July 4th without Hubby

Happy July 4th!

Last week was rough. Robby called our Singapore trip "the benefit" & the week(s) following "the cost". We think jet lag is the main culprit for our weariness. Atticus has been waking 3-5 times a night, & with his refusal to nurse & my time at the breast pump, I have little sleep time. Robby takes on the duties of feeding while I pump, so we are usually both up during the night.

Yesterday Robby & I celebrated our second wedding anniversary in the most frenetic, harried fashion. We dropped off Atticus at my parents' house, hung out for lunch & a chat, then bolted back to Los Angeles to get Robby ready for his evening flight to London. We had a quick meal of Korean tacos at the Alibi Room (served by the Kogi Korean taco truck). The sliders are amazing. We shouldn't have ordered anything else. We also had Korean tacos & leaf tacos (cold tofu & Asian pear sandwiched in a large mint leaf). We should have stuck to the sliders.

Robby will have a summer adventure in England while Atticus & I hold down the fort. I will be teaching ESL at Loyola Marymount University to a bunch of affluent foreign teenagers who have mostly come from Brazil, Spain, & Russia. It will be a fun gig.

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Atticus milestones:

1. We've moved onto big glass bottles. Atticus now drinks from 8oz. bottles instead of 4oz. ones. I'm tired of rushing to heat up bottle #2 after he has gobbled up bottle #1, has decidedly determined that there is a conspiracy against his full stomach, &, upon removing his lips from bottle #1, has screamed at the top of his lungs.
After reading an article in the New Yorker weighing the dangers of BPA & plastics, I decided to use glass bottles by Evenflo. Duh, I should have known...I have always been wary of heating plastic, but this article solidified by fears. If one might interpret it as paranoia, so be it. All I know is that my generation began the habit of heating plastic (in the microwave with Saran Wrap, usually), & though it was occasionally practiced in my family - the TV dinner or ceramic bowl wrapped with a sheet of plastic - this next generation practically lives off plastic & microwave.

2. My maternal grandmother, Atticus's great-grandmother here in Southern California, likes to call his coiffure a "business hair" (roughly translated from Cantonese). He's got a part way over on the right side of his head (created by the second swirl on the back of his head). Actually, the part is so far over near his left ear, that he looks as if he wears a toupee or has a serious middle-aged comb-over. Anyway, with his hair parted & flat, "business hair" suits him well.

3. Atticus & I converse daily. I make a noise, then he makes a noise. We go back & forth a few times until we start laughing simultaneously. Sometimes, he will speak over me, & when I stop emitting sound, he stops as well, suspicious of the sudden silence. When I sing "Baby Mine" (from Dumbo), he likes to talk over my voice as well. It's murmuring that expresses how pleased he is with my singing (I think). He likes singing anyway.

4. He has learned to cover his face when he sleeps. I started covering his eyes with his lovie when he napped in my parents' sunlit family room. My grandmother scolded me for fear of suffocating him, so I stopped. Now he does it all on his own. Yeah, it's pretty cute.