We have more visitors this week: two of Nyan’s uncles –  Beatrice’s brothers Dominic and Sean –  arrived late Saturday night for a week’s stay. Dominic has two daughters, and Sean has done a lot of babysitting, so they know their way around a baby. They’re doing the tourist thing – the Brooklyn Bridge hike today, a Yankees game on Thursday, various other sightseeing and activities on the agenda as well – and also trying to teach Nyan’s hapless parents a thing or two.

And indeed, one thing we’ve learned is that, well, we’re a bit clueless so far. We’ll readily blame the lack of a solid night’s sleep, though that excuse will only take us so far. Not that we’ve made any major mistakes; if anything, we’re perhaps too doting. Dominic has pointed out that part of our problem is that, when we’re both home, we both tend to try to take care of Nyan at the same time. For instance, if he’s fussing or crying, one of us will head to the bedroom to soothe him, and the other will follow, even though it’s just a one person job. It comes from a good place – we want to help each other out, and we want to see our son, frankly. But having one person hovering while the other is soothing isn’t really accomplishing anything, and as Dominic pointed out, that’s a good way for both of us to get exhausted very quickly, if we’re not already there.

While Emerald was here, she and Beatrice worked up a daily schedule, a routine of sleeps and feeds and activity time for Nyan. I think the routine may be more for us than for him – it’s somewhat easier to deal with everything if we know what’s coming up, and when – but it’s surely somewhat good for Nyan as well. It worked well for a few days, although last week – with Emerald back in England and me off of work – that routine sort of went out the window, as we just sort of winged it. Things went well enough, but it was running us a bit ragged by the end of the week, and it may also have led to Nyan being extremely fussy and non-nappy for most of Saturday. So on Sunday, after we got a talking-to from Emerald over Skype, we renewed our commitment to the routine.

It worked pretty well on Sunday: Nyan had scheduled times for feeding, for a stroll around the neighborhood, for naptime (or at least laying in the dark bedroom time). He was still fussy on Sunday evening, but seemed less so. Same deal on Monday evening: a bit fussy, as usual for the evenings, but he calmed down and fell asleep quicker than he had been doing, it seemed. We’ll take what we can get at this point.

Speaking of Monday, I went back to work, and Beatrice kept pretty well to the routine. A cousin of Beatrice’s – not a blood cousin, just a close family friend – is a doctor doing her residency in New York, so she came over for lunch and to spend the afternoon. They took Nyan on a stroller ride mid-afternoon – the scheduled activity time – and also met up with the lads, who had gone to a nearby Irish pub to watch a football (soccer, for us Americans) match being broadcast live from England. It ended up being Nyan’s first visit to a pub. He didn’t seem to quite realize the significance of the moment.

We’ve got more family coming this week as well – my cousin Jeff is on a business trip in New Jersey and is coming over either Tuesday or Wednesday evening, or both. Living in New York is kind of like when I lived in St. Thomas: it’s pretty easy to convince friends and family to come visit. Hopefully they’d all feel the same if we lived in, say, Topkea, or Albany.