blogging since Angus was born (you knew it was bound to happen that I would lapse). I blame it on a combination of factors - the fact that my computer at home is slow as sh*t and they have blocked blogger at the office, the fact that it's been a miserable, snowy winter, which has rendered me more or less incapable of any ambition to get things done, and, finally, the old stand-by, tiredness.

Much has changed in the world of Angus. He is sitting up on his own now (with the occasional face-plant to the front), he's turned into a complete jabberbox, he's eating pureed foods of any and ALL varieties (though he has a definite preference for bananas), and he's just very, very engaged in everything going on around him. He reaches for everything in his line of sight, he's laughing a lot, chewing on everything, including my hands, and you can see his little brain computing when he's seeing something new. All very exciting for me, a first time parent, and probably all very routine to everyone else reading this blog. But he's growing, growing, growing, and I can't wait to see what he does next!

 

The pictures for this entry are from our recent trip to Monterey, CA. I was going for work, and my two colleagues I traveled with encouraged me to bring him. Some called me crazy, a few called me super mom (or maybe that was my fantasy?), but all in all, it was as painless as can be when traveling with an infant. A bit fussy on the plane ride out to CA, he was a true star on the way back. Which was good, because my coworkers stayed on in CA, leaving me to deal with the two-day trip home by myself! I will spare everyone my tirade about American Airlines.

But Angus slept and flirted his way through San Francisco, Charlotte, and Baltimore, and we had some good Mommy & Angus bonding time :).

After a pretty brutal winter - though I do realize that we in DC had it easier than, for example, my brother and family in Boston - spring is finally starting to show signs of showing up. So hopefully, as my mood improves and as we get outside more, I'll be a bit better about updating the blog!

View of the bay from the hotel balcony- not bad at all.

On our free day, we walked around by the bay and stopped at a French bakery for treats - well, I got carrot cake, not so French :).

Again by the bay. Tons of boats. Must be nice!

Angus at the end of day #1 of our trip back. Stuck in Charlotte for the night, he was remarkably chipper. More chipper than me, for sure.

BUT he's still a baby and occasionally employs the dramatics.

Wearing the mock turtleneck onesie given by G&G Marden. Let this be the first AND last mock turtleneck he wears.

Really not sure what he was doing here.

Sleeping like an angel the day after we got back from CA. A little jetlag, perhaps?

At an Italian restaurant in Monterey with my two coworkers.

Goofy face at one of our job fairs. He was a better recruiter than me!

 

Too tired so a few pictures...

Angus has recently started waking up 4-6 times/night, such as last night when he woke up 4 times between 8am and 3pm, then wouldn't fully go back to sleep. I'm most certainly not the first parent to deal with sleep deprivation, and I definitely won't be the last (though I do have to ask, does it ever end????), but this doesn't change the fact that I'm exhausted both mentally and physically. Writing a witty blog entry is far beyond my abilities right now, so here are a few recent pictures of the pain in the butt himself and one video.

A First Trip and A New Year

We've now passed one major milestone with Angus with minimal casualties - his first time flying. I have heard countless horror stories about the perils of flying with small children (honestly, I'm fairly certain there is a support group somewhere for those traumatized by the experience), but I'm happy to report that Angus was, for the most part, very well behaved, and, though I did need to change Angus's outfit in the plane bathroom once, there were no majorly disgusting blow-outs.

Anyway, we flew to Denver so Angus could meet with great-Grammy Kay - and I had not seen her or any of the Denver crew in a few years. I'm pretty sure Angus passed Grammy's litmus test for great-grandchild-dom, and everyone else he met seemed to be pretty taken with his antics (which now include a near-constant protruding tongue). The Christmas meal was a success, if I do say so myself, and Angus came away with a nice haul of new clothes, books, and stuffed animals. He was pretty oblivious to his gifts, of course, preferring to try to eat the wrapping paper over anything, but his parents certainly appreciated the nice presents :).

Christopher flew back the evening of the 26th, and Angus and I went up to Estes Park with Grandma and Grandpa. Estes, site of many cousin shenanigans growing up, will be a place I always think fondly of, and hopefully Angus will have the opportunity to go back at least a few more times, as well. While the four of us didn't exactly bring the house down with late-night partying (the average bedtime, adults included, seemed to hover around 8:30pm), we did have some nice meals, have a nice drive in Rocky Mountain National Park, and Grandpa and I went on a short hike at the Y. All in all, not a bad way to spend the last days of 2013.

Now on to 2014 - I'm not sure if Angus has identified his resolutions yet, the little slacker. I'd imagine his list  would be something along the lines of "learn to swallow properly", "master the art of non-flailing limbs", and "EAT FOOD!!!", but maybe he's cooking up something I don't even know about. Who knows with this kid.

Angus attempting to stuff his face with one of his presents. He hasn't quite learned yet what is actually edible and, more importantly, what is NOT supposed to be eaten.

Hanging out at our cabin at the Y.

View from near Bible Point at the Y.

Christmas Eve dinner with great-Grammy.

I wonder what they're talking about?

The path to Bible Point was snowier/slicker than we'd anticipated, so we turned back before reaching the summit.

At our hotel downtown. King Angus looks pretty small in a king-sized bed.

Opening presents with his sisters.

Angus tried a bit of my pho broth. He seemed to like the broth well enough, though he LOVED the spoon.

Simultaneous tongue out and feet in motion.

The Big Apple (and one Big Pretzel)

Angus got his first REAL taste of the great American classic, the Road Trip. My brother and I spent MANY hours in the back of several quite uncomfortable cars growing up. I didn't so much recognize the discomfort at the time, only because I was not aware that in the future, there would be a revolt  against making kids actually entertaining themselves on car trips. So, while my brother and I were forced to read, listen to "Phantom of the Opera" for the 96th time, or indulge in the ever-so-popular license plate by state game, kids today have it far cushier.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Christopher, Angus and I drove up to NY on Friday to meet my brother and his family. Well, Christopher drove and I, on the way up, entertained everyone with my singing and, on the way back, distracted Angus from melt-down. Because it was the weekend after Thanksgiving, we thought we might get lucky with traffic. And the way up was great - very little traffic and a smooth trip, including Angus sleeping for a solid 3.5 hours. The way back? Not so lovely, given that a fairly major snow and ice storm whipped through about an hour into our trip. So a normally 5-hour trip took more than 8, with poor Christopher driving the entire way. But, since he'd smartly had winter tires put on before we embarked on the trip, we were ok. I can't begin to count how many stalled cars and accidents we saw, though...brought back lovely memories of the drive back from Deep Creek Lake the previous Christmas (when I, yet again, avoided driving myself).

But the trip itself was great - NYC itself was of mixed success, simply because trying to navigate 5th Avenue on a Saturday morning near Christmas was, apparently, akin to wading upstream through a crowd of World Cup fans post-victory. We finally arrived at a café near Rockefeller Center, a bit worse for the wear, and Angus met his cousins, Nathan and Olivia, and my brother and his wife, of course. His only cousins on my side. Nathan and Angus got along quite well, though Olivia didn't seem to be as sure of this new face in her life. :) It was great to see them, and we walked around NY after indulging in some major slices of pizza. We did try to get into FAO Schwartz, but there was a longer line there than there was at Studio 54 in its heyday. We soldiered on in the cold, and Christopher and I warmed ourselves up with some large street vendor pretzels. Completely worth the overly-full feeling.

We then met again the following morning in Greenwich, where we were staying, for breakfast. The service at the restaurant left a little to be desired, but it was kid-friendly, and we were able to almost get a picture of the 7 of us as requested by Grandpa. Of course, we stayed with Christopher's brother and wife in Greenwich, which was great.

I somehow knew my brother would beat me to the punch blogging about our weekend. My excuse is that our trip back was longer ;).

Nathan being shy at the beginning of the day. He warmed up quickly :).

Olivia the cheerleader!

Angus and uncle

Sort of group shot

Breakfast

Bath time!

Lunch. Not a bit of pizza left!

Angus with his aunt.

We made a mean posse

Several people asked us if Angus's jerry-rigged bottle holder was a legit product.

Our morning Greenwich run

Angus's first rest area

Beginning of the snowy ride home

Turkey Day!

Despite not being able to fully take part in the feast (I say fully because we did give Angus some mashed sweet potatoes, which he loved), Angus seemed to enjoy his first year of Thanksgiving festivities. In typical fashion, I was extremely ambitious in the amount of food to be prepared, but thanks to Christopher slaving away at the cutting board for hours on end and everyone else more or less staying out of my way (yes, I have turned into a kitchen controller, are you happy, Dad??), we were able to get a pretty solid feast on the table by about 2:30. Christopher's brother and sister-in-law came down from Connecticut, and my friend and her husband joined...all the way from Silver Spring. There was a ton of food, but we made a solid dent in the smorgasboard, and Angus fell asleep sitting in my lap for much of the meal. He then stayed up until almost 10, chattering away and being passed around like a party favor. All in all, a successful Thanksgiving, I think.

Now on to Christmas, my true love. In addition to a fairly successful present-buying trip yesterday, we also got a tree. Christopher then spent about 6 hours stringing up the lights outside. While we aren't the first in the neighborhood with the lights (we're the 2nd), he outdid himself this year, so it'll be bad Christmas music, hot chocolate, and pine needles in our house 24/7 for the next month :). I do love buying presents for others, but surprisingly, I've only bought Angus two toys. I don't want him to become a spoiled child who expects mountains of presents at Christmas and birthdays, and let's face it, he's too young to even know what the hell a present is. I can't be held accountable, however, for what grandparents do.

These pictures are a bit out of order, but I took Angus to the National Building Museum in DC for a "play date"with my boss's daughter this weekend. He looks pretty fascinated by her. I guess he likes the older women :).

Post-meal pass-out with my friend's husband.

Molly hamming it up in front of the buffet.

Lovely stain on your shirt, Kate. Is that spit-up, gravy, or some other Angus-related delight?

What?? You talking to me??

Add caption

Angus was very fascinated by the wreath.

Let's PARTAY!

Several seemingly innocuous things happened this morning. First, as I was changing Angus's diaper in preparation for our morning run, I looked at the clock and it was almost 6am! Oh my! It is true that I've been an early riser for quite some time, but the fact that 6am seemed late to me was a laughable reminder of the days when I would be OUT until 4am. Second, Angus peed on me - an impressive, high-reaching arc, as I was changing said diaper. He hit my legs, my hands, and the floor (kid's got aim). Did it phase me? Did I immediately change my pants? Did I bother to wash my hands? Ok, yes, I DID wash my hands, but you know you're a parent when getting peed on doesn't remotely phase you. Of course, Angus thought the whole thing was hysterical.

Finally, I switched my radio instantly to NPR this morning. Saving grace of this tale is that I wasn't trying to find Car Talk (sorry, Dad), but the fact that NPR is more enjoyable to me than the other "top 40's"-type stations was marginally horrifying. There is absolutely, 100% nothing wrong with NPR - it's important to be privy to what's going on in the day's news, but even the music on NPR was appealing to me. Now THAT is horrifying.

Anyway, perhaps I'm a bit introspective because my 27th birthday is in less than one month. Truth be told, I hadn't given it a single thought until this morning. I've been concentrating so much on how many weeks old Angus is that I forgot that I, too, am getting older. But I have heard the rumor from many people wiser than me that age is just a number - it's how you feel that's most important. So, Angus, my commitment to you to try to stay as young as possible so I can keep up with your shenanigans!

Angus continues to grow and grow and grow. Dude probably weighs 16 pounds at this point. I had to carry him through Trader Joe's last night just to pick up a few things. We were probably there for 5 minutes total. I was sweating and my arm was trembling by the time I put him back in his car seat. It is a work out! But he's doing very well. He's an incredibly happy, smiley baby, and his daycare providers seem to be pretty in love with him, too.

Pictures, of course, to follow. I should probably mention at this point, too, that Christopher and I are engaged. Wedding to follow in roughly 7-10 years :).

Typical Angus photo. Obligatory bib, crazy hair, and drool bubbles.

Sleeping in my arms last night.

This morning sitting in the bathroom while I got ready. Active little boy.

Guest appearance by Maya, who is now an indoor/outdoor cat. She spends much of her time doing god-knows-what outside, and when she comes in, she generally sleeps for hours on end, eats, then heads out again. BUT she is a happier, more affectionate cat for it, so I'm not complaining!

'Sup

I'm including this picture because it captures his constant movement. His legs are ALWAYS on the move.

In a onesie courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa Marden.

That's a very cool outfit, young man. Who so stylishly dresses you?