A Bigger Burrito

Hugh has been telling me for some time now that it's my turn to update the blog.  However, when it takes until noon to get showered and dressed because you have to stop what you're doing every few minutes to feed, change, burp, or otherwise soothe someone who has a million needs and no way to tell you what they are, it's hard to get much done.  For the moment, Asher has decided to take a nap, which means that I have a period of unspecified length during which I can do something else.  I debated between tidying up the house, getting the laundry started, and writing something here.  For once, the blog won out--you lucky readers, you.

New-motherhood is an interesting thing.  You go through nine months of pregnancy followed by several hours of labor, and then suddenly there is a new person who is totally incapable of filling any of his own needs--and the funny thing is that YOU are supposed to fill them all.  You are the one who makes all of the decisions about how this new little life will be run (because, let's face it, the new dad is even more clueless than you).  I spent the first two weeks of Asher's life in a state of constant anxiety over what the long- and short-term consequences of everything I did might be.  Luckily, it was then time for a check-up with the pediatrician, who said that everything looked great, and Hugh's parents (who have five children who have managed to survive to adulthood, so they should know, right?) came and spent a few days with us and they seemed to think that everything was going pretty well too.  So, this week I have felt much more relaxed...so long as I don't have to breastfeed in the presence of any males besides Hugh.  By the way, the books that I have read as well as the instructional video that they make new mothers watch before they can leave the hospital lists the convenience of being able to feed your baby anywhere as one of the great benefits of breastfeeding, but it seems to me that feeding a baby with a bottle while you're out and about would be much easier because you could keep your shirt ON.

Another interesting thing about having a new baby is that it gives you the ability to have a conversation with just about anybody--particularly if the anybody is also a mother.  Pregnancy endowed me with some of this ability, but since the birth of my baby, this supernatural power has only increased.  For a while I found it a little strange to have conversations--sometimes very personal ones--with perfect strangers, but now I think it's kinda' nice.  I'm shy and have a hard time approaching people, so it's nice to suddenly be more approachable.  The other day, while I was out on my daily walk, a girl not too much older than myself came up to me and we talked for about fifteen minutes about babies.  She didn't tell me her name, and she didn't ask me mine, but I told her Asher's name and I know that her six-month-old's nickname is "Turtle."  This sort of thing has become a common occurrence.  

On a completely different topic, my kitchen is no longer ugly. When we moved into this apartment three weeks ago, the kitchen was very grimy, three of the walls were painted two different shades of green--neither of which matched the blue and cream floor--and the last wall was horribly water-damaged.  Our friend Jess Jones came and scrubbed the kitchen.  My mom and sister came and painted the green walls and Hugh and I covered the water-damaged wall with a curtain because we decided that actually fixing it was hopeless.  It's not my dream kitchen, of course, and it's still a little empty because the table and chairs that we ordered haven't come yet, but it's vastly improved from what it was.  This will have a great impact on Hugh's life because I might have had a very difficult time bringing myself to cook much more than spaghetti or cold cereal in there before, whereas now my eyes will not be constantly abused while I make dinner so I will be much better able to create a wide variety of culinary masterpieces.  

Well, it looks as though I've said a whole lot about myself and not much about the burrito.  I will however include a photo of him wearing the same sleeper that he was wearing in the last post a week and a half ago.  You can see how much better it fits him now and put your minds at ease because he is, in fact, growing.