A Pointless Post

So I left the house shortly after 6 this morning to go for my walk. I was simultaneously walking along the sidewalk, messing with my MP3 player, and evaluating traffic flow from both directions to see when I could cross the street. It was still pitch black outside. I paused, intending to cross the street after a few more cars passed, then looked up and saw a man standing there, probably waiting for a ride. I was so surprised that I jumped/gasped/snorted. He smiled (probably trying not to laugh out loud) and said (I hope) something like, "Sorry I scared you." Only I'm not really sure what he said because I was already listening to a program through my headphones. I mumbled, "That's all right," so I hope he didn't actually say, "Good morning" or something, because then what I said would have made no sense. Bah. I'll probably see the dude again, and he'll think of me as the girl who snorted.

A Change in Plans

Well, this weekend did not go as planned, but it turned out all right. It was our church's annual campout. T took Wednesday off work, and all that day we planned and shopped and ran errands and packed. Then we continued packing all day Thursday, and finally got out of the house, exhausted, around 4 (we had intended to leave at 1). We were the only ones able to make it for Thursday night; everyone else was going to come on Friday. The camp site was very shady and woodsy (as it should be...that's real camping to me--being out in the trees), so it was already cool when we got there, and the temperature just kept dropping after the sun went down. We bundled the kids up as warmly as we could, but they were freezing and miserable all night in the tent and woke up crying just about every hour. I was grumpy, too, because when they cried, I didn't really want to get out of my sleeping bag to change, feed, or comfort them, because I was so cold that my teeth were chattering and my toes were numb, and so tired that I couldn't think straight. It was awful. I count it among one of the hardest, most stressful days of my life. Finally, around 4 in the morning, we all piled into the car and cranked up the heat so we could thaw out. I vehemently declared that there was absolutely no way I was going to go through one more night like that, so we packed up the kids' and my things and T drove us back home. He helped us bring everything in, took a catnap, and then set out again for the campground.

It was actually good in a lot of ways that T was there by himself with the rest of the group. He was able to help others in ways he probably wouldn't have been able to if the kids and I had been there. He helped people set up and tear down and shared some of our blankets and other things.

I was so grateful to be home that taking care of the kids by myself for the rest of the weekend seemed like a breeze compared to what we had been through. We went to the library (twice!) and the park, read lots and lots of books, and D.L.F. watched a sign language video several times that we checked out from the library. I was able to spend some good time with the Lord, and I repented of my selfish attitude (still, we will think twice before going tent camping again in cold weather with small children!).

Just Having Fun

 

Cupcake has some johnny-jump-up skeelz. She's getting the bouncing part down and can whirl around to face you if you call her name.

 

D.L.F. often requests to "wrestle on the bed with pillows with Papa!" That's what's going on here.

 

Cupcake and D.L.F. chillin' in the tent.

Tutu

Last night T and I were talking about things that take up a lot of space in our (small) house, and I thought of my wedding dress slip/crinoline thingy. Only I didn't know what to call it (I still don't), so I said, "You know, my wedding dress...tutu."

T didn't miss a beat and said, "Honey, that thing is a three-three, at least!"

Yes, Son, Some Days It Will Feel Like That

D.L.F. and I were comparing the sizes of our hands. I told him, "Your hands will keep growing and growing and someday they will get bigger than Mama's hands. They will get as big as Papa's hands." D.L.F. appeared to be thinking this over, so I continued, "You will grow and grow and someday you will be a man like Papa. And you will have children of your own, and they will call you Papa. Won't that be nice when you are a papa and you have your own children?"

D.L.F. replied, "At the ZOO!"

A Random Quote

From D.L.F. this morning: "Open your mouth and say...how 'bout...MEOW!"

Portraits

I took Cupcake to get her first professional pictures taken today. She didn't fuss too much, but we didn't get a really good smile out of her, either. Still, we got a couple of cute poses where she's at least looking at the camera. I've been very pleased with a studio called Portrait Innovations. We've used them a couple of times now, and they do a great job, give you lots of different poses to choose from, have some nice props (like rocking chairs, etc.) to use, and seem to always have a special running where you can get 1 10x13, 2 8x10s, 4 5x7s, 4 3x5s, and 32 wallets, plus 6 portrait greeting cards, for $9.95. That's a really good deal, considering that they print the pictures immediately, so you can take them home right away. Of course, you have to sit through their spiel where they try to get you to purchase tons of additional photos and decorative options, but my experience has been that they're still nice about it even if you say you just want the special.

We have friends coming over for dinner tonight, so I'm off to cook and clean.

The Big 2-5, Or, I Hope My Children Inherit Their Father's Sense of Direction

So now I'm a quarter of a century old. T came home for lunch and brought me cashew chicken from my favorite Thai place, a cute card, a shiny rainbow-colored helium balloon which D.L.F. has claimed as his own, and a new watch.

BUT, before all that happened, I thought I would try taking the kids to a park that I had seen recently on one of my morning walks. We entered at one side of the park, had a good time playing on the toys, and then exited the other side of the park. I walked along at a good clip for a while until I saw a street sign and realized I was going in the wrong direction and was now over twenty blocks from home. By this time, I was completely turned around and didn't have any idea which way to go. I knew if I got to a major intersection, I could figure out where I was, but I didn't want to walk any farther in the wrong direction. So I did the only logical thing--picked up my cell phone and called T, hoping he could bail me out with Google Maps.

Me: Hi...ummm...are you in front of a computer?

T: No, why?

Me: Well...this is going to sound sort of silly, but I took the kids to a new park, and now I'm at (such-and-such street) and don't know which way to go.

T: Where's the sun?

Me: Um...I don't know. I guess it's kind of...up...and behind me.

T: Okay. Walk away from the sun and then take a right.

How does the man do it? His directions got me home without a hitch. However, now I know why I have never walked that direction with the double stroller (or any stroller, for that matter). 14 (bumpity, rumble, rumble, bump, ka-THUNK) of the 20+ blocks on the way home had no real sidewalks...just trampled down gravel and grass alongside the busy street. The vibrations actually put both kids to sleep, although I kept squeezing D.L.F.'s knee and telling him to wake up so he would still take his afternoon nap.

Three Things

I have been a little under the weather for the past couple of days, but I'm on the mend. I made chicken soup today, which seems to nourish both body and soul.

Cupcake rolled over from back to front yesterday for the first time and has been practicing that new skill a lot today.

Tomorrow is my 25th birthday.

Such a Sweetheart!

 

Cupcake is four months old today!

Tent

One of D.L.F.'s favorite birthday presents this year was a little tent given to him by a boy in our church who had outgrown it. T set it up in D.L.F.'s room. We put all the balloons from his party in the tent. D.L.F. wanted T to come in and share the fun, so T managed to squeeze in there with him (no small feat, considering that T is 6'4")!

 

 

 

D.L.F.'s First Ice Cream

Here are some pictures from D.L.F.'s 2nd birthday party. It was his first time eating ice cream. Please excuse the dorky T-shirt. We always use one of T's old T-shirts over D.L.F.'s clothes as a bib whenever he eats, but I would have taken it off for pictures if I'd thought about it in time! Picasa will only let me post four pictures to Blogger at a time, so I will have to put some more up in another post.

Ice cream? Hmm...what's that?

 

Oh! It's kinda cold...

 

But I like it!

 

The Birth Survey

If you have given birth in the last three years, you are invited to take The Birth Survey here.

Here is a quote from the web site:

Our goal is to give women a mechanism that can be used to share information about maternity care practices in their community while at the same time providing practitioners and institutions feedback for quality of care improvement efforts.

At the heart of the project is an on-going, online consumer survey, The Birth Survey, that asks women to provide feedback about their birth experience with a particular doctor or midwife and within a specific birth environment. Responses will be made available online to other women in their community who are deciding where and with whom to birth. Paired with this experiential data will be official statistics from state departments of health listing obstetrical intervention rates at the facility level.

Yet Another Reason to Avoid Hormonal Birth Control

This story makes me sad. A 22-year-old mother of one died from a blood clot in her lung which may have been caused by the hormonal birth control method she was using (NuvaRing).

Hormonal birth control methods (ALL of them, as far as I understand--every brand and variety), as well as IUDs (both hormonal and copper) have the potential to prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg in a woman's uterus. If life begins at conception (and I believe it does), then that is abortion.

Here are a couple of informative sites:

A Short Condensation of Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions?

The Pill Kills