LauraCatoe.com

I totally recommend to other parents the one-night-on, one-night-off routine. It helps to know that if you got crap for sleep last night, well, at least you can look forward to crashing tonight.

Even better is that Cash had begun sleeping through the night, so being “on” just meant getting that first feed, be it at 5am or 7am. I think it was Sunday that both boys slept until 7am. It was magical.

But Cash has been a little off this week, waking for a morning bottle at 4:15am one day and then at 1:15am this morning. Both times happened to be on Kris’ shift. I promised him that I am not in cahoots with the baby.

We hope it’s a growth spurt, because, wow had we already gotten used to him sleeping all night!

His 2-month checkup was this week and he weighed 14 pounds and measured 25” long. That’s 90+ percentile for baby boys his age. Yup, I thought he was a big boy.

When my dad took the boys over to Mama Juanita’s while Kris and I zombied it up, Cash was all smiles. Grandmother called to tell me that Granddad was nicknamed “smiling Jack” when he was a kid because he smiled so much. Kris has said he would love for Cash to have my grandfather’s smile.

Cash spends a lot of time in a bouncy seat on the kitchen table. I’d rather him sit there than perched on my shoulder because (a) it hurts my back to keep his 90+ percentile self up on my shoulder and (b) when he’s in the bouncy seat, I can see his face when I talk to him and his little smiles make my day. When he not only smiles but adds a little “ah-goo” in there, I think my chest just might explode in happiness.

In my crotchety early thirties, I’ve developed a good bead on identifying upfront that which will annoy me. Case in point: Bing.

I’ve mentioned before that I use the DVR so much that I rarely see commercials these days. When I do, they have a better chance at standing out to me. The initial Bing commercial was both mysterious and hilarious and had completely piqued my interest by the time it asked “What has search overload done to us?”

“What has it done to us,” I had chance to ponder in the millisecond before “bing.com” appeared onscreen, immediately followed with the tag line “it’s not just a search engine” and the Microsoft logo.

My disgust was swift and immediate. Maybe I don’t like Microsoft. Maybe I don’t like Microsoft telling me I need another search engine in my life. Maybe I’m just crotchety in my thirties.

The recaps on Television Without Pity are the first place I have seen Bing-links (a different color than regular ol’ hyperlinks and notated by a small magnifying glass). For example, this sentence from the Mad Men recaplet:

We’ll see to what degree that’s a costume soon enough.

It has nothing to do with searching for Halloween costumes. It’s about a character on television and whether or not their actions are real or show. So when the word “costume” is Binged up to link to BuyCostumes.com, it becomes advertising. Search overload much?

Today, I thought to myself, “somebody more geek-minded than me probably hates on bing, too.” Didn’t take much Googling to find this:

Bing, of course, stands for But It’s Not Google. The problem, as far as I can tell, is that it is trying to be the next Google. And the challenge for Microsoft is that there already is a next Google. It’s called Google.

Google is not seen as broken by many people, and a hundred million dollars trying to persuade us that it is, is money poorly spent. In times of change, the rule is this:

Don’t try to be the ‘next’. Instead, try to be the other, the changer, the new.

If Microsoft adds a few features and they prove popular, how long precisely will it take Google to mirror or even leapfrog those features?

[For a preview of the real next Google, check out this presentation of Google Wave.]

— Seth Godin

“Let me tell you about your son,” Miss Jeanette said to Kris this morning as he dropped off Cash.

Was she going to say something about how fussy he can get? That he seems to be more sensitive than Ben? That it appears he’s teething already? What?

“He is so sweet.”

Whew.

Cash must be getting tuckered out at daycare; he’s slept through the night twice now. Kris put him down last night a little before 8:30pm and he didn’t wake until right before 6am.

Ben, however, arrived in stealth mode at the foot our bed around midnight and then half woke at 5 something complaining because his Croc was stuck in the mud. Lucid dream.

The wee-est one continues to grow rather quickly. Some very cute onesies will get little to no play. As most were gifts, I try to snap pics of them just to show he did in fact get to wear them. It’s kind of hard, though, to get a really cute photo of someone who is still just a blob when you set them down. Kris never seems to be home when I think “oh, I should take a photo of him in this!”

Also of difficulty is loading up both boys after daycare. It takes both of my hands to carry Cash, his empty bottles and Ben’s daily drawings out to the car, so I cannot take Ben by the hand. I am at the mercy of his compliance when I say “no, don’t jump in the puddles! You’re wearing cloth shoes!”

He does so love him some puddle jumping.

I have been rather tempted to take photos of all of his outfits, too, just so I can show you guys my awesome thrift store finds. But he is now old enough to understand what I’m doing and not care very much but not quite old enough to bribe him into posing or sitting still.

I attempted on Sunday to get a photo of him and Cash in matching shirts embroidered with their initials, a gift from the Venture Marketing ladies. Ben’s resistance to the whole thing can only be described by what GJ used to call me when I acted as such: “a complete pill.”

I always thought that was a ridiculous thing to call someone. I still think calling someone a pill is ridiculous. I also happen to think Ben was acting ridiculous at the time and so apparently calling someone a pill is perfectly appropriate.

On my last day of maternity leave, while Mr. Cash was snoozing away in the pack-n-play, I did the unthinkable. I fired up the PC and made a mix cd. I know! What is this, 2006? (That’s a lame joke to self – that I love making mixes and yet never seem to have time anymore since I became a mom.)

Anyway, the mom gene was still in effect because the theme of the mix (there MUST BE A THEME, you guys!) was songs I heard on maternity leave.

While it was just me and Cash hanging out at the casa, I often put the television on the Adult Alternative music channel. The “adult” part means it never gets too raucous (chosen for a sleeping baby and all).

And then I went and discovered VH1’s Jump Start kicks off at 4am.

And I watched a lot of Ellen. She has a musical guest every day.

And Kris DVRed the VMAs.

Wow, I heard like, current music and stuff. Retro! I realized these songs will always remind me of Cash’s newborn phase. (Ben is the Weepies.) A mix must be made!

So here’s what’s on the cd that I made for the car, which I am driving again (I drove the truck on leave so I could have Cash in the seat next to me when we went on solo adventures):

1. “Don’t Stop” by the cast of Glee
This song makes me so impossibly happy that the first few times I drove the car around, I never made it to the second track.

2. “Blow Away” by A Fine Frenzy
The video to this one won me over. She is just soooo pretty. Soon I liked the song, too.

3. “You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift
First heard on the VMAs. The video makes me happy because it’s like a sweet teen movie vignette.

4. “Say Hey (I Love You)” by Michael Franti
Catchy. Saw this video a lot. It made the mix because when he performed on Ellen, he got so into it, his cap flew off and revealed dreads that reach past his waist.

5. “Melody” by Kate Earl
I had already downloaded this one for free on iTunes, but it played a lot on the music channel.

6. “Dreams” by Brandi Carlisle
I dig her and this was another music channel frequent.

7. “Fireflies” by Owl City
The video has a Speak & Spell in it! ‘Nough said.

8. “21 Guns” by Green Day
Filler. I like Green Day, saw the video a lot and am OCD that a mix needs a minimum of ten songs.

9. “Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon
Kris loved the album, so I lifted it from that playlist. Saw the video often. Good song, boring video.

10. “Last Dance” by the Raveonettes
Only heard once on the music channel, but there again, OCD and needed ten songs and liked the theme of this one since I was wrapping up my maternity leave.

And today I was back at work. Cash is gonna be eight weeks old on Thursday, so I consider him past the newborn phase and now strictly a baby. And he’s changed, too. Sleeps longer (6 or 7 hour stretch most every night) and can be content to sit in the bouncy seat awhile. His smiles, so awesome, are not yet frequent enough for my liking. More smiles, kid! They’re the best.