MANY OCCASIONS TO CELEBRATE

As of yesterday, if we didn't send you a thank you note, Seamus and I are officially assholes.

Yes, June 16th was our official 1 year anniversary since we exchanged vows at Camp Sycamore.
Yesterday was also the day that Yarden turned 4 weeks old
AND Seamus and my first day back at work.

It was less traumatic than I expected, just because getting out of the house was so hectic so there wasn't time to obsess. Plus - she' s not yet at a "Mommy, please don't go" age.

NANNY TIME
There's been a change to the child care plan since I last posted.

We were all set to go with the infant day care program.
I'd even bought the extra crib bumper for her school bed (what a brilliant idea - I want a work bed).

But then Friday morning, we took the munchkin to Dr. Shaheedy for her weigh in (8 lbs 4 oz).

Side note on her weight:
There are now actually articles of clothing that no longer fit her (don't worry mom, not the Janie and Jack jumper) and she's actually gone up a diaper size.

The doctor expressed concern about putting Yarden into a group situation before she was 3 months old so we called Fairie Poppins and hired her to love and hug and sing to and protect Yarden for the next 6-8 weeks.

Fortunately, she was still available.

Unfortunately, she hard an emergency tooth extraction that needed to happen Monday - forcing Gina and Nancy to step in to take care of the girl. I haven't caught up with Gina yet, but I know that with Nancy she ate like a fiend, forced Nancy to bounce on a yoga ball with her for 1.5 hours and when I got home Yarden was crashed out on the couch, eyes wide open, watching Law and Order.
She is our daughter.

As soon as she realized I was home, she demanded the boob and continued to scream and demand the boob, refusing to be put down till around 11:30. The screams are heartbreaking - they cut right through my being.

Since I know she has no idea of object permanence, I assumed that as soon as I left her sight I ceased to exist in her mind. That helped me to feel better about going back - the idea that she wouldn't miss me as much as I missed her - but her clinginess (and choosing to stay up and feed through bath and naptime) suggested that something was going on.

I described the situation to a mommy discussion group that I've joined and got some sweet, if saddening, responses. One woman pointed out that I'm the only security she's known for the last 10 months - so of course she needed a mommy fix.

Tomorrow, Yarden, Fairie Poppins and I are all going to go into my office together.
We'll see how that goes.

RANDOM MOMENTS FROM MOMMYHOOD:

The reason that I am currently convinced that my daughter is a genius is that she will scream to be fed, but then quiets down when Seamus or I carry her over to the fridge.

We have to assume that she understands that's where the bottles of pumped milk come from.
What other explanation is there?

What I cannot understand is how she can piece that together, but still gets so worked up about nursing that she will cry and bang her head against me looking for the nipple - even when its already in her mouth. I literally plead with her "PLEASE - If you just stop screaming and close your mouth the thing you are looking for is right there".

As she gets bigger, Yarden's screams are now louder, more piercing and go straight to the gut. She also now farts like a big person and makes crazy animal noises while she sleeps - alternately sound like a rooting pig, a bird, a cat and an elephant. There's also a bit of mimicing going on. Once Seamus asked if she was OK and Nancy and I could both swear she said "I'm OK" - though Seamus, who was in the room with her denies that.

It seems that invariably Yarden will start screaming for boob the moment I step into the bathroom, and despite the lack if any evidence that she has ANY idea what this means, it's still my instinct to yell to her "Hold on honey, Mommy just has to pee".

In other news, so far only one person has busted me for pumping while on the phone with them.

FATHER'S DAY
All I can say is that I'm so tired lately that I mailed my Father's Day card to my own dad to our own address.