iv

LISTS IN PROGRESS, episode 1

Things I want to do with my kids before it’s too late:
(crossed out items are done or nearly done)

• get a dog
• travel around the country in an RV
• meet a President
• give them more siblings {grin}
• record each year in daily photos
• make a giant snowman
• visit Alaska and Hawaii
• grow a successful garden
• read the Harry Potter series with all of them individually (Henry & I are on book 2)
• read the Chronicles of Narnia series with all of them individually
• meet a professional baseball player
• see a shuttle launch
• show them what a good marriage looks like
• go meet Juan, our sponsored child in Guatemala

incredible (now with even more incredibleness)

• I just discovered a singer/songwriter named JJ Heller.  This girl is OFF.THE.HOOK amazing.   I mean, I feel like I did when I heard downhere for the first time.  If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know this is a V. Big Deal. 
  
  
• I got my first PR pitch email (apparently generated from a post over at the photoblog).  Most big-time bloggers get dozens of these a week, so it’s not surprising that I haven’t gotten any before.  I just laughed at their proposition, and wondered why on earth they picked me, a blogger with less than 2 dozen subscribers and just over 200 unique readers?
  
  
• I revealed my life plan for the next couple of years in this photoblog post.  More than one person thought this photo meant that I was pregnant.  NO.  NOT EVEN A LITTLE.  After my fantastic birth experience and subsequent awakening to the reality that is today’s obstetrics method and practice, I have decided that I would like to be a doula.  I want to help people have the best birth they possibly can.  I want to support women in regaining ownership of their bodies.  I want to shower families with love as they experience one of the biggest moments in their lives. 
  I’m not quitting my job – this will be a career that takes several years to get going, and so I’m committed to staying put where I am until God says “HEY, IT’S TIME.” and then I’ll make the change.  It feels so right – today I actually cried as I read in my book the positive things a birth partner or doula can say to the laboring mother, as I know there are countless women who never have someone say to her what an amazing work she is doing.  This is shameful.  I can’t wait to correct this, for even a few women.
  
  
• Seriously. JJ Heller.  I can hardly concentrate on typing this blog post as I have her album playing and it’s THAT.GOOD.  GAH.  
  
  ****EDITED TO ADD****
  I'm listening to her song "Your Hands" right now - the lyrics are pretty appropriate as we all remember those Haitian souls, both those on earth and those gone on:

When my world is shaking, HEAVEN STANDS.  When my heart is breaking, I never leave your hands.

Amen, and amen.

twentieth

GAH I'm so glad there are only ten more days of this daily posting... Today's events of note:

• Maria was well enough for daycare! YAY! She seemed excited when she got there, and when I brought her home after naptime, she slept for another two hours. I guess she had fun.
  
  
• Timon and I ate lunch with Henry at school today - that means two cafeteria meals in roughly 18 hours. Let's just say last night's turkey dinner was FAR SUPERIOR to today's mexican pizza.
  
  
• In the last two hours I ripped one of the two pairs of pants I feel good wearing and look decent on me... I am NOT PLEASED; and locked Maria and me out of the house. Well, I guess technically it was Timon who locked the door, but it was me who went next door to movie night at church without my house keys. The beauty of living in a church-owned home? The extra key kept by the church.

Up tomorrow: pancakes! House cleaning! Praise band practice! Nap! Blog! I wouldn't mind if SOME BABIES WOULD GO AHEAD AND BE BORN ALREADY, either.

dragging.

Well, Nanny passed away on Friday afternoon. She was 90 years old, and pretty ill, not to mention her Alzheimers. We all got on a plane v. early Saturday morning, expecting to land in Birmingham at 8:05 am (central). Instead we landed in Jackson, MS, at 8:35 and sat there for a few hours while we waited for the fog to lift in B'ham. They let us off the plane and most of the people hopped on a flight to Houston which is where our flight was headed after it stopped in B'ham. Henry got to walk around and we picked up a cheeseburger, and then the pilot got word that the weather had cleared. We finally arrived in Alabama at 12:00, then took the 2 hour drive to Timon's grandmother's town. The kids were better than anyone could reasonably expect, and we did enjoy some good time with Timon's cousins and aunt. Our flight was delayed over an hour last night coming home, and we made it to our house around midnight. Henry insisted he was NOT TIRED on the way home from the airport. Maria insisted on sleeping, just like a good little girl.

Tonight will be another long night - Timon gave me tickets to this for Christmas, and so the kids will spend the night with their surrogate grandparents. Go Huskies!

two score minus 2

Well, it's Labor Day. I wish it were labor day, to be honest. Two nights in a row I've had several contractions over a few hours - not ever closer than 20 minutes apart, but still enough to get my hopes us that this was it. But then I'd go lay down thinking I should rest in between cause, duh, who knows when I'll ever get rest again... but then they'd stop completely. Bummer. Doula Robyn suggested yesterday that I'm probably dilating more and that if I haven't progressed further by Tuesday's OB appointment that the exam done then might be what pushes me over the edge. We shall see!

Even so, we've had a mostly lovely morning here in casa de Henry - he let us sleep in till 8, then we had fun making faces in bed for a while. I got up and decided to make pancakes, Timon wanted to mow the lawn before it got too hot, and we each did our thing. Henry ate 4 pancakes and some melon and 2 (small) cups of OJ, all while getting a treat of PBS kids on tv. Then after I ate, cleaned up the kitchen and Henry was dressed, he wanted to color. Check this out:

I think it's some of his best work yet. He decided all the colors and placement. Right now he's rocking out to U2 using Friend as a guitar. Just a refresher for those of you not familiar with Friend, Henry's loyal and constant companion since age 2 months:

Our only disappointment of the morning has been when Timon decided to put together the crib we bought off a Craigslist posting yesterday. Not only is there hardware missing (which is why we needed to get a new crib in the first place - we've lost the hardware to the crib we used with Henry which is very sad since it was a gift from two people we love very much and it's a gorgeous crib) but there are actual wooden parts missing, too. So we've put in a phone call to the person to whom we paid $50 to and hopefully return it - she did say that if we weren't able to put it together that she'd give us our money back. I hope she'll honor that. Before you all get preachy and say, but DUH, don't buy anything without being assured of having all the parts first! let me just say it looked like everything was there and accounted for.

SO, our plans for the rest of the day: leftover lasagna for lunch, naptime, maybe a little movie time for Henry if he obeys at lunch and nap, rest, relaxation, get our $$ back and return the crib, meatloaf for dinner, and maybe a real live grown-up movie for the adults. And, yes, if contractions began in earnest, I would not complain. She's got a little less than 12 hours to make this a very appropriately named holiday.

doing fine, thanks *updated*

Yeah, I'm tired. But, who isn't when they're a little over 2 weeks from their baby's due date? Things are shaping up around here for Bertha's arrival - I feel like I've got a handle on work stuff and having everything ready for the volunteers who'll be working with the kids while I'm out. We've got car seats, we've got cloth diapers, we've got pink clothes, I picked up some stuff I'll need post-delivery today on 70% clearance at a grocery store that's going out of business ($45 worth of stuff for $13.50 - now that's what I'm talkin' about!)... And not that it means anything is imminent, but I lost this today (don't click if you're not interested in TMI) and that's encouraging. Of course that could be a result of the rather, um, vigorous cervical check the OB did on Monday, but I choose to believe it's because I'm making progress. We shall see...

I've been loving all the Bertha guesses - keep 'em coming!

***UPDATED***
My doula, Robyn, just called to check in with me. She seems to think differently about the labor beginning sooner rather than later. She thought if I lost the mp because of the OB visit check it would have happened sooner than today. She has a feeling it will be this weekend... can you imagine having a baby on LABOR DAY?!?!? Timon has joked all along that we're due near the most aptly named day of the year...

Also, this has NOTHING to do with my current state, but the Oprah show today has been completely brilliant. (This is hard for me to say, because I think she is so self-absorbed 90% of the time.) Bill Cosby and a psychologist have been on discussing their new book. Absolutely brilliant.

care to join me?

A while ago I wrote about my concerns with the upcoming Olympics and how to reconcile such an expenditure of billions of dollars (granted, it's being spent on a celebration of the good of humanity through sport) with the horrifying human rights atrocities still going on every day in China. Going back and forth on what I will do beginning this week has been on my mind. Knowing that the money's been spent, the games are going to take place and medals will be awarded regardless of whether or not I watch them makes any kind of boycott on my part basically pointless.

So, starting Friday night I'll watch, and I hope you'll join me in a different kind of action, one that I know for sure will make a difference:

(get yours by clicking here)

the purge has begun

And when I say "purge", I mean make room for all the stuff we need for Bertha. Yesterday evening and today were spent cleaning out our bedroom to have space for the pack&play where she will sleep for the first few months. I got rid of enough clothing to enable us to donate one of our dressers (and the clothes, too) to the local battered women's shelter. My rule was if that item of clothing had not touched my body in the past year, it was out the door; and for the most part, I stuck to it. We then rearranged (and by we, I mean Timon and one of the youth from church) the other dressers and lo, there is room for the pack&play. I feel good about what got done. I now feel like I can go on my trip next week with a sense of having done something to get ready for Bertha.

And then I look at the rest of our to-do list and feel sadly behind. Let's take a gander:
build platform for Henry's bed (Timon's going to do this next weekend while I'm gone)
move bookshelf into m&t's room
clear shelf in H's room for baby clothes
move changing table
assemble crib
move Living Room bookshelf to Dining Room
assemble swing
unpack unisex newborn clothes
prepare freezer meals for after baby comes
meet with doula Robyn again
And the doozy - purchase the rest of the baby items we need.

That one basically needs its very own list:
carseat & extra base
carseat swing frame
prefold cloth diapers & covers
a few all-in-one cloth diapers
a couple of bottles
nursing bras
rent breast pump from children's hospital

I'll keep you posted on our progress, which is sure to be slow and steady, since we'll have to fit this all in with work (several big events and extensive preparations for maternity leave), my last bit of travel for quite some time, Timon and Henry's vacation, and who knows what on earth else will come up between now and Bertha's arrival. I am predicting a birth on September 20. 2 months and counting.

crossings

This morning while out on an errand, I saw some cars stopping in front of me. They swerved into the right lane, continuing on their way, and then I saw the source of the delay: a woman was trying to coax a turtle into a cardboard box. I'm sure she was trying to save it from the inevitable collision with the tires of whatever car was too late to avoid it. It was quite a big one - he (or she, I suppose) had a shell 12 inches across and probably 15 inches long. Obviously, the turtle did not want to be put into the box. All of the sudden, a man appeared and picked up the turtle by the shell, and deposited into the small pond about 20 yards off the road from which I presume the turtle was trying to escape in the first place. While he was carrying the poor thing, it's neck was out about 10 inches, swinging it's open mouth around and around trying to bite the man. Bizarre, no?

I went to the OB yesterday - and, I'm (sort of) sad to announce that the streak has ended: I gained back the 3 pounds I'd lost. My BP was good, baby's heartbeat was great, I am measuring right on target. Uneventful - just how I like my OB appointments to be.

One thing I may not have mentioned here before is that we are strongly considering using (mostly) cloth diapers with this baby. Tomorrow we're driving to the north end of our county to do some further investigation at a cloth diaper distributor who has a store here. It's hard to even wade through the mountain of options for cloth diapering these days - when I showed my mom some websites last weekend during my parents' visit, she was astounded at how things have changed since the prefold/rubber pants days of the 70s. So even though there are plenty of product reviews and testimonials available on all sorts of blogs and websites, I'm sure we'll have a much better idea of things after seeing them in person. While we're up there we are going to hit up the Babies 'R Us too, to check out some more stuff: a new car seat, breast pump, and bottle options (ALL of ours from Henry are chock full of BPA - a big no-no so we're now learning). Not buying, just looking for now. Then we'll hopefully have a relaxing Sunday and Monday, ending in a picnic with some friends Monday afternoon. If it rains, there's always the Law & Order marathon on TNT!

dilemma

Do you know your mail delivery person's name? I do. His name's Eric. Eric is a single dad about my age who works full-time as a mailman. He greets people by name at their homes, and many, many folks on his route are older, retired people who may not see or talk to another soul all day long. So he works 5 long days a week, walking 10 miles a day in Florida heat. Every time I see him and ask how his day is going, he replies with "Oh, I'm just havin' too much fun!" and a smile. All that is special but what's even cooler is that on his 2 days off each week he mows lawns for free, for several older people on his delivery route who have no one else to do it for them and can't afford to pay someone. Last summer he got quite a bit of local media attention after a newspaper article and tv spot were put out about "The Mowing Mailman." Donations poured in, both cash/gas cards and lawn mowers, trimmers, etc. And even after all of this, Eric refuses to accept any glory for himself. Today, he came into the church office (also on his route) to drop off/pick up and he told us about the upcoming articles in both Reader's Digest and Guideposts AND how he'd just been asked to throw out the first pitch at the major league baseball game (here in town) in a couple of weeks on a Sunday afternoon. When he told us these things, of course we were so excited for him and I said something like, "Wow, Eric, you deserve all these nice things to happen to you." And he completely refused any praise, instead pointing it all towards God. Like I said, he's awesome. And modest.

So, here's the dilemma. I have been looking forward to going to some of these home MLB games and wouldn't this just be the perfect opportunity? To go, catch a game, cheer on the mailman while we're there? But that same Sunday afternoon is the church picnic, to which I'm expected to go and attempt to bring some youth group members. Will I be fired if I don't go? No, but I'm sure I'll hear all sorts of comments about what a shame it was that we weren't there and how in the old days all the youth used to go and play volley-ball, etc. I would be shocked if any of the youth in my group want to go - they're not really into the picnic thing. And I'm just dying to see Eric throw out the first pitch. But I definitely feel, not really a responsibility, but I guess pressure to go to the picnic. And of course, the events are exactly at the same time, so going to both is not an option.

What would you do? Leave answers/suggestions in the comments.

the last one

I've conquered Nablopomo!

We're watching season one of Flight of the Conchords. Seriously, RUN and rent this show. It's hysterically funny. I'm getting ready to have some leftover birthday cake and work on my craft project. Timon and Henry are snoozing in the tent and tomorrow we're driving a couple of hours to cut down the Griswold Family Christmas Tree. I'm pretty sure the farm has their own saws though, so we won't have to rip it out of the ground by the roots.

"Yep, it's a little full... a lot of sap."

27 until 30

"Trick or treat, treat or treat, give me something good to eat! I will pull your underwear off!"
- Henry's version of that classic Halloween rhyme (Trick-or-treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat; if you don't, I don't care, I'll pull down your underwear!)

Trick-or-treating was a great success last night. The small pirate hauled in plenty of loot, enough to keep him in after-dinner treats for a couple of months at least. We hardly had anyone come by our house, but at least all those who came were in costume, as opposed to other years when teenagers come by in their regular clothes with a pillowcase. Those kids got one box of raisins. This year we had assorted candy and tiny play-doh cans to give out, which everyone loved.

Tomorrow is an opening at Timon's theatre company... Henry is spending the night with a nice couple from our church so we can stay out later. He always does really well with them, although he's only spent the night once. I'm sure he'll be finer than fine.