Apathy, Lethargy, Fog, Trance, Turkey

Time Loss.

That's basically what it boils down to and basically what I want to avoid.

There are times when I feel like I wake up, look around, evaluate something (like a parenting struggle, an organizational challenge, or some such thing) and realize that, not only do I not like how it is currently happening, but that I am going to change it... as in NOW. And what seemed insurmountable for two months or a year is really just as simple as sitting down and getting it done.

This is the only area in which I really think Steve's theory that I live with too much fear comes in. Normally my argument is that he just doesn't really understand my entire thought process and to say 'fear' simplifies it all too much. But in a lot of these impasse sort of situations he's very right. I don't want to rock the boat because I'm afraid of dealing with the consequences. And so I expend all this energy and work twice as hard as I would have trying to keep things level - just okay - not bad enough that I have to change this thing I don't want to change.

One reason I never feel as if I live like Steve worries I live is because when I am in mission mode (which is usually when I've woken up from a fog and decide to change) I do so with my own gusto. It's like, yes, it's fear that keeps me from things - but it's also my own decision not to step out of that fear... somehow chosen fear seems less out of control to me than fear without knowledge or understanding. After all, I don't need a lot of affirmation or encouragement from other people - I've decided to fix the situation and thats the end of it (this is also where I get accused of being stubborn - i.e. I've possibly shared my path with someone and they give other ideas of how to get there or even different destination possibilities - but I don't need that... not because I have it all right - but because I'm already on the right road for exactly what I'm trying to do). I don't dilly dally and I don't waffle. Of course, check me out when I haven't decided on a path - not a happy camper and really really just wanting someone to manage me or tell me what to do.

Anyway, I think that I tend to have these moments of realization or mobilization either after a setback that frustrates me, a situation that saddens me, or (my favorite) a stroke of fortune hits. It's definitely the latter that creates the funnest, quickest, most energizing change (Though, to contradict myself just a little, the changes that happen amidst times of struggle are the ones that make me most proud - getting myself up out of the muck and mire is satisfying in a very different way - and by myself I will always credit God as well since, much fun as it is to share in this blog, it's sharing with God that really gives me the support to get myself going whether it's to plow through the mucky muck or not to waste the energy of a boon).

I had a wake up today after a gift. I do not want to get us into money issues for maternity clothes! However, considering myself and my friends were all working at the time of their pregnancy I have an overabundance of 'work clothes' that I will not wear even when going somewhere nice because they are all professional work clothes - not fun work clothes (is there fun work clothes?). I have a lot of tank tops but no tee-shirts whatever and a couple (i.e. a big portion) of my pants are not well suited for the full term belly. But without warning or begging, Jen is letting me borrow some of her maternity clothes and she happens to have very cool taste in casual clothing - the sort of taste I always strive to have and end up not getting at all. Anyway, after trying things on and getting very happy on the inside that these are exactly the sorts of clothes I want right now and that I didn't have to pay for them and add to that the lack of stress that I've only got two.5 months left and I can't do too much damage to them in that time, I got inspired to wake up and do what I've been wanting to do for a couple months now which is re-organize the maternity clothes I have - go through some of the borrowed things I hadn't properly gone through and put back in the bin the things I knew I would never wear again (Think about it - I was buying pregnancy clothes almost five years ago - fashions change!).

So I've found some things that were too 'third trimester' in both my and Beth's borrowed clothes that are perfect for now, I've got Jen's new stuff and am feeling like I've got a whole new lease on life. I also have the bins and the drawers better organized and found the two things I've noticed in my fog were missing but hadn't the energy to go looking for them.

All my scrapbooking has given me a new lease on photos (this will eventually connect with what I was saying). I go through stages where I will alternately insist on family pictures (i.e. where I am represented as wife or mommy or part of our little family) or insist that the ease of the moment is worth more than the picture down the road. Well, after finding no pictures at ALL of myself, Steve or Abby at Thanksgiving dinner last year, we have to at least make the effort... at least for events that I know are going to be represented in an album. The chances of it being a special picture or a picture that I particularly like are not good at all, but I would like to try. OH it's all a balance! I think if I am too intent on it, care too much about it, I do end up with a picture that lacks any emotional goodness because it was just too forced.

So maybe I should say - I will try to not insist unless either it is a scrapbookable event or if conditions are promising for an above average picture.

That was the problem last year. It was the standard inside shot, Abby was not in the mood to wear her nice clothes, we were busy being socially acceptable people. So, rather than have everyone be unwilling and still end up with a blah picture with blah lighting and blah location, I just didn't push it at all. A fair trade, but only when in a fear dip. I'm not in a fear dip at the moment. Lucky for Steve, we won't be in the same location for Thanksgiving ;).

This may seem obvious but I am wondering if these awakenings have any correlation to sleep/lack thereof. Last night was the first night I have gotten to bed without fuss at a decent hour and allowed to sleep in. I will have to keep track.

P.S. for those of you wondering about the brownies from the last post - they were in her bed - untouched... except of course for being moved from the table downstairs to her bed. She really likes to possess more than consume. Plus she knew brownies for breakfast required permission.

It was quiet, too quiet...

SO Abby has been getting up a little before 5am the last two mornings (most likely because Steve has been leaving for a shoot at 4am and I think her little internal clock somehow blinks at her when she hears Daddy in the shower). Yesterday morning she fell right back asleep in my bed which was fine. This morning, she was not tired... which was not fine (I had gotten maybe two hours of sleep at this point and I knew I'd have a big day and needed sleep so I didn't kill us on the road).

After some fussing she started to get out of the bed. I asked her where she was going and she said, "I'm going to go take care of me."

I told her I wanted her to stay in her room. I heard her in her room, strumming her guitar, playing the harmonica, half-scolding, half- encouraging her dolls... and she'd come back and forth and at some point I fell back to sleep.

I woke up to her wanting a quick cuddle before the alarm rang. And then she started talking about the brownies. Uh-oh, my internal alarm went off, the brownies had been downstairs - left from group last night. Which meant... I had been both asleep deeper than I realized and for longer than I had realized which meant... Abby had had the run of the house for a good hour. That is a LONG time.

I didn't have much time to wonder what had happened in that time because I had to get us to school early as it was a workday. But when I got home this afternoon I started noticing eerie odd things out of place. She must have been through every room - not destroying it thankfully but just sort of... investigating... going through shelves I wouldn't normally allow, unplugging computers (probably so she didn't trip on the wires) and finding the brownies and putting them...somewhere. I haven't found them yet.

I'll let you know when I do.

"Hey, I want that"

If you'd asked me a couple months ago about the Disney Channel I would have been happy about it but if you'd accused them of commericialism or high-and-mighty-ism I would probably have heartily seen your point.

No longer.

Abby has abandoned the Disney channel in favor of Nick Jr. Now, nothing against Nick Jr.'s SHOWS but there are these little things called 'commercials' before and after the shows that are a new, fascinating, tempting world for Abby. The Disney channel advertised McDonalds or that vacation company. Sure, now and then Abby might be more likely than not to ask for McDonalds, but it wasn't terribly plantive.

But with these standard commercials (which she wouldn't want us to skip through) there is a four minute interval at the beginning and end of each show in which we hear "Hey, I want that." "Hey, I want that!" "Hey, I want that!" and every once in a while, "Mom, I really really want those monkeys that shiver down the tree."

I have chosen not to put a big stop to this.... YET. After all, she's just saying these things look great. She doesn't beg for them (except for the Dora Mermaid DVD that I got like a sucker BEFORE I saw a commercial that its going to be on TV). So I just agree that I see why she would want that or say that I see that she wants it or whatever and she drops it.

But the repetition may eventually drive me insane. So, I'll find a nice way to curb it.

Oh, how I long for the subtle (I don't care if its more devious) marketing of the Disney Channel... high and mighty though they may be.

location location location

as in - this picture would have been great in some great ... or just plain... plain... location.

A Content Frenzy...

I'm still resisting the urge to nest so much that I put us into debt, but I am happy with a lot right at the moment. Abby being back in pre-school has given me a huge increase in this sort of happy energy. My favorite pre-school days are the days where I am at home, Gladys has recently been here so I can stand in the middle of a room and tackle something usually too obscure to tackle because usually there are more pressing household chores. I'm expecting tomorrow to be that sort of day.

My scrapbooking catch-up is also pretty tempting... especially as I just found out you can order online through your consultant. I plan on getting as far as I can and then not worrying about it for a good 6-9 months of new baby's life. Getting caught up in a big chunk like this (not sure if this sort of chunks of time will be possible for QUITE a while) is actually good for me as a worker because colors and styles are very consistent and I feel like I have enough perspective to know I won't want three pages worth of this event so cut it down to the bare representative few.

Abby likes grapes AND apples. This gives me IMMENSE satisfaction. She does not like carrots. I'm not sure what's next - we've got grapes all this week.

I am 'such a nice mom' today as Dora saves the Mermaids just came out on DVD and Abby has been anxiously awaiting it. It was a completely selfish gift as I knew she would be excited about it and I wasn't let down. She breathlessly lavished me with praise for a good three minutes on the ride home: "I can't believe you got the right one! You did it! You got the right one! Thank you so much!"

I'm still panicking at the idea of being on the other side of the house from either or both of my children... this is in direct opposition to the desire I have to have a nursery set up before baby is born (this is not a huge priority, just a want).

I'm getting excited about packing my hospital bag of all things. At least this time I'll know what I want more. Last time I don't think we even opened it because it didn't have anything we wanted or needed.

I'm also already getting excited about having my body back at least partially. We're not talking figure or weight here or even independence(!) because goodness knows that will take quite a while longer. No, I'm just thinking about being a single entity again rather than a double pack (again, with the acknowledgment that I'm still going to have a little lichen for a long time). Of course, expect me to do a complete 180 once baby is born since there is a pretty good chance that this will be the last time I'm pregnant. I remember feeling a little bereft when Abby was born that I was 'empty' in a sense and that I had less control. So, with that in mind I am taking the time to enjoy the time... the miracle of the whole idea, the movements and the feeling of maternity and fertility and all that hokey stuff.

I'm also really trying to soak up my last single child moments with Abby. This is a bit more difficult because I can't run and play like she would ideally like me to, but its more just the effort to enjoy it - not focus too much on December... which is where my thoughts rush to if I don't slow them down. There's a lot still to experience before baby gets here.

Abby's Halloween as a cow for instance!

On another note. The funniest thing about being an Oprah watcher is that you tend to start thinking you have all sorts of disorders that I don't have. Monday's show was on bi-polar people and some of the symptoms are... well... normal people symptoms and you start questioning your sanity. Okay, you may not, but I do. Like take voices in your head. I have my voice in my head, does that count as 'voices'? I don't think it does...

Siblings Much?

We were talking in the ultrasound that it seemed like this baby might actually have some of my family characteristics (besides simply having a lot of hair)... but compare Jack's 28week womb picture with Abby's should-have-been-38 week womb picture (aka first week of life picture)...

Is it just me, or could they be related?!

"Jack"

Okay, look people. I don't know psychologically why I am so reluctant to give out 'the name'... My only guess is because a) I don't like how people react if they personally don't love the name and I don't really care how anyone else feels about it, but at the same time it's just a 'get lost' sort of moment... at least it is when I'm hormonal b) I happen to know Steve quite well. And it is entirely possible that he will change his mind about this name before the "end".

Steve brought up the name a month ago or so, but didn't want to be tied to it. Since then I've asked him every few days, "Any change? Feel any stronger about it?" And the answer has been generally positive but nothing too concrete.

Finally, after he got home from Alaska, he'd decided. Whoo hoo. I feel good about it. We had two middle names decided for sure depending on the first name. Paul because both our father's middle names are Paul or Ellsworth which was Steve's grandfather's middle name.

SO... here is your first glimpse of...

"Jack Ellsworth"




(the fuzziness on the side of his face is the placenta which he was burrowing into and the foot like thing near his eye is... his foot - he's a bit flexible at the moment)

And would you like to know my favorite "Jack" correlation? If his behavior inside the womb is any indication, I will be calling him "Jack-Jack" after... well... Jack-Jack from The Incredibles.

A Meandering Conversation

Discussions with Abby in which I do not always come off as the one with the answers...

Starts in the bathroom.

Mommy, I want you to stay here. I want you to look in the mirror to check that you're beautiful.
Okay.
There, aren't you beautiful? But... (laugh) Whoa, your hair looks... kinda awful. You need to brush your hair.
Okay.
And put lip gloss on so that you're pretty. Girls are supposed to be pretty.
Well... Girls don't have to be...
But not boys. (Giggle) Boys don't have to be pretty.
I - uh.. well... they can be handsome, but...
I'm not handsome.
No, you're beautiful. But you're also funny and smart and...
Mommy, I don't think you're my mommy.
I'm pretty sure I am.
No, I think you're just my mommy, right?
Yeah, I am.
Where's my family? My WHOLE family?
Well, your whole family is right here in this house, there's me, your daddy and your baby brother.
No, no, no, no. Where's my WHOLE family? ALL the family?
You mean like Poppa and Gramma and Grandpa and Zoozy?
Yeah. Yeah.
Well, they are at their homes.
I think we should call them.
Okay...
And have a party... we should have FIVE people to our house and have a party and decorate.
That sounds fun. We'll definitely do that for Christmas.
How long does it take for Christmas... does it take two minutes?
I think its around a hundred days.
WHOA. That's a long time.
Yeah, but you'll get presents for Christmas. And you'll give presents to your family!
I will?
Yeah!
Why?
Because you love them.
I don't think we should do that. I don't think Santa would want us to do that.
Oh, it's okay, Santa only does some presents, you get some presents from Santa and some from the people who love you.
But how are we going to get them to all the people around the world? (truly distressed)
No, no, we're just going to give presents to the people close to us. We'll let Santa still do the rest of the world.
I think we should have a party with a THOUSAND people. But we'll need a bigger house.
Yeah... that's...
And I think we should call them each one at a time.
Uh... okay.

The Failures of a Well- Intentioned Mother...

I bet you think I'm going to be very vulnerable here and tell you about a struggle I'm having with Abby. About how, especially while Steve was on his trip I didn't have enough patience with Abby and noticed a clingier Abby as a result and how incredibly heartbreaking it is that the motto the pre-school has is so true 'The harder a kid is to love (due to a behavior) the more that child is needing love" I mean OBVIOUSLY she's 100% the love of my life all the time, clingy or tantrum or not, but you get the idea. And yes, that is all true...

However, this blog... this blog is to tell you the shocking failure of my mother...

SURE she loved me unconditionally from the moment I was conceived. Even though I was so very very different from her she didn't try to curb me into someone she could understand better. She made me dresses and gave me freedom and joy and happiness and security and cuddles and love. She made sure I was socialized, that I would be able to (no comments from the peanut gallery) generally fit in with society, have friends, find love, have children and all of that. She empowered me by teaching me to sew and encouraging my drawing and music with both direct and indirect activities. She praised my ridiculously bad clay dragon and didn't push to show me the better way to shade a portrait. She put up with my jr. high and high school... and college attitude with love and patience and fun. She made me cake when my face was burned off and got me a box of grape big league bubblegum when the doctors told me I was the next virgin birth. She was my advocate through school and beyond... She helped me be well and get what I wanted when I was weak. She was there for me and is there for me when I am cranky, happy, bored, whiny, hyper sad, mad, and worst of all, pregnant. She has cleaned my bathrooms, organized several closets, taken apart and put back together my garage ten or twelve times. She had read every email, every rant, every boast, every blog post and comment. She has given me time in which to be sane away from my child and inspired me artistically and made me proud to be me. She was at every recital and show and teacher's meeting and school tour. She has defended me and confronted me and is just about everything to me that I could possibly dream to have in my mother.

Sure. There's all that.

But then there is this recipe book that she gave me in college - very sweet it was for her to print out all the recipes I love that she made for, as you might know, I have some pretty specific tastes.

And again, with the best intentions, she took that recipe book (stained and spattered with years of cookie dough and brownie batter) in order to put them in a smaller, cleaner little book for me. Very nice thought.

Except for ONE thing. First she left out like three of the most important recipes forcing me to badger her to send me the recipe on email whenever I am making thing (sure I could save it to my computer... but there are consequences for our actions people!). Secondly, as I have had these original copies emailed to me I have realized that several of the recipes in that original book were WRONG.

Firstly causing extreme emotional anguish that my brownies never came out quite right. Perhaps the correct amount of egg, flour, cocoa and baking soda would have helped that! Secondly, causing extreme emotional anguish NOW because I have come to prefer some of the wrong recipes and have no proof of what they were now!

Yes, I know, you're all shocked and appalled at this tragic failure of an otherwise perfect mother. I am too...


I am too...

Gramma's dress

So, one thing I am definitely noticing as I play with this whole photography thing is that a great location can make all the difference. As I don't have too beautiful or vast or interesting an area available to me outside my door I am playing around a little with some ... I wouldn't say architectural details because that sounds pompous. More like, since I can't beat my environment, why not join it. *shrug*

Sleep Complications

So, I thought I was pretty much over the 'Steve's gone' sleep paranoia (you know, where friendly neighborhood murderers have had nothing better to do than to just wait around the corner for this opportune time to visit my house). I was excited about getting to sleep tonight in fact... no worries.

Oh except my nocturnal neighbor is working on his car and I can't distinguish between his random clang of tool against metal or a clunk of who knows what from those opportunistic murderers I mentioned. These are loud clangs and this is a big house.

*sigh* Now I'm tired, out of scrapbook pages, and starving. Making muffins would probably not be a great sleep remedy would it? Shoot, too late, I must have them.

Oh, don't get too jumpy neighborhood murder squad, Steve gets back way before you have time to plan your break-in.

Imagine

I'm pretty enamored by my own progress with the picture albums.

Though, I've just realized that when I say I'm up to date as of 12/31/2006, that doesn't count the three vacation albums I've been procrastinating about for three years. I suppose while I wait for my 2007 pictures to arrive from snapfish I could polish off at least one of those.

To Do:
2007
Ct/New York 2004
Cruise 2005/2006
England 2006

In my defense I'm out of pages.

Nesting on Crack...

Whoa, whoa, whoa, not literally.

SO I've been intently catching up on my scrapbooking. I've totally redone Abby's baby album the way I've always wanted to. I've put in page protectors on the album Abby looks at the most. I've reviewed all the albums 2003-present and am behind by exactly 2007 and I have ordered six months of 2007 pictures so that I can continue to ride this wave of motivation as far as it takes me.

I don't know if it is because LL lives up to his nickname every night or just my normal impatient manner but three more months sounds like an eternity and my nesting instinct already seems to have kicked in.

I obviously do not want to be early, but I have this sense of impending... something. Not doom (see? not a pessimist)... not even necessarily birth... more like I expect labor is going to last three months this time around.

LL (boy, I wish I knew his name) is literally stretching his boundaries. I'm not kidding. I can simultaneously feel him testing just near my hip and diagonally along my other side as far up as his current home goes I presume. This happens fairly often - as if he's stretched out from fingertips to his tip toes.

Maybe he's just warming up... now that's a scary thought.

A Sunday Four Years Ago...

I do not get particularly sentimental on Abby's birthdays. I could say it is because the years pass so quickly. But I think it is more accurate if I say that it really feels as if no time has passed at all. In my heart I still see her as this little bundle. Her facial expressions affect me in just the same way, I love her with the same indescribable certainty, and I want her to be happy with the same intensity (read: worry).

If anything, I get more sentimental about how our little family has grown up and bonded together. The closeness I have now, the need I have now for Steve as husband and father of my treasure(s), I could not have understood before. I'm proud of us and of Abby and I do wonder why she was only one years old for a day, and I think she may have skipped age two altogether.

(p.s. the grandmas will be forever bitter against the nurse who did Abby's hair like that)

Where for art thou JPEG

Joshua's latest visit:




(Just another way this whole image thing is driving me insane. Steve's work computer has the same version of photoshop as the laptop that I usually use and yet for some odd reason I can't save my files as jpegs. So I'm trying .png which doesn't seem to bring over the color quite right... It's fine.)

Messing with Time

There is nothing that will scramble my mind's sense of time more than catching up on the picture albums.

You mean I really only gave Abby that haircut in 2007? You mean she's only been in school one year? You can't tell me that was in November and not May... Which Thanksgiving did we do that?

For example, it is supremely odd that I started out 2007 not pregnant and will be ending 2007 with a baby boy! I like this whole get pregnant and have a baby all in the same year - I have yet to cross over years in pregnancy. That way it is totally confined - pregnancy and birth - oh that must have been either 2003 or 2007 and that should be pretty easy to distinguish!

Speaking of time - the other time warp is the first day of school. Today is Abby's 2nd First day of school and just like the first First day, the time just seems eternal. It's glorious, I know she's having a fabulous time (while other kids are holding tightly to mommy's neck, Abby is once again confirming, "So when I go to Miss Janet, you're going to leave, right? You and the other mommys are going to leave today?"), the school isn't doing me a favor and it's just the beginning. Ah, but I know now by next week the three hours will rush by but today, I'll enjoy the time warp and let my mind bend in pretzels trying to figure out when this picture was taken...

And a Curse...

I would just like to add to the catalog of odd things my taste senses can distinguish.

As most of you know I can tell the difference between butter and margerine in cookies, and the texture difference between value pak oreos and regularly packaged oreos. You all know about the Cheerios and Instant Breakfast re-formulating tragedies of '94 , '96 and '01 (note to big companies - sending me coupons for the new version does not help).

Well, I've discovered something else.

I can tell the difference between desserts baked with pasteurized eggs and those baked with regular eggs.

Which, who knows? Might not be weird! Maybe it's a big difference. It certainly makes all the difference in the world for my brownies, cookies, and muffins!

Which is good and bad really. It's sad because the whole point of pasteurized eggs for me is that I could continue to eat cookie dough without fear of hurting Leaping Lizard just in case. It's good because, since I can tell, and since I don't like them as much, I've gained twelve pounds so far rather than the twenty five or so I had gained with my pregnancy with Abby at this point. Which is really unfair because I can't remember really when I gained all my weight. I just remember crying in the doctor's office because it was like the fourth month in a row I'd gained ten pounds. Which can't be true because I didn't quite get to forty pounds the whole pregnancy. Still... it felt awful. Uh, right, so where was I?

Maybe if I make a batch of cookies - have a non-pregnant friend take a spoonful and watch to see if they are infected with salmonella and if not, I go to town? I wonder if Aaron would sign off on that. Hmm...

Ballet Testing

Well, Steve needs to take this computer with him for a week, so there will most likely be no more RAW testing. Hopefully by the time the computer comes back I'll have some different subjects to test! Poor Abby is getting very good at hiding her face without seeming to be rude when the camera comes out.

Welcome to RAW

Clearly a really clear picture in perfect light yields best results - RAW or no RAW:



But even this image that was underexposed to begin with does seem to have a special luminescence... at least it better since I spent most of today tackling this whole concept, making stupid mistakes and driving myself up a wall... so you all see the specialness... right? Say yes... good... :

Steve's got it...

Steve's definitely got it... and this isn't the RAW photo thing we were talking about!



This is my version of subtle... again, not RAW, but we're getting there even without the right format!

Here is my version of not subtle at all:

Abby's Birthday Party...

Friends, Uncles, Aunts, Grandpa, Zoozy, Gramma, Poppa, Noni, Swimming, Treats, Candy, Presents, Cake, Blue Balloons and Frosting, a princess shirt, Ariel shoes...

Words failed her.

Photoshop Efforts

Ever since Sarah showed me a local photographer's blog : www.pearblossom.typepad.com I've been so jealous of the woman's style. She uses a photoshopping tool and does a great subtle but not subtle job with it in my opinion. Sarah was able to take advantage of a charity event where she had Micaiah take a 15 minute session with the photographer and two of his photos can be seen on her blog right now!

SO since we can't afford to use this photographer on a whim when it's not a charity event, Sarah and I have set about trying to find our own similar style with photoshop. The idea is to take not even all that perfect a picture and turn it into something special with photoshop.

Here is my first effort (highly lacking in layers and masking but they currently give me a headache):


A bit too glowy, but it's late and I don't want to tweak right now.

Only Sarah knows how different it is from the original...okay now all of you do... it doesn't look as impressive as I feel it is... See, the problem with showing you the original is that you can see just how fake the new version is. The great thing about this lady is that I know that she's manipulating the photo and I can basically tell how, but if I wanted not to think about it, I wouldn't - i.e. they look real enough to be real... in a super saturated sort of world or something.

Basically I still think the original artist is getting a clearer picture to begin with. I'm uncomfortable posting one of Micaiah because it's too easy to compare with the photographer, but remember this is just my first try (with the help of a tutoring session from Steve in which my brain threatened to explode)...

I actually think her little logo adds quite a bit - isn't that funny? I think that's my snobby side coming out.

And I should point out I'm not trying to make it look totally real. Some more than others. For example I'm working on one that is out of focus and I feel like you just have to take that over the edge or else is just looks... out of focus.

Fundraiser for Wesley's pre-school

If you're in the market for a little shopping, Wesley's first pre-school fundraiser is taking orders until Sept 10 if you. If you want anything or just want to support Wesley go to:
www.sigfund.com
Wesley's preschool name is:
Small World Preschool in Saugus, CA

And there should be a spot to put Wesley's name (Wesley Cunningham) as well.

Luckily nothing they are selling competes for all of your needs for crates of Oranges... which you WILL buy in a couple months... and you're going to like buying them too.

Belly Code

Baby boy (aka Leaping Lizard) is still having a dandy time staging his own rendition of 'The Great Escape'... trying and testing the confines of his watery world looking for weak points.

Tonight we may have had a little conversation. He kick kicks, I pat back, he kicks harder, I pat and speak, he rolls, pitches, punches and kicks... I rush to pee.

Redefining Coronado

Oddly enough, Coronado, to me, does not generally correlate to family time. Large scale - yes definitely. But our little family unit - generally not. It's just that we're usually in Coronado for a whole family event - where, much as I am treated as absolute family and spoiled by extended family taking Abby on adventures - the priority is the S family... And their quality time all together (certainly not to the exclusion of me, but if it's a choice, I want to make that easier rather than create added complications).

SO, this trip was a little different, but it was very nice. Little family time. Good. Our own little time.