So Much to Learn

This blog is called “figuring it out” so here are a few things I’m figuring out:

1. How to do the daily tasks of life, that normally require two hands, using only one, while carrying a wobbly-headed infant with the other. I’ve made fruit smoothies, folded laundry, made the bed, and fixed chicken stir-fry while holding Benjamin in those moments when he refused to be set down. However, since I shared an embarrassing moment of Benjamin’s, it seems only fair to share one of mine now. It has to do with that last item, which I don’t plan on ever trying again. I had just started making dinner when he woke up and so I was forced to hold him as I finished. However, he wasn’t his usual happy self and so he was flopping himself every which way. I quickly realized that holding him while standing at the stove was too dangerous to risk, so I set down the spatula I was going to use to stir the chicken and went to sit down with him. After a minute or so, I left him to fuss a bit while I hurriedly checked on my food. I returned to the stove to find that my “heat-resistant” spatula isn’t really. Turns out, in my attention to Benjamin, I had turned on the wrong burner – not the one under the pan, but the one next to it – the one on which I’d just laid the spatula. It was now smoking, melting, and last but not least, shooting off little flames! I now have a spatula that, as Kelly put it, can flip things in pans from around the corner! I take my melted, curvy spatula as a sign that truly, my mind is on Benjamin first and foremost – a noble thing indeed. :) However, I think I’ll stick to non-fire related tasks next time I have to carry him while working around the house.

2. What to do once I go bald, because surely that’s where I’m headed seeing as how I’m losing gobs and gobs of hair every minute. Everyone told me that I’d get really thick hair while I was pregnant and then lose a lot of it afterwards. I never saw it get any thicker, but I’m horrified every time I brush my hair lately! Locks of Love, save some for me!

3. How to breastfeed in public using a blanket as a cover (while visiting teaching, no less)! Hurrah! I wasn’t sure how my first time at that would go, but I survived and so did Benjamin. I think he was a little confused why he was completely covered, but I think he quickly came to appreciate the warmth and closeness it provided because he fell asleep even faster than usual! That was frustrating, but I’d rather have him asleep than flailing his arms and throwing the blanket off!

Sorry no new pictures today. More next time.