The green couch

The green couch is famous. We've all been there. Lounged, laid, slept (both on the cushions and the pull out bed), freaked out, talked on the phone, cried, laughed, even gotten a little tipsy (DAVID"S HEART!). Please accept my apologies for this blog full of inside jokes.

My senior year of Gordon, I rented a house in Rockport (very intelligibly called "Rockport house") with one of the landlord's daughters (Martha) and one of my roommates from Gordon (Claragrace). Because Martha's parent's own the house and still summer there, we have been able to visit our Rockport House from time to time. Almost every 4th of July, we're there, and are always invited to their annual party. This school year, they are not renting the house out to college students. One big reason is going to join us in just a couple of weeks. Joshua Mackenzie Theriault is due to be born soon! Martha's mom and sister hosted a baby shower for Martha and to-be-baby-Joshua earlier this month...at Rockport House. Joseph and I went up to Cape Ann, drove up and down Bass Rocks, and headed the back way to my first "home away from home" on Summer Street. This was Joseph's first time at the house since being born.

While there, I couldn't resist taking his picture of the famous "GREEN COUCH". I tell everyone that will listen that there is still an impression of my butt on the left side (while seated on the couch) where I sat for nearly a week straight and fried my computer and my brain of history; writing over a hundred pages of times, things, people, and customs (and costumes) of the past. In sum: I finished my college degree on that couch.

I don't know that Martha's parents will ever get rid of this couch, but I think they've gotten the point that they are not allowed to pitch it or sell it. At least not to anyone other than me. I have so many memories on that couch. It was my retreat from campus the year before I lived there, when my roommates were driving me crazy and I was desperate to catch up on schoolwork after starting off the semester in FRANCE! It was my comfy spot to watch Gilmore Girls with CG while drinking Mike's limeade and eating Chinese food. A breakup and new love happened on that couch. And as I said earlier, it is where I overcame my ADD and wrote so many papers to finish my 20 credit last semester in order to GRADUATE!! It is where some of my best friends and family sat in celebration of CG's and my graduation. And every time we go up to Rockport to visit, Jon and I have to sit on it and take a deep breath and remember all that the couch, the house and Cape Ann mean to us. It is after all, where we met, liked, loved, became engaged and created our beautiful little boy.

So, now that I've reminisced about times past and droned on about a piece of furniture...here's a picture.

Big Bed

He did it. I did it.

Joseph James Chechile: 4 months 3 hours old. 16lbs 8oz. 27 inches long.

The joy of laughter

Come on now....isn't that contagious?

The world revolves around sleep

Ok..so maybe it doesn't. But, sometimes, it feels as though my life does now.

Jon and I have a beautiful son. We've determined that he looks like me in the face and everything from the neck down is Jon. Joseph will be 4 months old on Sunday and at his check up yesterday he measured in at 27inches long and 16.5 lbs. Wow. No wonder my arms are getting stronger.

Despite his beauty, flirtatious smile (he already loves the ladies) and head start on becoming his daddy's dream (a basketball player), there are other of our qualities that we have passed down to Joseph.

Sleeping. Or lack there of. Some of you have lived with me and know that I have struggled with insomnia. It has always taken me a long time to go to sleep and sometimes sleep never comes. Perhaps because of or as a result of, I'm more of a night owl. I can get up early when I have to and be fine in the end, but, let's face it: I hate getting up in the morning.

Jon is almost the exact opposite. He can be wide awake one minute and put his head on the pillow and is snoring before I find where I left off in my audio book in my iPod (my latest way of distracting my mind to help me fall asleep). He can be tired but keep going...and going...and going... He got really good at this in grad school. He still does this occasionally and I worry when he comes to bed at 2:30am and has to preach at 10:30am.

Joseph: Fights sleep all day long and when I say that I mean from about 6ish am till 9ish pm. In the "baby books" they say that babies in the first few months will sleep about 18 hours a day. WHAT??? Not my kid. The only way I seem to be able to get Joseph to sleep more than 30 min at a time is by holding him. Which, is not the worst thing in the world, don't get me wrong. Despite the picture of me sitting on the couch with my soundly sleeping son on my lap watching a movie or HGTV, it actually is tiring. The kid weighs 16.5 lbs. He is about 1/3 of me for crying out loud.

So?? Last time I wrote about Joseph sleeping in the pack and play for the first time with hopes of success, it was just that. He slept his usual night sleep and has been sleeping fine like that ever since. Now, I know this wasn't that long ago, but tonight we ventured yet another change in Joseph's sleeping arrangements. His own room. To be honest, I didn't think we'd try it so soon. I seem to be ok with it, but I'm really not sure how I'll do. We attempted this a couple of nights ago and it didn't work. I thought to myself "I'll write in my blog. Who knows? Last time I did, he slept where we wanted him to". My baby boy is in his own real crib, with a real mattress, in his own room....BY HIMSELF...WITHOUT HIS MOMMY.....ARE YOU GUYS GETTING THIS????

Pray for me tonight. I do hope he stays there and is fine there, I do hope I am fine with him there.

P.S. Reality check: Our rooms share a wall and you can see from one end of our apartment to the next. Why am I freaking out? .....oh, yeah...he's my baby and my first baby. I'll get over it I'm sure........eventually.....

This is what you see standing at one far end of our apartment looking through the kitchen, straight ahead is Joseph's door.

All that separates me from my baby.

My baby.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!!!

SUCCESS

Joseph slept.

From 9:30ish pm to 4:30am
Then 5:00am to 7:30ish am

Yeah!

Sad day

I can't believe I'm saying this already: My little baby is growing up. I am in awe. We put him in the pack and play tonight (I'll give an update tomorrow on whether he makes it through). So far, so good. He's getting too big for his bassinet. Seeing him sleeping in a "crib" for the first time at night is just weird and saddening.

We had another first earlier today. It was almost 50 degrees (but very windy) today! We bundled Joseph up and put him in the stroller... sans car seat... and went for a walk. He loved it and I couldn't believe how big he was in the stroller.

I can't think of any other words to describe it so...here are a few thousand words instead

The moon at the end of our walk...it was SO beautiful!

That white under him is the "mattress" from the bassinet. His feet are just over the edge at one end and he has about 2 inches above his head..just to give you an idea of how much he room he has "left" in the bassinet.

Last night, I got to I got to sleep for 7 hours straight!!! I hope that happens tonight!

The Green and Grey

No, I'm not getting the Civil War movie title mixed up. I haven't had any coffee yet this morning, but I got the title right. (If you have NO idea what movie I'm talking about, that's ok too, just trust me)

Last night I had a dream. I don't often remember complete dreams and today is no exception.

For those of you who don't know (or aren't directly involved), my wonderful friend, Claragrace (CG to those in the know) is getting married in June (YEAH!!) I get the honor of being one of her bridesmaids. Her desire with her husband to be is an urban feel set perfectly in San Fran. The colors they are sticking to are green and grey. Our dresses are beautiful dark grey chiffon.

Enough History and on the THE BIG IDEA....

I had a dream about these:

They are "Bright Green" WILMA curtains from IKEA. In my dream I was at a store where seeking out an inexpensive way for CG and Micah to cover the tables at the wedding reception (something CG and I have actually discussed while I was awake). In my subconscious state, I found the perfect ones! Beautiful bright green, exactly as she wanted. They were curtains, but it was a lot of fabric and not expensive (which these curtains are in real life, I know, I own several pairs). Of course, in sleepland, I managed to find grey chiffon (that was to go over the green) as well. Now, I haven't googled "grey chiffon curtain" yet, but for some reason, I went right to IKEA to see if they happened to have green curtains. I should be more surprised that they really are the look and color CG has described for what she wants her wedding to look like.

Ok, I couldn't resist. I googled it. (Is anyone else amazed at how the name of a search engine has become a verb in our language?)

I tried numerous times to save the picture and post it here, but it won't work so if you're that interested, here's the link. Not quite chiffon, but the look is there; not quite as cheap, but on sale.

http://www5.jcpenney.com/jcp/X6E.aspx?deptid=60156&catid=60954&grptyp=ENS&itemid=155357f&dep=WINDOW&pcat=Panels&cat=Rod+Pocket&refpagename=X3%252Easpx&refdeptid=60156&refcatid=60193&cmAMS_T=X3&cmAMS_C=C1&CmCatId=EXTERNAL60193

Maybe I am more in touch with reality.

Thursday came early this week

My Favorite: Joseph smiling and laughing in his sleep.

I love when he has sweet dreams.

Diamonds are a girl's best friend

3/4 caret diamond studs: $4599
(someday?)










Swarovski Button pierced earrings in crystal pavé: $70
(maybe sooner?)



Number of people in my life that will notice the difference: 0 (PRICELESS)