Uh-Oh

I am Steve, who has not written on this blog for many ages. I am Eliza's true father.

One of Eliza's favorite words (or phrases, depending on your interpretation) is "uh-oh." Whenever anything is wrong or out of place in her world, "uh-oh" is the best way to express her disapproval. The word is often employed in response to something falling, though sometimes she says "uh-oh" first and then drops the item in question "accidentally."

So, the other night I was rocking Eliza to sleep and she was struggling a bit. She was waving her arm around, grabbing my face, and doing anything she could think of to drive away the encroaching night-time. Suddenly she stirred and looked up at me.
"Uh-oh," she said.
And then she immediately rolled into me and fell asleep.
Hypnos had descended upon her and she knew there was no escape; it was the last peep we heard out of her all night.
Apparently "uh-oh" can describe falling objects and falling asleep.

Wanna fight?

My favorite class at the gym these days is a cycling/boxing combo class that lasts an hour and 15 minutes. It is awesome!

Cycling makes my legs burn until I think they're about to fall off, and then it's finally time for boxing!!

The picture above is of me showing off my hand wraps for Steve after I got home from work the other day.

I told Robby that I was doing these boxing classes, and his response was, "Poor Steve."

Come on! I promise to only use my powers for good. Punching the guts out of the bags in class is an awesome stress reliever and gets out a lot of my pent-in frustration.

At one point in the class, after 15 reps of 2 jabs, 1 cross, and 2 under-cuts, the instructor had us flex our arm muscles and tense them as much as we could. We had to hold it for what seemed like forever, but in actuality it was probably only 1 or 2 minutes. I don't know what purpose this serves besides to show the class how puny my arms look and to make everyone else feel better about their rippling muscle tone. I've always had spindly arms, but I think I might hide them under sleeves next class to avoid any further humiliation.

The other funny thing about the class is the unspoken competition and sizing each other up. Or maybe no one else does this besides me... We don't ever do sparring or anything, but I do know that I NEVER ever want to go against superwoman, Alice, who has a bunch of tattoos and a boys' hair cut and who yells into her punching bag while she pulverizes it. But I know I can't be the weakest in there! I at least could take the little 13 yr old boy who hasn't hit puberty yet! So one down, 18 to go.

My favorite quote from my instructor on Friday, though, was this yell:

"Come on people! This isn't a SPANKING class! This is a BOXING class!"

I think I'm ready to watch Million Dollar Baby for some more inspiration.

Join, Or Die

The John Adams mini-series was my choice for our Netflix movie this week. I was interested in seeing it after hearing several very good recommendations from friends I trust.

My friends were right.

These movies are incredible. They give me chills and are awe-inspiring. I also really like how much of a part Abigail Adams plays in this series.

Then I press the input button on the remote and try to not be overwhelmed by the powerfully delivered speeches broadcasting on every channel from the Democratic Convention. Interesting juxtaposition.

Anyways, check out this trailer for the mini-series. Pretty cool! Has anyone seen these yet?



p.s. I think that the John Adams in the movie (actor and character) reminds me of my brother, Robby, which makes me like it all even more. Not the 4o yr old, doesn't shower much part, but the highly intelligent and passionate part...

Weekend Rendezvous in DC

I was SO excited to hear that my best friend, former roommate, bridesmaid, fellow feminist and general confidant, Gloria Gong and her husband Carl Brinton, were living in DC for a short few months.

So, Steve, Eliza, and I went up to DC to visit with them (a week and a half ago- I know I'm slow on blogging lately).

(The newlyweds, Carl and Gloria)

We rendezvoused at the free! National Aquatic Gardens in DC which had gorgeous Lotus blossoms and lily pads like these:
I also got to see one of my other college buddies and former roommates, Thelma! She's living and working in DC for the U.S. Campaign for Burma! So cool.
The aquatic gardens were amazing, and apparently the marsh purifies the polluted water from the Anacostia river from Maryland. There were absolutely beautiful plants and some awesome birds including some inspiring* cranes .
Eliza loved it too, we just had to make sure she didn't fall in to any water b/c she seemed ready to climb right into some of the little ponds.

(I'm sorry to everyone else, but I just have to say that Steve looks like such a hunk in this picture, especially holding hands w/ a cutie like that!)

I hadn't seen Gloria since she left on her mission to Taiwan in Fall 2006. I was barely pregnant with Eliza at her "farewell" party, and so, as you can imagine, a lot has changed for the both of us since then with only the occasional contact here and there.

Our more ambitious plans for DC involved rendezvousing at the gardens at 7:30am (which we did), then headed back to the house that Gloria and Carl were house sitting and making pancakes, and then heading downtown to the Freer Museum, and then heading back to Charlottesville around 1pm, so I could make it to my 3:30pm shift at work.

But it was just soo WONDERFUL to be able to talk and discuss and share with this group of friends that we never made it beyond the pancakes part of the plan (and then we found some of the infamous DC traffic which put us on an hour and a half detour and made me late for my 3:30 shift).

Anyone who knows Gloria, knows that she's one of the most amazing discussion facilitators . So we got to have a scrumptious conversation involving questions and topics like:

If you were to speak to the women of the church, what would you speak about? What do you think they need to hear? or

How have you seen our new age of sexism infantalize men? or

What does Ralph Nader have to do with your research here on China's energy policies?

What is really more efficient, cloth diapers or biodegradable diapers or regular diapers. What do most parents' budgets afford? or

What piece of advice could or would you give to newlyweds. or

How have you found spiritual assurance for daily moments of despair? or

How am I surprised that the newlyweds got accepted into the 2 year FBI/CIA recruiting program which will be paying them to study in and about Beijing, China?

It was great stuff.

All the while Eliza pulled apart puzzles and did other things like this:

We also got to see Kate and Aaron's new place up in DC too. They were really nice to let us crash at their place on Friday. We got to have a fun, relaxed evening with Katy playing a new strategy game and watching the Olympics and making a fiasco of a chocolate cake. (Note to family: don't assign me to grease the pan. I'll ruin your life! and the cake too.)

Unfortunately for us (and many others too...), Russia had just decided to invade Georgia around the time we visited, so Aaron didn't get back from the White House until after midnight! It was still fun to see them. We miss them a lot; it was really nice having family in the same town! Who knows the next time that will happen for us!

I love Sesame Street...

... for a LOT of reasons. The fact that it teaches diversity, encourages all types of learning and curiousity, and the fact that it doesn't give me a headache to watch like a lot of the other shows designed for kids.

Here is the latest reason that I love Sesame Street:



You know you hit it big when you make it on Sesame Street!

Oh, and now Eliza points to our computer and says, "Elm! Elm? Pease? More? Elm." Yay for Elmo.

Here's another good one that I saw yesterday on Sesame Street:



Enjoy.

Midnight Musings

Random:

a) "All bad poetry is sincere." -Oscar Wilde

I'm really sorry, but I HATE when people (mostly my clients) want to show me their poetry. Eek! I feel like I often respect people for making the attempt to write poetry, but I'm always more concerned about whether my reaction will sound convincing enough. It's like opening up presents in front of the gifter.

Because seriously, no one shows you their poetry for you to say, "Well, that sucked!" or "I'd stick to personally journal writing..." So, in response I try to use lots of hyperboles and appreciative grunts and profound expressions. Such as, "Hmmm................Wow!"

b)I like to do the rowing machine at the gym, but I realized that I usually end up humming to myself the Pocahontas song, "Just around the river bend-- Look once more! Just around the river bend! Beyond the shore!" and that's all I know of it. Over and over as I row... I am Pocahontas for like 10 minutes every day.

c)Eliza loves youtube. Yeah, there's Elmo's World on Youtube.

d) Eliza apparently forgot how to walk. All she does now until when she collapses for a nap or bedtime is RUN, RUN, RUN!!! Thankfully this means 3 hour naps and 12 hour nights. Unfortunately, it means Steve and I have a lot of catching up to do.

Ironic:
a)We spend most of our adolescence and young adult life searching for that special someone, and then once we find them, we spend most of our adult life working apart from them and living parallel lives where we wish we could just spend a little more time with our one and only's. What's up with them apples?

Curse money and confused priorities. That's why every once in a while, I flirt with the idea of joining the local commune where I'd be guaranteed to spend at least 50 hours/wk with my lover, Steve. And that's waking hours, not just lying next to each other asleep.

b)It took us days to teach Eliza how to sign and say, "please," but it only took her two seconds to learn how to hit herself in the head and laugh or shake her head back and forth while yelling, "ahhh!" She saw us (well, Steve) do these things, tried them out herself and then saw how we laughed when she did it... and now she won't stop. Awesome.

Nutrition:
Does popcorn count as a meal? It's got lots of fiber...

Romantic:

With my new hours at work, I don't get off until after midnight a couple nights a week. Sometimes, if it's been an especially crazy or stressful night (client decompensates and gets suicidal, aggressive, etc), I have some trouble unwinding enough to fall asleep.

Steve usually tells me stories to help me fall asleep, but I didn't want him to have to wait up for me on nights like these. So being the sweet, sweet man that he is, he pulls up the website of Librivox Recordings on the computer before he goes to sleep.

They are the site for the "acoustical liberation of books in the public domain." Volunteers record chapter books that are no longer copyrighted. Steve subscribes to their blog, where they post half a dozen or so new audio books every day. So the past few weeks, I've been lulled to sleep listening to some British lady's rendition of The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald. Dreamy...

Naked Baby Biking

Steve got me this iBert Safe-T Front Mounted Child Bicycle Seat for my birthday, and we finally got around to installing it this week! It apparently wasn't very hard to install anywayz, but it had been just one more thing on the to-do list. It's gotten really great reviews on safety and parent/child satisfaction. It's supposed to work from 12 months to 4 years too!

The verdict is in, though, and WE LOVE IT!!! We meaning Eliza + me. We decided to take it for a spin yesterday night after spaghetti dinner, hence the clothes-free child (don't worry, she's got a cloth diaper on, you just can't tell).

Eliza loved it so much that every time I stopped in front of the house, she'd immediately starting signing and saying, "mohr? mohr?" It was so funny! She loved being able to see where we we're going. And as we rode along the road she was going, "whoah, woah, woooah" in amazement. 

It was also fun to be able to point things out to her and see and hear her excitement
in response to my narration of, "Look there's the kitty! Look at the trees! Look at the neighbor's doggy! Look at the cars!"

The only bad thing is she's not so much a fan of the helmet, so hopefully she'll get more used to it with time.

I'm so excited to get to ride my bike again. I used to do it a lot before I had Eliza, but Tuesday marked my first ride in about 16 months. Yippee!

A mother's feet

Yeah, I know I'm in desperate need of a pedicure.

But that's not gonna happen, and that's not the subject of this post.

About eight or nine months ago, I noticed a dark pattern on the top of my feet. I thought it was weird but didn't give much thought to it besides to try to rub a little more soap on 'em in the shower. Then it got a little darker. I rubbed my feet one night and realized that they were callouses... callouses from kneeling down and knee walking over and over again on rough carpets, cement, and grass to get closer to Eliza's world. 

The callouses are getting a little bit better since Eliza's been walking, so I thought I better record this before it's all gone. This physical evidence of my symbolic sacrifice and "worship" of my baby girl.

To me it portrays a little of my desire to be a close and intimate part of 
Eliza's exciting life adventure.

Just another pleasant and attractive emblem that marks my body as a mommy body. I won't go in to anymore details about that, though. Motherhood is a glamorous thing....

Readability

TV Reviews

Well, at least it's not kindergarten. Most days, I feel like I end up talking in one word sentences (more, eat, paci, hot, water, doggie, kitty, etc) and blubbering or singing other versions of baby words (baba, growl, if your scared and you know it you can shake- woohhhoohoo!).

Soo I'm glad to hear that every once in a while I'm able to redeem myself to a college level-- at least in the written format.

I think I'll start inserting larger words at the end of each post randomly just to artificially boost up my score...

somnambulist, anhedonic, sordid, discombobulation, mastication, occipital, concatenation, palimpsest... How many of these do you guys know the definition of?

Take that readability test!

Steve's illustration blog got this rating:

TV Reviews

Which now really makes me feel dumb because it's a PICTURE blog!

His secret blog of random thoughts that he didn't tell me that he had started until four months later got this rating:

TV Reviews

Irrelevant intelligence quotient... just like IQ scores.... whatever.

I felt silly doing this...

You Are Ariel!

Headstrong and fiesty. You have a mind of your own that's full of romantic dreams about the world around you. Exploring exotic places is your ultimate dream, and although you can be a little naive you'll realize that there is something to be gained from your family's wisdom.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

I used to worship Ariel in the first grade... guess she really became my inspiration.

Respite

It's kinda been a hard month for our little family for various reasons. However, one peaceful reprieve for Eliza and me has been our walks.

Our walks used to mean a very different thing... strollers, backpacks, or both.

Now Eliza holds my hand as we go explore our coldesac
and backyard and sometimes make it all the way to the playground.

We discover sticks, moss, crunchy leaves, butterflies, birds, flowers, and ferns. I love the nature that this house is surrounded by. When we're outside, Eliza often makes the sign for bird as she hears one of them tweeting. Most days we see wild bunnies hopping through our yard or across the street.

She's quite the out-doorsy girl these days, and I love it. Most of the time we're just wandering a few yards behind the cat or the dog, but by the time we get back inside, Eliza is WORN OUT!

And while we're discussing the outdoors, I want to take the opportunity to bore you by bragging about my awesome compost!!

Steve and I started our composting a little while after we moved into this place.
We just throw our fruit cores and old veggies, etc into a bucket. 
Later we take it out and bury it in our hole 
and mix in some old leaves and dirt.

Anywayz, we finally ran out of the fancy organic compost that I bought at Snow's nursery and decided to check on our homegrown stuff. To Steve and my delight, our nasty, stinky garbage was suddenly gorgeous soil that more than filled the above blue bucket. We sprinkled down a new layer in our garden Friday night.

We're just so proud of the fact that we turn our garbage into something that will continue to nourish more life! Corny but kinda a cool feeling...?

Sweaty Pride

And here's a picture of the nest we found in our outdoor laundry room about a month ago. They're Carolina Wren chicks. I checked the nest yesterday, though, and they've all flown away!

I guess Summer is almost over...