Birthday questions

Elizabeth brought home a page of questions for her birthday poster at school.  Angela, of course, wanted to answer them, too.

Here are their responses:

ELIZABETH

My favorite color is Pink.

My favorite food is Cake and cookies and Jello.

My favorite thing to do at school is Swing.

I really don't like to Go to bed and clean my room.

I love to Wrestle with my family.

Someday I dream of Being a fairy.

ANGELA

My favorite color is Almost all of them.

My favorite food is Corn at dinner, and peas and broccoli.

My favorite thing to do at school is Work.

I really don't like to Clean my room.

I love to Clean the house when it's dirty and when it's a different season like after Christmas.

Someday I dream of Being a fairy or a mermaid.

Living inside of the dog*

So, what do you do when your kid is sick?

You read books.

I have three lists of books to read before I die, totalling around 250 titles.  Most of them are classics I should have read either in high school or in college as an English major.  

So I've been searching on the library website for the books I'd like to read, seeing what is available here and reserving copies.  

It's rather discouraging.  Hardly any William S. Burroughs, scant Huxley, Nabokov, or Spark, and it's as if Miller, Percy, Bowen, and Ford never existed.  

Maybe it isn't a huge priority for this small-town library to keep a stock of all the classics, especially the more controversial things.

But it still puzzles me.  I've wondered about buying copies of the missing books to stock our local library a bit better.  

Then I think...isn't that their job??

*This is an allusion to a famous quote; who gets the reference?

How Not to Breastfeed

When Elizabeth was an infant, she would not latch on. It's a problem I probably could have handled with enough support and help, but I didn't have it then. Being a brand-new mother, I had so much going on already that I was unable to get the help I needed to breastfeed my baby.

So, I pumped. Exclusively. For nine months. Several times a day I sat down with my pump and bottles, and this was my routine while my baby thrived and grew.

The problem was, I used a manual pump. It killed my wrist. I finally had it looked at yesterday.  The doctor attempted to drain the protruding lump with a fat needle, and though he wasn't able to get out as much of the tough gelatinous stuff as he hoped, it feels much better.

Here is my wrist today:

It looks dramatic, but honestly, this is the least painful it's been in a long time.

Missing tooth!

Here it is! Elizabeth with her other front tooth missing. The poor girl won't look at the camera anymore because of the flash:

The worst blog on the block

No wonder no one's been commenting!  That pink background was atrocious.  Back to normal now.

"Something's missing..."

Yes. I took a bunch of pictures of Elizabeth without her front tooth, and not one of them turned out well. I shall try again.

But I did have time to make my blog bright pink in anticipation of February and all its promises of romanticism. So far we have a potential move, a family member to mourn, and no plans for Vee Day, but there's always hope!

Now to try again for those toothless pictures...

Still here!

I'm still here!  I've been suffering from an extended illness, which, I think, is finally on its way out.  Good riddance.  Sheesh.

What I've been doing while under the weather:

Getting rid of other viruses...the computer kind. I've never had anything that's immobilized my system and made me format & reinstall, and now I have that wonderful experience. Thanks, über-organized crime rings.


Gathering supplies for my Childbirth Ed class.  I am now the proud owner of a knitted uterus, one of the best tools for teaching how the muscles of the uterus stretch and push babies through the cervix.  (Mine doesn't look like the one pictured, but isn't it cool?)


We are gearing up for a very important birthday. My firstborn is turning 6! SIX!! There must be a support group for this kind of thing, right? The last time I asked her what she wants for her birthday she said, "Kittens!" Huh. It'll be a dark day when kittens come into our family.


I have tried and tried to convince Angela that despite the song, popcorn does not grow on trees. She's a defiant little girl, though. Today, without asking or consulting me, she planted a popcorn seed in the front yard.