A year of texts

Selected texts sent to me from Joe over the course of the year:

"Feed me!"
Jan 22, 2009 7:56 pm

This was my first time away from the baby for any substantial amount of time. I had gone to a baby shower. It was before she was taking a bottle, so I needed to be home to feed her, and this was my cue to return.

"I'm home if you need a ride. Since it's raining."
Mar 2, 2009 5:15 pm

I was at a play date at Jenny and Clark's - they lived about 12 blocks away at the time, and I would put Viola in the wrap and walk over there. Clark was born two weeks before Viola, and Viola and I hung out with them once a week until I went back to work. I don't know what I would have done this year without Jenny!

"Everything going well with the Pookie at work?"
Jul 8, 2009 10:17 am

By this time I was back at work. I'm not sure why I brought her in this day, but I'm sure it didn't go well. There was nowhere for her to nap, and I was forever handing her off to coworkers just as she needed to be changed or fed. I love that he capitalized our pet name for her.

"I don't have a house key."
Jan 9, 2010 10:32 pm

The three of us had been out that day, and we'd dropped Joe off at the studio so he could work a late party, and then we'd gone to bed. He'd gotten a ride home with a friend, but he couldn't get in the house. I didn't hear this text; my phone was downstairs and I was fast asleep. Asleep, that is, until he started throwing pebbles at the window.

"Breast shields?"
Jan 11, 2010 8:05 am

For perhaps the 50th time in my year of pumping, I had forgotten a part to my breast pump at home. For perhaps the 10th time, I would run to Target this day to buy spare parts. Other times, I would fashion bottle lids out of plastic wrap and rubber bands secreted from the supply closet, or pour breast milk into Ziploc baggies. Once I even borrowed an entire pump from a very generous co-worker.

"The trash can has a mouse in it!"
Jan 18, 2010 9:33 am

Ah yes, and this brings us up to the present. Mouse Battle 2008 became Mouse Battle 2009, which has become Mouse Battle 2010. We've called in the professionals now, but that doesn't mean we aren't still living with the problem every day. On this particular morning, Joe said the mouse was staring at him from under a pile of garbage and he took a moment to ask it, "Why? Why are you in my garbage can?" But, to mis-quote one of Viola's favorite books, the mouse didn't answer. He was very busy eating our garbage.