Solo

"Bottle Mommy" is flying solo tonight.  Shif is at an event with her family and I am in charge of the boy.  This is only the third time I've had to manage alone for longer than a dog walk, and the first time I've done his bedtime routine alone.  I've managed to do alright, although things were a lot less coordinated with two hands instead of four.  It may not have been pretty, but the night ended with a cry-less putdown into bed, and that makes me very happy.

Bottle Mommy has to work a lot harder than Booby Mommy  :-)

This afternoon, we had a reunion of our prenatal class.  We took the class at Toronto's gay and lesbian community centre, so I refer to the group as "10 babies, 19 mommies."  We've all been following each other on Facebook, but it was our first time meeting all the babies face-to-face.  It was really fun to see all the little ones, share stories, and compare milestones.  The kids range from 4.5 months to 1 month.  Zain was actually the youngest babe in attendance (but not so surprisingly, not the smallest!), so we're really benefiting from seeing what all the others have gone through.  One of the moms set up a little photo studio, so we got some really cute pictures (thanks, Amy!).  

Mr. Bubble

Zain and five of his classmates (well, they were in the class, but they don't know it)

Shif had to leave the reunion early, so Zain and I made our way home ourselves.  This was also my first time out of the house with Zain alone, so I had to figure out the proper sequence of putting on his coat and my coat, when to put on the carrier, how to jam all of Zain's stuff into his diaper backpack while keeping him upright because he had just eaten, and how I was supposed to go to the bathroom.  I managed to do all this successfully, so I strapped him into his carrier and grabbed our little cooler pack of pumped milk.  It was a beautiful night and Zain was awake, so I decided to walk a bit before we hopped on the subway.  We walked up Yonge Street and he was totally mesmerized by all the lit-up shops and restaurants.  Then he fell asleep along the foo-foo Yorkville section of Bloor Street. This is good - we prefer him to be mesmerized by noodle shops and coffeehouses than by Cartier and Prada.  :-)  


Seeing all the little ones today was a reminder of how quickly he's growing up.  Zain fell asleep on my chest tonight for the first time in a long time.  He doesn't like it as much these days and when I'm putting him down now he's usually fighting sleep, so the interaction is a lot less sweet and lovey than it used to be!  It was a lovely feeling to have the little guy back and to feel his little breaths on my neck.  The last time he fell asleep there, his little frogged-up body fit neatly between my chin and my waist.  This time, he felt twice as big! Everyone with kids has warned us "they grow up so fast, so remember these days." I held him as long as I could.