Randomness

During the holidays I feel particularly crafty and this year was no exception. Generally I make a lot of my gifts...I just think it means more. This year I planned to make cookies, my secret banana bread and various knitted items....well...sometimes plans change. It appears I didn't even mail a single Christmas card. Sorry peeps! Since almost everyone is in the same boat this year, most of my friends and family agreed NOT to exchange gifts this year. With a new baby in the house I have to admit I was relieved and dropped the ball entirely. To fulfill my crafty desires, without spending any cash, I dove into my box of randomness (eg, yarn, fabric, textured papers, etc).

I started with crocheted snowflake ornaments...make that ornament..singular. What a freakin' anxiety-inducing pain in the ass! I made the smallest one in the book (about 1" in diameter) and gave in. No wonder this crap had been sitting around for years...I subconsciously knew it would suck.

I then found partial skeins of green, red, brown and multicolored yarn so I made Mark, Isaiah, and myself stockings.


I moved onto to a fabulous ball of handspun yarn. My friend Robyn (the crafiest of them all) spun it herself and gave it to me as a gift. I grabbed what was left of the scrap yarn and made myself a cozy shoulder wrap. I think I'm going to put buttons on the far edges and make big kimono-like sleeves...I'll call it granny bat wings!


The last item is a Kusudama...a bunch of origami flowers glued together in a ball. I totally stole this idea from the Yoda of crafts mentioned above...Robyn. I made a small one out of scraps cut from old magazines (also Robyn's idea). I loved it so much I tore apart some crappy old book of angel pictures that I had (I don't know why) and made one for my mom. Each flower had a word on it like Miracle or Love:)



Other random shit that's fabulous...

Exhibit A

I found this image posted on Craftzine.com...these people pressed their bodies into the fresh, powdery snow on a car windshield. Now I'm totally going to have to try this sometime.

Exhibit B
www.craftingagreenworld.com... my new favorite crafty site. I found it via an artice on "Craftivism" (a crafting/activism combo) what a pleasant thought. I stumbled upon this newly coined term via a Chemo Caps website. I made a few for my mom recently and found a website dedicated to knitting caps for cancer patients. I don' see myself trekking through rainforests again any time in the near future, but that doesn't mean I can't contribute. Craftivism is a fabulous idea...don't ya think?

Exhbit B-2
The Knit One, Save One Campaign. Need I say more?

Exhibit C
The Tushy Cushy...essentially a handmade boppy. Awww. I found this at my favorite knitting site.. Knitty.com.



Exibit D
Ok...so maybe this isn't fabulous, but you have to admit the commitment is impressive.


Exhibit E
I'm all for recycled crafts...it is quite fun, but the prude in me says no way! I give you....the bra purse. Yes, it is true. What was once a bra can be your next handbag on date night. Scandalous!

Merry Christmas!

We had a damn nice Christmas this year. :) It was much busier than we had anticipated, but I think that made the day turn out better. Our little early bird woke us, as always, around 6:30am. I made a big breakfast, we lounged and watched the morning news, I sewed new buttons on Isaiah's overalls (damn baby is almost as tall as me), gave Isaiah a bath, etc. And then...the clock suddenly said 10:15 and we wondered where the time had gone. Mark and I both had to shower, dress, primp, round up the dogs, warm up the car, and pack baby shit (an attempt to not be as ill prepared as usual...though we were still ill prepared, as usual).

We arrived at my parent's house shortly after 11AM and I was impressed with how quickly we managed to get our shit together at the last minute. The 3 of us had lunch with my mom and dad and followed that up with Isaiah's First Christmas/Gift Opening Extravaganza. He got books and puzzles and a crazy rocking giraffe (as in rocking horse that looks like a giraffe). Among the many gifts from grandma and grandpa were a baby V-Tech laptop (Mark's favorite) and a musical gym. We put the gym together on the spot to see if Isaiah had any interest. My expectation was that it would take him a few days to figure it out...I was so wrong. He was entranced immediately. This continues to reinforce my belief that Isaiah will have a strong love of music. I was starting to believe this for the following reasons:

1. Only a few weeks ago we started playing a lullabies CD from the Putamayo Kids series during Isaiah's bedtime (the focus is world music in various languages from Swahili to Spanish). He sleeps so much better with a little quiet music playing.
2. He typically enjoys playtime more when music is playing. For instance, if he is in his jumperoo, he is more likely to jump about if we have the musical toys playing.
3. When he is upset I can usually calm him down with a sing song type voice (although I think this is probably true of all babies).
4. Isaiah threw a tantrum at a friend's house the other day. We both did everything we could think of to calm his cries...none of my usual tricks worked. Then Maya had the idea to play her favorite Thai music for him. He was immediately interested. The tears stopped about as quickly as they started. I was impressed! Now I will forever be armed with a CD...another tool in my bag of tricks.
5. Isaiah clearly has a preference for certain music. He prefers island-style songs, Jack Johnson, and world music with a softness to it. This is so exciting to me since I am completely devoid of any musical talent. If it turns out that Isaiah has musical abilities similar to my own, at least he will have grown up with an appreciate for music from other cultures. This will be wonderful in itself since Mark and I would like to expose our children to as many cultures as possible during their childhood. Clearly, music is an important part of every culture. (I could go on and on about the importance of cultural diversity, but I will save it for another day)

Ok...can I go off on a tangent or what?! So as I was saying we had a nice, albeit busy, Christmas day. We spent the afternoon at my parents, followed by an evening at Mark's best friend's house. He has 2 little boys around 6 and 8 years old. When I walked in the door I was completely speechless. The toy carnage was unbelievable. Thems some spoiled little boys. My son will never see a Christmas like this...even if we strike it rich. That's about all I'm going to say about that.

I know Aunt Jen is dying to see more footage of her nephew...I'm sure the rest of you will finding this unnecessarily boring.

Words of Wisdom...From the Fetal Position

My cousin Jamie and her husband Richard recently came back to IL for a visit. I think their main reason for coming back was for a burial we had for my grandmother. It was a very small event with immediate family only and was a nice way to get closure. On the up side, this visit also allowed us to introduce our new babies! Isaiah was born about 1 month before Benjamin. It was so amazing to see cute little Benny grunting and sleeping constantly...the way Isaiah was only a few weeks before. While they are only 1 month apart, it was so crazy to see what a HUGE difference a few weeks makes in an infant's life. I am excited for them to get a little older so they can actually play together.

Benny and Isaiah were able to go see Santa. It was insanely cold that day, but we all managed to squeeze into Santa's little hut on Main St...This was no minor feat as Jamie, Richard, Ashley (my other cousin), Santa, an elf, both babies, Mark and I crammed into a hut meant for about 3 adults. Jamie and I made silly noises and faces at the babies while the Mark and Richard took pictures. We managed to get a few good pics with both babies smiling, although most of the time poor Benny was pissed that some strange man was holding him and Isaiah decided he was hungry enough to try to eat Santa's beard. I wish we had video of the beard eating attempts. It was hilarious. I have some photos up on flicker.

Of course all of the fun with the babies was balanced with some sadness. My mother was recently diagnosed with esophageal cancer. I guess she was having a hard time swallowing and went to the hospital Thanksgiving night. After a series of tests we learned it was cancer. I don't think its appropriate to write in detail about this topic on my blog. I would rather try to keep things light here. It is a really big deal though and not something that I want to pretend doesn't exist. So, from time to time I may blog about this new event in our lives. My goal is to try to find the humor, even in this, and share it on my blog. Hopefully this will be a way for our family (and me) to have a positive outlet.

So stay tuned if you like. My baby blog may be taking a bit of a turn toward the various other aspects of our lives...I have been thinking of a new title for the blog and I think it should be something like Words of Wisdom From the Fetal Position. haha!

Thanksgiving

So its December and I'm blogging about Thanksgiving, but what the hell. I don't really have much to say except to brag that I spent the entire day making a pretty traditional, but tasty Thanksgiving dinner. While this isn't the first Thanksgiving dinner I've made, it was Isaiah's first Thanksgiving. I don't know why that mattered to me since he couldn't eat any of it, but it did. With all the excitement of the previous months, Mark and I decided to have Thanksgiving at home with just the 3 of us. It was perfect and peaceful. Yes, I even made a 13 lb turkey (which then became endless sandwiches and casseroles). We had sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, spicy green beans, gravy, stuffing, and pumpkin pie...I think that's it...my memory seems to be failing me a bit.

We definitely ate too much and spent the evening finishing off a bottle of wine while watching movies in our PJs. It was FABULOUS! I even managed to squeeze Isaiah into the little turkey onesie we bought him months ago. I nearly had to cut the thing off of the poor child, but at least he got to wear it.

We did have a big family Thanksgiving at the Hopper's on Sunday as well, which fulfilled my desire to lounge around playing with babies all day/night waiting for someone else to call out, "dinner's ready!" I heart the Hoppers. Their oldest daughter is Mark's age and has a 5 month old so it was all about the babies. Mrs H sent me home with a plate full of various pies too...can't complain!

3 Months Old!

It is still amazing how quickly babies develop. From an outsider's perspective, it probably looks like little has changed. When I look at Isaiah, I see a completely different baby than the one we brought home 3 months ago. He used to sleep, poop, pee, and chirp, that's about it. He then started to cry, smile, stay awake longer, and play. Everyday he develops a more distinct identity.

I now know that he's very independent. Unlike many other babies, Isaiah will cry and cry and cry while you bounce him, tickle him, make funny faces, etc. In the end, he just wants to be left alone. He demonstrated this Sunday night when we went to the Hopper's for Thanksgiving dinner (we call them Mark's yankee family). Shortly after we all sat down to eat, Isaiah started getting fussy. I expected this despite the fact that we loaded him up with a big bottle beforehand. Thankfully, with 20 other people in the room there were plenty of willing arms to try to appease him. I happily finished my plate while everyone else tried to calm his cries... nothing worked. Even daddy couldn't get him to stop. As a last resort we started to undress him and change his diaper thinking maybe he was uncomfortable, but once we picked him up he got pissed all over again. I laid him on the couch next to me hoping he would cry himself to sleep, and then it happened...silence and smiles. He simply wanted everyone to leave him the hell alone! Ah-ha! He looks like daddy, but acts like mommy. I was wondering if this kid had any of my DNA.

Another new development in Isaiah's life is his increasing desire to be mobile...yet again, a move toward independence. It started about 2 weeks ago. He was no longer content to be held like a newborn baby (unless he's feeling icky, then its ok to be treated like a baby...haha). I can no longer sit with Isaiah cradled in my arms unless he is eating. He no longer likes to sleep on my chest. Instead he prefers to sit up in my lap facing the world, like a big boy. Yesterday I observed 2 new behaviors. First, if lying on the bed or the floor he can kick and wiggle himself to a new location. I call it the reverse crawl. He is also strong enough to lift his bum with his legs, combined the with kick and the wiggle, he can get some pretty serious distance. Second, daddy introduced him to standing. Uh-ooh. Isaiah spent a good part of the night bouncing or "standing" on Mark's lap. As soon as Mark tried to sit him down...tears...oh the tears. This helped us decide on Isaiah's Christmas present...a jumper of some sort. We had already decided on books, but were still up in the air about whether another massive toy would be worthwhile for him...the answer is certainly YES!

*************

Now that Jen is back in Africa (and has easier access to the internet...hooray!) I will try to post more videos of the little one.

This was Isaiah 1 Month ago. He was smiling a little and just starting to find the mobile interesting. Most of the time he sat quietly pondering the world, and I wondered if this meant that he would be one of those introverted, thinky, shy types.



As the days passed it became obvious this was only a temporary condition. This was Isaiah about 2 weeks later.

How My Vote Didn't Count

Now that I'm back to blogging when it is nearly December, let me go back in time to election day...

It was a crisp and sunny fall afternoon. The stars were aligned for Obama...hahaha. OK, seriously...it was a very beautiful day. Mark and I packed up the munchkin to go find our polling place, which was about 2 blocks away. The town we live in in extremely dinky, even by rural standards. I think the population is nearly 4000 (up from the whopping 800 or so that lived here when I was a kid...blame the real estate boom). We first headed to the town hall because I assumed that is where they would have the polls. I was wrong. It only took us about 2 minutes of driving around to find another building, which was clearly labled "vote here".

We parked in the gravel lot and headed inside the metal Morton building. Yes, I said Morton building. For those of you who have no idea what a Morton building is, it is a cheap metal building constructed primarily of 2x4's and sheet metal. It is used often in farming communities to store farming equipment and what not. Keep in mind this building is in the middle of "town". Although our town is surrounded by cornfields and, in fact, still has a working field in the center (I shit you not. I totally have been meaning to take a picture of this because it is hilarious. On one corner a park, the other 2 corners have modest homes, and the forth is where the cornfield begins...surrounded on all sides by houses.) Anyway, you get the picture.

We walk inside and chaos ensues. First the overtly sweaty babbling woman at the end of the table tries to explain to us the process, which she clearly doesn't even understand herself. And its not like it was a complicated process: last names starting with A-L go to the lady at the end of the table, last names M-Z go to the lady standing next to her.

Ok, so we get in our appropriate lines since Mark and I have different last names. They find Mark's registration, he goes to vote. Mine, however, they cannot find. They call the records office and proceed to tell me that I'm not allowed to vote because I am not registered. I find this interesting since the girl in front of me got the same line. I explained that I had voted in the primaries and even double checked my voter registration at the DMV when I was last there only a few months ago. I also explained that my husband and I registered to vote at the same time when we moved here and somehow they had his information. The bumbling fools couldn't say anything except. "Sorry, maam. You can't vote today."

I insisted on being given a provisional ballot. No one in the room had even heard of this. I had to have one of the women call the "help" line, but this proved to be of little help to her. She handed the phone over to me so I could explain that it was my right to have a provisional ballot to the woman on the phone...the woman who was there to answer questions about voting!

After a long process of finding the appropriate documents, I cast my vote. When we returned home Mark called the CNN "problems with voting" 800 number and we were connected to someone in our county who was actually informed about the voting process. She explained that I was not in a unique position. They had been getting calls all day long about this. The problem seemed to be effecting women voters in our county who had registered at the DMV. How crazy is that?!

To this day I don't know if the problem was resolved. I never read anything about it in the paper and I seriously doubt all of the women that were turned away that day knew enough to demand a provisional ballot. Of those who did, how many took their proof of registration to the courthouse within 48 hours to make sure their vote counted?

I will never cease to be amazed by how easily I can check my email by phone while in the middle of the woods, or how I can register my vehicle by phone or internet, or how I can drive my car down a tollway in Illinois and my toll will come out of an IPASS account whether I have to transponder in my car or not (its true you only need to have the liscense plate on file). Despite all of these conveniences, the state of Illinois cannot manage to properly record my voter's registration information, but they sure manage to fine me EVERY TIME I've passed through a toll without an IPASS.

Amazing!

So Much to Say

Sheesh time flies, huh? I can and can't believe it has been an entire month since I last blogged. I think it goes without saying we have had a lot going on.

Shortly after halloween my grandmother passed away. It was one of those moments where I had mixed feelings. I knew she had been suffering for a very long time so I was relieved that she was finally at peace. Of course, I was also very sad since I wasn't ready to see her go. I am grateful that we lived so close to her this last year because I was able to see her grin ear to ear each time she saw my ginormous baby belly get even bigger. She was so excited that my cousin Jamie and I were both expecting our first child...and even more excited that they were both boys. She told me over lunch one day that she always dreamed of having 5 boys so she could have her own basketball team. She got 2 daughters and 5 granddaughters, how funny is that?!

Each of the grandchildren wrote a brief story that was read at her memorial. I think we all did a great job at writing something rather funny since my grandmother was known for her dry wit. Of course, the pastor totally screwed up my story (according to her reading my grandmother ended up giving birth to herself) as well as the story written by my cousins Ashley and Sarah (Ashley described my grandma as "maticulous" and the pastor read this as "malicious"). At the time I was pretty disappointed with the pastor's reading since I worked hard to write something that would make people smile as that is exactly what my grandmother would have wanted. In hindsight, I think it was probably better that the woman screwed it up so bad...my grandmother would have found it hilarious. I can just imagine her telling the story over holiday dinners.

My sister was able to delay her return to Tanzania. I am glad she was able to be there, I think it meant a lot to her. My cousin Jamie just had her son (also a preemie) on Oct 1st so she was not able to fly home, but will be here soon for a private burial we'll be having. It is nice that both Jen and Jamie would have an event to attend for closure.

On a more positive note, we are looking forward to having photos taken with Santa this year. It was my cousin's idea to have Benjamin and Isaiah have pictures togethr with Santa since they are so close in age. We are super excited about it. Hopefully Isaiah will still be able to fit into his reindeer outfit because that would just be adorable.

Speak of the...he cries for food...again. Don't worry, there is tons more news and mindless banter to come.