Santa Cruz trip was fun, but completely exhausting. I lost my voice the day after we got there and I'm just starting to sound normal again. We got to see most of our friends even if only for a short duration. The baby shower was wonderful. Xander handled the 12 hour car trip loverly, but we still broke up each way into two days to minimize the strain on us and him.

*and the crying has begun

Otay, where was I? Ah, yes, Santa Cruz. We got to eat at Mobo and have our evening time at Well Within. The hot tub ended up being a hot tub/sauna room for 80 mins instead of hot tub only for 50 mins not by any fault of ours they just set us up with the more expensive room. It was alright though because I think Jamers really appreciated the sauna and I know I appreciated the extra time. The only pooplins about our date night was that my sister who was babysitting, couldn't seem to appease Xander with milk and he kept crying. He seems to be going through a stage of constant eating and growing. He has finally outgrown his newbie clothes and is now into 0-3 month sizes. Actually he is wearing them because that is the next size but to be fair, most of the baby clothes we have had on him (including 0-3 months clothes) seem to be designed for fat short torso babies of which he is not. He seems to be outgrowing the length of his clothes, while barely beginning to fill them out width wise. I'm told that he will fill out and lengthen in alternating growth spurts so we'll see. So far he just seems to be gaining length while only slightly increasing in girth.

I have decided that going forward I will add a new tag, "Dear God what is that thing?" for all Xander development entries. Under the cut is the first entry to fall under that tag.

( Gross baby development )

On the trip I got a call from my boss "double checking" that I would be back part-time at 8 weeks and full time at 12, it not sooner. I was a little pissed off. When I spoke to her, I reminded her that the "8 weeks" was not 8 weeks, but April 11th which was when Jamers unemployment was going to run out and that I was only coming back part time if he didn't find a job. Apparently she doesn't remember all those little pieces of the discussion. I told her he did find a job and that we didn't have daycare set up yet as my sister was seriously considering it and we were on our way there and would discuss it with her that week. I guess my temp is screwing up far worse than I could've guessed and they really need me back. If we didn't need money so much (as we are now upside down financially) I would've told her in no uncertain terms that my 12 weeks would be taken in full. However as we do need the money, we are working out an arrangement with Jamer's employers so that he will work 3 days a week and I'll work the other two until my 12 weeks is up at which point we'll need to get a part time daycare provider until Jamers goes full time and we'll need a full time provider.

In any case, we'll be burning through our savings now as with James part time, and my full time after my maternity leave ends) we'll only have about $400 a month left after mortgage payments are made. With that $400, we need to pay the gas, electricity, water, garbage, credit cards, gas for cars, food, life insurance, phones, internet and now baby care, oh and the hospital bills for the delivery and pediatrician visits. Um, yeah, that $400 is enough to pay for our food bill with none of the other costs being taken care of and that is just grocery shopping - no going out to eat. James job better go full time otherwise he better find another part time or full time job. Or we'll end up losing the house which is the pooplins. Mom offered me money again this trip and Dad has as well. I don't want to take money from my parents at this stage of my life. Hopefully after I'm back full time, we can get the loan modified down and be able to get by until the New Depression is over.

Anyhoo, Xander is beckoning me to feed him and change him so I shall depart.

We leave on our road trip to Santa Cruz on Thursday morning. We're (at least I am) so excited to be going home to introduce Xander to our families. This time we are taking two days to drive given we have little baby X factor to take care of during the trip.

While we are there we're going to have a baby shower, day trip to SLO county (to visit with Jamers' family), stop through in South San Francisco (to visit with my poppa and his girlfriend), hang out with many friends, and most importantly we are going to have a night out going to MOBO SUSHI (ie: best sushi EVAR) and hot tubbing at Well Within. I've been looking forward to that date night forever. We have found decent sushi up here in the wilds of Oregon, but nothing compares with the variety of MOBO. And hot tubs? I don't think there is even a place you can rent hot tubs by the hour around here. I've checked it out before and I couldn't find anywhere. I guess in SC they are lucky to have Tea House Spa, Well Within and Kiva all within walking distance of downtown. As soon as I win the lottery, we're getting a hot tub in the backyard because they are a necessity of life for those peeps like me who need to unwind frequently.

The furkids are going to be looked after by Noe/Bryan and Kurt/Xine. Have I mentioned how good it is to have friends? It will require that the cats get shut in our bedroom during the day so the doggies can have the doggie door open but hopefully that won't create too many problems.

Anyways, just wanted to make that little post real quick before we begin the ritual of bedtime preparations. If Xander is having a good night, we may be asleep by 11.

Oh, and the baby sling is a wonderful thing. Jamers and I can do things around the house and still have the little guy with us without having to move the mosses basket all the time. Toodlies all.