dynamic elf

Do you know of any good day care providers in the area for an under-12-month-old?

(Er, please don't reply to this with anything other than "yeah!" or "maybe!" and some information about the people you have in mind.)

Parenting link of the day, mostly for my own reference: Ignore your child, but do it lovingly.

It has come to my attention that I mostly only talk about the good stuff. I admit it is a bit of a habit; I find fun more interesting to share than pain. But I don't mean to give an inaccurate picture of what all of this is like. For all that N is cute and wonderful and for all that I'm enjoying watching her development, there are definitely days that are frustrating and nights that are worse. (Make no mistake: the sleep deprivation I'm experiencing as a new parent is completely unlike any I'd ever experienced before, and can screw me up for days if I'm not careful.)

For a while, I've been meaning to write a post about all the ways in which I feel like I'm a "bad mother", and the experiences that led us to those choices (unrepentant pacifier usage, occasional formula feedings, leaving her with a sitter sometimes while we socialize, and so on). But yesterday, I actually had an experience that DID make me feel like a bad mother. ( our time in the emergency room ) She has seemed fine since then, smiling and burbling and grabbing her feet as usual, and the only difference between now and any other day is that she has a faint faint red mark on her skin and she wants to nurse constantly. But hey, it keeps her from being agitated, and makes me feel like if I'm going to drop a big heavy thing on my kid, at least I'm able to comfort her afterward.

EDIT: I know this doesn't actually make me a bad mother, but it sure did make me feel like one!

( More than you wanted to know about breastfeeding and digestion, probably )

In other news, we're roughly diurnal, now! My day seems to start at 5 or so, which isn't ideal, but it'll do for a start. Hooray!

I knew that I'd lose a lot of water after giving birth, but I haven't actually looked in a mirror in days, and...

and, holy crap! Is THAT what my face looks like?

Out of curiosity, I googled "Molly needs", and learned that out of the top 10 hits, 5 were for animals needing new homes (4 dogs and a horse). So, apparently, not only is Molly a popular dog name -- I've known at least 3 Molly-dogs, myself -- but it's a popular name for dogs that need to be given away.

Yesterday, we moved our bed and dresser down into our newly-refinished basement bedroom. When we went to sleep I felt like I was camping out, but when I woke up to a purring kitty nestled up against my feet, I felt like it was our bedroom. Excellent! We have so much more floor space, now. I'm looking forward to watching it shape up.

( baby thing )

Also, I decided against doing the 10k walk today, even though they already have my registration money. The idea of potentially spending 2 - 2.5 hours in the rain was bad enough, but my back also hurts from moving stuff around and cutting carpet last night. It just didn't seem like a good idea, anymore. I might walk 10k with D again next weekendish, just to see if I can cut my time down a bit more. Also, it's a lovely distraction and it makes me feel all capable.

Work news: on Friday, some coworkers were joking about making an illicit late-night furniture raid to snag me a Huge Comfy Chair. This partucular HCC had been previously swiped from a nearly-unused self-study room by a facilities guy for another pregnant woman in the department, who had her baby in September and is currently out on maternity leave. I thought that my coworkers were joking, but when I came in to the office this morning, there it was. (Here's a special bonus shot of the other half of my cubicle, so you can see that I'm not locked in a cage -- it's actually a very nice, isolated corner window cube with trees right outside.)