Well, the cat visiting went well. Carl screamed for a few minutes as we entered our friend's house, so the cat hid and it was just pleasant for everyone after that. Scooping cat litter is grosser than changing a breastfed baby's diaper, BTW. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

It was also one of Carl's first stroller walks! He didn't really like it, but once he fell asleep, I liked it, and kept walking for about 15 minutes. Seriously considering investing in a jogging stroller for the summer, although there's something nice about running sans baby and having alone time. I am getting thinner. Just took 8 week postpartum pictures of myself in a mirror to effectively scrutinize my belly shrinkage. Can't post the pictures; they're pornographic.

What Carl generally does like is sitting in his bouncy chair and watching violin lessons. He knows all the pieces from his Suzuki violin recording (now he starts smiling and kicking as soon as I turn it on) and he generally likes watching new people. He likes the sound of violin, too, and will usually let me practice in front of him, if he's happy, for about 20 minutes.

The thing I loved most from yesterday is that I had a really bad adult student, or Badult, in the afternoon. She sounds terrible. But Carl was super amused! He smiled and did his little half-laugh whenever the Badult played, and I thought to myself that I'd never seen him so animated except when Tom does funny voices for him. Then I realized: that is what Badult was doing! She didn't sound like regular violin: she was making funny violin sounds. Carl thought she was being silly on purpose and that's why he laughed the whole time.

Next week is a crazy week for me. I agreed to do a few concerts, and it all added up without me noticing. Yesterday, I took a look and was committed to doing 30 hours of rehearsing from Monday to Saturday, and that didn't include practicing time or the 4 hours of teaching I do. It's just too much. So I've been working on trying to stay realistic and cancel a few things. More on that later.

But anyway, he's going to need a babysitter. Luckily, next week is reading week at LU, and so there were droves of students who were thrilled to sit backstage with a baby for hours for minium wage. Our babysitter is coming to visit in an hour to hang around with us so Carl will know her. We never have more than an hour and a half of rehearsal without a break so I'll be able to run backstage and feed him.

And for when he's hungry in between, there are bottles. He'll dubiously take milk in a bottle if I'm not there. This morning, I let down, and thought, gosh, I'll just stand over some glasses and maybe express a bit, because I have to get stockpiling. I literally leaked 4 ounces of milk without even hand expressing, milk coming out in streams. So I froze that. Gosh, no wonder poor Carl splutters when I feed him. I am a milk spraying machine!

Anyway, enough Mom blogging. You want a picture! Well, I have better than that. Here's a video I've been saving from when Carl was 4 weeks old and just learning to smile at me. I'm glad I took it now because he is just so much older looking!