home alone with Lilly

Yesterday Leighton left for Norway where he'll spend the next ten days, in Oslo, attending seminars at the Ibsen center, working on his paper, seeing the dentist, visiting with friends, among other. In the meantime, Lilly and I are here at home, on our own. I've been kind of excited about this time, it's sort of an adventure, how well can we do it? And it's nice to know Leighton can have all this time to focus on work and get good sleep at night. So how have we fared so far?

Well, Lilly fell asleep on the way to the airport yesterday, only got about 40 min. of sleep in the car, typically she sleeps a couple of hours, but she seems to only have one precious "falling asleep" quota per day. So she got tired end of the day. I took her for a long stroll in the afternoon, gorgeous fall sunshine weather. Then we stopped at the library (she loves it there, never wants to leave). Home for a quick dinner (heated up some tomato soup from the Co-op, anything else seemed daunting with a tired baby in my arms). Lilly fell asleep at an amazing 18:20, needed some comforting again around 19, slept again from 19:20 and till after I was in bed (which was early, but still...). She's been falling asleep earlier these few days, what with not feeling good and all (she used to fall asleep around eight, eight-thirty, and after 45 minutes of boob. Now it only takes 15 minutes or so). Her nights are not great though. Last night she sounded congested as well, and for a long while would just stare up into the ceiling.

This morning she was happy though. A friend of mine told me she and her husband often find it can actually be easier with just one parent. Their son would just "finne seg i" (live with having) to relate to the style and rhythm of the one parent, and sometimes that makes things easier, she told me. I did found that to be true this morning. Typically, Lilly is very needy in the morning. Today it was as if she realized I had to do certain things like make breakfast and then shower and she was fine with that; plus there was nobody else to ask for attention while I was doing all those things. At lunch too, when she's always tired and ready for her nap, I found it easier without Leighton here because I wasn't also trying to have a conversation with him.

That said, we miss him! Which actually makes me appreciate Lilly's company even more.

After breakfast, we watched a new Baby Einstein DVD that I checked out from the library yesterday. We just *love* their DVDs!! This one was about animals in the neighborhood; Lilly loves dogs and there were lots of them on this one to interact with. We've been watching the da Vinci one for a while; it's about body parts and Lilly has learned from it to say and point to certain body parts, like nose, eyes, mouth.

Then it was time to walk over to the library, fun time for both Lilly and mama. We strolled in the beautiful sunshine. The group was smaller today, which was kind of nice: easier to talk with the adults and get to know each other better.

We had to stop at the Co-op for milk on the way home, Lilly was tired and winy at this point... We Skyped real quick with Leighton when we got home, Oslo is six hours ahead of us now, he was at the university library, tired from a long journey and then a long day at the Ibsen center and the library. His suitcase did not arrive (and he won't get it till tomorrow), so that's unfortunate. And he had a bumpy ride from Minneapolis to Chicago. Otherwise good from there to Stockholm and then Oslo. Lilly waved to the image of him on the screen, very cute!

She napped for an hour and a half after that and I got to work some. Then my dear friend Lori stopped by just as Lilly woke up. Lori had made a couple of batches of soup today and had some for us, knowing it's not easy to cook with just one adult around to tend to a baby. I was *very*grateful for that soup when dinner time came around and I again had to hold a tired baby in my arms while heating up some soup. In between of Lori's visit and that, we'd been out in the gorgeous fall weather again, headed over to the Co-op, picked up some bread for the soup and a few other things, Lilly got to play in the play area at the shop. She didn't want to leave at first, but then got tired. On the way home, she coughed a lot, her nose is very runny now. I can hear her still now, this evening, as she's sleeping, coughing every now and then. I hope she can still get some good rest tonight... I put her head on a pillow to ease with the congestion.

Our good neighbors Dee and Gregg are also gone this week, visiting their daughter in Nicaragua. Lilly and I are looking after their cats, and house. Lilly loves cats, so it was a good distraction to check in on them, add food to their food bowls, pet them a little (though they were rather shy) between dinner and bed time. Lilly hasn't been wanting her bath the last few nights. Just get the teeth brushed, hands washed, and then straight to bed. Again tonight she fell asleep quickly, by 18:20.

I've lit some candles, sipping on a glass of red wine, feeling so tired, but good about the day. Listening for Lilly, hoping she won't get too sick.

We have no plans tomorrow, will go grocery shopping in the morning, if it's nice I'll try to rake some. Lilly likes being out with me doing that. Unless she's too sick, I guess... Thursday I'm having some ladies over for a brunch, then Lilly and I are invited to a pumpkin carving/painting dinner party later that day. Friday we'll go to the library again for an open class (we'll probably go tomorrow and Thursday too, to be around all the fun books and toys, other kids and parents who're there to check things out), and then in we're meeting some friends for a happy hour beer later in the day. Saturday there's also an open class at the library in the morning, and of course we're excited for Halloween to be here and hope lots of kids will stop by in the evening. Sunday there's a Halloween party for preschoolers at Carleton College in the afternoon that we plan on attending.

So, this gives you an impression of our days here, without Leighton. I'll try to work when Lilly naps, catch up on email etc. in the evening. Every other day we'll feed the cats and play with them. If it stays nice, and Lilly's healthy enough, we'll be outside a lot. Or inside playing if not.