Death of a Hard Drive

Because things weren't exciting enough in life...tonight my hard drive decided to croak its last.  Although we are investigating "forensic recovery options," I am not holding my breath.  I should be (and am) grateful that X is only two weeks old and that grandparents have tons of photos saved elsewhere.  But X's idiot parents wiped their memory cards after a painstaking uploading session earlier this week.  So certain precious moments may be lost forever.

It is a technology lesson learned the hard way.  I always knew the importance of backing up...and yet continued to slack off about it.  Now that there are infant son memories at stake, perhaps I shall be more vigilant!!! 

No photos to accompany tonight's post.  For obvious reasons :( 

But will return triumphant soon! 

Mug Shot

It is only because I look like this that I can get away with what I just did in my diaper.

Baby's Day Out and Mama's Day Off

Baby X has gone to the zoo with his grandparents.  This makes it Mama's first official day off.  So naturally, instead of crafting and attacking "daily ambitions," I am uploading photos of him, sighing, and blogging.  Really productive.

What shall I do with this bizarre and magnificent stretch of time?  Breakfast for sure!  Shower, FOR SURE!  And then...oh, this is rich...I'm going to open all the mail that has accumulated on my desk since X's birth.  (Oooh.)

Except...it is looking pretty ominous out there.  Rain?!  Which means Mama's day off might turn into Mama's couple of hours off.  Which means that my wild plan of action needs to start right now!

But before I go...ze photos.

Hooray for dachshunds!

It is EXHAUSTING being this cute.

New Ambitions

Before my maternity leave began, I had all kinds of ideas about what I was going to do to stay sane and focused.  I figured that discipline would be key, so I would start each morning with a list of ambitions for the day.  These ambitions were very Mad Men-esque in their scope.  For example, a typical day might include:
- do laundry
- iron
- bathe X and dress him up in ridiculous clothing
- put X in baby carrier and walk dachshunds
- bake a pie
- arrange exotic imported flowers to place on entry hall wine rack
- watch fascinating documentary on a deep molecular physics-type topic to stimulate X's brain
- learn Chinese using Rosetta Stone
- prepare a sumptuous dinner, e.g., lamb chops with mint jelly, roasted potatoes, molten chocolate cakes

Something like that.

I'm now 12 days into my maternity leave.  It's 2:31 p.m.  I have ONE ambition for today.  And that is to take a shower.  How. have. the. mighty. fallen.

And on that pathetic note, I leave you with two pictures of my X.

I call this shot "X Prynne," as this is what Hester Prynne's baby was wearing on the cover of my copy of The Scarlet Letter.

N.B. The Boppy serves many functions, e.g., creating buffer zones for infant naps.

X Marks the Spot

Finally, tis the inaugural post!  I had grand plans for: a) posting early, b) posting frequently, and c) allowing this blog to serve as an outlet for my boredom during maternity leave.

Newborn life has been a real awakening (no pun intended).  Clearly a and b are out the window...and um, when will the boredom get here?  There hasn't been a dull moment in my life since 12:39 a.m. on Wednesday, November 10. 

I expect that maybe after the initial wave of family visitors has cleared, and once Baby X and I are on our own at home during the days...I may have more time to post musings.  For these initial weeks, however, I think posting shall be minimal.

The recap of week one, however, is as follows:

- Modern childbirth should at least be mentioned in the Convention Against Torture. 
- Baby X is delightful.  He snorts, he wiggles, he looks exactly like his dad, and he smells magnificent.
- Dad is doing great.  He's also handled almost all the late-night/early morning feedings and diaper changes since birth, so I am going to be hit hard when he goes back to work next week!
- Both families are going nuts over X.  I have never seen this much gleeful squealing and knitwear in my life.
- X is an international Skype fiend.  He placed calls to Ecuador, Jamaica, and Argentina last week...and then slept through all of them.  Ah well.
- X has successfully defeated the jaundice monster.  He is no longer yellow.  And Mama is no longer worrying all the time about his hue.
- The geriatric dachsies are wonderful with X!  They don't bark.  They keep a respectful distance.  And they sniff with great curiosity.  I think someday all my boys shall be great friends. 

I was planning to leave you with a yet-unpublished photo of X, but the image uploader is being uncooperative.  Inaugural blog post fail.