June 8

I am pretty focused on the date of June 8 because it is when I return to work and stop this stay-at-home mom stint. There are two weeks left of this gig and I'm going to enjoy them. Milo and I will sleep late in the mornings, take lots of walks in the afternoons and spend the evenings with Chris without the stress of knowing I have to get up for work the next day. I'll also repeat Milo's favorite joke as many times as we can bear. The joke is this - an elephant and a zebra walk into a bar. That's the whole joke and we both dissolve into hearty giggles because clearly wild animals don't belong in bars. I'll certainly miss his adorable laugh and his gummy smile as I'm sitting through Monday morning staff meetings.


Our social calendar is full for the next two weeks. We'll be meeting friends for lunch and attending our weekly mom's group. Shopping for a baptism outfit is on the agenda, too. And, I also need to shop for work clothes for myself. Somehow the things I packed up last fall shrunk during the long and pregnant winter.

I know these next two weeks are going to fly by just like the last 10 weeks have. We've already watched Milo grow so much and I'm really thankful for the 12 weeks I had with just him at home. Now we're all going to mature as we settle into the new routine, but first we get to enjoy the next two weeks.

Two Months

Yesterday we celebrated Milo's two month birthday. Several people have told me that if I could just get through the first six weeks with a new baby, things would get much easier from that point on. For us, getting through the first three weeks or so was the really challenging part, so this second month was a lot easier than the first. We still have our moments, but overall things are going great. Some of Milo's milestones so far are:

• Honest to goodness smiling! Chris and my Mom are almost always guaranteed to earn a smile from Milo when he sees him. Smiles to me come first thing in the morning when I get him out of his crib. We go through body parts saying good morning to each and my little guy smiles and giggles as I say good morning to Milo's foot...it's fun.


• We've continued to work on tummy-time and Milo does much better with it and is able to hold his head up for longer periods of time. He's not quite to rolling over, but it's getting closer.


• Milo is babbling and cooing a lot of time, especially during diaper changes. We have little conversations with him, which are all enjoyed by all.


• With Milo being about 13 - 14 pounds, I feel much more comfortable taking him out and about as he's not so delicate. We've been for lots of walks, to the park, to our favorite Mexican restaurant and to the grocery store where Milo is always a big hit. We also made a trip to the pizza place where Milo enjoyed the noise and smells.


• I went to a mom's group last week and noticed our little guy isn't so little when I saw the other 8 week old babies. He's also officially grown out of his newborn clothes and we are well into the stash of 3 month and even some 3 - 6 month outfits.

Next month will hold new challenges to our daily life as I return back to work and Milo heads to daycare. It's the best situation for all of us, so I am hoping things go smoothly as we make that transition. Onward and upward!

Happy Mother's Day

On this day we celebrate the mothers in our lives. We salute those women who not only feed us and nurture us, but who also shape us into the people we become. Having a good mother is a blessing and one I have always been thankful. Of course being a child is only one part of the equation and being a mother is the other part. The x to the y if you will. Having the motherhood experience is the variable that makes the theorem true and for it all to make sense.

On this day, I honor my mother and thank my little guy for making me a mom. I'm sure I have a lot more to figure out in this equation, but for once this journalism major doesn't mind doing the math.

Baby Weight

With Milo turning seven weeks old today(!), I have to face the fact that no more of this baby weight is just going to melt off as it did in the early days. I arrived home from the hospital about 20 pounds lighter than I arrived there, which I found to be amazing and wonderful. In the next couple of weeks, I lost another 10 or so pounds. Since then I've been in the same place with about 12 pounds to lose to get back to where I was when I got pregnant (yes, I gained 40+ pounds during the pregnancy). Then there are also the 10 extra pounds I was holding on to as that point, but for now we are focusing on the 12 pounds of baby weight.

I'm cleared for exercise and the weather is warming up, so until I head back to work next month, Milo and I can be found wandering the streets of Clintonville on long walks. I also can't wait to get back to the mat and start practicing asana again, oh how I've missed the physical yoga practice these past weeks.