Walter Time

Yesterday was Walter's 7 month birthday. The story of our time with Walt between 5 pm on the 22nd and 8 am on the 23rd is a good one and quite representative of the whole Walter experience these days.

5:00pm: Mommy and Hank the Dog arrive at home. Mommy is very ready to nurse a baby. Any baby.
5:05pm: Mommy begins to pace and wonder where her baby is.
5:15pm: Daddy and Walter arrive at home. Mommy nearly faints with joy and relief.  Nursing commences.
5:30pm: All done. Walter is wide awake and ornery.
5:31pm: Birthday festivities begin with the presentation of a new toy: a drum that lights up, sings and counts.
5:32pm: JOY!

5:33pm: Walter makes his happy noise (throat clearing, eh eh eh eh) and inspects his drum very thoroughly, smiling and chortling with glee.

5:34pm: Walter has figured out the drum.

5:40pm: Walter continues playing, starts getting ornery again.

5:45pm: Walter discovers Mommy's shoes.  Decides to head over in that direction.  By crawling. New development: he is actually able to crawl forwards.  Mommy tries very hard not to move while Walter scratches her ankle, chews on her shoe, and attempts to pull himself into a standing position. He does not succeed, but makes serious headway. 

6:00pm: Birthday festivities continue.  What will we stick a candle in this month?  The obvious choice: a banana.  As a dear friend and colleague of Mommy's pointed out: "Nothing makes for a happy birthday like a burning banana!"

6:05pm: Traditional monthly flaming food item and birthday singing photo shoot.  Walter is super unimpressed. Most of our photos turn out like this:

6:06pm: Mommy has tickled Walter enough to get one good picture. Walt says: enough with the singing.  Make with the banana!  This is Walter's first taste of fruit.  He reacts to the banana much the same way he reacted to the sweet potatoes and peas that preceded it.

6:10pm: Mommy persists, and Walter decides banana is tolerable. But he doesn't eat very much, possibly because he hasn't pooped all day.  Walter is given toys and encouraged to play independently while Mommy and Daddy nuke up some dinner.

6:15pm: While playing, Walter makes a face that suggests he is working on something difficult and important.  The moment passes and he looks relieved and beings to play again with renewed vigor. Daddy quickly finishes his dinner and takes Walt to the changing table to investigate.

6:16pm: Daddy calls Mommy in to see the enormous big boy poopy.  Mommy finds that Daddy has not exaggerated. Walter is very pleased, and possibly about 5 pounds lighter. 

7:30pm: It takes about this long to get the boy cleaned up enough to get into the tub. Bath time!  Walter hears the water running and starts to get excited about the bath to come.  Rubber ducky is played with and chewed on. 

7:45pm: Daddy remarks that this is awfully early for bedtime.  However, the bedtime train has left the station and it has no brakes. 

8:00pm: After nursing sweetly with Mommy, rocking sweetly with Daddy, and going to bed as sweetly as can be, Walter settles in for a whole night long of sweet, sweet sleep.

8:15pm: The doorbell rings. Hank the Dog loses his tiny puppy mind. Walter wakes up screaming. Mommy goes to get the baby.  The doorbell rings AGAIN.  Daddy hastily throws on some clothes, restrains the dog, and opens the door.  The get out the vote volunteer asks if we will be voting on June 5.  Daddy, very reasonably, says, "Yes, we will" and shuts the door while Mommy screams "YOU WOKE OUR BABY!" at the top of her lungs, which does not do much to calm down the baby.  Mommy takes a deep breath and nurses the baby with all the milk she's managed to produce in the last fifteen minutes.  Daddy disconnects the doorbell. 

9:15pm: Mommy and Daddy are still trying to get Walter back to sleep.  It's a long hazy nightmare of crying, dry nursing, more crying, the baby crying, close calls, resting, rousing, lullabies and prayers. Also, some choice words concerning people who ring doorbells after 8 pm.

9:45pm: Daddy tries again to put Walter in the crib awake and walk away.  Walter falls asleep.  Daddy walks away, barely avoids walking into the wall. 

11:00pm: Walter is awake again.  Nurse, rock, repeat, sleep. 

5:30am: Walter wakes up, not quite as cheerful as he normally is in the morning.  Mommy nurses Walter and hopes he will go back to sleep for another hour or two.

6:30am: Mommy gives up, sings the good morning song, and starts getting Walter ready for day care. 

7:00am: Daddy takes over while Mommy showers and gets dressed. Fits of hysterical giggles (from Daddy and baby) can be heard from downstairs, interspersed with cranky pants crying (from the baby.)  

7:45am: Mommy notices that two more teeth emerged during the night.  Walter now has four teeth on top and two on the bottom.  Cranky pants: explained.  Daddy takes Walter to day care and goes to work; Mommy walks Hank the Dog and goes to work.  A tired-but-happy seven-month-old family embarks on another day.

We're bananas with love for Walter!