Our noisy life

Since I've spent more time in my house in the last six weeks that I have in the last six years (ok, probably not quite true, but any new mom would agree with me that it certainly feels that way...which I'm not saying is bad, it's just how it is), I'm trying to look at my "old" surroundings in new and fresh ways.

As I poured myself a bowl of Starburst jelly beans (a small bowl...I've managed to stretch this bag out for four days, which is a huge improvement over last week's "bag in an afternoon"), it struck me that a new way of looking at life would be through the sounds I'm hearing as of late.

So, here are some of the sounds around the McIntyre house these days:

• The "ting" Starburst jelly beans plunking into a small Fiestaware bowl
• The rattle of Lego pieces from the spare room as Scott dismantles some Star Wars inspired something and creates new mini items
• Steam whooshing out of the iron as I iron Scott's shirts (I just couldn't take them hanging in the laundry room any longer)
• The narrator's voice on the online tutorial videos that Scott is listening to as he learns more about his newest addiction: Lightroom (a photo editing program)
• The cheesy lullaby music that plays in Claire's room when she's sleeping. I really need to put a new CD in because those songs are starting to bore into our brains.
  
• Glee music (especially one song from Wicked). Not as much lately, but in the first three weeks after Claire was born, we were hooked on Glee We've finished the first season, so now I need put the first half of season 2 on our Netflix list.
  
• Claire's cry. Now, this could be several bullets because, as I'm learning, there are several types of cries: the "I'm hungry, feed me now!" with the pitiful cough/cry, the "I was asleep but the pacifier fell out" tired cry, the "I'm so mad that you laid me down and there's no way I'm going to sleep now" wail, the "I'm so tired but for some reason am fighting sleep" ear piercing cry (which is the one that most makes us crazy)...and so on and so on..
• Claire's cooing, which wipes from my memory (at least momentarily) all those cries. In the morning, when she's in an especially good mood, it's absolutely adorable
  
• Birds chirping, which are super easy to hear outside the window at 4:30 am when I'm feeding Claire.
  
• Claire grunting when she's trying to get her arms out when she's laying in the bassinet. The grunting stops either when she manages to free one from the swaddle or when she gets tired and gives up. I love peeking in her room and seeing one little hand just poking out of the covers as she sleeps, like she's saying, "Ha! I won mom! Got one hand free!"
  
• Claire's myriad of adorable sleeping noises. Who knew that babies made so many sounds in their sleep? Sighs, grunts...even her breathing is so loud for such a little body.
• Claire's snorts (yes, I know lots of these noises are Claire, but she does, by far, produce the most noise of any person or thing in our house). We've tried sucking out her nose (which she did not enjoy) and have come to the conclusion that she just snorts sometimes when she breathes. It's pretty hilarious.
  
• Lip smacking (yes, Claire again). This girl is not a quiet dainty eater, which often leads to coughing noises when her swallowing can't keep up with her sucking.
• The voice of some designer or cook. I'm hooked on HGTV these days! We had tried out a digital antenna but we couldn't stand the sporadic breaks in reception, so when Scott called to unfreeze our cable service, they gave us a bunch of extra channels for free. Now, I know that they think we will succomb to their evil plan of hooking us on these channels so that we will break down and pay for them when this free period ends, but Cox doesn't know that they are dealing with such a thrifty (ie. cheap) woman :)
• The theme song from Law and Order: SVU. What can I say, I addicted.

Just a peek into our noisy life.