bitter sweet sitter

the time has come for me to increase my bacon earning and add another day to my work week. my mom still comes and keeps donovan 2 days so i can work, but we had to get a sitter for thursdays. this came at a time when donovan is starting to notice who is holding him and watches intently when his parents walk away. this is normal development in children, but of course in my anxiety stricken brain he thinks that i am leaving him forever. that is the bitter part of having a sitter.....

the sweet part of having a sitter is that we were able to book an old neighbor as our nanny, mrs. paula. dan and i always had her in the back of our mind, even when i was still pregnant, as a nanny possibility so we are thrilled our first pick worked. she came to meet donovan for the first time and brought him an adorable quilt she made for him. he sat in her lap and smiled while we chatted.....which made me feel so much better about leaving him. she is a retired grandmother of a 7 year old grandson so she knows boys :) her daughter and grandson will be moving to michigan in the next few months, and so we know she will be holding donovan a little closer.

on my first thursday back to work mrs. paula came right on time for me to show her the ropes. i was able to put donovan down for a nap (so he did not have to see me walk out the door). dan got home to relieve mrs. paula and of course the day had been very smooth. that of course was the only detail i got from dan.....he never asks the good questions. i called mrs. paula first thing friday morning to see how everything panned out...and i will spare you all of the details....but i am so relieved that my first time leaving donovan with a non-family sitter is over...and am thrilled that we have mrs. paula.

on a side note i do have to give a little shout out to donovan's very very first non-family sitter, miss. blair. i had a networking lunch event to go to with a co-worker a few weeks ago and my good friend blair, the baby whisperer, was so sweet to keep the little guy. again, we have been so lucky to be able to leave our pride and joy with people we know and love. as hard as it is for me to leave him i could not imagine having to leave him with someone that i do not know.

the picture is a phone picture taken and sent to miss. blair....and donovan is laying on the quilt that mrs. paula made.

gi-gi's birthday

the fam took a trip to burnsville to celebrate granny's birthday....this would be gi-gi to donovan
(get it...great granny). donovan and i took off early friday afternoon after much coordination to ensure smooth travels...this was our first trip alone. and of course we arrived in b'ville after 30 minutes of out of control screaming. the good news is that we made it...and donovan recovered soon after seeing gram.

i am going to tell this only for the good of other mothers who go unappreciated and can relate to the tale, but not because i am proud of it or get the warm fuzzies when thinking of it......it is my awareness to the cold hard facts of parenting. so here we go.....donovan is not yet reaching out for people, but we can tell he is working toward it, and will often say with his eyes and a little arm movement that he wants to come to you. friday night mama and i were getting dinner ready to take to granny's house and were running late. donovan began getting fussy and i was trying to calm him down to pack up and go to granny's. the crying increased until he was fully out of control. i of course check to see if he needs a diaper change? needs to burp? is he bleeding? and then we passed by gram......and he LUNGED out of my arms into hers and fully settled. and so of course knowing that it would be ridiculous that after all i had done to make my child happy all day it was a coincidence that he LUNGED out of my arms. so after a few minutes i took him back so mama could get a head start to granny's and i could wait for dan to come home and ride with donovan and myself. immediately meltdown ensued until of course gram took him back...and then he was fine. luckily dan came in from a grueling afternoon of golf and saved donovan from his mother......seriously??? donovan and dan snuggled right in to a relaxing evening of tv. so there you have it...heartbreak. and let it be known that i do not want to hear anything from anyone unless it is a story of your child telling you that they hate you or have only been calmed by a stranger....otherwise we will not speak of this again.

moving on to saturday.......it was just our luck that burnsville was having their ole' timey day which was full of tractors, gospel singin', pie eatin' and cloggin'. donovan was of course a prince, and we got some great pictures of him. that night we all had granny's 94th birthday dinner and donovan was able to meet his great-great aunt betty.

dan was up bright and early sunday morning to head out to the panther's game. donovan and i were able to have a relaxing sunday showing off at church and then having lunch with donovan's auntie nicole. it was a rainy sunday full of lounging. monday came and was also rainy so donovan and i decided to stay until tuesday and just head back to charlotte with gram. the trip back went much smoother with gram in the back to entertain. auntie lisa was kind enough to come into charlotte to hang out and take gram back to burnsville.

we are having company come next week and so, much like they usually do, mama and lisa slaved away cooking, cleaning and taking care of donovan to prepare for the company. and so yet again i will look like mother, wife and inn of the year for our house guests....unless donovan LUNGES out of my arms.

five months....dang

i know i need to just settle down and embrace the fact that life moves fast. but seriously five months!! i remember looking at donovan's clothes for 9-12 months and thinking that was an eternity away.....which brings me to donovan's stats.....

• 17lbs.........wearing 6 month clothes and busting out
• he started noticing his bottle and started holding it on his own
• he tried rice cereal, peas and avocado (pics and video to come later)
• he started sleeping in his own room
• hand control is much better...obviously when he holds his bottle
• his jumparoo is his favorite toy....he actually has shoes he wears when he jumps because he got a blister from jumping too much
• he is sitting up much better, but still has to be held
• he sucks his lip when he cannot get to a passy
  

sleeping in his big boy room

like most things with donovan i cannot wait for something to happen and then it does and it makes me sad because it happens to quickly....for me. can you tell that i have a tough time with change?

donovan's nursery is upstairs and our bedroom is downstairs and so donovan has slept in a
pack n play in our room. this means that each night for the past five months dan and i have tip toed into our pitch dark bedroom and felt our way around to find ourselves in our bed. this has also disrupted our lifestyle because our second tv is in our bedroom....and we do not typically watch the same things on tv, which has been a lesson on sharing.

yet again i have blinked my eyes and he is five months. in that time i have gotten use to feeling my way to bed through a dark bedroom and watching sports 99.9% of the time. i think that it is typical for a mom to hold just a little closer to babies.....i mean i knew that as soon as he was moved upstairs it was the end of a chapter...the end of ANOTHER chapter, and so i was dragging this out as long as i could. and then it happened.....out of the blue dan has a dad to dad conversation with a friend where it was disclosed that donovan was still in our room. dan's friend (thanks joey faucher) told how quickly his kids moved into their nursery and dan realized donovan could in fact survive upstairs. this meant that whole "it is still too early for donovan" and "five months is too young" "dan it is dangerous" argument would not work anymore. with five months around the corner we did it. putting him upstairs and walking all the way downstairs seems so far away, but the next morning came and i ....i mean he made it.

i guess this is not the last time that i will have to reevaluate if i am holding him close for his safety or for me.....parenting is hard stuff...on a positive note i will say that it is fab to have our bedroom back though, especially since football season has started :)

meeting clara

earlier in the blog i introduced my cousin's little girl clara.she is now three months and donovan is almost five months. clara's mom and i were pregnant together (as were my cousin steven's mom and my mom), and so we hope that donovan and clara grow up knowing each other. clara, steven and erica came into town thursday afternoon and we were able to hang out and have dinner before bed. donovan and clara laid and had parallel conversations with each other. i tried to get video of them talking but by the time the camera came on donovan began his meltdown.

clara was a trooper for putting up with a car ride from d.c. and sleeping in a strange place. we look forward to seeing clara and donovan together again at christmas. come back anytime guys!

labor day weekend

we are finishing up labor day weekend and i have lots on my mind. first off i feel like the summer just started!!!! and now we are "un-officially" saying good-bye. there is something about having a kid makes summer that much sweeter. one of donovan's favorite summer past times is swimming. he loves being in the water whether in the bath, in his pink duck, or at the real deal swimming pool. we figured he would love the lake just as much, and one of his parents favorite summer past times is boating (before we sold our boat for a baby). we graciously accepted our good friends offer to go out on their boat for the afternoon. in past blogs i have bragged about donovan and his unending ease in social situations......i have to eat my words. boating was a nightmare.

we packed a lovely meal and all of donovan's things in somewhat of a cocky fashion, since we are baby experts now, and boarded a 32 foot boat, complete with a bedroom cabin (for napping babies). i brought my brand new video camera (thanks to my parents) for a perfect labor day photo op, and dan and i had worked hard to keep donovan on schedule so we could take some video of him swimming, and then put him down for a nap while we enjoy dinner and a sunset cruise. there is really no point into going into much detail about the meltdown that ensued, but it took dan and i both back to that really dark place in our lives where donovan screamed 24/7. it was one of those meltdowns where everyone looks at you like deer in headlights but tries to act like it is no big deal, saying things like "is he okay?" and meanwhile i am scanning my brain thinking of all the things that could be causing this sort of hysteria, like a broken leg or the beginning of a new head sprouting. so after that experience we will be staying close to home for a while until we get our sturdy parent legs back.

the pictures are an homage to summer and happier times.

we did however catch a video of donovan in the lake with dan about 2 minutes before the meltdown hit. i have also attached video of donovan enjoying the pool. let it be known that i am not proud of my v-neck bathing suit being in the video shot, but donovan is too cute for me not to share. the chest shot may be low, but the stomach coverage is fabulous!