A Full Weekend

Safia at 6 weeks!

A full weekend...full of crying that is.  Eventful too, I guess, but crying: lots of crying.
**Disclaimer**: this is Rube typing here, so the opinions and perspectives laid out in this post are not intended to represent Ellen.   Just wanted to get that straight first.  Anyway...on with it.

I don't consider myself overly sensitive to crying.  I know that's what babies do.  They cry when they're hungry, they cry when they need a diaper change,  they cry when they're really tired, they cry when they have gas (and don't we all), they cry when they're not being bounced right, or when you look at them wrong, or when you're eating and they're not, or they cry just because they feel like it.  I like to think that I'm pretty tolerant of it all, but yesterday, for some reason, it just really got under my skin.  I guess I like to think that a baby's crying originates from some logical and simple reason (e.g., hunger, dirty diaper, or sleepy); something that can be rectified easily and baby stops crying.  Voila!  But there are those momentsthat she seems so inconsolable  (and no, Safia is not colicky, but she's got quite the pipes!).  It leaves me feeling like a failure and rather inadequate.  I'll do everything in my arsenal, and I've gathered quite the list of tricks and tips for calming a baby, and when nothing works, I find myself thinking over and over, What do you want from me, kid?!  Ok, ok, ok...I realize this rant is so poignant right now because Safia had a fussier-than-usual day yesterday.  I'm sure the next post will be all sunshine and lollipops.  But a good rant every now and again are good right?  Good to get it off the chest.  {big sigh of relief} moving on.

So as previously mentioned, this weekend was, in fact, rather eventful.  On Friday afternoon, Ellen organized a really informal and low-key celebration at a local bar to observe my completing my Master's degree.  It was really nice and I felt very honored.  Safia wore a very pretty dress and was on her best behavior.  As I looked around the room at the congregation of friends, I noticed (and others brought it to my attention as well) that we know a lot of people with babies and a lot of pregnant women.  I guess it's the phase of life we're in now, and I guess we've kind of been purposely trying to meet more people with babies (for commiserating and forming community), but dang...not too long ago we were lamenting the fact that we had so few friends with babies that we wouldn't have any support.  I guess the times they are a-changing.  Well, we stayed out until the wee hours of 7:45pm, packed it up, and headed home.

Yeah Katie G.!

I won't go too much more into yesterday's happenings, as I've fulminated enough.  But there were some events of note: I wanted to give Ellen some time to do non-baby things, so she worked in the garden for most of the morning turning and prepping some garden beds for tomato transplants.  I stayed in with the mad-crier.  Afterwards, we took Safia to apply for her first and very own passport (we suspect she'll be using it plenty!).  A quick trip to the CVS to get some passport photos taken (we brought a white sheet and laid it on the ground; Safia on her back looking up; picture taken from above), and then to the library to fill out the paperwork.  Something we learned: in addition to application fee for the passport, there is a fee that is paid to the library for the transaction, and the library uses those funds to buy new books and to organize reading events for children.  That's a worthy cause! After the library, we ran some errands, and then went to a friend's baby shower.  It was a lovely affair, and after another Safia meltdown, she slept soundly in the Moby Wrap as we chatted with friends on a beautiful day.  Upon arriving home, Safia, exhausted from the festivities (and crying), was out for the night.  We had a nice 3 hours of sanity as Safia slept soundly in her bassinet, before we joined her in sweet slumber.