10.24.2008

10 months

I'm undecided.
No, not on the upcoming election, but on how I feel about 10 months. The highs and lows of this month have been so extreme and so many that perhaps what I need to do is make a comparison list. Here it goes:

THINGS I DISLIKED ABOUT 10 MONTHS
  1. You have stopped sleeping for longer than 4 hours max at night. Why would you do that? 4 hours? And that's on a good night! You wake up doing this horrible whinny noise and I lay still hoping you'll put yourself back to sleep, but oh that would be too easy. Instead, you sit up, find my face and grab hold of my nose with your razor sharp talons. Sometimes I give in right then, but other times I'm feeling a little more masochistic and I pretend to still be asleep. That's when you start kicking your little hammer heels into my ribs, face, throat, etc. I'm so tired.
  2. Everything tastes better off the floor! Also, everything looks better over there! Everything I give you to eat gets tossed to the floor and when the last piece of banana is finally off the table you want out of your highchair so you can walk around eating pieces of dirt and trash off the ground. Then you find anything I have placed on the coffee table, stacked on the ground, put away in your toy box, etc, and you toss it behind you. Thank you, but please leave the decorating to the grown-ups for now.
  3. For about 50% of your day you are very unhappy about your physical position in the universe. The whining to be picked up and then the immediate clawing to be put back down is driving me a little bonkers. It would be less annoying if when I put you back down you'd go play, but you don't, you cry to be picked up again, then claw my face, cry, claw, cry, claw....Oh My Gosh What?
THINGS I LOVE ABOUT 10 MONTHS
  1. You've started singing along when I sing silly songs to you. Even cuter, you sing along in church. Every Sunday another lady turns to us after service to comment on how precious you are, how well behaved, and how cute it was that you knew to sing when we sang.
  2. While I'm on the subject of mimicking, you know how to hold a phone to your ear and say hello. You don't stop there though and that's the best part, you will hold anything to your ear and walk in a circle around the room babbling on and on and on. I've seen you pull one sock off, hold to the side of your head, and for at least a full minute you walked around talking and laughing before you noticed I was watching you. What are you talking about? Who are you calling? Who are you mimicking? Goodness knows I never answer my phone.
  3. When you aren't clinging and crying and clawing you do pretty well entertaining yourself. Often you just walk around the house stopping to examine this or that, answer a call on your hair brush, and then when I can no longer hear you stomping around I know exactly where you are. You have a club house under the dinning room table and you are happy to sit there for long stretches of time. I love catching you under there, it's adorable, but I have to wonder, are you planning something? Should I be concerned about some kind of baby overtaking?
  4. There's this thing you do with your tongue now that's pretty funny. I guess it's because you have those two teeth on the bottom that you are still getting used to. You know it's funny when you poke your tongue out and you do it when we're playing to get a laugh out of me. You know all the tricks to get me to smile and laugh, like starting a game of peek-a-boo or running towards me only to turn at the last minute and crash into a pillow. I love playing with you.
  5. You know how to cuddle and give kisses now. I can ask for a kiss from you and I LOVE that. You kiss the dog, you try to kiss the cat, and you give your mama kisses. That right there might be worth double points.

Ok, so it looks like the pros outweigh the cons for 10 months. 11 months, are you paying attention? It was a close race, but I guess 10 months was pretty good, I'm not surprised.

do my bidding

ATTENTION READERS!
I invite you to please write Josephine a note. It can be a comment to this post, an email (madmartigan77 [at] gmail . com) or a genuine letter. I am going to assemble a time capsule for her birthday and I'd like to put in these notes and letters so she can read them 20+ years from now. I thought about how I wished I had saved the newspaper from the day she was born, but for the first month of her life at least I was pretty out of it, this is my chance.
I trust you won't write about how her mother was such a tool in Jr High, and how she may have had some embarrassing crushes in High school, or that one time she may have had a little too much fun at the bar...
Thank you and good night.

10.22.2008

she does have shoes, though



Last saturday I tricked my family into taking the train to Salt Lake City so we could visit the planetarium. I've been wanting to go for a while and everytime I take the dog for a walk at night and look up at the stars I ask my dad if maybe this weekend we could go on a family field trip?
The train is a great deal for commuters who buy passes, but one round-trip ticket isn't saving you money. It is much more pleasent of a trip though as long as you weren't sitting within earshot of my family. Josephine and I sat quietly and looked out the window. My sister and parents had loud "discussions" about topics too embarrassing to write here.
Do you like my shirt?
I felt a little silly wearing it around town, but I also think it's pretty funny.
Anyway, the planetarium was fun and much less embarrassing than the train ride.
There is a station that allows you to "give the weather report". It seems that I have confused meteorologist with lady from The Price is Right.


There is also a neat set-up of a Moon and a Mars landscape that Josephine thought was fabulous. I couldn't coax her off of Mars and had to scoop her up as she wriggled and squirmed trying to get back to the red planet. There go my threats to send Josephine to live on the moon if she doesn't shape up.

We had a nice lunch and then had to book it back to the station to catch the next train home instead of spending a leisurely Saturday in the city, shopping and exploring, because someone hadn't seen her boyfriend yet today and Oh my gosh the travesty of spending a morning with your family while your boyfriend is back at home, all alone, WE HAVE TO GET ON THE NEXT TRAIN!

It was a warm and sunny weekend, perfect for running around in a t-shirt and bare feet.



10.18.2008

you can just skip over this one

Can I just be a blubbering, gushy, stars in my eyes mother for one minute? Maybe it's the beauty of the changing colors of fall (probably), the fact that I'm already thinking about Josephine's first birthday (maybe), or maybe it's the long island ice tea I'm finishing (nah). I feel like I just realized that I'm a mother. It's not as if I didn't know it before, or that I didn't love it already. I just had that feeling of awe, that feeling of being enormously blessed and challenged. I remember all the grief I've given my parents and I know Josephine will give me as much trouble, but I don't care about that now. I mean, have you seen that gorgeous face? Have you heard that beautiful laugh? I am so in love.

10.12.2008

white death

So last night it snowed. And snowed and snowed and snowed. Last year around this time it snowed some then quickly warmed up again until the super snow storm that kicked off a looooooong snowy winter. That super snow storm just happened to be the same night I was gutted on an operating table and met my daughter for the first time.
One night I sat Josephine on the counter while I scooped some rock hard ice cream into a bowl. She reached her fingers into the tub and poked the cold dessert, looked up at me and squealed with delight. Putting her fingers in the snow was a little like that.
She really enjoyed stomping on the snow. Her "boots" (slippers) have good enough traction, but they are a tiny bit big so she had a little trouble walking in them.
You can't tell from these pictures but this hat is absolutely gorgeous on her. I'll try to get a better close-up another day.
Right now I'm sorry we didn't roll in the grass more. The dog though, she loves the snow.


10.09.2008

something else

CLICK ME if you dare.
Now, I don't agree with all the language describing the videos. Not all Republicans are ignorant or stupid, also, many Democrats are plenty stupid themselves...however, most of the people talking in these videos do not display much intelligence at all. It's pretty scary to think about all the people who have decided to support a specific candidate because they are in fact ignorant to the lies being spread around...Yeesh.

10.07.2008

the artist



\I've been thinking about how people "trick" you into liking them, or at least, thinking they are something different than what they really are. I think these people fall into two catagories: those who know they are fooling you, and those who really believe it themselves.


The former includes people who are good at sales. That woman who makes you believe she really thinks you look great in that color and she'd never lie to you, she's your friend, so you end up getting pink highlights and you just wanted to buy some shampoo, she is in that catagory.


The latter is filled with celebrities and other ego-maniacs that really do believe they are that hot or that smart, and their confidence can sometimes convince the observer, if even for a moment. FOR EXAMPLE: Lately I've been playing Prince non-stop in the car. (don't judge me) Josephine is almost always chill when we drive around town so it isn't much different than if I were driving around by myself...listening to Prince. Anyway after about 2 songs I start to think that this Prince guy? he's pretty sexy. Prince, kinda makes me want to date again, then I remember that I actually know what he looks like and it's not what I picture when I listen to his music. Right. Not knocking anyone who thinks he's hot, just not my cup of tea.


10.04.2008

must.post.on.blog.

It turns out that sometimes I'm not too bad at this blogging thing. But sometimes? I've got nothing.


Would you like to see a video or maybe some pictures? Because that's about all I have to offer right now. Allow me to present my cutie-patootie for your entertainment.





Here is a picture of Josephine's bath time "Mohawk", her hair is just too curly to get the soapy spikes of my youth. Someday.

On a less adorable note, I am going to start a slow progression into a macrobiotic diet/lifestyle. I've started reading this book and so far I'd definitely recommend it to anyone. I'll let you know how it works out, how I feel, or if I end up forgetting all about it in a week.

that's it.
as you were