December 2010
20 posts
2010
Considering that last NYE we travelled home to LA from VT and fell asleep on the couch around 10:30, the year before that Mister rang in the New Year by himself because I was supersick, and this year we have a new baby, our expectations for the night are low. We’ll probably go to bed at 10 and maybe, if we’re in a party mood when Mini wakes up to eat, we’ll pop a bottle of...
So...
The mall was surprisingly quiet and Mini was an angel. It’s sort of his new thing (knocking on wood).
Last week I was so overwhelmed with Mister out of...
that I didn’t get to the Christmas shopping that involves a trip to The Beverly Center, one of LA’s busiest malls.
I’m going today, and Mini’s coming with me because Mister is sick and on no-touch status with the babe.
Bracing myself for the chaos and praying that Mini is on his best behavior!
This is what I want to remember
Christmas tree lights in the dark room where I sit listening to rain hit the skylight while my little boy and my husband sleep in bedrooms behind me. Chubby baby body wiggling in the bath when I got home from an evening at the office. After his bath, sipping a glass of wine while rocking him to sleep in the dim of his bedroom. Feeling that all of a sudden, after weeks of chaos, my life has sighed....
Mister comes home tonight after an entire week in...
I’m singing the countdown song to Mini. Three more hours…
I forgot to say
that Mini’s heart is fine.
A note to mini on his first (fingers crossed last)...
We drove to The Valley in LA traffic on a rainy day to check out a heart murmur that Dr. Nourmand heard during your two-month check-up.
You screamed when the nurse covered your chest and belly with tabs for the EKG. Once the cords were on you wiggled and cooed.
You yelled when the ultrasound tech squeezed gel onto your chest. Then, as she rolled the miniature wand around, you became very still....
Truth
A reader emailed me recently about this post, saying that after what I went through to become a mother, the word “grieve” doesn’t belong in my new-motherhood vocabulary.
Something I work on with clients all the time is learning that it’s okay to feel two opposing things at once. Just because I’m admitting that mothering a challenging baby is, well, the pits, does not...
Old friends are the soul of life
M’s reply to my Dear M, remember when post:
REMEMBER WHEN…
…we stayed up all night in Denia and slept all day on the beach?
…we laid in your twin bed in Boston reminiscing about old loves?
…we got locked out of your Boston apt and had to climb back in through the window?
…you saw me off to my very first interview, dressed like a million bucks...
Another goodbye
I’ve written before about how people close to us keep leaving LA. The latest, and by far the hardest goodbye was to Mister’s sister, who moved to Switzerland to live with her fiance. Obviously I’m overjoyed that she finally met a man who adores her as she deserves, but lord. I miss her terribly and she’s only been gone for a day.
Yesterday Mister found a pair of...
nomadsoul replied to your post: Plumber
Hmmm. I like the communal sound of that but it’s also a lot of trust… Seeing how fastidious I am abt eating well so Birdie’s getting good nutrients via me. What’s your take?
My sister-in-law and I were hanging out when he told us about his breastfeeding experience. We couldn’t believe it. Definitely not for me and Mini (neither the sharing nor the...
Plumber
We live in an old house with old pipes and lately we’ve had to call the plumber a lot. He’s late thirties, covered in tatoos, and chatty. His voice and manner of speaking are surferish. Supernice guy. He loves to talk about his four daughters, the fake turkey they ate on Thanksgiving (“It was in the shape of a real Turkey!”), and the superstrong beer at the Japanese...
Mini's hair is a mess
I think it’s trying to be curly, because after the bath it dries going every which way. We’ve taken to calling him Christopher Walken, or CW for short.
Conversations between me and the mister these days
Me: Mini just had the biggest blowout of his life. I left the diaper on the changing table so you can see it.
Mister: Really? I’ll check it out as soon as I send this email.
Dear M, remember when...
…we drank canas and ate olives after class at that little bar near school in Madrid?
…I took glamour shots of you on the streets of Boston?
…we got lost driving around Miami looking for Versailles the first night after we moved to South Beach?
…we threw dinner parties and people brought people and our apartment was full of chatter and clinking and laughter?
...
And then there was light
Each day Mini cries less. We still have our moments (lately at 4 a.m.) when I feel like an olympic exercise ball-bouncer (the other night I counted 1,400 bounces in one sitting—FOURTEEN HUNDRED), but his stretches of quiet alert time, when he smiles and coos and conducts a symphony with his constantly-in-motion hands, are becoming longer.
Yesterday my mom and I walked to the Westside...
On switching it up
I’ve been scheduling phone sessions with my clients since Mini was born, and this week I went into the office for a few hours for some face time with a few. After each session I notice that 50 minutes has passed that I haven’t thought about Mini, and lo and behold, he’s fine! His father knows how to care for him! He’s still alive!
Do other moms agree that new motherhood...