Baby Milo is 5 days old today. It is Monday, which means that we are back to our old routine. The visitors are gone, Justin is at work, and the world is moving along. Although, I drove through the bank drive up window on two separate occasions before I realized the reason it was not open was because of Columbus Day. Oops.
The first big hurdle of the week for me was driving Ben to preschool with three in car seats for the first time. The seats don't fit in my vehicle so I am going to be driving Justin's pickup for the foreseeable future because three car seats fit across the back. This whole ordeal is quite a pain because, as you may know, it is not acceptable to leave your kids in the car, even in a safe and always busy and watched place like a preschool parking lot like our parents would have done. So I have to haul everyone inside twice on the mornings he has school and his room is also up a flight of stairs. Another mom offered to walk him up for me so we might try to arrange that, at least for the next month or two. But I pulled it off for today and I am strangely proud even though Ben had to remind me to clip his car seat straps before we left the parking lot and also I forgot his backpack at home.
Yesterday was a rough one. I realized that poor Milo truly didn't have a spot in this house. There were no empty drawers for his clothes, and we don't exactly know where his crib will be when he's older, and I don't know where I could fit his name on the wall of whatever room he ends up in when the times comes like I did with the other two. I know babies don't care or know the difference but it made me sad. So we embarked on a huge and exhausting closet cleaning and clothing sorting mission which took all day and I was already half delerious from lack of sleep. Being surrounded by piles of clutter and crap that only you can deal with is very draining to me and not sleeping a full night in days didn't help. We threw away an old dresser that was falling apartthat was in a closet taking up space. The drawers were almost in pieces. It was my childhood dresser so that was weird since I've never lived apart from that thing but it's good to get it out of here! We also removed many boxes of outgrown clothes from the closets upstairs. Now they will be barricading whatever we are looking for in the crawlspace in the basement. So basically we "churned" instead of actually cleaned but at least they are out of sight. While all this was happening, Tessa and Ben were in full demon mode, constantly fighting, screaming, throwing fits and getting in the way. They DESTROYED the living room by dumping out every single bin and basket they could find while we were busy elsewhere. As usual, I was just overwhelmed with the crap to storage space ratio in the house. I don't think there is a house in existence that has enough storage for us and I have given up on minimizing. Whatever I try doesn't work and I have been trying for years so I guess this is just the way it will be.
Milo himself is doing good. He seems a bit confused about night and day and slept the afternoon away yesterday, which was good because otherwise we wouldn't have done anything, but you know what sleeping all day means. Up all night! This pattern seems to be shifting though so I feel more rested today.
And he sure is cute! This morning on the drive to preschool I realized how quiet it was in the back and I looked and both Ben and Tessa were just gazing at him and smiling. Ben talks about his cuteness constantly and loves to help by bringing him his blankies. He talks about when he can play with him and have him sleep in his room and when he can go to the farm. Pretty cute.
People may be wondering why we chose his name. Well, we didn't know what we were having ahead of time, and we hadn't committed to a name for either a boy or girl. We had a short list which mostly had middle name options drawn from the first and middle names of various family members. Milo was my grandpa Glenn's middle name and that morning at 3:00 a.m. after the commotion of the birth had settled down, we were sitting in the hospital room on the internet looking at lists and trying to choose a name. We both realized we liked Milo for a first name. Yes, I know it is a cat's name (FYI, before you watch "Milo and Otis" again do some research about the making of the movie. I did while watching it with Ben awhile ago and learned that it was filmed in Japan in the 1980s and they had no laws protecting animals and the way the animals were treated was not good. It lost a lot of its charm for me after that) but I think I will be able to move on from that image. Since it was my grandpa's middle name I also associate it with a vintage feel. So we chose Milo but didn't make if official until the next morning. Timothy is my dad's name and we thought it flowed nicely with Milo. All the nurses kept telling us they loved his name, although they probably tell everyone that!
Here are some pictures of Ben and Tessa from the last few days, so they don't feel forgotten about. Ben had his first swimming lesson on Friday. His preschool includes swimming lessons which I love because I am a lifelong swimmer. One of my earliest memories is of swimming lessons and I was probably only 3 years old myself. His grandparents were here so we went to watch. I wasn't sure if I should watch since, as a former swimming teacher, I have seen the way kids can kind of melt down and act like big babies as soon as they see their parents and be just fine when the parents are not there but we were behind glass and he was happy and smiling the whole time and I was pretty impressed with his swimming too!
I remember when Ben would not stay away from this bouncy seat when Tessa was a baby.
Here is a nice photo of Ben trying to play combining with Milo. He doesn't get it yet.
Here are a few pictures of Milo meeting his family members. There are still many more to meet.
Here he is with cousin "Baby Claire".
Claire and Aunt Andrea.
Grandma.
Here is our first family picture besides the one with me in the hospital bed. We are in gym clothes and I am wearing several strands of mardi gras beads but it's not going on our Christmas card or anything so who cares!
And I have achieved victory number two for the day! I made a quite lengthy blog post that mixed storytelling with some humor! Oh YEAH! Now I am going to move on to one of my favorite post-pregnancy rituals...they removal of maternity clothes from my sight! Although I might keep a few pairs of leggings out for a few weeks...
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