Thursday, December 28, 2006

christmas and WAHM Dad

sherpa's christmas treat
yes, sherp gets gifts, too. he was awake before baby e so we let him open some gifts first. *please note that all bags and boxes are recycled year after year. you may see an old gap bag or whatever but do not worry!*

mom's got coffee, babe's got water.

her fave book is "i love my duckling". it's one of those things where we have read it so often that i now just recite it from memory. a practical but fun duck scrubbie for the bath.

aforementioned duck, frog toy that is really a bouncy ball, wooden train whistle that sounds like a train when one blows it, wind up wooden train that was free b/c it lacked a price tag at world market, etch-a-sketch palm pilot thingy that was also free (some lady gave it to ez one night when we were out at tyler's)

vegan lip balms, dr bronner's lavender, avalon organics lavender conditioner *mom made my stocking when i was two*

fire starters, marzipan, navratan korma sauce, our traditional toblerone bar, garam masala spice mix, dried chiles, and butter rum almonds to go with rum and rum or rum and rootbeer or rum and rosa. *mom made andy's stocking when we got married*

she likes wooden trains. my mom sent these to her in the mail. thanks, mom!

the question on people's lips is "how was your christmas?" i don't know how to respond? it was a nice day? i have a lot of responses in my head, but i try to be polite and say, "it was good. how was yours?" but i don't even know what i mean by asking that question and then i start feeling like a phony. what do people really want to know, anyway? Is it still like fourth grade and we want to know what cool gifts our loved ones with money gave us? I did ask my friend, "did you get any good loot?" she is a pirate so i try to speak her language. so, my chirstmas day was uhnhm...good.

mostly, i liked getting an overdose of hubby time. I wish he could work from home every single day. i like days when he doesn't have to leave the house for work. i am so into our together time. but i know something about him...he starts to go stir crazy if we don't do stuff outside of the house. i want to convey this thing about him in a way that doesn't make him seem like a meanie. it's not that he doesn't like spending time just hanging out or one-on-one time with his fam. he just needs stimulation in various forms. Mainly, he needs to interact with a variety of people and within changing scenery. he really cannot sit still, pet the dog, read and interact with babylove for an extended period of time before his head starts swelling up with boredom. not that those things are boring, really. they are just hard for him to stay in the moment with. plus, the romantic image of lounging on the sofa absorbing written words, one hand petting the quiet puppy and a contended baby playing silently on the floor is soooo not what is usually going on around here. our large dog (120 pound rottie) is usually ramming and charging his ass into the just-learning-to-walk baby; she does handle it well and usually lands on the floor with a laugh. Even though big dog is gentle with her, he never looks behind him when backing up and that's when she takes a tumble. When the dog is not mauling her (98% of the time), they play tug of war or trade off chasing each other's toys. This leads to one parent or both yelling, "drop it!" when dog face begins to rip apart a plastic toy/stuffed animal or splinter one of the millions of wooden trains around here. (Baby love has already said "drop" b/c she hears us say it so freakin often.) There is no possible way to focus on a sentence in this sort of situation, you understand. Thus, no relaxin around the house is really happening on his days off or his work from home days. Regardless, the sound of dad and babe playing in the tub at lunchtime (happening as i type) makes a flexible work schedule worth the chaos of staying home (IMHO, at least).

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Baby E says...

where is da baby?

there she is!

On Monday, we went gift shopping, ate a burrito for lunch and then wrapped gifts most of the afternoon. We ordered gravel for the driveway from some place that would prove to be run by complete jerks.

Baby e is talking a bunch now. She will walk to the door, point or slap it and say, "ow sighd". She refers to her older dog brother by his name now. The neighbor's barking dogs are clearly referred to as a quick "dahwg". Whenever we talk with her, she is quick to imitate the sounds we make. I never realized how often i singsay, "ba doop, ba doop ba dooo" until baby e started saying it.

She hugs us and give us kisses with a good "mmm muhhhh". She kisses and hug her toys and sometimes her food or her spoon. The whole hugging lasagna can get pretty crazy. She pets sherpa and hugs his huge head. He puts up with it, but I know he secretly is glad that she can interact with him in a loving way. Mostly, they just played tug of war until she started in with the love touches.

baby e and her pa snuggling on the sofa

On Tuesday, we hung around the house waiting for gravel to be delivered for the driveway. Promised by 11am, finally delivered by 2pm with MUCH drama. If you need a recommendation on a stone center to avoid doing business with, I would be happy to tell you of one! In more happy news, I did get a phone call from an old friend who I had hoped to hear from after reconnecting at my 10 year high school reunion. A took baby e out for a little gift shopping that evening. I stayed home to catch up on some reading for a certification I am currently working on. We watched a scary movie about a plane, kid-napping and psychotic people later that night. Baby e did not nurse to sleep for one of the few times in her life. She fell asleep snuggled up beside me on my arm. Soooo freakin precious!

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Happy Birthdays and E Free Lunch

Last Friday we skipped playgroup b/c neither babe nor mama were feeling very well. Sadly, we also missed out on our nomadic rock star mama friend and her 23 month old babe. We did eventually muster up the strength to do some grocery and gift shopping. Admittedly, I was fueled by starsucks soy latte.

Friday was the birthday of a dear friend so we had dinner to celebrate with many of her good friends. We got to meet her sister, finally! We especially enjoyed our company at the end of the table. E was totally bored. The restaurant is not exactly the most toddler friendly place. Although, we did have a brunch for her their after her baby dedication at church. Irony. The chef's name is Thor and I got to thank him on Friday for putting together a vegetarian fest back in the Spring for e's brunch. The manager (perhaps?) did spend some time trying to entertain e; he has two young children of his own. There is a nice little secluded area in the back with chairs and sofas. E and i snuck away to this area and she got some mama's milk. We did not get to attend the after party dance b/c we had to attend another birthday party in town!

This one was a surprise party but we showed up late enough to not ruin the surprise part. This birthday woman turned 30 and is well on her way to making one of the coolest babes around. The babe is on the inside right now and growing strong, finally letting mama eat some food and keep it down. Yay for that!!! Her hubby planned out the evening so well. He actually sent out a map with words on it saying "park on this street" and "don't park on this street". Pretty impressive! He also gifted her with a piano in hopes of passing on music appreciation beyond his own musical genetics, perhaps. The highlight of the night for me was meeting birthday woman's dad. He is pretty much incredible and I am not the only person I know who looks up to him. He was modest, thoughtful and kind. I asked him to come to our church and teach and he said, "Sure, just send me an e-mail. My address is...". Freakin wow. Birthday girl's mom is pretty impressive, too. She gave birth to her babe breech and is a natural living woman. Are you as impressed as I am? Yes, their daughter is equally as amazing...how could you not be with parents like that? E enjoyed chasing Margot the dog around and being a little toddler. She drake water out of a cup and managed to spill most of it on her peace sign dress.

Saturday morning I was still feeling sick and had practically lost my voice the night before. So, I rested and read most of the day. Even though I fought it for a while, I took a nap in the early evening. We went to the holiday party of our friends/neighbor's. We got to meet so much of their families; families that we have heard a lot about over the years. It was such a joy. Towards the end of the evening, someone brought out the hard stuff. I have not had a drop of liquor in almost two years due to pregnancy and breastfeeding a babe. Although i did not intend to partake, i was strong armed into it and encouraged by someone's mother (of five kids, the oldest being my age) that it was perfectly okay, my daughter would even benefit from it. Who can argue with a mother of five practically adult children? Not me, you see. I pretty much had to do it at that point.

On Sunday, I made fresh squeezed orange juice, coffee and vegan sausage burritos. Yummy in the tummy! E ate some vegan sausage and tortilla with guacamole. Since we slept in, we went to the second service at church. We heard a talk about the magnicant (sp?) where an angel appears to tell mary she has been chosen to give birth, elizabeth and mary talk when mary arrives and stay for three months. I saw a movie about this recently so it was fresh in my head visually.

After talking to some fellow mama friends and changing our babes cloth diapers together to the tune of ryan adams (dedicated to e by building boy j), we drove home to wait for my mother-in-law (mil). She comes to visit rather often on the weekends. Since e was sleeping and we still had not eaten, we proposed that mil hang with e while mama and dada went out for lunch and some grocery shopping. MIL is really excited about us letting her watch e alone and wants us to get out more by ourselves. Sunday afternoon was the second time since e's birth that we have gone out without e. We don't mind her coming with us at all; we actually prefer it. It has not been a burden or a struggle to include her in our family life. Building a strong attachment by avoiding frequent and prolonged separation has been very important to us, as parents. Having said all of that, we barely knew what to do without baby e around. We started by sampling wine at the grocery store then buying and uncorking a whole bottle of it. No, we didn't drink the whole bottle. B/c we share our food and try to be good examples, we are pretty aware of what foods are on our plate. Therefore, I totally bought a vegan chocolate chip cookie and a vegan peanut butter cookie! Does it get any better than wine and cookies in the middle of the day?

Baby e survived well. We met up with a's work partners for a beer in downtown. Baby e wandered around in the little couch area that we barricaded for her safety and our sanity. She ate vegetarian chili, hummus and pita. Someone there gifted her with a fancy pocket size etch-a-sketch that resembles a pda. I wrapped it in tissue paper and put it in her stocking when we got home. Harr haaa.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Don't Drink the Kool Aid

Today, we started the morning off right by driving through starsucks for a soy latte while talking on the cell phone, and asking to make sure they take the plastic money. Yeah, I could not have felt any more american than that, I doubt. For the american cherry on top, I was running late.

We were on our way to one of my fave places. We still drive to those meetings in another town b/c they were our peeps for a full year, even before we were a true "we"...back when baby e was on the inside. Those ladies helped me get through some tough stuff, specifically my doula extraordinare who runs this website and makes cools shirts like the one baby e wore today. At least two people asked where I got it. At the grocery store, i chatted with a mom about pacifiers. After telling her that e never really got attached to one, she glanced at baby e's shirt and said, "I guess she found something else to suck on." Yeah, mom.

Today's meeting was interesting as they all usually are. I loved how a preggo had a bunch of questions and those got answered with complete disregard to the agenda. In case anyone did want to follow the agenda, a leader asked if there were any questions about it. Honestly, I need to work on my own struggle to stick to agendas and follow them meticulously. I also need to work on not exploding inside every time I hear someone talking about giving their baby or young child cow's milk to drink.

Additionally, let's all consider what options there are for young children when it comes to beverages. Breastmilk is clearly the best choice. Human milk for human babies. Water would be a great choice. Water with ice cubes could be really fun, I mean, for at least a year. Then, water in a fun cup would entertain them for at least another year. You've just bought at least three years of time before you have to give in to fluid like red dyed sugar, uh, I mean fruit punch. Anyone ever researched what red dye is all about anyway? Please let me know if you do, I am just curious.

After that, we went to lunch. We ate spaghetti and red dye. Just kidding we drank water. And, shaved our heads b/c we are now living like monks with all this water we are drinking. Geesh. Baby e played around with some other kids of moms that we were eating red dye with. There were some other fams there who we did not know. Guess that's what happens in public places and all. Anyway, one mother seemed to be super concerned that I wasn't walking up the soft plastic stairs with baby e. I helped her concern by telling her that baby e has been walking for about a month now (which may not have been clear by baby e putting her feet in front of each other in this mother's presence) and she climbs our wooden staircase at home every day. I do calculus and read philosophy books (all right, that's actually true!) while following her up the stairs. But, she wasn't believing me and called CPS anyway. When Liz, the CPS worker got there, we hung out and drank red dye in our beers together to toast our old time as fellow social workers. The mother was more outraged.

After lunch, we went to the grocery store for tofu, eggplant, water (no joke!), wine, OJ, cabbage, rice and spaghetti sauce. The boy child who helped load my groceries said twice, "I hope your husband's at home to help you unload this water." Sorry, kid, he wasn't. I actually had to use my weaker sex muscles to carry them in with a baby on my other hip. I wasn't barefoot, thankfully.

After drinking more water, i read while baby love took a nap. We drove to spend time with friends tonight. After voting, we chose to discuss Hanukkah and agnosticism vs. atheism. You know, basic wed night stuff.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Is Puppy #4 busy tonight?

She's just not sure about this really tall guy.
Okay, so we are almost caught up all your friends out in onlineland. I love that you all are reading about this stuff. It's really fun! Pictures are truly more fun so I will try to keep that in mind as i post. I am taking my camera with me and inspired by auntie bl, just taking pics everywhere of everything. Wait, is that even possible? I am no g wood.

Last night, our dear friend from LU came for a little visit. It was too brief but hey, we take what we can get of some fla-jesse time.
Ridiculously tall people.

Andy is sad that someone is taller than he. Ezra is in disbelief about it.

He has really grown up since becoming big biz. He is about a foot or so taller than a, which makes him almost 8 and a half feet. It's crazy, really to be around someone that tall. And, I thought that Ducharme was tall! Andy had to stand on a chair just to be the same height.

Andy standing on the table to catch up in height. Hey Shan-n, when did these dudes get so skinny, by the way?

We ate some great indian food at our fave indian place in town! If I keep this blog up, you all will realize that we eat there pretty much every week. They are too good to us. Fla-jesse is full of laughs. We were happy to hear he is having a good run right now. I only miss that his whole fam damaly could not come down to join us.

"what is up with this tall guy's face, mom? are you sure he's fla-cool?"

"Vegan" "Rock and Roll"

So, what did you all do on monday, you ask?

We went to the grocery store in the early afternoon. One the way there, i called a dear friend who has just returned to north cack from some time in italy and elsewhere across the states. I spent the car ride to the grocery catching up a little with him. His wife called me during the grocery store shopping event to tell me she could join me for lunch! Woooo hoooo! I so enjoy talking with her and hearing her talk and tell stories. Leave it to an english major/song writer/world traveler/mom/god seeker/modest rock star to be about the best story telling person around. I will not do any justice to the story she told me of her son falling and being caught by claire. Should she add it to her blog, i will be quick to link it. At one point in the conversation, i was sharing how i am looking forward to being a volunteer doula in a hospital setting. I was trying to explain how i get to be this person who understands something very important (natural childbirth, in this case) among others who may not value it as much. It's an unoriginal thought to dub it "occupy from within" but those are the words i used followed by "you know?" and she laughingly replies, "yeah, it's called rock n roll!" My palm smacked my forehead with a big DUH, do i have any idea who i am trying to explain this concept to? I am sometimes a genius. My friends sometimes humor me just be letting me open my mouth.

On the drive home i saw a big work crew sign that said, "Survey Party". What does that mean exactly? Are the people in hard hats having as much fun as we do at our annual Halloween party? Is there a guy yelling "survey says..." a la Family Feud game show voice?

A couple friends came for dinner and stayed the night. Neither of them are vegetarian but they tolerate my vegetarian cooking and sometimes shower me with complements about the dishes i make. Monday night, J said, "You know, I am just glad you decided not to make this a vegan lasagna." I wasn't sure why he thought I had decided not to make it vegan. He went on, "I can handle vegetarian stuff but not so much vegan. Thanks for considering me." I gave a sly smile...his girlfriend says, "How do you know it's not vegan?" He says, "This? What we are eating right now? Oh, no way. I could tell." The clue that gave it all away was that I fed it to baby e and they know we are waiting until she's 78 years old to introduce dairy products. It pretty much made my night that my meat eating friend couldn't detect a vegan meal in his mouth. That must be how it all vegan!

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

TROSA Sells (and delivers) Living Trees

On Saturday, I slept in while dad went with his mom and baby e to breakfast. Then, they all picked out a living chirstmas tree from the kind folks in recovery at TROSA. TROSA men even delivered it to our house later that day. My MIL bought me a soy latte upon her return. So kind.

Sorting ornaments...uh, actually that just sounds better than playing with hooks.

I worked in the yard a little bit, turned the compost pile and did some raking. Hubby, babe and puppy love went on a walk to the playground. For lunch, we made vegan meatball subs that were incredibly yummy. Later, we spent the early evening decorating the tree. That evening, we got our first i-tunes movie, The Muppet's Christmas Carol. We watched another movie, instead though.

Surrounded by decor.

Stringing lights. Yes, I am wearing reindeer antlers (that someone gifted to our dog!) and a bow.

Tying on bows.

The finished tree! Way to re-use the keg bucket!

On Sunday, we actually got to church on time. We heard a sermon on the virgin birth of christ. Then, we went to lunch with our friends at a greek place. i talked longer and more enthusiastically than I should have about mary being pregnant and giving birth. Uncle s was great to help settle the discussion; a thinks him a fine mediator. Baby e walked around greeting people at other tables. it was great to see v and catch up some with her.

Baby e is walking all over the place! She has really honed her skills. It's amazing to me that she has learned such things. While watching a movie on the computer, she pointed at the dog in the scene and said, "puppy". Yesterday, she held a comb and combed her hair with it. She used a spoon to successfully feed herself, yesterday as well.
Surrounded by veggie booty, books, and her dog brother with her cup. Doesn't get much better than this for baby e!
Successfully feeding herself!

Birth Art Show in Carrboro

On Friday, we enjoyed our playgroup and went to lunch after it. Ezra wasn't much into eating veggies and tofu, asian noodles or vegetarian spring roll. She basically just drank water and ate some of c's rice. We hung around to run some errands. We paid off our cell phone bill, bought dad a gift and saw a movie.

We came home to find dad sick in bed with food poisoning. Very sad dad. He took a shower while we got dressed for the birth art show. Baby's north carolina grammy came to the birth art show with us while dad stayed in bed to feel better.

Here they are reading a book together.

The birth art show was various local artists displaying their art related to giving birth. There were quilts, belly casts, photos of birth and the moments before and after, sketches of pregnant women, iron sculptures of bellies large and full, plus poems and stories. One poem that i could relate to was about selling the house where a person had given birth. We sold the house where ezra was born just this past summer. Before closing on it, i sat down with baby e to tell her the story of her birth in the exact spot where she came into the world. Dad filmed us.

Friday, December 8, 2006

Wood Letters

These wood letters have been sitting in her room for months, waiting to be painted. After a trip to the craft store to buy paint, i then decided to try a different embellishment. I covered them with scrapbook paper instead.

We are heading out to playgroup in just a few minutes, although we didn't confirm with anyone that we would be there. It's pretty much a standing date though.

Thursday, December 7, 2006

the cult, cradle cap and hide n go seek

First, we will see some pictures from yesterday. Here they are:

food face happy gal

i'm here to help, as my name implies.

pirate babies pillage for books.

arhh, books!

i love my pirate duckling

they are looking for puppy love's lost toy

the potato head family
baby love and dad playing with potato head family
Today, we started with some sweet snuggles in the morning sunshine. We prayed a little for our day to be full of compassion and patience and love. Still in pajamas, we came downstairs to the tune of automatic coffee brewing set up by big pop-ah. We readied our day for mamas and their babes to come on over to our casa de sol. We host LLL Leader Applicants. Because the LLL is a super secret society (though not of the summer session a la Seperate Peace), I cannot reveal the identities of the women who attend said meeting. Nonetheless, we have great talks during and perhaps, more so, after the meeting. We are coffee driven and muffin charged to help other women enjoy breastfeeding. We will overcome, you just wait and see.

Baby love took a nap while I typed up some application info for the LLL gurus. I have about ten questions to answer and was able to complete three of them during her nap. After she awoke, we played with toys in the living room and read a book or four. She walked to the door and sat in front of it pointing and commanding something important. So, I got jacketed and put on hats, then we went outside. She cried upon our re-entry to the house but was quickly appeased by some mama's milk, which is both her fave beverage and comfort food all wrapped up in one. Kinda like a good pinot is for me.

She hung out with dad during dinner prep then i went upstairs to read for a little while. Who knows what kind of craziness she and dad got into. I can only imagine. I did anoint her head with burt's apricot oil to rid ye ole lingering cradle cap, as they call it. who knew it could cause all kinds of nasty hurts to little babes if not removed? I quit my attempts to dislodge it when the scrubbing and scratching produced blood. Hopefully the oil will be a less invasive remedy. I think that I am supposed to brush it off in the morning...uhm, before or after a bath though? Gee, let's hope our playgroup friends know! We'll ask them in the morning before the bath takes place.

One fun thing is her new "where is it?" gesture that occurs when we hide an object. She somehow knows to lift her precious baby hands up when we ask. When the object is produced, she smiles and laughs. It melts my heart and made me cry today. If this is what we have to look forward to as her personality shines through, there may be too much joy in my life for me to stand.

I will post some pics from our fun times.

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

parenting support

Today, we went to a parenting support group in the morning. The group meets once a month in our neck of the woods. Before you think, "why is she going to a parenting support group without her hubby?" let me assure you that hubby goes to a parenting support group with me in another town that meets in the evenings. we have been going to it since we were preggo over a year ago. we cherish our friends and fellow parents from that evening meeting. this one is closer to where we live now but it only meets in the mornings. so, i go to it and take baby love along. then, we go to that evening one as a family once a month still.

we talked about how to handle criticism from perhaps well-meaning family members around the holidays. it was good for me to talk with them and get some feedback. our parents are pretty supportive of our parenting style. we do plan to be around some family who we only see about twice a year or so. i can imagine they will wonder why i am still breastfeeding baby love and perhaps ask me. i want to handle their inquiries well. i am such a smart ass and so researchy that i could either offend or overload them with info. i want to respond appropriately.

after that, we went to lunch with our dear buddies. then, we did a little group grocery shopping. she is a wonderful mom who i look to for advice and respect a lot. she has helped me through struggles with my faith, my church, my family, andy changing jobs, and just general parenting stuff. we're not super huggy best friends but i really appreciate her a lot. we both are into academia research field survey stuff but she is way further along then me in her pursuits. nonetheless, she lets me tag along to lunches and play groups.

i ran into a fellow hospital volunteer doula while shopping. i just got an e-mail from her yesterday and had not responded yet. she was gracious and we may see each other on sunday for homebirth meetup fun. she shared her great news that she is six weeks preggo. congrats!!!

baby love ate lots of food but no mama's milk all day. she got a little then progressed quickly to a lot fussy at the end of our shopping so i changed her diaper and gave her some mama's milk. then she fell asleep in the car on our way home. i put the groceries away and poured a sip of eco-friendly wine. now puppy love and i are sitting in the hatchback of the car snuggling while she sleeps in her car seat. she awakes!

This afternoon, we read books, walked outside, she ate a snack of mashed sweet potatoes and we read some more books. While reading, "i love my puppy" we came across a blue ball that the puppy likes to fetch. She left my side and to my surprise, she returned with her puppy's blue ball. clearly, she is brilliant! Then she played with her toys while i read a book to myself. We cleaned out her closet. she watched "signing times" while i are a snack. we put parts on the potato head family then cleaned up all the fun stuff covering the living room floor.

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Indian Dinner

Can you guess what this is?

drinking water and zoning.

trying to crawl away from the table.

using utensils.

dripping down her arm.

yummy indian food

the stage at our fave indian place

windmill community

I love windmills...and batteries.
i was recently told that a friend said i live in a windmill house.

double booked parties

auntie liney

This weekend we were supposed to attend three parties. We only made it to two of them, which were on the same night. We only got confirmation about the friday night one very last minute. I hung up the phone with the host, planning to shower but instead spent my time in the bathroom throwing up dinner. I crashed into the bed without a shower. a took e for a car ride to get take out for his dinner. who can blame him fir not wanting to eat what i did? she fell asleep on him in the thai palace.

i got to feeling better later but had pretty much missed w's birthday party. sorry w and j. we were looking forward to time together!

saturday, our hired help fixed up our house real nice. he unclogged the drain, fixed the drip, sealed the doors and stacked the dryer. our house feels like it got a a chiropratic adjustment or something equally improving. the company wasn't bad either. although i planned to start running with the g couple, i spent most of the day reading "holy cow" and napping. guess i needed some serious down time.

we made it to the 'ski holiday party one minute early and i got to spend time cutting fruits and veggies. that is one if my fave things to do. we finally met schmee! photo above is at this party. we hated to leave but had to make it to the bt engagement party. it was standing room only by the middle of the night and we were thrilled to be surrounded by friends. i would jump at the opp to join a commune with our hosts. those two lovelaced birds! news of our hired help engaging my fellow homelessness ender was cause for jumping up and down. e showed off her new walking skills by fetching tae bo balls.

we missed church on sunday for the third week in a row. at least last sunday. we were out of town as our excuse. we have gone to our little home group and to owner's night so it's not like we're totally neglecting the church. i have a feeling they would be fine without us though and haven't heard anyone knocking on our door to inquire about our whereabouts. they must think we are adults or something. we went to goodwill and for indian food, grocery shopping, and coffee in a parking lot instead. we had great talks with each other.