You Are My Sunshine (June 27-July 3, 2010)

One of my favorite beverages, IZZE, is more than just delicious.  Check out what they're doing for the greater good here.  Then have some fun by sending a sparkle or designing a t-shirt and test some recipes.  I love them!  My favorite is Sparkling Clementine, how about you?

Winner!

The magnificent Gabrielle Blair from Design Mom had a tremendous giveaway last week, and I won!  Yay!  I won a year subscription to SafetyWeb, which is frighteningly necessary these days, and will be used to protect my dear niece, W, who, while otherwise brilliant, is much like any teenage girl.  Her horomones and immaturity get the best of her sometimes, and she doesn't think about consequences.  Anyway, SafetyWeb monitors the social web for anything your child may have posted that could come back to bite her/him, like inappropriate pictures, tweets, etc., any of which a potential employer/college/or anyone could see.  If anything negative turns up, SafetyWeb provides tools to remedy the situation before it becomes a true situation.  SafetyWeb also promises to defend against cyberbullying and online predators.  I hope we never need their services, but it feels good to know they're there to help us in that instance.

Thanks Gabrielle!!

Spiders: Evil Incarnate

So I'm off to the dermatologist in an hour for my first ever skin check.  The increasing number of freckles and wrinkles should've prompted me to go sooner, but it took the appearance of spider veins (!!) to get me to make an appointment.  Chances are good that I'll feel to vain (ha!) to bring them up when I should really be concerned about sun damage, but I hope to discuss it with the doctor.  Oh, also the mystery lump on my head.  Yikes!  Why didn't I do this sooner?! 

Then it's the weekend!  We have no real plans, and since my magnificent baby C started sleeping through the night (please let it be a trend!), we don't even have to use the weekend to catch up on sleep.  Instead I'll be preparing for the exterminator to come on Monday.  What preparations are needed, you ask?  Well, for those as anal as myself, it means cleaning places that rarely see daylight in the off chance that the exterminator may peek there (hello, baseboards behind the washer and dryer!).  The exterminator may be my favorite guest, actually.  Anyone who can ensure the absence of the horrible desert bugs we have here - especially the outdoors roaches and the freaky spiders - is tops with me.  Since we try to be as green as possible, and have a baby and kitty to worry about, we opted to use an eco-exterminator.  I hope it works! 

Buzzzzz

A secret ambition of mine has long been to have a bee hive.  Apparently, though, all bees in LV are "killer" bees, and unsafe for the average hive-keeper.  Instead, I buy yummy varieties of honey when I can and fight the temptation to buy lovelies like these:

from Etsy seller thumble

from shopsomethingblue

from studiolara316

when happiness is

I'm back!  We have a wonderful baby boy and have moved into our house.  I wouldn't advise doing these at the same time.  We got the keys to the house on February 26, I went into labor on February 28, and had the baby on March 1.  Then my mother-in-law surprised us with a visit starting two days after our release from the hospital.  I love my mother-in-law, but that's an inappropriate and unwelcome surprise. 

Anyway, over the past months I've learned... 

-prior to kissing your baby's impossibly cute feet, check to make sure said baby hasn't somehow managed to get his or her poo on those adorable feet.
-breastfeeding CAN be easy!
-Dr. P's quiet reassurance far outweighed the constant babble from one of my nurses.  Sometimes less is more.
-I was blessed to have an easy and enjoyable pregnancy, relatively easy delivery, and a quick recovery.  I'm afraid it's made me less than sympathetic to other new moms.  Sorry.
-As with women's clothing, there is no such thing as standard sizing in baby clothes.
-The pain of hearing your baby cry after circumcision far outweighs the pain of childbirth. 
-Though I wouldn't have predicted it, I miss grocery shopping and cooking and cleaning the way it used to be.

I've been gone a long time.  The first few weeks were just really busy and overwhelming.  Getting to know C, moving, adjusting.  Lately, though, I've just been immersed in drinking in the whole thing.  I'm at once impossibly happy and worried and scared.  It's the strangest thing.  I find myself obsessed with absorbing every minute - blissful, overwhelming, tiring, or anything else.  It doesn't matter - I want to etch each and every sight, sound, smell, and feeling into my brain.  It's all moving so fast, and it breaks my heart to think that one day I won't remember the smell of his sweet head, or the feeling of his nuzzling into my neck.  It's so strange how everything seems to be amplified now, with him.  The yellow of the sunflowers is more vivid, the smell of the jasmine, sweeter.  And, unfortunately, the worries about the future are more intense.  How will I teach him how to be safe in this world without making him afraid of it?  How can I impress on him the importance of relishing each moment of life?  How can I occupy each and every moment fully, so that I never regret taking it for granted? 

This is Father's Day.  B's first Father's Day with C.  It feels more like it's for me, though.  A day to pamper and honor B makes me feel good.  I look at them together (with H, the kitty, of course), and I burst with love.  I've come to realize that while my disappointments in life are real and sometimes consequential, they can't stack up to all that I have and all I have had.  Now I'm going to go gaze a little longer at what I have, in awe.