May 2nd

One year ago on May 2nd, I took a pregnancy test. It was positive. I showed that test to my husband, hand shaking. We were going to have a baby! Well, duh. It wasn't a puppy.

Note: test stick shown above was the one used to discern the existence of the baby, pictured. DOES NOT INDICATE ANOTHER PREGNANCY...CEASE UR PANICKING!

Four months ago, on January 2nd, Evelyn arrived. With her birth, two sisters were made.

I always wanted to have more than one child. I wanted them to have siblings, for many reasons. Mostly so that they'd have someone to talk to about their nutty childhoods, but also that they would hopefully grow up to like each other enough to be friends.

And, with more kids you've got a better shot at one of them growing up to make a good living and support their parents in their old age.

Not after you put one-year old pee next to my innocent baby face. Think again, MOTHER.

Family: all because two people fell in love.

These Are the Days of Our Lives

Evelyn had her 4 month checkup today. We were early (SHOCKING) and so we went for coffee (decaf, one sugar). While waiting at the drive-through, this was going on in the backseat:

Adorable sister time that was captured with my phone camera. I lamented this at the time, but the results look almost better than my camera camera. Wow, technology these days.

Hands! And, siblings looking at each other! Precious moments dolls and baby cupids are shouting out to choirs of angels in heaven over this.


I may be a touch hormonal, but good lord the sweetness!


The only sister time in the car that I remember is that of fighting over who didn't have to sit on the hump in the middle. Cars these days, they don't even have a hump anymore. 


What with camera phones and no-hump cars, I can't keep up.

Way Back Machine

A change from baby pictures for a moment. How about the 1980s?

 Our family regularly vacationed in California to visit family. We frequented the Ponderosa Ranch for sarsaparilla, horseback rides, and Hoss Burgers. There was also Lake Tahoe and family in Reno.

This is me and my dad on horseback. That horse liked to scratch his butt on the shrubbery, which was located at the top of a steep precipice. My dad wasn't too comfortable with that, but he thought it was pretty funny.

Here we are again. This time it's my sister (in blue), me, and Uncle Lee (the family we visited). No itchy-butt horses here.

I remember the cars didn't have air conditioning, and we didn't acquire personal music devices for many years. Once we did, it was GREAT. Lots of Depeche Mode and Joy Division was played on my Walkman.

 My sister and I, trying not to look like to kids from small-town Oregon, and looking very much like kids from small-town Oregon.

Usually we spent some time in and around Reno, then we'd drive to Southern California to visit Grandma. The side trip to Reno broke up the monotony of I5. I can't believe we did all that traveling, in our little cars with all our stuff in two weeks.

 I still like to take road trips, but nowadays there is more likely to be a book on cd playing over the air conditioning fan. All fodder for my daughters' blog entries, I'm sure.

A Day

It's a frog-footed pajama kind of day.



I have no idea what THAT means. Or why my pictures have been so blurry lately. But anyway, frog feet!

What the Fuss

As a breastfeeding mom, I have a long list of foods to avoid eating or else they will upset the baby. As the mother of an infant, I have very little time to invest in creating new menus to replace those I have automatically enjoyed for years. Take breakfast, with the restriction of no eggs, peanuts, or dairy. I can replace the milk on my cereal with rice milk, but that leaves my bagel painfully dry, without peanut butter, cream cheese or butter.

Breakfast is annoying but the worst meal of the day by far is dinner, where I must make something amenable to my baby and the rest of the family. Sometimes, I have cereal for dinner. That doesn't cut it for the rest of them, though, who don't like to eat like they're still in college. A dish as simple as pasta becomes inordinately difficult. No marinara, and no alfredo either.

There are websites that list meal plans and recipes for people like me, but often they are for omitting one item or maybe two, not the entire list that is applicable to me. A dairy-free site will tell me to avoid dairy if baby is fussy, but suggest cabbage or broccoli as an alternate calcium source, which also makes my baby fussy. A breastfeeding guide to nutrition cautions me to get plenty of calories, and then merrily suggests getting plenty of calcium from sources like yogurt or broccoli, which we've already established are out of the question.

Restrictions + no time + need for calories = mealtime freak out.

That formula could be the case, but I've decided to remain calm. I've eaten my (cereal with rice milk) breakfast, now it's time to plan for lunch. Yesterday's lettuce sandwich was all right, but isn't enough. I can't keep improvising. I need a plan. I also need a calcium supplement.

No:

eggs
dairy
tomatoes
citrus
peanuts
soy
corn
vegetables like cabbage and broccoli
shellfish
caffeine
carbonated drinks


Evelyn is calm for now.....to the internets!

Wise Things

Today I learned how to make homemade granola and to let the dust bunnies go nuts because babies don't keep!

Granola from Orangette, Olive Oil and Maple Granola; babies don't keep sentiment from the Leaky Sippy.

Sunday, Poopy Sunday

Ahhhh..........Sunday. The day of rest. The Sabbath. A day for lounging, reading the paper, drinking endless cups of coffee, and not doing much of anything one normally does during the week.

None of that describes this day. This day was precisely the opposite, and with a lot more bodily fluids involved. Specifically, hers:



The rest portion of the day was wiped out when I was up twice to feed and diaper Baby Evvie. That's not bad, because it means she slept longer rather than shorter. My addled brain thanks you, baby. I am slightly less addled today and I appree-she-ate that. In my most sleep-deprived delirium, I think about some pretty wacky things. Sometimes I think babies know we're tired and are engaged in a plot to see how long they can keep us up until they fall asleep. I tried to take a nap with her earlier and she was all, THAT IS NOT HAPPENING ON MY WATCH. The other babies might hear about how she let her mother nap during the day, and she would be, what? Fired? I don't know. Must get some sleep and put brain to useful purposes instead of this nonsense.

The coffee-drinking is not something I can indulge in while breastfeeding, for the most part I do avoid massive infusions of caffeine. Instead, I drink black tea for my first cup of the day and then herbal after that. Well, today I went nuts and had a cup of coffee. Not more than 8 ounces, mind you. It wasn't a Girls Gone Wild kind of binge, but that was a little bit different.

What's next, reading the paper? Oh, well, I got to read an article or two before the crying got to me and I had to pay attention to the baby.

KIDDING.

It was three articles. *

* NOT REALLY.

I was under time pressure to eat my lunch and so just read whatever section was in front of me. It was the front page, about a man who shot his son in alleged self-defense. Sad. I don't remember the others (what with all the crying I was trying to ignore).

As for not doing much of anything that I normally do during the week, let's inventory. Today I did:

➜ laundry

➜ cooked, or reheated food

➜ washed dishes

➜ swept laundry room

➜ fed baby

➜ changed baby

➜ gave baby a bath after massive blowout involving immersing baby fully clothed in warm sink bath because the poop, she was everywhere

➜ changed baby's outfit after unlawful peeing incident**

➜ drank 8 ounces of fully-caffeinated coffee, with a little sugar

Those are just a few of the things I have done this restful Sunday. So different!


Neener!

Baby Evvie has fallen asleep. Now is when the ancient conundrum rears its head, because I have to decide whether to sleep, eat, read, or some compact version of all three. My husband and oldest daughter are out doing softball things, and I wonder whether I want to go somewhere? That would require packing diaper bag, hefting baby around in car seat, in other words work. I'm not averse to work, but again, I'm trying to make this day look different than the other six.

Uhhh.....no dice.

In the end I chose to blog about it, to give it all meaning. I type for you. WIth Milo looking on and concerned that maybe the cursor ought to be attacked.


This is what Evvie looks like right now, except with eyes closed.

He thinks that would be too much work and has laid his head on the computer to sleep instead. A noble endeavor, which I will now pursue because my addled brain is all empty and such.


** Peeing while one's diaper is removed.

A Conversation With Evelyn

I have something to say.


Happy St. Paddy's Day! My mom's drinking a Guinness for you.


Just kidding.

She doesn't have any Guinness. But if she did, she would totally drink one.


So, here's the thing...



...I've been smiling, and now I'm old enough that it's not due to gas. See?
This baby is not tooting.

Here's another one. My mom's talking to me all funny, and it makes me laugh.

Still not tooting...

Sometimes I worry about the grownups in this house. The way they act in order to get me to do things? It's embarrassing. It makes me laugh.


Note the blurry baby? It is not Gaussian Blur, that is Baby Blur. Also, this chair rocks so that could also be why.

That could be a Photoshop filter.


Baby Blurrrrrr...

Go ahead and look. I'm adorable!



I move so fast, you can't get a good picture. But the smile makes you want to eat me up, doesn't it?



That's what mom says. I can't say that doesn't make me nervous.

Motherhood is Losing One's Mind One Sleepless Night at a Time

The baby teased me with a couple of five-hour nights before she decided she didn't need that much sleep all in a row.



Commented to husband the other night: I don't want to only be able to converse about sleep schedules and the intricacies of diaper changes, and yet, here I am.



This is what it is for now, it seems. Things will change and flow into the next stage in time. I will read the paper everyday again soon, and drink caffeinated coffee without counting ounces...one day.

On the other hand, who wouldn't want to spend the wee hours with this one?

Sisters

Photo Card

Little Birdie Baby Announcements

Announcements for all occasions: graduation, a new baby, or wedding.

View the entire collection of cards.

Girl and Cat

Natalie and Dewey in a poorly edited, strangely color casted photo...

Miles

When Milo is ready to play he gets this certain look in his eyes that is hard to describe. If you remember the snake from The Jungle Book movie, the swirly, hypnotizing eyes. That is what I see in Milo's eyes.

Here, he is too sleepy to have full-on swirly eyes. This is more his, "I just woke up, give me a few minutes to catch up and then I'll kill you" face.



This is how he looks when he's about to attack my head. Why I let a cat who attacks my head also sleep on my pillow is called SUCKER.

This is typical of how Milo looks in action. This particular action is yawning, but the gaping mouth is impressive nonetheless.



The mice in the neighborhood don't stand a chance against The Predator. Except when he sleeps.



Mama sez ai iz so gud when ai sleep! Wut do u think that meenz?

Law of the Jungle

The wild animal stalks her prey with stealth, often waiting hours for just the right moment.

The prey, meanwhile, is unaware of the danger that is about to befall him.



The wild animal in question wears orange sweatpants and no socks when stalking...

Dewey should know better by now.

Garfield Rules Mornings Around Here

Every morning, OC eats her breakfast while reading the comics page. She is like me that way, can't sit there with nothing to read. Talk to your family? BORING. Where's the cereal box? Pamphlet of famous Jewish athletes? ANYFRIGGINGTHING?



Today's Garfield was a particularly good one, so she shared it with me, saying, "Jim Davis does a good job of coming up with new ones."

Sometimes I'm even called in to explain a pop culture reference. Thank goodness I spent my youth reading Archie comics and other kinds of things that would render me useful to my child.

More Kitteh

Milo and Dewey proving we adopted the right kittens.



Milo and Dewey are the new Milo and Otis.

Superbad

How quickly do tiny balls of fluff...


...become predatory furballs?



Superbad is Milo's nickname (he's the orange one with The Face). Here's why that is his nickname: because he has the judgment inabilities of an adolescent wrapped with the fearlessness of a toddler, equipped with deadly weapons. He attacks anything that moves. That's bad news for the mice population within a certain radius of our house, but also bad news for our feet, sweatshirt drawstrings, wiggling fingers, or anything else we might be dumb enough to move when he's in the mood to play.

How can cute be so bad?



She lyz. See mah fayc? I iz gud.*


* No, he's not.

Bottoms Up

Nicholas Kristoff tells it brilliantly by example, that bottom-up movements achieve social change faster than pedantic and goody-two shoes campaigns. From Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic to teenage smoking, this is what works.

When the Debt Was Paid

The last time the U.S. had a zero debt balance, Andrew Jackson was president. It was 1835. Is debt good or bad? Is some debt good, but a lot of debt is bad? How much debt is too much? Does it depend on GDP?

I have my opinions. I don't know if they are the answers. Maybe they are. Perhaps the secret lies inside the brain of a 37-year old softball mom...

Read all about it.

Happy tax day.

I am SO NOT Okay

Evidence:

Friday, 10:14 pm
My Living Room

The family laptop has hulu playing the latest Glee episode. I am wearing headphones as a courtesy to family members who have already gone to bed. The sound seems low, so I turn it up...



10: 16 pm

Have solved the sound problem. It takes me two full minutes to realize the sound is not coming through the headphones because the headphones are plugged in to the wrong place. The last two minutes of Glee were blasted into my living room. How's that sleep working out for you, family? You're welcome!

Time for bed.