mommy, am i backwards?

i spent an unnatural amount of time taking videos of t2 today. but you had to see his moves. he owns the backwards push.
also, i got so caught up in wagon building that i forgot to mention that t2's getting his first two fangs. the sharpies have broken the surface. hooray! now when little boys at the ymca hit him in the face, he can bite them. i'm so relieved.
we also spent an unnatural amount of time watching college basketball this weekend. i wedged into the DATA bracket pool and imposed hoops domination. of course i'm in 12th place, but rome wasn't built in a day people. go mighty ducks.

i love that weenie man

today was a fun day. i'm on a winning streak as far as putting things together so i decided to tackle the little red wagon t2 got for christmas from his grandpop and miss jackie. he's big enough now and the weather's getting really nice (as opposed to just nice) so there's no reason we shouldn't be sportin that ride around the neighborhood.
i dumped all the contents onto the living room floor and about 2 hours later, it was up and running. it took two hours because i put every single piece on the wrong way so after each step i had to undo what i'd done and put it on right.
i felt pretty proud when i was finished so i invited tayloe and the baby to join me for a walk around the block.
i think it was my dad who once told me that if there ever was something i didn't want to do again, i should do it wrong the first time.
i won't tell you what happened. you have to watch the video. but i will say i'm pretty sure i won't be putting anything together again anytime soon.
oh and also - no one was hurt.

My Baby Takes the Morning (Elmo) Train to Hell!

could it be?

today i felt something sharp in t2s mouth. it's possible it's a tooth breaking through. it's also possible i'm imagining things. he's been "teething" for the last four months and i think i'm the only one who can see and feel the little chompers just beneath his gums.
so i made tayloe feel it about a zillion times.
me: doesn't it feel like a tooth?
him: sure.
me: feel it again. (pulling his hand toward the baby's mouth)
him: ok. yes! a tooth!
me: come on. FEEL it.
him: i do. it is. yes. tooth.
me: tayloe, do you think it's a tooth?
this is my m.o. - creating mania where there should be none. teeth come when they want and everyone gets them eventually. i absolutely know this. i also know my kid doesn't have any.
speaking of mania, wolly is going to get a strong dose of anti-anxiety meds just as soon as i can find a doc (or an online site) who'll give 'em to me. while i was gone he dug a bunch of holes in the yard and yelped and moaned incessently and then escaped the 8 ft fence and cruised the neighborhood for anyone sucker enough to play fetch with him.
he's a good dog. he really is. he's just got a serious case of the issues.
i'll keep taking him to the dog park and on walks and he'll get lots of love still. only now he'll also get a chill pill. literally.

i talk

sometimes i look at t2 and i swear he's gained 5 lbs overnight. today was one of those days.
he was looking so cute today i came up with the top 5 things i love about him.
they are:
5. his baby chicken hair. it's growing so much he sometimes has enough to have bed head in the morning.
4. his rosy cheeks. if it's just a little bit warm, they light up.
3. his feet. still a little pigeon toed and so soft.
2. the way he snuggles into me when he's tired.
1. his voice. so new and so much yet to tell us.

the most wonderful time of the year

there are two things i miss about work. my friends. and the ncaa tournament bracket. sigh.
we all make sacrifices for the people we love, so i overlook the fact that my niece is a duke fan. how did this happen? none of us know. i took her to the women's acc tournament in greensboro while i was home and actually cheered for them right along with her, even though saying "go devils" gave me heartburn.
check out some pics from the latest trip.
the last two days t2 has fallen asleep while i'm reading to him just before his morning and afternoon nap.
this is a major departure from previous habits, which went something like this:
have a snack. read a story. rock for 5 minutes. into bed. scream for 5-10 minutes. sleep.
he's always been a decent napper, he just gets a kick out of being stubborn about going to sleep i guess.
so like a mental patient who continually slams her head into the wall, i figured i'd just keep at it until either my head fell off or my brain hemmoraged. he zonks out peacefully at bedtime, i reckoned, so surely he'll get the picture eventually. so - snack, read, rock, bed (scream), snack, read, rock, bed (scream) has been our naptime ritual for a while. i'd actually gotten pretty used to it.
and now here he is, changing it up on me. on top of that, his nap the last two days have been much longer. i wonder how long it'll last?
this weekend we graduated from the excersaucer to a very bright, somewhat obnoxious walker that has elmo on it. this led to the discovery of the best move on the planet - the zoom, crash, splash.
you can try this at home. here's how --
1. rev up wheels by rocking back and forth several times. get devil look in eyes
2. shift to first, rev engine
3. burn rubber off the line, reach flight speed
4. squeal
5. slam into wolly's water bowl, spewing water everywhere
6. laugh, squeal, look at mom to make sure she saw
7. slap feet around in the puddles.
8. back up a little and bang, bang, bang into it over and over again.
it's so fun to be little.

the shredder

doesn't little t look so sweet and innocent in these pics of his photo shoot? yeah, i'm having to look at this picture today to remember that i really do love the kid. today i'm not in love with him. i only like him. and even then only a little.
he's been slightly unpleasant to be around. first, he's been sleeping like the devil and that's made him a crankster during the day. also, he really notices when i leave the room. and by notice i mean he turns all red in the face and whines, "eeeerrrrrrrrrwwwwwwwuuuuuuu" until he can see me again.
he's also been eating a lot and having some very unpleasant deposits in his pants.
my revenge is posting this nudy pic of him.
so there.
our sixth plane ride across the country was the most interesting yet. first we were sitting next to a very stiff older man. t2 was in my lap and as the hour de-icing wore on (and on and on) i realized sitting with a 7 mo old in my lap for 5 more hours was going to lead to cold, bloody murder.
so i asked if we could move to a seat that had an empty seat next to it. blessed day, we did. only the cow sharing our aisle was clammy and everytime t2 reached for her (i tried to stop him from grabbing her boob, honestly i did) she pulled away with a very exaggerated motion and made a nasty face. and everytime he made a peep, the littlest peep, she'd act annoyed and make sure i saw her turning her mp3 player up.
i told t2 this was a good lesson - that he'd find out eventually that not everyone loved him, and even though we should feel sorry for those people for being joyless, we'd have to learn to get along with them anyway.
but he insisted on reaching for her and smiling at her and slobbering on her arm rest.
it reminded me of this cat we used to have, bandit. he was black and white and mute. he had a real knack for spotting people who didn't like cats and when he found 'em, he'd do all he could to get close. he'd wind his way around their legs, jump up in their laps, sit at their feet and give his silent, pathetic 'meow.'
anyway, once t2 gave up on cow lady, he just sat and played with me the whole time. but i mean, 5 hours, people. you can only sing so many songs and read so many books before the going gets bored.
and when times get tight (and you're sitting next to a humorless hen), i pull out the big guns. which means i handed over my People magazine and let the little bugger have at it.
this wasn't as annoying as it sounds. he very respectfully tore off one page at a time & crumbled it up, stopping only occasionaly to see what drew barrymore was wearing at the Oscars or get the latest scoop on who's pregnant in hollywood. when he was done, i'd take the page and put it in a bag of trash and he'd get started on the next one.
we shredded the entire magazine and killed an hour and 15 minutes. after that it was time for a nap. and after that, we were home.
easy enough.
p.s.: who's the coward who posted the dust comment and didn't have the guts to leave his (geoff emery) name? it's dry in LA. things get dusty. and also, we're lazy. to older tayloe's much deserved credit, he had this house spankin' clean and bought me welcome home flowers to boot. i love this man.

A word from Wolly...

Hi Mom. When are you coming home? I've been lonely without you. Dad sucks. Hurry back. Wolly

dear dad (2),

hi dad.
it's me, tayloe.
i'm having a really good time in greensboro. we've been watching a lot of basketball. mom said it's march madness, but i can't figure out why she's mad because the weather's really nice here and i'm being good.
there's not much new with me. i still don't have any teeth and i'm still crawling backwards really fast.
mom said it's really going to be a shame when my driver's license picture shows a toothless 16 year old.
mom is going to a basketball game with cousin eliza jane later. i'm too little to go so i'm going to stay here and entertain grandjane.
what are you doing? i bet you are on the couch asleep right now. and i bet the tv has golf or basketball on it. and mom said there are probably dishes in the sink, too.
i love you daddy. i miss you.
love
t2

we get around

now we're in greensboro! i feel so lucky that i'm at a place in my life where i can travel around so much without worry.
it's warmer here today than it is in LA. thank god we missed the lurching 16 degree chills. my tender southern california sensibilities couldn't have handled it.
grandjane and i are tooling around today and we may even try to get some portraits made of the youngster. like we need more pictures of him. but it would be nice to have something formal so later i can say, "see, i didn't always dress you in overalls kiddo."
last week was his seven month birthday and i finally got him in for his 6 mo appointment (aren't i brave, getting baby shots hours before a cross-country flight? i thought so, too).
he weights 18.5 pounds and is 28 inches long. he's gained three pounds in nearly two months and when the doc said, "whoa, he's grown," i asked her if i was overfeeding him and then proceeded to give her a detailed account of his daily eating habits. bless her heart, she actually acted interested.
anyway, i was happy to hear i'm not stuffing him like a thanksgiving turkey. he's perfectly normal.
on another note, i haven't had starbucks coffee since last thursday, and i think i'm suffering major withdrawls.
must. have. latte.
mmmm.

east coasters

after a minor carseat debacle we made it to d.c. just fine. tayloe, the younger tayloe, and i were picked up this morning by his paternal grandmother and great aunt, treated deliciously and delivered to the cottage, where we are peacefully resting.
well, he's peacefully resting. i'm typing this blog.
i was just taking a shower and the huge bottle of perma-soft shampoo and conditioner in there got me thinking about this list. now i can't go to bed because i'll just keep adding to it and taking away and adding to it and taking away in my head, so here it is.
the top 10 things i love about the cottage:
10. the windchimes. creepy in most places, soothing here.
9. the gigantic stump i always run over with our car.
8. the christmas lights in the gazebo, always ready for a party.
7. the big blue and white couch where i was sitting when tayloe proposed.
6. the terrible towel
5. the perma-soft, suave and scent-away shampoo bottles in the shower. may they reign high on their perch another 20 years.
4. the river.
3. billy bass. where did he go?
2. the gold chicken that holds tissues on top of the toilet.
1. and my very favorite thing about the cottage is that i feel at home here, even when i'm alone.

giddy up little mama

this is from saturday. it was one of those perfect days. we went to the beach and hiked up these cliffs to whale and seal watch. we had cha cha chicken and later took a bike ride and then even later and had beers and chips with friends. so good.
today, however, is not like that. today is one of those days when i know i have a million things to do, but i can't seem to get anything done. a gerbil wheel day.
we're leaving to go to dc tomorrow and people are staying at our house to i have to pack and clean and grocery and laundry and i haven't really started any of it.
instead, i blog.

should i worry?

well.
i thought every thing was going just fine in our marriage.
i thought we were really happy, actually.
and then - tell me if this has ever happened to you - my husband throws a whopper at me.
i'm going to watch turtles race, he says.
hahaha. hahahahahahaha. HAHAHAHAHA. hahaha. that's so funny, i said.
geeze, babe. if you hate 'the office' that much, we can change the channel. hand me the remote.
no, no. turtles, they race. at this place down the street, he says.
turtles.
race.
most men go to strip bars. not my man (not tonight, anyway), i can now proudly say. my man wants to watch reptiles compete.
i mean, are you with me? this smarts a little.
cozy night at home with me and must-see tv.
tortoises in track suits.
so we put the baby to bed, had supper together and off he went to meet friends.
and. um. watch turtles.
interesting.
ssssoooo, i guess i'll just let wolly up in the bed (on tayloe's side, under the covers, drooling on his pillow) and hit the sack.
yawn.

just another day

i heart mom (and all of you), revised

this is something new. when i walk by, t2 puts his arms up. isn't that cute? i usually pick him up, except when i don't (see before-mentioned boundries, below) at which point he decides to resume whatever it was he was doing or start crying.
he also alternates his screeching and ha-ha-ha-ha'ing with mamamama. this, i'll admit, is very endearing.
because it's a day of luv, i sorta want to reflect on other things that i heart.
here they are:
1. jte, sr. my match.
2. jte, jr. a constant reminder that love makes everything just right.
3. palm trees. they make me feel airy and they're so weird looking sometimes when i stare at one for a long time it makes me laugh.
4. wolly. i admire his refusal to ever ever ever give up. ever. ever. e.v.e.r.
5. our family, extended. so cooky and so loveable and so nice to come home to.
6. living in a very big city. it helps me remember what a huge, layered world it is.
7. my neighbor, who used to live up the street but just moved four blocks away and called me yesterday to ask if i'd bring t2 over because she missed us.
8. the lemon tree in our backyard. it never stops. lemons drop and rot on the ground and yet it keeps making them.
9. welch rarebit & pudding cake. a traditional & deliciously ghetto emery valentine's day dinner.
10. quiet. the sound just before i drift off to sleep.

slave driver

horray! life-size tayloe is home. we're all very happy.
ok. tell me if you think i'm the devil.
for the last few months, the nipper has slept most nights from 7 p.m. until 5 a.m. at 5 a.m. he'd wake up and i'd go in and rock him back to sleep. he'd then snooze until 7:15 or so. it was a habit leftover from the 5 a.m. feeding days.
at first i didn't really mind. i was happy to have a baby who's golden enough to sleep 10 hours straight.
but then, i kinda started minding. 5 a.m. is really early. and he obviously wants to get the full 12 hours in or he wouldn't be going back to sleep. so why not eliminate the interuption?
while tayloe was gone, i decided to tough love him a couple of mornings and see if he'd get the hint. after two mornings, i shaved off an hour.
so now he wakes up at 6 a.m. which is better. but it's still dark. and all three of us are still cranky upon waking. make that all four - even wolly seems put out.
so i have it in my mind to work on that final hour. that's mainly because even when he wakes up at 6 a.m. he still wants to go back to sleep, which he now does in our bed. i've solved one problem and created another.
i also feel a little guilty. 11 hours is really good. 11 hours is amazing. and the final hour in our bed isn't so bad. i could do without the whops in the face as he's falling back to sleep & the baby whines, but it's mostly kinda sweet.
but then i think about that final hour of sleep. aaaahhhh. it would be so good, wouldn't it? just to cap a good night's rest off? and i'd be happy to invite him into our bedroom at 7 for a morning bottle and some love. i'd even be in a good mood about it.
jeeze louise. you know, i always thought i'd have this very tender & soft approach to parenting. but the truth is i'm very set on establishing bounderies. this scares me a little bit.
hm, interesting. i just looked over at the baby. he's spun himself around in all directions on the floor, spit up in the process and is now slapping his hand around in the mess.
how pretty.

aquarium

yesterday we went to the long beach aquarium with jake and addie and their very fun parents.
this got t2 and i thinking about what we want to be in our next life. we both pondered it for a while. t2 toggled back and forth between a seal and a whale (orca, not gray) and a purple starfish, finally deciding on a seal because they look a lot like wolly and that must be good.
i was split, too, but decided that if i come back a sea creature i want to be a puffin bird (horned, not atlantic). it flys and swims! and has orange feet, which i think would be the coolest thing ever.

now hang on

you guys!
i'm so touched that you all had such great suggestions for new music.
i made you think our whole day is filled with kid tunes, didn't i?
whoops.
there is for sure all kinds of normal music in our house. bluegrass. reggae. motown. prince. marty robbins. modest mouse. morning mixes. lounging mixes. bedtime mixes. soft african lullabies. irish jigs. brazilian dance hall.
it's on all the time and it always has been. even long before little tayloe was around.
music is involved in just about everything we do - from the moment we wake up until we go to sleep. on top of all that, t2's lucky enough to have an extremely talented godfather just down the street in venice who'll be more than happy to show him instruments can actually be played should that be something he wants to learn.
i think all this tuneage has paid off - he's the only kid in his gym and swim class that actually starts dancing when he hears music.
it's true. he does this funny bounce/wiggle thing. which reminds me i've been meaning to take video of that.
still - i'm a fan of the silly song. maybe it's a throw back to summer camp or it makes me feel like a kid or i just get a kick out of seeing t2 laugh at me when i sing in an animated and goofy way.
actually i think it's all those things.
so the silly song cd was just an effort to boost my knowledge. c'mon. did you love the weenie song?
having said that, i'm not at all opposed to putting my own kitty twist on 'cheeseburger in paradise' (because i know every single word to that song by heart) & i did download 'birdhouse in my soul' (thanks sarah q) because it reminds me of a cross country trip with my pal lindsay b.
and of course i'm a maniac, maniac on the floor and i'm dancing like i've never danced before. i'm sure t2 will ignore the creamy white leg warmers i just put on.
(an aside from wikipedia: In 1983, there was a low budget soft-porn parody of the film called Fleshdance)
speaking of the 80s, 'girls just want to have fun' was on the boob tube this afternoon. who doesn't love sjp in a pink jump suit, helen hunt with crazy mad frizz hair and shannen doherty looking - for the only time in her storied career - virginial?
so good.

splish splash

dear dad

hi.
it's tayloe.
mom took this picture yesterday when i was watching wolly roll around in the grass. wolly is such a mess and i find that interesting.
do you like my train suit?
i'm writing to tell you that i did several things yesterday that i've never done before.
here they are:
1. i rode in the seat part of the grocery cart. i liked this very much because i could alternate looking at mom and all of the things on the shelf. i gnawed on the cart handle a little bit, but mom said that was ok because she swabbed it down before i got in.
2. i ate the grocery list.
3. i scrunched my knees up under my belly and propelled myself forward. i fell on my face, but i didn't cry.
4. i ate pears.
5. i saw a homeless man in a woman's bathing suit outside of albertsons. i know staring is rude, but mom said this one time was ok because that man looked really really really funny.
that's all.
i love you. i miss you.
i would like a snowball from germany, please.
t2

p.s. - the people in the grocery store think mom is crazy and i do too a little because she always sings whatever song is playing over the speakers and sometimes dances a little jig in the aisle. this is something we should discuss when you get home.
p.s.s - hey dad? please don't ever wear a woman's bathing suit.

game on

tayloe's out of town until monday (wwwwaaaay out of town in berlin, germany) so it's just dr. droll meister and me for the next five days.
wait, you gotta know about this drool. seriously people, there is so much slabber coming from this baby's mouth i could irrigate all of sub-saharan africa. and yet, no teeth. just little nubby gums magnetically attracted to all things hazardous.
anyway, i'm getting more and more used to these solo missions and sometimes even look forward to them.
i'm able to say that now because the baby's soundly napping in his crib and it's barely even 10 a.m. on day one.
to make sure i keep my sunny disposition, i've set some proposals. they are as follows:
1. i will not lie awake in bed until 4 a.m. and plan 15 different and unique emergency escape routes should (a) the house catch fire or (b) we get robbed. instead, i'll take 2 advil p.m's (3?) and sleep until the baby wakes me up.
2. i'll realize this is not the time to rearrange all of the furinture or clean out the garage and have a yard sale. when i feel these surges of manic energy, i'll instead assume god's telling me to get my ass to the gym.
3. i'll resist the urge to let wolly babysit.
4. i will not wish i had an office job to go to because if i do that i'll find myself having an office job to go.
5. if i feel really tired, i'll walk up the street and visit my friend phairda because her kid is a lot more work than mine and seeing her chaos will make me feel calm.
oh shit. i just noticed the car door is open. how long has it been like that?

kiddie songs

today at the library i checked out a cd of kiddie music.
kiddie music, you should know, drives me crazy.
but the camp songs i've been singing to t2 are getting kind of old and so are the storytime songs we've learned. if i sing the 5 little duck song one more time my head is going to spin around and pop off.
sense you brought up excorism, i'm also out of church hymns and christmas music.
so i got a disc of 30 Silly Songs, including my personal faves 'apples and bananas' and 'git along little doggies.' this disc isn't to listen to on a regular basis, mind you. that would be suicidal. it's little children singing, which in the flesh is cute and endearing but recorded & over-mastered in a studio is bloody, 70-knife wounds to the face murder.
it's just to bulk up my music library so i have some fresh diddies to improvise and add my own special lyrics to as i see fit.
some songs, however, are so close to perfection i dare not mess with them.
songs like 'weenie man.'
it's my new favorite. it goes like this:

i know a weenie man,
he owns a weenie stand,
he sells most anything,
from hot dogs on down, oh baby.
someday i'll change his life,
i'll be his weenie wife.
hot dog! i love that weenie ma-a-an!

i also like 'fuzzy wuzzy,' mainly because of this very to-the-point verse:

iddy biddy was a mouse.
iddy biddy had no spouse.
iddy biddy wasn't pretty.
no, by gosh, it was a pity.

step back, shakespeare.
while at the library i also did my usual run-through of the nonfiction section.
here are some titles i considered checking out and scattering around the house:
'why i jumped': my true story of postpartum depression, dramatic rescue & return to hope'
'the amazing book of mazes'
'Gay life and culture : a world history'
'born in the USA : how a broken maternity system must be fixed to put mothers and infants first'
'am-BITCH-ous : learn to be her now'

sun gods

yesterday and today are the reasons i was excited to move to santa monica. it's been like springtime here and mygod it's amazing. we spent most of yesterday and today outside walking and playing and generally worshiping the sun.
no, i didn't forget the sunblock.
yes, we even put a hat on t2. although it didn't stay on very long.
i've lost faith in humanity. today while in line to get coffee (a midway point on our morning walk and a hiatus i'm so absolutely addicted to), i was swabbing the baby down with sunblock stick. i could feel the woman behind me watching. her crazy was burning a hole in my head.
i tried very very hard to pretend like i had no idea she was back there.
but of course she spoke. she asked if it was sunblock i was using.
i'm 100 percent sure i said yes in a very unfriendly way. this is my new tactic to fend off unsolicited advice when i'm with the baby (only when i'm with the baby). when the people go crazy, the crazies go pro.
so anyway, i said yes and i was just waiting ... waiting .... waiting ....
and then she said, "it's sunblock in a stick? hm."
this is how it starts. crazy plays dumb. crazy doubts that they actually make sunblock in a stick. then crazy tells me sunblock causes cancer and further concludes sunblock in a stick causes a new strand of instant cancer that eats little children from the inside out.
now's the time in the conversation when i'm tempted to take unfriendly to all new levels.
yes, lady. it's 2007. things come in sticks. gluesticks. glowsticks. lipstick. please just leave me alone or go ahead and spew whatever baby advice you think i can't live without so i can hurry up and ignore you.
then she asked what kind of sunblock it was.
it's poison. baby poison sunblock. actually, it's not sunblock at all. it's baby OIL and i aim to take this baby to the beach and fry him up in the sun til he's good and crispy, like a chicken.
i said, "i don't know." then i looked at it and said, "says here it's called california baby. 30 spf. paba free. not tested on animals. package made from recycled plastic. contains no alcohol. safe for kids over 6 months."
i thought that pretty much covered anything she was about to warn me against.
then i capped it off what a smirk. a "take your crazy and shove it," smirk.
to which she said, "oh. well, i should get some of that."
now either this woman really had never seen sunblock sticks & i was unecessarily unfriendly or she was for sure about to bathe me in her boundless knowledge of babies and sunscreen & i'm becoming a bona fide bitch.
i chose option b.
but it is true. at least sometimes (when it really counts, i like to say) i'm an official, original, certifiable, genuine, twenty-four carat b.i.t.c.h.
n

a new throne

it's purtty isn't it?
this video, by the way, reveals very little except that i've given up on plastic bibs because t2 just wants to gnaw on them and he likes applesauce. i thought the grandparents might like to see it.
it was time for a high chair - the little munchkin can wiggle his way out of the bimbo chair thing (please don't ask how i know this) and really needed a full on place to chow down. thanks to grandjane and poppy, we have this very cool piece of baby gear.
in fact, it might be the coolest thing in our house right now. isn't that sad?
so here's my dirty little secret - i've been feeding the baby all kinds of grub for about a month now, maybe longer. most docs and people say foods should only be introduced after 6 months and then very gradually. but there's something about me and rules - we just don't jive. and i really don't do gradual - it takes way too much patience.
all i needed was one laid back mom at the park to tell me she gave her daughter a lot of whatever she'd eat at 5 months and i was at the grocery store stocking up on bananas, green beans, peas - you name it.
don't get the wrong idea. i didn't just dump it all in a pile and let him have at it. i did at least start with greens like our doctor said and i only introduced one thing at a time, giving it a few days to make sure it sat ok.
eating is just so fun and i wanted him to enjoy it as much as we do. a picky, skimpy eater won't survive in our house.
so to make it as much of an adventure as possible, i just hand over the bowl and spoon with a little left on each and let him lick them until his heart's content.
it's a disasterous mess. last night i found a smear of sweet potatoes behind his ear as i was rocking him to sleep.
see? he likes food some much he finds places to hide it for later.
what a little smarty.
on another note, four people in the last week have approached t2 and i and asked us if we're nordic. i get sorta embarrassed because honestly i don't know. are we?

bathing beauty

i don't do bathtime that much anymore because in the divide-and-conquer mission that is bedtime, t1 dominates the strip down & soap up. however pops was working last night so that left just me and little 'ol t. i took about a million pictures, but this one is my fave. poke, poke, poke that belly.
here's the headline of the day: dead soldier to father kid with woman he never met. weird. i mean, i didn't even know sperm from a dead man worked. but now that i do ....
also, i'm getting a little confused. the 2008 elections are still a year and a half away, right? not this november - 9 whole months, the gestation period for a baby human, from now - but next? i'm already tired of hilary clinton and her 'let the conversation begin' who-ninny. right now i'm not voting for hills because she thinks people actually want to talk to her for 21 months.
anyway, she's not my fave but i gotta give her props for saying today that she "knows a thing or two about evil men" in response to a question about how she'd handle dictators. hahaha. hahaha. HAHAHAHAHA. hahahahahahahahahahahaha. poor chelsea.

don't buy cheap diapers

5 dollars for 60 some store brand diapers was just too tempting. but what i've saved in diaper costs i've spent in laundry detergent and water bills. my god, cheap diapers suck. every single time i change t2 he's had some kind of blow out or is swimming in pee. it's terrible. what's funny about it is that he doesn't mind - at all. the kid can be covered in poop and happy as a clam rolling around on the floor. kinda like our dog moose.
someone told me store brands were just as good. i can't remember who that was, but when i do i'm totally calling their bluff. sweet, soft pampers, take me away.
while i'm mythbusting, i'm going to just go ahead and say that the breast feeding class lady who told me that nursing is so much easier than formula feeding is a BIG FAT LIAR.
now that it's all over, i feel like calling her up and telling her what i think about her way too rosy outlook. maybe i'll do that today.
it so was not easy. in fact, it was border line pain in the ass. first, the anxiety about even being able to do it at all. then being able to do it, but not sure if the baby is actually getting enough. then knowing the baby is getting enough and doing so 8 to 10 times a day. then realizing that you can't go away for more than 3 hours without the baby or the god forsaken pump (which i later called my pimp) and that you're in it a-l-o-n-e. then all of the hidden charms, like special bras with confusing clasps and public stares (although not so much in LA, hooter capital of the world) and what to do when you forget a pump part or the batteries die or suddenly your chest is a faucet in the middle of target or your kid sleeps through the night but your boobs don't.
of course, i'd do it all again cause i like punishment. the benefits outweigh even the worst drawbacks. i just wish someone would have been straight up and told me it's pretty knarly and not all that beautiful, but that it won't last forever and it's the right thing to do if you're up to it.
instead i got a bunch of attachment parenting gribbibdly garb sprinkled with some guilt and was told how warm and fuzzy it'd make me feel. it did sometimes, especially the first few weeks.
but come on, people. how can having a little critter suck the life out of you really be all that wonderful for any great length of time? if i'd been thinking clearly - and by that i mean if my head hadn't been clouded with all the bs - i'd of come to terms with this much earlier than i did. i still would have done it. and i still would have honored the 6 month contract, i just would have been a bit more cheery about it.
there. i feel better. now if i could just find that lady's number ...

squeaky wheel gets the grease

i have a really loud kid.
really loud.
he realized he has a voice a couple of weeks ago and ever since then he's been practicing finding the highest high pitch he can muster and then squealing at the tippy top of his lungs for as long as he can stand it, which turns out is a pretty long time.
i keep reading that babies at this age babble, coo, razz (what the hell is razz?) and mix vowel and consonant sounds. and then i keep trying to get t2 to imitate me saying bbbbaaaa, ba, babbabaab, mamamamamama, dadadada in a low, mellow tone. but everytime i try that he goes, "AAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKK" and then giggles at himself. seriously.
it's never when i expect it - like when we're swimming or dancing around or singing songs (well, sometimes when we're singing songs).
he'll be competely mellow, say in the grocery store, and then all of a sudden as i'm ordering shaved turkey breast he lets out this shreek. or we'll be in a coffee shop filled with serious looking people pecking away at their computers (not a SINGLE person in LA works in an office, i'm convinced) or reading quietly when RRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAACCCCCCKKKKKKK he goes. and then just when he has everyone's attetion, chuckle chuckle chuckle.
sometimes it's so loud and so unexpected it scares me.
most of the time people don't seem to mind. in fact, most people laugh and greet him or talk back to him which is exactly what he wants to happen. a couple of grouchy old fuddy duddies have glared, but in my book if you're going to be a cold-ass lump of coal your feelings don't count.
i'm not about to hush him up. if that's his voice, well then so be it.
let's be real - the boy gets props for figuring out which sound gets the most attention and then maximizing it for effect. he OWNS the squeal.
oh yeah, he's a tayloe alright.

ugh, health insurance

i don't have much to say except that we got a huge bill from our pediatrician today for the 1,000th time. and so for the 1,000th time i called our health insurance company to tell them that our doc is in fact contracted with them and that everything listed should be covered. and then for the the 1000th time they said, "oh, yes, that's right. ok, it's all pending and we'll straighten it out."
so then i had to call the pediatrician and tell them i called the health insurance people and get the jimmy on what we actually owe them in copays.
which left me wondering, if i'm doing all of this wtf are they doing?
the thing is, we have a great health insurance plan. and we're totally blessed in that it's 100 percent paid for by tayloe's employer and for the most part we've paid nothing, absolutely nothing, for all the medical expenses we've racked up recently.
on another note, i love the hat in this picture cause it's great on a bad hair day. but everytime i wear it i feel like slater from dazed and confused.
"Didja ever look at a dollar bill, man? There's some spooky shit goin' on there. And it's green too."

road trippers

horray, we're home. we left last thursday and hauled it across ca, nevada and into utah to go to the sundance film festival.
tayloe the dad and i are big on road trips - we've driven across the country together twice, spent our honeymoon on a wild, windy road trip to maine, took a vacation last summer and drove from the tippy top of washington state down hwy 1 (pch) to san francisco and the first thing we do when we're bored is take a drive. we're roamers. it's what we do.
so at 6 months we figured it was time to get t2 on board and show him what it's all about. and it was great - we spent a night in vegas, took him to the shark reef at mandalay bay, hauled him through mountain desert, put his little feet in the utah snow and landed in park city friday evening.
saturday we did sundance, sunday we did a little more sundance and some football, went swimming and watched it snow.
everything was going great.
until it stopped going great. sometime around 3 a.m. monday morning tayloe the dad and i both woke up with the barfs.
oh. god.
isn't that the weirdest thing? for both of us to get sick at the exact same time? and for the baby to be completely, totally and absolutely fine?
here's where it gets hairy. as t1 and i burned a trail from the bed to the bathroom, t2 was his normal cheery angel face self. laughing, rolling around, squealing his little heart out.
i could hardly stand to look at his bottle of milk, much less deal with spit up and diapers. but i mean, what do you do?
um, you call your mom. wait. i AM the mom.
oh, hells.
sometime later in the afternoon when things really weren't getting much better, not much better at all, all we could think of was that if it kept up we were going to die in a hotel room in midway, utah, and t2 would be left to the mormons and grow up to have five wives.
with that we decided to find a babysitter (which isn't that easy to do in the middle of nowhere utah) and go to the er. we're a team, tayloe and me, and a good team always figures out how to beat the beast. (unless you're tom brady's team in which case the beast beats you with an interception in the last 10 seconds of the game. ouch).
thank god i married a man who will absolutely not give up until he gets what he wants and also thank god for kind people. after a short "discussion" with t1, the hotel manager found us a sitter, called us a driver and took both tayloe and i to the hospital.
they took us right in. we had the nicest nurse and doctor in the world pump us up with fluids and anti-nausea meds, let us take a nap and sent us back recharged and feeling a little better.
DIE. EVIL. FLU.
we managed to get some sleep and the next morning made it out of utah alive.
there is a god because t2 hasn't gotten it (yet. pray, pray, pray) and was a golden, sweet darling child the entire 12-hour car drive. he just laughed and played and sang camp songs with us all the way home sweet home.

uhmygosh, oshkosh

little boy. overalls. what's not to love.
today i went to albertson's, the most ghetto grocery store on the planet, to stock up on formula.
oh wait - i don't think i wrote about weaning. t2 and i had a six month contract, which officially expires next week. it's bye bye booby. except for the first morning feeding. i hope to keep that one as long as i can so i can stay in bed while he chows and drift off for another half hour or so. purely for my convenience. i so deserve it.
anyway, i was hoping to stock up on formula because we're going to utah tomorrow. i needed a couple of 26 ounce cans.
this is how ghetto albertson's is - they keep the forumla locked in a glass case.
they also lock up the razors. the beer, wine and hard liquor, meanwhile, is sitting out on the shelves just waiting to be stolen.
you actually have to press a button that summons someone to come unlock the formula case which is the funniest thing in the world because albertson's has the WORST customer service in all of LA.
so i'm in the baby aisle and i see that they're out of 26 ounce cans, so i guess i have to get a few 12 ounce cans which is a real drag. the 12 ounce cans are in this dispenser thing, which is usually not locked. so i grab for what i want. it won't budge.
it's locked. a $10 can of baby food.
sigh.
so i punch the buzzer thing and a lady comes with keys.
only not the right keys.
she yells down the aisle to someone else, who comes with more keys.
only those are also the wrong keys.
meanwhile, i leave my cart and go get all the other things i need. i come back and the lady is still fiddling with the lock.
are you kiddin me?
10 minutes later, she BREAKS INTO IT with a coat hanger. and, of course, there's only one can of the formula i want.
heaven help me.
this is just the kind of thing that gets me frazzled and causes me to do something stupid, which i did.
an hour or two after i got home, tayloe walked in the door with my wallet.
him: did you lose this?
me: i didn't think so?
silence.
me: where was it?
him: on top of your car.
me: aaacccckkk
him: did you put it there when you got home?
me: silence. scared look. um, no.
him: i don't want to know. just try not to put your wallet on the roof of the car, ok?
me: check.

sappy wappy

we'll be out of town for a few days, so i leave you with this, your moment of zen.

loudest baby on the block

big shout out to g. emery here.
thanks. so. much.

the name game

fellow new mom and blogger sarah noted that the most popular names list was released today, which reminded me i've had a name blog post in my head for a while now.
here goes.
we knew the minute t2 was born he had to be john tayloe. we had a few other family names we liked, but he just looked like a tayloe, which is to say he looked like trouble.
it was important that he have a name that connected him to our family. to both of us tayloe means virginia and virginia means home. we're both a bit touched by wunderlust and maybe t2 will be too (or not), but hopefully even as he traverses the globe he'll never forget who he is (child, who are your people?). i know his dad never has.
anyway, we named him knowing he'd face a lifetime of "nice to meet you taylor"s and "dear mr. jon taylor emory" but tayloe the dad lived through it. we thought if he really hated it he could just go by john.
we also knew it wasn't exactly immune to playground meanness (gayloe).
what i never suspected was that people would actually think we named him halo.
yah.
halo.
which makes me wonder: do i look like a total dip shit?
(geoff emery, don't think i can't hear you ... )
it's funny how the brain works, isn't it? someone asks his name. i say it's tayloe as clearly as i can (like they're deaf -- TAY LOE). then they repeat whatever it most sounds like that's in their vocabulary.
taylor.
tyler.
or, um, halo.
i know that part of it is that parents have gotten really cre8tive with names and pull random nomers from far and wide to try to make a statement. Peaches. Apple. Pixie. Zen. Fifi.
so in that context i guess halo seems normal.
i.
guess.
the other part of is that the name tayloe just isn't ingrained of california history (yet).
so it's all forgivable.
but of course i can't just leave it at that. more often than not i correct strangers until they get it right. then i insist on telling them it's a family name. i do this, of course, because i have to make it known that we aren't trendsters who liked the name taylor but wanted to jazz it up a little.
telling people it's a family name is pretty senseless because family names aren't that normal here. if they were, there'd be a lot more adam goldsteins.
it gets really confusing if tayloe the dad is around because eventually they realize there are two of them and that we named our son after his father, which also isn't that normal here.
so basically, we've somehow done what many of our peers have done without meaning to. damned if you do ...
tayloe, by the way, always just tells strangers his name & t2's name is john. zzzz.

T2's tryout for 2026 World Cup

This kid has got the skillz!

DAD

the tayloes

someone save me from this cuteness!

eating, act 2

i can't really blame tay for not liking rice cereal. it gets a zero on the yum scale.
so after a couple frownie times of trying it, we switched up the menu a bit and subbed in oatmeal.
if you ask me, there really isn't much difference in the two but the baby seems to think there is so we'll leave it at that.
here's one more reason to not like Toys R Us. someone ought to tell that mother, though, that it's not so smart to go entering public contests if you have some skeletons in the closet.
speaking of SNAFU, did you see that the army sent letters to dead soliders, asking them to re-enlist? yeah, cause it worked out so well the first time.

zooangeles

last weekend we went to the los angeles zoo, which you might think means we went downtown or to compton or drove on the freeway or just walked down the street.
but we went where there are for-real furry animals and only a few crazies.
i have a real love-hate relationship with zoos. we lived just blocks from the national zoo in d.c. and i always got excited about going there and then would spend an afternoon walking around looking at animals only to leave feeling kinda depressed. tayloe sometimes tagged along and tried to cheer me up by telling me that elephants in africa hump huge red exercise balls all the time or that all the lions he saw in africa all paced back and forth or that cheetahs aren't smart enough to tell a real rock from a fake one.
the los angeles zoo is pretty nice, despite the fact it costs $10. t2 liked the seals and the zebras and the alligator. i liked the sno cones and tayloe liked keeping it real for us all at every exhibit.
tayloe: i can't believe i'm looking at a river otter at a zoo.
me: he's kind cute, though. look at him, doing little flips off the wall.
a minute or so goes by.
me: he's really having a good time doing flips off the wall. he just keeps going around and around and around.
tayloe: have you ever seen otters in the mill pond do that? have you ever seen a river otter anywhere do that, for that matter?
me, frowning: no.
tayloe (puts his arm around me and turns us around to walk away): right.
later on t2 and i were watching an elephant pace in it's "habitat" when tayloe spotted eric mccormack standing nearby. tayloe's fun to have around for this reason. he can spot celerities from 10 miles away. he never even watched will and grace.
there's a picture above with him behind us. can you see him? orange sweater & scarf, will truman style.
yeah, i didn't think it was him either (i'm all the time forgetting that we live in la and that there are famous people everywhere, even at the zoo, acting like normal folk). but then i heard him say to his little boy, "that elephant looks very unhappy" and i was just waiting to hear karen say, "well of course he's unhappy, honey. there isn't a single bar in this place.”
i think zoos confuse me because i start to get fuzzy aout who's in captivity. are we on the outside looking in? or the inside looking out?
discuss amongst yerselfs.

sucker punch

this afternoon t2 and i went to the santa monica ymca. i went to work out. he went to try out baby care. it was our first time there and i'm not going to lie - my main motivation is that i can drop him off with the gym sitter for 2 hours for just $4.
so i did, i dropped him off, which was a little like throwing a baby sheep to the wolves because it's total romper room madness.
i instantly thought about the germs and how little he looked compared to the rollicking toddlers and how everyone there was a complete stranger.
i preservered and kept thinking of having my own time, just me and my ipod on the stairmaster (HAVE I LOST MY MIND????). so i handed him over, and i said goodbye and watched through the door as a pack of toddlers tumbled around on the floor and the baby care lady plopped t2 down in an excersaucer and walked away. sigh.
45 minutes later i came back. he looked no worse for the wear. baby care lady was playing with him in her lap and he seemed happy. his face was a little red, but it was kinda hot in there. i asked how he was. baby care lady said fine. i asked if he cried. she said no, not really, only that he'd fussed a little bit. i took him from her, said thanks and left.
on my way out, i stopped at the information desk to ask a question. when i turned to leave, a lady was standing behind me directing her 2-year-old to "apologize to that baby."
huh? i said.
she shruged. oh, my child hit your baby.
um, what? he. hit. who? my baby? THIS baby?
the hitter and i made eye contact. he was cute. scruffy hair. wild eyes. red sneakers.
i wanted to kick the little ankle biter in the mouth.
yeah, she said. the lady told me when i picked him up that he hit your baby.
(that's funny, i thought. she didn't tell me that.)
to her kid, again - apologize to this baby son.
he said he was sorry, more to me than to t2, who i think was actually smiling at him.
i looked at t2's face. it was especially red on one side.
i'm really sorry, she said to me. she had serious remorse in her eyes. and also a little bit of fear only i'm not sure what she was afraid of, my reaction or her own kid, who was now yanking on her purse.
she told me how she told her son that if he did it again he wasn't coming back to the Y. as she spoke to me, her little boy b-lined for the vending machine and started banging he glass.
the first thing i said probably should have been, "oh, no worries. it's ok. kids!" because all children go through a hitting thing and i'm sure someday i'll be her talking to me.
but that wasn't the first thing i said.
instead i blurted, "but it's our first day here."
and then i tried to say it was ok, that he seemed fine, it was no big deal, but it was too late. she already looked like i'd shot her best friend.
i'm so so sorry, she said as she trailed out the door behind her son, who was stuffing cheetoes in his mouth.
i looked at t2, who was smiling at me.
mr. california.
hey, baby. if you're not worried, i'm not worried. he's just a little guy (a mean little bratty brat brat with messy hair) who (picks on little kids because he doesn't feel good about himself) didn't mean to. so let's have a talk now about hitting. we don't hit, we hug. and i stroked his little face and nearly squeezed him to death.
(and then to myself ... 1-2 punch. 1-2 punch. 1-2 punch. southpaw, southpaw, southpaw)

i resolve to get this hat off

t2 doesn't give up. i like that about him.
i'm thinking about the new year today. that means i'm thinking about my new year's propositions. we don't resolve anymore, we just propose.
i think this year instead of doing more, i'm going to do less. i already have a few layers that aren't quite right (the layer of leftover baby jiggle, for instance, in the midrift area), so it's proably best to work on things i've already done that need undoing rather than finding more undone to do.
wait, i'm confused.

thank you, santa

well, it's official. we have more noise making toys than anyone on our block. probably anyone in our neighborhood. possibly anyone in santa monica.
blingdigy, blink, blang, bling, bling, bling was pretty much the sound of t2's christmas. as for how it looked - lots and lots of paper, lots and lots of primary colored plastic and lots and lots of smiles. he loves every single thing he got. tayloe the dad and i are like two little kids playing with him & all his new toys.
brother/uncle geoff gets top prize for most annoying toy(s).
do you know geoff emery? maybe you do - he's the guy who tells his 10-year-old little brother to never, ever, no matter what let go of the tow rope when he falls water skiing and then laughs himself to tears watching said little brother get dragged around the rappahannock river.
he gets a sick, twisted delight in seeing others suffer. this is why i like him.
he really did it up with two blinking, moving noise makers. one is this box that weeble wobbles and sings and lights up. except tayloe and i can't figure out what it's saying. what it sounds like is, "my balls are magical, they wiggle and jiggle," which, i mean, completely and totally cracks us up, especially because the baby FREAKIN LOVES IT. we've listened to it like 1 million times, hoping that we're just hearing it wrong.
the other uncle g toy was this rolling ball that blinks and sings and rolls around. if you ignore it for a while, it eventually says, "hhheeeeyyy, come play with me. i'm over here!" isn't that sad? and also very funny?

five months

how could i forget. t2 was five months old today.
i love every minute of it, except when his little baby fist is clinched tightly around my hair and he yanks. and i don't really love it when he spits up down my back.
other than that, it's pure bliss.

c is for christmas

i'm just not sure who's more excited about christmas at our house. actually, that's a lie. i know its tayloe and i. of course t2 has no idea what's going on. he has no idea i hit the proverbial trumpette sock jackpot at the thrift store - seriously, i got like 15 pairs for less than $5 - or that i found the COOLEST wooden box toy thinger that he's way too young for but that he's going to love in a few short months or that there's a very special, very soft surprise for him under the tree. ooooohhhh, i can't wait, i can't wait, i can't wait.
it's been the most fun getting presents and decorating and thinking about all of the wonderful things we're going to eat.
and i have to tell you this - t1 and i are sitting in our living room with only the christmas tree and 'the sound of music' on. did you know t1 loves, LOVES, musicals? it's the funniest and sweetest thing.
so i'm going to shut this down and savor the moment.
ho ho ho.
oh, and i posted some new photos on flickr. can you believe how big he's getting?

christmas gift

did i post this picture? i can't remember.
tayloe and i had a date tonight, an early christmas present to each other. we left t2 with mirna our babysitter -- we had a delicious dinner at the lodge, lots of good conversation and got home at 9:30 totally sacked out and ready for bed.
we boh are amazed at this place in our lives. how far away are the days when stayed out until 4 a.m. seeing bands or slept in the backseat of our tiny sabb next to an 80 lb lab at a rest stop in pennsylvania or camped on the highway in miserable traffic in the pouring rain en route to see phish. (eeewww, that phish trip was especially miserable).
i get why people say having a baby changes your life and then don't ever seem to really be able to elaborate or explain themselves. i can't explain why all those times seem so far and also so near. we're in the backseat, tayloe and me, and the best we can really do is enjoy the view and tell the driver to slow down every once and a while.
moving on ...
sssooo, i can't even watch cnn because the story about the three mountain climbers on mt. hood just keeps breaking my freakin heart. the mother who said all she could think about was her boy cold and starving in an ice cave? ... owie. it hurts.
and speaking of hurting, i think t2 is cutting his two front teeth (all i want for christmas is ...). he has two little lumps on his gums and is grouchier than usual. wouldn't it be cool if they came in by christmas? i don't know one single thing about baby teeth - how long does it take once you can feel them and see little while lumps on his gummy gum gums? do i have a couple of nightmare nights ahead of me? i'm clueless.
and speaking of clueless, t1 and i just remembered that this time last year we were gearing up for our 3 month appointment, the first time we got a glimpse at t2 and heard his little heartbeat (wha-whom wha-whom wha-whom) and were able to confirm that we were in fact going to have a baby. now that little baby is sound asleep in the next room, his heart still wha whoomping soft and sweet in his dinosaur pjs.
WEIRD.

is this really us?

oh, friends. it's ugly.

one-on-one

we've been playing a man short since wednesday because tayloe had to go to dc. fatigue is setting in a little. i wish the coach would bench me. the orange slices i ate at half time seem years and years away. i'm gonna need some serious whirlpooling once this is over.
johnny taylor is grabbing at things like crazy and putting everything - EVERYTHING - in his mouth.
what's this?
it's soft and crinkly and ... well, i better just eat it.
what's this? it's hard and cold and .... it looks good. i think i'll eat it.
what's this? it's mushy and and wet and .... mmm, i'll eat it.
is it soft or scratchy or fuzzy or round or square? here, mouth. you decide.
i guess if i didn't have full control of my hands, i'd lick everything that was curious to me, too.
meanwhile, i have questions of my own. for instance, i woke up at 3 this morning for no apparent reason wondering if a child with white blonde hair is a toe head, a toehead or a towhead. and then i spent a good half hour wide awake wondering where that expression came from.
From wikipedia:
A towhead is a sandbar or small alluvial island in a river that often features a small grouping of trees.
A towhead also refers to a person with light blond hair. This is based on the hair's resemblance to tow which is coarse or broken flax prepared for spinning.
well imagine that, will ya? it has nothing at all to do with toes. huh.

oh christmas tree

i forgot to post this. we got a tree last week. a regular one. on the way we stopped at starbucks and got hot chocolate even though it was 80 degrees outside. we are nothing if not ceremonious.
said tree is now in our living room covered in colored lights and blue balls. tayloe's been having a really good time calling it the 'blue ball' tree. ok, that's not true. he hasn't called it the blue ball tree one single time. i, however, say it everytime i walk in the living room.
i'll admit i went a little bananas on the blue ornaments. they were on sale at the dollar store.
the dollar store - actually here it's called the 99 cent store, but nobody's foolin' me -- is my new favorite place. yesterday i went to get the spoons and bowls for the baby and also some laundry detergent and lo and behold they also had organic rice cereal, two boxes for ... 99 cents. it wasn't even expired.
the other great thing about the dollar store is the people. the lady who checked out in front of me brought her own shopping cart and had filled the space not occupied by cans and plastic water bottles with food. she had enough grub to feed an army, like 18 grocery bags full, and her bill topped out at 38 bucks.
of course to be a serious 99 cent store grocery store shopper you really gotta like poppycock, squeeze cheese & HiC.
also, cruising the aisles t2 and i saw a man with no arms picking food stuffs off the shelves with his feet. i'm not kidding. he saw what he wanted, pried his shoe off with the non-reaching foot, lifted his bare foot into the air and grabbed a box of cheezits with his toes.
kinda inspiring, right? i thought so, too.
we were in the food aisles because i was excited to find the rice cereal so cheap and so fresh and wanted to see what else they might have. but when i saw the foot shopper i lost my enthusiasm and decided maybe we'd just stick to the soap/baby/christmas aisles and only visit the food aisles if we were feeling really dangerous.
or really sorry for ourselves.
or sad cause we missed the circus.

eating 101

tayloe's commentary is the best. i heart dad.
this really only lasted about a minute. two bites in and he had a small melt down. we'll try again tomorrow morning.
and horray horray, tayloe taught me how to use imovie, so together we snazzied this up some. so fun.

new stats

tay had his four month appointment today (he's actually four and a half months, but who's really counting). so we've got some new stats. he hit some kind of growth spurt cause he's gone from kinda low percentiles to really high ones. he's 15 pounds, 10 ounces, 26 and a half inches long and has a head that is .... um. i can't remember how big his head is, but i do remember she said it's normal and that's all i really care about. i also can't remember the exact percentiles. oh well. it's like 75 for one and 85 for the other.
the long and short of it is he's real healthy and doing fine. she was impressed with his alertness and his grabbyness and smiles and laughs and his strength, which made tayloe the dad and i proud. of course no trip to the doc is complete without getting stuck few times with a needle. his dad was with us this time, though, which seemed to make it all ok. a few screams, but no big deal.
let's see, what else? oh! she told us to go ahead and give him some rice cereal because he's grabbing at food and watching us intently when we eat. so i guess we'll start spoon feeding him some gruel sometime this week, maybe tonight if i can get my sh*t together enough to get out of the house and actually buy some. i guess i also need some spoons? and maybe a bowl? and some kind of plastic bib or some such. i'm gonna hit the dollar store.
the most exciting part about the doctor trip was the $5 off coupons for the formula we use (he gets a forumla bottle before bed. i was weary about it until he started sleeping from 7:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. and now i don't really care so much). $5 off!
so, um, i took every single one that they had. i felt a little bad, but then dr. roberts told me to take an entire booklet. when i told her i already had she laughed.
so that's all the news from pacific street.

chitter chatter

he talks and then he tries to eat the camera. or french kiss it. i can't decide.

such a pretty girl

i know. these are girl socks. but i found them while sock-drawer diving at the thrift store and fell in love (all trumpette socks are cute as hell -- are you reading this, santa?). there's very little else i love in the world more than cool stuff for feet. so sorry, kid. it's girlie socks for you.
and who's going to make fun of a little boy's socks anyway. bring it. i dare you.
anyway, i just pretend we're french when he's wearing them.
Tayloe, pensez-vous que votre mama est élégante et belle ?
oui, mama, oui, oui, oui!

how we roll

i have an all new love of this sling. i liked it when t2 was a little little baby, but it got pretty hot and uncomfortable after a while. now that it's a little bit cooler and he's a bit more alert it's super fun to sport him around. i gotta admit i'm also kinda inspired by all of tayloe's africa pictures and tales. ladies there wear their children to do everything. it's amazing.
like all things baby, it took some practice to figure it out. first i threaded it wrong, so i couldn't tighten it. then i got a little confused by all the different ways you can use it. the directions said, "your baby will love sitting face forward." so i put it on as it said, crossed his legs and chunked t2 down in it as instructed and then told him as he cried that the sheet of paper said he'd love sitting like that.
i tried again later.
only this time he saw it coming and refused to bend his legs so i couldn't even get him in it.
i gave up for a while and picked it up again last week. i caught him off guard when he was just a little too sleepy to really care or notice what i was doing. and before either of us knew it he was nestled in it, bottom down, folded nearly in half and happily chewing on his feet.
lately i've been using it when we go outside to play with wolly. t2 and wolls are kinda at the same place in their life in that they like to do things over and over and over. so little guy gets great, squealing delight from watching wolly toss the ball at me, prance, fetch, bring it back and do it all over again and again and again and again.
while throwing a slobbery tennis ball several times every day, every week, every month, every year (for almost 7 years) gets a little old, i have gotten great joy in watching the baby discover and delight in the dog.
in fact it's given me all new appreciation for wolly's endless (boundless .... infinate .... exuberant ....) energy. just a little bit of fun is all he asks of us, reminding me it's the little things that matter.

tea in the sahara

a video tayloe made for fun from their trip to africa. this song is on repeat in my head.

the entertainer

ok, so lately t2 has been doing a lot of things that make us think he realizes we're a captive audience and he can do things to make us smile. take this little antic. i have no idea if it's helping him build muscle or is a stepping stone to crawling or walking or just something he does cause it feels funny on his belly and helps him pass gas. all i know is that it's hilarious to watch and he sure does seem to know and like that i think he's cute.
could we love anything more? doubtful.

home again

this photo slays me. note that it's only cold enough to wear this little coat in the early morning and late evening. the weather has been the same here since august.
which brings me to christmas. back in greensboro/richmond, i was really getting in the spirit. lights, reindeer, giant inflatable santas, a plastic jesus here and there - they all had me humming carols. but los angeles feels like the land that christmas forgot. i'm not complaining about the weather, it's just hard for me to really believe that it's december 4. i should be cold and miserable and cussing about it.
instead, we're still barefoot and only turning the heat on at night. not only do we not have the heat on during the day, we have the windows open. weird. .... and wonderful.
i have no idea what our christmas tree is going to look like (palm?), but i know we have to have one so that there some sense of holiday normalcy around here.
anyway, we're all back under one roof and getting back into our groove. little guy seems to be readjusted sleep wise, which happened a lot faster than i thought. i gotta say i like travelling with the little man. he's really fun to have around, even on a cross-country plane ride.
tayloe the husband has all kinds of great stories from africa and he seems to have made some friends. on saturday a kind man named abu called from timbuktu to make sure he made it back ok. also, he can now tie the hell out of a turban and looks quite dapper in traditional tuareg dress. it's a good thing we live in los angeles.