womantalk.org

Chowing down on lots of free naan at the art reception at Crafts and Arts Museum on Wilshire (and clothed shoulder-to-toe in Flann hand-me-downs).

Dear Sir Stands-a-lot,

This month has been all about moving about; even though you are still army crawling, you’ve decided to skip the proper crawl and move right into standing and cruising while standing. And heck, why not? You can reach so much more that way.

For a week or so you were content to get set up right at the base of the armchair, or at the edge of the bed.  Sometimes you lost your balance, and with one hand still holding on, you would slam sideways into the floor with a loud thump. I was often chided for not making a safety zone of pillows around you.

I sometimes set you up just outside the kitchen door with a few toys and you would stand holding the seat of a small wooden child’s chair for support. We’d been doing this for days, when suddenly I looked up and you were gone. You’d taken it upon yourself to use the wall to expand your territory. You even negotiated the corner of the dining area and moved down the hallway. Once you got to Bella’s door you stopped and did what you must have seen me do a thousand times: knocked and yelled, Bella!

Right now you are sleeping on the bed behind me. We never got around to putting the mattress on the floor. Instead we’ve been concentrating on teaching you to turn around and slide off feet first. So far you’ve only fallen off twice (total). Your naps continue to be on the short and frequent; although you seem to have dropped your 4th nap. It’s been harder getting you to fall asleep. As your awareness of the world around you grows, you are less willing to leave it, even momentarily, for the world of dreams. Luckily, in a pinch, your dad can still put you to sleep by rocking out with the playlist he created for you.

You can't fight it.

We’ve been using some sign language with you, but of course you’ve started with the classic first: the wave. It started with a salute, arm raised, to any person or animal approaching, and now that arm flaps, and sometimes even your fingers wiggle. You are very pleased when people wave back. It’s that whole action and reaction thing. You really love it when you bang on a table and the adults around you join in for a party-style table-banging session, like they did at your Auntie Corrina’s birthday dinner.

At the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens (in the Chinese or Japanese section? They all look they same to me. Ha ha.)

And like your older sister before you, you’re a real trooper about traveling, especially when it does not involve the car seat. You’ve spent many days in the Beco carrier I got for Christmas: hiking local trails, walking from gallery to gallery, and even – when you’re on my back – swiffering and vacuuming the house. How did we manage before the Beco?

I think your nightly bath with your dad is your favorite part of the day.

(Routine: I shower alone, then you and your dad jump in as I’m exiting. I dry off,  lotion up, get three diapers  going, and get your sheepskin under the covers, then I get you. You get a pajama shirt – smurf shirt from Nu is a favorite these days – and then the lights  go off and I sing and nurse you to sleep.)

You remain very jolly, in no small part because your dad loves to make you laugh. I also think you’re just a sociable kind of guy who likes a good time. Here’s you in the tub with Daddy having a laugh.

Remember the improv group I posted about, where 207 people froze in place for a full five minutes in Grand Central Station in New York? (It’s worth seeing the clip if you missed it the first time around.)

My father-in-law just sent me another link to one of their hijinks. This time they chose a Little League baseball game in Hermosa Beach to cheer and support. The letter from one of the kid’s dads at the end of the post brought tears to my eyes. Granted, I could be ovulating, which makes me pretty emotional, but I love when people take the time to make other people feel good. (Btw, their site Improve Everywhere is a fun site to browse.)

After several weeks of frenzied activity, everything ground to a halt this week – between choosing to stay at home and friends being sick, I’ve found myself at home TWO STRAIGHT DAYS IN A ROW!

I’m considering staying at home a few more days though, now that I’ve heard what my friends have been sick with. Have you heard of the Noro virus? The ugly GI virus that became famous after causing the evacuation of several cruise ships a few years back?

My 38-week pregnant friend thinks she had the Noro virus – and she was throwing up and having diarrhrea (every 10-15 minutes!) for 24 hours – until she became so dehydrated that her contractions started and they went to the emergency room. It took 5 bags of IV to rehydrate her. Thankfully the contractions stopped right away, and the baby seems well. Probably better for that baby to stay inside a few more days while the mom disinfects the house. (According to the wiki article, noro is completely wiped out by chlorine-based cleaners – although, what isn’t???)

Unfortunately, the virus started in the rest of the family and the poor little almost-three year old was vomiting every ten minutes around the clock. Poor baby! She okay now, but I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of a stomach flu as bad as this bug. Luckily the dad and brother just had a mild bout of vomiting and a short period of feeling unwell. But the two who got it, really were throwing up regularly for almost two days it seems. And only able to hold down popsicles and jello.

Apparently, there are outbreaks of Noro going on all throughout the country. The worst part is that the once-infected person can remain contagious for up to three days after the symptoms have passed. To top it off, people do not seem to be building any immunity to the bug, so you can get it again and again.

So, I’m nervously feeling healthy and well and popping a few vitamins. I was thinking about going to a free Family Yoga class tomorrow morning, but now staying at home and frequently washing my hands sounds more appealing than letting the baby crawl around a sweaty gym floor with dozens of other kids…

After several weeks of frenzied activity, everything ground to a halt this week – between choosing to stay at home and friends being sick, I’ve found myself at home TWO STRAIGHT DAYS IN A ROW!

I’m considering staying at home a few more days though, now that I’ve heard what my friends have been sick with. Have you heard of the Noro virus? The ugly GI virus that became famous after causing the evacuation of several cruise ships a few years back?

My 38-week pregnant friend thinks she had the Noro virus – and she was throwing up and having diarrhrea (every 10-15 minutes!) for 24 hours – until she became so dehydrated that her contractions started and they went to the emergency room. It took 5 bags of IV to rehydrate her. Thankfully the contractions stopped right away, and the baby seems well. Probably better for that baby to stay inside a few more days while the mom disinfects the house. (According to the wiki article, noro is completely wiped out by chlorine-based cleaners – although, what isn’t???)

Unfortunately, the virus started in the rest of the family and the poor little almost-three year old was vomiting every ten minutes around the clock. Poor baby! She okay now, but I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of a stomach flu as bad as this bug. Luckily the dad and brother just had a mild bout of vomiting and a short period of feeling unwell. But the two who got it, really were throwing up regularly for almost two days it seems. And only able to hold down popsicles and jello.

Apparently, there are outbreaks of Noro going on all throughout the country. The worst part is that the once-infected person can remain contagious for up to three days after the symptoms have passed. To top it off, people do not seem to be building any immunity to the bug, so you can get it again and again.

So, I’m nervously feeling healthy and well and popping a few vitamins. I was thinking about going to a free Family Yoga class tomorrow morning, but now staying at home and frequently washing my hands sounds more appealing than letting the baby crawl around a sweaty gym floor with dozens of other kids…

The children’s garden at the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena is one of the most inventive, ingenious, delightful outside parks I have ever encountered for children. It is at least an hour’s drive from my house and admission to the Huntington Library grounds is $15, but I am definitely considering a membership ($100), because I had such a pleasurable day there.

You enter the Children’s Garden through an enchanting little blue gate. All in front of the door there are children’s footprints leading up to it. Animal footprints too, like all the natural world were rushing to a special place.

Inside there were so many spaces to enjoy and discover. One arbor was filled with small round fountains. All at child’s eye level and with small spurts of water for playing. The large fountain in the middle had no spurting, but only a smooth shimmering basin in the middle that was vibrating. The vibration was making the water dance.

Another arbor was a mostly enclosed circular space – with tall walls and trellises of ivy. Every five minutes or so, a fine mist would shoot out from the ankle-level misters and FILL THE ENTIRE SPACE SO YOU COULDN’T SEE ANYTHING. That was cool. We stayed through a half dozen cycles and when we left we were faintly damp.

There was a rainbow tunnel. In the middle it opened up and there were prisms on the wall.

And funnily enough we found our favorite thing right where Christian and I had been hanging out. There was a low stone wall that looped around and enclosed a small sandy space. It was the perfect height for Christian to hang on to. At one spot the stone wall curved up and arched and split. Then started again after a six-inch gap. There was metal grating in the gap. I thought it was just decorative.

But later that afternoon when we passed by again we heard a melodious jingling, like a music box and it was coming from that arch. A little girl was pouring pebbles down into the space and as each pebble made its way through the nails and thin metal bars to the ground, it sang out in a pleasing tinkling. It was a version of a rain stick!

The children’s garden at the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena is one of the most inventive, ingenious, delightful outside parks I have ever encountered for children. It is at least an hour’s drive from my house and admission to the Huntington Library grounds is $15, but I am definitely considering a membership ($100), because I had such a pleasurable day there.

You enter the Children’s Garden through an enchanting little blue gate. All in front of the door there are children’s footprints leading up to it. Animal footprints too, like all the natural world were rushing to a special place.

Inside there were so many spaces to enjoy and discover. One arbor was filled with small round fountains. All at child’s eye level and with small spurts of water for playing. The large fountain in the middle had no spurting, but only a smooth shimmering basin in the middle that was vibrating. The vibration was making the water dance.

Another arbor was a mostly enclosed circular space – with tall walls and trellises of ivy. Every five minutes or so, a fine mist would shoot out from the ankle-level misters and FILL THE ENTIRE SPACE SO YOU COULDN’T SEE ANYTHING. That was cool. We stayed through a half dozen cycles and when we left we were faintly damp.

There was a rainbow tunnel. In the middle it opened up and there were prisms on the wall.

And funnily enough we found our favorite thing right where Christian and I had been hanging out. There was a low stone wall that looped around and enclosed a small sandy space. It was the perfect height for Christian to hang on to. At one spot the stone wall curved up and arched and split. Then started again after a six-inch gap. There was metal grating in the gap. I thought it was just decorative.

But later that afternoon when we passed by again we heard a melodious jingling, like a music box and it was coming from that arch. A little girl was pouring pebbles down into the space and as each pebble made its way through the nails and thin metal bars to the ground, it sang out in a pleasing tinkling. It was a version of a rain stick!

Whoa. Things have gotten really busy all of a sudden – kinda feels out of control and like I need to spend a few days at home.

I’m heading out to the Irvine La Leche League meeting here in a moment. It IS fun to see the same babies (happy breastfed babies) month after month, growing visibly each time. Real-time time-lapse.

One of the great things about having a baby again is getting to hang out with lots of kids. I love to scout out activities that kids enjoy, and I like to think that Christian enjoys the adventuring too.

We discovered a wonderful place last month: The Huntington Library and Gardens.

Granted, my friend and I treated ourselves to the all-you-can-eat-and-drink high tea first ($25 – mine was an early Valentine’s Day treat from the hubby, who I think was a little relieved to get out of the tea-drinking responsibilities), so we were high on caffeine, but the day as a whole is already a highlight of 2009. It’ll probably be in the top ten.

The high tea was more casual than I expected, but that worked well, because Sierra and I had three children between us. The food was excellent, especially the finger sandwiches. Darn, I’m making myself hungry again. Mental note though – it’s hard to appreciate a leisurely tea with three kids… It would be perfect for a long catch-up with an old friend, or a date. Any scones you don’t finish they pack up for you.

Which is perfect, because you’ll need them later while you’re walking around. That’s all we did. Walk and talk. (After the eating – we were starving when we arrived and did quite well on those yummy finger sandwiches. We both like the carrot and ginger one the best. The desserts were as good as the savory, but after all the cavier I ate I didn’t have that much room left!)

The Huntington is only open from noon to 4:30 right now – winter hours maybe? We were there that entire time and barely felt like we spent enough time there. There is SO MUCH TO SEE. Not to mention a Gutenberg Bible. We never even went into any of the buildings there.

I guess that just means we have to go back soon.

Note: there is a Free Day, the first Thursday of each month. However, you must have a ticket to get in, and tickets are available the first of the month previous, ie., March Free Day tickets were available (momentarily) on February 1. Good luck with that one.

It started around Thanksgiving. I asked my friend Sierra for her osso buco recipe and she introduced me to Williams – Willams-Sonoma recipes online, that is. Every time I asked her for a recipe she would refer me back to the site, saying that she’d never tried a recipe there that she didn’t like.

And now after a dozen or so recipes, I have to agree. The recipes there are GREAT.

Recently I have made (and been very impressed with) the chicken pot pie, including the crust; the coleslaw with a cooked dressing (you basically make your own mayonaise); and the cassoulet (a slow cooker version that was recommended for Valentine’s Day).

I have not been neglecting my Mark Bittman though – I made a second Valentine’s Day meal: Beef Stroganoff.

Have we been eating like crazy? Little bit.

But this may be the last time in my life I can eat so many calories so indiscriminately. The baby has started solids, but depends on his nursing calories for most of his energy. And let me tell you, I am burning through calories like wildfire keeping both him and I going all day long. That boy is going to be ACTIVE – he NEVER STOPS.