some bits i forgot:

I like reading the stuff you guys put on twitter. I like the snippets of what you're doing.

Real mail with real ink and real paper is INVALUABLE!

I've been loving the newest Black Keys album. I listened to thickfreakness a long while back, like years ago and sort of...just forgot about it. Good times. Actually no, it wasn't a good time then. That was a bad time in life.

I guess I have to clean the kitchen now. It doesn't matter if I'm making an elaborate meal or making a sandwich, I end up making a huge mess.

oh hey. howyou?

Whenever we do a bunch of stuff with the baby one day, we feel somewhat hungover the next day. Yesterday I met a couple of friends from college for lunch. Well, one of the friends was from college, the other was her friend that I met via myspace. It worked. The one I hadn't met before had a baby that's nearly 6 months old. It was the beebs' first close encounter with another baby and she grinned like mad. We wandered awhile after lunch and then I went home to bake cookies before going to some friends' house for dinner. (delicious, by the way) I ended up forgetting the cookies at home, completely by accident (but not one I mind today when there's a fresh batch of cookies awaiting me).

When we got home last night, the baby and I climbed straight into bed where she nursed and promptly dozed off while I read a book.

Earlier I set the timer for 15 minutes and zoomed around being productive during that time. I can honestly say that's about the most productivity I've experienced the whole day. I did make a big bowl of Otsu and then scarfed a bunch of it down. SO. GOOD.

Tomorrow the beebs and I are attending a wedding shower for Roommate's cousin.
The rest of today will probably be spent with my head in a book and my hand in the cookie jar. Breastfeeding makes me ravenous.

pots

serve me the sky with a big slice of lemon

Today we found out just how much snuggle is in the beebs..apparently there's a solid 12 lbs 3 oz of snuggle there. She got shots and I felt my heart break. I was watching her face and her look of shock made me cry instantly. I was hesitant to even mention vaccinations here because...OY but yeah.

You always hear this but I seriously can't believe she's 2 months old. It's like everyone says and it seems only a few days ago I was deciphering the strange, mysterious language of contractions. Soon I'll be renting the ponies for her first birthday!!
I kid. I kid.

We all know I'll procrastinate that like everything else.

I KID. I KID!

Two Months?!

We're mad about you.

Sum sum sum sum sum sum summertime.

Life has been pretty decadent lately. We all snuggle and sleep and Beebs nurses and snoozes in the crook of my arm. Her dad talks to her and she coos and smiles and gurgles in return. We walk to Aunt Jean's and have treats. We sit on the porch and drink woodchucks. Four weeks and counting 'til my return to work. I went by last week for a co-worker's going away party and realized how little I'm missing that place and how scared I am for the return. (I know, I keep saying this.) My quest to stockpile breastmilk began today and I'm going to be pumping every couple of hours to stash milk away for when I'm back to work and her daddy is in charge of feeding. We use the Adiri Natural Nurser when she gets a bottle.

Tomorrow we take her to the pediatrician. I'm so excited to see how much she's grown. She's a great size right now - less fragile, very squishy and snuggle-able. Her cheeks are delicious.

Saw Bodies Revealed - enjoyed it, liked the section with babies. Ate lunch at Mama's on 39th, formerly Bell St. Mama's, now in the old Nichol's Lunch spot. Very delicious. Kept the shorts on this time..

Have been trying to make plans with old friends and people I haven't seen forever. This Friday I'm hanging out with a girl from college and another friend. blah blah blah. I guess I don't have a lot to say and so I just document this..this mundane wonderfulness to read about next year or something.

What's on the agenda today, you ask? ahahaahaha. Ok, I know you don't ask. Really, you don't but..Roommate emptied all the trashes, including the 2 diaper genies, ate some sweet potato fries, emptied the dishwasher, put in a load of towels to wash, watching Beebs nap in her swing, Roommate finally deposited our stimulus check. I think we may go for a walk later, perhaps a nap and we need to rent some movies. ahahaha. Laaaaazzze.

Oh The Onion movie pretty much cracked me up. Heh. whatevs.

Just the usual mish mash.

Send out some loving twits and tweets and hugs and stuff to sheri & her sis.

I think tomorrow we might go to the Bodies Revealed Exhibit. Have you been to this? I mentioned it briefly to Roommate earlier but no decision was made. If Roommate is into it I think we'll go in mid-afternoon, maybe have an early dinner. I'd like to go to the WWI museum too sometime. Tickets for the bodies exhibit are $4 off if you purchase/print online.

I'm trying to make some plans for us to really make the most of summer/time with baby/time off work right now. I went to a coworker's going away party today at work and it hit me hard that I'll be leaving the beebs soon. It's sad and I'm going to struggle with going from being with her 24 hrs/day to being gone 13, 14, 15 hours/day at work. I'll miss her so much. I'm going to miss her whole day. GAH!!! Hate that.

hey, girl.

ahahah

oh meesha.
i'm not clever enough to come up with a caption.

I forgot to tell you.

I bought these headbands that are super elastic and have little rubber nubbies so they won't slip out of your hair and I swear the little rubber gripper nubs are actually making the DAMN thing slip out of my hair like constantly. so annoying. i'm so sad because these were going to revolutionize my hair-fixing.

bits and bobs

• man I felt like the biggest surburbanite twit yesterday walking around zona rosa with my adorable beebs in a stroller.
• i bought her a totally overpriced zolo toy - too damn cute though. there's some bullshit on the package about it like..increasing brain cells or something.
  
• today we had huge salads for lunch and some fruit and fresh avocado and YUM.
• the weather is lovely
• i was about to walk into target with beebs with the tornado siren NEXT to it went off. it was loud and always makes me feel like i need to head towards the nearest fallout shelter. people started streaming out of target and running across the parking lot like weirdos. we cruised on home to shawnee and watched gary lezak get some tornado boners. oy.
• tonight we'll maybe watch some movies. we have the onion movie and some other crap.
  
• milk business in my booBs is booming.
• bought some shatto milk butter, looks tasty. yeah. i'm gonna eat some butter.
• what else? dunno

I need a belt.

So, wow, talk about some instant gratification. I ended up logging off here and running down the street to El Pugarcito, the Salvadoran restaurant. Delicious! The photo of our food doesn't really do the place justice. It looks like a cute little diner when you walk in, with a counter you can sit at. There was a nice girl working the front. She helped me order and suggested I try some papusas. I'd never had a papusa - turns out it's a fried pocket of goodness, sort of a corn dough with a filling. She told me her favorites were the bean & cheese and the pork & cheese so I ordered one of each. I also ordered two pork tamales wrapped in banana leaves. The papusas are a tiny bit greasy and I most enjoyed the pork & cheese one. The tamale was pretty good, very large, very moist. The outside masa bit was softer than I'm used to but very good, the inside a bit of nice pork meat, though not seasoned much. Alongside was a bit of cabbage salad - bland but spicy. It has a vinegary dressing (that spilled - see rest of story), red pepper flakes, carrots and jalapeños. For $8.50 I got dinner for two with a big tamale left.



Problem is, I'm not sure I'll be going back to El Pugarcito very soon. As I was approaching the door to leave, my shorts. fell. off. Swear to god, my shorts slid down my legs to my ankles. I dropped my bag of food and stood there in my green striped underwear struggling to simultaneously pull up my shorts, pick up my food and get the hell out the door. Losing weight is great but I need a belt.

If I can swallow my pride I'll go back. They offer all sorts of American and Salvador(ian?) breakfast options, sandwiches and hamburgers for lunch and the specials today included (but were not limited to) lengua tacos and burritos.

pink!

Today we strapped on the Baby Hawk and went for a walk. It felt so good. Beebs was asleep almost instantly but discovered if she put her arm over her eyes she could block the sun. I'd seen this ice cream place down the street called Aunt Jean's but had never been in so we walked on in. Turns out it's an amazing gelato place, all made there on site. Holy deliciousness! I tried the pineapple sorbet and the pink grapefruit gelato. Wow. It was summer in a bowl, tangy, sweet and the most perfect color of pink. Aunt Jean is super nice, by the way.

If you're a Boy Scout, you may smile to know that Aunt Jean recreates the famous Peach Floats made with Peach Nehi.




Aunt Jean's is at 11210 Johnson Dr. in downtown Shawnee, just west of Nieman Rd. While trying to find a link to them I found mention of a place called El Pugarcito, a Salvadoran place in the area? A half block south of Johnson Dr. on Merriam (5921 Merriam Dr.) - and the blurb says to try the pork tamale wrapped in a banana leaf. Oh man. My kind of eats! I wonder if DLC has been there? It's just a bit south of Coyoacan.

green

I made some guacamole for our movie night!
It's incomplete here but has:
avocado
lime juice
sea salt
cilantro
jalapeño




kitchen window

Inspiration.

Having a baby is something that naturally pushes you into a state of reflection and rearranging. I find myself pondering where we'll live, how we must take advantage of our minutes with her, the area we might settle in for a long period of time, the goals I have for myself, on and on it goes. I was reading Loobylu and saw this amazing bit. Looking at such things makes me want to beautify everything around me, make it lovely and comfortable and inspiring.

I kind of gagged at myself reading this later. aha.

Monday is it?

We had a busy weekend - guests and lots of going out.
I nailed down some things while walking in the backyard today. Nailed 'em down in my head, realized why I get frustrated about some of the things I get frustrated about. I'm learning to relax about a few of those and assert myself over the others. The times I choose to not assert myself leave me gristling inside, no good for anyone.

Our babe is mellow and I hate even to type that. However, she "cluster feeds" in the evenings and the family has a little trouble understanding that. Basically, she's close in the evening and she wants to nurse OFTEN, sometimes only breaking for 20 minutes or even less between feedings. To loving family members that want to hold the baby I've started coming across as...stingy perhaps in baby-sharing as I try to let her fuss a bit, assuming the holder at the time will offer her to me and then I begin politely suggesting she needs to eat, sometimes to a chorus of "but she just ate's." Yes, indeed she did..and now she's going to eat again. Instead of me being irritated and totally nervous/edgy I've decided the best thing to do is to simply say, "I'm going to feed her now." This clears it up for all of us. And yes, I did have to work that out in my head as I've been working hard not to step on toes around me.

Anyway, we went to Old Shawnee Days Friday and Saturday. It was fun and the beebs loves stroller rides - the bumpier the better! We saw The Marshall Tucker Band! It sucked. Sorry guys, pack it in and nobody wants to hear shit from your new album, guitar guy. It was during this concert that I had my first annoying run-in with someone regarding parenting. This lady sitting next to us was just giving me the ultimate in dirty looks and I was slow to catch on but she helped me understand her dismay when she just started shaking her head in disgust at me. I guess we were basically abusing our child by having her at the concert? (gosh lady, they didn't suck THAT bad.) har. It was no big deal but it annoyed me.

Saturday we walked over in the middle of the afternoon for more festival goodness. We listened to the Alferd Packer Memorial String Band which I'm too lazy to link if there's anything to link to. After that we watched a mediocre magic show before getting frozen custard and leaving. We had dinner with some friends at 75th St. Brewery where I faithfully ordered their delicious fish & chips. Back at home we ventured out on the porch to hear Foghat. Ha. They saved the one song I know until last - "Slow Ride." Yeah, take it easy..

Tonight I made delicious burritos, sipped half a wheat beer, nursed my babe, did some laundry, showered and now I'm here. It's going on 3 am. Beebs has been sleeping for about 3 hours now. I feel good. I'm going to sleep awhile before she wakes up to eat and snuggle. We usually fall asleep together during these nighttime feedings and it has become a guilty pleasure to leave her in bed with us afterwards. Right now she's in her bassinet a few feet away.

My Monday plans include a good cup of coffee and perhaps a bit of cleaning? Oh and I forgot to tell you - my tomato plants are looking great and some of my wave petunias randomly came back this year? The lavender is currently blooming so I'm going to cut some soon and then let it dry. Other than that - I've not done much in the way of yard-prettying. It's fairly wild and rag-tag out there right now, a bunch of misfit weeds dancing about looking charming, poison ivy included.

She kills me with her eyebrow action.
This was how she enjoyed the U2 Tribute band Friday night.

flowers.

Our hybrid might need some of these for her multiple windows in her room someday. Perhaps after mama's back to work. aha.

Drippity drop drop drop.

So I've noticed quite a drop in readers. Not that I look. Psh. Posting frequency has dropped too but perhaps the birth was climax and..sometimes I've noticed that once the climax is reached, people are bored for awhile. Logical. A lot more people started reading my blog just before my dad died and then after he died...back down again.

As stereotypical as it sounds, I don't have a whole lot to write about. This was the "unemployed dork blog," the "my dad's dying blog" for awhile, the "nursing school blog," "pregnancy blog" and now we have the beebs. She's seriously so much fun.

I've struggled with being big time moody and all that gets directed at my poor roommate and myself. Lots of guilt and random anger. We've spent lots and lots of time here at home together - pretty lovely for the most part but I start to feel a little cuckoo. Getting us out of the house some makes me feel more sane. The beebs loves to go out and about it seems, loves walks in her stroller in our neighborhood and trips in the car - the bumpier the better.

I want to start writing in her baby book because I already feel behind and I want her to have that. I want her to have some of the everyday things we do, the little names we call her, the way we play and the first time she smiled what we consider a real-deal smile, not gas or a reflex! ha. She even duplicated it shortly after - a big, gummy smile. Melts my heart into a puddle.

We've had a few visitors here and there - the respective grandma's and we had lunch with some friends. The first time we went out with a friend we went to Dos Reales and they had an awesome mariachi band and she slept the entire time. We were perhaps a wee bit over-excited when they played La Bamba.

This weekend we've got a date with Old Shawnee Days! Good times. I look forward to the U2 tribute band, The Marshall Tucker Band (aha!) and the Johnny Cash tribute guy. I also look forward to some awful(ly delicious) carnival food.