Scattered

No baby yet. Sometimes I feel like it's going to be a matter of hours before things get moving, and then... everything stops. So, we'll see.

Sorry I haven't been posting much. I should be, if for no other reason than that I'll want to read the posts myself later. I've just been so wildly busy lately. I have SO MUCH to do at work, and even though I know that whenever I have the baby, it will no longer be my problem, I really don't want to leave my boss--whom I like very much--with more than I have to. She's been dealing with a lot of her own stresses, I think, and the last thing I want to do is slam her with a huge pile of ugly speeches to write. So I've been trying to do as much as I can, without actually sacrificing too much of my own sleep. I'm also trying to keep the house clean, the laundry under control, and the refrigerator and freezer in a reasonably stocked state, just in case.

And in the middle of this, my husband is in the middle of writing, giving, and grading exams--and since he's up for tenure this year I am very loathe to ask him to do anything that isn't work-related. Oh, and Iyyar seems to be having some kind of weird sleep regression. For the last year or so he's been a really good sleeper--I could just put him in his crib and he'd suck on his blanket till he was ready to sleep. For the last couple of weeks, off and on, he's been refusing to nap, and waking up at night wanting to be cuddled and held--very unusual for a baby who is usually far too busy for such things. Mostly I only get cuddles from him either at random times during the day for thirty seconds when he's in the mood, or when I'm done with work, or briefly at bedtime (before he wiggles out of my lap in search of something more fun). Right now, though, if I go in to him when he cries I find him standing up in his crib, arms up, pleading to be held. It's sweet, and if all he wanted were a nice cuddle to get to sleep, I'd have no problems with it. But what he wants is to just sleep in my lap--if I try to put him down, he wakes up and howls and howls and howls, totally a la Barak at this age. I just can't go down that road, especially not now. So I give him one good long cuddle, put him in his crib, and that's it. Tonight he cried hard for about half an hour, but I think he's asleep now.

I keep thinking of things to add to the Iyyar post. Like "thank you." Iyyar, like Barak, enjoys saying "thank you," and fully expects a "you're welcome" to follow every one. If you don't immediately say "you're welcome," he'll keep thanking you, pointedly, until you do. And then you get a look that distinctly says, "and what were you, raised in a barn?"

Last night--this is another thing I should add to the Iyyar list--MHH was giving both boys a bath as I sat on the floor of their room, feeling too huge and slothlike to move. I was getting Iyyar undressed as Abba got Barak into the tub. Once he was totally naked, Iyyar spied the orange plastic sunglasses I got at Target last summer, and put them on. Okay, naked baby with sunglasses--cute enough. Then he ran down the hall in them, and ran back--appearing in doorway, still naked, still in sunglasses, now grinning hugely and waving at me. "Bye! Bye!" And off to the bathtub. Oh, I wish I had a picture of that one.

Iyyar's hair is getting long enough that I probably should cut it, but I just don't want to, because once you cut their hair they're not quite babies anymore. And Iyyar really is still a baby. I checked on him tonight, after he finally fell asleep, and there he was in his crib with his knees tucked under his tummy, tush in the air, blankie tag in mouth. Definitely baby. I'm holding on to it as long as I can.

Okay, time to go back to speeches, and send off that one I've been working on tonight.