News? What News?

Things are as usual here, in Raleigh. We stay busy with work and the house and the baby. And Mark stays busy just growing up, which takes a lot of energy and determination on his part. I'm trying to create some sort of a daily schedule, which takes a lot of determination on my part. Mark still sleeps with us. Occasionally, we try to put him in his crib for the night, but the most he stays there is an hour or so. It's probably better that he sleeps with us for now anyway. This way, we all get enough sleep and Mark gets his night-time feeding.

What does he do so far (other than eat, sleep, and poop)? Actually, quite a lot. He loves any kind of bright moving things (a mobile, a ceiling fan) and follows them really well. He also likes laying on his TinyLove playmat and watching the toys. Occassionally he swats them with his hands, mostly by accident. Sometimes he also grabs them and pulls. He doesn't like pacifiers. Instead, Mark has figured out how to put bring his fist to his mouth and suck on it. It's a big deal for such a little baby. And of course he makes lot of different faces, interesting noises (aghh and coo and such), etc. He holds his head very well and recently learned to dig his heels down and raise and arch his lower back and butt. This comes in handy at bath time - we don't need to flip him over any more.

The big news around is that Mark had a first date. And yes, it was with a little girl, named Olivia. Actually, the playdate was arranged by myself and Olivia's mom, Melanie. We met on-line through TriangleMommies.com. Melanie lives only minutes away. Turns out, Olivia is only 3 days younger than Mark. It's great because they have the same interests during the walks - sleeping. That allows Melanie and myself a much-needed chatting time. The first playdate was a huge success and we decided to make it a weekly thing.

This weekend is my BIG SPRING CLEANING. So far Chris and I only managed to finish our bedroom and Mark's room. But we pretty much cleaned everything from ceiling to floor, including cleaning the windows and washing the curtains. Tomorrow we'll be working on finishing the kitchen (I'm keeping my fingers crossed). If it happens, I'll finally post kitchen pictures.