SAHD state of affairs

(And yes, that is indeed an acroynm recognized by the prime resource on such matters.)

Happy end of Hanukkah, and a belated Happy Shanooyookah Day Seven! (Hebrew Hammer, anyone? I actually broke my yearly tradition of watching it this year. Though I'm sure it'll be on Comedy Central again in the coming days...)

Today was Meh's first day back at work. I took some of my way-too-much use-it-or-lose-it vacation time (hm, why does this sound like cellphone minutes?) and the three Selfon boys spent a full day together, for the first time without mommy. (Incidentally, I do feel bad on some levels that it took more than four months for me to do this, and that Meh did it so often alone. In this sole matter, I suppose bottle- and/or formula-feeding is the great equalizer. I've given Zachary bottles before, but without a constant and/or stockpiled supply, I was kind of dependent on the, um, source coming back fairly soon.)

We actually made a pretty full day of it, and the only snag (hopefully to be solved in the coming days) was Zachary's off-again on-again dislike of the bottle. (Yes, he's taken it cold and rejected it warm, so that's hopefully not the difficulty.) In the morning, we played and danced with Zachary's favorite world music CD before a brief nap. In the early afternoon, we headed in to mommy's work to visit and for a group (well, Zachary and mommy) lunch. Everyone at work was so happy to see (and in some cases, meet for the first time) Zachary, and he was similarly smiley and in a great mood. He even let me do a quick bit of online research before we headed back out to the car. Then we had a little shopping to do (and I hadn't eaten at all that day), so we made a stop where we could do both: Costco. (Hooray for the only kosher meat place [hot dogs] in Seattle. That's just sad.)

Zachary loves stores. I'm a little worried on some level that he's absorbing all of the marketing and branding and will someday hate any non-flashy material, like non-picture books. But for now, the bright lights, tall ceilings, nice degree of white noise, multi-colored products, and wide array of (often doting) people just make him all happy and kicky. He sat facing out in the bjorn while we shopped, and only got a little bored when we were standing in line to pay (and who doesn't?). He even graciously let me grab a hot dog and soda to go before we headed home.

In the afternoon, after another refreshing nap, he and I took the typically insane Korby for a nice walk. (Soon thereafter, Korby somehow grabbed a Costco muffin from the plastic-sealed container sitting on the middle of our dining room table. It was gone in ten seconds. Including the wrapper.) Zachary again was very happy and silently looking around, occasionally grabbing my finger with his hand as if to help me with Korby's leash. We played and danced a bit more when we got back, Zachary conked out, and that pretty much wrapped up our day. (Other than the aforementioned Zachary getting upset on most occasions when I offered him bottles.)

Being alone with Zachary is definitely challenging and exhausting (yes, we did have our first shared bathroom experience - TMI?), and I hopefully appreciate now more than ever what it's taken Meh to do this so incredibly for months while I so frequently left first thing in the morning for the office. She truly is the best mommy ever!