Whew!

5:00 a.m... wake up. Realize that the Bean has not woken once during the night. Check that she is alive, then set about the animal care, pumping, preparing the days bottles and baby food. Bean wakes just as I finish heating up my oatmeal for breakfast... Nurse the Bean. Shower and blowdry new obnoxious bangs. Pull bangs back with a bobby pin anyway. Bean demands to nurse again. Make myself a sandwich while shoveling oatmeal in my mouth.

7:10... take the Bean to school.

7:45... Arrive at work, get my morning Americano and get into lab. Get sidetracked talking to coworker.

Morning spent in the hot room stripping blots and labeling new probes. New obnoxious bangs keep falling in my eyes (what was I thinking?). After pipeting from the primary vial, a tip ejector mishap resulted in major contamination on the hot room floor. Spent 25 minutes on my hands and knees with a spray bottle of Count-Off, our trusty Geiger counter, and a whole stack of paper towels. Thankfully shoes are not contaminated. End up 30 minutes late for my morning pump session.

After sterilizing my pump parts, head back to lab to start planning a Southern blot. In an act of foolishness, I eat my sandwich an hour early. Consult with boss about Southern. Decide on a course of action, but realize that setting up digests with 25 different restriction enzymes is not happening today. Take notes, but postpone digests till tomorrow.

12:52... Realize I have about 8 minutes before a meeting with a coworker and my bosses. No time for a real lunch. Run to grab a second cup of coffee instead. Forget to ask for decaf.

Meeting runs over two hours. I am famished, have only scraps of Wheat Thins left to eat. Second cup of coffee was a mistake, as I am now completely wired. I am 30 minutes late for my second pump session, but realize I will have to skip it because I only have 45 minutes left, and I have to get back in the hot room to purify my probes.

3:45... Dump probes on my blots and race for the shuttle. Spend 35 minutes in traffic listening to NPR with Husband. Iowa caucuses today. Pick up the Bean at school. She is wearing different clothes, and there is a stinky bag of dirty clothes in her cubby. But she is all smiles and giggles, and she kicks her legs when she sees us.

We stop at the store on the way home to get some ingredients for baby food. We let Bean smell the cilantro and touch the lemons. I am still feeling over-caffeinated and jittery.

At home, I nurse the Bean, then feed her potatoes and broccoli while Husband puts away the morning's milk ("Why only two bottles today?" "Don't ask..."). He washes the dirty bottles and puts them in the dishwasher.

It is bath night, so the Bean and I get in the tub, while Husband starts making some homemade sodium-free chicken broth. I love baths with Bean. We play with her stacking cups, her rubber duckys. She kicks her legs while I wash her belly. She squirms when I get to her underarms. When I grab the soap to wash her hair, she demands the bottle, so I rinse it off and give it to her. She promptly shoves it in her mouth. We splash and smile, and I wash the soap from her hair. I wrap her in her bunny towel, and Husband gets her into her pajamas.

She seems still eager to play, so we sit in the living room, the three of us, and we pull out her new blocks. She bangs them together for a minute, then crawls over to the couch to work on pulling up. She can easily go from all fours to standing now, and while not yet graceful, has significantly improved in doing the reverse without just crashing on her (insert body part here).

When she starts to slow down, I pull out a couple of books, and we look at them together. She is mostly interested in closing and reopening the books. And, of course, in eating them.

6:45... When she starts to rub her eyes, Husband kisses her goodnight. I take her to our bed and nurse her. For the first time in a very long time, she nurses to sleep. I am thankful to avoid our usual nighttime battle, and I kiss her little forehead.

I quietly shoo Pup out of the nursery and lay her in her crib. I lay her little lovey nearby, and shut the door.

After a dinner of veggie burgers and salad, I set to work on the baby foods. Tonight I made her root vegetable puree (carrots, leeks, parsnips, and sweet potato), and her first meat dish (chicken with peas, carrots, and sweet potato). I use the stock that Husband has made for me. It takes far longer to prepare and puree than one would calculate from the recipes. These are the most complex foods she will taste yet, and I am excited to see how she likes them.

I made a double recipe of each, which may have been a mistake. I have to make room for the new baby foods in the freezer by organizing my supply of frozen milk. With some Tetris-style manuevers, I find room and breathe a sigh of relief.

9:20... As I wipe the counters, I plan my experiments for tomorrow, and give thanks that it is a short week.