River, week 9 is now up at Flickr. If it weren't in the middle of the night, I'd try to talk about having a baby boy has made me uncomfortably aware of my apparently strong opinions on gender, but for now you can see my slightly more coherent quick thoughts in the descriptions of these photos.

I got some really good video of River today, too, talking up a storm, but I couldn't get it off the video camera today. Perhaps tomorrow I shall; he's like that more and more, but as his mom, I just don't get sick of it. He's even started talking in public a couple of times, which reassures me that he might not end up being shy around people.

We went out on a "new mommy date" yesterday -- met another new mom for tea -- which was a lot of fun. We made a standing weekly date for it, which is good as it'll give us both a chance to get to know each other -- we talked exclusively about our babies! Good to know it's not just me, but a natural and proper obsession. It's hard to meet other new moms; you have to go and ask people out, a lot like dating. I was glad that this other new mom, who is on a local email list with me, made the move. Maybe I'll be less shy about it in the future.

Today we went out to lunch with Aunt Holly. Funny to have a whole new topic (parenting) to discuss with my sister I've known for 31 years! After she left (she had a facial scheduled) we walked up and down Lakeshore, both for exercise and because River wasn't crying while the stroller was moving. Fun shopping, too.

I'm still battling insomnia. Tonight, I went to bed as soon as I felt sleepy, which meant I was in bed by 8:30. I started getting ready about 7:30, but after pumping, taking all my vitamins, doing all the things that needed doing (that River was too fussy to let me do earlier), it was an hour before I could lie down. Sigh. And now I'm up, 3.5 hours later, to pump. Let's just hope I can fall back asleep quickly -- my baby is sleeping 8 or 9 hours a night these days, so I want to sleep while the baby does (I should be so lucky)!