This past week I have been a total bum. I started out by reading Mansfield Park (excellent, going on the all time favs list), then I moved on to Life of Pi (intriguing), and then Spider Man: The Other (pretty good), and after those The Cat Who Talked Turkey (dull, and not at all up to snuff with the other Cat Who books). I then rented the last season of Friends and watched the entire thing in two days, and topped that off with a movie. During this week I did spend a day running errands with the kids, and we spent time with my mother in-law, but aside from that, I sat on my butt being about as interesting as an eggplant.
Chris had laser surgery last Monday morning and so he has been home all week on medical leave. You would think with all of this time off we would have done something interesting, but he needed to take it easy and I guess I just took it easy right along with him. Which I think we needed. Now I just need to get myself of out of lazy mode. It’s hard to do because, in truth, my life doesn’t require that much. Yes, I’m busy, busy, busy slaving away for the children, making their food and trying to keep the playroom floor visible, but there’s not a lot of get up and go or thought that goes into that. And I do have several new responsibilities at church, I’m over a scrap booking group that meets monthly and a women’s chorus and in charge of keeping the church website updated, but these things don’t take that much time.
I lead a rather boring life. For the first time in my life, I’m functioning at normal. I was such an over achiever through high school and college; I rarely had a spare moment. Then I started having babies and very highly complicated pregnancies and moving all over kingdom come for the USAF. Now we are firmly planted at this duty station without a prayer of moving for a few years. I am very much not pregnant and the children have settled into fairly predictable routines. I’m so used to having a crisis to avert I don’t know what to do with myself, and so I have ever so impressively resorted to sloth. Yea me. 
I keep thinking I should do something to make a little extra money, but with Chris’ wacky schedule and the fact that refuse to put my kids into a daycare situation (not to mention that childcare around these parts costs almost as much as I would make at an entry level part time gig.) There aren’t a lot of options. Not to mention I can’t think of anything I would actually enjoy. I suppose no one enjoys their work all of the time.
So here I sit at my computer, not entirely sure of what to do with myself. Any suggestions?
Posted by Lou on January 30, 2006 @ 7:29 pm | 15 Comments
The difference between the first child and the second child can be absolutely amazing. Jonas pushed me away and was eager to run around and be independent almost immediately. Maggie clings and cuddles and worries about strangers. Jonas was colicky and had difficulties sleeping while Maggie is calm and slept through the night so early I thought something was wrong with her. But the really stunning difference is that while child number one was El Numero Uno and Child-Extrordinaire by default, is that child number two has always had a sibling.
My mother, and many other wise people say that this results in a naturally more patient child simply because it’s impossible to dote on subsequent children with the same intensity that one does with a first. In Maggie’s case, this is certainly true, whether by nature or nurture, she is more patient. But the difference that I would like to point out, and that I feel really defines the situation, is this: Child number one gets caught playing in the toilet. Child number two gets caught playing in a yellow toilet.
Posted by Lou on January 27, 2006 @ 2:46 am | 12 Comments
One year ago today I thought it would be fun to start a blog. I spent a lot of last night reading my own blog and taking a trip down memory lane. It is amazing how much you forget. In one year I have managed eight posts on vomit. And that was only the memorable vomiting, not like last week when I was putting the kids into their car seats and Jonas choked on his own spit and threw up Macaroni and Cheese all over the car.
We have some wonderful examples of why I won’t be winning any parenting awards. There have also been plenty of posts revolving around my bosoms, in fact, my very first post was inspired by them. And who could forget the posts where I uhhh, maybe over-share a bit?
We also have some good examples that prove Lou’s a little stupid. Thankfully, I think there are more posts that prove I’m not always as dumb as I look. In short, it’s been a busy year.
Maggie blossomed from baby to toddler and my man Jonas got huge. We traveled. We bickered. We ate ants. It rained in the kitchen. We moved to a new house. I did a lot of crafty stuff. We’ve been sick and healthy and in North Dakota and San Francisco and Hawaii, and it’s all right here, saved forever in cyber space. 214 posts, one blog move and redesign (that’s why it looks like none of the older posts have comments), and about 45,000 visitors later and I’m still here.
So, thanks for sharing my year. Hopefully you’ll all stick around for whatever is to come!
Posted by Lou on January 23, 2006 @ 6:37 pm | 19 Comments
Today’s entry is coming to you from the usual spot, but with the slight difference that Lou is nauseated and achy and her head hurts and she feels like she is coming down with something. Lou has also started posting in the third person, and should stop that. Ok.
I have news to share regarding my camera and the Best Buy Warranty Customer Disservice Fiasco. You may remember back to the first time I dropped said camera off at Best Buy when it wasn’t working. Best Buy sent it away and didn’t get it back for six whole weeks, at the end of which, they lost it in the store for a day and during which time they were quite rude to me. I was thoroughly steamed, but placated with a functioning camera. Unfortunately, the camera pooped out again less than a month after getting it back. So I had to send Chris to Best Buy to ask for a new camera, because I was likely to kill unsuspecting Geek Squad people, and Chris is slightly more patient than I am. The Geek Freaks sent the camera away, and promised it would come back faster this time. Which it did. Unfortunately, we never realized they didn’t promise it would come back FIXED as well. So, when we picked up the long lost camera that has spent so much of it’s short technological life span quarantined in the Best Buy Warranty System from Hell where I was convinced they hold on to your toy until the warranty expires and then give it back to you in a broken heap, it turned out that the camera was still broken.
Now, I will say this. The camera works when it feels like it. That’s how I got so many of the cute shots from the last post. However, during the picture taking process it would frequently shut down or freeze up or shoot me a bunch of error messages. Usually I could fix these problems by restarting it, or taking the CF card out and putting it back in, or hitting it really hard (that seemed to be the most effective method). So, I can only assume that the camera repair people turned it on, shot one photo, thought it worked and then sent it home with a note that said they had cleaned it. Uh-huh. Had they spent twenty minutes shooting pictures with it they would have seen the erratic behavior and refusal to stay on and unfrozen. But, no. They send me back a busted piece of machinery.
So, Chris took the camera back to Best Buy for the THIRD time with the usual wifely pep talk of, “Give them hell, honey!” I paced around the house miffed and composing long, threatening letters to customer service centers in my head until Chris called and said that they had sent the camera away YET AGAIN. But, this time they had sent it with a recommendation to replace instead of fix the camera. This means that in a week, if these repair people have any sense at all, they will be replacing my camera. And, if they don’t have sense, and send me back my old camera, at the first hint of trouble all we have to do it take it in for a fourth time and it will be replaced on the spot. Which only makes sense. So, I am pacified once more, knowing that I am either getting a functioning camera or a new one, and there is a blessed end in sight.
To make matters even more exciting, Best Buy no longer stocks our model, what with technology changing and upgrading so quickly these days. So, if we get our old camera replaced, they will be replacing it with the new, fancy-schmancy version of my Rebel. Which, in my humble opinion, is earned after the crap we’ve had to go through to get a functioning camera under this stupid warranty.
Posted by Lou on January 21, 2006 @ 8:21 pm | 5 Comments
Maggie, who turns thirteen months old today, has just mastered the fine art of walking. For a few weeks she careened through the hall like she had been shot out of a pinball machine, bouncing haphazardly from side to side and then falling in a giggling heap when she ran out of steam.
Now she walks around the pew at church looking like a little bell with legs in her poofy dress, peeking her little face around the edges and charming the pants off everyone she meets. She is absolutely in love with walking and you can see the delight on her face every time she toddles across a room. Whirling like a dervish, she has managed to earn a few bruises and they look so out of place on her gentle little self, not at all appropriate like they were on her rough and tumble big brother.
Her hair is getting longer every day. It is in her eyes and sticks out wildly when it hasn’t been pulled into two little fountains on the top of her head. Chris calls her a little weed when her hair in unruly, and it does fit; she looks like a half blown dandelion. I have been in my glory buying hair clips to match every outfit, and have even taught her to sit still and be patient while I clip her hair into place and then we look at the cute baby with the cute hair things in the mirror and she pats her reflection and exclaims, “Dweee! Doo doo doo daaaa,” which I can only assume means, “Mom, you rock, and I look amazing. Have your people call my people and we’ll do lunch.”
She has become so expressive, both verbally and facially. She now puts her mouth into a little excited “Oh!” when she ges to eat her favorite applesauce or bananas, and when she is happy to see me she gives me the squishy face of joy where she squinches up her eyes and cheeks and gives me a cute little blink. She giggles and laughs at our family, and wants to spend all of her time being held or tickled. When she isn’t being snuggled, she is walking toward us, hoping for more affection, and it’s impossible not to give in.
She is totally enamored with her big brother Jonas. Aside from being the one with all the cool toys, Jonas is quick to hug Maggie and so concerned about her well being. He is always making sure Maggie is getting a treat too and gets so lonely when she takes her nap. They make each other laugh, and there is no sound I love more. They do get frustrated with each other sometimes, because it is hard to learn to share toys and to not always be able to keep up, but they make up for the difficulties with so much enthusiasm for sharing the fun of life.
Maggie is still nursing and I love that she is so content as we cuddle in bed and doze blissfully. Her security and contentedness gives me peace. These are the moments in the day when I feel the most relaxed. She loves to have her cheeks stroked and often sighs contentedly as she stops nursing and snuggles in to get more comfortable, milk bubbles still on her pink lips. She will lift her heavy eyelids to gaze at my face, and when she is satisfied that she is secure, she drifts off to sleep looking like an angel.
Lately, I have spent a lot of time looking at my daughter and wondering how I ever got by without her particular brand of love in my life. Aside from being impossibly cute, there is something so sweet about her that I just want to bottle it and keep it forever, maybe pour it on the world in all of the places people are hurting, because the kind of joy she brings is so healing and so innocent. I marvel at her on a daily basis. This is the joy motherhood brings.
Posted by Lou on January 19, 2006 @ 8:36 pm | 24 Comments
I’m the one with the shiner, pigtails and the t-shirt that says, “My aunt wears combat boots”.
I don’t remeber a lot about being six. I remember frequently being told not to sulk, but I was a pretty sulky kid. I was a tom boy who climbed trees and picked fights. I’m sure the shiner was the result of the trees. This has always been one of my favorite photos of myself, moping and bruised. It speaks volumes that I can’t even begin to write.
I know this isn’t a self portrait, but with my camera in the shop (still) and the theme for the month being personal history, it was the shot I felt most compelled to share. Mom, did I really sulk as much as I remember you telling me not sulk? Probably.
Posted by Lou on January 18, 2006 @ 5:19 am | 5 Comments
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