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