Thursday, January 27, 2011

Random Opinions on Motherhood (so far)

- Life with a newborn would not be such a difficult adjustment were I not so in-love with sleeping. Seriously. The adjustment would also be easier were I not such a pessimist. More to pray about ...

- I did not drink Dr Pepper through the entirety of my pregnancy. Eben was born on Christmas day and I have since consumed enough of the beverage to compensate for the lost time. So the circles under my eyes could be from the loss of sleep, the occasional emotional breakdown, or the Dr Pepper overdose. Though I admit it is entirely possible I am afflicted by all three.

- Parenting books and magazines do more harm than good. Normally I am all for educating and preparing oneself, but mostly the material just freaks me out and makes me think I'll be nothing but a failure at parenting. The phrase the most runs through my mind as I read is, "I'll never be able remember that or do this." Also, do I really care about what Kourtney Kardashian has to say about motherhood? No. Absolutely not.

- As much as I want Eben to grow up and be self-sufficient, something tells me I will miss these early baby days once they are gone. It's because I'm selfish and don't want to give up my time; I want to do the things I want to do. So what I'm looking for is a roommate. I need to let go of that and enjoy newborn Eben. OK, I admit it ... we've had some very sweet moments together, even during those late night hours WHEN HE WILL NOT GO TO SLEEP.

- Since Eben does not yet speak I maintain a dialogue on his behalf, guessing what I think this or that facial expression means. So I'm basically having a conversation with myself all day.

Because He's Mine & I Can Do What I Want

We used to have a cat until he ran away (a.k.a someone stole him) on Thanksgiving day a year ago. And he was a lovely, lovely cat. So lovely that all we ever did was take pictures of him; everything he did was so cute, we just had to photograph it. Collin and I used to joke about it ... if we went that crazy with an adorable cat, imagine what we'd be like as parents. Well, here we go!

Not only are we Eben's parents and therefore completely biased, but our sweet baby boy is in fact adorable. People agree with us regularly. We already have dozens of pictures and he can't even lift his head yet. Help us when he starts smiling, playing, etc. In recognition of Eben's cute factor, I will select ONE picture from the many taken each week and post it under the heading "Weekly Eben". Don't misunderstand me -- there will be many, many pictures posted. "Weekly Eben" will just give me an excuse to look through our pictures each week, pick my favorite, then post on the internet.

Here is this week's favorite. I love, love, love this picture. That face! Collin took this picture on his iPhone; a rare diaper moment when Eben wasn't crying. He's not so fond of the diaper changes just yet.



(I did not include a picture of our lovely cat, Manji, because it makes us sad to think of him. Though neither of us miss cleaning up his vomit.)

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Unto Us a Son Is Born (will we ever sleep again)

Yes, it's been just over a month since I updated the blog. Apologies. I've had a newborn to tend to and a new schedule to adjust to.

Eben Christopher Massey was born on Saturday, December 25, 2010, at 12:58pm.

I cannot believe it's been a month since he was born. The days have flown by. It's been a blur of feedings, diapers, visitors, etc etc etc. I think things are starting to settle down but this really is a lesson on flexibility and taking things one hour at a time. What worked yesterday probably won't work today.

Since it's been so long since I posted and I feel I can't adequately process and express what's happened over the past month, I'll just put up some pictures and we'll start from scratch going forward. In honor of this new start, I've "re-designed" the blog. New baby, new year, new life.