Josh, Jude, and I have been spending a decent amount of time at the beach lately. Yesterday, after having read an interesting article on the ingredients in conventional sun screen, I picked up two different containers of safe sunscreen: California Baby Sunblock Stick
Archive for the ‘Daily Life’ Category
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Beach Time
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Jam Packed
I love days like today. Days when we go from activity to activity, from play date to play date, from yummy meal to yummy meal.
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Wondering
Lately I’ve been wondering whether or not I should start blogging again. I haven’t stopped writing, or menu planning, or taking pictures of my sweet boy; I just haven’t felt the need to type it all up for publishing. Recently I’ve felt that pull to engage with others again-to write posts that encourage dialogue (even if that dialogue is limited to “OMG! Jude is SO CUTE!” Because, well, he is.)
Maybe the key is to just take it one day at a time.
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Carved
After Monday’s pumpkin patch fail and a failed attempt to procure a pumpkin from a local market yesterday afternoon, we finally brought home a pumpkin to carve yesterday evening. Jude was ready to dive right in; he desperately wanted to see what was inside the pumpkin, but alas, Josh had a meeting last night, so the carving had to wait another day.
On the table tonight were three very fun (if not hurried) events:
1. Dinner-homemade quesadillas (5-6pm)
2. Pumpkin carving/pumpkin seed roasting/popcorn popping (6-7pm)
3. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (7-7:30pm) -
Letter to Jude: Month 41
Dear Jude,
Well, Mama fell off the monthly letter writing wagon. I’m really and truly sorry for that. The letter I write you, the posts I publish… they’re my journal of your life. When I forget to write or put writing of because I’m tired, I do both of us a real disservice. In other words: I’ll try to do better.
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Pumpkin
There’s a place on Sheridan Road that sells pumpkins during the Halloween season and Christmas trees during… uhm, the Christmas season. Since Monday’s attempt to go to the pumpkin patch at a semi-local farm was such an epic FAIL, Josh and I took Jude over to the neighborhood make-shift patch this evening.
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Ideas
I’m really not sure what to write about. There a about six different ideas for blog posts swirling around in my brain right now, but I can’t figure out where to start.
The simplest of the ideas is just to update you all (?) on life in general. So… life= pretty good. Jude came down with a fever yesterday afternoon, so we’ve been hanging around the house, putting puzzles together and watching movies, since then. Josh’s business is up and running, and I encourage you to drop him a line (info@blackframemedia.com) if you’re in need of any web/graphic design work.
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Payback
In return for a really wonderful day with Jude yesterday, today the universe gifted me melt down after melt down from an overtired young man.
One might say that Jude woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. The truth is that after a super long and busy day yesterday, the boy woke up much too early for his (and my) own good. I’m talking 6:15am, folks. And that was after an 8 o’clock bedtime. And barely a nap the day before. *sigh* Josh and I were super beat and were planning on capitalizing on Jude’s nap time today (read: family nap), but instead, Jude decided to crash while we drove (in a borrowed car) to JC Penny to exchange some gifts Josh’s mom recently sent. Family Nap = FAIL.
After we got home and ate lunch, we headed out with some friends to Lazarus Playlot. There, Jude suffered a handful of bumps and bruises; each resulted in much dramatic crying and whining. During dinner, Jude zoned out watching a couple of episodes of the Fantastic Four, but that didn’t stop him from resisting bedtime.
Whaddya say we just call this day done?
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Better
Today was better; not pain-wise, but parenting-wise in the least.
This morning, after a long, drawn-out breakfast of raw, keifer-soaked oatmeal, Jude and I walked a few blocks east and south to Lazarus Playlot. There we played with old and new friends, spun ’round and ’round on the tire swing, and jumped, Spiderman style, from very high platforms. Well, Jude did.
After a lunch of homemade pizza, we hopped on a red line train (forgoing a nap) and headed south to visit our friends Helen and Annabel* in Lincoln Park. From their house we walked to the Lincoln Park Zoo and rode the carousel. After that, we hopped on the 151 and traveled into downtown Chicago to pick up our friends’ CSA share. We played at Grant Park and had tea at Chipotle.
The train ride home was super packed. There were no empty seats, and my boy was tired. I picked him up and held him as I leaned waaay back and steadied us using one of the grip poles. No one offered us a seat, not even minutes later when Jude had fallen asleep leaving me to balance myself and his 40-pound/felt like 100-pound body. Eventually the train cleared a bit and I was able to sit down and just hold my sleeping boy. I even made it off the train and down half a flight of stairs at the station before he woke up.
Jude and I meandered home; alternating walking alongside one another and me carrying him. He ate dinner with his Papa and then Josh and I both ushered him off to an early-ish bedtime.
I sure do hope he sleep in tomorrow.
*Thank you so much for spending the afternoon with us, Helen. It’s always a joy to spend time with you and A.
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Blerg
I think I’ve said it before, but in case I haven’t, let me come clean with all of you:
I am a shitty, shitty parent when I am in pain. And, sadly, I’ve been a lot of pain as of late. Blerg.
You remember how I landed myself in the hospital earlier this year after (finally) having been diagnosed with two herniated discs? Well, I’m still hurting, and every day that I wake up and have to spend an hour in bed slowly moving from side to side and carefully stretching just so that I can move without seriously injuring myself again is a day that I start in a pissed off frame of mind.
Being pissed off is not conducive to gentle, present, parenting or consensual living. It’s very hard to center yourself and find your breath when jesusmotherfuckingchrist your back hurts and bending elicits shooting pain down throughout your lower back and don’t even think about sitting because after a whole five minutes of that you’ll need to get up and move or just give in to the pain and go have a lie down.
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Oct 27, 2010
Letter to Jude: Month 41
Dear Jude, Well, Mama fell off the monthly letter writing wagon. I’m really and truly...
