why take a cab when you can take a limo?

A few people's first response to "I'm pregnant again" was "Oh, you're gonna need one of those double strollers."

They're right, I need one.

There's a mod brit plaid one on craigslist for 50 bucks that I want really bad, but I can only wait for her email reply and bite my nails in anticipation.

If money was no object, I'd get this Ferrari of double strollers:


It's like 900 dollars before shipping. Is that really necessary?



This one is only 500 dollars, and it's cool looking, but it sets up a kind of baby hiarchy. Somebody gets the bad seat.



This one is "reasonably" priced at 250 and I like it alot. If I don't get the craigslist one, maybe I'll have everyone I've ever met in my life pitch in to buy it for me, heh.

Baby Tuesday

I'll be frank, this week's baby tue is meager compared to other weeks. I only have one video and one photo.
But! In the news, she's walking pretty darn good. Also, this morning she went to the playground for the first time and loved the swing. She cracked up. Sorry, I didn't bring the camera. However, when she wasn't on the swing, all she wanted to do was go back to the stroller (and the dogs that were tied to it) and pull everything out of it.





This was after her bath this morning. It was kinda hard to hold her and take a photo of her at the same time. She also apparently found it difficult to pose.

if this were 50 years ago, it would be totally normal

A few years back I was wasting time watching some random 60's teen beach movie and in the particular scene, this girl comes home from her date and takes off her wig. She puts it neatly on its stand next to another wig on her dressing table, both blonde wigs and pretty similar to her actual hair.

And I was amazed.

What a great idea! Pre-done hair, as thick as you can afford, never needs re-dying and unless someone spills a slurpee on your head- no shampooing.

Brilliant.

Ever since then I've wanted a wig or two. I would use them just like the actress in the movie. They would be sorta like my hair but better for when I was short on time, or hair. But I would never go into a creepy wig shop.

Ebay, however is much less creepy.
Unless of course, maniquin heads scare you.

So over the past couple of years, I've clicked around for hours looking at the various wigs from around the world.
But I can't commit to buying one. Especially when I'm pretty sure everyone would make fun of me, because it's not socially acceptable to wear a wig unless you're on chemo or from Sudan.

But I still want one...

Oprah's unmentionables

Achtung: Men, you will not find this post interesting at all, despite that it concerns boobs.


Many of my readers don't watch Oprah, but even if you don't, you've probably heard about the episode that flooded "undies departments" across the nation: The Bra Show.

The moral of the show?
Ladies, go get measured, you're wearing the wrong size.

So last month, I walked in Nordstroms (where I NEVER shop, but they didn't need to know that) and got measured. Aurora was also there for moral support, but she refused to play the game too.

Low and behold, I was off on both number and letter.

However, the downside is that cheap stores do not carry my true size. Victoria's Secret.com had four. Just four!

And that, is why I believe most women wear the wrong size. Because they don't sell the right ones!

uh oh

Before baby #1 was born, I consulted this Chinese calendar of gender prediction and was happy to see that it predicted a girl.
It turned out to be correct, too.

But--

I just consulted the chart for this peanut, and it says boy. :<




(Son, if you read this some day, I still love you.)

((hahaha))

my first present outing

I had to fill our vitamin prescriptions at the drug store and while I was looking for fabric dye, I saw the toy aisle.
Baby's 1st birthday is right around the corner so I picked out her gifts with her right there in the stroller. And it occurred to me that this is last time I will be able to shop for her gifts with her watching me and they'll still be a surprise when she opens them. :)

I bought some bright-make-baby-happy wrapping paper instead of gift bags. Normally I I don't use bags (because I'm a gift wrap snob), but then I thought "hmm she does like taking stuff out of bags...wait, what am I going to do with those bags after the gifts come out?"
So I bought the paper and wrapped them cleverly with "pull rings" so she can easily yank on the rings to tear open the paper! [curtsey]

I was all over the place on the age recommendations. The GlowWorm I bought said "Birth+", the My Little Pony said "3+" and the little ambulance said "12mo+."
And for those concerned, before I wrapped it I took out the little pony hairbrush which is the "small part" that made it baby-inappropriate. I don't think she can fit the whole pony in her mouth. And she likes things that light up and play music, that's why I bought the 'worm. :)
(I had a My Little Pony and a GlowWorn 20 years ago, that's weird don't ya' think?)

don't thank me, thank the staple gun

A while back we got a couple of Home Depot gift cards and I said "ooh I can get a staple gun!" and he said "what are you going to do with a staple gun?"
"Upholster things, of course."
He was dubious, but now check out the before and after dining room [Craigslist bargain stained up] chairs!



It's hard to tell from the photo, but the new fabric is a chocolate brown faux velvet, from my favorite Chinese fabric store on the "east side."

you can only have microwave meatballs so many times

We have no oven or stove.
I'm not sure if everyone knew that, but we don't.
It is indeed the very last step in our kitchen renovation.
Kevin is rebuilding (much like you would an old car) an old Chambers stove that we pulled from a dank San Franicsco basesment for $100, two years ago.
It is incredibly heavy because it's mostly made of cast iron, and I have affectionately named it the Lusitania.
We learned that Rachel Ray uses our stove on her cooking shows. And if you've seen her use that freaky flame throwing broiler, you'll remember it.

Anyway, Kevin's still working on it. It was basicly a bucket of rust when we got it, so it's a long-termer and I knew that from the beginning. I hated our old electric one so much that I had them throw it out during demolition. I was willing to not have a stove at all for a while than look at that piece of crap any longer.

But man, it's hard to cook anything decent without a stove/oven.
Here is what I can make:

Salads
Fajitas (single burner hot plate)
Nachos (in microwave)
steaks (george forman)
corn dogs (deep fryer)

And that's about it. I can only boil water in the tiniest pot we have, because that's all the hot plate can muster. So I guess I can add to the list: deviled eggs, about 3 at a time, and two servings of pasta.

Now I'm currently looking up camping recipes because I think I might be able to do those...mmm smores for dinner...

Baby Tuesday

To answer Randy's question from last week:
I think when baby #2 comes along, I'll prob have two separate baby blog days unless s/he too is born on a Tuesday.




This is from like a month ago but I forgot I had it, then Youtube was down, etc, etc.
Gripping baby action!





So like I said before, her former crib bumper met a distasteful end and I thought she'd be okay without one now. That was until the other day 5 minutes after she fell asleep, I hear screaming-fear-crying coming from her room. I open the door and find that she had got her ankle caught in between the slats.
Alright so she still needs a bumper after all. So in my grinchy way, I bougth up some clearance fabric (which is 70's fabulous) and some ribbon on Ebay and sewed up a new one for her. I love it. Love love love it. I think she likes it too. It's very soft.


This isn't the most well photographed image, but she looks like a little baby seal.


This has an early REM quality, does it not? This photo needed some spice, or some HUGE black-eyed-susans rather. She loves Daddy...alot.


This one is also a lil' old. But I don't think I showed it before.
She likes to feed us. It's her way of helping out.


The only babies in this video are of the four legged kind.
You might need some aspirin after this clip, it's so cute it hurts.

I feel oppressed!

Maternity clothes sucks!
Alright, I said it, they suck.
They aren't cute, unless you go to a fancy place like Japanese Weekend and spend $100 on a tank top.
Like, Old Navy, otherwise they have cute clothes for regular, non reproducing people. But their maternity clothes- not cute!

If the model looks like a shlump, what am I supposed to look like?!

Last time, I thought "who cares, I'll just buy whatever."
And I totally regreted it.
I looked so lame, if I were a wilderbeast, a lion would have picked me out of the herd for dinner.

I will not go down without a fight!

Fight the shlump!

it's the closest thing to addiction for me

I stay at home most of the day and I stare at the decor discontentedly.
"This design did not work out the way I wanted it," I think to myself between dispensing bottles and kibbles.

But how to make it right? How can I make the living areas make sense?*

I did not know.

Then for our anniversary we went to a decent restaraunt and I loved the design of it.




Our furniture already works. It's brilliant and I want to paint the walls yellow and the trim brown right away!!

But alas, I made a promise to myself not to execute any design ideas until after the second baby arrives (the exception being the other baby's room of course).
I learned my lesson from the first go round. Roughly a quarter of my ideas were bad and now I have to figure out how to undo them.
Anything I do in the next 6 months must have been thought up before conception, ha, no but really, I made that rule.

So my Left Bank living/dining room will have to wait.
Even though I can't get through a day without plotting out every step of the concept.
"Warm yellow walls, yes, chocolate trim, a couple of dark stained round sidetables, mmhmm yes, lovely..."
It's about once an hour, honestly, that I think of it.
Hourly!

*I am quite sure no one in Swazliland has ever felt this way. And for that I am ashamed.

now everyone knows that I watch German television, but-

I was just watching a German news show, kinda like Dateline (minus fear mongering). And they were reporting how this one port city is trying to out-do Hamburg as a shipping town.
They showed the little party they had to celebrate their rising success at the harbor and I heard Alan Jackson's Chattahoochee song playing.
And sure enough in the background there were line dancers in cowboy hats.

Those crazy Germans.

Baby Tuesday

To clarify on the last baby name post, don't worry we won't do Tuesday as a name. He doesn't like it. And I never had the intention of making Abilene a first name for anyone. It was just a good "A" name for a middle.
But thank you all for shooting down Adenine. I'm pretty happy with the one that we can both agree on for now. 2 more months and you'll know it.

I have a video this week, but Youtube is down for maintenance, so that'll have to wait two shakes.


This is my vantage point during most of her waking hours. The baby attack. She's got claws and fangs, that baby. Villagers beware. 

A lil' sleepy here. Nobody likes a flash at 8am. 

This never happens! I came home from church on Sunday and she was asleep on him. Miraculous! 

This photo was a little ho hum, so it needed some pink chinchillas to perk it up. I was trying to show how she can get in and out of short chairs by herself, but the best I got was her sitting and staring at a diaper clip. 

they'll be glad to know

My family flew out a week ago, and promptly informed that my house had funny smells and my furniture was oddly organized.
The smells I was kinda unaware of, but I was very ready for their help with the other stuff.

Aurora bought me clorox wipes, which I thought I didn't want.
But now I soley clean the kitchen counter with them.

My mom suggested that the baby's diaper pail go outside her room.
It's still outside, no more stinky baby room.

They both said that my dining room table should be against the wall.
The day after they left, I turned it and pushed it against the wall. Much better!


Sadly my couches still look stupid where they are and I've yet to replace the insanity of dog blankets in the guest bathroom. But it was a good start. :)

sometimes I think nature is overrated

When I first moved to CA, I lived out in the boonies. At night I had to drive really slow back to my house so that I wouldn't hit deer. Really, there were tons of deer, just jonesin' to leap out at my truck.
And then over the years I've taken walks in the hills and decided to turn around when I saw "Danger! Do not walk alone! Mountain lion warning!" signs.
I've met people that live near the hills whose dogs and cats have been eaten by coyotes.
(None of these things were ever a problem in Richardson, TX. Roaches and ticks yes. Big game, no.)


But the most annoying animals are the spiders! Everyplace that I've lived here has been chock full of spiders.
I'm not scared of spiders, and the little ones are just fine with me, I won't even move them if I see them.
Bigger ones, I'll trap and throw outside.

But oh my gosh, there are some honkers in our yard. And they are BUSY web makers*. I take a broom to their webs, they're back in two days. It's like I live in Disneyland's Haunted Mansion.

The inspiration of this post was this guy:


Holy Mary and Joseph, this spider is big and orange like a rubber halloween gag!
He wove a giant web over the baby's stroller on the front porch in about 24 hours. And he's just sitting there. Asking for me to kill him.

(I looked it up, it's not poisonous, just ugly.)


*I often like to try n' put animal world cirumstances into human terms and figure out what the parallel would be. Like in the case of the massive amounts of spider webs filled with the carcases of spent insects: Would that be like evil cannibals setting booby traps around town and killing innocent people? I think the insects should legislate or get some sort of militia against the spiders. Bug rights are being seriously violated.

nothing ruffles feathers like baby names

We're not going to be as secretive with the second baby's name as we were with baby C. People know what to expect from us now, so I didn't see any reason to put it on the Q.T.
However, I will wait until we know boy or girl to blog what the name will be. Sorry, folks, gotta wait until November.

The boy's name is already picked out from last time. That's wrapped up and sealed, it doesn't get any better.

The girl's is still very much up for debate. We didn't have a definite #2 choice from last time. What did happen last time was that we tried to give baby C a middle name that started with the letter A, so that she would have the same initials as me. We gave up on that because it was a standstill on either side of the battlefield.
I wanted Abilene
and he wanted Adenine.

He was abhorred because mine was a city in Texas.
I was abhorred because his was an organic molecule.

So we went with Fairlane instead and her initials don't spell a word and I'm okay with that.

But now! Kevin still wants to name our second daughter Adenine. Like, as in a first name.
I hate it and these are my reasons why.

#1. People will say "huh?"
Just like with my name, people aren't ready for a odd word. Baby C's name, everyone knows that word. They might make a face because they're surprised, but they won't mispronouce it.

#2. It's nerdy, and not the good kind.
I like the name Linus. I like the name Pascal/Pascale. Those are names that are cool that also happen to be science references. I'm okay with that. Thayers are scientists, I accept that. But no molecule names!

He's quite upset about my veto on this. So I told him I'd blog it and see what other people think. So all of you that never comment, you better comment! Vote vote vote!

not good.

p.s. My name that I really liked that he hates is "Tuesday". But I accept the veto. That's the way this deal works.

what does this accomplish?

I can't buy the same design of bank checks twice. It's like always getting the same flavor ice cream, there's no adventure to it.

So as I'm browsing the many options of personalized checks, I notice there are many Christian designs. Nice ones with verses, cute little babies, sunsets and cartoon crosses. All fine. (I used to have some that had verses on them, when I was single, they were very girly.)
And then I come across these:



It says on the page "Everyone loves a cartoon, but these messages are no laughing matter..." And you can even buy a "Thou shall not kill" embossed leather checkbook cover.

What?!

Good heavens!

Ok, listen.
How I (or any other stranger) personally feel about abortion doesn't make a bit of difference to someone who's actually considering doing it.
Furthermore, is anyone going to see your check to the phone company and think "ha, you're right John Q Citizen! Those Planned Parenthood people, they're a bunch of buffoons!"
No.

I didn't see any "save the people of Sudan!" checks or "pass a living wage bill!" checks. Thank goodness there weren't any Pro-heterosexual cartoon checks.

Let's just stick to our Bible verses, and landscapes, can we?




p.s. On our drive back from Tahoe, we saw a high school athletics sticker on the back on SUV that said "Jesuit Marauders"... Um, I'm thinking that any faith-based school should not use a mascot who's defined as "someone who attacks in search of booty."
I'm just sayin'.

cracka what?

I hadn't checked my myspace in a long time,(The sparkle of it is fading).
I checked it this morning and what do I see in my friend request box?

I request from a 45 year old woman in Florida.

"I can't possibly actually know this person" I think, as I scan her page.
She's all over the place--Amazon consultant this and Ebay power seller that. But most prominently she has big boobies comin' right for ya' in her layout.
What is that supposed to communicate?
"I'm old enough to be grandmother but I like boobs?"
They aren't hers...it's very weird.

And she's got 301 friends. She doesn't need me like JR does. Sorry Danna, I already have a friend your age, I call her "Mom."

Tom Jones should have been the last

This guy may otherwise be real cool.
And I'm glad he's wearing american made, anti-sweatshop all natural clothing.
But a "deep v" neck on a man?

I don't care who you are. Male super model, doesn't matter.


No low cut men's shirts!

Baby Tuesday

It's 8:45 AM and she's still sleeping!
And I believe it's all thanks to the pajamas.
I used to just put her in a T-shirt to go to sleep because I think it gets kinda hot in our house at night. But then when my mom and I shared a room with her we noticed that she flips and flops and makes little noises all night long. Then I tried putting full jammies on her and she slept like a log.

Tahoe was our first real trip with the baby and I learned there's alot of downtime with a baby. Especially with two babies, we had to wait until they had both napped or both eaten, etc until we could leave to do something together. Most days we had to split into two baby groups because they wouldn't synch up.

I had to use Hello to post the photos, Blogger's laggin'...


I don't know why this makes me think of the 70's, but it does. If there was a field of wildflowers behind her and she was wearing an sundress, the image would be complete.  

I took her out of the water after her lips started quivering. 

Don't we all have photos like this of us with our siblings or in this case, cousins? Scout is an agreeable bather. The bug, not so much. She's a stealer too. Look at that scoul of indignation! 

She's at the stage where she doesn't want anything on her head-- pulls it right off. So I thought we'd just have to slather her head with sunblock. I learned that that only gives her punk rock hair and little else.
Then after holding a towel on her head like a birka for our entire paddleboat ride, I bought a little hat that ties on. Perfect! 

I forgot my maternity swimsuit, a.k.a. the easter egg suit, at home so I bought a cheap bikini at Kmart and let the belly shine at the beach. The baby obviously was dressed more tastefully. 


BTW, last night was our two year anniversary. I've yet to not be pregnant on our anniversary, but 2 1/2 mo's is way more attractive than 8 1/2 mo's so this time I looked a little cuter.
We saw Little Miss Sunshine and I loved it! 9 1/2 out of 10!

"let's motor"

Ever since the idea of having a baby (the first one) came up, the idea of getting a different car has always been on the table.
My pompous American attitude in the very beginning was "no way am I driving our baby in my Civic coupe with no A/C!"
Then the baby came along about a year before our budget would allow for another car.
And yes, I drive her around in it, and it's not a big deal. (If it's the middle of a heat wave, K drives the hot tamale to work.)
But two babies? Two car seats? Two door car?
Eeek.

Circumstances regarding our current cars leads us to want to replace both of them.
Ideally, one commuter, and one family size.

Which to buy first?
You'd think family, but the Audi has 4 doors and A/C, which will suit me just fine for a few years.
So we'll replace the Civic with a new commuter for him.


Okay then we narrow it down more:

1. Not more than 25K
2. Used
3. Gas milage at around 25/30 mpg
4. Really low emissions
5. Really good safety ratings

What did Edmunds.com and FuelEconomy.gov lead me to?



A MINI.

He's not sold on it yet. But I do love them. I always look to see who's driving them.


In the meantime I can't help searching for the family vehicle of my future.

Of course, as I blogged about before, I would love an FJ Cruiser, but after seeing how eensy the backseat is, and that it doesn't have a 3rd row option, FJ got dumped.
Honda Element? No, it only seats 4.
VW Touareg? No, too $$ and bad mpg.
Volvo? Too $$
etc
etc
etc

You know what I narrowed my search down to?



A RAV4!

I'm a little embarrassed to say it. But with the 3rd row option, it meets all the requirements. It would have to be black, with nice wheels to make up for it's limp wrists. However, I am a girl. I do have vanity plates with hearts and flowers on it, I might as well have a RAV4 and go whole hog.

In the meantime, go MINI!

back by popular demand

The vacation was good. It still felt kinda funny going on vacation when I don't really have a "job." And if taking care of the baby is my job, then I didn't really take a vacation because she came too.

I dunno, but it was fun.


Let me illustrate Lake Tahoe, CA/NV...


If we had gone on a hike, I could have taken this photo.
Babies don't make good hiking buddies, so instead we walked the doggies around the cabin-y neighborhood.



I think it was the city of Chicago that started this trend of civic-art-animals. They had various artists decorate/design cows and then sprinkled them about the city. San Jose had art-sharks a couple years back (they're gone now, I guess they returned them to the sea). And Tahoe has bears. Quality fiberglass bears just asking for you to take your picture with them. I didn't do that, but somebody took this one.



If we had been big spenders, we would have gotten a motorboat like this. But c'mon, $100 for an hour of making sure my husband, who can't get in the water and my baby who can't swim, don't fall overboard didn't make fiscal sense.
But I tell ya', when the babies get older, I'll be the skipper of one of those boats, and Dad can't chill on the beach with his book while we cruise.
We did rent a paddleboat. $15, much better price. Plus, I don't think a paddleboat has flipped in the history of mankind. The baby was happy for about 20 minutes and then it was a game of who's gonna hold the cranky bug and who's gonna paddle like crazy back to the marina.



Okay, this is the only one that would be impossible for me to have taken myself. This is the Nevada stateline in the 1960's. Swingin'!
Now that Harrahs is MUCH bigger. Kevin and I willingly lost $40 in their shiny, blinky, plinky, smokey casino. I did get a vanilla milkshake out of the deal, so I guess you could say we just paid alot for that milkshake.
After we left, Aurora got little stars tattoo'd on her foot at the Lake Monster Parlor next door to Harrahs. Now we're matchy-tattoo-sisters, although I only have one star. I would have got a second one, but I'm preggie. :p

Most of us on the trip kept contemplating how one could live year round in Tahoe. What do all those people do for money? Is the snow maddening? Would I live in constant fear of bears, wolves and pumas?...okay that last one was just mine.

Tomorrow I will have real photos that were taken by me or more likely Aurora on our trip. They all have the bug in them so I'm saving them for Tuesday...

baby tuesday

Just one pic.

We're in Tahoe, who would've thought I'd have blogging access?