Full Moon

From over Museum Campus.

Our family, 7 days later

Before and After

It helps when I look at my very mushy and still prominent belly to remember what it looked like while it had a baby inside it. And I was encouraged today to find that I already have several pairs of pre-pregnancy pants I can wear (though that speaks more to my weight before pregnancy than anything else). My sister asked what my belly looks like now. I told her my belly button looks like the Grand Canyon.

On the upside, this gives me lots of impetus to get back in shape. As I dug through clothes today, I felt like I was meeting old friends. Oh, yeah, those great khaki pants! Ah, what a great skirt. I told Wes when I brought a pile of clothes back upstairs that it felt like I'd been on a shopping spree with more in store when I dropped a size or two.

It'll be at least another week, I think, before I feel like I can jog, but with the nice weather we've been having in Chicago, I look forward to getting out -- or just to the exercise room with Ollie in tow.

Whatever happened to Lucy the Dog?

Over the course of my pregnancy, Wes and I often wondered how Lucy would do with the baby. We finally got our answer on Monday when she came home from the kennel. She greeted me with great gusto, then sniffed me curiously, then smelled the baby shirt and blanket, then gave me and the baby the cold shoulder for most of the day. She woofed quietly the first few times she heard him cry, but then evidently got used to it. She curled up in her bed early that night, though I'm not sure if it's because she felt she was being ignored or she was just exhausted from spending three night's at the vet's office.

She's slowly warmed to him since then. She gives him some good sniffs now and then, likes to lick his hand when it available, and has given serious consideration to treating Ollie's head lesions with a good tongue bath. She really likes the rug in the baby's room and has recently started taking pieces of her dinner (she likes to spread her food out as she eats it) and her chewie in there, must to my dismay. She sometimes gets up at night when we do, and she seems content to just sit nearby when I rock Oliver. Her curiosity has definitely increased daily, and I think she's coming around on him (and has once again acknowledged me). We've tried to take a daily walk with the baby and Lucy to encourage sibling affection. Nothing wins over a dog like a trip to the park.

I definitely look forward to the day that Oliver becomes aware of Lucy's presence and, if the dog manages to live long enough, the day the two can chase each other in our hypothetical yard. For now, I'll take my cue from HP and her husband, who, each time they left the house when their kids were little, instructed the dogs, "Mind the baby."

Followers

Blogger has started this new thing on the dashboard where you can "follow" someone's blog officially. I haven't added the ones I read, but I'm assuming it just lets you know when ones been recently updated so you're not always checking to see.

I had to laugh, though, when I first saw it on the computer screen. It just says, "1 follower." Makes me feel like prophet with laced Kool-Aid or an ancient Greek philosopher or something.

BC

I recently changed the title of the other blog from Ante-Delivery (or before delivery) to After Delivery due to the arrival of our baby. I've been thinking about what BC now means. It's still "just because" -- I don't write about weighty issues usually, just whatever I'm contemplating, things I think are annoying or funny, and of course, the dog. I kind of feel like now it's a "Not HP Now Mommy" site too -- like, Beyond Children, or the things I think about that aren't related to being a new mom. And yet that doesn't quite seem to fit, a) because I only have one child, so the plural seems out of place, and b) because I'm really mostly thinking about mommyhood these days. With just one kid to capture our attentions, Wes and I still have normal adult conversation, talk about the news, watch Monday night football (a posting in and of itself), but the things I think about and care about the most are all wrapped up in an ABC blanket in the pack 'n play.

It will be interesting to see how my attentions and interests reshape or don't over the new months and years as I enter this new period of my life. For now, we'll leave the site "just because."

Profile update

My mom emailed me today to remind me that my profile as an "expecting mother" was now out of date. It has been thusly updated.