attempting a comeback

testing... testing... one... two...
silence.
that's ok. i'm good with silence. and i should be after two years of silence on my end. for that, blog, i apologize. much has happened in the last two years... a baby has become a girl. an egg and a sperm became a baby. we moved... but not far. other things have not changed. mil is still in medical school. i am still working in the same snug little dungeon... though for only several hours a week. my mom is still not here. and that still sucks.

life has kept me busy and far from computers for the most part. up until a few months ago, i was working ten hours per week, mostly from home, mostly while veronica napped. after a colleague left, i increased my hours to twenty and increased my lovely babysitter's hours to twenty-seven. wow. when i calculate that out, it seems like so much. though i use that time both for work and for taking veronica to a couple of classes without her little sister.

oh, right, the little sister. i must make introductions.

this little soft, snuggly bunny is violet. she's approaching eight months old, and she is pure deliciousness from her dainty little toes to her halo of hair fuzz. she is a solid eater... packing away finger foods and squeezy fruits to her heart's delight, and making a wonderful mess in the process. i wish i could say that on the second child i care less about the mess... and maybe i do, but just a little. i've discovered that i'm a bit of a control freak. i know, i know... laid-back, little ole me? it's true. i don't like watching a mess in the works. when i see movies where characters are tearing apart a room or throwing food about, i cringe. and then i think, "oh, and they had to do that so many times! and someone had to clean-up!" it's very distracting.

anyway, onto my darling little cherub. she is just a ball of smiles and giggles--not unlike her big sister. although there are a few notable differences (other than the presence of hair at such an astonishingly young age): violet has this sly little smile... she'll look at you intently, study you to discern if you are worthy of one of her sparkly smiles, and then she pinches up the corners of her mouth just a little... her eyes start to twinkle... and then it's there, lighting up the room. her grand, two-tooth smile. and you just want to scoop it up and smother it with kisses. or at least i do.

she also rolls. this is new to me. she has recently begun transporting herself about our apartment using the log-roll. i have heard of other kids using this method, but it is another thing to witness it in my own home. it creates its own set of conundrums. see, when a child rolls somewhere, she's not actually looking where she's going. she's just sort of hurling her body in the general direction of whatever it is that she wants. if there happens to be a piece of furniture or other pointy object in the way, she's very likely to find herself wedged against it... not understanding why she's not moving. it's cute, but dangerous.

anyway, i'd love to catch-up more, but i'm at work. and technically, i should be working. but i was tempted by you, blog... maybe i will be again.

not napping

so... here we are over seven months later. veronica is a completely different person than she was when i last wrote. she sits, she crawls, she pulls up on things... and it turns out she's also learned to make trouble... just for the fun of it. this morning, i was feeding her breakfast -- pears, she loves pears -- and she decided that it would be funny to squirt it back out of her mouth. you know... just to see what kind of reaction she could get. as she phbbltt pears across the table and my glasses for the fourth or fifth time, i no longer had to stifle giggles... i just had to figure out how to get her to actually swallow her breakfast. breakfast, up until now, was the easy meal. fruit and cereal... no real thought had to go into it. it's sweet, she's generally hungry, so she quickly scarfs it down. i guess i'll have to rethink that game-plan.

napping has also become quite a competitive sport. veronica and i read a few books, then i nurse her, then i put her in her crib. this used to be fine... it would lead to sleep, as it should. but then she learned to crawl... and pull up. turns out it's much more fun to circumnavigate the crib several times than it is to sleep. problem is, kid, you're tired. and mommy wants to shower. as fun as it is to watch that little bald head retreat into the distance and come back around to stare down the surveillance camera, i still have to wait around until you decide that you're actually tired enough to sit down. and even then, it's twenty minutes later until you start dozing off... often-times still sitting (and thus pass-out folded in half like a fortune cookie). here we are at the hour mark, and your just now showing signs of fading. i want to go in and encourage you to lie down, but generally my entrance just leads you to giggle... like the victor you are. i will hold strong. i will not go in. i will just continue to whisper words of encouragement through the video monitor. "sleeeeep, veronica... it's good for you."

of course, i love these little battles. i never wanted (nor expected) my kid to be too complacent. veronica is becoming her own person... and in addition to the spraying food at breakfast and fighting naps with bobbly walks around the crib, she loves to cover me in kisses and cuddles. she'll crawl after mil or me if we've drifted out of her sight, giggling as she makes her way across the slippery floor. it's spectacular. i want to savor (almost) every moment, so years from now, when she's asserting herself in more adolescent ways, i can bring back memories of slobbery kisses and giggly peaks around the corner... maybe even some peary bits streaking across my glasses.

3 months... and change

dear nica,

i meant to write you this lovely note in a timely fashion, but as you'll learn about me, i'm not especially timely. that's your father's area of expertise.



these past three months have flown by. i still can't believe i have a baby, and here you are reminding me every day... it's hard to believe that a year ago you were just a couple of cells meeting for the first time. and now you are a human being, complete with pudgy arms, thigh rolls, sparkling hazel eyes, and a smile that lights up the room (and wraps your mom a little further around your little finger).



your father and i can't quite believe our luck because not only do you exist (which is awesome!), but you are about as perfect as a little human being can get. okay, so it would be really nice to have eight hours of sleep every now and again, but if someone's going to be waking me up at 2... 3... and 4am every morning, i would pick you every time. even at 4am, i can discern your crooked little grin in the dark. happy to see me even though i can barely walk straight.

i never imagined that a little person who can't talk and can't walk could bring so much new joy into my life. and my life needed that joy. i still miss your gamma every single day... sometimes more than i did before you were born, but i also believe that she sent you here with your gurgles and coos to help heal the big hole she left in my heart.



it's hard to say what you've learned in the last few months... because it seems like so much. you've gone from being almost blind to seeing us and smiling at just about everyone who smiles at you. you've started playing with your toys... grabbing and shaking things that rattle, and trying to put just about everything in your mouth. you love bathtime... splashing around in the water so much so that we've had to move your bath from the kitchen sink into the bathtub where it belongs. you love to talk... sometimes entertaining yourself for several minutes with "gaas" and "oohs" and your new favorite "phlbbt!". you kick your legs and wave your arms about... a bit like a marionette. you have so much fun moving about and smiling and talking that you don't like to go to sleep anymore. you also love to stand. the moment you rise to your feet you get this silly grin -- like the world is yours to conquer. i hope you always feel that way -- proud of your accomplishments, but looking forward to the next big goal.

your dad and i feel so lucky to have you in our lives. you are everything we ever dreamed of... and cute, to boot!

love, ma

so...

i've continued my delinquency. i am hoping to write a three month post for nica. we'll see. time is just flying by, and not a day goes by that i don't just stare at this munchkin and wonder how she finally made it from idea into personhood. i'm still stunned that my body made another human being, and i try to remember that every time i complain about not fitting into my pre-pregnancy clothes. my body may not be perfect, but it made a pretty d*mn-near perfect little person, so i have to love it.

very belated...

...but for a very good reason. i have a baby! and while she is darling and sweet, she also manages to take up just about every ounce of time and energy i have. her name is veronica, and she is the best!


she was born five weeks ago... just when mil and i wanted her to make her appearance (because mil was on spring break). i did not manage to resist the epidural, but i did get to experience a lot of fun back labor before i gave in. and i'm so glad i gave in. i was at least a little rested when i got to meet my little bundle of joy for the first time. it was... is miraculous. i still really can't believe that this little beautiful person is my daughter... that she's the little creature that wiggled around inside of me.

she's just starting to develop her own little personality (because prior to this week she pretty much just slept and ate). she coos and smiles, and i just want to smother her with kisses all of the time. even though i need the help, it's hard to hand her off to let someone else hold her for a while. i want her all to myself (unless it's 2am... then mil is totally allowed to hold her in my stead).

breastfeeding has proven more of a challenge than i imagined. i really just assumed it would be more natural... despite all of the warnings from others. initially, the doctor had me offer a supplemental bottle of formula/breastmilk after she nursed because she had lost too much of her birthweight (my milk hadn't really come in yet at day 3). so i started pumping and feeding her by bottle and breast. now, i am now trying to transition off of the bottle for the majority of the feedings because i am just tired of pumping (i was basically nursing for a half an hour or more, then feeding with a bottle, then pumping to replace the bottle i gave her... by the time i was done pumping, it was almost time to feed her again). i hope that nica can get used to having the breast as her primary means of food. the few times i've tried before, i've ended up nursing for an hour or more... which is not just time-consuming, but painful!

anyway, i'm sorry for leaving you guys stranded at such an exciting time in my life. i hope to start getting better about updating this blog now that i'm beginning to get a handle on things.

growing pains

so... yeah, it seems i'm going to be having a kid someday soon. and, no, i really can't think about anything else for any length of time. this makes working rather difficult. it even makes socializing somewhat challenging since i know not everyone else is as interested in my gestation as i am. what's funny, is there is really not much to report. other than a few more aches and pounds, i'm still pretty much me. and basically, i expect to be that way until the little one begins arriving.

i'm at the point where i'm ready to get the show on the road... not so much because i'm incredibly uncomfortable (though bending over often feels like a contortionist act), but because i can't wait to meet this kid. and i want to know what all the fuss is about... and i still don't quite believe that my growing belly is indication that i will be a parent in a matter of days.

as i get closer to my due date, and i see the easter decorations in the windows of duane reade, the ache to meet my daughter is rivaled only by the pain of not having my mom around for this amazing journey. as much as mil showers me with love and affection, and my dad calls for daily reports, and the rest of my family and friends express excitement and support, i can't help but feel sorry for myself... sorry for this little person inside of me. no one is my mom. there is no replacement for her love and advice. the most painful part is that i know how much my mom would have reveled in this... the whole experience... watching me grow, remembering her own pregnancies, meeting her newest grandchild, spending holidays surrounded by little, squishy granddaughters... hiding plastic easter eggs, magically turning shoe-boxes into frilly easter baskets. despite all of the love that i know this little girl will be surrounded by, there's a part of me that will always know how much love she's missing out on, too... how amazing a grandma she would have had. i just feel cheated... like all three of us have been cheated... and at the same time, i know i have been incredibly lucky... to have had the spectacular mother that i did, to have the wonderful family and friends that keep me sane, and to be able to look forward to this child of my own (who is bound to be as spectacular as her grandma).

and pierre said...

"i don't care!"

this is pretty much my attitude toward everything these days (or, more accurately, these hours).

so, i haven't blogged in almost a year... i don't care!

so, you think your kid is cute? i don't care!

so, you want me to update your powerpoint presentation? i don't care!

so, you're worried about us not getting our taxes done on time? i don't care!

what is the source of all of this sudden nonchalance? i'm about to have a friggin' baby! like any day now... a little person is going to burst forth from my loins in a matter of days... possibly hours. how am i supposed to sit back and act like it's any old day...? like i care what eco-chick has to say about school children rummaging through compost? or facebook "friends" posting elementary school photos of themselves? or even timothy geithner's newest save-the-banks scheme. it all just seems so insignificant when i think, "i'm going to have a daughter... in the next month... possibly next week... possibly tomorrow...."

sweet and sour

i write this morning from a small table perched in a glassy enclave above 70th street with a misty view of the river. after an exhausting move (and my first semi-professional photo shoot), we're here. most of the boxes are now hidden in the second bedroom which has yet to see its furniture.

my plan for the day is to work out in our new gym, meet a friend for dim-sum in chinatown, and begin shopping for the big-ticket home accessories. sounds pretty perfect... except that there's an alternate version of today. the version where i get up, workout, meet my mom for sweet, zesty, lemon-ricotta pancakes at a nearby cafe. we wonder past the 75th street flea market, stop in at pottery barn and gracious home. she points out colors and textures that go with our apartment and our lives. she remembers items that we'll need that i never thought to buy. she might drag me down to abc carpet after i'm already pooped, but it'll have been worth it because she found the perfect rug on sale. i won't have to think of a thing because she has this down, every apartment or house she's rented or bought, a lesson in interior design. every day with me over the last 30 years a lesson in who i am and what i like. but today, the real today, i'm on my own... i have to remember everything or count on friends to help me think of what i might be forgetting. it's not bad... in fact, it's a very good day... just not the one i'd hoped for.

exhaustion

i'm running on fumes these days, so there's not really any extra energy for blog posts. i do have some photos i'd like to share, but i'm too lazy to get them put online. it will happen one of these days.

closed

so, it's done. we're homeowners, and we're officially very deeply in debt. yay! no, really, yay!!!! this is exciting. it feels like we are finally entering adulthood... isn't adulthood meant to be lived buried in a very attractive pile of debt? with views of the hudson river? and a washer/dryer? once we've officially moved, i will send notice to friends of moosk with address info and a formal invitation to spend time on our futon... which several of you have already done, but this time there will be a door and a bathroom included. i know, how very bourgeois.

in other news, i have posted photos of our brief tour of houston last weekend. (i mean, where else would i go?) we even made it to the rodeo where apparently they say a prayer to the lord, our savior, before the festivities begin... you know like all big, public events. i can't imagine how well that'd go over at the armory show this weekend.

so excited...

this is what i've been waiting for. and, guess what? it's coming out right around my birthday. hmm... i wonder what i'll be asking for.

somethings good

this morning my dad and i did a walk-through of an apartment that mil and i may one day move into... one day, possibly in the next month. after all these years of hoping and wishing that i could live in an apartment where i could paint the walls... it seems that my wish may finally be coming true. we'll be a couple of blocks from the subway, a block from riverside park, three blocks to central park... and we will have a washer/dryer. all will seem right with the world.

all this, and mil rocked his most recent med school block ("block" = "course" in med-school-ese). phew!
**
on an unrelated note, i was reading an old issue of "wired" recently, and i came across this interesting article about a suburban mom/judge who decided to try her hand at catching would-be terrorists online. so far, it seems like she might be more successful than the cia and all of its "advanced interrogation techniques."

for those of you who miss nyc

true hollywood stories

somehow i'm here at 8:15 on a saturday evening watching the e true hollywood story about pink. why? i couldn't tell you...* i kinda like pink. earlier today i was trapped watching the 50 cutest child starts all grown up... i literally recorded it just to discover that the simpson kids were #1. i hope i didn't ruin anything for you. it was worth it just to see webster again, though... and jonathan lipnicki. they were some seriously cute kids.

aside from e! i also got my camera out to take pictures of my breakfast. yummy, right? what you don't see are the eggs and bacon i ate with it. mm...

thank you guys for voting! so i guess i'm going to be a photographer... i needed someone to make that decision for me. yay!

* in all honesty, these are all side-effects of being incredibly lazy and having your husband in medical school. do not try this at home... or do.

happy birthday, old girl!

you wouldn't know it to look at her, but miss iz is 7 years old today... well, yesterday to be precise, but she is being very gracious about my having forgotten her birthday. i'm taking advantage of the fact that she has a brain the size of a peanut to shrug-off my inclination to buy her a birthday present. i have a feeling that when i have a kid who turns 7-years-old, i won't be able to get off as easily.
**
most of the time my job is relatively boring. it's nothing like my brief stint as a theatre manager when there was usually at least one good story per day... the woman who wrote to us to get reimbursed for her tickets to the 1982 production of 42nd Street she missed (this was 2002)... the lady who was nearly thrown out of the theatre because she refused to keep her shopping bag in her lap (this was shortly after 9/11, and we had a strict "no bags in the aisles policy")... ah, and who can forget the ushers having oral sex between the blackout doors during a performance?

then again, there's something to be said for boring. since i left, i've never gotten a call at 10:30 on a saturday evening informing me that the sewage pump has backed-up into the backstage area... in the middle of a performance, and can i come by to see what can be done about it. (you can imagine the joy of the 60 tap-dancers who had to shuffle through poo just to get to the stage... they were sure happy to see me.) ah... the good old days.

i have to admit it...

i think i'm falling for barack obama. i've been resistant, seeing how crowds of college-age youngsters follow his every word. even my level-headed office-mate went from cheering on john edwards to plastering herself with "obama" stickers and standing out on cold, new york street corners on super tuesday. i was on guard. i don't want to be a fanatic. i like to keep my options open, but hillary clinton is starting to look more and more like a sore loser instead of a graceful politician. i wish i were on her staff... i wish i could tell her to grow-up and face this race like the practiced lawyer you are. but i can't, so i'm stuck watching her campaign crash and burn. i'm a little sad... i feel like i've been let down, not because i was ever a big hillary supporter, but because i thought, if anything, she would go out like a pro... our first serious female candidate... instead she's a poster-child for why people don't think women can handle the pressures of the office. she's letting obama get under her skin, and she's having a hard time hiding it. i know it must be tough watching a younger, smoother-talking politician muscle into the nomination you've been working towards for the last sixteen years. but if anyone should know the fickle, shallow nature of politics, its senator clinton. her husband was the smoothest, most amiable president since jfk (spoken like a true gen-y-er who can even remember reagan's campaign let alone carter's). unfortunately, you can't learn charisma in school... or in the senate for that matter. and just because you are qualified doesn't mean they'll vote for you.

that said, if by some stroke of luck, clinton wins the nomination, i will be out there in the streets with my clinton stickers, harassing passers-by. and if neither of them win, i'm voting for this guy. i could always use a little good luck!

waking up is hard to do

i'm the first one to admit that i'm lazy. i love sleep, and sunday nights are generally dedicated to the cause of getting to bed early. for some reason, last night, i flouted my own rules. there was an oscar party out in red hook, and i couldn't help but attend... despite the knowledge that the oscars never end before 11:30pm et. so here i am, monday morning, utilizing every ounce of self-restraint to keep my eyes open and my head off of my desk. this doesn't leave much cognitive-control left to actually accomplish any work, but it does at least allow for the appearance of industriousness.

this morning i woke up to this. i guess "nurse with wound" came after "carol king" on my ipod. i don't know, but i was convinced that i had been transported onto the scene of a car crash where roland -- the adorable, psycho kitty from the party the night before -- was hissing his disapproval. i generally like nurse with wound, but waking up to this particular song was the audio equivalent to a bucket of ice-water.

so, as you can see, i finally uploaded my colorado photos. i don't love the exposure on these, but at least you can see how pretty and snowy it was...

babysitting, part 2

so, my brother, his wife, and lmsp have come to nyc for a visit. lmsp seems to just get cuter by the day. she's still a wiggly, giggly little thing, but now she can speak. she says "hat," "ball," "up," "out," "mama," "dada," and "amah." you know what that last one is? me! she apparently repeats my name over and over again when i'm not around, hoping i'll climb out of the cabinet i must be hiding in. it's pretty spectacular to be a kid's first name after mama and dada. it's a bittersweet victory for me, knowing that it should have been "gamma." as i lay next to her, rubbing her back as she tried to fall asleep, wiggling her little tush as she settled into place, i couldn't help but think of how my mom should be there in my place, snuggling and shushing lmsp into dreamland.

being in that apartment... laying on the couch she so often napped on, drinking from the cups she always set out at dinner, seeing her handwriting on little notes jotted down on her "bird lover" stationery... feels like walking around in a haunted place. the ghost of my mom is everywhere there... even in lmsp's gigantic, life-loving smile. there's a pang every time i see something of hers... sometimes it's a big pang that catches my breath in my throat. others, it's just a little poke at the bruise on my heart. with lmsp, it tends toward the latter... it's just hard to get caught up in my own grief when she is shuffling around in my over-sized shoes with my mom's basket-weave purse dangling between her feet and a big, goofy grin spread across her face.

frustration

i have yet to load my colorado pictures onto the computer, so i apologize that you'll have to wait for photos of the thriving metropolis of minturn, co.

in the meantime, i thought i'd express my frustration with what strikes me as a very ignorant, sexist campaign against hillary clinton... not from the obama camp, or even the mccain camp... i think it comes from the same brilliant minds that refer to obama as "b. hussein obama." yesterday, as i went shopping for birthday cards in the conservative mecca of new york's upper west side, i ran across several cards emblazoned with unflattering, grainy pictures of clinton remarking how disasterous it would be if she were president or with a tear photoshopped in to remark on how sad it is that you are growing older. best yet was the clinton nutcracker... "is america ready for this nutcracker?" wow, what a jab. are men really this frightened of a powerful woman? i'm not saying that she's the best person for the job, but come on, we can do better than novelty gags, can't we? look who we have in the white house now:



no matter what you say about hillary, it's hard to be more comical than that.

eco-travel

so, you may have gathered that i travel a lot. this is not because i am a jet-setting kind of woman... since most of the trips are back and forth between houston and new york, but it seems too be the nature of my life. after the guilt of playing the eco-game i mentioned back in november, i decided to pay the $7.32 it cost me to off-set my plane travel to vail this weekend. given the price of airline tickets, $7.32 seems like a small price to pay to ease my eco-guilt.