Daily life in Rahway

We have mostly posted about the things we did to get out of Rahway, very little about what life was like for those months in Rahway.  I make no attempt to hide the fact that it was not even remotely a tiny bit of the type of place where I like to live and I spent most of our time there scheming and dreaming about finishing our big move east.  But as much as we didn't care for being there and were living out of boxes, it was the setting for James' first couple of months.  He didn't care if it was Rahway, Chicago, or New York.

Our little bug was such a tiny peanut when we moved to Rahway and when we moved out four months later he was becoming such a little kid.  A couple days after we emptied our moving truck Dan was back to work and leaving me, the little bug, and the pups to our own devises in a town that didn't even have a coffee shop.  

We spent a lot of time in the apartment.  Throughout the day Jaime and I rotated through activities and naptime.  While he napped I job searched, did diaper laundry, showered, and more job searching.  When he was awake we had a rotation of tummy time, reading, chatting, fluttering with the bugs (hand and foot finders), diaper free time and exercises (bicycling the legs, sit ups, reaching for toys, etc) making faces, visiting with the baby in the mirror, and as he got older more active things like airplane.  Since Dan had our only car at work and there was next to nothing to walk to (we did make trips to the post office to ship prints every now and then), we were pretty much limited to the apartment.

I really wanted to be active to get back some muscle tone... that was tough.  I thought if I had a stroller I could go for walks with the baby and the dogs.  Yeah right, it was a nightmare.  The dogs would be totally out of control so I would be going back and forth between trying to be a totally calm/with-it mother that doesn't lose it in front of her kid and totally biting their heads off for pulling to hard and wandering in front of the stroller.  I gave up on trying to do the walks and just endured the guilt from the neglected looks they gave me.  Then I tried to run... by the time Dan was home from work I was ready for talking with an adult and just being done for the day.  A couple of times I took Jaime to the exercise room - but I usually had a bit list of job searching to dos so felt like that was priority. 

Jaime and I also snuggled a lot.  I did pretty good with him learning to sleep in the crib but usually by the last nap of the day he just wanted to snuggle.  And while the sleep books might say never break the rules, I think he napped on me every single day at least once.  He is only this little once and before we know it he will be way to busy playing ball at the park to have time to snuggle so I enjoyed the moments that I know are fleeting.  Loved those naps.  Sometimes I got grumbly bc I was so tired and needed to nap myself (not comfortable totally sleeping when he is sleeping on me) but I still loved the moment. 

We made it our routine to take the dogs for a family walk when Dan got home from work.  It was pretty exciting, let me tell you.  There was a river path just a half block from our apartment complex.  It was nice... but very buggy and humid.  Most of our walks were spent doing a circle around town.  We sometimes drove to the park to do a lap around there. 

If it hadn't been for Jaime I probably would have gone nuts.  But he was happy just hanging out with us so it helped me keep it in perspective.  When you have a baby smiling a completely pure, content, happy smile at you it is hard to not be pretty happy yourself.  When the little one went to bed,  Dan and I watched the Breaking Bad series and ate either mint klondike bars or talenti mint gelato (omg so good).  I read a bunch of books.  And clearly did not blog or do photo work. 

The time flew.  Our little peanut was a big kid that was sleeping through the night and on the verge of standing (assisted) by the time we moved, he had gone from having to be swaddled to sleep to insisting that it was time to retire the swaddle by breaking out of it every single time.  Rahway might not be the town that I would pick to settle down in but our months in that apartment are certainly filled with great memories.