It's important to be warm

New pictures of the boy are up at joyian.

In related news, Little B weighed in today at 9lbs, 14oz. No one is worried about his weight anymore. He also got his vaccinations and is spending the afternoon being unimpressed about that.

His best friend is the ceiling fan (any ceiling fan, he’s not picky) and he has a distinct dislike of velcro noise and other loud, crinkly things. Music, however, he quite enjoys.

Filed by joy at 3:48 pm under baby, visuals
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Peeps, we’re trying to figure out a good time to have a casual gathering, especially for those we don’t get to see IRL often enough. Basically it’s a big excuse to have people over, meet the boy if they haven’t already, and see the house, if they haven’t already. And we solved our couch problem—that is reason enough.

So, how is the Sunday of Labor Day weekend? That’s the 3rd. Who’s in town? Do people have big plans for Labor Day already? If so, we should start looking at other dates before we go any further on this.

I don’t have all that blogware polling stuff, so please just comment or email me directly.

Why is it so difficult to do something intended to be completely casual? (This is not part of the poll, I already know that answer and am just whinging.)

Filed by joy at 10:40 am under life
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My knee has started playing up again. This was my biggest worry during pregnancy with my bone alignment and that fact that I hurt my knee when I gained a bunch of weight during my tour of duty at Hellmark. The pregnancy relaxin kept it from hurting until this past week. Now I *really* need to diet and *really, really* don’t feel like dealing with that on top of everything else. I told my chiropractor today and she did something involving poking points on my knees and calves. Apparently, she adjusts knees and ankles too. And now I have the kid’s song “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Knees and Toes” going through my head.

After all the work we’ve done on the first floor of our house, we have decided we would like intentional furniture, not just the cast-offs we’ve had thus far. It’s an exercise in total futility to find something that both of us think is comfortable (leg-length issues), that fits our space, much less is both generally washable and attractive. Yesterday, we were in the futon shop, nearly ready to make a purchase, when the dummy girlfriend type hanging out with the boys working there and suddenly changed the music to rap, which startled Benjamin, dozing happily in his stroller. With unimpressed baby in arms, we simply had to leave right then and there. I wished all sorts of bad things on her once SHE has kids and a few things that would plague her no matter how her life choices evolve. I’m not proud of that.

Today I made up for it. First I didn’t move my car before street cleaning because we were heading out not ten minutes after the ticket was writ. Then we ended up in the grocery store where I went into the self-check area, noting that all four machines were empty, but supposed to be for 12 items and under shoppers. I’m usually very speedy with such things. Somehow I hadn’t quite realized how tricky it would be to do it all with Benjamin in the sling, asleep and slightly hanging off to one side, throwing me off. I took FOREVER and had far more than 12 items, and suddenly there was a line and a few slightly irritated people with 3 and 4 items. A teller had to come over and fuss at me since I was so slow finding the cilantro on the machine’s choose-your-veggie selector that it bleeped somewhere that makes those guys come out and assist the hapless shopper.

Later I actually managed nursing in my sling while walking around at the mall to exchange a couple of baby gifts for bigger sizes. A cool middle-aged black couple didn’t realize I was nursing until they wanted to see the baby I’d so well tucked in and I told them he was having lunch. They were both impressed, especially the guy, so I was proud after being such a dolt earlier.

I’m finding a balance, slowly but surely.

Filed by joy at 3:17 pm under baby, life
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I’m trying to get back to work, so I was to open at the gallery today. I got Benjamin all strapped in the car, went to turn the ignition on, found that my battery had half-died, thus I set off the car alarm and couldn’t make it SHUT UP. Long story short, Ian plus two neighbors with two attempts at a jump, a few frantic phone calls, baby hollering in the noise and heat, and I made it to work eventually, late.

While apologizing to all involved at the gallery, it was commented to me that “if it was easy, everyone would do it.” That softens my embarrassment somewhat at being unable to do something as simple as arrive on time.

How does anyone get anything done, ever? Sigh.

**edit**
aaaand, I just swallowed a gnat. Can this day get a do-over? or even better, a fast-forward?

Filed by joy at 3:08 pm under baby, life
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An online mama-group I belong to shared this link today: Shape of a Mother. Of course, after the fact I see that Dooce linked it as well.

I may not have my pics up yet, but Kelly does. My favorites include:

Filed by joy at 11:39 am under baby, visuals
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We went away this weekend doing fun family stuff and we all survived—that’s the short and boring version. It may take awhile to get all the details and the photos posted.

While we were away, the world continued to be totally fucked up and seemed to actually get measurably worse. As usual, it’s already been well summed up, saving me the headache. Also usual, I’m embarrassed by my country, but in addition, I get to feel even more than the usual vague guilt/embarrassment on behalf of Israel and The Jewish People (ambiguous concept that it is), of which I am barely an acknowledged segment anyway.

I’ve also been thinking quite a bit about faith and religion, which isn’t anything out of the ordinary. Though something seems to be bubbling up to the surface about it lately. Perhaps it’s related to all the doom and gloom of the world outside my happy family bubble. Maybe it was being in my honorary-brother’s Bar Mitzvah (at age 50). Perhaps it is just that I flatter myself to be a thinking person, when I’ve gotten at least 4 hours sleep.

Yes, sleep. As in I’ve been getting some. Little B has gone from one 4 hour stretch to an occasional 5 hour, which means I’m starting to dream again. This may be why I’m able to consider the world at all. I haven’t been able to hold onto the dream plot-lines since I’m usually awoken by a fussy, hungry, damp infant who does not care to let me bask in the afterglow of my subconscious’s storytelling. They’ll been pretty intense though. One involved swimming under a whole slew of dead bodies, each with their arms elegantly stretched up towards the surface. It wasn’t ewww or even creepy. In fact, with the underwater lighting and all, it was quite beautiful. Perhaps I’ve been watching too much Six Feet Under.

The world is less safe, less habitable, and full of ugly death, not the calm silence of that dream I barely recall. Yet I yearn to travel to all its reaches; my feet itch as I sit and sit and sit and sitwith my nursing baby. I read online of all the awful unsafe places, from the environmental catastrophes—tsunamis, wildfires, tornados, heat waves—to the political calamities that devastate as willy-nilly as the non-man-made events. Still, on my To Do list is getting B’s NZ paperwork in order so he can one day wander the vastness without a potentially burdensome US passport, free to ponder his own ruminations on safety, mental and physical.

Filed by joy at 10:56 am under baby, dreams, life, politics, travels
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It’s practically a meme to post one of these today, but no matter… Much amusement is to be found in this year’s Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest and this one is my favorite:

“Lisa moved like a cat, not the kind of cat that moves with a slinky grace but more like the kind that always falls off the book shelf when he’s washing himself and then gets all mad at you like it’s your fault (which it wasn’t although it probably was kind of mean to laugh at him like that), although on the bright side, she hardly ever attacked Ricky’s toes in his sleep.”

Also of note in my book is the pumpkin sunrise. Hee hee.

Filed by joy at 9:55 am under random
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To state the blatantly obvious, babies spit up a lot. It is often a little curdled, thus around here, call it cheese. Lately Little B’s form is rather impressive—points for style, distance, location are given—and now we’ve added to the honorifics a quote connecting the wee boy to our limited, but well-loved, pop-culture fandom.

Ian walks in as I’m mopping up the various bits of me affected by a recent burp. He pats Benjamin on the head and informs me “He wears the cheese, the cheese does not wear him.”

Filed by joy at 5:05 am under baby
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File under: He’s obviously a genius.

This morning little B managed to spitup fresh milk through his nose while still nursing. He never even bothered to open his eyes throughout the dampening. This is further proof that babies need an “empty—full” meter somewhere on them—perhaps their foreheads—so you know if they’re actually hungry or just wanting your undivided attention.

Filed by joy at 10:59 am under baby
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Seen:
Cute little black boy, maybe 7 years old, walking up the alley carrying a dirty Nerf-type football, hollering:
“Hey batteh, batteh, SWING” (pronounced swauuung)
repeat, repeat, repeat
“hey batteh, batteh, catch this football” (pretends to toss ball)
“hey batteh, batteh, SWING”
repeat into the distance up the next block.

Filed by joy at 5:45 pm under life
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