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.