The Simple Humanity

Jen's post, "The Good" inspired me to write my own post about happiness and simple humanity in our daily lives. It can be easy to get bogged down in the scary awful that seems to happen all too often these days. So though E and I didn't practice Jen's philanthropy yesterday, we did have a lovely day filled with lovely human interaction, and I thought I'd share.

In the morning, we awoke to hugs and kisses from Daddy before he left for work. Then E waved to him until he couldn't see him anymore, and we checked on our strawberry garden to supplement breakfast. After that I did a little laundry, and E noticed his swimming trunks which sparked an interest in the pool. We packed up and walked to our clubhouse. Once there we met 2 other families with children E's age along with what E called "Grandmas." The kids conversed and played, and the adults helped watch/entertain all children and shared supplies. Everyone was gentle, congenial and kind. 

Afterward we walked back to the house where E played quietly while I cooked homemade pasta sauce (yes, the yummy tasty kitchen onion/butter kind.) Then Hub came home, and we all sat pleasantly around the table, discussed a little of the unpleasant and gave out lots of hugs. Before bed, we all danced around the living room to E's favorite music.

The Most Beautiful Passerine

The painted bunting. I got to see it for the second time in my life today. There were 2 males and 1 female (a lemon-lime ish color) hanging out at a feeder where I did some birding this morning. There are lots of gorgeous songbirds: indigo buntings, cedar waxwings, and various grosbeaks and flycatchers. But this one seems the most unreal and vivid to me with its mix of blue, scarlet and lime green. I love them.

We saw dozens of species today easily. Another highlight was a glossy ibis in some really gorgeous breeding plumage. Beautiful day.

Do you bird? Do you like watching birds at your feeder? What are you seeing in your area recently? Do you have a favorite? Share with me.

Happy Equation

1. A fixed (and sassy!) haircut.
+
2. Taxes DONE
+
3. A new awesomely cleaning and fun to use vacuum.
+
4. Home improvement projects actually moving forward.
+
5. Potty training (though exhausting) going fabulously.
+
6. The best little family ever.
=
A mama whose cup runneth over.

Basic Kindle vs. Kindle Fire

So if you've followed, you know that I like the Kindle Fire, but I find it much better for TV shows and child amusement than I do for reading books. I do sometimes use it to read at night in bed, but lit screens keep my already crazy brain too active, so it's better if I don't do that. 

Hub knew this, so he (bless his kind soul) bought me the most basic Kindle e-ink reader for Christmas. I LOVE it. I still like books better, but I do enjoy this Kindle to take to work or traveling. It's so much lighter and smaller than the Fire and so much easier on the eyes. I can get involved much better in the book. It's also quite handy to carry compared to books as I like to read multiple books at once. And the amount of time it keeps a charge is pretty awesome. I'm a fan. 

Now you have my review.

Super Top Secret Mission Day

Today I stayed home from work without telling Hub or the little man. I wasn't originally going to take the day off, but circumstances in scheduling presented the opportunity, and on a whim, I took it. 

I got up super early like I normally would for work except that I drove off to the post office, grocery store and clothing recycling center. Then I headed to Lowe's to check out new ranges and get a paint sample for our bedroom. By the time I was finished with all that, Hub had already left to drop E off at school (which is going well, but he still cries in the AM.) 

When I got home I started the taxes and started cleaning our bedroom. My plan was to deep clean that place as a surprise for Hub, because his allergies are so bad. I also wanted to put some paint (a light gray/blue) on the walls at least to see if it was nice. Then I headed off to an appointment to get my hair done! Yay! A haircut! It's been at least 7 months. 

After I came back, I continued to clean and then (almost) finished painting the kitchen! You may remember this goal from ages ago. I just have one more coat to do on two of the walls, and then I'm DONE. I finished up with the taxes, some dishes, a shower and a quick early pick up of my sweet boy. It was eventful and fun to plan all that with only myself to answer to. Hub liked the surprise and loves the paint color. Yay! 

Thankful Prayer

Dear God,
Thank you for this amazing, miraculous, beautiful child and happy family. Even on bad days, the wonder of it floods me with joy and gratitude.

Christmas Card Review

I've gotten Tiny Prints Christmas cards 2 years in a row and liked them very much. The pictures turned out beautifully, the colors were great, and the the cards looked high quality. Last year I even reviewed them in return for free cards.

This year I didn't have that same reviewing opportunity and decided to buy a Living Social deal from a new company: Simplytoimpress. I like the cards we got. They're nicely done. However, the card stock, printing and images don't strike me as high a quality as Tiny Prints (and I believe they were the same price.) They also do lighting etc "fixes" on your images, which I thought would be a good thing. But the lighting changes that were made to the photo of my son seemed overenthusiastic. I felt the photo looked more overblown than "lightened." Perrhaps they think he's whiter than he is? ;-)

On the pro side for Simplytoimpress, the packaging was delightful (see image below), and their customer service seems good too. We got not only 2 extra envelopes (like Tiny Prints), but 2 extra cards along with a little note explaining that they understand how easy it is to miscalculate, so here are two cards just in case. I liked that a lot.

Overall though, I think I preferred the look and the options for Tiny Prints cards. I was getting a special deal through Living Social, so it's fine, but I will probably go back to Tiny Prints if I have the money or if they offer me a deal again. Note that I was offered nothing for this review in particular. I often look to others for advice on these sorts of choices, so I try to review when I can.

Things I've Learned Recently

We've just returned from our trip to visit family. I did well with the hard candy! It's much more like cooking than baking, so it was more up my alley. I'm not so hot with the baking. This has been the year of trips. I really should include some photos from California, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. I'm a very negligent blogger.

In any case, here are the top things I wanted to share with you that I learned in the past few weeks.

1. If you unknowingly brush your teeth with whitening Sensodyne, it will not help your sensitivity. In fact, you will end up with very painful high sensitivity that you then go to the dentist about without realizing you caused the problem in the first place. Smart.

2. If you think to yourself, "Huh. My car windows seem to go down and up really slowly these days," check your battery. What? I've never had automatic windows before!

3. When making hard candy, if you cook it slighly too long into caramelizing, then add teal food coloring, it will be forest green... 'cause, you know,  yellow and blue make green.

4. Here is a lovely photo of my actual teal candy. The photo makes it look more true blue, but trust me, it was teal.

5. I handle the cold much better than I used to, and I seem to have less tolerance for heat. So weird. I don't know if it's having my thyroid and PCOS under control or what. But while I still lean heavily toward Virginia, I could possibly live in Pittsburgh as well. E blossomed incredibly around all his family. He particularly loved his "cousints." 

Jen's in the Hospital!

In a good way of course! I've had it on good authority that Jen went into labor own and is now safely at the hospital awaiting.... scratch that, just checked her twitter feed, and there is a baby boy in their family now!!

Send congrats and love her way! Details to follow.

Happy Birthday little man! We can't wait to meet you! Love to all the family.

Anniversary Additions

I told you I'd come up with more additions to my anniversary post for Hub...

72. Watching (and hearing) the space shuttle go up against a gorgeous Florida sunset.
73. Hearing the boom of that shuttle come back and being fooled into thinking a bomb had gone off (more than once.)
74. Watching E's face as Big Pooh Bear came over to give special attention to the little Pooh Bear (his lovey) he was holding out to him.

Culinary Delights

Our church recently dropped a service, and we have a horrible time getting E motivated and going by the time it starts... so we tried a different church today. Not so much. I haven't been pleased with it in the past and was very much not so today. E wasn't a fan as always. He likes our regular church all right once he's there. He just can't get going that early.

So we ended up ditching and wandering across the street to a new little area where various Latin businesses have sprung up. It's so fun, interesting and new to us. We pressed our noses against the glass at a little Hispanic bakery that has almost every bakery delight known to Italians, Hispanics and a few others. The counter is so long and so high, I imagined E thinking he'd been magically transported to tasty toddler heaven with no end in sight. In fact, he spent a very enjoyable few minutes pointing at various cakes saying, "Dat wooks good! That one wooks good too! Dat one wooks yummy!" It was a beautiful display of cakes and berries and breads and snacks. E and I had a chicken empanada and strawberry cream cake (which he helped choose.) Hub had tiramisu... before lunch. Then we walked over to a new Paella place where Hub tried some chorizo carried out still flaming. I had potatoes with ali oli sauce. It was a very interesting dressing that tasted a bit like a fresher ranch with more bite. E opted for some rice. He hasn't been feeling 100%, so it's been bland all the way for him lately. The restaurant itself was cute, elegant and homey all at the same time. 

We rounded out our culinary adventures of the day by trying the sandwiches and desserts at our new Wawa. We reveled in the cooler rainier weather (Thank you Isaac. Now just don't hurt too many people.) by sitting out on the metal chairs and tables. Yeah. We know how to rock it with the elegant crowd.

Happy (Very Belated) Anniversary Babe!

During my hiatus, Hub and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary and had a very brief staycation with E. We enjoyed it, but it's never enough time is it? We are lucky though. Hub and I talk about how we've had so many adventures and done so many "cool things" as we so cleverly say it. In honor of that and in honor of our anniversary, I thought I'd post a memory list of those times here. Some of these you may know, some you'll only know if you are familiar, and some will probably be a me and Hub thing. Let me know if you recognize and have done any of these and how you liked them.

I may add more later. 

1. Our first fancy restaurant outing across the border in Maryland on that little island. The waiter was very snooty and rude. We tipped him exactly 15% to the penny because we didn't want to prove him "right" by under tipping, but he certainly didn't deserve more.

2. Taking pictures on the glass floor of the CN tower, and posing at the Hockey Hall of Fame. 

3. Toronto clubbing

4. Cruising on the "Three Rivers."

5. Exploring more of DC than we ever thought possible while trying to find the "real" Library of Congress.

6. Toronto Film Festival

7. Fireworks competition

8. New Year 2000 downtown

9. CNE

10. Seeing & meeting the Barenaked Ladies (Pittsburgh, Albany, Syracuse, Toronto)

11. Old Forge

12. The best (and cheapest!) cannolis ever - little bakery in Utica, NY.

13. Driving through cute ski towns on the border between NY and PA.

14. Bicycling along the river to a little pizza shop near our apartment for lunch - in the very leafy 'burbs! (oh how I miss this type of living!)

15. Licking ice cream and watching fireworks going on all around us in the Tonawanda park from July 1-4th.

16. Niagara-on-the-lake

17. Christmas celebration in Skaneateles.

18. Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Hollywood

19. Blue Waters

20. Montreal - the food, the sights, not so much the people

21. Niagara Falls rendezvous

22. Riding elephants

23. Feeding rhinos & giraffes

24. Exploring Dallas

25. Up close and personal with gorillas

26. Seeing me on TV

27. The carriage ride on our wedding day

28. Driving 1200 miles to Florida. Thrice.

29. Moving me, you and us 7 times in our relationship & carrying it out over 6 different states & 7 different cities.

30. Watching Magic Kingdom fireworks while your parents enjoyed like kids again.

31. Me clutching your arm (and Alex's) while we rode Tower of Terror.

32. Denali National Park

33. When we stood together in a beautiful valley surrounded by towering mountains and beautiful purple wildflowers in awe of the silence and stillness.

34. Whales, sea otters, & sea lions in Seward.

35. Watching a wedding in an outdoor chapel in the Dominican Republic.

36. My family reunion on a beautiful mountain top. (Great food, company and surroundings)

37. Landing in a European country together for the first time for both of us and our chuckling disbelief at how easily we walked through customs.

38. A sunset walk through a charming, German hamlet that seemed to take us back in time. The smell of strawberries, the sound of birds and the feel of a cool German summer breeze.

39. Driving through Germany and the Netherlands and again being amazed when the change to a new country was simply marked by some flags and a small sign.

40. Learning how to use German public toilets.

41. A wedding in a beautiful Dutch castle with two dear friends.

42. The gorgeous juncture of the Rhine and the Mosel.

43. Touching some of the Berlin Wall.

44. Cruising for the first time... being in awe of the blue of the Western Caribbean waters (especially Cozumel.)

45. The beauty, fascination and wildlife of the ruins of Tulum.

46. Second City, fancy dining, the CN tower and a beautiful hotel for a long weekend.

47. Staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

48. Getting stuck on the tarmac in Puerto Rico because the iguanas wouldn't move.

49. Flying almost by ourselves on a 747.

50. North Beach at Fort Desoto

51. Merritt Island Birding

52. Cocoa Beach

53. South Beach in October - the dining, the beach, the nightlife - not so much the scary hotel with the hole in the wall.

54. The Everglades

55. Islamorada - Finding a Great Blue Heron white morph!

56. Driving down the keys and exploring them as we went.

57. Walking around Key West and seeing the beauty of Fort Zachary and Mallory Square.

58. Seven Mile Bridge

59. Seeing the Grand Canyon (the first time for me) from the window of an airplane.

60. Seeing Mt. Rainier the same way.

61. Holding hands as we exited the church on our wedding day.

62. Signing documents for our first house on our anniversary.

63. Eating at a very fancy restaurant at the top of the city.

64. Looking at each other over the table at a seafood place as we both (silently and nervously) considered that I may be pregnant.

65. Repeatedly staring at the 4 pink lines that confirmed my pregnancy.

66. Video recording E's crazy movements visible on the outside of my belly.

67. Staring at and crying over our beautiful new baby.

68. Taking E on his first plane trip together.

69. Staying on Disney property for the first time ever.

70. So many sunsets.

71. Experiencing E's every first together as a family.

I love you babe.

Things I Learned While Flying With a Toddler

• I borrowed Jen's Traveling Toddler. I will soon be buying one myself. It worked fine on a large suitcase, but I had to check that suitcase. So instead, I rigged the traveling toddler and car seat on top of our umbrella stroller. It worked surprisingly well.
• NOTE: I only put E in there when I was desperate and then held the car seat back while I pushed just to be sure it didn't go anywhere. It was far from an ideal set up and probably not the safest, but I had to do what I had to do. I don't think much about traveling alone with a toddler is safe to tell you the truth. 
• I was very proud of my ingenuity though. 
• I will now be buying a suitcase I can stow just to use it for these occasions. 
• I also learned that it is pretty much impossible to tighten the car seat down on the plane seat. (Jen may have mentioned this, but I don't remember.) The place where you pull the strap to tighten ends up inside the car seat, and there's no way to get it as tight as it's truly supposed to be. There's also nowhere to anchor the top strap for forward facing. 
• I spent some long, sweaty, frustrated moments with a fussy boy and an intimidating man staring at me before I gave up.
• As I've said before, traveling with E is a delight for me, though it is a lot of hard work. Having him sit on the window helps a lot so he can look out and play with the blind. It also means he doesn't have to sit next to a stranger. Another thing that helps is making him feel like he's in on the game. I have him "help" me by pointing out signs, holding things, exclaiming over something new etc. 
• Something else that helps SO much is my Kindle Fire. I can't say enough about it. We downloaded a couple of TV shows and new games for him, and it was a lifesaver in many a long line or drive. 
• And ACCEPT HELP! If someone wants to carry your car seat. Let them. Save your back and sanity.
• Finally, I had the sippy explosion phenomenon happen to me as well. I had totally forgotten about that. Luckily it wasn't very full so it only spit out about 2 feet in the air. 
• And in completely unrelated news, I am almost finished with my strawberry plant modifications. I will post that next. (I think.)

The Kindness

It's amazing. Every time I travel with E, so many people step up to help. And the interesting thing I've noticed is that it tends to be the others who have (or are having) difficulties themselves who help the most. For example, this time while I was waiting to pre-board in my home airport, a group of families with a total of about 6 children ranging in age from 3-9 offered to help me carry my load of toddler, car seat and bag onto the plane. Also in the mix offering to help was a very well dressed, lovely older woman of perhaps 70.

Then, when I landed at my destination, the rental car agent behind the counter actually left her post to help me carry my luggage etc the whole way down to the car pick up area. Then she even offered to help me to the car, but the people there beat her to the punch by pulling it up right in front of me. Simply amazing. (I still need to write a letter to the company about her.)

But what really touched me was my experience when flying back. I barely made it to the airport in time to check in for various reasons, but everyone there, from the rental car return agent to TSA security seemed to make it a point to make life easier for me and other passengers. When one security agent noticed E's distress at having to put his treasures through screening, he told him he'd make him an honorary officer and handed him a shiny gold badge sticker to put on his shirt. E was so proud of himself. He wore it the whole way home and then showed his Daddy. And I told the agent that I was going to make it a point to fly smaller airports in the future if I could. Wow. The most enduring help I got was from the man behind me in line at the ticket counter. He was on the same flight I was and was running just as late, but motioned me to go ahead of him for everything. The he lingered every time we needed to do something just to help me. He took my luggage to the security drop off. He carried the car seat the whole way through the airport even though I had rigged a way to carry it myself (more on that in the next post.) And he did all this even though he knew he'd be behind as well since they'd have to screen his prosthetic leg, and that took extra time.

I don't know how he lost his leg. I don't even know his name. But the military shirt he wore, and his gallantry made me imagine him as a hero who continues to serve others. It was amazing. He was humble and kind and continued to worry about our well being right up until we deplaned at home. I told him I'd buy him some coffee, and he tried to get out of it. I saw a Starbucks and wiggled my eyebrows. I knew I had him when I saw a glint of excitement in his eye. We were coming in on a late flight. Then, incredibly, he tried to buy his drink and get ME one when we got up there. That's when I brought out the Mommy growl and told him I was buying it and to shut up and drink it. He got a mocha frappucino. I think he liked it.

Traveling with E is always such a joy. We have fun, and we have the same attitude toward exciting new adventures as well as appreciating the little things. But it is made even more joyful by the renewed faith in human kind I find on each one of these trips.

All Kinds O' Stuff

• We recently returned from one of our big trips. (Just E and I) I would like to share with you two different posts from that experience. 1. The kindness of others and 2. Tips I learned from traveling alone with a toddler!
• We had LOADS of fun. The Outer Banks are still just as wonderful as I remember them from more than 10 years ago.
• But that will have to wait until after THIS post.
• The hanging tomato plant experiment is over. Someone or something ripped my plant off right at the base. I discovered it lying a few feet away from the bag. I think it might be a someONE since there seemed to be no damage to the actual plant. It was just cleanly snapped off at the base. Bummer. It was even getting flowers.
• My strawberry plants (normally growing) are still alive though! I have a cool new idea for them that I'm going to try tomorrow and hope to share.
• I started running again today! WITH THE HUB! Can you believe it? I had to start over at the beginning of my training, but that's what summer in Florida does to me.
• I got new reading glasses even though my vision is 20/20. They say I have strain. E is delighted. He loves glasses and now Daddy and I "match."
• E has started telling us, "You're the BEST!" It's awesome.
• I think we've decided on going to Big Sur, CA for our 10 year anniversary (always subject to change!) Please let me know if you have any tips for the area.

Our Fourth

Our fourth was my favorite ever. We didn't go any farther than our community pool, but we grilled outside while the baby ran naked from his pool to his sandbox and back again, and various Pixar tunes blared from the iPod doc. We dragged out our beach chairs, and all the drinks and condiments and in general just had an awesome time. I think it was E's idea of heaven. 

Cute Baby Stories

Today in church, E was looking at "the baby" in my iPod photo album during the sermon. He was sitting on my lap facing me. I leaned over and whispered, "I love you." He was quiet for a moment and then began whispering something. I couldn't hear it well, so I leaned over again and just caught the ending of... "I wove you too." Then he peppered my face with kisses. 




When I tried on the dress I just found at Target for $7, E said, "Come sit by me Pwincess Mommy!" He continues to call me "Princess Mommy" when I wear dresses and often asks me to wear my "Princess shoes," (my heels.) 




E has decided that when Hub is scruffy, he's "dirty." He fusses about it often since Hub's scruff is quite uncomfortable to the face during kisses. Yesterday he'd decided he'd had enough and ordered Daddy to "Go to the bafroom and shave!" I paid him handsomely. 




Life is good.

Food Truck Awesomeness

I didn't know about food trucks until we moved to Florida. I still didn't know about them until years after. Have they been around long? Am I just slow? In any case my husband and I, bordering on foodie (with a hippy bent), are hooked. We used to have to travel into the city to a massive gathering where we'd wait in long lines in a baking parking lot. Sure there was a lot of variety, but good luck getting to much of it!


This weekend, we attended one in our little area that's going to be there monthly! It's tiny, but that means there are no long lines, we can WALK there, and it's in the middle of a field where the kids can run and play. I love it! We're already developing favorites. 


One new thing I tried was a pupusa. Oh my heavens. Heaven in my mouth AND tummy... sometimes a difficult combo. I've also experienced mochi ice cream and Korean tacos this way. Our whole family revels.


Do you have food trucks in your area? Have you ever gone? Tell me all about it! I do so love the food talk.

Taking Care of Myself

I type this as I sit here feeling guilty that I took a half day at work and left E in daycare at a time when he's seemed particularly needy with me. At the same time though, I realize that I need time just to myself now and then. I have so little time with just my own thoughts. Some people don't need that down time but I do. I don't need it very often from my wonderful offspring, but every now and then, I just need some cerebral space. Don't get me wrong. I'm still picking him up early so he can benefit today too. Part of leaving early today was giving him a break from the grind as well. But this is me time. It's so interesting... this push me pull me part of motherhood. On one hand, I'm reveling in the pure bliss of the quiet. On the other, I'm missing E and wanting to kiss his sweet face. It's just that the quiet is slightly winning out at the moment. 


In this vein, I've accomplished most of one number on my Goals for the Year! I got my new Clinique skin care for the aged. OK.. so I'm not so aged, but my skin is showing signs of heading there. But I love it! I've also gotten a new pair of jeans that actually fit. They aren't even hand me downs! I exchanged something at Target and got them instead. I also found a consignment shop I loved and bought an adorable Ann Taylor shirt for $10 (I will be visiting again!) and found a Groupon Now deal for a great haircut at a really good salon! I look and feel so much better. It feels so good to be indulging me a little bit again. My priorities are still so much different than before E, and it's ok with me, but I have to start taking better care of myself again. And it's coming. It feels so good to have more of me back. Damn IF for robbing me of years I could have procreated so that I could have been at this spot earlier with maybe two children. Ah well. I can't say I'm not happy, so it all worked out in the end. 


What's up with you all?

1000 Posts Old

Um, so I made it to 1000 posts and didn't even commemorate it. This is the 1000th. I had intended to write something all inspirational and junk about having that many posts, but yeah right. We all know how my brain works (or doesn't.)

I've been posting in this blog for four and a half years. I relied heavily on blogs and message boards early on in our TTC journey, but I resisted starting one of my own thinking it would look pretty silly if I went and got pregnant shortly after starting. Ah but I am a sweet, naive thing. So I started blogging in the midst of all the crap and met many helpful, wonderful human beings along the way. I still love writing. I just don't get to do it as much as I once did. I blame my ridiculous level of fatigue. Yes it's much better than it ever was, but I still feel like I am way too tired for my age. Or maybe I AM just getting old?  

So for this, post 1002, how about I introduce you to the very first time I wrote an entry for Fertility Challenged in Florida.

Dear Reader