Happy days

Claire went from one month old to six weeks old in the blink of an eye. She's turned into a sleeping rock star. For the past week she's slept six or seven hours in a row at night, woken up to eat, then slept three more hours. Even though the feeding is usually still middle-of-the-nightish (around 4 or 4:30 a.m., depending on when we put her down), this development has us amazed and grateful. I never expected her to sleep so well at six weeks.

Last week I had a buyer in town for a couple of days, so on Wednesday Matt stayed home with Claire and on Thursday Mom and Dad kept her in the morning. That afternoon Matt, Claire and I all went with my buyer to look at the house he ended up making an offer on (negotiations fell through, unfortunately) because he wanted Matt's opinion on some renovations. She is so great about going with the flow. I know she might not always be this flexible, as she gets older and nap times get more defined, but we're taking advantage of it for now.

In the past two weeks she's had other important firsts, including her first visit to church (we sat in the very back row just in case, but she didn't make a sound), her first time at the beauty salon (I breastfed her under the dryer thing while my highlights soaked in), her first pool party (at Bill's), her first car-shopping venture (just feeling out our options with Cash for Clunkers -- I doubt we'll act) and her first visit to First Friday followed by Vito's. (She slept straight through three hours of First Friday, which was sticky hot and so loud you could hardly carry on a conversation, then was a holy terror at the quieter, air conditioned Vito's. I don't get it.)

This past Monday Lauren G. kept Claire in the morning and Mom and Dad kept her in the afternoon while I sat in the bonus room with the door closed and music going and wrote the article I should have been writing last time I blogged. And Thursday Terry and Dan kept her while I went to my six-week doctor's appointment (at which the doctor told me Matt had been exceptionally supportive during labor -- which maybe he just said to be nice, but it seemed sincere, and I certainly agree). He also assured me that is likely to be the worst labor I ever have, which better be true, but if it isn't, at least I won't know beforehand.

Sallie, Steven, Sadie and Eli came to meet Claire and hang out today and just left a few minutes ago. Now I'm waiting for it to cool down a little and for Mom to get home from triple-coupons before dropping Claire off at Mom and Dad's house while I run the trails at Rassie Wicker Park, which is maybe half a mile from their house. It's probably my favorite place around here to run but logistics have kept me on the treadmill or around our neighborhood since Claire was born, so I'm pretty excited about this.

Before Claire was born I thought I wouldn't want a running stroller, but now I'm reconsidering. She loves being outside, and I'd be able to run a lot more if I could just pop her in a stroller and go. I don't think I'm ready to shell out for a really nice one, at least not until I see whether this idea is as good in practice as in theory, but I'm keeping an eye on Craigslist. If anyone hears of one for sale, let me know.

On that note, does anyone want my old college dishes, or know anyone who might be able to use them? They're nothing fancy, and it's not a complete set, but they served me well. There are five plates, eight saucers, eight cups and seven bowls.