Out and About

We're getting much more skilled at taking Kai out into the world. Kai and I made some new friends recently at breastfeeding and new mom's groups, and we've started going to mommy and me yoga every week. Bob and I managed to go out for lunch with him to celebrate Valentine's Day, and we take regular strolls in the winter weather outside. I even survived my first disastrous outing when I attempted to bring Kai to the Fogg Museum to meet up with my friends Sam and Deji for an afternoon...the day involved a freak whiteout blizzard during our walk to the T, several hours of nursing and bouncing in a corner of the museum with the new realization that here was a place that people would definitely not welcome his crying if it really started up, being kicked out into the cold upon closing and Bob picking us up after he finished work, only for us to discover that we had no idea how to fold the stroller up and put it into the car!!! We figured it out eventually.

I'm continually finding that the challenges that I expected (like lack of sleep) are less challenging than I expected (don't get me wrong, sometimes when he wakes up to nurse for the umpteenth time in an evening, I'm pretty darned exhausted), and the things I didn't think about are really challenging (um, no one told me I'd have repetitive stress injuries in my wrists and shoulders from nursing...sometimes the only thing he wants is to be nursed while I bounce on a bouncy ball...all well and good except I can't really use a nursing pillow under those circumstances...Bob's developing tennis elbow from holding Kai so much!).

Every day that passes, though, finds me falling even more in love with this child. His smiles are utterly captivating and he always manages to pull one out when I'm really, really tired or frustrated. He's a pretty sweet kid, that much is already clear. And you know, it's tough being a baby. The books all call this a time when babies get "organized"...hunger, digestion, and pretty much every single experience strikes them as new and needs to be processed and incorporated. It's pretty amazing, really.