And then, one day, you get out of the shower and just... are completely fine. All of a sudden.
(I wanted to post this on May 4th, but I wasn't a hundred percent sure it would stick.
(It has. Everything is totally different. I guess I just finally finished processing, or something.)
~
In May I had an awesome week or two of feeling amazing about life, being all like, man, I have no problems! This is crazy! What do other people worry about, anyway? I wonder what my first new problem will be! Then there was a sudden tragic death in my local religious community, and I felt very strange about my idea of what it means to have problems.)
Aaaaaanyway. We potty-trained Daniel in about a week after his third birthday, and that was part of why I felt so amazing. It was like I had finally passed the final rite and become a Real Mom. I did it! Birth, that just kind of happens. Potty-training, though, you could theoretically just not do, if you were a horrible person. But I did it, and Daniel did it, and it was actually really fun, because I spend that week being incredibly involved with him, setting aside all distractions and paying close attention. I loved it. He behaved better for the attention, and I was less frustrated by always trying to do other things. We enjoyed each other.
Sadly, it didn't take me very long to forget that lesson. I'm just now (like, today) coming out of several weeks of being an unexploded bomb of rage and misery and hating-my-life-as-a-mother. Although much of that has come from problems with nursing; I guess I won't go into the gory details, except to mention that the details actually involve gore. x_x And that drove me to wanting more distractions, which led to me ignoring Daniel a lot, which led to him misbehaving. But things to have resolved, or nearly so! Partly from technique-adjustments, and partly because Noah is six months old now (what?!?) and so we've been experimenting with solid food. In doing so I have discovered that he really really likes and wants and is good at eating solid food. Yay!! It helps that he has five teeth already, plus two almost-teeth (see above re: nursing problems). I've been giving him mini-meals the last couple days, and there's been a huge reduction in the whining and crying and a big increase in smiles. I'm hopeful that we can move more rapidly into nursing just once or twice a day than I did with Daniel (who didn't have a single tooth until he was 8 months, and who nursed to sleep, and with whom I also had painful problems around this age).
I also sat down with Heath last night and set a bunch of new, small goals about how I spend my time all day, aiming to maximize my usefulness and happiness and minimize my angst and frustration. I do way better at life when I have goals, even if I don't exactly meet them. Today went really well inside of me, even when it was chaotic and messy and loud and obnoxious outside of me. So that's awesome. (It also helped to be back in my own apartment, my own place that I'm in charge of, after a week with family. My family is awesome and it was so much fun, but being in one's own home is more the kind of awesome I seem to be in need of right this second, sanity-wise. Have I even mentioned that my sister is home from Nicaragua? I like her.)
(I also like: my kids. Noah was so adorable it was insane today--all happy and grinning all over the place with his little teeth, sitting up on his own all fat and cute, bouncing in his doorway bouncer so hard I thought he might land on his fluffy-diapered little butt. And Heath had a break in the middle of the day, so while the two of them took naps, Daniel and I went off by ourselves for a walk around town. This is absolutely my favorite thing to do as a mother, and I don't do it very often anymore. It was so much fun, and so nice. I miss him when we've been clashing. (When we were nursing, we always had to emotionally reconnect no matter what else was going on, and while I know that won't be the case for most of my time as a mom, it's still new to me (we nursed till he was two, still more than half his life) and I'm still learning to cope with the lost resource. I think that's the main reason I haven't made any gestures toward actually weaning Noah, even when I've had every reason to do so. I don't want to miss out on having that foundation with him as he gets older and more independent.)
So there is my boring and self-indulgent update! In other news, I might start a separate SCA blog because, oh yes, I am that big of a nerd. I do think it's more fun to talk about all my stuff in one place, but I also don't want random society people being like, cool post about late medieval Portuguese armory! What else you got here? Nipple problems, eh? Unfortunate, sister.
I also want to write a less rambling entry about how my identity has evolved lately in the face of my constant ambivalence about my ongoing choice to be a full-time caretaker, but I'm not sure it makes any sense. The short version is, I get way happier and more relaxed when I think of homemaking and kid-entertaining as my job. Like the kind you get hired for. Get up in the morning, get dressed, go to work! Don't slack off during your shift! Don't try to do other things and pretend you're not at work! Even if I'm doing it all the time and don't get as many breaks as I might want, if it's just my job, it's not who I am. This is why I used the word "caretaker" there. Being a mother is in fact a big part of who I am now, and I love that fiercely. But that's about my relationships with these two people, not about whether or not they live in my house and need me to make it a certain kind of environment for them. That part, the part I do, is just a job. And therefore I don't have to thrive on it. I can just do my best at it, and enjoy the kids I'm doing it for as much as possible, without having to transform into an archetype of it. I don't have to become it in order to do it, no matter how much of my time it takes. I can love my kids (which comes easily), get the home-making done (which doesn't), and still be me inside throughout the process. It's not like this is some magic formula that will prevent me from ever getting tired or burned-out, but it helps me feel less oppressed by my own perfectionism. I can get up in the morning and say "okay, I guess I better do some motherish stuff" instead of "ugh, I don't feel like a mother-ish person today...again." It's just stuff. And if I save the selfish things I /want/ to do (especially ones that park me at the computer) for when Heath is home or everyone else is asleep, I may not get as much time in on them, but I'm happier because I'm not spending my day getting interrupted. That ratchets up the resentment-points way too fast.
Whoa, I just went back to edit that paragraph and dozed off in my chair.
Showing posts with label daniel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label daniel. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Monday, April 22, 2013
More things to preserve
I have this list of amazing Daniel things to blog, but I'm not really in a writing mood, so this is likely to be even more disjointed than usual. (If I ever make a new journal, I should just call it "Disjointed," because I seem to use that word in nearly every entry. Come to think, that might have been the name of my LJ layout.)
* Noah is getting stronger. He can't roll over, but when I set him up in my lap a few days ago he was briefly able to hold his torso erect. I excitedly showed this to Daniel, who said, "He's growing up!"
* Where a normal person might say "That's interesting," Daniel says in highly intrigued tones, "That's serious." I think he might have developed that because serious is the opposite of silly? And therefore when things are remarkable but not silly, this must be what you say? Anyway, it's darn cute and another of the injokes Heath and I have adopted into our own vocabularies.
* There was an armadillo on TV, and I talked to Daniel about it. "Isn't that cool, how they can turn into balls?" "Yeah!" he said, "like cars do!" "Cars can turn into balls?" I asked. "Yeah!" he said. "Huh. I've never seen that," I said. "It's kind of busted," he explained. Which is exactly right, now that he's pointed out to me. A sufficiently busted car would totally look like an armadillo.
* Daniel has always had an amazing brain for making unlikely visual/auditory comparisons between things. Like last summer when he bit a sandwich into the shape of a helicopter, or a couple weeks ago when he pointed to the cover of this book at the library and said, "Mario!", or last week when Noah suddenly howled and Daniel remarked that he sounded like an elephant.
* No matter how whimsical a parent you are, you can't be prepared for everything. When he asked me "What sound does a brain make?" I was overcome by amazement at the question itself and unable to come up with a good answer.
* Noah has been sleeping in his crib at night for the last week or two, and it's been so lovely. It's not really a huge change--we still bring him to bed when he wakes up so that he can nurse, and then fall back asleep for the second half of the night with him still there. Same thing we did with Daniel. But he was spending the first part of the night in the swing in our room before, and there's something just so exciting and wonderful about tucking both my sweet little sons into their shared room and tiptoeing out. Daniel really likes having him in there, and the first few nights I just hung out in there for over an hour after they were both still asleep, playing Backgammon on my phone and just soaking in the magic of listening to my plural children breathing peacefully together.
* In less lovely but still interesting sleep news, Daniel has nightmares sometimes, and they are fascinating. We try not to show him scary things on TV or whatnot, and he hasn't had very many frightening experiences in real life (aside from the occasional Mommy Is Extremely Loud incident), so they're not usually about obvious things like monsters or drowning (although the most recent one is about a burning truck, which makes sense). But if your hormones tell you to be scared, you'll come up with something for it, apparently. The big one last week was, as far as I can understand, about a coconut tree that sprouted in the middle of the church. "It's very tall. It's very big. The coconut tree spins around. It spins around very fast. It's kind of smoky. And the man, he's talking." I think it's amazing how these peculiarly benign elements add up to something absolutely that is absolutely legit creepy.
* Interesting parenting moment: Daniel has discovered the word "beautiful," and as he was examining the DVD case for The Little Mermaid on Saturday, he remarked that Ariel was beautiful. Heath told him that was a nice thing to say. Then he pointed at Ursula and said, "What's that?" "That's Ursula, the Sea Witch," said Heath. "She's very beautiful," said Daniel, and there was this brief pause while everything about the fat, aging, garish, super problematic and stereotyped character design flashed through my mind--along with everything I want Daniel to know about the women in the real world, and all the different body types, personal styles, ages, degrees of physical ability--and how I want him to respect them and treat them kindly, in the fact of extreme peer pressure to the contrary--and how little time I have as his sole and utterly trusted source of socialization... It felt like an extremely long and significant pause for thought, but it was only like half a second. "Yes, she is beautiful," I agreed.
* What else? Oh, yes. Yesterday I asked him if he remembers the names of his fingers--I was thinking pointer, pinky, etc.--and he said yes. So I held up my thumb and said, "What's this one?" and he said with a big smile, "Jenny!
* I am working on returning to being a person who does not swear even when severely provoked, and I'm finally making progress. Last-second cuss word replacements from last week: "What the funny money!!" and "Oh, shirt."
* Today we talked about "full names," and I told him his own, and those of other people he knew. He was fascinated and asked for more. It was awesome. Other than that, it was a really difficult and lonely day. But it was really sweet when he painstaking assembled the sentence, "Is something wrong, Mommy?" (Noah screamed a lot today, is the main thing. He took a big nap in the morning, during which I did a ton of laundry out of sheer boredom, but after that it was Just No Good for anyone. I felt totally abandoned by the rest of the world, and the weather was super nice but I couldn't get everything together sufficiently to get us outside, so I was trapped. Then, after about a century, Heath got home, and with the extra pair of hands I was able to fix everything up. We went for a really excessively long walk in the beautiful sunshine and all came back exhausted, but I felt so much better afterward.)
* Noah is getting stronger. He can't roll over, but when I set him up in my lap a few days ago he was briefly able to hold his torso erect. I excitedly showed this to Daniel, who said, "He's growing up!"
* Where a normal person might say "That's interesting," Daniel says in highly intrigued tones, "That's serious." I think he might have developed that because serious is the opposite of silly? And therefore when things are remarkable but not silly, this must be what you say? Anyway, it's darn cute and another of the injokes Heath and I have adopted into our own vocabularies.
* There was an armadillo on TV, and I talked to Daniel about it. "Isn't that cool, how they can turn into balls?" "Yeah!" he said, "like cars do!" "Cars can turn into balls?" I asked. "Yeah!" he said. "Huh. I've never seen that," I said. "It's kind of busted," he explained. Which is exactly right, now that he's pointed out to me. A sufficiently busted car would totally look like an armadillo.
* Daniel has always had an amazing brain for making unlikely visual/auditory comparisons between things. Like last summer when he bit a sandwich into the shape of a helicopter, or a couple weeks ago when he pointed to the cover of this book at the library and said, "Mario!", or last week when Noah suddenly howled and Daniel remarked that he sounded like an elephant.
* No matter how whimsical a parent you are, you can't be prepared for everything. When he asked me "What sound does a brain make?" I was overcome by amazement at the question itself and unable to come up with a good answer.
* Noah has been sleeping in his crib at night for the last week or two, and it's been so lovely. It's not really a huge change--we still bring him to bed when he wakes up so that he can nurse, and then fall back asleep for the second half of the night with him still there. Same thing we did with Daniel. But he was spending the first part of the night in the swing in our room before, and there's something just so exciting and wonderful about tucking both my sweet little sons into their shared room and tiptoeing out. Daniel really likes having him in there, and the first few nights I just hung out in there for over an hour after they were both still asleep, playing Backgammon on my phone and just soaking in the magic of listening to my plural children breathing peacefully together.
* In less lovely but still interesting sleep news, Daniel has nightmares sometimes, and they are fascinating. We try not to show him scary things on TV or whatnot, and he hasn't had very many frightening experiences in real life (aside from the occasional Mommy Is Extremely Loud incident), so they're not usually about obvious things like monsters or drowning (although the most recent one is about a burning truck, which makes sense). But if your hormones tell you to be scared, you'll come up with something for it, apparently. The big one last week was, as far as I can understand, about a coconut tree that sprouted in the middle of the church. "It's very tall. It's very big. The coconut tree spins around. It spins around very fast. It's kind of smoky. And the man, he's talking." I think it's amazing how these peculiarly benign elements add up to something absolutely that is absolutely legit creepy.
* Interesting parenting moment: Daniel has discovered the word "beautiful," and as he was examining the DVD case for The Little Mermaid on Saturday, he remarked that Ariel was beautiful. Heath told him that was a nice thing to say. Then he pointed at Ursula and said, "What's that?" "That's Ursula, the Sea Witch," said Heath. "She's very beautiful," said Daniel, and there was this brief pause while everything about the fat, aging, garish, super problematic and stereotyped character design flashed through my mind--along with everything I want Daniel to know about the women in the real world, and all the different body types, personal styles, ages, degrees of physical ability--and how I want him to respect them and treat them kindly, in the fact of extreme peer pressure to the contrary--and how little time I have as his sole and utterly trusted source of socialization... It felt like an extremely long and significant pause for thought, but it was only like half a second. "Yes, she is beautiful," I agreed.
* What else? Oh, yes. Yesterday I asked him if he remembers the names of his fingers--I was thinking pointer, pinky, etc.--and he said yes. So I held up my thumb and said, "What's this one?" and he said with a big smile, "Jenny!
* I am working on returning to being a person who does not swear even when severely provoked, and I'm finally making progress. Last-second cuss word replacements from last week: "What the funny money!!" and "Oh, shirt."
* Today we talked about "full names," and I told him his own, and those of other people he knew. He was fascinated and asked for more. It was awesome. Other than that, it was a really difficult and lonely day. But it was really sweet when he painstaking assembled the sentence, "Is something wrong, Mommy?" (Noah screamed a lot today, is the main thing. He took a big nap in the morning, during which I did a ton of laundry out of sheer boredom, but after that it was Just No Good for anyone. I felt totally abandoned by the rest of the world, and the weather was super nice but I couldn't get everything together sufficiently to get us outside, so I was trapped. Then, after about a century, Heath got home, and with the extra pair of hands I was able to fix everything up. We went for a really excessively long walk in the beautiful sunshine and all came back exhausted, but I felt so much better afterward.)
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Some things to preserve
* Like many toddlers, Daniel is full of energy and loves to express it by running around wildly. In the process, he often shouts out this magnificent word: "PAPOMINGA!" When we first introduced him to video games earlier this winter (mainly N64 games), he couldn't understand what Mario was saying when he fell out of paintings or spun out in his go-kart. Nowadays I've heard him actually say "mama mia!" a couple times when it happens in the game, but his enthusiastic word for taking corners or pretending to triumphantly crash into things in real life remains papominga. I hope he never grows out of it. I'm adding it to my own vocabulary.
* Noah opens his mouth super wide when he smiles. It is the greatest thing. He's three months old now, already. Cooing and adorable. Time for the first batch of really exciting stuff: rolling, sitting, grasping, crawling. Daniel is looking forward to sharing stuff with him, and he's getting good at pushing the umbrella stroller in a gentle, straight line down the sidewalk--at least inasmuch as the sidewalks themselves are gentle and straight. Oh, Monmouth. Anyway, such a sweet big brother. (Having two kids is infinitely better than just one. I can't wait to see my entire family all together. I want them all here right now so I can start knowing them. I was baby-hungry the minute Noah was born, but I guess this time is for getting to know and appreciate him, deeply and individually, while he's the baby.)
* I'm super tired but I'm enthusiastic about the lovely weather lately.
* I bought a white gel pen yesterday and my life is 987398684756 times better. I'm drawing this amazing amazing kind of medieval sampler thingy, and it's almost done.
* Heraldry: still acting on me like a tasty drug.
* My oldest brother is coming up from California next weekend. YESSS I am so stoked to be with all of my brothers! But not all my siblings, sigh. One more year till Jenny-time. We better send her a picture.
* I've had a series of connected epiphanies over the past several months. I guess I should preserve that in my private paper journal in more detail, but that one barely even knows Noah exists, poor thing. The epiphanies, in rough outline, were that I am super attached to divine justice (toward myself), even moreso than divine mercy; that I used to think I was good at forgiving, but actually I'm obviously horrible at it, all things considered, and that's been making my life stupid for ages; and finally that Daniel, luckily, is really really good at forgiving, and therefore things between him and me are probably going to be okay even if I suck sometimes. He loves me. I am trying to learn from him.
* Also about Daniel, I failed to write a poem last week about a moment where I went from reading a lot of articles about violence and horror to going to wake him up from his nap, and ended up just kneeling by his bedside, becoming late for our appointment, kissing his sleeping fist that smelled like sticky oranges and still had dimples in the knuckles and hadn't yet learned to hurt. I am so grateful to be his mom. Send me more sons. They won't be perfect, but there are a few important things they'll know.
* I am learning to be more appreciative of the people in my life. They don't just not-exist, even if they're not the precise à la carte friend selection I would have made in my "Lucy seeks Ethel" desperation. And they're awesome. It occurred to me that maybe I'm Ethel; maybe instead of waiting for someone to come over to my house and make it less boring, I have to pay attention to what's actually happening. Also, maybe this TV show doesn't completely revolve around me. Still kind of following this rabbit hole. Making connections is not really my strength right now. It might not have to be.
* I should go to bed. I need to be getting more sleep. But I should put together that Easter basket first.
* (Apparently it's possible to become reconciled to something while simultaneously being in constant mourning for it. Apparently you don't grieve less, you just do other things more. It's not what I expected or wanted, but I guess it works.)
* Seriously, it will be the first Easter Daniel actually knows about and participates in! That's exciting. Be excited, Rachel. Zzzzzzz I will after I sleep.
I feel very weird because it's spring. Which is a statement that kind of demands explanation but my brain is too tired to elucidate and obfuscate it simultaneously, which is what I'd have to do.
* Noah opens his mouth super wide when he smiles. It is the greatest thing. He's three months old now, already. Cooing and adorable. Time for the first batch of really exciting stuff: rolling, sitting, grasping, crawling. Daniel is looking forward to sharing stuff with him, and he's getting good at pushing the umbrella stroller in a gentle, straight line down the sidewalk--at least inasmuch as the sidewalks themselves are gentle and straight. Oh, Monmouth. Anyway, such a sweet big brother. (Having two kids is infinitely better than just one. I can't wait to see my entire family all together. I want them all here right now so I can start knowing them. I was baby-hungry the minute Noah was born, but I guess this time is for getting to know and appreciate him, deeply and individually, while he's the baby.)
* I'm super tired but I'm enthusiastic about the lovely weather lately.
* I bought a white gel pen yesterday and my life is 987398684756 times better. I'm drawing this amazing amazing kind of medieval sampler thingy, and it's almost done.
* Heraldry: still acting on me like a tasty drug.
* My oldest brother is coming up from California next weekend. YESSS I am so stoked to be with all of my brothers! But not all my siblings, sigh. One more year till Jenny-time. We better send her a picture.
* I've had a series of connected epiphanies over the past several months. I guess I should preserve that in my private paper journal in more detail, but that one barely even knows Noah exists, poor thing. The epiphanies, in rough outline, were that I am super attached to divine justice (toward myself), even moreso than divine mercy; that I used to think I was good at forgiving, but actually I'm obviously horrible at it, all things considered, and that's been making my life stupid for ages; and finally that Daniel, luckily, is really really good at forgiving, and therefore things between him and me are probably going to be okay even if I suck sometimes. He loves me. I am trying to learn from him.
* Also about Daniel, I failed to write a poem last week about a moment where I went from reading a lot of articles about violence and horror to going to wake him up from his nap, and ended up just kneeling by his bedside, becoming late for our appointment, kissing his sleeping fist that smelled like sticky oranges and still had dimples in the knuckles and hadn't yet learned to hurt. I am so grateful to be his mom. Send me more sons. They won't be perfect, but there are a few important things they'll know.
* I am learning to be more appreciative of the people in my life. They don't just not-exist, even if they're not the precise à la carte friend selection I would have made in my "Lucy seeks Ethel" desperation. And they're awesome. It occurred to me that maybe I'm Ethel; maybe instead of waiting for someone to come over to my house and make it less boring, I have to pay attention to what's actually happening. Also, maybe this TV show doesn't completely revolve around me. Still kind of following this rabbit hole. Making connections is not really my strength right now. It might not have to be.
* I should go to bed. I need to be getting more sleep. But I should put together that Easter basket first.
* (Apparently it's possible to become reconciled to something while simultaneously being in constant mourning for it. Apparently you don't grieve less, you just do other things more. It's not what I expected or wanted, but I guess it works.)
* Seriously, it will be the first Easter Daniel actually knows about and participates in! That's exciting. Be excited, Rachel. Zzzzzzz I will after I sleep.
I feel very weird because it's spring. Which is a statement that kind of demands explanation but my brain is too tired to elucidate and obfuscate it simultaneously, which is what I'd have to do.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
In which I mention a baby!
Oooooof. Since August? Really? And the one before that was last January? (The funny thing about my last entry is that when I went to the store to buy a new planner, it turned out the only one I really liked aesthetically was a Jan-Jan one after all. So after all that, I completely tossed it all aside and just got the pretty one. X) It was still a worthwhile thought process, though. I am large, I contain multitudes!)
So, stuff~. I'm going to make a list of things I want to write entries about, but first and foremost I will state for the record that I totes had that second baby. He is Noah, and he is super cuddly, and his birth was awesome. Things are going really well so far. ♥ This will definitely change as time goes on, but for the moment, he has yet to present us with any challenges we didn't already learn to deal with from Daniel. So that's been pretty cool and a huge blessing, especially because Daniel is actively blazing new trails in the "how the heck do I parent this?" forest. (He is brilliant and adorable and I love his guts, and also, he is two and a half.)
Anyway, things I want to talk about:
So, stuff~. I'm going to make a list of things I want to write entries about, but first and foremost I will state for the record that I totes had that second baby. He is Noah, and he is super cuddly, and his birth was awesome. Things are going really well so far. ♥ This will definitely change as time goes on, but for the moment, he has yet to present us with any challenges we didn't already learn to deal with from Daniel. So that's been pretty cool and a huge blessing, especially because Daniel is actively blazing new trails in the "how the heck do I parent this?" forest. (He is brilliant and adorable and I love his guts, and also, he is two and a half.)
Anyway, things I want to talk about:
- Birth story! (Hint: 2 hours!)
- Comparison between hospital/n00b experience and birth-center/v3t3r4n experience
- Daniel! He is a toddler. What else?
- Some general musings about how my parenting philosophy and techniques have evolved
- All kinds of interesting food stuff I learned from gestational diabetes
- What have I been doing besides parenting? (Not a ton, but some stuff!)
- Um, heraldry. A lot of that. Yesssss. And some SCA gatherings!
- NaNoWriMo (I did it again last year, probably won't this year)
- How awesome Heath is / what we might be doing next in life
- Quite possibly one of those "30 days of entries" things again, because I need an outlet.
Monday, October 24, 2011
My son and pizza are awesome
Oof, I'd gotten into the habit of not writing.
Hi again! I've been doing pretty well lately. Gearing up for NaNoWriMo at the moment, which is a lot of why I'm writing this--I want to be able to blog about that. I'm excited! And I'm scared! And I'm excited. Hopefully it will be all fun and glory and creepy fairies, tapping into the majesty of my first three years (especially the very first) rather than the letdown of last year. I have reasons to hope that it will go well.
In other news, I just ordered pizza! It's kind of a waste of money, but whatever! I'm super hungry and we haven't gone to the grocery story in 2358547 years. Anyway, apparently Domino's delivers to Monmouth now, so this is going to be pretty freaking awesome.
Well, I'm boring tonight. Oh well. I'll plagiarize from facebook my most recent Daniel update, which I posted yesterday:
Actually, I've been feeling strangely competent as a mother today. Strange because I never feel competent, even though I no longer feel like a total screwup (at least not most of the time). But I've been playing with Daniel more, and enjoying it more. I've been doing other stupid boring distracting things less. Also, I actually cooked lunch (read: made boxed pasta) and we ate it together, and when he was full he pushed his bowl away instead of throwing it at the ground. (He saved that for later, when Daddy was giving him dinner. Haw haw.) He got my wallet out, and instead of storming over to snatch it away before he pulled all the cards out, I nicely asked him not to open it and to put it back, and after a while of procrastinating, he actually put it back! And then applauded himself! Also, we went for a walk, and we saw a kid meow at a cat, and Daniel meowed at the kid, and the kid was obviously delighted.
We've been doing "Parent and Me" swimming lessons, and Daniel is amazing. His only thing is that he doesn't like being confined to the warm little therapy pool, even though it's awesome, and would much prefer to be free to climb out and go jump in the lap pool. But that's just him being him, and the water itself bothers him not at all. I can hand him a pair of floaties and propel him around the pool on his stomach, only holding him up by the feet, and he doesn't even care. He splashes and climbs in and out and plays with toys. Today he didn't want to do much of what the teacher was suggesting, but she's extremely cool about my disinclination to force him. Instead, he floated by himself for a couple seconds, using only the little water weights and without my touching him at all! Then he figured he was done and really wanted to climb up the stairs and go do something else. Instead, after some other wandering around and playing, I set him standing on the bench and gave him a watering can. He spent most of the rest of the lesson scooping up water and pouring it out, often on the concrete by the side of the pool, with a look of deep concentration on his face. I could practically see his brain working, and it was the most magical thing ever. I told the teacher, "I bet you didn't know you were running a Parent and Me Physics Lab."
(Another awesome thing Daniel does is recognize letters. He doesn't know any individual symbols, but he knows writing when he sees it, and he likes to poke the letters and make authoritative little staccato noises. He does this with the depth markings on the pool, the warnings on his carseat, building signs, food packages, sides of cars, books... I'm pretty sure the place he learned it was from sitting in my lap when I was on a big crossword puzzle kick a few months ago. Just the other day he found one of my puzzles sitting out, picked up the pen, and poked at it four times, stating, "Dee, oh, nih, nih.")
So yup. <3 Some pretty nifty stuff going on. Also some other kinds of stuff. But right now, I feel like I'm doing okay at life, and that is nice. It's weird to feel competent on an evening when the kitchen has more dirty dishes than clean and the fridge contains more moldy food than edible, but whatever. I'll take it.
In another post I should talk about all the books I've been reading, and the one I'm about to write! But right now it's time for me to sit here and imagine eating pizza until it's time to sit here actually eating pizza. Mmmmmmmm.
Hi again! I've been doing pretty well lately. Gearing up for NaNoWriMo at the moment, which is a lot of why I'm writing this--I want to be able to blog about that. I'm excited! And I'm scared! And I'm excited. Hopefully it will be all fun and glory and creepy fairies, tapping into the majesty of my first three years (especially the very first) rather than the letdown of last year. I have reasons to hope that it will go well.
In other news, I just ordered pizza! It's kind of a waste of money, but whatever! I'm super hungry and we haven't gone to the grocery story in 2358547 years. Anyway, apparently Domino's delivers to Monmouth now, so this is going to be pretty freaking awesome.
Well, I'm boring tonight. Oh well. I'll plagiarize from facebook my most recent Daniel update, which I posted yesterday:
Oh, and while I'm talking about Daniel, this one describes some awesomeness from last Thursday:
So good. So good. I was so tired, but it was so good.
Actually, I've been feeling strangely competent as a mother today. Strange because I never feel competent, even though I no longer feel like a total screwup (at least not most of the time). But I've been playing with Daniel more, and enjoying it more. I've been doing other stupid boring distracting things less. Also, I actually cooked lunch (read: made boxed pasta) and we ate it together, and when he was full he pushed his bowl away instead of throwing it at the ground. (He saved that for later, when Daddy was giving him dinner. Haw haw.) He got my wallet out, and instead of storming over to snatch it away before he pulled all the cards out, I nicely asked him not to open it and to put it back, and after a while of procrastinating, he actually put it back! And then applauded himself! Also, we went for a walk, and we saw a kid meow at a cat, and Daniel meowed at the kid, and the kid was obviously delighted.
We've been doing "Parent and Me" swimming lessons, and Daniel is amazing. His only thing is that he doesn't like being confined to the warm little therapy pool, even though it's awesome, and would much prefer to be free to climb out and go jump in the lap pool. But that's just him being him, and the water itself bothers him not at all. I can hand him a pair of floaties and propel him around the pool on his stomach, only holding him up by the feet, and he doesn't even care. He splashes and climbs in and out and plays with toys. Today he didn't want to do much of what the teacher was suggesting, but she's extremely cool about my disinclination to force him. Instead, he floated by himself for a couple seconds, using only the little water weights and without my touching him at all! Then he figured he was done and really wanted to climb up the stairs and go do something else. Instead, after some other wandering around and playing, I set him standing on the bench and gave him a watering can. He spent most of the rest of the lesson scooping up water and pouring it out, often on the concrete by the side of the pool, with a look of deep concentration on his face. I could practically see his brain working, and it was the most magical thing ever. I told the teacher, "I bet you didn't know you were running a Parent and Me Physics Lab."
(Another awesome thing Daniel does is recognize letters. He doesn't know any individual symbols, but he knows writing when he sees it, and he likes to poke the letters and make authoritative little staccato noises. He does this with the depth markings on the pool, the warnings on his carseat, building signs, food packages, sides of cars, books... I'm pretty sure the place he learned it was from sitting in my lap when I was on a big crossword puzzle kick a few months ago. Just the other day he found one of my puzzles sitting out, picked up the pen, and poked at it four times, stating, "Dee, oh, nih, nih.")
So yup. <3 Some pretty nifty stuff going on. Also some other kinds of stuff. But right now, I feel like I'm doing okay at life, and that is nice. It's weird to feel competent on an evening when the kitchen has more dirty dishes than clean and the fridge contains more moldy food than edible, but whatever. I'll take it.
In another post I should talk about all the books I've been reading, and the one I'm about to write! But right now it's time for me to sit here and imagine eating pizza until it's time to sit here actually eating pizza. Mmmmmmmm.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
They think they are wise
Look, I'm posting on time!
"Day 29 - In this past month, what have you learned?"
Uh.... I dunno.
*looks at planner*
Events from the past few days: Heath got into his grad school program! :DDD Now he officially gets to become a teacher! And I got my Boba and my own copy of Hadestown and they are awesome.
On the negative side, I had a headache for four days. And today was miserable for everyone, because Daniel's next four teeth have decided to come in all at the same time, and nothing is helping. He's been frantic with pain and unwilling to nurse. There was some respite when we went for a walk, but mostly there has been lots and lots of inconsolable crying. And I broke a glass.
Tomorrow is something I want to be excited about, but mostly I'm sad for my baby, and scared he'll cry all day again, and scared that I'll completely lose my mind from the stress of it.
"Day 29 - In this past month, what have you learned?"
Uh.... I dunno.
*looks at planner*
- Groundhog Day is a good movie.
- Everyone's utilities bills got psychotic lately, not just mine. How nice.
- How to solve the Rubik's Cube's first-layer corners and second-layer edges at the same time. (Still working on getting it as fast as the rest of my solving. My new record on the old method is one minute, by the way!)
- Heath is really good at constructing Magic decks. (He was in a tournament and got the highest score but lost to the winner.)
- Babies get you psychotically huge tax refunds!
- Relatedly, being totally out of school debt feels goooooooooooood. :D
- I still really, really, really like to dance.
- I am still afraid of insinuating myself into groups of dancing people.
- With prayer, I can give a super good talk even if I'm banging my head on the table through the whole preparation time.
- I'm kind of a jerk sometimes.
- Andy and Joanne and kids are awesome.
- OMSI is awesome. It has a room for little little kids that I wish was next door to me. Daniel really likes those tables with the beads on big wires. Apparently they're cheap at IKEA.
- Also, there was a mummy, and I solved a horse puzzle.
- Raw fish is not terrible, and eel is pretty good, and egg sushi is deliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicious.
- My friend Brendan is super helpful, and a given Baskin Robbins probably doesn't have a changing table.
- Hadestown is the best thing. The best thing.
- A bunch of other stuff.
- Heath does super well at interviews!
- I love Summer and Courtney like mad and miss them.
- I'm good at shopping. Actually, I already knew this.
- Secretariat was the coolest horse.
- Apparently you can milk Minecraft squid.
- Heath: still fun to smooch.
- My new Boba baby carrier is awesome.
- Avoiding drama doesn't help, because it finds you.
- I can and must write scripts faster.
- Church choir is way easier when my mom-in-law comes and takes care of Daniel. Thanks! <3
- Nicole's concerts are awesome, and going to them makes me miss being pregnant, because last time I went Daniel galloped around me the whole time.
- People are really cruel and horrible and obnoxious sometimes.
Events from the past few days: Heath got into his grad school program! :DDD Now he officially gets to become a teacher! And I got my Boba and my own copy of Hadestown and they are awesome.
On the negative side, I had a headache for four days. And today was miserable for everyone, because Daniel's next four teeth have decided to come in all at the same time, and nothing is helping. He's been frantic with pain and unwilling to nurse. There was some respite when we went for a walk, but mostly there has been lots and lots of inconsolable crying. And I broke a glass.
Tomorrow is something I want to be excited about, but mostly I'm sad for my baby, and scared he'll cry all day again, and scared that I'll completely lose my mind from the stress of it.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Famble
"Day 14 - A picture of you and your family"
I'm swapping these two because I have other plans for that one. Meanwhile, have this!:
Not a new picture; a picture of new
I'd probably have preferred to use a more recent picture, but I'm at my parents' house, so I'm limited to what I've uploaded to facebook. :P But I've been thinking a lot about Daniel's birth lately, and I spent a bunch of time this morning looking at pictures from the end of my pregnancy and from when he was new. There's a lot of sweetness and beauty there. It makes me a little baby hungry despite the fact that having #2 would be kind of unreasonable right now (or possibly because of that, since I'm all safe?).
Incidentally, I've just learned that I live a lot closer to this lovely birth center than I thought I did. Very very very interesting.
Anyway. ♥ ♥ Heath. ♥ ♥ Daniel. ♥ ♥ the ones who are waiting. I'm frazzled a lot of the time as it is, but I miss them and I want to meet them soon.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Day of awesome
"Day 9 - Something you're proud of in the past few days"
Oh man, today was the right day for this prompt. Usually, I don't get very much done because I'm tired and Danieled and anemic and lazy. But today! Today, presented with the clean kitchen my wonderful husband gave me last night, I had a psychological high that carried me through getting a thing done, which carried my through getting some more things done, and before you know it I was getting things done all day long.
Things I got done!:
PS. Remember how I was talking before about wanting to cook? Yeahhhh, baby. The dinner I made was this dinner! It was insanely easy and it tasted prooty goot. I like this crock pot thing, by golly.
PPS. Using a bedsheet and your arms to make a big tent around yourself and your baby: five stars. He giggled and flopped around like mad. It was adorable. He's getting so fun and snuggly. It's hard when I need to do something else, though. He kept trying to crawl into my lap and grab the screwdriver while I was working on the cupboards, and he got all sad and clingy just as I was needing to hang up clothes. But mostly, he's just jolly and interested and busy.
PPPS. Sometimes when Daniel can't sleep, I have to tickle him, and then he can. :)
Oh man, today was the right day for this prompt. Usually, I don't get very much done because I'm tired and Danieled and anemic and lazy. But today! Today, presented with the clean kitchen my wonderful husband gave me last night, I had a psychological high that carried me through getting a thing done, which carried my through getting some more things done, and before you know it I was getting things done all day long.
Things I got done!:
- Folded and put away a junkton of laundry
- Played under a sheet with Daniel
- Tidied up a bunch of random stuff
- Looked up a recipe online
- Made dinner?!?!?!
- Unloaded dishwasher
- Loaded dishwasher
- Installed cupboard latches in the kitchen
- Wrote a haiku about Star Trek
- Gave Daniel three solid-food mini-meals (aside from his normal nums)
- Hung my necklace rack and finally unpacked all my necklaces
- Tidied nightstand
- Changed sheets
- Had awesome food and watched funny videos with Heath and Jennifer
- Went to the grocery store with Jennifer, was hilarious apparently?
- Left Daniel with Heath! Was a leaf on the wind in the produce section!!
- Came home and helped Daniel get to sleep
- Oh, I even played Minecraft a little this morning!
- Now I'm blogging!
PS. Remember how I was talking before about wanting to cook? Yeahhhh, baby. The dinner I made was this dinner! It was insanely easy and it tasted prooty goot. I like this crock pot thing, by golly.
PPS. Using a bedsheet and your arms to make a big tent around yourself and your baby: five stars. He giggled and flopped around like mad. It was adorable. He's getting so fun and snuggly. It's hard when I need to do something else, though. He kept trying to crawl into my lap and grab the screwdriver while I was working on the cupboards, and he got all sad and clingy just as I was needing to hang up clothes. But mostly, he's just jolly and interested and busy.
PPPS. Sometimes when Daniel can't sleep, I have to tickle him, and then he can. :)
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Making the earth say "beans" instead of "grass"
"Day 5 - A picture of somewhere you've been"
Well, the coolest one I have is probably this:
Well, the coolest one I have is probably this:
Looking out over Walden Pond
(and 13 weeks pregnant!)
I have a whole folder of pictures from my Boston trip that I never posted anywhere. They're extremely awesome because of all the family history pictures I illegally took of William Brewster museum displays. I should make a facebook album.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
My family is amazing
Tonight, while Heath was home-teaching, Daniel sat in my lap and laughed and laughed while I made weird noises and faces at him to demonstrate how cool it was going to be for him to have teeth. Then, as he started to get tired, he rubbed his eyes, then did this new weird thing where he presses his head against mine and rubs it side to side, hard. I don't know what he gets out of that, but it was super pleasant to sit their and nuzzle like that. Aww, my baby. <3 We like each other. It's crazy!
(His tooth is poking out now, by the way! Other people can't see it yet, but it's totally there and it comes out a little more every day. Hooray~)
We had fun with my mom out on the town today. There was shopping and eating and an atomic poopocalypse and a giant nap where he looked so sweet and cute that I forgave him. Also I wrote most of a weird little poem that will probably bookend the next chapter of RWA.
The wedding and reception were lovely; I was so happy after the sealing that I danced down the hallway at the temple, and people smiled about it. Aunts and uncles noticed and complimented my grandmother's gorgeous leather trenchcoat, which I was wearing because of the rain and because it looked good with my bridesmaid dress. Lots of them had also brought their mom and dad with them, in the form of pieces of jewelry or things like that. I made Uncle Stephen cry when I showed them all the half stick of sugar-free spearmint gum in my pocket. (I can't seem to throw it away. It was a thing, with Grandma; she always broke pieces of gum in half, or less if there were lots of people to share with. My aunts recalled that it's very difficult to actually chew a quarter of a stick of gum. Hee hee. So yeah, still in my pocket. I love and miss her a lot.)
After the big party and seeing Michael and Jessica off, hanging out with my brothers all weekend was magnificent. Lots of games and fun and awesome talking. (Aaron and April and fam are gone again now, which sucks. We really need a teleporter.) Then, yesterday, I got to hang out with my aunts some more, plus some uncles. Spencer talked with me about music and how I'm going nuts without a choir or something to be in. I get to see them all and the cousins again when we do the big family sing-along next week, and I can't wait. I really miss seeing aunts and uncles every day.
Meanwhile, a bunch of random acquaintances are acting unpleasant, but after writing this I'm kinda going, who cares.
(His tooth is poking out now, by the way! Other people can't see it yet, but it's totally there and it comes out a little more every day. Hooray~)
We had fun with my mom out on the town today. There was shopping and eating and an atomic poopocalypse and a giant nap where he looked so sweet and cute that I forgave him. Also I wrote most of a weird little poem that will probably bookend the next chapter of RWA.
The wedding and reception were lovely; I was so happy after the sealing that I danced down the hallway at the temple, and people smiled about it. Aunts and uncles noticed and complimented my grandmother's gorgeous leather trenchcoat, which I was wearing because of the rain and because it looked good with my bridesmaid dress. Lots of them had also brought their mom and dad with them, in the form of pieces of jewelry or things like that. I made Uncle Stephen cry when I showed them all the half stick of sugar-free spearmint gum in my pocket. (I can't seem to throw it away. It was a thing, with Grandma; she always broke pieces of gum in half, or less if there were lots of people to share with. My aunts recalled that it's very difficult to actually chew a quarter of a stick of gum. Hee hee. So yeah, still in my pocket. I love and miss her a lot.)
After the big party and seeing Michael and Jessica off, hanging out with my brothers all weekend was magnificent. Lots of games and fun and awesome talking. (Aaron and April and fam are gone again now, which sucks. We really need a teleporter.) Then, yesterday, I got to hang out with my aunts some more, plus some uncles. Spencer talked with me about music and how I'm going nuts without a choir or something to be in. I get to see them all and the cousins again when we do the big family sing-along next week, and I can't wait. I really miss seeing aunts and uncles every day.
Meanwhile, a bunch of random acquaintances are acting unpleasant, but after writing this I'm kinda going, who cares.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Uppydatey
And life moves on!
November 19th was Heath's and my fifth anniversary. Our first half-round number! It's hard to believe we're already here. Most of the other seasons of my life have been, at max, four years long. And this relationship is just going to keep going on and on and on. It's crazy! And it is awesome. <3
We celebrated by dressing up nice and going out to a fancy steak dinner (using a gift certificate--thanks, Carole S!). I've never done that before! It was deliriously tasty and made me feel happily princessy. Daniel came along, and he was absolutely perfect. We took turns holding him, talking to him, feeding him bits of bread, so he didn't feel left out and never did any fussing. It was delightful. We've discovered that including him actually makes us less likely to resent him, because it takes away the idea that we need to "escape." I know this won't work all the time once he becomes more noisy and hyper, but for now looking across a candelit table at my family is extremely romantic. Daniel is part of the reason for my love for Heath, after all, not something that just interrupts it.
The week after that, Thanksgiving! That was awesome. Who else is stoked that a woman won Punkin' Chunkin' this year?! Bahaha~
Then the month ended, and now it's December. Daniel was sick last week, so I haven't gotten much of anything done. He had a crazy fever and a lot of pain--his voice is still a little bit hoarse from the constant crying. It cleared up on its own and the doctor couldn't find anything wrong, but based on the diluvian drooling, I figured it must be teething. And I seem to have been right, because lo and behold, there are now some sharp bumps at the front of his gums!
Not only that, but now that he's mastered crawling, he's launched right into pulling up, and can now stand upright while hanging on with one hand. Geez, that was fast. No cruising yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.
Next up: my brother Michael is getting married this weekend. Yaaaaaaaay! I am super happy to gain Jessica as a sister and just stoked about the whole thing. <3 Also about seeing Aaron and family when they come up from California, and the good times that will ensue! Ahhh, my family is awesome.
I've been having some thoughts lately that I want to write about, including babies and gender, how Daniel got his name, how this journal got its name, and maybe eventually a birth story. I think there was something else, too. Hopefully I'll remember later.
November 19th was Heath's and my fifth anniversary. Our first half-round number! It's hard to believe we're already here. Most of the other seasons of my life have been, at max, four years long. And this relationship is just going to keep going on and on and on. It's crazy! And it is awesome. <3
We celebrated by dressing up nice and going out to a fancy steak dinner (using a gift certificate--thanks, Carole S!). I've never done that before! It was deliriously tasty and made me feel happily princessy. Daniel came along, and he was absolutely perfect. We took turns holding him, talking to him, feeding him bits of bread, so he didn't feel left out and never did any fussing. It was delightful. We've discovered that including him actually makes us less likely to resent him, because it takes away the idea that we need to "escape." I know this won't work all the time once he becomes more noisy and hyper, but for now looking across a candelit table at my family is extremely romantic. Daniel is part of the reason for my love for Heath, after all, not something that just interrupts it.
The week after that, Thanksgiving! That was awesome. Who else is stoked that a woman won Punkin' Chunkin' this year?! Bahaha~
Then the month ended, and now it's December. Daniel was sick last week, so I haven't gotten much of anything done. He had a crazy fever and a lot of pain--his voice is still a little bit hoarse from the constant crying. It cleared up on its own and the doctor couldn't find anything wrong, but based on the diluvian drooling, I figured it must be teething. And I seem to have been right, because lo and behold, there are now some sharp bumps at the front of his gums!
Not only that, but now that he's mastered crawling, he's launched right into pulling up, and can now stand upright while hanging on with one hand. Geez, that was fast. No cruising yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.
Next up: my brother Michael is getting married this weekend. Yaaaaaaaay! I am super happy to gain Jessica as a sister and just stoked about the whole thing. <3 Also about seeing Aaron and family when they come up from California, and the good times that will ensue! Ahhh, my family is awesome.
I've been having some thoughts lately that I want to write about, including babies and gender, how Daniel got his name, how this journal got its name, and maybe eventually a birth story. I think there was something else, too. Hopefully I'll remember later.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Motion
Daniel is so cute. These days, he loves food. I can't eat around him anymore without either sharing or getting him something of his own. This morning we had a lot of fun hanging out in the kitchen, eating our two kinds of oatmeal, taking turns having bites. It was awesome. I love his messy little happy face going "ahhhh" at me.
Also, he's getting so good at moving around!! He can't quite "crawl" in the traditional sense, but it hardly matters. I just watched him belly-flop from the other end of the dining room, past me here at the computer, around the couch, and over into the corner where our video games are without any problems. Then he reached for the basket with our controllers in it, pulled up to his knees, and starting rifling around! Oh my gosh!
Everyone keeps saying "oh no, baby is mobile, you're doomed" but I'm so excited. The more his skills improve, the happier he is, and if I'm chasing him around I'm not having to invent activities to keep him content. Also? It's totally adorable. (Though I have to pay close attention, because he moves fast! <3)
Feeling much better these last few days. I had a really bad night, then tracked down a thing I've been reading that was making me depressed, and getting rid of that thing was a very good move. I might write about that later, if I decide it's a good idea. Anyway, besides that, Heath's coworker who's been sick for two weeks seems to finally be back on duty. I'm glad Heath got a billion hours (money is good!), but I was also super thrilled when he came home at like 2 yesterday. It's so awesome to have him around!
We had a fun day. Video games and laundry-folding and baby play, and Miles reading, and we watched the first act of Into the Woods. Then Heath took a nap while Daniel and I bundled out the door to hit the post office and send off invitations to the bridal shower for Michael's fiancée. It was dim and rainy and blustery and awesome. Then we went on to the consignment shop, where I bought a baby-sized toilet seat and a $2.50 copy of The Great Gatsby. (I go there all the time just to get out of the house, and I always leave with something rad.) I had Daniel with me in the sling, wearing his super warm adorable hat, and my cheapo umbrella broke and it got really dark, but I loved the whole thing and Daniel didn't seem to mind, either.
Later that night, Heath took Daniel out again to go to the local game shop and play Magic for a bit. Usually I love doing this with him, but this time I stayed home and ordered a pizza and got some work done on my novel, which was fabulous. :) We've been getting into this routine lately. The two of them head off, I chill and get some writing done, they come back, Daniel falls asleep two blocks from home, and we just put him to bed at like 8. Around 10 or so he wakes up and we put him in his overnight diaper and nurse him back to sleep; sometimes that doesn't work, so Heath walks him around while I read Miles aloud. Then the two of us get back to work on our novels.
Heath isn't doing NaNoWriMo with the goal of winning--i.e. reaching 50,000 words--but he is enjoying himself and he is helping me out a lot. I think having someone to do races with is the only thing with a chance of saving me from not making it this year. We did race after race after race last night, and I ended up with 3,400 words by the time we went to bed. (I was also forced to stay up for a while because I had to move the diaper laundry through, so that was a useful tactic as well.)
Anyway, the novel is moving along! As usual, I suspect that individual scenes are boring, but the overall plot development is making me happy. I'm still quite a good bit behind--17,343 words, when I should be at 30,000--but it's not irretrievable. In fact, if I keep writing 3,000 words a night, I'll catch up next week and be able to take the last few days at a leisurely pace. Either that or I'll end up skipping Thanksgiving and panicking out 10,000 words over the last weekend like I did last year. :)
So yup! That's how things are going now.
OH OH OH, but I forgot to mention: I am getting my hair hacked today! Finally! I'm so excited to not be so shaggy, and to not be so easily baby-yanked (which was really starting to make me cantankerous). My plan is to have it just a little past my shoulders, but I trust these stylists a lot and if they think it would look better shorter, I might be persuadable. Scary but awesome! I can't wait~
Okay. Fussy baby = naptime. Hey, maybe I can take one, too...
Also, he's getting so good at moving around!! He can't quite "crawl" in the traditional sense, but it hardly matters. I just watched him belly-flop from the other end of the dining room, past me here at the computer, around the couch, and over into the corner where our video games are without any problems. Then he reached for the basket with our controllers in it, pulled up to his knees, and starting rifling around! Oh my gosh!
Everyone keeps saying "oh no, baby is mobile, you're doomed" but I'm so excited. The more his skills improve, the happier he is, and if I'm chasing him around I'm not having to invent activities to keep him content. Also? It's totally adorable. (Though I have to pay close attention, because he moves fast! <3)
Feeling much better these last few days. I had a really bad night, then tracked down a thing I've been reading that was making me depressed, and getting rid of that thing was a very good move. I might write about that later, if I decide it's a good idea. Anyway, besides that, Heath's coworker who's been sick for two weeks seems to finally be back on duty. I'm glad Heath got a billion hours (money is good!), but I was also super thrilled when he came home at like 2 yesterday. It's so awesome to have him around!
We had a fun day. Video games and laundry-folding and baby play, and Miles reading, and we watched the first act of Into the Woods. Then Heath took a nap while Daniel and I bundled out the door to hit the post office and send off invitations to the bridal shower for Michael's fiancée. It was dim and rainy and blustery and awesome. Then we went on to the consignment shop, where I bought a baby-sized toilet seat and a $2.50 copy of The Great Gatsby. (I go there all the time just to get out of the house, and I always leave with something rad.) I had Daniel with me in the sling, wearing his super warm adorable hat, and my cheapo umbrella broke and it got really dark, but I loved the whole thing and Daniel didn't seem to mind, either.
Later that night, Heath took Daniel out again to go to the local game shop and play Magic for a bit. Usually I love doing this with him, but this time I stayed home and ordered a pizza and got some work done on my novel, which was fabulous. :) We've been getting into this routine lately. The two of them head off, I chill and get some writing done, they come back, Daniel falls asleep two blocks from home, and we just put him to bed at like 8. Around 10 or so he wakes up and we put him in his overnight diaper and nurse him back to sleep; sometimes that doesn't work, so Heath walks him around while I read Miles aloud. Then the two of us get back to work on our novels.
Heath isn't doing NaNoWriMo with the goal of winning--i.e. reaching 50,000 words--but he is enjoying himself and he is helping me out a lot. I think having someone to do races with is the only thing with a chance of saving me from not making it this year. We did race after race after race last night, and I ended up with 3,400 words by the time we went to bed. (I was also forced to stay up for a while because I had to move the diaper laundry through, so that was a useful tactic as well.)
Anyway, the novel is moving along! As usual, I suspect that individual scenes are boring, but the overall plot development is making me happy. I'm still quite a good bit behind--17,343 words, when I should be at 30,000--but it's not irretrievable. In fact, if I keep writing 3,000 words a night, I'll catch up next week and be able to take the last few days at a leisurely pace. Either that or I'll end up skipping Thanksgiving and panicking out 10,000 words over the last weekend like I did last year. :)
So yup! That's how things are going now.
OH OH OH, but I forgot to mention: I am getting my hair hacked today! Finally! I'm so excited to not be so shaggy, and to not be so easily baby-yanked (which was really starting to make me cantankerous). My plan is to have it just a little past my shoulders, but I trust these stylists a lot and if they think it would look better shorter, I might be persuadable. Scary but awesome! I can't wait~
Okay. Fussy baby = naptime. Hey, maybe I can take one, too...
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Froomph
Argh. I've lost my planner, and with it, my brain (not to mention lots of notes and several photos of Daniel). In a cruel twist, I can't find the new planner I bought to replace it, either. >_<
Today was strange. I spent all of church in some kind of fugue state; I have the impression that the lessons were pretty good, but I couldn't really pay attention despite the fact that I didn't have anything specific distracting me. Heath and my mom held Daniel most of the time. I guess it was just a combination of tiredness and anxiety, not to mention my mind being all disorganized. I usually use the free moments at church to get my planner up to date and get ready for the coming week--trying to do it all in my head is no fun.
Also, Daniel is doing this weird thing where he clearly really wants to nurse, but he keeps flipping over. I guess he gets bored, or maybe his body is just compelling him to keep doing that until he masters crawling, or something. He'll still be hungry, but no longer able to hold still and eat; he just wiggles around and pretty soon starts whining with hunger again. When I nurse him in bed and he flips onto his tummy, sometimes he cheerfully tries to continue nursing, like a little puppy. It's bizarre and adorable, but unfortunately even that doesn't hold his attention. I wish I knew what the problem was. Actually, I guess it could be a teething thing, if the suction hurts his gums. Hmm. Blah. It's kind of ruining the excitement of my thrush finally seeming to have gone away.
I didn't mean for this to be a complainy post! I also got a new church calling, which I won't reveal yet. It's super scary, but I think it might be exactly what I need to be doing with myself right now. The number of awesome reasons to go for it keeps going up the more I think and talk about it. But, ohhhh, man. Scary.
Actually, lacking my planner, I guess I can take some notes here. Things I need to do this week:
* Pumpkin carving tomorrow!! Woohoo!! Best FHE ever.
* Have Heath's brother over on Tuesday, watch Star Trek:TNG
* Halloween thing with Jennifer on Wednesday evening
* Heath's thing with the missionaries Thursday (and I get visit-taught)
* Eye of Argon party Friday!!! Woohooooooooo!! I wonder if anyone's actually coming? Must check on that.
* Sooner than that, get all this laundry folded and put away
* Get a script to Michael for this week's comic
* Finish all our Halloween costumes
* Make serious progress on Heath's grad school application
* Make some clay things?
* Work on Christmas presents? (I'm making them, so I had to start early)
* Buy a crock pot?
* Keep cleaning up and moving in in general
* Any number of a billion to-do items I've been putting off until they become ridiculous
Also, I want to buy a ring with a smiley face on it. As a reminder.
Today was strange. I spent all of church in some kind of fugue state; I have the impression that the lessons were pretty good, but I couldn't really pay attention despite the fact that I didn't have anything specific distracting me. Heath and my mom held Daniel most of the time. I guess it was just a combination of tiredness and anxiety, not to mention my mind being all disorganized. I usually use the free moments at church to get my planner up to date and get ready for the coming week--trying to do it all in my head is no fun.
Also, Daniel is doing this weird thing where he clearly really wants to nurse, but he keeps flipping over. I guess he gets bored, or maybe his body is just compelling him to keep doing that until he masters crawling, or something. He'll still be hungry, but no longer able to hold still and eat; he just wiggles around and pretty soon starts whining with hunger again. When I nurse him in bed and he flips onto his tummy, sometimes he cheerfully tries to continue nursing, like a little puppy. It's bizarre and adorable, but unfortunately even that doesn't hold his attention. I wish I knew what the problem was. Actually, I guess it could be a teething thing, if the suction hurts his gums. Hmm. Blah. It's kind of ruining the excitement of my thrush finally seeming to have gone away.
I didn't mean for this to be a complainy post! I also got a new church calling, which I won't reveal yet. It's super scary, but I think it might be exactly what I need to be doing with myself right now. The number of awesome reasons to go for it keeps going up the more I think and talk about it. But, ohhhh, man. Scary.
Actually, lacking my planner, I guess I can take some notes here. Things I need to do this week:
* Pumpkin carving tomorrow!! Woohoo!! Best FHE ever.
* Have Heath's brother over on Tuesday, watch Star Trek:TNG
* Halloween thing with Jennifer on Wednesday evening
* Heath's thing with the missionaries Thursday (and I get visit-taught)
* Eye of Argon party Friday!!! Woohooooooooo!! I wonder if anyone's actually coming? Must check on that.
* Sooner than that, get all this laundry folded and put away
* Get a script to Michael for this week's comic
* Finish all our Halloween costumes
* Make serious progress on Heath's grad school application
* Make some clay things?
* Work on Christmas presents? (I'm making them, so I had to start early)
* Buy a crock pot?
* Keep cleaning up and moving in in general
* Any number of a billion to-do items I've been putting off until they become ridiculous
Also, I want to buy a ring with a smiley face on it. As a reminder.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)