A Letter

Dear Ma'am,

Although I do not know you and I have never seen you before, I will never forget you. While you were driving to work yesterday, talking on your cellphone (which is illegal in DC), you hit my husband. I cannot imagine what went through your head as you recklessly sped around the corner and through a cross walk and found yourself face to face with a 6'3" man on your windshield. I would hope that your first thought would have been "I hope he's okay." I'm sure you also thought "I hope he doesn't call the cops." You are lucky- he was too shocked to think about anything besides walking away. Let me tell you what my thoughts were after learning about what happened. I thought, "Thank God he is okay." Then I thought, "What if he had been hurt?" Then I thought, "What if he had been killed?" I imagined my husband- my best friend and soul mate- laying mangled somewhere. I thought of myself, our daughter, and our unborn child trying to live in a world without him. Instead of happily playing with my two year old in our Music Together class, I sat with my head in my hands, sobbing. I merely existed for the rest of the day, wandering around aimlessly and going through the motions of my daily activities. I did not spend more than 20 minutes out of close physical proximity of my husband from the time he got home until we both the left the house for our separate destinations this morning. We have been together for 11 1/2 years. In that time I can very honestly say that I have never taken my husband for granted or not appreciated him. I have always thought about how lucky I am to have him each and every day, and that my very worst fear in the world is to lose him. Because of you, yesterday, that fear almost came true. I hope you felt at least a small fraction of the fear that he and I felt yesterday morning. I hope this fear inspires you to be more careful from now on.

Missing Lennon

"I was the dream weaver, but now I'm gone. I was the walrus, but now I'm John. And so, dear friends, you'll just have to carry on. The dream is over..."

"You may say I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us. And the world will be as one."

Though it's been 28 years since your untimely death, your gifts and messages to the world still live on. You shine on like the moon and the stars and the sun.

I didn't forget about Thanksgiving!

We hosted Thanksgiving for the sixth year in a row. And it was maybe the best one yet. The turkey was absolutely succulent. Shimmy and I have really perfected our turkey process. The rest of the food was awesome too, as was the company. Here are some pics (sorry there are so many).

The star of the show:



The co-stars:



Sophie with Nana and Poppa:



Messings and Tusks:



Uncle Giddy (I think we have a picture of him sleeping from every Thanksgiving):



Horrific family pic:



Sophie and Uncle Giddy:



The decorations Sophie made at school:

Pancakes and Painting

For the past four Tuesdays I have dropped Sophie off at the in-laws to play for a couple of hours. Anyone who knows me well (or knows someone who knows me well) will understand that this is a big deal. Until recently it would have been a big deal to leave Sophie anywhere without me for a couple of hours. But it was pretty much unthinkable to leave her at the in-laws. (I'm not going to even go into why, because I'm assuming you all know the complex history there, but for those few who don't, I'll just clarify that it doesn't have anything to do with their ability to take care of kids). About a month ago my mother-in-law asked me (for the umpteenth time since Sophie was born) if I would like to leave her there once a week. She must have caught me on one of the many nights I was going insane with single parenting syndrome, because I actually considered it. The first time she asked my immediate response (in my head) was "hell to the no." This time I decided that Sophie was old enough to communicate her needs and if she was having a terrible time, she would ask to call me herself and I would come get her. So I agreed to bring her over. I decided that if she wasn't warming up, I'd just stay with her for a respectable amount of time, and then we'd both leave. Also, Shimmy was working from home that day, so I knew if Sophie needed someone to come get her and I was in the middle of errands, he would go. To my surprise and delight she had a great time. That's all the convincing I needed- I have dropped her off every Tuesday morning since then.

I had grown so accustomed to running my errands with her, that I had forgotten how much faster I used to be able to do things when I was by myself. With Sophie, two hours gives us time to go the grocery store, go home, and put away the groceries. Two hours without Sophie gives me time to go to the grocery store, dry cleaner, jeweler, butcher, another store, and back home to put it all away before picking her up.

Today I used my time to come back home and eat pancakes for breakfast (I had almost forgotten what breakfast was. What? It's not scarfing down a granola bar in the car?), then paint the mantel and brackets I bought to hang over the fireplace. Yes, friends, I have been busy. Not only have I taken on this mantel project (which now just awaits Shimmy's help in hanging it), I have also finished and hung my belly cast and finished the Israel scrapbook. Not to mention the continuation of the nesting saga. The office is now empty except for the desk, which needs to be dismantled and hauled to the curb. The brown room (new office?) looks fabulous. As soon as that shed arrives we'll be working on the laundry room. And as soon as Sophie's new bed arrives we'll set up her new room! Yay for productivity! Here are some pics of my recent accomplishments:

Yesterday's rainbow (technically not my accomplishment):



My belly cast finished (decoupage and polyurethane):



The painted mantel and brackets:



The Israel scrapbook- opened to a random page:

Story. Of. My. Life.

The Little Red Hen
Sara Cone Bryant (Retold from Joseph Jacobs)

One day as the Little Red Hen was scratching in a field, she found a grain of wheat.
"This wheat should be planted," she said. "Who will plant this grain of wheat?"
"Not I," said the Duck.
"Not I," said the Cat.
"Not I," said the Dog.
"Then I will," said the Little Red Hen. And she did.
Soon the wheat grew to be tall and yellow.
"The wheat is ripe," said the Little Red Hen. "Who will cut the wheat?"
"Not I," said the Duck.
"Not I," said the Cat.
"Not I," said the Dog.
"Then I will," said the Little Red Hen. And she did.
When the wheat was cut, the Little Red Hen said, "Who will thresh the wheat?"
"Not I," said the Duck.
"Not I," said the Cat.
"Not I," said the Dog.
"Then I will," said the Little Red Hen. And she did.
When the wheat was threshed, the Little Red Hen said, "Who will take this wheat to the mill?"
"Not I," said the Duck.
"Not I," said the Cat.
"Not I," said the Dog.
"Then I will," said the Little Red Hen. And she did.
She took the wheat to the mill and had it ground into flour. Then she said, "Who will make this flour into bread?"
"Not I," said the Duck.
"Not I," said the Cat.
"Not I," said the Dog.
"Then I will," said the Little Red Hen. And she did.
She made and baked the bread. Then she said, "Who will eat this bread?"
"Oh! I will," said the Duck.
"And I will," said the Cat.
"And I will," said the Dog.
"No, No!" said the Little Red Hen. "I will do that." And she did.

From The Gingerbread Guide: Using Folktales with Young Children. Copyright 1987 Scott, Foresman and Company

I wish I had the balls to be the Little Red Hen, though. Because I will be sharing my awesome Thanksgiving dinner with a lot of ducks, cats and dogs this afternoon. (I would like to point out that I do have a good Rooster, though.)

Mad Skillz

I have been feeling a little negative about my parenting skills lately. For me, the most challenging aspect is devoting all of my focus and energy on stimulating Sophie. I don't know why I find it so hard to sit on the floor and play with her continuously for hours. It's not physically tolling, and hasn't been ever since she stopped asking to be carried (THANK G-D). It's just mentally exhausting for me. As I've mentioned before, the mornings are easy. We have so many scheduled "outings" that we are rarely home. And I feel awesome about that, because I could easily sit around in my pj's all morning and early afternoon. It's that cursed window between nap time and bedtime when it is still just the two of us because Shimmy works late and I am spent. This is when I usually let her watch videos (hanging head in shame). She loves her Sesame Street, and it is pretty educational, but still.... I mean, she doesn't watch continuously, she just seems to like it on in the background as she plays or colors. I know it's not the worst thing in the world, but it does make me feel like a crappy parent. Yesterday, however, we miraculously watched nothing. We had school together in the morning, and then we went to the library where I got two books (The Time Traveler's Wife and The Favoured Child, both of which I have wanted to read for some time) and Sophie and I played in the children's section for a while. Then we came home and had lunch, read books, and put Sophie down for a nap. After her nap (which went later than usual because it took her an hour to fall asleep), she asked me to sit in her crib and read books to her. She often does this, and I happily comply. We may sit it there for half an hour or more, just reading and hanging out. Kind of like a sleepover party :) After that, we listened to her Baby Einstein CD's in her room and played. At some point we ate dinner, but then we returned down to the playroom where we played for hours. I have no idea where I got my energy (maybe from my guilt of not doing this enough?). By the time I put her to bed I was feeling pretty proud of myself and my mad parenting skillz. Oh yea, and I am 5 months pregnant with achey joints, a seemingly detatched tailbone, occasional sciatica, and the past two days a HORRIBLE cold that will not respond to any of the allowed medications. So, as I said, MAD SKILLZ!

Nesting! (Or just being a more extreme version of my usual self)

(I'm the mama bird! Sophie is helping me get the nest ready for the baby! side note- we read this book, "Are You My Mother?" all the time.)


I have been nesting like crazy! I love organizing in general, so when I am pregnant, it is almost out of control. When I was pregnant with Sophie, the downstairs flooded, so when it was being restored and refinished, I got to choose all new carpet and paint colors, plus build Sophie's room. Score! Then, I also insisted we do something with the "crap room" (spare bedroom that was painted a nasty purple and basically just used as a dumping room for boxes and crap, hence the name.) We cleaned it out, painted it a very contemporary brown and made it into an awesome sitting room/overflow guest room. I'm sure I had a bunch of other projects too, but I can't remember now.

Back to the present. We are moving Sophie into a new room (the current office) for her birthday. This means that I get to combine the office and "brown room", and totally go crazy decorating Sophie's new room. WOOHOO. Step 1 was buying a shed for the back yard, which should be delivered in a few weeks. We will use the shed for all of the excess furniture in the office and brown room, our lawn stuff, and bigger things that are just taking up space in the laundry room. (I seriously just have a little path that allows me to get to the washer and drier and the refrigerator- and as my belly grows this path is getting narrower.) Step 2 was to buy and install (thank you, Shimmy!) shelves in the 2 closets in the brown room. This allowed me to fit soooo much more in those closets. Over the past couple of a years that room had become overrun with boxes, but no more! It is so clean and organized! Step 3 will be absorbing the office into the brown room (losing the office corner desk, losing the tv stand in the brown room, moving the bookcases into the brown room, and a bunch of other stuff that is hard for you to picture until it's done). Basically the brown room will still have the sleeper sofa, and will also have all of the bookcases and the printer/fax/scanner/copier from the office. We are chucking the desk top pc because we never use it and it's a dinosaur. We'll just plug our laptops into the printer/fax/scanner/copier as necessary.

Now, as for Sophie's room. When we were pregnant with her we had overbought furniture for her room with the intention of breaking it up later. Later has come! Her current room has a crib, large dresser (which we use as a changing table), small dresser, night stand, armoire, and dollhouse/bookcase. We bought her a new bed, and are moving the small dresser, night stand, and dollhouse/bookcase into her new room. I am so excited to get in there and decorate once the furniture is all moved in!

I'll keep you updated as more progress on the nesting front is made!