Happy _________________!

We're up in the Adks to celebrate Xmas. Posting might be nil while we gorge on beet soup and Xmas cookies so we hope that y'all have yourself a merry whatever you wanna believe weather it be little babes in the manager or movies and Chinese.

More when we return to the granite state.

A Book Review?!

So I read Lorrie Moore's The Gate at The Stairs and well, of course it was readable because Moore is a great writer, but overall I give the book a B and that's only because I'm feeling generous after slogging through my students' terrible research papers. I have two more, but I'm a tad murderous, which means I should quit while all persons are still living in the house.

Anyway, Moore's book. If you're planning on reading it, you should stop reading this now because there are some minor spoilers. If I had to sum up in one phrase why it didn't work for me I would say that it doesn't gel. It just doesn't come together in any cohesive or particularly riveting way. It's about a 20 year old college student in Wisconsin who goes to work for an eccentric woman (the husband is pretty secondary) when she adopts a half-black toddler. It's also about Tassie's brother and parents, race relations, college life, terrorists, 9/11, and the bass guitar. And potatoes.

Maybe Moore's point was to take all these seemingly disparate things and loosely connect them because life tends to be more loose connections that well gelled pieces of the puzzle, but I wanted to be lost in the plot, it's a novel for goodness sake. Instead of feeling lost though, I felt distant.

Like, Tassie, the main character, is all involved with Mary-Emma, the adopted toddler, and then SOMETHING HORRIBLE HAPPENS, and she's no longer in Mary-Emma's life and Mary-Emma isn't mentioned again for more than 50 pages. I think that's weird. Maybe it's the mama in me, but wouldn't Tassie think about this poor 2 year old? Also, it bugged me that the toddler was so perfect. I just don't buy that someone whose been in foster care would so quickly and happily adapt. I hope I'm wrong, but most two-year olds who live in stable environments from day 1 have issues and tantrums and meltdowns in large public gatherings. It bugged me that Mary-Emma never did any of these things.

Also, Tassie plays the bass so every 30-50 fifty pages she whips it out and there's a paragraph about what she's playing, but it just didn't feel real to me. It felt like Moore giving her CHARACTER SOMETHING TO DO. Inorganic I guess is the word.
Oh, and there are pages of dialogue chunks about race and kids and I found it so boring! And finding Moore boring is so sad.

So yeah. Those are my quickie little thoughts. Ms. Kakutani felt quite different though.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY J-DOG!

It's a wintry day in NH. I have no idea what it's like in NYC, but I hope it's spectacular for one Mr. Unkie Speklunky Brobly!
Happy 41, Little Bro!

Although we are sort of trapped here because of the storm, today is a much better day than yesterday. At 5:30 yesterday morning, N said he needed me to help getting Miss Bean. I was a bit snippy since I was trying to ignore her and go back to sleep. Then N explained that he'd been up since 3AM vomiting, etc. I felt bad for him and got up, got Miss Bean changed and went downstairs to get her some water. I was thinking about N being sick, which made me think about last night's dinner when WHAM. I puked too.

At first I thought I had just puked because I can be sensitive to suggestion, but as the day wore on it was clear that I too had "The Bug." Since N was run over by a truck and I was merely run over by a Vespa I was in charge of the kid. I took Miss Bean with me to school because I wanted to be there to answer my students research paper questions. I probably should have just cancelled the class because less than half of them were there. I guess it was good for The Bean to get out and I was able to help N by moving his students photos out of his office.

N was a sickly shade of geen-gray when we returned. My issue was I'd vomit, feel great for about 30 minutes, and then get a slightly annoying stomach ache for 1-2 hours before it'd come to a head and I'd vomit again. Fun times.

Figures that Miss Bean would only nap 45 minutes on the day I needed a 2 hour miracle.

Although I was able to drive, I figured I shouldn't risk it so we spent hours in the house. I don't know what we did but at one point I had to hide this children's cook book that she likes (what could be better than pictures of babies and food!) because I just couldn't look at it without gagging and by the end of the day our carpet was covered in a 3-inch layer of crackers. Around 3:30 she started to get a little nutty so I took her to the daycare at the gym while I went and closed my eyes in the car. It was a good move, for her at least, because she was much cheerier when I picked her up an hour later.

So we made it through. She was in bed by 6:20 and I passed out from 6:30-7:00, but after that I gathered the strength to eat some Saltines with N and watch some TV. N and I have never been sick at the same time, but at least it was a quick bug and I was able to parent.

Being sick does make you appreciate being healthy. Hope you're all feeling well these days. Except for J-dog. He should be good and drunk by noon.

December!

Hard to believe it, no? Our travels were successful. The Bean had 72 hours of non-stop fun and excitement chilling with her granny, grampy, unkie, the great aunties, her very cool 3 year old 2nd cousin, and loads of other relatives. She did well with the car time and spoiled us by sleeping in past 6! every morning. One morning she even slept till 6:45! I think it was because the rooms were so dark because she was back to her fairly normally 5:45 wake up here in NH by Monday morn.

I did okay giving her multiple car naps. The one "disaster" of the trip was when the restaurant in Newport forgot to put in our dinner order so we had to contend with an over-tired, very hungry Bean. It was a good lesson to always have food stowed away. It's nice that, with the exception of having kilos of Cheerios, bunny crackers, and raisins for snacks, The Bean can pretty much eat where and what we eat. I was very happy that I had a banana to supplement her dinner on Saturday night though. Without that "nana" things might have been even crazier than a naked toddler spinning in circles in the hotel room.

Personally, I feel like a cow. There's too much food at Thanksgiving. I wouldn't want to give any of it up, but it is pretty insane to have 35 sides, right? My potatoes were a success and as far as I know no one died eating them.

Now we're back in the swing of things. I made a butternut squash soup last night. It got much better when I took my honey's suggestion and added heavy cream and hot sauce, but it was no black bean deliciousness. I have conferences with my students about their research papers this week. It's hard to believe that next week is the last week of classes. I've really enjoyed teaching this past semester. I like the students and it's so nice to do something non-mama related for a few hours. I got a really good evaluation, but I most likely won't be teaching in the spring because they don't offer that many comp classes. The plan now is to have our amazing babysitter come twice a week (instead of once) so I can go off and write, write, edit, write. I'd like to have a send-out worthy version of my YA done by late spring and also write a short story. I used to only write short stories, but I haven't written one in about 2! years. Sending stuff of to mags might also be a good use of my non-mama time.

I'm currently reading Commencement by J. Courtney Smith. It's from the library and it's not that great, but also light enough and decently written enough that I'm going to finish it. Not sure I'd recommend it although I still have 100+ pages to go. I'm not sure why it got so much attention over the summer.

Next up is Lorrie Moore's The Gate at the Stairs and Dave Egger's Zeitoun. I do love books and being into a novel even if it's not life changing.

To top off this extra long postie, here's a pic of The Bean and her granny holding hands on the cliff walk in Newport!

Mmmmmmm!

That's what The Bean says when she's eating something particularly tasty. Like mom's homemade split pea soup or soup from Price Chopper or no nitrate Chicken dogs. It's actually really nice to hear her enthusiasm especially if it is something I made. I rarely get the mmmm's from N.

I'm hoping that the mashed potatoes I just made get some mmmm's from The Bean. If the fat content doesn't kill ya, they're pretty darn good. The secret I learned last year is avoiding Russets like the plague. It's all about the Yukons, baby. They're so much easier to mash---in fact I think I might have overdone it and whipped them. Oh well. What's not to love about butter, sour cream, and the top secret ingredient?

We'll heading down to Boston tomorrow and then over to Newport for some chowder on Sat. I'm looking forward to it and forcing myself to be zen about naps. She'll sleep when she's tired, right?

Anyway, posting will probably be nil till we come back so enjoy your turkey and your family. Come on, it's family.

Other Days

So yesterday The Bean woke up crying at 4:00 AM. It's the teeth thing so we pumped her with Motrin but she didn't fall back asleep till 5:00. I didn't fall back asleep till 5:45 and then I woke up with a shot at 6:00 because I had to teach. Then, I couldn't find my wallet cuz I'm forever moving it from the diaper bag to my purse to my car. I was all set to go to work without it when N. found it under a cookbook. Then, when I was driving onto the highway, the cap to my water bottle fell off, the bottle flipped out of the holder and I got soaked with freezing water while turning the corner. Of course the Xerox machine was broken by the time I got to school.

Then I had to collect research papers from students and now I have to spend the whole weekend busting my butt to read them so I can return them on Tuesday. I read two yesterday and it took forever! I'm not even grading---I'm just commenting and trying to help them. The papers are worth %25 of the final grade so I feel obligated to take the time. Ugh!

This morning The Bean got up at 5:00 (after waking up at 11:00 PM) and was in a really cranky mood. I know it's not her fault and most of the time she's pretty cheery, but by 7:00 I was begging N to take her with him to work. Things got a little better as the day progressed. We had an early morning play date here, took a short nap, and went out to lunch. Then we had two! friends over in the afternoon. I don't know when our house became play-date central. I'm mostly okay with it although I feel like I was inside too much. Hopefully, I'll be able to take a nice long walk tomorrow before we travel down to Putney, VT to see one of N's friends and her daughter.

Okay, the Internet-free weekend is beginning in like 30 seconds so the next time I'm on here I better only have 3 papers to go!
Happy weekend!

A Good Day

Today was a good day. The Bean slept till 6:00! I taught a good class and The Bean took the elusive two hour nap! Yay!! By the time lunch was had, we didn't have much time till our afternoon play date at Tots and Tea. Things were okay there---Miss Bean ate a lot of sugar (Teddy Grahams and undiluted apple juice) and became a bit of a nutter. But still....some days are so long you just don't know how you're going to survive the seven hours till bedtime. Days like today feel like a small miracle.

Hopefully there'll be more days like today.

What else? I've been on a soup kick. So far I've made chicken no-Nick-Noodle, split pea, and black bean. The black bean has been N's fave thus far. Tonight's dinner was crusty bread, salad, and bean soup and he said it was "restaurant food." The trick to having decent dinners on a regular basis I have finally learned is advance planning. On the weekend we just figure out 2-3 meals we can have for the week. Nothing fancy---we had soup tonight and we're going to have a crock pot dinner tomorrow and probably Thursday we'll have leftovers and maybe takeout on Friday. Just knowing what to have and having the ingredients is most of the battle. I'm loving the soup thing because I can make a vat on the weekend when N is around and not have to think about it when dinner rolls around during the week.

Of course N and The Bean would probably be happy with pizza four nights a week, but that's why the lord made mamas!
Oh, and send your soup suggestions thisaway! What do you think about veggie chowder?

Yay Yankees!

Thanks to the boys in the pinstripes, a certain NH mama doesn't have to the dinner dishes/clean-up for a week!

I wish the games weren't on so late. I could barely make it to the 4th inning for most of them and the parts that I saw were pretty exciting. Also, for the next NPR pledge drive, I'm giving to Vermont Public Radio instead of New Hampshire's. They didn't even announce the series games---they'd only be like in sports, the Celtics won, the Bobcats lost. N said this morning the announcer said something like, "The World Series ended in the Bronx last night. Some said the Yankees won."
Whatever, you sad little Red Sox fans. You're going to miss my $50 pledge. I'm so not going to miss doing the dishes though.

It's November? Already?

Hope y'all had a good Halloween. Miss Bean was a sheep and although she didn't baa once in costume a good time was had by all. Some friends and their son from up in the boonies came down here cuz you know, we're all urban. The rain held off so we got to check out all the kiddies on the green. Later, we took our sleepy sheep to a little get together in our neighborhood. The Bean seemed to enjoy all the festivities. The only time she seemed scared was when she was place directly in front of a giant gorilla. But who wouldn't find that scary?

What is scary is daylight savings being over. The Bean got up at 4:30 this morning. Although this was deemed NOT OKAY by the parental units, it didn't seem to change a damn thing. We're trying to keep her up till 7:00 (her old bedtime was between 6:15-6:30) but it doesn't seem to be working. She's hungry for dinner at 4:30 and ready for bed at 5:30. What to do? What to do!

And, surprise, surprise, here's a photo for ya!


I know he's scary, but don't be afraid of the man in the big hat!

Honk If You Wish It Were Snowing

The title is a reference to the sticker that has been plastered onto the stop sign at the end of my street.
No comment, here.

Sorry for the silence. We had family weekend 09 last weekend. It was a lot of fun most especially for the Bean who has realized that grandparents=attention. Attention=happy Bean.

Miss Bean knows a lot of words. Perhaps the most amazing thing is how much she understands. It seems like out of nowhere she is able to understand and do what I ask. Within reason, of course. I can say, "Beanie, can you pick up your cat over there and put it in the bag?" It's not 100%, but she can usually do it! Very exciting. Now we just have to work on getting her to put her toys away. And maybe wash a few dishes....

We've been having nap crises all week though. She's only been taking one nap, which would be okay if it was long, but yesterday it was only 30 minutes. This is very bad as Miss Bean gets wack-a-doodle drunk by the end of the day if she's sleepy. Luckily, she's been getting her zzzzs in at night, but mama needs a nap too. I think she might have a tooth eruption since she's been practically gnawing her fingers off since Saturday. Hopefully things will improve. But as N sagely points out, at least she's not protesting the night sleep. In fact, she's desperate for it and will point to her crib while I'm 1/2 through her nighttime song. And yes, it might be might my voice.

This week Bean has been insisting on having one of her baby dolls (it doesn't matter which one) in her crib when she sleeps (or doesn't sleep). I'm okay with this, but hope she doesn't get attached to a particular doll. We'd lose it since we lose practically everything.

Hopefully it won't be too miserable on Halloween. We live with an excellent baaing dog and panting sheep!

Bad News At Borders

You know how I liked working at Borders because they didn't have free wifi? Well, I'm bloggering from there right now because they went all free wifi. And you know I have the will power of a goldfish.

But it's this or learning about commas so I can teach my students how to use them and frankly, commas, I don't give a damn.

So, Miss Bean got her first dose of Benadryl after her lip start swelling from something she ate on Saturday night. I feel bad that she's seemed to inherit my allergies, but she was okay and thank goodness the Benadryl made her drowsy and not jittery.

Fully recovered from her lip swelling, the three of us went to a local apple orchard on Sunday. That night we went to colleagues of Nick's for a jamboree. The Bean came and while she had fun, I can never totally enjoy myself because first I worry if she'll actually go to sleep and then, when she did fall asleep, I felt bad waking her up to drive her home. I know it's okay to do this to her once and a while, but her sleep was screwy all day yesterday and I believe it's due to the wakings.

But it was fun to hang out with new people in a new place. And the food was good, too.

Last night we had one of the new faculty over for dinner, which was fun. The babysitter had to come today and since it's been fall break yesterday and today, I've had some free time. And, as you can see from this illuminating post, I've been using it quite wisely.

This Morning I Saw SNOW on some Cars as I Drove To Work

Um, yeah. Here we go again. I thought maybe of deciding to be positive about winter this year, but giving up my rants would be no fun. Plus, I need some topics to blog about as we don't want to be too Bean-centric here. This is going to be a short post since N came home early and is entertaining our off-spring and I'm going to attempt to make chicken noodle soup. From scratch. Well, mostly scratch. I did buy stock, but I really don't have that much time on my hands. Between chasing after Beanie and needing to grade 17 papers by Thursday I'm kinda rushed. But I'm excited to try non-canned soup.

In (and out of) Stitches

Golly, it has been ages since I've posted. I think it's the teaching thing that's getting in the way. I've just managed to go through the stack of bills on my desk. With the job thing I feel like I'm only two people with no room for anything else. One is the teaching person and figuring out what to do with my class and the other is MOM. Having a walking child really makes me feel like I'm not capable anything else. It's so tiring that all I want to do is nap when she naps. I suppose I wouldn't feel so split if I actually did some prep during her naps, but I'm just a sleep addict these days.

But, I don't mind the teaching. I'm glad I'm doing it.

In other news we had our first hospital visit with The Bean. She took a face plant last Friday morning. I was a bad/stupid mom and didn't turn on the light as she walked into the bedroom to get N out of bed. SHe's done this hundreds of times, but I think the room was darker than usual and there were shoes and clothes by the bed and WACK! She got a cut just under her chin that required 3 stitches. Luckily, my mom was visiting so she was able to go with us to the ER. I feel so lucky that the medical care is so good up here. And empty. We were literally seen in five minutes. The waiting room was beautiful and the triage room was kid-themed. The Bean got to go home with a new monkey. And by the afternoon, after a good long nap, she was perfectly fine.

The stitches came out on Wednesday. It was actually more involved than it needed to be, but the end result was Bean getting ice cream after dinner.

In other news, I'm leaving town. In fact, I'll probably be back on route by the time this posts. I'm going to Boston Sunday-Monday, which means for the first time it's N and The Bean on their own! Watch out New Hampshire!

I'm going for a friend's baby shower, but staying overnight and really looking forward to seeing a moving,eating some decent Thai food, and sleeping past 5:00AM. Watch out Boston, Mama's in town!
Till then.
BG

Weekend Update

Heya Kiddies,
The three of us went, somewhat spontaneosly, to Portsmouth, on the seacoast this weekend because I had a revelation that if we didn't take a free weekend in nice weather and go somewhere new we never would. I've always regretted not visiting San Francisco when I lived in Seattle. It was so close, but I never chose a weekend to just do it.

So, early Saturday morn we set off. Portsmouth was a nice town. There were good shops, a nice park with stuff going on, and we had fab weather too. It made me miss having coffee shops a lot though! We all had success shopping too: N got a Ghostface Killah album on CD because he is the last person on earth actually building up his music collection with actual, in-your-hands CDs, I desperately need new pants, but got two "new" sweaters at a great consignment shop, and Bean got her first ever baby doll from an amazing toy store that I'm happy is not in our town because I would spend too much money there. I think we got suckered into buying the doll because there's really not much cuter than a toddler saying "baby." We walked all around Portsmouth and got to see some cool boats, nice gardens, an amazing bubble machine, and even some fairies! The only bummer of the trip was the food. We were hoping for fresh amd tasty seafood, but it didn't happen. We chose Thai for dinner because the one Thai place near us is awful, but so was the place we chose. The Bean's tofu and veggies were delish though. And she got to discover the wonderfullness that is undiluted pineapple juice.

Speaking of pineapple juice, to celebrate our weekend on the coast, Missy B slept in till 6:15 the next morning. N and I could hardly believe it cuz she's been waking at 5:15ish for the past hellish six weeks of so. We were so happy we promptly gave her a banana and the rest of her pineapple juice right in the king sized bed. Horray for lots of pillows!

We went to a fun, quirky place for breakfast because its open 24-hours on weekends and it's exciting to go out to breakfast at 6:45 AM! After another walk through town, we drove up the coast to York, Maine! We made the right decision not to go to the Children's Museum because there was really low-tide so the Bean could scamper to her heart's delight along on the beautiful beach. Plus, there were dozens of wonderful dogs running every which way that were more than happy to play with her. The water was even warm enough for me and Bean to put our toes in.

After checking out an incredible playground with slides YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO WALK UP, we had our last touristy meal and drove back to NH because, as the Bean likes to say, as nice as it is to get away,it's even nicer to come home even if your town doesn't have any coffee shops, heavenly toy stores, or walk-up slides.

That Time of Year

It's crazy how one day you notice a few red leaves in a single tree. Those leaves seem like an aberration since you're still in summer mode, running around outside most of the day and cooling off at night with a fresh squeezed lemonade at the Farmer's Market. But then, it feels like hours later, every other tree's leaves is changing and nights and mornings are downright cold.

Here we go with NH Fall #2. I'm trying to be positive. The leaves are so pretty, but it seems like every day more of them change from green to red and yellow and even more of them are on the ground. Today Missy Bean and I spent a lot of time in the house and we both felt a little nutty. But we have a membership to the science museum and even when it's cold we can take short walks to the library and art gallery. We can go out to lunch, look at books and toys at Borders, go to the pet store, grocery shopping, etc. We also have music on Fridays and we know a lot more people than we did a year ago and hopefully we'll know even more by the time the weather is downright dreadful.

Yes, I've used "downright" twice in this post. I have no idea why.

Anyway, teaching has been pretty good. The students seem pretty alert for such an early class although this could change in a few weeks. While I miss the diversity of my old school, the new has some nice things. At my old school, I worked, often taught, and took all my graduate classes on the same floor as the president. But he was in an office within an office with a door that was always closed. I saw him maybe three times in six years and two of those times were at functions. At the new school, the president's door is open and he sent a campus-wide email saying he had office hours for faculty and staff and there were even monthly brown bag lunches with him. As a lowly adjunct who needs to get home to watch the kiddo, I won't be partaking in these, but it still creates a nice vibe.

Even nicer than the pres' lunching? They let the faculty use the copy machine! Without having it under lock and key. It's in a room across from the department office and you can use it (assuming you know the code) without feeling like a criminal. At my old school, if you wanted to make your own copies (because maybe you needed the copies quickly) there would be 3-4 secretaries right next to you just waiting for you to go over the alloted number. It was pretty stressful and although I'm sure there were profs who would abuse the copier for their own use, I believe that most people wanted to make copies for the students. To uh, teach them. So that's nice.

It's a little rough having to go teach, drive back and take care of the Bean, but overall I guess I'm happy I'm back in school. It's a lot easier to be tired at work than tired with a toddler. But you should probably ask me again in six weeks.

September 11th

Not Ya Mama's Blog

My mama's blog is here.

I Know It's Been Too Long

Sorry, loves, I didn't mean to become one of those people who never updates her blog anymore. I have no excuse but the incarceration, the failed heist, and that quicky stint in rehab.

Or maybe it's my addiction to Scrabble on the iPhone.
(Just kidding, mom. I haven't played in a few weeks. I'm totally okay. Really.)

For reals? I don't know. The summer ran away here. I think it might have to do with Missy Bean and her incessant walking. The girl can't be stopped! So yeah, there's that. And uh, I start teaching tomorrow! I haven't taught a class since May 2008! And I haven't taught freshman comp in years. But you gotta do what you gotta do. Right now I'm feeling kind of zen about it. My syllabi are all made and my darling husband presented me with a lovely attendance book and whole pack of inky pilot pens.

I'm sure I'll be tweaky as beans tomorrow though.

Have I mentioned that the class is at 8:00 AM!?

Anyway....I promise to try to not let so much time go by between posts.

And now I'm off to watch Mad Men! It's so good, you should really consider watching it.

Two Years Ago TODAY!

I made a really good decision.
I wore my hair up.
Not only was it REALLY hot at the Queens County Farm Museum, but I tend to play with my hair a lot when I'm nervous or excited or it's, um, down.
Two years ago today I wasn't nervous, I was just excited to marry N, which wasn't even a decision.
Happy 2, N.E.G.
Love,
ELW

Mid-August Update

Smokes: The Bean has been paci free for a solid week now. Other than one bad night (which was probably also due to heavy teething) she's been pretty cool with it. Well, she's not napping so much, but maybe she's downsizing?
Personal Grooming: Crazy times. The Bean had a bath 2! nights in a row to make up for the fact that we couldn't remember the last time she'd been bathed. Did you know her new MO is to stand up in the tub at all times? Today, her mom and dad both got their hairs cut and one of them had a pedicure and an eye-brow wax.
Weather: It's been HOT here, baby. Hot and humid. It's kind of beastly, but I'm trying to enjoy it since it's gonna be cold and gray before I know it.
Reading: I'm still reading Three Cups of Frakin Tea! But I'm going to finish it before we go to Adks on Monday. Then I have to read all the essays I'm assigning for school. Ugh. Maybe I can sneak something light and juicy in though. N is reading my manuscript, which he printed out today. Besides that I don't think he's read a book in like five months. In heavy rotation for Miss Bean is Good Night Gorilla, Dog and That's Not My Pirate, which N has also read so I guess he has read some books lately.
"Mad Men": I thought the season opening was pretty good. N liked it more than I did, but that's par for the course.
Pizza: We kind of got cocky with our p-making skillz and then got a good come-down on Sunday. The humidity make it nearly impossible for N to roll the dough out well and we timed things most poorly so the Bean was a screaming lunatic because, gasp, it was five minutes after 5:00 and the poor thing hadn't been fed. Have I mentioned that The Bean is bigger than some 2 year olds we know? The girl does not want for food, but try telling her that when you're late with supper. Her screams stressed us to no end so that the first pie was undercooked and not so tasty. The second pie was better, but whole wheat dough depressed N to no end and he ending up scrapping it and ordering Chinese.
Puppies: OMG! The puppies next door had 8! puppies and they are so cute, I want to vomit every time I see them, which is not often enough.

Houston, We Have A Walker

So, um, yeah. She's walking. As of today. Previously, I don't think I'd ever seen her walk more than 4 steps although it was rumored that she had done 5 or 6. But today she was all over the place, walking from the living room, through the dining room, and into the kitchen, without crawling or falling, to see me. How cool!

By the time N gets back from his manly-man hike in the Adks on Friday, she'll be sprinting laps. He's here now, don't worry. It's a short jaunt---he'll leave tomorrow afternoon and return Friday morning.

Anyway,do you think she started walking because she STOPPED SMOKING? That's right---she's been cigarette free for 24 hours now. None last night, none for the naps today, and none tonight. You go girl! I keep thinking she'll freak out, but she really hasn't. She was up a bit last night, but all in all it really wasn't bad.

Unfortunately she's a bit under the weather. Her vacs got cancelled cuz she was running a fever and she was very mellow during our bedtime reading of Goodnight Moon. Hopefully she'll be better tomorrow.

Man, we really gotta childproof now.

Getting the Baby Off The Smokes

Now that The Bean is a 1-year and 1 week and 1 day old, N and I have decided that she stop smoking. She goes without when she's playing during the day, but naps and nighttime? She's a fiend.

I had the honor of putting her in the crib san ciggies this evening and it didn't go well. I was so nervous about the whole thing that I plopped her down without singing to her or remembering to turn off her music. She was in hysterics so N went up, discovered the still playing music and turned it off, and soothed her. She's sleeping now---the crying thing wasn't too long in the scheme of crying babies, but we think she's going to wake up during the night a lot.

Oh well. What can you do? I have to say that the saddest sight was watching her look for, but not find the pack of smokes when I put her in the crib.

In other news, her bday parties were a success, she got some great gifts, and is really starting to toddle. She also knows the words balloon, banana, and royal flush although the lack of smokes might hurt her poker face.

We're excited that we found a new babysitter---she seems great and she can come on Thursdays during the semester so N can go to work early and I can have some hours in the day (AFTER teaching my 8 AM class) to get stuff done. Yay!!

We're grilling champs over here, too. Our neighbors/landlords just commented that we're "always grilling." I over cooked the zukes, but the chicken was nearly perfecto tonight. So, hooray for propane, babysitters, and Nicorette gum!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY, BABY GIRL

Dear Bean,

Last year at this time, we were in a hospital room in New York City, wondering what was going to happen now that the Bean had become YOU! And today, in Lebanon, NH, you did so many things including: crawling all over the place, pushing your new wagon all over the lawn, inhaling a giant cupcake at your first birthday party, "reading'" your new dog book, eating your body weight in fruit, drinking milk by yourself from your sippy cup, playing with bath toys while standing up in the tub, and getting more dirty than I have ever seen and believe me, I've seen you get pretty dirty. You become more of a person every day, which makes every day its own adventure.

Here's to next year's adventures.

Love,
Mom

Books? Wednesday?

Yeah, I know. But I wanted to let you know that I have been reading a bit. At my mum's house back in early July I read Home Game by Michael Lewis and Bad Mother by Aylet Waldman in about 2 days (1 day a piece give or take). The Lewis was really light and I honestly can't remember that much about it except that they seemed to have a lot of babysitters and once his baby son got sick and was hospitalized. I was more interested in the fact that Lewis is married to Tabitha Soren, who was a VJ on MTV back when MTV played videos.

The Waldman book was a little more controversial and thus slightly more interesting. She got blasted a few years back for writing an article in which she said that she loved her husband more than her kids. Anyway, in this book of essays she talks about her decision to abort a fetus who potentially could be, uh, sick? Retarded? I can't remember, but there was the possibility of serious genetic problems. She also talks openly about her depression. So yeah. Good vacay books, but you don't need to fret about not having read them yet.

In the Adirondacks I obsessively read Alison Bechdel's The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For, which I didn't even like but for some reason couldn't stop reading. It's a compendium of almost all of Bechdel's comics from like the past twenty (more?) years so the characters are the same, but sort of change. Times change, but the main character Mo doesn't really change---she wears the same striped shirt all the time and she's always bemoaning The State of Things. She gets a little annoying after, um, ten strips. But I had to read it because of the soap operaness---the affairs, the articifial insemination, the girly crushes, the token lesbian man dude, etc. If you want to a really good Alison Bechdel book read Fun Home. That's 100% amazing.

While we were in Shelter Island I read like a crazy lady Beautiful Boy by David Sheff. I read it like crazy because I had to read it when Susie wasn't since it was her book and she was reading it. Now that I think about it, it must have been really annoying to her that I kept doing that. Sorry, Suze. At least I didn't lose her place or anything. BB is Sheff's account of his son's battle with drug addiction, specifically crystal meth. It's harrowing, but well written for about 200ish pages and then gets really old. There's no real ending for the book because you know, with addiction it can be up and down. The writing starts to get all weird too, much too detailed and too many choppy, for-effect sentences. Susie and I agreed it feels like Sheff couldn't end the book because he was too in love with his son. And if I had to read the name Nic one more time! Put a freaking k on it, dude.

Anyway, now I'm reading Three Freaking Cups of Tea because it's for school. It's actually not terrible, but I never feel that compelled to read it so it's pretty slow going, but it's all I'm allowed to read until I finish it.

Hey, you know what? With these books I got the mother, the father, and the son. Okay. Long post. Love ya. Bye, bye.

Well, Hello.

Hey, Loves,
We're back. And we're not going anywhere except our usual NH and VT haunts for like a month! Good times were had all over the East Coast this last month, but it's nice to stay put. Yesterday we went to our local(ish) farmstand where we do a CSA and stocked up on all kinds of delish fruits and veggies because we'll actually be here to eat them.

The Bean was a rock star on vacay. She did make the other, smaller baby cry at least once a day because of her fondness for loudly screaming in his face, but other than than she was pretty sweet. She loved swimming in the bay and playing in/ eating sand. She slept really well and, as usual, waved constantly. Other than the lack of trips to the ice cream stand, it's starting to feel like summer. Today is hot and humid and we've been swimming a lot! Yay! Swimming=Summer. Not only did The Bean swim most days in the bay at Shelter Island, she has swum in the Lyme Pond, the Lebanon Municipal Pool, and of course the rec center indoor pool.

Today, I managed to go to a yoga class for the first time in months. Yay!!

Oh, that gas grill is amazing and we haven't blown ourselves up yet. So far, we've grilled corn on the cob, salmon, and chicken. Tonight I grilled two zucchinis, 1.5 tomatoes, and a bunch of garlic and added it to pasta. Grilling is my new kick along with, to N's poor meat-loving heart, tofu and lentils in the salad instead of cheese and cranberries. At least I'm not making Brussels sprouts, honey.

This is kinda a busy week. My parents are coming up on Thursday night, Uncle Brobly arrives Friday, and N's parents arrive on Saturday because as you might know faithful readers, on Sunday, August 2, The Bean will be 1!! She's gonna cake it up this weekend and might even get a present or two. We're having the small fam BBQ on Saturday and a crazy double monkey party with The Bean's best bud Z who is a whopping 1 day older and will sadly be moving to Cali next week. All kinds of things need to happen between now and then so wish me luck.

Peace.

Wow! It's Not Raining!

It's a nice, slightly breezy, but sunny day here in the Upper Valley. We got back here yesterday and are staying put until The Bean's bedtime on Sunday when we're gonna drive to New London, CT, sleep in a motel, and then take an early ferry to Shelter Island to hang out with our bestest Brooklyn friendies for four days. Yay!! Beach! Babies! Beer!

After that, we're gonna stay here for a month because I'm not sure how many more places we can have The Bean sleep. She was great in the Adks, although she did get sick while we were there. Luckily, it was after we came back from the wedding so her grandparents weren't stuck with a sick kiddie. We ended up taking her to a clinic in Lake Placid and the PA who saw her thought it could be the start of another ear infection so she's back on the anti-bs this week. She's better on that front for sure, but she's also teething, which is not fun. I think it would be freaky to give birth to a baby with a full set of teeth, but now that we're in the heart of the teething, I think not having to deal with teething might outweigh the freakiness factor.

Our friends who are moving at the end of the month just dropped off their propane grill, which is exciting and a little scary as N and I aren't really grillers. Hopefully things will go better with this grill than with the last one....

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

We had a brief stay in NH after our rollicking fun time in NYC. We're leaving tomorrow (although we're so not packed) at the First Nap Time to go to the Adirondacks. The Bean will be left once again on Saturday so N and I can wedding it up in VT. This time we're pros and have learned how fun it is not to be with your child. Just kidding, Bean. It breaks our hearts. Although some strong booze seems to ease the break just a little.

We'll be back in (constantly rainy) NH on Tuesday so have a good weekend.

This One (Girl) Goes To Eleven (Months)!

Dear Bean,
Today you are 11 months old in New York City! What's so crazy about you being 11 months today is that in four short weeks you'll be one year old. Wow!

After you got up today your dad fed you breakfast---I'm not sure what, but it was probably tasty. Then you guys went for a walk in Central Park, which is the new morning routine while we're here. I took you yesterday to see the dogs, which you love. It's great seeing you get excited about things, which is mostly dogs and the occasional horse. We played a bit when you came back and then you took a nap and I went shopping with your grandma and when you got up your dad took you for a walk with his friend Ken. I believe there was a sandbox involved in your playground. For lunch your dad gave you 6! organic chicken nuggets. That seemed like a lot to me, but he said you got pretty hungry.

You were not happy when you woke up from your long afternoon nap, but eventually you snapped out of it and were mildly entertained by the two boys who had taken over the apartment. After they got tired of their DVD, we went out to another playground where you crawled around on wet concrete and chewed on a fence. Oh, you also got your first taste of junk food since I gave you some Pirate's Booty and other "healhty" puffy, cheesy things. I'm not surprised that you dug it.

It started raining and the boys got restless so we walked them to Amsterdam with their mom, went back to the apartment where you ate macaroni and cheese, yam, a little bit of Indian food, which you did not like, and some fruit. Then you got loopy tired drunk, which is funny because it's easy to make you laugh. Your grandma made you laugh a lot! Then the boys and their parents came back and you watched them for a bit before your dad gave you a bottle and put you to bed.

I feel a little sorry that I didn't spend so much time with you today, but also happy that you're such an amazing little girl. This has been a great month---you're happy and sleeping and eating up a storm and seem pretty close to walking.You're been a trooper with all the traveling.

I can't wait to see (and kiss and hug and laugh with) you tomorrow.
xo, mama

We'll Be Back

But I don't think I'll be blogging while we're away. You gotta change things up, ya know! Have a great couple of weeks.

A Blog More Sexy Than This One?

I know, it's hard to imagine isn't it? All the references to nap times and The Over Documentation of a baby's meals can really make you wanna....snooze. Wanna wake up? Brooklyn Mama's friend, Mr. Casual, has a rollicking new(ish) blog that Brooklyn Mama can't stop reading. Take a look! I promise the only mention of naps will be in the post-coital context.

Waiting For The Bean To Wake Up

Cuz she'll be doing it pretty soon I imagine since it's 10:30 and she's been napping since 8:45! That's my girl! Remember when she didn't nap and I'd have to do everything in my power to get her to sleep? And then it would be like a 20-30 minute travesty. Now, she's on a napping schedule and generally each one is a bit over an hour. I'm a bit fearful since she took a long morning nap like this on Sunday and then refused to nap in the afternoon, which as you know is when mama naps. But yesterday she took a long morning snoozer and a really long snooze in the afternoon so who knows what's really going on.

Of course we're going to go and wreck havoc with this beautiful napping by going out of town for like 10 days! First stop is Field of Corn, NY on Saturday where we're going to go celebrate our good friend's imminent departure to SCRANTON, PA MED SCHOOL! Yay Alison! And no, I don't think we'll ever stop making Office jokes. On Sunday we'll be going to the Big Apple where we're going to feed The Bean real NY bagels and pizza and go to lots of movies since we'll have lots o' Beansitting available.

We're also (supposedly) going to leave Miss Bean overnight with the grandparents while we go back upstate to watch our friendies get married. Surviving that (me, not Bean she's in good hands) we'll retrieve the Bean, come back to NH for a few days before going over to the other Grandparents in the Adks and leaving her once again to go to another wedding....And she's up! More later.

So now it's eight hours later and The Bean is sleeping (hopefully) for the night because she did not have her afternoon nap. She was so tired on the bottle that she fell asleep without finishing it (it popped right out of her mouth) and she curled up to my...uh...bosom totally asleep. It was really sweet as she has not done that since she was teeny. She remained asleep while I transferred her to the crib and I didn't even have to put the pacifier in her mouth, which is huge. Now I'm off to have me a beer. It's been a day.

Hooray For Baby Daddies!

Since the Internet will be going dark in a little while, The Bean and I would like to give a early shout-out to N and say, very originally, "Happy Father's Day!" Of course you're not surprised that N is one of the best baby daddies around. He has an excellent singing voice and is very through when it comes to cleaning The Bean's bottom. Plus, he plays excellent music for our early morning dance parties, knows how to 2-step, and always tries to find tasty things for Miss Bean to eat for breakfast. Also, The Bean would like it known that now that there's no teaching going on, her dad gets up with her in the early morning and lets mama sleep, which is the best thing (for mom) ever! The Bean's Daddy should get a medal for all the things he had to put together for her this past year: cribs (portable and stationary), car seats, plastic contraptions from China, not to mention figuring out strollers and tattoo guns.

In all seriousness, The Bean and I feel incredibly, amazingly, awesomely, and happily lucky to have N in our lives. We're going to miss him something terrible when he's geeking out in Boston for the first half of next week. Happy Father's Day, N! The Bean says no dance parties till you return!

N.B.

This lady will not be invited to The Bean's first bday.
This is helpful.
Interesting twist.
The revolution will not be televised, but perhaps it will be twittered?
Can you really fall asleep while get a tattoo?

MONDAY MONDAY

Hope y'all had a nice weekend. Ours was okay with long stretches of oh my god it's only 3:00? What are we going do to for the next three hours? Poor Miss Bean was diagnosed with an ear infection on Thursday afternoon but we had to stop the anti-bs after the Saturday night dose because she had a rash all over her chest and belly. Now, she's on a new med that will hopefully do the trick. She was more like herself today than she was all weekend.

Over here we live like we did back in high school with class periods. First period usually starts around 6:00 AM and includes breakfast and some play time and sometimes going outside to pick up the paper or a quick walk to the green and back. Then there's First Nap, which is usually a little before 9:00 AM. After that nap, which ends sometime around 10:00, it's second period. You need to do BIG, exciting things during second period to make Missy Bean happy. Today we went to Mommy and Me Yoga, which was more like Mom Chases The Bean and Tries To Stop Her From Eating the Six Week Old Baby Next to Us. After that we went to the bar with some of the moms for an early lunch. When we got back we had a few more small adventures (watching the cleaning woman vacuum, feeding our neighbor's fish, stealing an apple) and then it was Second Nap time, which Bklyn Mama loves since she got smart and stopped doing anything domestic and naps too. Second Nap Time normally starts between 1-1:30 but started a little early today perhaps due to the resumption of the anti-bs. Second Nap normally ends sometime between 2-2:30 and then we have third period, which is tricky. Today, The Bean woke up in the most fantastic mood she's been in post-nap all week. We had a great time in the house (going up the stairs 3! times, bathroom inspecting, snack time, etc) for about an hour and then she got REALLY REALLY BORED. Nothing was doing the trick---not even the remote control or mom's cell phone. Eventually we made our way outside and thank goodness the dogs next door were out because if they weren't I swear she would've chewed off my hand and poof---no more blogging. The dogs have no interest in the Bean anymore, but luckily she's content to watch them frolic and pee.

Bean's baby daddy came home in the midst of the dog watching and took Bean out for a more exciting second half of third period which included not buying a $40.00 brown shirt, not finding a carabeaner, and a short stop at the playground.

If you can make it through third period you're all good since dinner is about 4:45 and bedtime is around 6:00. And there's sometimes a bath and always a bottle before the hitting of the hay. I know she goes to bed early, but she gets really tired. You'd be tired too climbing the stairs 800 times a day.

Why I Hate Garrison Keillor

Hard to believe now, but you know, there was time, back when I was in my (foolish and boozy) 20's, living in Seattle, when I found "A Prairie Home Companion" comforting. I'd listen while through Seattle's cute rainy neighborhoods, on route to brunch or at home, drinking my coffee or folding my laundry or some other mundane thing. I'd laugh at the ketchup commercials and smile at the English Major riffs. That Guy Noir....he'd just crack me up. When I moved back to Brooklyn I didn't listen to it as much--one, because I didn't drive anymore and probably because I sent my laundry out and also because it just didn't seem to be on when I was drinking coffee, etc. But when I did catch it, I was cool wid it.

One effect of living in NH is that I now HATE APHC. I find Garrison Keeler's voice smarmy and annoying and sometimes N has to physically restrain me from throwing things at the radio. Maybe I dislike the show because I live in the country rather than a metropolitan hot bed like Seattle or New York. Maybe I think Keeler is a bit of an asshole because of this. Maybe a white person living in white people land can only take so much whiteness in a given day. Or maybe I hate APHC because IT'S ALWAYS ON HERE.

We get three NPR stations in this area and on the weekends when we're all chillaxin' and in the mood for some good listening it's APHC on all 3 stations. It kind of makes ya wanna kill yourself. Or maybe just blast some gay rap.

Have yourselves a APHC-free weekend, kiddies. Do it for me, cuz you know I won't.

Back

Well, I'm back online, but my back is still kind of killing me. It was getting better, but I think I did too much on Sunday because Monday morning was just awful. Of course Bean was extra needy too. Luckily, N was able to take over all yesterday afternoon and evening and he's on duty all day today and tomorrow. I can't wait till I'm healed because it really stinks. For the rest of my life I'm going to do back exercises every morning. I think I'm genetically destined for back issues, but I think a lot of it could be prevented.

I really miss being physical with Miss Bean, but feel incredibly lucky that N is home to take over. I'm hoping I'll be back (ha, ha) on track by Thurs/Fri.

Other than the bad back, we had a nice, busy weekend with family. The weather was great too. Now, it's rainy, which we're actually happy about since the landlords put down a ton of weed killer and fertilizer so the lawn has been off limits. I'm getting stir crazy and think I'll leave the house at some point today.

Oh. The Bean is getting her two front teeth, which makes her look even cuter. And, she's starting to stand. On her own.

Maybe You Should Give Me A Call This Weekend

You know cuz I won't be ONLINE AGAIN TILL MONDAY!!!
Did I mentioned my back went out?
Bad back, can't go out and play in the sunshine we're supposed to be having, can't frolick with Beanie, can't go online!
Give a call. You know the number.

More Time Out Than In!!!

Dear Bean,

Today you are ten months! This is crazy and amazing.

You didn't sleep great last night and you didn't nap well today, but in general you are sleeping MUCH BETTER. Your two naps are generally over an hour and although you cry out several times while sleeping, most nights you fall back asleep on your own.

This morning your dad said you were in a really good mood when he got you out of your crib. He gave you mini waffles, banana, and an egg yolk for breakfast. Your babysitter came while you having your morning nap, but you woke up too early from it and you were quite unhappy. You felt a little better when Erica gave you a bottle. She was planning on putting you in the jogging stroller and going for a run, but since your dad came home before me in the afternoon, I'm not sure if she did or how it went. It's exciting to think that there will be a time when I'll be able to ask you about your day! Erica fed you lunch of edamame, cubed squashed, and alphabet pasta with veggie meatballs.

You and I played for a bit in the early part of the afternoon. I tried to take some pictures and videos of you, but you kept going for my camera. After what happened to my last digital camera, the new one is totally off baby limits, which you didn't like. For your afternoon snack you had more edamame and squash as well as some bunny crackers, and another veggie meatball. You are such a good eater; it's so exciting to give you new foods although sometimes it's stressful. I feel like I always need to be at least two meals ahead of you, which is tough since you have 4 meals a day!

After your snack, I went swimming and you went to the daycare at the gym. The daycare is so good for us! I want you to be comfortable at the daycare so you won't get into hysterics when I leave. You've been a tad more whimpery the last few weeks, but I don't think you've ever cried. Normally, it doesn't take much to get you to perk up. When I came to get you last week, you barely acknowledged me since you were having such a good time playing/watching the big girls

After the gym we went home to...EAT PIZZA! All of us to celebrate your 10-monthiness! You've been eyeing pizza since you were six months old so we decided that 10 months was old enough for you to have your own slice. Your pizza, which I prepped and your dad executed, had organic sauce, mozzarella, Parmesan organic mushrooms, fresh oregano, and basil. The three of us ate dinner together on our sun porch, which was awesome. I told your dad we should try doing it at least once a week. It won't kill us to eat at 5:00 and I think it's good for you to eat with us at home. You seemed to enjoy your pizza quite a lot. The one issue is that the dough was a little tough for someone with only two teeth, but you managed it pretty well. You also ate some of the jarred peas and brown rice, but I bet soon enough you'll refuse nasty jarred veggies when there's pizza on your tray. For dessert you had a blueberries and Cheerios.

I tried to give you some of your milk in a sippy cup tonight since you're supposed to be off the bottle by the time you're one. Since you do love your bottles, your dad and I thought we'd start this weaning now. You did okay for a while, but you were drinking REALLY fast and then you seemed to get tired and frustrated and bored so I gave you most of the milk in the bottle. Tomorrow, we'll try giving you the milk in the sippy cup after your morning nap when you're not so sleepy.

Oh, Bean, this post is already so long and I haven't even mentioned all the things you're into! Or all the things you can do like Angry Gorilla face and all your excellent Banging of Things. Your favorite thing in the world right now it standing up. You need to hold onto something, but you can do it with one hand. And you've balanced by yourself for a few seconds here and there. In the past few weeks, you've become a really fast crawler. You love crawling down the hall away from us and you love love love crawling into the bathroom, pulling yourself over the tub. It seems like you could spend hours in the bathroom, which is why we call you Bathroom Inspector every time you crawl in there. Other things that amuse you: goggles, real keys, real cell phones, a stuffed yellow monkey I bought for your dad years ago, wallets, Styrofoam cups, the plastic container that contained the goggles, diaper packages, and a digital camera minus the battery and memory card that used to be mine.

It's crazy and amazing that ten months ago you were this little red swaddled thing and now you're you! YOU! I feel so very lucky about that. Happy 10 Months, Baby Girl!

Love,
BKLYN Mama

No TV Tuesdays!

Sorry, for the silence, kids. This has nothing to do with the lack of posts, but for a few months now, N. and I have been celebrating "No TV Tuesdays", which involves us not watching any TV or DVDs on, you guessed it, Tuesdays. It's not like we watch a ton of shows---the only show I watch regularly is "The Office". N. watches that and "Lost". But even though we're not the kind of people who are into a ton of shows every season, we do get sucked in. Although strangely we have somehow avoided American Idol. We do watch ourselves some Net Flix although we often keep a DVD for a few weeks before we get around to viewing it. Unless it's "The Trailer Park Boys". That we watch stupid fast. NTT was born so we'd have one day during the week when we just don't turn on the tube. It's a good thing. Although it does seem like Tuesdays come up crazy fast around here.

As if this wasn't crazy enough, N. implemented The No Internet on the Weekends!!! rule two weekends ago. That's right. After a designated time on Friday, we don't go online till MONDAY!! Of course there are exceptions, like if we need to look up a movie time or get a phone number. But in those cases it's just that one thing--nothing more. It's been an interesting exercise. I feel myself going for the computer, but can't. It's been a wake up call to see when I'd go online, which is in the "dead time." You know after the baby has gone for a nap, but before I go make the bed or when N. and I are waiting for The Bean to get up from a nap. And after dinner. And during lunch. And before breakfast. I realize I tend to shop online more on the weekends since no one ever updates their blog and there's never any good email. So maybe this new rule will save us money. And maybe I'll just buy more on Mondays.

Hope y'all had a nice weekend. Did YOU go online?

I'm Way Too Drunk To Come Up With An Interesting Post Title

Actually, I'm very sober since I didn't even finish my beer, but I needed something a little more attention grabbing than I Can't Come Up With An Interesting Post Title. You know, for the moms. Anyway, things be feeling kind of mellow up in our house. N. is done with the schooling till August, which is pretty crazy. Of course he has work to do. We've been trying to figure out a schedule that works for both of us. Yesterday was our first day of him being at the pretend office. He actually was in the closet that performs as his office for most of the day, but we all pretended he wasn't home from 9-4:30. It worked pretty well except for when The Bean and I were having too much fun and he had to poke his head in and reprimand us. You know how those 9 month olds like to blast the house music.

For some reason I found it more exhausting than the days when N was really gone. I guess cuz he was here, but wasn't. Speaking of exhausting Brooklyn Mama has gotten an insane amount of sleep lately. I finally slept through the night (before I was waking around 2 even if Baby Bean wasn't) on Monday. Despite sleeping from 9:30 PM-5:00 AM and then from 6:00 AM-8:00, I still napped at 9 and then from 1:30-2:30. Last night I slept for 9! hours.

Tomorrow is day #2 of Dad at the office. It should be a little less exhausting since we have plans at the awesomeness that is The Bounce House. Having plans is huge these days. Bean and I get bored. Yesterday afternoon I was so desperate for something to do that I actually put the Bean in her jogging stroller and went out jogging.

We're planning on June being a work month, traveling a bit in July, and then winding down in August. I'm trying to get my own work done. I'm in this very sticky part of this YA that I was going to send to my agent like 2 months ago. And I'm also writing an essay on leaving New York. How very interesting, you think. What, you think all I do is puree beets and zucchini in my free time? Speaking of beets and zucchini, what do we think the chances are that little Miss Bean is gonna like the asparagus I'm gonna give her for lunch tomorrow?

I'm Sorry To Have To Do This To You But

I feel the need to update you on the rug sitch. On last week's episode we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of the ABC carpet rug. The colorful striped one. Well, it arrived, the baby napped, furniture was moved, and the rug was laid down. And I just couldn't get over the stripped colorfullness of it. But N. liked it and since he's the artiste in the family, I thought maybe I was just seeing things wrong. After three days of horrible, angsty striped stress, I snagged our neighbor/landlord for her opinion. And she agreed with me. Or rather, she was able to verbalize my angsty feelings into like words. The colorful striped rug was quite nice BUT IT CLASHED WITH ALL OUR FURNITURE!

Case closed. We moved all the furniture out, wrapped it up, and put down the new, smaller very brown rug, which N. curled up on in fetal position, crying that he, "just wanted the rug saga to be over with." I was happy with the brown rug maybe because ALL OUR FURNITURE IS BROWN. I've accepted that I'm going to have to vacuum the hell out of it for the next few months to stop the shedding and I'm alright with that. Totally off the topic, but The Bean is OBSESSED with the vacuum. I used it today and she just stared at it laughing. When I vaccumed her with it she went totally spastic with laughter, which was pretty awesome until she started licking it.

Anyway we still had to return the ABC rug, which meant me losing two days of my life opening a UPS account and trying to schedule a pickup and then cancelling the pick up because we didn't have a necessary Return Merchandise Number and it was the weekend and blah blah blah and then we finally got the stupid number and then I had to spent another three hours trying to deal with the UPS account until N. said he'd do it because he was afraid I was going to injure my computer. And then it looked like it was going to cost $130.00! so N. said he'd bring it to UPS, which he very kindly did only to discover it cost like $109.00, but whatever. I think we spent $200 sending rugs back and we still haven't gotten $ back from ABC but we will!

And since I know N. will never read this post because as he likes to say he "lives the rug saga" I'm going to tell everyone that he has a tail. Like a monkey's!

To All The Baby Mamas!

Happy Baby Mama Day, Baby Mamas! The Bean went all out this year what with the bling, the lights, the monkeys, the chocolate, and all the sloppy kisses! Every day is mother's day when you have such an excellent Bean for a baby. It's a bit gloomy out, but that's not going to stop me from enjoying the new season of Dairy Twirl---that's our local ice cream shoppe that opens today. The family will be going there in the afternoon after my massage!

I do have a new appreciation of all the work that goes into to being a baby momma this year so I'd like to give a shout out to Brooklyn Mama's mama! In celebration of today I started reading The Waterfall and of course, as you predicted, I like it.

Oh, and here's a picture of me not too long after last year's Mother Day!



And yes, I did continue playing professional basketball up into my 9th month!

What I Like About You

1. Spring here is great. We still have some crap days, but when it's nice I REALLY appreciate it.

2. I was able to make a reservation for THE restaurant in the area for a Friday night at 7:00 the day before. Like that would ever happen in NYC!

3. I like driving, actually. I feel like it would be frustrating to have to take the bus/train with The Bean. Not only all the stuff, but also it's nice being in control. Like the other day when we met a friend, had lunch, and then around 1:00 we booked it back to the Bean-Mobile and drove pronto home singing the whole way so the nap would be taken in the crib and not the car. Not sure how this would fly on the Q train.

4. I like driving and not seeing any cars for like ten miles sometimes.

5. I love our sun porch. It was closed off for the last six months, but now that it's nicer out we've been using it and you feel like you're on vacation in the trees. I'm so glad we only gave 1/2 of it to The Bean. The other half is ours and we've been having our cocktails and dinners out there. You should come visit if only to watch the sun set while drinking a vodka martini from there.

6. Today The Bean had a date with her friend O at Dartmouth's museum otherwise known as The Hood. She got to get her crawl on around the floor in some of the galleries because it was empty. It's very important for Bean to get her crawl on during her waking hours, you know. I do believe it would be impossible to crawl around any art museum in the five boroughs.

7. The Valley News. I love our local paper. Not only do I learn of cool happenings, but the local stories are a laugh riot. Like the mobster guy in Vermont who had posters from The Godfather all around his apartment and totally tried to be a gangster by selling drugs and beating the shit out of people, but who also, on weekends, to make money, sold crafts at local fairs.

My Friend's Book

came out today. Read it, y'all. Sara is one of the best writers I know. And if I didn't know her, I'd think she was one of the best writers I didn't know.

Nine Months In, Nine Months Out!!

Oh Bean,
Today you are a spectacular 9 months old! To celebrate we took you off your nap schedule so you could go to your swim lesson with your dad. Apparently it was a really good time and included jumping off the side of the pool. When you came home you had a bath, a bottle, lunch with mom, and a well-deserved nap.

You are becoming a much better napper, which makes us happy. You take two naps a day now. One around 9:00 AM and the other around 1:00. You go to bed right at 6:00 because you are throughly exhausted because you now spend a lot of your days pulling yourself up to stand! You're really good at this and you're good at getting back down on your bottom, which you were unable to do a month ago.

Now that it's nice out you're getting to spend a lot more time outside,which everyone is happy about. You really like the baby swing on the Green and last week you went in your first sandbox, which you seemed pretty happy about. You really liked the being in the back pack and going for a hike with me last week. I hope you like it even when your friend's dog isn't with us. You also like just sitting out in our backyard---you're not eating leaves and grass as often either. Yay!!

To celebrate your 9 monthiness you had (modified) macaroni and cheese with green beans for dinner. You loved the mac -n-cheese as I suspected you would. You fed yourself some pieces of bread and cheese cubes, too. For desert you had a fruit combo, which you also dug. You eat a lot of food these days It seems like I need to go grocery shopping all the time and it's mostly food for you! You still don't like cauliflower (although I haven't tried it lately), but I feel lucky that you are such a good eater. You even eat veggies with gusto! You're going to the doctor for your checkup on Monday. Luckily there are no shots! According to the Wii Fit you weigh 20.5 pounds. You seem very long to us, but we will know more on Monday afternoon.

You're sleeping better at night although you still wake up. You don't get fed anymore because you're too old for that, but sometimes you need some water, a diaper change, and a hug. Hopefully in the next month you won't need those things any more...at least not at 3 AM.

Your dad and I love you like crazy Bean Girl! It's been a fabulous 9 months! We can't wait to see what #10 has in store.

Much love,
Bklyn Mama

Friday Books!! (Really!)

First, a very happy birthday to the even older Old Man!

I finished Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson a few nights ago. It took me almost two months to read and it's not a hard or boring or bad book. If I had to describe it with one word that would be: quiet. It's Scandinavian so I guess that makes sense. It enjoyable, but not exactly thrilling. In fact, I'm not really sure what I have to say about it and I'm feeling lazy. This guy had more so read this if you want more details. Happy weekend.

Rugs: A Saga or: How Much $ We've Spent On Not Getting A Rug At Pottery Barn

Pretty much from the minute N. and I moved into this place we wanted to get a rug for the living room. Our parents had generously bestowed some nice, but small Oriental rugs that worked fine when we were young and childless in Brooklyn. But childed in NH? We needed more of a carpet. So we made do with this weird 3 rug aesthetic until we got our tax return and decided to buy us some rug. We decided upon Pottery Barn since we had a gift card and PB is like the married with children version of Ikea.

First we had to get a swatch of the rug we wanted because N. in his infinite wisdom said it would be dumb ass to buy a $$ rug we hadn't felt. A swatch o' rug from PB costs $25.00, but it's "refundable" if you mail it back. So we did that. And N. in his photo-shopping genius created a whole rug from one swatch and we realized we couldn't get the color we liked on the computer, but we could get that rug in a different color. Cool, right? It cost me $7.00 to send that stupid rug sample back. And then we got all crazy and decided that we also needed a rug for under the dining room table and once again had to get a swatch and then send that back so now we've sent $14.00 JUST RETURNING things to PB.

But the rugs come and we're happy. We don't even care that we have to move EVERYTHING out of the living room to roll it down and then move everything back all while trying to prevent the Bean from chewing and pulling on 1,000 cables.

Because N. and I are no dummies, we had measured the living room and dining room a lot of times to make sure the rugs would fit. And yeah, the living room rug fit. But it completely absorbed the whole room. We actually have nice wood floors, why not show a little? We put the rug down at 8:30 in the morning and even though we decided that we would sleep on it and make our decision about the rug being too big the following morning by 10:00 AM I was on the phone with the PB people ordering two more rugs---smaller, of course and finding out how to go about returning 8 x10 and 9 X12 foot rugs.

We were too tired to move everything out and roll up the rug so I scheduled the UPS pickup for Monday, which meant we had a good three days looking and walking (and crawling) on the too-big rug. I should mention that it costs $16.00 to return a rug, which means we're up to $46.00.....

Except we noticed that the rug in the dining room was shedding. A lot. Like ten minutes after N. vacuumed, which is not good. After googling, we discovered a very long thread about PB and their shedding rugs. In a matter of minutes it was decided that I could not live with a shedding rug so I tried to cancel the order, but it had already shipped. N. and I spent a whole night looking at new rugs because now that we've tasted the wine, we need to drink it. We find, after 4 hours of searching, a nice, seemingly unsheddy rug at ABC carpet. This rug was quite different as it was bright and lively compared to the PB one, which was dark and foreboding. So we ordered it.

Monday came around and we quickly rolled up the shedding carpet while the baby napped (we got smart) and had the UPS man take it away. Only he brought the two new ones. Luckily, the one for the dining room table seems good although our table weighs 800 pounds and for the past two days N. and I have been too tired to move it so the dining room table rug is now alongside the table rather than under it.

To continue the saga a friend tells me that she owns a PB rug and yes it shed, but only for two months and we should keep the rug because it will be fine. So....now we have the smaller PB living room rug in the garage while we wait for the one from ABC Carpet because you know what kids....we're gonna compare them! And then we're gonna have to send one back and pay yet another return fee.

Oh and wouldn't you know I had to call PB with the tracking numbers from the sent away rugs so they could credit my account and it was going fine until they wanted to give me a SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLAR GIFT CARD. Because you know we paid with a gift card....I had a minor melt down because it was only a hundred dollar gift card not $700! There's some message when you first call PB about their excellent customer service and I have to say it's true. The people are really nice and very helpful even if they retardedly try to dupe you into spending $700 dollars in their store. Thank goodness for that and the fact that after a long wait Mary Jo returned to tell me a $100 gift card would be sent to me, but the rest of the money would indeed be credited to my account. Whew.

Still, we're going ended up spending over $60.00 bucks on not buying a rug. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there might even be rug saga update. As if this isn't long and boring enough....

No Sleep Till Brooklyn!

I just put The Bean to bed after a rather long day. N. is still at work so there was no respite for mama. It wasn't a terrible day though. The babysitter was here and in the later afternoon we went to the gym so Bean could have some fun in the day care. She had a blast although she was very tired by the end. Speaking of tired would you like to know the many ways The Bean lets her elders know she's ready for bed? Yes, of course, you do.
1. She yawns
2. She makes weird, deeply guttural, strangely alien noises
3. She puts her head down---on the floor, on her highchair tray, on the bottom of her closet, on your shoulder, which is the bestest
4. She gets very still
5. She gets very hyper and scampers around the room like a hyena
6. She cries
7. She laughs a lot, which makes you feel like you're being very funny when actually you're not
8. She acts like she wants to nurse
9. She climbs into your lap
10. She kicks her legs and won't let you change her diaper/clothes
11. She yells
12. She pulls her ear
13. She rubs her eyes
14. She pulls her hair, which is a feat since she's still pretty bald
15. She scratches behind her ear
16. Her motor skills start to stink
17. Her eyes get red
18. She starts to look dunk and stoned
19. She's too distracted to eat any solid food
20. While on the bottle her eyes roll into the back of her head--really, it's kind of freaky
21. She just wants to be held

Pretty wild stuff, huh? Luckily, she came with a manual. It's not like N. and I had to figure it out or anything.

Monday Monday

It's been a while. Despite my best efforts, I did get sick. A sore-throat/sinus/cough/tremendous amount of mucous thing. Pleasant. The Bean is still having some ailments, too, but she's mostly better. Although I think she's in a baby funk this week. She spent most the afternoon in a terrible mood despite a good nap and a positive, truly entertaining mama. The census lady got a huge smile for some reason though. And we were both throughly entertained by the dogs next door. I don't know what we would do without those crazy dogs. Watching them run and round like lunatics really entertains Ms. Bean. When she's a bit bigger, the dog's owner has said she can go into the yard (instead of peering over the fence) and run around with them!

I'd like The Bean to grow up with dogs so she won't be afraid of them like I was when I was a kid. The Bean's papa does love him some dogs and I imagine we'll get one at some point, but we need to have a big yard where it can go outside. Also, I'd like to live near some kind of park thing. So maybe in 5-10 years we'll have a dog. I also like cats quite a bit. More than cats, I like coming up with names for cats. Don't you think a cat named Waffles is genius. And Guacamole. I think that would be a good name for a cat too. We could call him Guac.

My next post will be better. I hope.

Cute But Also A Little Nasty

Poor Bean. She's got a variety of ailments these days. She has pink eye in both eyes, which means there's green goop all over her eyeballs and stuck in her eyelashes and she has to get 2 drops in each eye 4! times a day for 10!! days. No fun. But we gotta kill the goop. She's also got snot running out of her nose like it's going to win the 100-yard dash or something. And she has a barking cough that sounds just awful at night. Very little sleep was had by the Bean familia last night. Today, Ms. Bean was so sleepy that according to the babysitter's report, she fell asleep in her high chair in the middle of her lunch.

And now mama's throat is starting to hurt....But I'm downing tea and Tylenol like they're nachos and margaritas so hopefully I will not succumb.

More happily, it was nice out today! The sun shone and Ms. Bean crawled around in the grass in the backyard! That was very fun. We are so going to LOVE summer. And if we don't, if we be complaining on this blog, you come up to NH and slap us around some, y'all hear?

Disregard The Last Post!

I've spit out the cake since it's come to my attention that actually the last post was only 93. Stupid Blogger was including the drafts.
Yes, hard to believe that even among all this drivel there are some posts that are too lame to be published.
Unfortunaelty, this is not one of them.
Only 6 to go....

All About The Benjamins

This post was going to be all about how my generally awesome brother KILLED all my sweaters when he went psycho with the moth balls this past summer, but then I learned that this was to be my 100th post and thought I'd save the one about my brother for another, less special time.

So Mazel Tov to me!! 100 posts about moi! In a less than a year! That's pretty self-involved even for me! Here's a sampling of what those in the know have to say about my blog.
N says the blog is "wordy and full of typos and mispellings, but is also a lifesaver for myna birds."
The Bean says that the blog is "full of poop" but I think she's talking about herself.
The Brother who killed the sweaters says that this blog "brings tears to his eyes and fills him with much jealousy and rage."
Malice feels the blog is " too fraking cheery" and Jenny thinks there ought to be "more about cakes!"
KW feels as though the blog "relies too much on me, as the sole commenter" and The Muel is " too busy buying things on Ebay to read it regularly, but hears that's it's not too shabby."
The Bean would also like to add that in addition to being "full of poop" that ten posts tagged under "lame" is indeed "LAME!"

Okay, well I need to go as N. is bringing me a wonderful slice of chocolate cake to celebrate my 100 Golden Moments.

Feel free to let me know how awesome you thinketh the blog is, lurkers! And do keep sending the chocolates.

8 Months, Baby!

Today The Bean turned 8 months! That seems crazy, no? To celebrate her 8 months The Bean woke up at 5:30, which has unfortunately been the theme all week. She got some yogurt and some fruit for breakfast from her dad, which made her pretty happy.

She stayed up for her 9:00 nap until 8:50, which was pretty amazing. She woke at 10:00 just in time for her babysitter. And to celebrate, she was actually happy for her babysitter, which considering the bad times last week was quite a present. Yay!! Bean! Mama likes it when you're happy with others:) Mama celebrated 8 months of being mama with a latte (decaf) and a roll at Borders while The Bean was being sat.

Because she's 8 months, The Bean happily ate her lunch of spinach, carrots and sweet potatoes, and cut up pieces of bread, which she attempted to feed herself. Go Bean Go! Then she took her 1:00 nap at 1:00! Miracles do happen now don't they?

After she woke up at 2:00, all of us (daddy included!) went for a walk in the beautiful 60 degree sunshine. To top it all off, Bean went swinging in her favorite swing on The Green.

Because mama was ill prepared, the first course of The Bean's 8 month dinner was oatmeal and Vermont organic applesauce. The second course was most exciting as it included salt! The Bean had her very first Dr. Prager's Spinach pancake! Mmmmm, said The Bean! Give me more! So Mama did! Give me more, said The Bean. So Mama did and kept doing until Daddy appeared quite shocked at how much pancake The Bean had eaten. And he didn't even know about the avocado between the courses. Hopefully the tastiness that is Dr. Prager's won't upset The Bean's stomach.

All in all a pretty exciting day, Ms. Bean. You keep growing, pulling yourself to STAND, feeding yourself, crawling into our laps, getting into stuff, laughing, making us laugh, dancing, yelling, and being your all around interested and interesting self!

Only 4 months till you can eat cake, baby girl.