So Yeah

So yeah... I've been sick for like a week now. I missed church on Sunday, and I've also missed two baby showers and two pool days so far. Boo sick!! However, I've been pampered a little too, and there have been some happy things:

(1) I baked banana bread last week. LOVE IT. Tim and I had gotten one of those ginormo Costco banana bunches, and of course we could only eat half of it in time. Bring on the baking!! I made one loaf with walnuts and one loaf with chocolate chips. The walnut loaf is already gone, and the chocolate chip loaf awaits its delicious destiny in the freezer... but not for long.

(2) Y'know how I said that I missed church on Sunday? Well, Tim didn't... and neither did Weston! Hooray! He took the baby with him, which meant over three hours of dedicated Jean Time at Home. That's probably the longest amount of Jean Time at Home that I've gotten since having a baby. I took my time showering, I ate a leisurely lunch, I put pictures away and organized all our albums, I read my book. Lovely. Just lovely.

(3) Speaking of Weston, guess who's able to take naps in his crib now?!! Yup! For some reason, he didn't used to nap in his crib... only the swing would suffice, and he'd cry and wiggle if I tried to put him down in his crib. Well, this was a problem, because the swing was in the living room, which meant that Tim and I always had to tiptoe around him as we went about our day. A short while ago, we finally wised up and moved the swing into Weston's bedroom, which may have been the key (getting him accustomed to being in HIS room for naps, instead of the living room). For awhile, I still put him down for naps in the swing, with the white noise on. Then, a few days ago, I tried putting him in the crib, with the swing's white noise function turned on. Lo and behold, it worked! Hooray! Here's the proof:

(I crept into his room during his morning nap the other day, only to find that he was on to me, and he was already waking up):

(4) Probably the best pampering of the week? I convinced Tim to let us hire Stanley Steemer to come and clean our carpets. Ever since we moved into this apartment two years ago, I've kind of had carpet ickies, just because it's old and not particularly attractive. Lately I've been concerned that it's just too icky for a crawling baby (in a few months), so we had Mr. Steemer come and give it a good once-over. And it's so much better-looking now!! Stains are gone, and so are my ickies. Yay clean!

(5) The second-best pampering of the week? Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga, which I'm borrowing from a friend. (If you haven't heard, it's incredible. The first three books of the four-part series are already out, and the fourth book is being released next month.) A lot of comparisons are being made between Twilight and Harry Potter... personally, I think Harry Potter is more complex, more clever, and more tightly written, but I find Twilight to be really thoughtful and engaging, and equally as difficult to put down (and when I'm not reading it, I wish I were). I read the first book (Twilight) in 3 days, and then I read New Moon in 2 days. Then, I started to worry that I was neglecting my baby, so Eclipse took a little longer (but not much). Now I can't wait for the final episode, Breaking Dawn, and I'm desperate to learn the fate of Bella. I think Tim's a little sick of hearing about vampire and werewolf drama, though. He told me yesterday that I only get to make two Twilight references per day now. (Like yesterday, I told him I wanted to go hiking with Weston, and he said I shouldn't go alone because of coyotes. He's rarely an overprotective person, so his warning was unusual, and I told him that he sounds like Edward, the god-like, drop-dead gorgeous, overprotective vampire boyfriend. That was one permitted reference. I used my second one later that evening.) :-) LOVE IT!!!

(6) And finally, another super-happy thing that happened this week to make up for my cough-due-to-cold... DATE NIGHT WITH MY HUBBY!!! Yaaaay! Thanks to a fab babysitting exchange that we have with another family, we were able to take off to the CityWalk for an evening of evildoers and tasty-doers. First we saw The Dark Knight on IMAX (phenomenal... must see again), and then we had a great Italian dinner at Buca di Beppo. We strolled around the shops and got ice cream for dessert. Yay couple time!! Is it sad that that was only our second real date night since we've had a baby? Ha! Oy... Well, that's what we get for living away from any and all family members, I suppose. :-P Oh, I should probably warn our family members in PA that when we visit in August, we're going to take full advantage of the brief access that we'll have to eager, default babysitters. Be ye warned.

This is what I would look like if I played for the Raiders... Buca di Beppo, our dining establishment of choice that night
The cute kids on their date