We had an exhausting and enormously productive weekend, where we not only got a lot of stuff moved and much of the old house cleaned (1 bathroom was on the verge of becoming its ecosystem), but learned a ton about Noah and watched him continue learning about the world around him.

Random singing, initiated by the other Mommy, but skilllessly and enthusastically joined by this Mommy, delights Noah. This is good, as it’s an extremely packing-friendly activity.

Our medley of the first 2 or 3 lines of the choruses of most of Foreigner’s Top 40 songs were a huge hit with him, especially "Dirty White Boy." He actually squealled with uncontainable glee when Jill started singing that bit.

We also learned that Noah does badly when bored. Sunday was especially boring, what with all the cleaning we did. Noah was great for most of the morning, but got increasingly fussy as noon came and went. By 2 pm he was in full freak out mode, unconsolable, furious, and driving his Mommies insane.

Fortunately, we don’t go to pieces simultaneously. The last time it was this bad, Jill rescued me. I decided that it was time to return the favor. So I bustled Noah into his car seat as fast as humanly possible and fled the premises.

He actually began to calm down when I sat the car seat near the front door, facing the window, while I put on shoes and threw my wallet in the diaper bag. Five minutes later, he was almost calm, just occasionally giving a hiccupy cry.

It occured to me, finally, that he hadn’t been out for a walk all day. So I drove over to a nearby campus, parked the car, and we walked around looking at the pretty trees and buildings  with enormous porches. Noah’s mood improved enormously, and he babbled and giggled at me for at least 15 minutes, and hung out quietly for at least another 30. I could see he was getting sleepy-fussy, so we went back to the car, and in less than 10 minutes, he was sound asleep.

Note to self: Take the baby for a walk in the morning!

And while we were out, Jill was heroically productive around the house.

Tomorrow, I hope to post the interview questions for all the nice people who volunteered to be interviewed, AND I have a "the gay tax" rant bubbling up out of my efforts to figure out how much I’m going to be paid when I return from 4 days/week to 5. Imputed income is the devil.