My New Mother's Desk!

I have a new "mother's desk"! Now I understand why so many new houses are being built with a little desk station in the casual dining area off of the kitchen. As John becomes more mobile and social, he is not tolerant of spending time with me in my cramped office while I am online; he wants to be playing in the living room. Plus, the longer I am a mother, the more I see just how much time a mother would be spending in the kitchen, if she really wanted to cook homemade foods for her family, like I do. I've been spending increasing time hauling John up and down the stairs to manage office work and kitchen work and keep him entertained. And someday when I'm pregnant again, God willing, I'll want to be going up and down those stairs even less often. Another benefit of my laptop and speakers being downstairs is that while I am cooking I can listen to my several radio programs via recording that are either not available in this market or are live when I can't listen.

So, we're beginning to implement a plan. We cleared out my upstairs office, which will become John's nursery after we paint it and steam clean the carpet. (Of course, since he sleeps with me, all he might do in there is have his diapers and clothing changed, but that's okay.) The nook in the master bedroom will become my sewing area. Half my office stuff will go in Chris' upstairs office. And, best of all perhaps, I got a big fancy desk in the dining area off the kitchen. Chris offered me his beautiful, big desk because he thought my desk was a bit too battered for living in a public room.

Now Chris is going to use a long folding table as his desk! I would take a picture of it, but it's just a giant mess on a folding table right now, so I'll just let you envision that yourselves.

Other things for which I don't have photos:

• John tried gnawing on some hard pizza crust last night and did not shudder in distaste. It was humorous to watch him "nursing" the pizza crust, as he doesn't know how to do otherwise.
• John also tried some mashed sweet potato. He didn't like it and didn't know how to swallow it, but he didn't shudder or dry heave.
• John is repeatedly trying to kneel (raised up on his knees, not sitting on his knees) without his hands holding on to anything for balance! He can do it for a few seconds, but I keep rushing over to catch him.
• Yesterday John crashed on his head two or three times and Chris and I succeeded in distracting him from tears by laughing with him. Maybe after a week or two of falling down, he is starting to get used to it a little?
• John loves the cats. Even if he is in a tearful crying spell, if he sees one of the cats wander over, he begins laughing through his tears.
• He is really saying "mama" like a pro now! He says it with intent, even though I recognize that it probably means "help me" more than identifying me. That said, it really does mean, "help me, Mama." In the early evenings when John is sleeping alone, if he wakes up crying and I try sending in Daddy to calm him down, I can hear on the monitor when Daddy arrives at the crib because John's cries become enraged and he screams, "Mama! Mama!" I mean, John thinks Daddy is great and all, especially during their play time in the mornings, but at night in the dark when he's lonely, so far only Mama will make things right.