milkcratecastle

A different kind of Panda Watch

2012-01-15T21:28:00.000-08:00

So she is here!

Panda arrived - super quick! only 40 mins in the hospital and 3 chill hours at home - on the early part of the 12th day of the watch.

We have been watching her closely and adoringly ever since!

Good news and Bad news - she is a terrific sleeper. So I feel decently well rested but probably won't since we are back in the hospital for three hour shifts of b-feed, pump, wait b/c we couldn't feed the jaundice out of her at home b/c she wouldn't stay awake long enough to eat enough!

So its a new kind of Panda watch... the kind that in the delightful way of parenthood... never ends.

Back to my pumping for her supplemental feedings in the tanning bed...

Panda at almost an hour old w/Mommy and Daddy

Honestly, we couldn't be happier :)

Panda Watch days 9 and 10

2012-01-10T20:17:00.000-08:00

Still no panda.

Yesterday was a super productive day with lots of cooking real food for breakfast (and getting a glamour shoot by little man as I cooked - wow you can totally see the belly!),

cleaning, work (rehearsal) where little man played with friends at "mommy's school"'s playground with the awesome summer nanny who is home for the Jan break who also took him to gymnastics while mommy was teaching.
Then we came home cleaned the dining table and the bathroom essentials just in time for our special NEAq Friends to come over with Indian food and tell us about their South African adventures (taking care of Penguins but also being on a nice romantic vacation!).

Today - little man had school... though he begged to stay home and have everyone just cuddle in big bed all day. I think he knows something is up. I stayed to play with him at school for about 10 mins b/c he asked me to stay and we've found transition-wise if I stay when he asks me to he doesn't get upset when I do leave.

Big Man has regular work and special possible start up work so it was a relief when Auntie came over to play with mommy and little man and help with the bath logistics I just can't do b/c of my nerve issues.

But I'm much better since today also included a chiropractic adjustment and an acupuncture appt specifically designed to get labor started. We will see if it works. I've been having decent contractions every 1/2 hour since the appointment about 9 hours ago. We shall see if they turn into anything substantial.

Still haven't packed the bag but I have the list.

Panda did her going crazy in the tummy thing from 9pm til 10.30pm. She might turn out to be the wild one. Is that possible?

Panda watch 2012 day 8

2012-01-10T18:24:00.000-08:00

Trying to get things ready in case she does actually show up before an induction.
At the end of the day every stitch of laundry is done, the bedroom is as clean as it will ever be, the kitchen just needs a scrub but is picked up and the living area is slightly more liveable.

Could be worse.

Great playoff games helped the sleepy, ouchy day go by much better.

Yesterday (which was an insanely full day) didn't leave a lot of cleaning time and that was my number one goal for the weekend before I lose big man back to work, and possibly even to job two again. However, I'm really glad we had all the fun and adventure we had yesterday :)

I don't think I even covered it all - took little man to the open house at the school I teach at and he played and played in the kindergarten room with the great teachers there. So need to figure out how to afford at least three years of tuition! I really would love him to go there k-2. Then dragged him directly to gymnastics with our traditional stop at Iggy's bread company after for pizza (little man) and croissants (mommy!) and this time Big Man was also with us (b/c I can't handle lifting little man b/c of the back/hip issues panda has triggered) and he got a mini-pullman of light rye fresh out of the oven.
Watching Big Man eat mini sandwiches of tuna fish later in the afternoon was uber cute!
Then we all 1/2 napped together on the couch while little man watched some of the 80's scholastic videos we got on DVD recently - Courdoroy is a favorite, but also we are rocking Harold and the purple crayon, a bunch of Ezra Jack Keats and a random book called "drummer hoff".
This was the only "bad" moment of the day. As I was pretty much totally asleep I awake to "Mommy!!" And open my eyes to see a flying squirrel version of my 3 year old launching itself off Big Man's knees at the other end of the couch, shouting "I Loooove you!" as he lands on me just right so as to pop my back and hips. He undid weeks of 2-3 times a week chiropractic appointments with one love filled bound. I've been in pain ever since.
But not so much that I couldn't go back to sleep when Big Man then announced he would take little man for a run (which in temperate weather - it was 50 in January! - means time at the park as well). I slept for almost an hour and then made myself get up b/c runs usually only last about an hour to an hour 20 if I'm lucky.
Instead, this was a 2 hour adventure that culminated in me also getting a delivered Starbucks! yay!
So I also got some cleaning/organizing done while they were gone.

But that is when the brainstorm for a double date and getting a babysitter happened, too. I'm so glad we went out but I was up all night from the food. So today really needed to be a couch watching football playoffs day.

The food came back again, all night long. Thankfully it didn't come UP.

All in all a fantastic "final" (again) weekend without the panda joining us.

Due Date No 2 slides by

2012-01-08T19:19:00.000-08:00

At first my due date was Jan 1 2012. Then they looked at all the info and thought better of it and said Jan 7 2012.

Well I'm two for two... :)

My body is so ready to go - TMI warning!
I'm dialated and a bit effaced, my milk is ready... but the baby... is ballotable.

What a great freakin word!! It means able to be bounced up and down.
So she isn't "engaged".

The midwives suggested this crazy site - www.spinningbabies.com - I'm debating if I should arm Big Man with a towel and a link or if I'm willing to wait and possibly endure another round of pitocin. Though I do have to say the yoga ball is just about the only place I'm comfortable these days and then only for a little while.

So tonight in honor of the passing of the 2nd due date we got a last minute sitter and went on a double date with Auntie and her fiance.
Yum!

Though I'm sure its not going to sit well... even though its totally chill food...

Jan 6th - Sleep and Work... in that order

2012-01-08T19:16:00.000-08:00

Panda Watch continues...

Dropped off M at preschool, went to the chiropractor for the nervy pinches from the baby and then pretty much slept the rest of the day, waking up just in time to go to another day of rehearsal. Except in epically awesome fashion I locked myself out of the house without car keys or house keys on my way to rehearsal that started in 10 minutes!

Thankfully Auntie was working from home and she has an extra key and is a saint so she came over and let me back in the 16 inches that separated me from my keys on the hook hanging next to the door... sigh.

Great day at rehearsal for Sadako, though I did spill my tea all over the rug b/c I can't see my feet and I kick things or trip regularly. sweet.

First Puke of 2012!

2012-01-05T19:33:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I didn't get pictures of the epic pile of laundry created by one one-minute puke.

Let's be clear - not a puker and not a fan of puke. (See last year's posts about our new years through day six puke-tacular)

And this time he threw up ON ME and HIM in BIG BED while I was home alone with him. I've always had back up before. Or missed the actual puking. But I was here and stuck for the whole shebang. If I wasn't 9 months pregnant I probably would have been able to hop out of bed with him at the first indication of puke and then it could have been a mostly floor cleaning issue. Instead, we were cuddled in Big Bed reading books and in such a way mommy couldn't move (no abs to sit up, have to roll and flop like a sorry fish to get out of bed without stressing my pinched nerves) as the puke came in waves 1-4 until we were both totally covered.

I managed to save the book and monkey blanket - success!

Though it remains to be seen if my brand-new maternity/post baby WHITE sparkly sweater will survive past its first wearing. Its soaking now.

I have decided to leave today's picture to your imagination.

3yr old puke of an entire apple and bottle water, two pieces of broccoli and one bite of chicken on me, him and the whole queen size bed.

4 loads of laundry.

enjoy.

A WORK DAY!

2012-01-05T19:20:00.000-08:00

Wow. So it was a good thing that today was a sans panda day.

Work abounded and I rocked it.

Went to the Bank with the little man to set up Security Deposit stuffola for our new tenants in an all legal like manner, b/c taking care of the apartment is now part of "my job" for the family as I scale back my outside of the home work.

Then we went out to breakfast (@ the Breakfast Club) instead of going to Trader Joe's to buy groceries. Was totally worth it. He loves to go the "the Egg place"; but he really only eats toast with Ketchup while we are there!

Then napped in the car for 17 ish minutes while he listened to an audio book of Cars.

Then the sitter came and I ran out the door for the first rehearsal of Sadako and the Thousand Cranes that I'm directing. It was one of the best days of rehearsal ever. I had it set to run w/o me in case I was panda occupied. I need to plan more of my work like I won't be there. It ran really well!

Then I had two back to back conference calls for the Harvard project. Got lots done. I'm really excited about this website!

So if Panda comes tomorrow at least I got a TON done today :)

The "taiko" kids hard at work analyzing the script for music cues

2012-01-03T23:32:00.000-08:00

My internet was out all day. MADDENING!

So I spent the day working at two different Starbucks.

A peppermint mocha decaf, vanilla roobois latte, and a santa fe sandwich later...

Got the little man from school, convinced him to eat a "burrito" of meatloaf and cheese. And then into big bed for books where I almost fell asleep (or maybe I did?!) before he did. He ended up getting up and heading back to his bed so he could have his ritual zbar, bottle water, monkey blanket. (We recently instituted "no zbars in big bed!") Of course he went to bed fully dressed (refused to change and I wasn't in the mood for a fight) and I fell asleep at 8.45p.

Big Man got home from work late around midnight and I woke up and have been doing work on my miraculously fixed internet since.

Time to go back to bed... if there is no panda tonight I have work all day today/tomorrow.

First Day of Sadako Rehearsals and then back to back evening Conference calls...

Playing with Photo booth since none of Mommy's normal "games" worked sans internet

2012-01-02T19:36:00.000-08:00

Yep.
Panda Watch 2012 Day 2.
What you can't HEAR about this picture is Big Man clicking away on his controller for the Xbox or little Man waking up just as I was taking this by screaming in his bedroom. Could be a nightmare, could be his incoming molars!
But here is how I sleep like the Queen of Sheba with the fancy orthotics pillows left over from my mom's knee and hip replacements years ago.
Also notice the other super hot old lady pajamas.

2012-01-01T20:13:00.000-08:00

welcome 2012!

I figure if I start off looking this ridiculous we have no where to go but up!

Panda Watch 2012 begins.

What the hell are you wearing?! - you ask...

Ans: the only warm socks I could find (not a matching pair), the large size polar fleece jammies I had to buy at TjMaxx b/c nothing fits b/c I'm 48 inches around, the bathrobe I got on sale at TjMaxx two weeks later to wear to the hospital, the moby tied to help keep the panda centered to raise my chances of a labor that can start on its own this time, and the hair style of the fabulous who haven't showered in two or possible three days.

A Nice New Year's Outfit if I do say so myself...

365: Day 72

2011-03-15T20:51:00.000-07:00

My husband was a good husband today.

the Little Man and I totally slept in again (though there was a period of being up! from 6-7.30 and since I had gone to bed at like 3 am that wasn't enough) we got up at 11.30 when Big Man came back from taking care of something for our tenant and handed me a SB peppermint mocha (decaf!) in bed.

Awesome.

Rehearsal was even better for it.

It was a good day.

Thought I still don't like the new logo.

But a person contacted me from corporate b/c of my facebook postings about it last week. They are super nice!

365: Day 71 Ras

2011-03-15T20:34:00.000-07:00

Every year big Man runs the Ras na hEirean

This year little Man and I slept through it.

To say that little Man hasn't been sleeping well is an understatement.

To say I haven't been sleeping well is an understatement.

But we slept until 12pm! Though with daylight savings it was really more like 11 right?
Anyways, we went to buy books at the annual used book fair they have at the school i teach at and we did well at restraining ourselves.
This year only spent 50 bucks (1 to 2$ a book!).

I missed the cool adult event they were having b/c little Man refused to leave the room full of books. He thought it was awesome.

Can't argue with that.

Then we called and called Big Man until we found the party he had ended up at. Since he hadn't had a day off in about a month I thought he was very well behaved. Though I hear he got in a big argument in one of the bars... about healthcare politics. :)
A little shift from our younger days!
Maybe we will grow up to be conservative libertarians someday!

Little Man was the hit of the "party" (can you call it a party if its a bunch of couples you know and their younger brothers all hanging out in an apt watching college basketball eating chocolate and chips?).

He is like a little ninja - he would wear those glasses and dance and then as soon as a camera came out, say Cheese and whip them off.
Yes, he is wearing green boots, a sox hat, an ireland sweatshirt, and a clover medal from the Ras.
Are we possibly over accentuating the like 1/8th irish that he is... maybe.
But look at how cute!

365: Day 70 NEAq the membership that keeps on giving

2011-03-15T20:19:00.000-07:00

Was excited to see a good high school friend who I haven't seen since last spring but his bus was late coming up from NYC.

So to kill time down town we briefly hit NEAq. I landed another parking karma awesomeness spot a block away from the Aquarium in the other direction than I did last week and we trundled across the street avoiding the dozens of green clad drunken revelers for the St Patty's Day bar crawls.

I thought of my younger days looking at the time those kids were having...

The penguins were singing, the scuba guy was feeding the shark in the center tank, and little man ran up and down and up and down the ramp. We played in the kids area for a little and then... it came. He wanted to visit his favorite place in the whole Aquarium.

The Cafe - for their pizza and a chocolate sugar milk. *sigh*

We always sit in the windows and he watches the people.

We then went to meet my friend, got another amazing parking spot by the common, hit the SB by beacon hill next to the common gate, and walked around the whole common and through the botanical garden chatting. In the near dark of the dusk the day before daylight savings. It was really great to catch up.

Then we packed into the car and (very probably lost his boot here!) and went to somerville to see Auntie and MB for dinner. Which Auntie helped cook - which was a pretty big deal as MB and I love to cook, watch shows about it and generally obsess and she... does it b/c she has to eat. But I think we are wearing her down :)

Though they did spend ten minutes after dinner loading in all their calories and stuff on an app. I wish Big Man and I were a little more concerned with our health. But a possible wedding isn't staring us quite in the face as it is for them...
isn't that one of the things about being happily married - you get a little squishy and its no bigs?

365: Day 69 All the Mommies need a break

2011-03-15T20:16:00.000-07:00

After rehearsal Auntie L and Mama S and I convinced Mama S's daughter (my regular teen babysitter) to watch Little Man while we grabbed sushi and then hung out at her house with a bottle of wine.

So necessary

365: day 68

2011-03-15T20:12:00.000-07:00

So he is really into the potty.

I'm trying not to be too excited but the number of poop diapers is rapidly dwindling!

365: Day 67

2011-03-15T20:06:00.000-07:00

So little Man wanted "soup" - or in our house that means left over baby food that hasn't expired yet. We were down to our last jar - but it didn't have a label on it. And he was adamant that he get sesame street soup (or earth's best baby food which is an underwriter on Sesame street and he thinks their funding spot is basically part of the show).

So I cut a label off an expired jar that was in the recycling and used packing tape to (poorly!) affix it to the jar of good food.

He said it was SO good.

365: Day 66

2011-03-15T19:49:00.000-07:00

Outside FINALLY!

365: Day 65 Bass Pro Shops - a free playground

2011-03-15T19:41:00.001-07:00

Bass Pro Shops might be one of the best secret places to take a kid to entertain them. Except that its not a secret!
Everytime I go it is TOTALLY and utterly packed.

Big Man's Dad called and said he'd be in town at the Bass Pro. I got me and little man rounded up and we headed an hour down to Foxboro to spend an hour at Bass Pro shops with Grandpa F and the crew.
We spent most of our time at the trout stream and in the parking lot oddly enough.
It was a blast.

Actually more happened today than I can normally squeeze into a day. Maybe this will be several posts. :)

365: Day 64 um LONGEST WORK DAY

2011-03-15T19:28:00.000-07:00

Meeting for SL Residency at 10am, my house.

Meeting for Animation for the Tempest @ a parent's house at noon.

And we were supposed to meet little baby V and have dinner with her parents - but instead I left the animation day at 10pm.

Yeah. Even Big Man stopped working before I did - which is a feat here in the throes of dissertation crunch.

But wow - the animation is going to be gorgeous.

365: Day 63 Pink Water

2011-03-15T19:23:00.000-07:00

So now he is obsessed with the pink water

great.

even in the middle of the night... say at like 3.45am

"PINK WATER"

"PUHLLEEEEZ"

365: Day 62 Sick Day but Visitors!

2011-03-15T17:41:00.001-07:00

So no yoga for mommy, a phone conference in to my huge meeting with Emerson about getting hired for the Summer program - such is being a working Mom to a sick kid who gets sick on your one office day a week.

But it all went well and little man actually really loves "pink water" - so at the very least he will take the anti-biotics. This is his first round of them in his whole little life.
Hope they don't mess him up.

My conference call was actually really productive - though I had to say the word douchebag in a crowded starbucks.... over and over again. (I was reading scripts for TTL; lucky I didn't have to say worse).

This conference call replaced the meeting we never made it to b/c of the douchebag who ran the red light so it was a little ironic, the layering of that word in this experience.

I came home and had a terrible headache but I was really excited b/c a friend of mine who I hadn't seen in forever (our last face to face was a girl date to see inception in the theatre when it was new!) so I wasn't about to cancel.

We got Thai (little man helped her order) and I didn't eat a bite. I was so sick.
But I was determined to have some quality time with her (though I had really only had about 4 hours sleep the night before - ear infection in the little man is finally rearing its head).

After little man went to bed @ 9pm (finally), I got to just lay on the couch and talk to her. It was awesome and we both finally had to give up the talking at 11.45p!
I miss adult conversations about important things!

365: Day 61 2011 ya wanna cut me a break?

2011-03-15T17:28:00.000-07:00

Bi-lateral or Double ear infection.

Whichever.

Means anti biotics and 2 hours on the phone with the new health insurance trying to figure out where to take little man to get him looked at, setting things up with a new doctors office, going and getting looked at like I neglected my kid b/c how couldn't you notice he was sick... etc.

61 days of 2011 with someone being sick in our house. WTF.

And yesterday made me so hopeful that we'd turned a corner.

Little Man is fine, and he acts fine.
So I guess I won't burn in hell for not figuring out where I could purchase antibiotics from with our new insurance before I had to go teach all night. And then go to a planning meeting (where we picked the theme and basic conference structures) for the thing I co-chair at Harvard.

No fever. He's fine.
Except for the bilateral ear infection.

365: Day 60 NEEDLE me

2011-03-15T17:15:00.000-07:00

Wow. People have said it. I mostly believed them.

Ahhhhmazing.

One of the parents at the school I teach at is a Acupuncturist and Massageist of renown.
She took me last minute.

Life altering experience. She is going to get me through the whip lash, the soreness, and the dissertation, and the last couple weeks of my kids' show.

I feel like I could fly.

And there are still needles in my ears.

I'm going to go drink my special passion flower tincture in my tea and go to sleep...

365: Day 59 The "mondays"

2011-03-15T17:11:00.000-07:00

After the great day yesterday I should be back in the saddle but I still am not feelin it.

Normal morning of trying to do tons of work and poor little man eating chocolate biscotti and watching PBS kids instead of getting to play with me.

Then to teach.

Then home with little man, a movie and bed.

too much tv for him!

365: Day 58 Dim Sum? I'd love some

2011-03-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

Get out. DO something. Be happy.

So we did.

Dim Sum with Auntie and MB AND BIG MAN! Big Man hasn't been home (other than to eat dinner that night after the ER) and we miss him.

After Dim Sum (with a parking karma spot worth its weight in gold, less than a block from China Pearl - though that almost never happens so I took a pic of the garage info for evernote) we drove to the Aquarium, but parking was like 20 bucks! So I was like... we'll walk. So we decided to drop Big Man off near Government Center and look for off-chance street parking on a Sunday downtown... and I got an AMAZING SPOT one block from the NEAq across from a Starbucks.
A little bit of luck going my way!

The NEaq was great - we didn't bother our friends that work there we just chilled in the kids area for a couple hours and did one run up and down of the center spiral. low key, but nice.

Then we hit the Starbucks on the way out. So nice.

Here is the car from the window of our seat in SB.

365: Day 57

2011-03-15T16:55:00.000-07:00

Low Key day.

I dont' want to do anything. And I hate the winter, have I mentioned that?

Oh and 2011, hate that too so far... other than the fact that it hasn't killed anyone close to me.

or me.

365:Day 56 Trader Joe's

2011-03-15T16:35:00.000-07:00

I love Trader Joes. Love love love, super heart.

I got a sitter for the little Man and was headed to my afternoon meeting when I figured I would do some grocery shopping (since I was supposed to do some tuesday and instead had come home from the ER) and get our essentials - Mango Juice, yogurt, cheese, bread, apples, zbars, milk...

There was a huge display of the reduced guilt brownies. And I was like - "oooh, I'll make brownies with (Little Man), I've never done that, it'll be..." and then it hit me. I never made brownies with him. Or for Big Man. Wow. Together 13 years and no brownies?! I could have left them w.o brownies... I started hyperventaliting right there at the end of the aisle by the dairy, my highly honed and very well trained tear ducts swelled my eyes full of tears ...
I was like - stop it.
Pull it together, don't be stupid.
I have to get out of here.

I tried to race decorously to the check out. While in line I was able to pull myself together and think, I should take a picture of TJ's I'm here all the time and clearly, food has a lot of resonance for me.

I know that this pic is a result of Little Man's grubby fingers smudging the lens on my phone's camera but this is exactly what the register looked like through my non-tear tears.

365: Day 55 It all looks worse but thats good...

2011-03-15T16:28:00.000-07:00

Had a good meeting about the Residency with the Chamber Music Trio.

That will be cool... in my spare time...!

365: Day 54 Back to Work

2011-03-15T16:17:00.000-07:00

Today I had a VO for Uno's (they don't want to be called Pizzeria Unos anymore).

It was really good to get out into the world and to be useful and pretend like nothing happened and I was still in my shell of general human mode of ignoring that any day could be my last.

One interesting thing is that I feel like a teenager again.

Well, at least I was as sore and tired as I used to be after triple sessions of volleyball with Mr C slamming as many spikes as possible into my glasses (why I was able to talk my parents into contacts!).

I can't quite type yet, fluidly. But close.

It doesn't look bad - but if I'd taken a better comparison picture you could see how amazingly swollen it is.

Do you know how hard it is to balance to get a picture of the back of your knee with your non-dominant hand? I just about fell on my nose.

365:Day 53 A chevy saved my life

2011-02-24T01:31:00.000-08:00

me in the ER

So I'm not really ready to go into this.
But the full surround airbags on the Chevy Cruze are an amazing wonderful awesome thing.

A douche ran a light and drove away unscathed. Three other average people who were all doing the right thing ended up in the ER.

I will never know if the other guy turned out totally ok. He was going for CAT scans when we were discharged.

My Boss and I are good - just sprains, him ankle, me hand.

By about two hours in to the ER we were in the Boss' room and we started talking about how this was an inconvenience. What a delight! In a day that likely would have been surgery and life altering changes and very possibly death, became a day of inconvenience b/c of airbags and good reflexes.

like 45-50 miles an hour into a parked car. It was so fast.

I am SO THANKFUL.

I'm sure I'll get into details later - its too good a story not to tell. That's what I do, tell stories about the human condition. But I'm tired.

365:Day 52 Death and Taxes

2011-02-24T01:07:00.000-08:00

Went to our yearly tax appointment today.

Honestly, its a highlight of the year. We LOVE our tax guy. Ever year we talk about something totally amazing.

This year it was anime porn and japanese love pillows. Not kidding.

The guy is a riot, and brilliant at taxes for artists - he literally wrote the book.

While we waited in his office we got to comb through this amazing graphical information - I want this!

You can see the TINY dot that is the NEA - where I get most of my income from in a year through grants they give to states to then hand out locally. I also snapped the Dept of Ed.
From the wide shot you can clearly see that most of the budget is defense spending.
Interesting and much better at putting the whole thing in perspective.

Little Man went with Auntie and MB to the New England Aquarium on our membership while we taxed.

Then with picking them up and dropping off little man at the sitter my office hours for the day dwindled down to about two and a half hours as we were going to meet my boss from consulting gig for dinner.

In honor of the VO gig I got today (record on Wed scheduled, lets see if they change their mind this time!) for Pizzeria Uno's we went to the Uno's next to the Boss' hotel.

Little Man was in heaven! They had screens at the table to play with and he got to eat PIZZA! He also ordered our desserts on the screen at the table - it was really adorable and fun. It was good to see the Boss in a non worky setting. He is such a great guy and has good dad advice from his experiences with his kids. I'm really excited about our project. Though am not looking forward to him pulling apart what I wrote so far for the project, though his initial reactions were very positive to the drafts I sent Friday.

Then home and to bed. Fell asleep with little Man in the big bed after books. So nice to super snuggle with both my boys.

365: Day 51 Maybe I've hit the Mommy limit?

2011-02-24T00:42:00.000-08:00

So this kick of spending more time with my kid is actually really tiring!
I love it - but yeah, breaks are good!

Big Man is still sick, I'm still sinus infectiony, and little man is still drip drip drip drip...

Today we slept in! 9.50! I should take him to TS3:ICE and keep him up til 11pm every day!

Except that I was supposed to be somewhere at 10am!

But I was there by 10.07. whew. I got let in to the school bldg by the wonderful site manager and his wife the music teacher so I can get my computer cord back and be able to be on my computer again! Yay!
And the forced running out (no shower, hat, thank god I slept in my clothes exhausted from TS3!) and chucking of my kid onto my husband let me take an extra couple minutes to hunt down Iggys
Its a SIN that this place is ON MY WAY to and from work for the last 6 years and I've never been!!
So I got crossiants for breakfast! And French bread for me and the little man to "picnic" with later in the day.

So things are looking up.

Until there is no hot water.

Long story short...

buckets of water to be dumped every 45 seconds for an hour and 40 minutes, a cracked radiator in the main living area and all the radiators in the house spouting water...

really?

We were keeping little man entertained with youtube playlists of Yogabbagabba as we ran back and forth on the phone with the heating company, emptying buckets.
The cracking sound of the radiator was amazing.

A former student of mine (played Macbeth in Macbeth my first year at FSS - now he is a SENIOR!), DJ TallBoy, saved us with some emergency childcare while I cleaned the mess up b/c Big Man had already lost half a day of work on his dissertation.
I actually got more done in two hours of babysitting, house-wise, than I have in months.
Sometimes catastrophe is good for you - gets the blood pumpin.

What I love best about my marriage is that in this overwhelming situation we actually laughed about 80 percent of the time and it was nice to know I have this great guy to lug buckets with me.

I know people that would freak - instead we enjoyed that we would have a story to tell.

So even when TallBoy left mommy wasn't able to play all day. I needed a bit of a sit down. So to make up for TS3 (or should I say balance?) we watched the MET opera on PBS, something in Russian, all afternoon while we snacked and I started to make an early dinner since there hadn't been an actual real meal in my house yet that day. (thank god I got that french bread, it kept little man occupied all day!)

Just as I took my first bite of early dinner, the phone rang... it was Auntie and her manboy - did we want to go out for sushi?
Hells, yes, get me out of this house!

So I let little man eat more of his dinner (who takes a kid to a restaurant hungry?) and I put mine in the fridge. I got him dressed and out the door and we killed time (almost 40 minutes) running up and down the sidewalks on Mass Ave looking for the sushi place and waiting for Auntie and MB. New Sushi place was closed foreva-eva so we went to the other sushi place we'd been before and loved and LOVED it even more this time.

Of course, little man ate a ton. Anything MB gave him he ate. The special trust of the winkie club.

Would he eat rice for mommy? No, but would FEED IT and eat his own from chopsticks with MB. We even got sushi in him. It was awesome.

Then home and we snuggled a bit, some movie shorts from pixar, some home movies of him as a baby, and then books and bed.

What a full, exhausting, wonderful day.

365: Day 50 Toy Story 3 ON ICE!

2011-02-24T00:30:00.000-08:00

Am I really doing this?

Yes, Disney thing on ice. wow.

Little Man loved it (at least the first hour of his attention span worth) so much he turned around while sitting on my lap grabbed my face and kissed me when buzz light year came out. no kidding.

So it was nothing like I expected but it was totally great. I got a lot of ideas too!
Its always good to see new art forms. And yes, don't scoff, it is art. Though a bit of the pandering kind, but still art.

I tried to take pictures but it so wasn't happening.
I was having fun - why do I look so desperate crazy!?

(maybe it was the 12 buck cotton candy I snarfed b/c little man DIDN'T LIKE IT!)

On the way back with our friend/sitter in her car the boys were in the back watching pooh on the dvd player. Kept them quiet but I'm not sure I could handle his brain melting like that every time we were in the car...

When we got home we were in a great mood so we did a photo shoot!

365: Day 49 Charlie

2011-02-24T00:27:00.000-08:00

My love affair with Charle continues.

Charlie's Soap came!

365:Day 48 Fake V-day (or... Never waste a babysitter)

2011-02-24T00:05:00.000-08:00

Today was supposed to be our Fake Valentines Day. Me and the Big Man got a babysitter ( a month ago - so prepared!) and were
going to go out for swank dinner downtown.

But the wheel of sick keeps on turnin'.

Now Big Man has it. I've nearly shaken the Sinus Infection, little man is just drippy with random kid immunity building coldstyle germs... we were almost all healthy.
I was hoping we'd all be healthy by day 50 of the year.
(Gotta say, keeping up with the days here has actually made the sicknesses a little depressing. I mean being like - yeah, we've been sick for like a month - feels like hyperbole but to be able to say - someone in our family has been sick for the past 48 days is really freakin specific and depressing!)

So Big Man bailed - but it was perfect!

I got to use the babysitter to go see...

Cymbeline!

yay-sies!

In case its not on the tip of your mind its one of Shakespeare's most convoluted though very interesting plays about... wow... how do you sum up all like 6 of the plot lines...
Chicklet Princess marries awesome, but not a prince, guy. Daddy flips his lid, new husband runs away from Britian (where daddy is King) and hides out in... spain, italy? someplace like that. All this time Step-Mommy Queen is trying to kill/get rid of Princess and/or get her to marry Step Brother - Cloten (best name ever). There is some trickery of the Zanni by the Queen, and then the Zanni is ordered to kill the princess by the new husband his master after this other guy (met while chillin on the continent) has claimed to come and tasted her wares. Zanni, a la the hunter in snow white, takes princess out to wales and makes it seem like he killed her but instead helps her dress like a boy to escape being discovered. She runs in to these Welsh cave dwellers who are actually a former general of her father the king whom he disgraced for no good reason who then got even by stealing his two sons (oh, yeah did we forget to mention the two missing princes... well here they are). So she chills with her brothers in wales and they adopt her as a brother but none of them know WHO they are. Cloten comes looking for her, gets in a fight with the brothers and the eldest brother be-heads him just as the princess, who hasn't been feeling well takes the vial of poison/medicine the Queen planted with the Zanni. So Cloten and the Princess end up "dead" together but of course cloten is missing his head, so when Princess Imogen wakes up (still dressed as a boy) and sees him next to her in the burial site she thinks it is her husband (which is fitting since the poision is actually the same stuff they use in R&J for J) and freaks - oh, right, she thinks its her husband b/c Cloten was wearing some of her husband's clothes... crazy stuff. Then the passing Roman general with his army - yeah didn't mention that whole plot line did I? - sees Imogen dressed as a boy weeping over "her master" and takes him/her on as his new page. The husband has buyers remorse about the killing of his wife (she has been reported dead by the Zanni) and he decides that in the upcoming battle between britian and rome he will fight on whatever side is losing so that he will surely die.
Long story short (HA!), the battle reveals all for who they truly are, the queen has miraculously died of grief over her missing son and the young lovers are reunited and reconciled, the Zanni is honored, the Romans are beaten but respected, the fallen welsh general is exonerated and honored for his new efforts in defeating the romans, and the Princes are reunited with their father, King Cymbeline.

I went out for Drinks first (with Auntie). Two drinks in 45 minutes actually.

It was a GREAT play.

365:Day 47 Let them eat... Cake!

2011-02-23T23:43:00.000-08:00

Today was a normal day. Me and the little man chillin in the am before I head to teach.
I have gotten a hold on myself recently. I am really focused on spending quality time with the little man while we are home. I found myself, far too often, being TOLD by him "mommy, no putey. all done email."

Yeah. There is no way, though I LOVE IT, that my job pays enough or is essential enough to the advancement of human-kind that I should miss this time with the little man. What a luxury that I only have to work outside the home for 30 hours a week. There are women around this world who do nothing but work themselves to the bone and never eat first as they eke out subsistence living for their children.

I am so blessed. Rockin Husband, amazing kid, and though we are solidly middle class in america - that makes us part of the elite rich of this planet!

So less email, less reading other mommy blogs and the NYTimes and more kid time (hence the all day off on a play date yesterday!).

So today we chilled and I only did a little email during Sesame Street. And we left the house for the babysitters an hour early and went to CAKE the newly opened branch of a cool bakery that is just down the street from us.

Little Man picked out his treat... an eclair! No kidding this kid has style.
Or it could just be it was the first thing he saw at eye level with sprinkles.

"M-m-ma I have sprinkles please"
(The stutter is worse but the manners are better!)

365: Day 46 Playdate Wenham Museum!

2011-02-16T02:07:00.000-08:00

So other than the BIGGEST MELTDOWN EVER (I spent 30 minutes of my Bertucci's lunch with Auntie L and her little M in the car with screaming little Man b/c I couldn't bear to subject the rest of the restaurant to his screaming any longer.)
we had a great playdate today at the Wenham Museum.
The Museum has this great play area and rooms and rooms filled with amazingly intricate train sets/scenes.

Little Man did the trains for a bit, he especially loved the big Thomas with Annie and Clarabel, but mostly he hung out in the playroom...

Making Tea in the house (and taking a nap in the doll bed which I just wasn't fast enough to get a picture of), playing in the store, and the office...

old school play!

and please don't mention he has the same shirt set on as yesterday. Its true, but that is the fifth pair of pants so it counts as a new outfit.
:p

365: Day 45 Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-16T02:02:00.000-08:00

My camera was dead so the sitter/friend took some great shots!

365: Day 44 Feb 13th We have to get out of the HOUSE!

2011-02-16T01:57:00.000-08:00

So I dragged our bums to target.

Little man did well but started to melt.

And we had parked by the friendly's b/c the lot was so crowded.

I promised him an ice cream treat. He said he didn't want it.

Then in the car seat - he got mad and then calmed himself down enough to ask "may please go ice cream mommy please"
So we got out and went in to friendlys.

I'm so glad I didn't order something for myself. The food was HORRIFIC. But little man scarfed it up. I must be starving him!
The ice cream though was fine - even though I ordered mint chip and we got vanilla. My chocolate fribble was totally worth the price though. So sunshine spot there at least!

365: Day 42

2011-02-16T01:54:00.000-08:00

More street inspiration for Tempest
Love the ombre dying...

365: Day 41 Mix Up Day!

2011-02-16T01:48:00.000-08:00

So today I ran an art project for Mix-up day in the Tempest Theme.

Basically 400-some-odd kids from the school I teach at, grades k-8, got together in groups of about 12 and, using an image laden quote from Shakespeare's The Tempest, they created a sculpture out of recycled/reclaimed materials.

It was great!
Here is one of the 12 sculptures... (this one was kind of literal - they ran the gamut from literal to abstract)

365: Day 40 Real Life

2011-02-16T01:34:00.000-08:00

This shot captures my real life.

I can't believe how well...

This is "breakfast" or the 45 minutes of overlap in our mornings where we spend about 10 minutes together in front of the TV watching something on "PBS kids Go!" while little man eats either yogurt or shredded wheat (the organic no high fructose corn syrup one from Whole Foods, of course. self- referentail blerg.) and mango juice as Big Man eats biscotti (if he can keep it away from LM) and french press DECAF (thats a new development!!) while I run around making or unwrapping all of the foods variously mentioned.
Today is a bit of an outlier since I had left over croissants from a business meeting the day before and I had the foresight to make myself some tea with the leftover boiling water from the french press.

Our house is still being vaguely kept clean since now it is something we are paying for and no one wants to ruin it.

The big bag on the floor is all the tax stuff I have left to sort and file before our meeting with our amazing Tax guy!

The saline bottle out for LM's cold. Mine's on the bedside table. We are all sick.

My computer hooked up and sitting on the couch so I can check email and scam decaf from Big Man if I sit down before he finishes...
huddled in blankets because its stupid cold winter snowy windy grossness and heat is wicked expensive.

And his backpack with his dissertation in it ready to head off to the lab to work in the background.

365: Day 39 More V-day prep

2011-02-16T01:30:00.000-08:00

I got this in the hopes we would craft a family tree...
Maybe in May...

For now it will serve its designed purpose which is Valentine's Day Tree

Is it just me? I am pretty sure its supposed to say "hug me" but all I can see is... "nag me".

365: Day 38 White Board Teachings

2011-02-16T01:28:00.000-08:00

What we are working on in Tempest...

365: Day 37 (Feb 6 if you are keeping track)

2011-02-16T01:26:00.000-08:00

Our days are a blur...

365: Day 35 I CAN'T HANDLE THE SNOW ("the White Post)

2011-02-16T01:23:00.000-08:00

365: Day 34 Mommy's Work Day

2011-02-16T01:19:00.000-08:00

I camped out all day at a Starbucks and worked my ass off.

I am so sick of the snow.

(not my pic, I totally worked through w/o taking one!!)

365: Day 33 Just another day

2011-02-16T01:18:00.001-08:00

Say cheese!

365: Day 33 Decorating for V-Day!

2011-02-16T01:11:00.000-08:00

Little Man LOVES these glass gellies.
(So did my Gma, may-she-rest-in-peace)

Maybe that type of style taste is just genetic and there is nothing I can do about it.

But for 1.99-2.99 its fun that keeps on funning.

do you love how I framed the shots so you couldn't see the incredibly messy office through the door windows? I do.

365: Day 32 Now I have to really keep count...

2011-02-16T01:07:00.000-08:00

Now I have to actually keep track of what day is what to make all the #s work.

Never been my strong suit.

I figured since Little Man has gotten so good at, and gets SO excited about, cracking eggs I'd have him help me cook a totally eggy meal.

My first quiche!

Except that of course he threw a huge fit and refused to help.
"NO, NO, no crack eggy!"

At least he ate it.

So Day 32 - is really Feb 1.
And it was really good!

365: Day 31 Creep Me Out

2011-02-16T01:05:00.000-08:00

Who put set this up?!?

It creeped me the hell out.

365: Day 29/30 Upstate

2011-02-16T00:53:00.000-08:00

Max loves to say "New York!" when we ask him where he is going... even if he is going down the street to Trader Joes.

We actually did go home to have a bit of a celebration for my Mom's B-day, to give Big Man some time to sleep so he can functionally write his dissertation, and to give Nana and Aunt Vet a chance to play with Little Man while Aunt Vet is home on vet interviews for her big first job!

It was a whirlwind.

I'll refrain from posting the "after" picture. Let's just be clear that I have learned (again) how clear I need to be when communicating with my MIL.

Nana cut little Man's Bangs. With a beard trimmer.

*sigh* We were only about a week away from being able to sweep them out of his face and having them stay since still recovering from the disastrous pre-birthday haircut in October.

And... then my dad when taking Little Man for a "walk" so I could finally craft in peace (on my $5,000 baby presents for friends - the deer that tried to kill my car attacked me on the way home from buying the fabric in Nov) instead introduced him to the snowmobile.

I love going home to my own private slice of hick-love.
(I DO love it.)

365: Day 28 BOWLING SHOES!

2011-02-16T00:51:00.000-08:00

Um Toddler bowling...
need I say more?

365: Day 27 Our FIRST COOKIES FROM SCRATCH!

2011-02-16T00:24:00.000-08:00

So needed to feel like a Mom rockstar.

Decided to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch b/c that is like a basic Mom skill I should acquire - right?

(Have I mentioned I can't bake?)

Have Whisk Will Bake

Peel butter like a banana... check.

Chuck the Butter in the bowl as hard as possible

No Way - I got it ALL in the bowl!

Oops!

The one we left behind...

Safer to sit with Woody and watch Monsters, Inc.

Wow, they look like real cookies!

Yumms!

365: Day 26 Style

2011-02-15T23:43:00.000-08:00

I'm having my students do inspiration boards this year for their 2nd jobs in production.

This is the style board for the animation team.
(yes, we are doing some animation for the show this year).

365: Day 25 The Cleaners

2011-02-15T23:35:00.000-08:00

So I finally did it.

I hired cleaners. It was sort of that step that just feels so out of whack with where my husband and I came from and a bit egregious in this economy.

It was a big let down for him to be able to get to the place where he could admit that we couldn't clean the way he wants it. (His family would be ashamed. There are famous stories of his Aunt, when staying over at his house on vacation, once vacuumed up his retainer from the floor next to the sleeping bag he was sleeping in b/c she was supposed to be sleeping in his room at 4.30am b/c the house wasn't clean enough for her to sleep in. It runs in the whole family, but I've trained it out of him. Or killed it.)

Here is the house 8 hours after they cleaned. Big Man has assumed the position and I am working at the clean table, its even decorated! Yes there are toys and sippy cups but I'm not sure if you can tell how SHINY everything is...

They even dusted little man's drums. I didn't even do that when we bought them at the garage sale. I just put a bow on it and said "Happy Birthday".

365: Day 24 Inspiration!

2011-02-15T23:12:00.000-08:00

One of the best things we can do when times get tough is to get together and bitch.
Had a great night out with a colleague after a meeting for this conference that we are planning for the fall (go AiE CtC!). All we did was go get mexican and talk. It was perfect.

I find it so inspiring to simply reconnect with glorious people who are so full of ideas and insights about my trials and tribulations (and then vice versa, I hope!).

On the way out of the restaurant I saw these amazing new window displays at the Anthropolgie in Harvard Sq.

These are exactly the type of thing I am interested in for my show with the kids. So I snapped them to show to the parents on the awesome set committee.

365: Day 23 BEST PLAYDATE EVER

2011-01-24T20:37:00.000-08:00

So wow.

you know its good when you look like this after.

365: Day 22

2011-01-24T20:36:00.001-08:00

We got a babysitter and we went to one of Big Man's friend's 30th B-day downtown at Bell in Hand.

You know you are old when your younger husband's younger friends are turning 30.

365: Day 21

2011-01-24T20:34:00.000-08:00

This was little Man's idea of putting something back where it belongs.

wow. I promise this is not what our lives are like all the time. January is just long and dark and cold! ;)

365: Day 20

2011-01-24T20:31:00.001-08:00

TGNG

My husband (who has a much more successful blog than I do) meets his friends on Xbox live for Thursday Night Game Night every week.

This is how he does it.

365: Day 19

2011-01-24T20:30:00.001-08:00

Teaching Laban movement inspired character development class to the Ariels in Tempest

365: Day 18

2011-01-24T20:24:00.000-08:00

Full house!

more snow. So much so that Auntie came to stay with us for the morning b/c her commute hadn't taken her barely past our house in an hour (she lives 15 minutes away).

Big Man also bailed on going in and "worked" from home.

But they still delivered the mail.

Too bad he didn't use his custom gloves to go out and shovel. That would be me.

365: Day 17 MLK day

2011-01-24T20:19:00.000-08:00

We didn't live to serve today. Still trying to get our heads above water.
I swear - some year we will go do something for other people on the national day of service.

It will also be easier when there is less snow.

cooped inside - we trash the house with games and toys, some even with redeeming educational value.

365:Day 16 SURPRISE! I'm Awake!

2011-01-24T20:15:00.000-08:00

So little man's new thing is waking us up each morning by coming into our room and saying "Surprise! I'm Awake!"

Its totally adorable, esp since its been happening at you know 8am ish.

But it happened over and over again this night.

Finally around 10 pm we asked why aren't you going to bed and he said "I'm hungry".

So we got him up and he mowed down a whole yogurt and 3/4 a of huge apple.

Here he is giving us his Surprise! I'm hungry face...

365: Day 15 BEER SUMMIT!

2011-01-24T20:07:00.000-08:00

We go every year to the Winter Jubilee at Beer Summit.

Its a very special anniversary and we love to celebrate it.

Here is our poor camera phone in the jostle of beer summit. We were in the first group of 50 to get, which is why Big Man was able to back up so far to get a full shot.

They made me wear that hat all damn night b/c they said it was easier to find me!

365: Day 14 Letter of the Law

2011-01-14T20:48:00.000-08:00

So a picture everyday.

What if I can find a picture that captures my day. But that I didn't take?

Modern Moms find shortcuts.

Here is the beautiful place I spent the last two days being welcomed into an amazing community to help develop a fantastic new facet of my work training people to be able to strive more purposefully toward being, and helping to foster creation of, better human beings.

365: Day 13

2011-01-14T20:42:00.000-08:00

Mommy went on business today and the whole day I was away I was wondering - how's it going with little man. He was at the friend's house playing in the snow.

And this is him reacting to "Come on, boys, lets go in for hot chocolate"

it was the best thing ever to open my email to get at the empty, though beautiful, hotel room

365: Day 12 SNOW DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-01-14T20:14:00.001-08:00

Massive, Massive Snow Day!
probably 18 -22 inches. hard to tell b/c of the drifts.

I worked hard to make it our first real Family snow day.

Chocolate Chip and banana pancakes sitting at the dining table as a family at 10am (Little man slept til 9.40!) watching the snow blow and the fist plows go by in the big picture windows onto B Street.

A little Mommy and Daddy working time during Sesame Street (we are both SO very behind on work) and then whole family into snow pants!

We played in the snow til he'd had enough and then took shifts shoveling though Big Man did more than 1/2. Finally the kids our condo mate pays to do it showed up and we let them finish the last 1/4.

The boys were pooped (me too but... you know how it is). They took a three hour nap. I skyped a conference call for one job and checked email and logistics for another. Then I made a real snow day dinner of pantry surprise. We ended up with a baked primavera pasta casserole (no cheese on daddy's half). They got up and we ate Family Dinner #2 (or #3 if you count pancakes!) at the dining table.

Eating family dinner at least twice a week - already accomplished by Wednesday!

Too many pictures to not share more than one.

365: Day 11

2011-01-14T20:03:00.000-08:00

Last minute Playdate with our friends who sit Max with their little one (who is 2 wks older and about 4-5 weeks developmentally ahead - super smartie!!).

There was a local Thai place having a free buffet for the first 100 ppl. It was so crowded they snagged food and we met at their house. Both the kids hated it. Moms LOVED it.
Ended up eating peppermint candy canes for lunch.

Don't worry - BIG dinner! Salmon with lentils and dark greens, and LEMON really good, Max was hilarious with the Lemons!
And it was a sit down dinner at a clean and nicely decorated dining table where Auntie and I chatted as we ate with Little Man.
"Family Dinner #1" accomplished!

waiting for dinner... freakin kid and that phone!

LEMONS are SOUR! (he licked it about 20 different times with different faces, but kept coming back for more!

365: Day 10 the "Mondays"

2011-01-14T19:53:00.000-08:00

Decided to really embrace my time with the little man - he is growing up SOOOOOO fast - instead of trying to squeeze in work.
Also today was the first day of our family resolutions no (or like WAY less!) meals where little man is eating alone watching TV while we work. BAD family habit.

He was PO'd about no TV for breakfast. But stopped crying after ten minutes and wanted to eat. Hunger won out.

Um... and he ate ALL DAY!

mow'in' on a banana (he peeled himself!). snack number 3 between breakfast and lunch!

365:Day 9

2011-01-14T19:46:00.000-08:00

Another morning spent lovin the little man.
Big man watched little man, mommy worked.
Mommy went to a private coaching session and part of the payment from the family was watching little man during the session with their son (prepping college shakespeare monologues for julliard, CM, NYU, Emerson etc - oy.) while daddy worked.

Long full day.

Here is how little man PLACED his new friend (and how on about 50% of subsequent nights - yes, I'm back posting! - he put him again)

365: Day 8

2011-01-14T19:41:00.000-08:00

Little Man and Big Man worked on a project. Nana (MIL) got little man a new LARGE thing for Christmas. But putting it together come to find out its smaller and more stylish than the one we already have (esp since I failed to DIY the other one into awesomeness).

Little man has also been perfecting his "CHEESE" face for the camera - This is one of about 20 shots I took but it captured the moment perfectly.

365: Day 7 Back to work?

2011-01-09T20:48:00.000-08:00

So with the epic day of thursday puking having gotten rid of my chance of working as I had to cancel my morning babysitter and slept through my afternoon sitter since I'd had two hours of sleep I was not optimistic my next day of rehearsal would be fruitful. Especially when little man surprised us with the epic bomb diapers only a baby with stomach flu can produce. So clearly he was still sick.

So what are you to do when you are teaching and don't have time to take a picture to document your day? Get your students to do it.

this is students working on dictionary work for the Tempest.

365: Day 6 Why else would you brush your teeth at 2am?

2011-01-09T20:28:00.000-08:00

Remember the other night when I was so happy to have a clean sink? Well thank god. B/c we needed it multiple times in the middle of the night to wash out the puke chunks from various sets of sheets, pajamas and clothes. I highly recommend a garbage disposal. I now LOVE LOVE LOVE mine.

At 1.30am, about ten minutes after I went to bed and was just about to fall asleep, I was being beckoned from the little Man's room. I was certain it was just a normal middle of the night call for a bottle and since we are trying to end that dependancy I just ignored him. But he got more insistent and started saying "Mommy, I need help. My blanket is broken." Weird right? So I called to Nick to check on him since he was still up working on the dissertation. His chill "no problem" changed into a "Joy, get in here right now" with such urgency that I think I flew from my bed to the other room I was so panicked.
Little Man was absolutely frozen, in the same position I imagine he woke up in, delicately holding one corner of his blanket with two fingers and up on one elbow - covered in puke. He was terrified to move.

Oh poor baby!

Now my biggest weakness, other than imagining a thousand and one ways little man or anyone really will end up horribly disfigured or dead at any moment, is that I can't deal with puke. I've only puked 10 times in my conscious life. I remember the first time and it must have been particularly scarring as I never wanted to throw up after that. Pepto Bismal into a shag red 70's carpet. Picture it.
So I immediately started retching and had to leave for a second - which I think made the little man more scared. But we got it all sorted out and I sat with a naked baby on my lap on the toilet with the seat down so I could use the bath faucet to sponge puke out of his hair - he was terrified to be let go and refused to get in the tub - while Big Man used the clean sink to rinse out all the hot dog he could from the sheets and blankets and pajamas.

Then we traded and I took all the clothes immediately to the washer to start the load and he dressed the Little man back up in new jammies.

Crisis averted.

Little Man even brushed his teeth in big bed - he had stated he was sleeping there, end of story.

We all snuggled in and thought - whew.

I don't know what it was inside me but I brought a double bagged Trader Joe's bag from groceries that day and set it on the floor next to the bed.

Just as we all started to fall asleep around 2.45a with the sound of the laundry running downstairs soothing us to sleep. Vomit round #2.
Wash round #2 - of OUR sheets this time.
#3 set of jammies for little man
#2 set of Jammies for Mommy
But we had learned by the 3rd part of this second round of puke to aim (and hit) the "puke bucket".

So though we had three more puke rounds (3.30, 4.45 6.15) - they were all buckets! yay!

I'm not sure when I've been so proud.

Picture a day is in the queue

2011-01-08T22:25:00.000-08:00

1.30am Just finished work I was supposed to do thurs.
I think its Sunday now.

Little man got the sickness and we've been dealing with puke, puke everywhere since Wednesday 1.30am.
However, I've been taking the special picture a day and I promise to upload them toot sweet (tout suite - I do speak french).

I need to roll over and go to bed now.

Here is a random photo from the 2010 archives
my budding country star... look out Taylor!

365: Day 5 Clean Sink

2011-01-05T20:51:00.000-08:00

So a secret thing I love, and which has changed the way I think about many things, is this random lady called Flylady.

She was sort of a pioneer of internet self help ladies and now has an empire that approaches the rabidity of Oprah devotees.

But her big thing is a "shiny sink". I aim for "clean" and "empty".

Her system and motto of you can do ANYTHING in 15mins a day tho I have really embraced and even force it upon my students.

Each year she picks a year long tagline/goal. Last year's tag I loved - My timer is my best friend in 2010.

This year its "let's go for 7 in 2011".

I don't even know what that means. But the January habit to establish is to have a shiny sink to welcome you in the morning every day.
Well, its day 5 of the year and I finally got my lame version of her shiny sink.

ahhhh the little things.

365: Day 4 Modern Marriage

2011-01-04T20:31:00.000-08:00

Wow, spent the whole night up with all the sickos.

Big Man had the fever, little man bad dreams. I finally went to bed on the couch with little man snuggling at 4.30am and slept until my alarm went off at 9.15am. It took me about ten minutes before I figured out that the alarm was for a voice over!

So I dragged myself over and had a successful VO. I meant to take a picture from the sound booth...

Then later in the day (after being a terrible mother and having little man eat lunch and watch thomas while I half slept on the couch) we suited up and went to the baby gym. My babysitter and her mom met us there (they are neighbors and friends as well as a family from my school community) and we all hung out and played with little man on the gym shapes. Of course I meant to take a picture of that too...

Came home and worked prepping for tomorrow's big day while babysitter played, fed, and got little man ready for bed. I put him to sleep and then kept working on the Tempest.
I was just thinking it would be so boring to have another picture of me on the couch getting ready for bed when Big Man wanted to do his first skyping on his brand new "putey" (which is what we call every computer now, thanks to Little Man).

yay!!
Modern Marriage. I'm more likely to see him on skype than to talk to him in person. Even when we are sitting ten feet away from each other...

2011:365 Day 3

2011-01-03T20:55:00.001-08:00

Back to work and I meant to take a picture of working with the Kids on the Tempest.

Instead I ran my ass off being the cool mom who not only does her own life but takes care of the sick Man. Honestly, I am hoping he is learning something so when I catch whatever it is that he's got he will take care of me as well. But just in case I made a double batch of the chicken noodle soup I fed him for dinner and bought a veggie soup with ancient grains for the fridge. just in case.

So I was able to prep for class, shower, feed little man two meals, deal with the epic poop, bathe the now truly disgustingly dirty toddler, clean the bathroom b/c wow stomach flu, drop off little man at the sitter, pick up Big Man's new comp @ best buy in the next town over, go triage grocery shopping at TJ's since we had an EMPTY fridge ( a partial 12 pk and jalepeno stuffed olives thats it!), and then teach my afternoon rehearsals, pick up little man, make dinner, enjoy snuggle time and put little man to bed, and wind down on the couch just long enough for Big Man to call me in to discover he has now spiked a fever and I need to go hunt around the still unpacked 2nd car from the holidays for the errant Nyquil.

so here I stand at 11.45p in a house made disaster of Holiday proportions.

Another night sleeping on the couch.

But honestly, as I settle in to post this with the last of my secret stash of peppermint hot chocolate i think this is a good and full life.

Oh, wait, little man is now screaming to something scary in his dreams - NO! go away.

gotta go

2011:365 Day 2

2011-01-02T19:35:00.000-08:00

Congratulations! You and I have both made it two days. I think this will be a year of celebrating the little things!

Also a year of typical me-ness.

I've already reached non-decision.

I'm the person who tries to talk everyone at the table into ordering different desserts so I can try them all. I make decisions by choosing everything.

So here is my picture from today - but its really two pictures.

little man asleep in his room with as many lights on as he can convince us to leave on

Me sleeping on the couch, while watching the end of the seahawks/rams game.

No, to answer your question. I wasn't bad and neither was big Man - there is still the love. However, I don't think its wise to sleep in bed with a man who seems to have caught the stomach flu that was going around in upstate NY while we were there.
One parent down is bad - two down could lead to toddler dominion. I see thomas (or Tommy train!) on netflix and legos running in tandem while meals are completely cheese, chocolate and bottle milk.

I must stay healthy and go to work. Oh, and yes, care for my family.
Day 2 and we are a man down.

2011:365 Day 1

2011-01-02T19:21:00.000-08:00

So the Big Man sent me this link and sorta dropped the challenge on me.

http://content.photojojo.com/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/

I'm in.

So here is 2011.

Happy New Year!
We welcomed in the New Year right.
After hanging with our close friends at our annual Upstate NY New Years Eve (and drinking perhaps too much of Big Man's "Chatam Artillery Punch") we spent the whole day on the couch at my parents.

The grandparents split up the childcare for the day and we napped on and off while watching both the play and the replay of the rose bowl parade and then the rose bowl. awesome.

That night my mom (and I, a little bit - talking about how she and I cannot functionally share a kitchen will be a subject for a later date) made a fantastic lobster dinner with sides of gourmet purple potatoes, spinach, mixed carrots and a gorgeous bottle of Sam Adams infinium.

So stress of the holidays behind us and nearly forgotten we raised a glass to the new year.

The New Baby list

2010-10-10T15:14:00.001-07:00

Well its that time... another friend is really close to having her baby. With recent announcements our baby total for friends and family this year is at 9. And everyone asks - what did you REALLY NEED?

So I decided to write it all down in one place and just send everyone here.

My list for a New Greenish Urban Baby (in New England Winter!) with working parents

The obvious:

Carseat
Someplace to sleep
and
a Stroller

We were huge fans of the Graco Snug Ride (and its still one of the best infant seats). Being able to take a sleeping baby in and out of the car was essential to our adult ability to get anything done!
We got a refurbished Uppa Baby vista (a luxury SUV of strollers, one hand steering, awesome shocks etc) direct from the factory just outside of Boston and saved a lot of money there so we got the matching bassinet attachment and graco adaptor. This took care of place to sleep as well. Baby could sleep in the carseat on the stroller with the adaptor or in the bassinet on the stroller and we could wheel it from room to room of our tiny two room apt. Better than getting a wheeled crib like the gorgeous but expensive stokke.
We also got a packnplay with a changer. Great gift. Baby spent 1/3 sleeping time and 2/3 changing times in/on it.
Also, though I swore I wouldn't, we loved having the baby sleep with us. It was always (and still is sometimes when he has a rough night) a good way for us all to be safe, warm and sleepy together.
Its not for everyone but it certainly worked for us.

Essentials: Clothes/Diapers/Bed Clothes

Diapers (gdiapers! and 7th gen disposables for travel and non-flexible care givers)
"crappy" washclothes (cut in half)
disposable (hopefully biodegradable!!) diaper wipes.
Diaper accoutrements (California baby soothing cream, California Baby non-talc powder, California Baby soothing diaper wash)
Diaper Bag/Skip Hop Changing Pad Wallet
diaper bucket w/lid (for all pooped and super pee'd on clothing) (THIS IS NOT A DIAPER PAIL, no one needs a diaper pail. Use the trash - like a simple human one. And empty it regularly)
Charlie's soap
Sleep sacks(Infant gowns) - as many as you can stand! (at least 5)
Onesies for going out (one pkg white organic, one pkg cute patterns)
Socks
Cutie baby knit caps/hats
One "NICE" outfit for brunch or birthdays etc
Mattress protector (FOR YOUR BED!)
Organic waterproof pads for baby's main sleep area (2)
fitted sheets for packnplay/crib (2)
Swaddling blankets

So diapering is a huge issue and it is also a cost issue. Hybrid diapers like gdiapers really do less damage than either disposables or full cloth. When you have a little kid/new baby/sloppy eating husband you are going to be doing laundry once or twice a day anyway. Doing two loads each day - 1 cold water regular clothes, and one hot/warm water w/poop, puke and serious pee isn't that much worse. Gdiapers also have a special newborn size now which should take care of any of the problems you might see on online boards (though we only had the problem of poop getting on the cloth part and so if he pooped we had to wash the whole diaper. This isn't actually a problem as we had no blow outs or the like, but my husband thought it was stupid to have to wash the diaper for every poop - since the goal, as they get older, is that you only have to thrown out/flush the disposable biodegradable insert and wash the non-pvc liner so you can still use the cloth part with the other liner.).
Is it cheaper for your family to use disposables YES. Is it cheaper for us all in the long run - NO. And your kids will be paying the taxes for figuring out how to reclaim landfill acreage, and fixing the pollution caused by all the bleach, plastic and non processed human waste they unleash.
*steps down from soap box*

In the same vein just use cheap wash clothes with a little warm water to wipe the poop bum. They do a better job than the wipes (which often take 3-5 wipes to get all the sticky goodness taken care of) and are easy to rinse off and then wash with the other things in the poop pail. Mine were 1.50 for 10 (cut in half makes 20!) at Target.

If you decide to go with wipes full time or just for outings please consider spending a couple of cents more on ones that are actually biodegradable - most aren't. Gidapers now have wipes too!

I love California Baby - all the stuff they use is food grade. Make sure whatever you decide on is free of a lot of dyes/perfumes (only use the sensitive unscented CB products in the beginning) and is phtalate and paraben free.
You don't really need any of these things (cream, powder, wash) unless your child has a specific skin situation. We tended to have all three on hand but only use them on occasion. Powder for heavy disposable days to keep down chaffing, cream when ring of fire occurred... etc. Diaper wash when a bath wasn't possible and the poo had been epic...

Get a diaper bag you love. Lots of compartments, changing pad. Like buying a car, getting perfect shoes for the prom or deciding your husband was the one - you will know your diaper bag. For daddy, and mommy as baby becomes a toddler, LOVE the skip hop pronto. Its great for short jaunts when you don't need everything you just need a diaper in case (also fits tissues, sunscreen and hand sanitizer!)

Your diaper bucket could be anything but I suggest checking out restaurant or farming supply. Little bit of water and baking soda or some charlies soap help soak and keep stains fresh and less smelly until you run the load.

We love Charlie's! We've never used anything else but my kid broke out in a rash every time he visited his nana until he was a little over 1 year old b/c just being held next to her clothes was no good for him (she used like regular tide or cheer or something). Plus which the Charlie's is totally biodegradable and doesn't add horrible things to the water table! Also get rid of dryer sheets they are also horrible for the environment and useless. The reusable dryer balls are great.

Clothes are a matter of preference but I'm lazy. The Sleep sack style clothes were the most amazing thing ever and until the little man started really crawling there was no reason to put him in anything else unless it was a special occasion. Long sleeve, easy to swaddle. No need for extra blankets in the crib (choking/suffocation hazard!) Super easy diaper changes. Awesome.

White onesies are SO useful and they look fantastic. They are my go to shower gift with some CB products.

Socks are a choice. My kid hated, and still hates, them. Another reason we loved the sleep sacks, kept his toesies warm.
Hats are a must, they radiate a lot of heat out of the top of their heads and having a winter baby was especially tough for that. They are super cute! A Nice outfit shows you do care what your kid looks like and you can look polished when/if you do get motivated to drag everyone out on the town.

You need a mattress protector for your bed both BEFORE and after the baby comes. If your water breaks in your bed - your mattress is done forever - to a landfill it goes! For after, even if you don't sleep or nap with the baby, you will likely play with the baby on the bed and you never know when there is going to be one of the three p's.

For baby get an organic low or non VOC emitting waterproof pad. You wouldn't stick your kids face in a can of paint and say take a deep breath right? Well a lot of the chemicals bedding gets treated with are pretty extreme and emit all sorts of chemicals for quite a while. If it smells plasticky or chemical to you, its b/c its giving off chemicals! Don't make your baby breathe that all night. (We aired out our packnplay and our stoller and our car seat for a month before baby to try and get the worst of the chemicals out).

Fitted sheets are cheap and great and are the ONLY thing you need for a crib. All the other stuff is to make money off you.
Read up on swaddling and the right type of things to buy to do it. My husband was the expert.

ESSENTIALS: Feeding
Boobs
Bottles
Formula
Burping Cloths
Boppy (2 covers at least)
Lansinoh
Nursing Bra
Breast Pump and storage bags
Bibs

Breast is awesome for you and baby. I'm sure you've heard it all and read a bunch. Do your best! Its only tough for a little bit and then is maybe one of the most rewarding things you will ever do in your life.
HOWEVER...
if you can't, or if you are going to go back to work
Don't paint yourself in a corner of the baby only accepting the breast. Pump (or use small amounts of formula to supplement) and get baby used to a bottle.
*TIP* MOMMY should NEVER give baby a bottle. Mommy only feeds with breast and others - daddy, gma, nana, aunties etc - feed baby bottle far away from Mommy (like 6-8 feet. In our small apt, I always went in the other room or went to take a shower). Babies are really keyed in to smells and they are super smart. When they smell mommy they should think breastfeeding! When they don't smell mommy and they are offered a bottle they will learn that this is a different way to eat and use the appropriate sucking for a bottle (which is very different than latching on mommy). Automatic breaks for mommy and nipple confusion avoided!
By the time little man had too many early teeth and breast feeding ended for us rather abruptly with none of us prepared for it - it was a godsend that he was used to a bottle and it only took him a week to allow Mommy to give him a bottle.

Boppy, Brest Friend, whatever. Have something to help you hold the baby so you don't get carpel tunnel! Boppys are also great for learning to sit up, tummy time, and mommy's ouchy bottom (I may have bruised my tailbone/sacrum during delivery). Get two covers so you can wash them when the 3p's strike.

My mom made our burp cloths and they were awesome and amazing (organic flannel! With cammo and skulls!). We also used gerber store bough cloth premium diapers. Always use them, because even if you had a kid that almost never throws up like ours, invariably the puking during burping will occur in the middle of the night or when you are already all dressed to go to work.

Lansinoh - buy it early and spend a month getting your nipples "roughed up" with it twice or three times a day. It'll help the transition to your nipples being something you enjoyed on occasion to something working about 8 hours a day. To put it another way, you wouldn't run a marathon with new shoes out of the box, right?

Got a hospital grade medela unopened off of craigslist for about half price. Considering I pumped the whole time as I was going to work and then pumped exclusively for nearly two months so we could go as long as possible on breastmilk when breastfeeding ended abruptly it was worth every dime. And now my cousin is using it with new tubes etc and it looks like it will come back and I'll be able to use it again on the mythical future baby.

Cloth bibs for droolers (teethers) are great and you can just keep replacing them out for others. Once solid foods come in to play get the more non-pvc plastic kinds. Easier clean up and better clothes coverage.

Essentials: MISC
Moby Wrap
Baby Bjorn
Happiest Baby on the Block book by Dr Harvy Karp

Try out all the stuff on the market at a swank baby store and see what you like best. My Husband spent hours playing video games standing and swaying helping the baby to sleep at night or for naps after feedings and I got quality rest. I used the Moby as he got older to keep him close as I did chores around the house like dishes, laundry and some basic yoga.

Everyone remarked how we seemed to be really together for first time parents, or that our kid seemed to happy and/or behaved. I fully attribute 70% of that to this book.

ESSENTIALS: Bathing
California Baby all in one wash sensitive
wash cloths
Robe or hoodie towel
California Baby sensitive lotion
California baby unscented massage oil
Infant Massage Book

um. wash the baby. I beg you don't use that Johnson and Johnson poison. ;)

NON Essentials that we found really helpful but that I would have scoffed at before I became attached to them:
Microwave bottle sanitizer
Shopping cart cover (my mom made!)
Baby bath tub with sling
JJ Cole Bundle Me
A really nice camera, with lenses!

ENTERTAINMENT for the new wee one:
Board Books w/high contrast
Mobile (battery operated)
Sleep sheep or noise maker
Stroller/Car seat toys
fill and spill toy set
sophie la giraffe
Bouncy seat or swing
baby gym
random stuffed things (transitional items)

Instill a love of reading and start rituals by having some newborn baby books. We read fox in sox to the belly and its still one of his favorites. A reading ritual after bath/massage helped baby get a sense of the order of the day and get ready to sleep. He was turning pages at 2.5 months! High contrast boob shapes are best for active time reading like the Look! Look! book.

Things that jingle and crinkle are awesome. When they are part of a fill and spill set they will entertain baby to nearly toddler age. Car seat/stroller ones will attach velcro to handles etc. Sophie is a fantastic first toy and amazing teether, you can read all about her online.

A bouncy seat or swing is kind of a must for most people. We had to go bouncy seat b/c the footprint of the swing was just too huge. We'd either have to lose the couch or the crib to get one! I liked the bouncy seat b/c I could take it into the bathroom and little man could nap or play with crinkle toys while I showered and kept an eye on him.

There are lots of baby gyms. You can also make your own with a boppy, toys and a wall mirror. Look around and find one your think will work for you. But make sure your baby is doing tummy time at least twice a day to work all those muscles and build all those brain connections! (Massage is also good for this. Contact between you and baby will help him build strong neural networks about his body and his body in space!)

Stuffed things that might become transitional objects. People are going to get you baby crap. Some of it will be beautiful (we have a stuffed animal I think cost more than our car seat) and some of it will be meaningful (my mom hand-made a teddy bear out of an old cashmere sweater) and some of it will be crap (um, spongebob.). But either way you go, something will be the thing your child decides is his safety object. As much as I wanted it to be Mr. Tiger (great modern handkerchief doll of a tiger) or the home-made teddy, Simon, it was instead a thing my mom picked up at a craft fair - a home-made version of a taggie with a monkey face and tons of ribbon loops like labels around all four corners. He has to have Monkey blanket to fall asleep. so be prepared that anything that comes into your house could become your child's favorite thing in the world besides you... and weed out the crap accordingly.

To Grow on 3-12 months
Happy Bellies, Earths Best - check out all their baby and toddler food. If you can't make your own... don't buy crap. Food is the building blocks of your baby's body and mind. There are lots of good choices now. I can't wait to experiment with my next!

Avocado, Sweet Potato, Banana, Apple (crushed), Naked Juice (esp the green) etc - do your food research and expose your kid to as many fresh good quality fruits, veggies, meats etc as you can.

A full-sized car seat - we love our Britax Advocate CS. Radians are also good.

active play bouncy chair w/ bells and whistles - only used for 6=7 months but was SO worth it. He was physical and engaged mentally, worked on lots of gross and fine motor skills and mommy got work done!

Happiest Toddler on the Block book by Harvy Karp... ditto earlier comment on baby book.

When all these babies are toddlers I'll let you know about all the toddler crap. ;)

A Random Rainy Day

2010-10-05T20:01:00.001-07:00

After the Pats big win last night, it was clear this morning we had all stayed up too late.

Little Man was a puddle all day. Even though we slept in until 8.45a!

His incessant mantra of "Watch Sesame Street. Eat Cheese." finally lead me to a brilliant lunch idea of swank grilled cheese. We had heirloom tomatoes and dubliner cheddar cheese. SO good!

He asked to nap from about 11am and laid down on about a zillion occasions but none took. Eventually at 3.10 I was wrapped up in a blanket on the rocker in his room (no heat on until we figure out a radiator cover situation!) and he kept trying to pull the blanket off of me. I got him to use his words (how many times in your life as a mom do you say that sentence!) and he said he wanted to wear the blanket.

So I wrapped him up in it like a cape and he plopped down. Then he just tipped over and pulled it up over his head. He fell right asleep on the floor!

Our First Apple Picking

2010-10-03T18:34:00.000-07:00

Wow, so apple picking is BIG business!

I randomly got on Rte 2 and started driving towards the pacific. I got nervous I wouldn't see any signs and so I used my google maps navigator and found a pick-your-own place just a couple miles more down the road. I randomly ended up at what seemed to be THE location for apple picking. There were lines and lines and lines.
Since little man had fallen asleep on the ride (after 2.5 unsuccessful hours of trying to get him to nap at home before we left) I decided to take a small snooze and wait out some of the lines. I couldn't fall asleep and got bored after about 15 minutes. (Thankfully?! my Big Man had cleaned out anything he deemed "non-essential" from my car last weekend - including all my squirreled away reading material).
I asked little man if he'd like to go apple picking and that was enough to stir him out of his light nap and get us in the line for a "fun day" hand stamp that would get us into all the fun things except the hayride and the ponies.
I also gave in and paid 17$ for the right to pick a PECK of apples. CRAZY - right?
But I figured it out later - that was basically 5$ per person to walk around in the orchard and the pumpkin patch so really not that bad with the apples coming out around 9 bucks a peck for the type we picked.

We had a super time playing in the pumpkin patch, picking apples with Japanese tourists, driving the fake wooden john deere, navigating all the dead ends of the hay bale maze to make it to the hay mountain, riding the small pedal and push john deeres, and most of all the bouncy castle, that I didn't mind the bordering on steep cost.

We had to wait 15 min for our order of cider doughnuts b/c they are made to order and they got swamped. Which meant an extra 15 in the bouncy castle - little man was in heaven. My day went from this was fun to this is a FANTASTIC day when we actually got the warm perfect transcendent cider doughnuts. I'm a bit of a cider doughnut snob, truth be told.
I searched a places for the perfect ones to serve at our wedding 5 years ago, some that could stand up to my memories of them as a child.
Shelbourne Farm in Stow MA has THE BEST Cider doughnuts (with cinnamon and sugar) that I have EVER had in my life. Amazing. I think they sneak some honey in with the cin/sug mix. Awesome.

We will totally go back and suck up the 17 bucks for 10lbs of apples that I have to find something to do with...

(I tried really hard to simply enjoy this day - no work! Including bringing my camera. It took the first 1/2 hour we were there for me to stop going "damn, that would have been a great shot!" in my head. After the guilt fog of no camera let up it was actually really great to just play with him and to watch him enjoy himself. I think more planned camera free outings are in the works. Of course I did snap just a couple little poor phone camera picks - you know, for posterity.)

One thing I did on my Summer "Work/Stay/Va-cation"

2010-09-01T07:51:00.000-07:00

Awesome Trip to Spectacle Island Boston with family and friends

Little Man's first ride on a ferry.

I decided NOT to post the crazy amount of over packed we were for a 4 hour day trip. My pocketbook has turned into a carry all of all. The stitching is starting to let go on the straps. Horrors!

But to give you some idea how much I overpacked - we packed our Jetboil and cooked lunch on the island to save money from the overpriced Summer Shack outlet in the Rangers Station/Welcome center. (And before you freak the hot dogs are the all natural no hormones, no nitrates etc ones from TraderJoes!)

Big Man muttered something to himself about being an engineer so he should be able to make a Jetboil work... it only took us 10 minutes and some plastic silverware poached from the Summer Shack to get it working. ;)

Little Man now knows how to say "CHEEEEESE" for pictures.

Everyone was wiped out on the ferry ride back.

After the awesome Ferry nap we all walked from the Harbor to the Famous Barking Crab (which a five minute online search will tell you is a tourist trap and innumerate all the reasons NOT to go, especially with a child... but we decided to brave it once). Our server was great (the hostessing staff were some of the rudest people I've ever met, I'm positive they were related to the owners b/c no one can hold down a job being that rude unless they are related to the money) and the food was solid, though pricey.
Little Man loved the food so much he bit his cheek!

He recovered in about 1 min as he realized the food was delicious and it was not the food that was causing him pain. He stared really hard at the cucumber in his hand and slowly brought it towards his mouth. After a lick, then a nibble when nothing dire happened he tucked back into the whole meal and had a grand time!

Summer...

2010-08-29T23:34:00.002-07:00

The summer kicked my ass.

I fought the summer and the summer won.

[insert your own version of summer is killer here]

So back to the blog!

I spent this week FINALLY moving in. Are there still boxes... yes. I'm not going to lie to you. But I now have space to walk and move in the office, the pantry is arranged and we have someplace to put drink glasses (they've been chased around in various locations up til now), I have curtains up in the kitchen, and the last box is out of the bedroom.
Major improvements, all!

Big Man and Little Man went for their first hike on Sunday and I thought I'd have a heart attack all day while they were gone. I still can't shake the fear from years ago when a friend died tragically on a simple day hike. It is so easy to slip and fall. Esp when you are 22 months old!

But they had a blast and we now have proof that Little Man is my kid (other than the fact I clearly remember his rocket ship appearance into our lives). Big Man said Little Man spent a lot of the hike saying "Oh no! Big Rock" "Daddy, Be Careful!" and other simple admonishments I hand out daily around the yard and the playground. I'm trying to compensate for the innate reckless factor that lets him climb every piece of furniture in the house. Guess I'm making a dent!

Patriots' Day in the Burbs

2010-04-19T19:38:00.000-07:00

It was Marathon Monday and what is normally a big holiday for us turned into sicko in the suburbs day.

We are pretty sure little man has croup, my little baby seal. I'm of a mind to believe its "spasmodic" and not viral. We shall see.
And Hubby has it too on the heels of the worst allergy week in memory. So when we got back from the Red Sox game yesterday (abysmal loss on a rain ass day) the little man was sleeping the sleep of one who has missed a nap and then ridden in a car so I plopped him down in the big bed with me thinking we'd catch maybe an hour nap.

I woke up at 10.55pm. And little man slept on. Since I knew he'd be up with (or before) the sun, I figured I'd just call it a miss and go back to bed. It was the longest sleep I think I've had in a 48 hour spread since ... ever.
But it ended at 4.30am and we began our day.

I used my new dehydrator today, finally!

The apple chips were so good there are no pictures b/c we ate them too fast! I also made a yogurt/honey/PB/Banana fruit roll up. So far it tastes pretty amazing!

I also got a chance to grab the drape hanger for the bedroom, dream about a patio/back yard solution, re pot (poorly) the herbs I got at whole foods the other day and make a complete mess of my nearly clean kitchen.

And then while they were all sleeping the sleep of the sick again this evening, I was able to have a drink, sit dipping bread and goat cheese with whole wheat bread and watch Julie and Julia while I steam cleaned the floors in the living room, swept and folded clothes. It was almost like a spa day.

Ok. No, it wasn't like a spa day, but it was a glimpse back into those halcyon days of carefree hedonism before little man. ;)

The best 23 bucks I've ever spent? Possibly!

2010-04-16T21:10:00.000-07:00

little man asleep on the sofa, sometimes you don't need a bed...

Hubby and I have discussed getting a bed ever since we moved in together (what like 8 years ago?). It just never happened, we have different tastes and styles and its just been easier to compromise by having NO style.

A while ago through Oh Dee Doh I started visiting Knock Off Wood (awesome mom blog!) and even Hubby was impressed with the idea of building more of our own furniture - especially, a bed like this one

http://knockoffwood.blogspot.com/2010/04/bragging-board-i-cannot-believe-its-not.html

The only problem is we are totally flat out with our jobs and his PhD right now. We weren't sure we would be able to find time to make a bed before late summer or perhaps even after the estimated graduation date of NEXT May. So we started casually hunting on craigslist for a queen bed.

Nothing much in our price range or a style we could both live with... until I came across an ad for 10 dollar beds. Yep too good to be true right?

But this is what I got!

Not much to look at - at first! But...

10 bucks left over from an estate sale on craigslist - super nice guy, for an extra 5 bucks he dropped it off at the condo when it was clear it wouldn't fit in my car, massive thing that it is.

8 bucks of "london grey" spray paint later

We have an adult bed! Success!! Though it is the heaviest bed I've ever dealt with in my life.

Now we just need to decorate!~

Today was a Work Day!

2010-04-13T16:51:00.000-07:00

So Today my good friend came and babysat her son and mine here in our house while I plugged away on the laptop here in the Kitchen. Even though this is my downtime of the year I spent about 8 hours working on about 6 different projects, 3 are spec work. oy.

I don't love the days when all I get to see of the little man is here and there comfortings while I work on the laptop, or run back and forth to teaching/rehearsal gigs. But since yesterday was SO awesome and I even managed to use the phenomonal HAAN steamer to clean the bathroom after yesterday's success with the kitchen cleaning... I'll take today as it was.

I've decided to randomly update about the last two months by pulling random pictures off of

the iphoto library... lets see what comes up! (trust me, its safer than chat roulette).

This is little man all grown up! He loves drinking out of the espresso cups while he has his tea with Mommy while Daddy drinks his coffee. You should see him "dip" his "bis-caca" (dunk his little mini biscotti from TJs!)

The pics at the top are a winter meal I made last minute when my babysitting friends decided to stay for dinner. Broccoli rabe with my potato medley of turnips, potatoes, and hannah sweet potatoes as a side for carrot ginger chicken. I needed more color but I was dead tired and cooking under pressure, clearly I couldn't be on top chef!

Speaking of Food amazingness - watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, all four hours avail on hulu, last night. Even the Hubby watched. Its possible the genre of reality TV might be redeemed by one crackin looney brit.

You've got to watch it. It made me NEED to cook at 10.30pm so I made a pretty terrific ratatouille which I am eating the last of right now.

And then there was moving...

2010-04-12T17:59:00.001-07:00

So we moved. New place, new disaster.

My busiest months of the year and we move. The first three weeks we were here in the new place I managed awesome dinners.

Especially in celebration of the Hubby's qualifier, a success. He is now officially a Ph.D Candidate!

But this is so our life, champagne, fantastic pork loin, and fox in sox and a sippy cup.

So many amazing things have happened, will try to keep up with it all!

Also how tos on all the Trader Joes faux scratch meals like this one!

"everyone has one of those stories"

2010-01-14T13:24:00.000-08:00

So at the end of it all my husband said

Don't worry "everyone has one of those stories"...

So we are having an ongoing war of sleep. Not ON sleep or FOR sleep just the actual act of GOING to sleep.

Little Man got sick over the holidays while we were staying with my parents and it was just "so much easier" (which is like the parents primrose path to hell) to let him sleep in bed with us. But now he has decided he will ONLY sleep in bed with us.

Even naps.

Even weird naps when he decides he needs to sleep with his "schoo" (see pic!)

The packnplay has become verboten. The screaming is nerve wracking. But the sobbing and covering his face in his hands is heart wrenching.

What's a mom to do? Wait it out, right?

This afternoon after 1/2 hour of lying in bed I tried to put him in the pack n play drowsy. It worked until he pooped himself and screamed for 10 minutes before I realized that he had pooped and was not just trying to make me feel bad for putting him in the crib. So we got changed (there was a piece of flying poop incident) and I tried again. But now we were so wide awake it was just not possible to go to sleep. Ok.

So we get up, no nap accomplished. Now the decision. Get dressed (at 2.30p) go to starbucks and grocery shop (we need milk for bottle) OR do a load of diaper laundry first. (We use the amazing Gdiapers! But they were all to the point of NEEDING a wash).

I decide only a selfish mom would value starbucks over nasty diaper rash (which after 3 disposable diapers today has already started on the left butt quadrant!) so laundry it is.

I gather the diapers and head down the hall to the laundry, leaving the apt door open as sometimes little man walks down with me. I put the clothes in an hear the door close. No biggie, until I come back down to open the door and its locked.

And my child is on the other side of the locked door.

Just as I realize what has happened (I'm SO careful to never close the door locked, but I guess I don't check when I leave it open!?!) so does Little Man, and the screaming "Mamamamma" begins.

Dead of winter new england, no shoes, no phone, and clearly no keys - in a building that is mostly college students and college is out of session - no neighbors...

I pounded on doors for minutes, every two doors bouncing back to the apt to talk to the baby and keep him next to the door and away from the 37 thousand things that could kill him without supervision.

Finally a neighbor who didn't answer the first time must have heard me hysterical in the hall and changed her mind about opening and lets me borrow her cell to call my husband who is only a 10 minute drive away.

Bless Daddy. He didn't laugh, he didn't yell. He sympathized and rushed home. It was the last thing I expected. I mean I knew he'd rush home. But I am so in love with the man who surprises me by being so kind when I screwed up so royal.

There are a lot of "so"s.

Two hours later, Daddy is back at work, Mommy is on the internet with a load of diapers running, and little man is sleeping.

At least now I have "one of those stories".

Oh De Doh, on the button again

2009-12-13T17:44:00.000-08:00

Oh De Doh is my favorite blog.

I love this whole room and feel. I did a Christmas Branch last year. This year we decided to just go with the little tree and do all the big stuff at my parents because honestly I'd rather play with the baby than decorate for the baby.

Next year when he is a little older and can help a little we will probably do something like this!

Mommy's Last-night's Leftovers Eggy Breakfast Lump

2009-12-13T17:17:00.001-08:00

(in our house called Breakfast Lump)

Ever wonder what to feed everyone when you are half-awake and have a fridge full of dinner ingredients? Eggs make it all better.

This is a very flexible recipe - use your imagination!

The Basics-

you must have on hand eggs, garlic, onion-any (we love red and sweet vidalia), EVOO, a distinctive spice (fresh rosemary, basil etc), sea salt, fresh cracked pepper (any).

To balance the dish you should have left-overs that include:

a starch

a veggie

something special -maybe a little salty thing like olives, capers, or something like sun dried tomatoes in oil.

*Meat is always a nice touch.

*Everything should be cooked and in bite size or smaller chunks.

How To:

Start a large skillet on med/high to get the EVOO, chopped garlic, onion, salt, and fresh spice working. Wait for the onion to get translucent.

Add any cold thick items - potato, turnips(best if cooked homestyle), large pasta like penne, any meat, or big veggies like broccoli to warm them, about 1-2 mins.

Then add delicate veggies like spinach, kale, tomatoes, avocado, peas and any delicate starches like angel hair spaghetti.

Now you are ready for the most important ingredient! The Eggs! Our skillet holds 4 eggs. Gauge how many eggs will fill up your skillet and your family! Eggs can be added in a number of ways see examples below...

Wait for the eggs to set and serve!

So those guidelines can work for any leftovers you have. Here are two examples that we particularly love...

Example 1

Super Simple Spaghetti Frittata

(if you have a skillet that can pop into the oven, go for it and instead of setting the eggs completely on the stove top you can put the whole skillet in the oven for a couple minutes for a true frittata finish!)

- Best Pairing: Bitter Italian Roast French Pressed Coffee

EVOO

Organic Garlic, chopped

Freeze-dried Red Onion pre-chopped

Sea Salt

White pepper

Freeze-dried Basil pre-chopped

Sun-dried Tomatoes in oil, about a tablespoon

Fresh spinach (washed and chopped)

Leftover angel hair spaghetti

Organic, Free-Range, Hormone free Eggs

Start a large skillet on med/high to get the EVOO, chopped garlic, onion, salt, sun dried tomatoes working. Wait for the onion to get translucent.

Add spinach and angelhair. warm 1 min.

In a pint glass mix 4 eggs with a SPLASH! of water. Use a fork to mix/fluff the eggs and water.

Pour eggs on top of spinach/angelhair in skillet. Use spatula to even out the egg, spinach and angel hair mixture over the whole skillet so it cooks evenly.

Let it begin to set.

Finish in oven if desired or on stove top.

Slice into quarters and serve with oat-nut toast.

Example 2

Rustic Root Veggies

Best Pairing - Spicy Ethiopian French Pressed Coffee

EVOO

Organic Garlic, chopped

Organic Vidalia Onion (1/4), chopped

Sea Salt

White Pepper to taste

Fresh Rosemary (2 sprigs), stripped

Sun-dried tomatoes in oil, about a tablespoon

Left-over Homestyle Potatoes

Left-over Homestyle Turnips

Breakfast sausage (2 links), sliced

Left-over cooked Spinach

Organic, Free-Range, Hormone free Eggs

Start a large skillet on med/high to get the EVOO, chopped garlic, onion, salt, rosemary working. Wait for the onion to get translucent.

Add tomatoes, potatoes and turnips warm 2-3 mins.

Add spinach.

Crack 4 fresh eggs in the four quadrants of the skillet, being careful not to break the yolk.

Make sure egg coats all the other ingredients but yolks stay on top, undisturbed.

Add sausage equally over the four quadrants.

Put on a cover if you'd like to lightly-veil the yolks. Allow the eggs to firmly set sunny-side up, lightly-veiled.

Cut into four servings and serve with Ancient Grain or Multi-Grain toast to soak up all the yummy yolk!

chews or pees on...

2009-12-07T18:31:00.000-08:00

When the show Monk was really good (first what, two seasons?) we got hooked.

A favorite moment, still oft quoted in our household for reasons about to become apparent, is when a pampered pet chimp of a dead celeb destroys Monk's apartment and he has a "dissociative episode" where basically he goes catatonic and just says "chews or pees on" over and over again when it is suggested he can just replace anything the chimp chews or pees on.

Little man loves to both chew and pee on anything and everything. Including us.

Today though will be a famous (infamous?) moment for years to come. I only think its hilarious b/c it didn't happen to me. But having been brought into bed for the first time in a week or so b/c he couldn't stay asleep and it was waaay too early to start the day the little man slept for an additional two hours before waking us up by crawling on daddy, adjusting his diaper, and peeing down my DH's neck. It was brilliant.

Ahhh... chews or pees on.

My DH's Brilliant Tweet Capture of a Moment with the Little Man

2009-11-28T15:00:00.000-08:00

DH: Me to a wide-awake Max at 2AM: "On a scale of 1 to playtime, this is a 2." Joy: "Yes, and 1 is a funeral."

Thanksgiving Food

2009-11-27T13:54:00.000-08:00

So I brought this to thanksgiving

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-911/sweet-potato-puree-with-bananas-and-buttered-pecans-recipe2/index.html

our biggest adjustment was no butter, but the best adjustment was doing the pecans in a skillet with mead my parents just brought back from Ireland!

The reviews were mixed. It was a little sweet for the adults but boy oh, boy did the little man love it! His two favorite things in one dish.

My DH also made some guac. Little man was in heaven, his other favorite food (avacado) also made a strong showing on the appetizer table!

It was a day to truly be thankful for...

"Organic" Presents

2009-11-22T12:18:00.000-08:00

At a party last night I was asked yet again for an "organic" toy suggestion for a friend's friend who just had a baby.

What I was really asked for was a non-toxic safe toy but organic is becoming more of a ubiquitous term which encompasses a lot more than it should.

Here are my favorites - I know I'm not the only one who recommends them but love em anyway.

Vulli Sophie la Giraffe teether. Its great for a ton of reasons, not the least of which is that my son started teething at 2 months old and now at the ripe old age of nearly 13 mo is cutting teeth 15 and 16.

Under the nile organic dolls - they are just SO cute!

Sassy Earth Brights line - good quality wood toys.

As little man grows I'm also very excited about Melissa & Doug products and Plan toys.

Happy shopping!

(Other things I love to recommend - a basket of hope from heifer project or a donation in the child's name to Feeding America)

I feel like a Mom-Rock Star, at least briefly

2009-11-19T10:43:00.000-08:00

So after a LOooooooOOoooong night, little man was up on 8, yes 8, different occasions, I feel like a bit of a Mom Rock Star.

We all got up together and I corralled my DH into taking care of the little man while I made us breakfast. A real cooked meal. That used leftovers!

We had a really delicious whole-grain spaghetti frittata with organic spinach and garlic, with some bottled accents of sun-dried tomatoes and some freeze dried red onion.

Little man ate 1/4 of the skillet worth. A HUGE amount of food for him. Just goes to show that if I cook he will eat. I love the convienience of the earth's best baby foods, and they are tasty and well balanced but its time to "mom-up" and start cooking full time.

I've also done a load of dishes, cleaned the kitchen and answered emails. So far today I'm a rock star.

I will Never Doubt again

2009-11-18T08:31:00.001-08:00

Little Man has some words. You know, the words that are only words to constant caregivers that sound like random phonemes to others.

I admit my child watches PBS. Yes I know the numbers. TV sucks our brains, it makes us more agressive, paranoid, and gives us a warped idea of reality. I love TV. My kid watches some. At least we've stopped watching NCIS when he is awake. I think of this as massive progress. All Little Man watches is seasame street and on various occassions word world, sid the science kid or Nihao Kai-lan.

(Oh my DH watches Sponge Bob with him, I don't love that but its his parenting style, and its like maybe once a week.)

B/c of this TV time one of little Man's best words is Elmo. Of course it comes out more as a soft breath "eh" with a very pronounced "MO!". He is a dynamo of spotting Elmo where ever Sesame Street has smartly monetized their all-star - earth's best cookie boxes, t-shirts, books etc.

The other day while standing waiting in line to get my DH his deli meat (the man loves sandwiches) Little Man kept saying "MO! Mo! MO!" and pointing. I didn't see elmo anywhere at the meat counter. I checked the overhead TV, nope. The Cake displays, nope, sorry friend. I tried to reason with him. "No Elmo around here honey." But this kept up through slicing a lb of cracked black pepper turkey and a 1/4 lb of munster cheese. The college girls behind me were giggling. "Mo! MO! MO MOMOMMO!" I sighed and was about to try and convince him again when one of the girls said - "over there?"

I will never doubt again. Bobbing merrily was an elmo faced ballon up by the counters, more than half an aisle away.

My kid knows his heros.

PT Home Mommy or FT Work Mommy

2009-11-18T08:18:00.000-08:00

A pretty traditional question. We've made it a full year w/o child care other than some friends babysitting here and there.

But now the question looms again. Can we survive if I am basically a stay at home mom. Yes. survive. Can we ever move out of our 425 sq ft basement apt? No.

So now that an appealing job is a distinct possibility how do I feel and what do I think about leaving little man every day with someone that isn't mommy or daddy?

My parents left me in a wagon or playpen for 6-8 hours a day while they worked the Dairy Farm. Then later as a tween I spent hours in the back room of my parent's Ice Cream store. I think I'm pretty great ;) So having parents who work is important and having alone time to develop my own self sufficiencies seems to be instrumental to the development of who I am.

I think I'd rather get paid to work, than spend hours on the internet doing "work" to keep my freelancing career going while I'm supposed to be watching the little man. Sometimes I realize that he KNOWS I'm ignoring him. Especially when he does things he knows he isn't supposed to do (usually that are dangerous) b/c he knows they will get me away from the laptop and picking him up. I don't want to reinforce "bad" attention seeking.

I had my first babysitters here the last two days. They were both wonderful with him and cleaned some as well. Maybe I'm born to be a working mom.

The thing that scares me? I've never had a daily grind type of job for longer than 4 months. I go completely bored out of my mind ape-shit crazy. Can I really get up at 6am and work 7.30-3p for the whole school year, every year? Plus still do some of my extras? M/W/F for several months I'll be gone 7am-6pm. Not the 80 hours a week I'm used to working freelance pre baby, but a lot more than the 30 hours a week I've been working since little man's arrival (and most of that while he was sleeping).

So I know at least one thing, FT Home Mommy - not going to happen. PT Home Mommy has been pretty great but some sacrifice will make life easier if I can help our bottom line and my future career by jumping back in now. Worst case FT Work Mommy doesn't work out, I can bail its not like no one has ever resigned before to "spend more time with their family". I might actually mean it though.