Seeking ideas.

So we're looking to do a weekend getaway on the weekend of February 11th. (Narda will seriously have NO other time until oh, May, so we want to do a quick family escape.) We want a one train trip - like to somewhere "slightly" upstate NY, or Long Island, or Connecticut - Boston and DC are just a wee too far for our purpose right now (even though we'd LOVE to go!) But we want something family friendly, and close by, but at least an hour away...

Any ideas?

testing, testing, 1,2,3...

So it FINALLY allowed me to switch.

I think the reason it took so long:

404 Posts, last published on Jan 29, 2007

I blame the cats!

Today was my "day off." Narda came home Friday, and today, she took Malka from wake-up until dinner (where I took over).

Cougar, Quincy, and Juno MADE SURE that I stayed in bed with them for MOST of the day. I felt guilty for about 5 minutes. Malka woke up at 7:30, Narda got out of bed, Cougar pads over to me, and plops down in the crook of my armpit, purring in my ear. I seriously could NOT get up. Quincy settles into the space between my legs, Juno meaows at them both, and takes over Narda's side of the bed. I follow the lead of my feline companions, and go back to sleep. Until 9:30am. (BLISS!) Narda and Malka come into the bedroom, Malka is placed upon the bed, where she spends the next 10 minutes trying to hug Cougar, by putting her head on him, then pulling back and giggling. It was seriously just way too much cute to handle. So I got up.

I make a breakfast of (gluten-free) pancakes, eggs and coffee for Narda and I, Narda gets Malka down for a nap around 10am, and we enjoy a lovely brunch together. Around 11:30, I feel the lull of a full belly, a sleeping baby, and a partner who has work to do to prepare for class tomorrow, so I do what any logical person would do. I return to the ever-demanding job as a cat pillow until 2:30 or so. At this point, Narda takes Malka out to help with her errands, and I tackle Malka's room. I do paint touch ups from the spots where I had taken down the magnet boards, I sort through her clothes, and pull out all of the ones that no longer fit, are out of season, etc. I put up her growth chart, tidied up her room, and did some de-cluttering.

I then loaded the dishwasher and made Malka's dinner, Annie's rice-pasta mac and cheese, where I snuck in some steamed broccoli. My girls came home around 4:30, and then went back out at about 5:00 for another quick spin around the block. I felt the lure of the felines once more. Quincy was sitting on the couch, nodding off, giving me hints and suggestions. So I gave in. I went back to the bed for half an hour. I mean, really, what else could I do?

Malka had a lovely dinner, with her broccoli and mac and cheese, and then went to bed. And then Narda and I had sushi for dinner. And now I have to go, because The L Word is on, and as much as they annoy me, because it's such a SMALL segment of the lesbian population; like a train wreck, you can't help but watch...

Because I know you'll just tell me not to worry...

So I've been wanting to post about this for a while. But I'm almost embarrassed to. Why, you ask? Because you will all tell me to relax, she's just fine, she's only 13 months old, she's a bi-lingual baby for crying-out-loud, yada yada yada.

But since the entire world's blogging about how verbal their babies are, well, um, I just wanted to share how verbal ours isn't.

There. you can all go laugh at me now, and lovingly tell me not to worry, etc. etc. etc. But if I am true to myself, then this blog is a place of expression and a vent for me to release my anxiety, so that it doesn't linger within me. So even though my intellect KNOWS that all is well in Malka Palka Pooka Palka land, I mean heck, her canines are coming in, she's walking ALL over the place, climbing, and doing everything babies that are 13 months old SHOULD be doing. Except using words. She will repeat ba ba and she'll string consonants and vowels together - like baba dada ah! ah! gaga, and a few "words" that sound like doggy and eemah, but we aren't convinced that she actually knows what she's saying.

She CAN point to my "peh" (mouth), and my "af" (nose), and her "ozen" (ears), and she understands that when we are walking down the hall, and I say, let's go have a bath, she'll walk to the bathroom, and not her bedroom; she'll go to her high chair in the morning when I tell her it's time for her waffle, and she'll have a "conversation" with me, but it's all in "Malka-ese."

There are no concrete words yet. I KNOW our child is perfect and fabulous just the way she is, and I understand that babies that are being brought up to be bi-lingual have language delays, and I'm OK with that. Really I am.

I guess I'm just sharing my "worried Eemah" moment with you, is all.

Counting the claps...

This is my live blog during the State of the Union.

He started off by addressing Madame Speaker, and saying he's the first president to get to say that - all proud of himself.

He KNOWS he's in poor shape, and wants as many brownie points as he can.

ugh.

Half of the fun is watching Nancy P. make the decision to clap or stand - heh.

I KNEW he'd get around to "Remember 911 - that's why we're at war" - Again - UGH.

A Girl Like Me

I belong to a lesbian mom's list serv, and one of them brilliantly pointed me in the direction of this movie:

A GIrl like Me

Go watch it.

I want to encourage Malka in so many ways to be her true, beautiful self. This movie, this organization, can help.

T minus 4 days and counting...

Narda comes home Friday afternoon. FRIDAY!

WAHOO!

OK, let me repeat that - Narda comes home FRIDAY afternoon. This is Monday night. That means that in four days, well actually three.point.five.days - Narda will be home.

I'm so terribly excited to see my beloved, but truth be told, I'm also terribly thrilled to have someone to say: "it's your turn" to. I LOVE Malka will all of my soul and breath. But oh, dear Lord is it HARD work being a single mom. Even with daycare. I've been blessed in that on weekends, my friends really have come through for me - I only used a babysitter one day out of the past five weeks.

The first 3 and a half weeks were actually not too bad. Somewhere last week, however, I began to feel overwhelmed. Perhaps it was because the work load at work is picking up a bit, or that it's simply been a long time as a participant in the toddler olympics. I have since learned a new method of diaper changing, by the by, (thanks to our accountant at work, who's also a mom of three and SWEARS by this method). You sit on the floor with a LEG ON the baby's belly. It prevents the (to quote Jen)"yoga spiral," which describes Malka's new found moves to a T. I tried it tonight, and despite a few protests, I was actually able to change her diaper in less than 5 minutes.

Hats off to all of you out there that are single moms. Specifically, Care and Joan I truly don't know how you do it day in and day out. I'm in awe.

And now, although there's OH so much more I have to say, it is now 8pm, and I MUST finish my chores (read - clean the house for the cleaning lady who comes tomorrow), BEFORE we learn more about who, and WHY they are on THE LIST.....

Because you asked...

WATER!, originally uploaded by shellipsm.

So in case you haven't noticed, we don't really post any pictures of Miss MP3 here for the public. This is to protect her privacy, but also the privacy of her birthmom, who never told her family about the pregnancy. As Malka grows and begins to look more and more like a little child, we can see elements of her birthmom in her, and it's stunningly beautiful.

We DO have TONS of pictures of her up on flickr, all marked private for friends and family - so if I know you, and you want to see pictures of her, and you're not already marked as a friend or family, just drop on by

We LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture, as it really tells a story - she's wearing the smallest jacket they had, and she couldn't STOP staring at all of the big kids, and then she tried to imitate them. It was so heart-stopping cute, well, I just wish you coulda' been there.

They HAVE to stop making any more!

Now TWO companies are using the SAME horriffic tactic.

Imagine, if you will, you are in a car, chatting with your friends about some random movie you all just saw, enjoying life, and then out of the blue - BAM! Another car CRASHES INTO YOU. And you see the crash. And you see the human bodies jerk sideways and back. And you heart literally STOPS for a brief moment. And then you see all four people out of the car, and the voice-over artist says something to the effect of: "What car would YOU rather be in an accident in? Safe happens." Volkswagen.

GAH! Narda and I now know the intros, and know to LOOK AWAY when the commercials start. We feel safe from the horror.

Now tonight, here I am, thinking of all of the cute things Malka did today at the Children's Museum here in Chicago, and there's a commercial of a mom tuning the cd player in her car to kids music, and talking to her adorable son in the rear view mirror, and I'm thinking, aw, perhaps a Disney commercial? Maybe some food product? And then, when you are feeling connected to the mom and her child, wondering which food product they are about to endorse, and are then willing to drop everything and RUN to your nearest grocery store to get said product... BAM A CAR CRASHES INTO THE CAR WITH THE MOM AND CHILD! And after your heart stops for about 30 million beats, and your hand goes to your mouth in SHOCK that they would actually SHOW something like that in a commercial, I mean a MOM and KID and CRASH! This is HGTV for crying out loud, not Law and Order! By the time your brain processes all of this information, the mom and kid get out of the car, and that guy from the turkey deep fryer insurance commercial comes on and tells you to have proper insurance. From State Farm.

OK - hear this now all of you in advertising - THIS TACTIC DOES NOT WORK, AND WILL MAKE ME, AND COUNTLESS OTHER SANE HUMAN BEINGS BOYCOTT YOUR PRODUCT, SO STOP MAKING THESE COMMERCIALS THAT MAKE ONES HEART STOP BEATING - BECAUSE DEAD CONSUMERS ARE NOT WHAT YOU ARE AFTER!

Phew. Glad to get that off of my chest. Ok - off to go have a glass of wine and check on my cherub that is sleeping and will wake up way too soon. Like at 4:30. Ugh.

Not where I wanted to be...

Greetings from LaGuardia Airport.

Malka Palka Pooka Palka and I are off to Chicago (hopefully) for this lovely 3 day weekend to see Narda. We are excited to see her, and I'm very much looking forward to a small respite in the midnight wakings... It's SOOOOOO Narda's turn! But of course, I want to support her, too, as she's in tech rehearsals, which are draining.

Nah, who am I kidding?! I get to sleep!

But um, yeah. Our flight was scheduled for 8:30pm, and that damn windy city had to go and have some wind. It's been a ZOO here, and out of the 5 flights scheduled to go to Chicago? 3 were cancelled. Fortunately, ours was not. But it was delayed - to 9:45. And the stand-by list for the other flight? 49 people on it.

So here we are, waiting, and Malka finally fell asleep, so I coughed up the $7.95 and got on-line.

Think good thoughts that our flight will actually leave. And that I get to see my beloved in a few hours.

Now that I have a free hour or so, I'm off to go read your blogs. Thank you all for de-lurking, it's nice to know that there are indeed (courtesy of TA for Tots), warm fuzzies out there...

It's national de-lurking week!

Come out, come out wherever you are...

I get about 250 hits a day, and I'd LOVE to know who you are! So pull up a chair, take a sip of your coffee (or whatever your beverage of choice is) and say howdy!

I'll come say hi to you, too.

DROOL...

Apple introduced the new "iphone" today:

Just 3 days!

Malka recovered nicely in Chicago, and even had a wonderfully healthy week or so! JUST THREE DAYS back at the petri-dish, er, daycare, and the snot-faucet started this am.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Double Strength

I was under the impression, for 26 years, that my father was in the process of converting to Judaism when he met my mother. It turned out that he had converted in order to marry my mother. They divorced when I was in college, around 1991 or so (I don't remember exactly).

At the time, I had a LOT of problems with that, and with Janet, whom I percieved to be the catylist for my father's new found faith in Jesus. I boycotted their wedding. They wanted me to not only BE there, but to read psalm 23 in Hebrew. Since I was still in my 20's and rebellious, I stood my ground and didn't go.

Since that time, back in 1997, and a LOT of therapy later, I have come to love and adore Janet. Dad and I get on GREAT, in fact, WAY better than mom and I, (but that's a different blog post for another day). Dad and Janet are even presidents of the Narda fan club. Dad likes to remind me how he "dated a black girl back in high school." So since he was in highschool in the late 50's, that's actually pretty cool. Even though it comes out sounding like "My best friend is black."

But I digress. Dad and Janet have been awesome. Janet's kids, officially my step-siblings, (but it's hard to consider step-siblings when you are an adult), are great, and their kids are great. We think "Nik," the 14 year old, is a big ole baby dyke, but we aren't giving her the toaster just yet, as it could be a "phase" that all of "these kids today" go through. (But we don't think so...) Anyhoo - all of this to say, that Janet's family has been the MOST embracing and loving, even more so than mom. (Again, another blog post for another day, I promise) Dad and Janet are Malka's grandparents in every sense of the word. And it's SO wonderful. They have embraced MY family with open and loving arms.

I am constantly amazed at Janet's strength and courage. In the 70's, she was one of the first families to adopt from Korea. She has four children, two of whom were born in Korea. She was out there in the early stages of working the whole "blended family" thing, and was an advocate of women having their OWN money to be in charge of - kind of an early Suzie Orman, if you will.

And now, Janet proves her strength yet again. While dad was here to help celebrate Malka's birthday in December, we found out that Janet had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Yesterday, she had a double mastectomy. She is looking at all of this "as an obstacle." And nothing more. I wish I had one tenth of her strength.

Please think good thoughts for her.

Home again, home again...

Glad we're home..., originally uploaded by shellipsm.

Quincy was a bit miffed that we were gone for so long and um, forgot to tell him.

I'll share more, including Malka walking all over the airport, and yet still holding onto the "security finger," which I secretly remove sometimes, and just watch her walk all over unaware that she's not holding on; or about how PERFECT she was on the plane; or how I got sick about 2 days into the trip and am STILL sick - you know, the "starts as a cough and moves into the head with a nasty sinus thing;" or how it was really nice (yet REALLY HARD WORK) to play the part of the stay at home mom while in Chicago, and as a result am secretly grateful for daycare; or how because I'm sick, my ears still haven't popped; or how AWESOME it was to come home to our NEW fridge and 3 grateful cats.

But for now, I'm tired. I unpacked 2 of 3 bags, and still have to prep bottles for daycare and coffee for the am.