Andi’s exciting life.

Yesterday was Matt’s birthday. We had a good time overall, though
there were a lot of chores involved. We had to paint the laundry
room so that it would be ready for them to move in the washer and
dryer this week. That was a pain, but it’s great that our kitchen is
finally coming together. We also went out to breakfast and Chinese
lunch. Matt wanted a PSP for his birthday, so we made a run downtown
to the only store that had the new one in stock. Overall it was a
good day and good weekend.

Lots of new things are going on in our kitchen. We have cabinets,
and the tile is being laid as I type this. Check out the gallery for
updated photos.

Today was the big day: Falco’s first haircut! He did really well,
with only a little crying in the middle. I can’t decide if I like
his new do or not, but it looks pretty good and will grow long again
fast. Instead of just taking photos of the event, I took this
movie. It’s four minutes long, and if it’s too boring you can just
fast forward to the end to see the finished product. Check out the fancy
fairy princess/Harry Potter smock he got. Nice. There is a gap
of about a minute when he was crying and I stopped recording. During
the crying, he was reaching for me to pick him up — the first time
he has ever done that! I was sad that the first time he reached for
me I couldn’t hold him, but I don’t think he was too traumatized. He
clearly recovered pretty quickly. There are some before and after
photos below too — he looks even more like Matt now that they have
matching haircuts!

After the cut we went to Chili’s for lunch to celebrate. He ate
macaroni and cheese and cinnamon apples, which were basically apple
pie filling. That was surely the sweetest thing he has ever eaten,
and needless to say he liked it a lot. It’s really fun to be able to
order food for him off the kid’s menu now. He is such a big boy!

I have lots to write about, so I’m going to have a trilogy of posts to catch up. First, I’ll tell you about our trip. Last week, we went back home to Mississippi for my grandmother’s 95th birthday. We were very nervous about flying with a baby and were kind of dreading the trip, but it actually went pretty well. Air travel was rough because it was a lot of time in an extremely tiny space with an antsy baby, but we managed to keep Falco entertained. He slept a little, but not nearly enough! Matt said repeatedly that we aren’t going anywhere again until Falco turns four.

Once we got into Gulfport, we had to rent our car and car seat. It was the opposite of a smooth operation and took forever. Our car rental company did not have an infant car seat and had to ask three different companies before finding one. The one they finally got us was very old school and was a royal pain to install, which he had to do ourselves without instructions in the hot and humid weather of South Mississippi. After a day of air travel and waiting over half an hour just to get our car, I did not have the patience to fight with a car seat in the heat with a fussy, hungry baby.

Eventually, we got on our way and went to meet Ma-Ma, my aunt and her husband, and mom and Mark for dinner. (Mom and Mark had just flown in that day a couple of hours earlier.) We met them at the very delicious catfish restaurant, Aunt Jenny’s, in Ocean Springs. Mom was beyond excited to see Falco, and Ma-Ma was very happily surprised that we were there. Falco was completely charming and was happy to meet everyone and sat very politely in his high chair while we ate dinner. I was amazed at how well he did after flying all day and hardly napping at all.

After dinner, we went to my aunt’s, where we were staying in the guest house, and got Falco ready for bed. They had a pack and play there for us to use, and we had no idea how he would do sleeping in a strange place. We did his bedtime routine as close to normal as possible, and he went right to bed without a peep. I was so worried that he would get scared or cry and never go to sleep, but he slept all night all three nights we were there without a complaint. I don’t know when I have been more proud of him.

One day, Falco stayed with Mom for about an hour and a half while Matt and I ran an errand, and he did fine with that. He was never afraid of anyone the whole trip. Everyone went on and on about how good and happy he was. One day we took a drive into Ocean Springs to see our old stomping ground. I wanted to show Falco the front porch of our old house where I first met Matt, but he slept through the whole tour and missed all of the highlights.

The night before we left, Ma-Ma’s party started at 6 p.m. This was very sketchy for us because Falco is usually getting ready for bed at 6:30 and never goes out at night or stays up past his bedtime. Mom tried to get him to go to sleep at the party, but he wasn’t having it. He wasn’t in the mood to party either though and was tired and whiney. We ended up leaving at 8:00 to get him to bed, which was fine because we needed to get up early for our flight anyway.

Did I mention that it was miserably hot and humid there? I can’t believe we used to live like that. Despite the sweltering weather, it was nice to go back and see lots of my relatives and have everyone meet Falco. We got back to San Francisco pretty early on Sunday, and we were all very glad to be home. The weather here is great: Foggy at night, sunny during the day, and cool enough to need a hoodie. Perfect!

Up next: Falco is getting around…

Today Falco and I were stopped at a traffic light while driving to the grocery store. It was around 5 p.m. and the sun was shining brightly into our west-facing windows. Falco had the sun right in his eyes and was fussing a little, possibly because of the sun and possibly just because he fusses in the car sometimes. I could see all this in the mirror I have in the back seat to be able to see him while I’m driving and was telling him that we would be moving out of the sun soon. Anyway, I hear the car next to me honking its horn, and I look over to see the guy in the passenger seat yelling and waving to get my attention. I roll down my window, and he tells me that my baby is very uncomfortable right now because the sun is in his eyes. I just said, “Yes, I know, but there isn’t really anything I can do about it right now. Thanks.” I think he was still talking as I rolled my window back up and didn’t look at him until the light finally turned green. I think this was the first time I had a stranger comment on my apparently poor parenting skills. I’m not sure what he proposed I should do about the situation while I was driving, but, luckily, Falco somehow survived the 60 seconds of sun exposure.

Rosco has developed the annoying habit of staying outside forever when we let the dogs out instead of coming right back in with Adelaide. Yesterday, he did that and we forgot he was out there. We left to go get lunch at Mel’s Diner (AKA “the restaurant” since it’s the only one we ever go to). A few minutes after we got home, Matt reported that Rosco had run away. Then we realized that he had been left outside the entire time we were gone, a couple of hours. Matt went out to look for him in the highly windy and cold weather at our place while I stayed home with Falco.

Then, I remembered that when we were driving home I happened to notice an Animal Care and Control van driving away from a house about a block from us, but I didn’t think much of it at the time. I called them to report Rosco missing and ask if they happened to pick him up. The lady said that he was already there. So, we had to all load up in the car and go pick Rosco up from the slammer. Matt went in to post his bail while I sat in the car with Falco. He had to pay some fees and prove that he was our dog and then walk through the entire place and look at every dog until he postively IDed him. It seems pretty easy to ID the dog with a disfiguring underbite and a cloudy-blue right eye that he can’t see out of.

When Rosco finally made it out, he didn’t look much worse for wear after his ride in the paddywagon and time spent in the clink. He was only in his cell for about 45 minutes before we sprung him. Matt said that Rosco probably thought this was the best day of his life and he couldn’t wait to run away again.

Today is our tenth wedding anniversary! I’m proud and excited to be celebrating this milestone with Matt. As luck would have it, we got to spend the day together today. Matt might not consider it to be so lucky because the reason we’re together is that he is home sick with a cold. I’m not glad he’s sick but happy we’re together. Falco is being less than a dream when it comes to naps today, but he did let us sleep until 7:00 this morning and isn’t being too bad. We might try to go to an early anniversary dinner if he cooperates.

To celebrate this occassion, we’re getting new wedding rings. We were broke students when we got married, so we didn’t get fancy, nice rings. We’ve said for years that we’d get new ones at #10, and it’s finally here. I’ll post photos of our new bling when they get here.

Oh, and speaking of Matt’s cold, I got it first. I was sick last week and then Matt started getting sick on Monday or Tuesday. As soon as I felt it coming on, I was sure that Falco would get it and dreaded having a sick baby. Amazingly enough, he still hasn’t shown any sign of a cold (knock on wood). I thought babies were supposed to be immunocompromised, so I thought he would surely catch anything he was exposed to. I don’t know how he can be around us sickies and stay well. I know it’s just a matter of time before he gets sick for the first time, and I’m not looking forward to it!

Long before Falco was born, I planned to take him to the zoo once a week. Today I finally took him for the first time. It went pretty well, though we were only there for about 45 minutes. There is a lot of construction going on, so that made it less enjoyable than I expected. Also, Falco was in his stroller, and he doesn’t like that as much as being in the Baby Bjorn. He started fussing a little every now and then, but he quieted down when I talked to him. He stayed awake the whole time, which was impressive, and I’m sure he’ll like going more and more as he gets older. Next time I’ll take him in the Bjorn instead and see how that goes. It’s fun to be able to take him places now and have him actually stay awake!

Matt making birthday dinner.

Roses from mom.

Life of the party.

A feast!

Chocolate Oreo cake.

Delicious!

This is it. My twenties are over, and I am turning the ripe old age of 30 today. I’m not too broken up about it though. This is probably my best birthday ever because I get to spend it with my husband AND my son. This time last year I was wondering if I would ever get pregnant, and now Falco is here with us!

I’m writing this post on my birthday gift from Matt — my new MacBook! My old iBook was limping along, so this was an awesome gift. I also received 30 yellow roses from my mom and Mark this morning. I’m pretty sure that’s the most flowers I’ve ever gotten at one time. As for birthday festivities, Falco is taking a morning nap right now, and when he wakes up we’re going to have lunch at Mel’s Diner. I’m sure I mentioned here before that we were regulars there while I was pregnant, going multiple times every weekend, but this will be the first time for us to go since the boy was born. We probably won’t be able to play cards like we used to, but it should still be a good time.

I have had a sad realization in the past few days: I’m incredibly boring now. I was never all that exciting, but now that I spend all my time being a mom to a very young infant, I don’t ever have anything else to talk about besides that. That’s all well and good if I’m talking to Matt or a friend who also has a baby, but it makes me very uninteresting to my nonparent friends. I can totally understand why parents are really only friends with other parents; it’s hard to talk about anything else!

Last night Matt and I made buffalo burgers. I had never eaten buffalo before, and it’s not very often that I eat a whole new kind of meat. They were good, though they seemed to cause more splattering during cooking than any other kind of burger I’ve ever made. Matt cleaned the entire stovetop and surrounding area afterwards because of the mess they made. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have known it was buffalo had I not made it myself, but it was a good burger all the same.