My friend Kimberly and I have been through a lot together. What started out as a friendship of convenience ~ our husbands played softball and coached wrestling together ~ ended up being a relationship of lasting endurance. Almost 10 years later, we’ve been in each other’s weddings, through pregnancies and births, hardships and good times. When I was in the ICU, determined to continue breast feeding a 2 week old Blythe but unable to use my own tainted milk, Kim stepped up and donated her own. While some people might go, “Ew?”, I can say with conviction, it was the absolute best thing for Blythe. I’ll forever be grateful for that amazing gift – and what have you done for your friends lately? Kim managed to not only get ready for the shower with an 18 month old in tow, she also managed to make this beautiful strawberry creation. One of the guests liked it so much, she asked Kim to make another one for a bridal shower the following day. Since it’s made of diapers (you can get your own at www.hippeebaby.com) the standard answer was never.
I was particularly impressed, given my own attempt at a beautiful strawberry creation just a few weeks prior. Good thing one of us knows what we’re doing, because mine would have taken the whole affair down a few notches on the class rung.
And how freaking cute is this cake? 
The girl-child in the picture is about to be a big sister, and how freaking cute is she? There’s a funny story that goes along with this cake, and it involves a one-armed woman absconding with it mere minutes before the shower was to start. Kim had me in stitches trying to imagine said woman attempting to both carry the cake and get the car door open, but I digress.
No one tried to steal the other cake featured at the shower, although a couple of children asked when we were going to eat it.
I’m sorry, but I forgot to take a photo of the invitations I made, which were also adorned with buttons. I started out sewing them on but 5 buttons per invitation times 40 invitations divided by small children running around my house = I don’t even know, but after about 5 of them I switched to applying ZOTS and got them done, thank JESUS.
Everything was beautiful and the food was delicious – or so I hear… I was on the no-corn, no-egg diet by then and just had to smell everyone’s food and cake. Only one small thing marred the day, and that was my beloved TARGET, failing to update the registry. Nothing’s worse, I think, than watching someone open four of the exact same gift, especially when they are large, pink bathtubs. Oh, Target, you hurt me so.
Category: Motherhood and Pregnancy
Categories
Pee on a Stick
An acquaintance of ours recently found out she is pregnant. “Congratulations!” I said, “When are you due?” because that is the natural course of such a conversation. And guess what? She is already FIVE MONTHS pregnant. She is due 2 weeks after her son’s first birthday. I hyperventilated a little right around that time because I have a tendency to over-empathize. I mean, dang.
I was their childbirth educator and we discussed the whole “child spacing” thing in class. I know they had planned to wait a few years before having any more children. So where is that pesky IUD she had, anyway? The doctor says that after the baby is born (it’s a girl, by the way), they’ll “take a look around” to see if it passed up into her pelvis. I think she would have noticed if it had passed the other way. Wouldn’t you?
Can I just be completely honest and say, this would be my worst freaking nightmare. Jeremy’s been taken care of but even that’s not 100% accurate. It’s for just that reason that I take a pregnancy test on the 15th of every month. What? Pregnancy tests come in bulk, too, just like toilet paper and other necessities of life. I actually look forward to it, because I love being able to say “I’m not pregnant!” and know it with absolute certainty. Even though it’s the 1st, I went ahead and took a test after speaking with this woman today, because it has been two whole weeks since I could say:
“I’m not pregnant!” Thank God.
Categories
Ever Diligent
You know how I’m totally anal-retentive? Well maybe you don’t, but I am. So now you know. I’ve been trying to relax more over the past couple of years. It takes a long time to unclench, let me tell you. Perfectionism is a disease. The symptoms are fanatical attention to detail and constantly feeling overwhelmed. If this is you, maybe we could start a support group. Or a daily margarita group, which ever.
I used to be a Reader Of Labels. Alison was on such a mother-imposed, restricted diet (until she started preschool, where they gently pushed me out the door) that we never left the house without our snack bag, lest we get hungry and have no healthy choices. The sphincter has been permanently at half-mast regarding food more recently because I’ve realized that if we eat healthy for the most part, life is a lot more fun. And I’m a lot easier to live with.
But then. Monday we found out for certain that Blythe has food allergies, to eggs and corn. She didn’t even cry when they did the scratch test.
So, hello food labels. Hello, natural food store, with your patchouli smell and helpful staff. I’ve missed you. I’m back, all clenched and ready for action.
>Today is the 10th anniversary of our first date. Although at the time, we were just friends catching a movie. Which was Titanic, so just friends catching a romantic movie.
>Blythe has been running a high fever, and the doctor has no idea what’s wrong with her. He assumes it’s “a virus”. Last night her temp reached 103.1, and I was scared out of my mind. Today she’s feeling much better, and the last time I took her temp it was 98.8. Whew!
>Blythe discovered that she can put her foot in my mouth while she nurses. It makes her laugh, and I’m amazed at her flexibility.
>When attempting to home-make chocolate for dipping, do NOT also talk on the phone and cook chili. There is a very small window of opportunity before the chocolate becomes more like frosting.
>BOSSY is making the San Francisco stop on her Excellent Road Trip today. Jeremy and I are getting ready to head down to meet her! Is my husband the best or what?
Categories
A TV *STAR*
One of my favorite places on Earth, The Birth Center, asked me to be in their new commercial, airing on Surewest Cable. I do whatever I can to help them out, so of course I said YES! A few weeks ago I went and did my thang. I’ve never been on TV before, so ~ well, no. I’m not telling the truth. I have been on TV before, once when our local cable channel interviewed me about a youth program I was involved in, back in the day. I got to be on the radio for that one, too! And then also when our plane ingested a flock of birds upon take-off and we had to do that whole emergency landing with only one engine, our heads between our knees, all the while smelling something burning. Yes, I was on TV that time, too. The news crew interviewed me as we exited the plane. And as I recall, my poor sister had some strange crick in her neck at the time where if she didn’t take muscle relaxers right on schedule, she could only look to the right. When she drove in the car with someone (which was all the time because hello you can’t drive a car when you can’t swivel your head!), it looked like she was very angry at them. It’s too bad her crick wasn’t to the left, so that she looked in love with them. Anyway, she really, really needed to take her meds and had to wait while they finished interviewing me. She wasn’t so happy about that.
So anyway, I’ve never PLANNED to be on TV as an ADULT, so I was very excited and nervous. I saw the commercial for the first time last weekend and it turned out SO GREAT! TBC is planning to ad the commercial to their website soon, so you can check it out at their link. Oh, and if you are in the greater Sacramento Area, consider Natural Childbirth at The Birth Center! It’s a nice way for a family to be born!
Here I am, on set.