Life continues to progress without much pomp and circumstance around here; the little things seem to get us most excited.  The days of my maternity leave are tick-tocking away.  Andy is studying for his Step 2 exam, the next part of his board exams, which he’ll be taking in less than a week.  Because it’s all about patient interviewing and clinical skills, we aren’t worried about it at all (that’s what he’s best at!), but the weekend will still be filled with studying and not much else to make sure he’s fully prepared.  My friend Jen visited a few days ago and true to my prediction, we did absolutely nothing except hang out and talk.  Just about all we did was go for a walk, eat lunch at a French cafe nearby, and have a movie night, courtesy of Netflix.  It was so nice to see Jen, who I have been friends with since the seventh grade, just to talk about what we’ve been up to and what many of our mutual friends have been up to, and catch up.  Riley was able to take his first trip on public transportation as we picked Jen up from the airport and dropped her off.  I have to say that the Marta in Atlanta is by far the friendliest public transportation I have ever been on.  Everyone Riley and I interacted with on the train could not have been nicer.  Other than that, Andy and I have begun to settle into a bit of a routine, which is actually very exciting for us.  After more than two years of uncertainty and moving around, being able to do something as mundane as have coffee and read the paper on our porch together each morning or go to the gym on a set schedule or go to church is a really welcome change.

Now that Riley is getting a little bit older, life has taken on more of a routine and schedule for him especially.  His feedings have settled into a nice pattern, though every other week or so they shift around a bit – some get longer, sometimes he’ll drop a feeding, the amount has to increase, etc.  His naps are also starting to form into a relatively set pattern which makes his moods easier to predict.  We can tell when he’s hungry, when he needs to be changed, when he’s gassy, when he’s lonely or under/overstimulated, and when he’s just crying to get energy out in order to fall asleep.  We have a great bedtime routine where we start with a feeding, then put him in his pajamas, read him a story, and settle him in his crib.  He sleeps well in the crib now from about 11-6:30, with one break for a feeding around 4:30.  He starts getting fussy somewhere between 6 and 7 am, at which time he’s allowed to come back into our room and we sleep until it’s time for breakfast.  It seemed like when he was first born we never wanted to put him down, never wanted to let go, but now I feel comfortable letting him play on his activity mat, creep around on his favorite blanket, or play with one of his rattles in his carseat when I need to do something (like take a shower or eat lunch), something I just can’t do safely with him in my arms.  His personality is starting to come out and we’re now aware that he is very active by nature and just likes to grunt and make noise and interact with the world around him; when he was first born we were constantly trying to figure out what his grunts were trying to tell us – now we know he just likes to hear himself talk.  I think he’ll be talking early because he loves to practice his coos and noises and we hear something new every day.  He’s even said ‘mama,” though obviously it was a random vocalization and not connected to me at all, though it does make me look forward to the day when he says “mama” and means it.  New things he’s been doing include mimicking our movements, like splashing in his bathwater after we do, smiling and giggling frequently, turning toward the speaker on his swing to see where the music is coming from (even anticipating it when it’s not playing), cooing frequently, and most recently, turning over.  He doesn’t do it all the time and I have to remind him sometimes how to do it, but he can now roll over by himself.  It’s quite early for it so Andy and I now have to be much more alert than we used to be about letting him sit on the couch or while he’s at the changing table.  Not that we weren’t cautious before of course, but now that he’s a bit more mobile we have to be extra careful.  He’s been creeping for a couple weeks now, but moves really far when he’s on his stomach and has something to push off of.  He gets frustrated a lot of times when we put him on his stomach to play because it’s clear that he wants to move around more but just doesn’t know how.  We keep trying to challenge him, encourage him with our tone of voice, and let him learn to keep trying.  When he’s obviously had enough we change his position or let him do something else, but we really want to help him forge those brain connections himself instead of doing everything for him.

One funny thing he does is that he cries at the end of his Baby Einstein videos, which is amazing to me because the credits are usually rolling and the music is still playing, but he knows that the video is over and he gets upset.  He loves the TV, so we have to be careful of him (or us) becoming too reliant on it.  If the TV is on in the background, he stares at it instead of us.  He will stay focused on it for nearly an hour at a time, which seems like an inordinate amount of time for a 9-10 week old infant to stay focused.  He really likes Star Trek (probably because of the flashing lights and bright colors) and strangely enough, Top Chef.  Since he likes faces a lot, I think the interviews with close-ups of the chefs intrigue him.  He likes getting his picture taken and now looks at the camera when I start snapping photos.  He’s also made friends with Rolanda, one of the receptionists at our gym.  Instead of having us put him in childcare, she always asks to take care of “her baby Riley.”  She’s great with him and he always behaves well for her, so I have no problem letting him spend time with her when we bring him along to the gym.  We finally found a church we like here, so we’ve established a comfortable Sunday routine that involves church, the gym, and then lunch together.  Simple things like having a schedule of activities on a Sunday really make this place feel like home when we really haven’t had a true “home” since 2007.

The next few weeks will be fairly quiet around here as the visits from friends and family have finally slowed.  Andy has a great schedule in his surgery rotation, so I get to have breakfast with him in the mornings and eat dinner with him every night.   My car is finally out of the shop again (out of the last five months it’s been in the shop nearly eight weeks and un-drivable for an additional four) so I can run errands on my own during the day and take the baby out.  Our lives would probably be considered bland by most accounts, but the predictability of our days is such a welcome change that we really are tremendously happy about it!