Friday, May 23, 2008

facts and kudos

Fact 1: The shirt I wore to the hospital on the night I gave birth to Asher does not fit. Did you hear that? It no longer covers my belly. It is not that I am enormous (although I do look every minute of eight months pregnant). It's that Silas is lower than Asher was, which is a MUCH more comfortable pregnancy, and I'm not at ALL complaining. But the problem is that the more he - and I - grow, the fewer shirts will cover my belly. I was a little upset to discover I can't wear the shirt I wore to give birth, for pete's sake, but mostly I don't care. Even so, I have absolutely no intention of buying more maternity clothes this late in the game (especially knowing we intend to wait a WHILE before I need them again), so we'll see how long - and far - I can make what I've got stretch.

Kudos 1: My sister-in-law, Barbara, is a diligent yard saler, and my children are the beneficiaries of her resourcefulness. Easily 1/3 of Asher's wardrobe has come from her. Last week she found a double jogging stroller for us (for 25$!) and today - drum roll please - she found Asher a kitchen set! Not a princess set, but a manly blue and gray kitchen set, which will be sitting in a corner of my kitchen within the hour. This is great news for everyone involved. Asher has reached the age where he wants to act out what he sees, and since what he sees very often is me in the kitchen, I spend more time than either of us enjoy shooing him out of the cabinets. Now he will have cabinets of his own. Yay for Asher, and thank you Barbara!

Fact 2: Asher is whining his way through this week. This, after I spent last weekend talking about how he's just not a whiney kid, and weren't we lucky to have such a cooperative, peaceful toddler. Ha. It's getting worse every day, and I really cannot imagine why. Any guesses? It could be residual from the ant bites, it could be too much Benadryl (although he's down to Benadryl only at night now, and it's only supposed to last 4 hours, right?), it could be that he's learning to work the system. I'm doing my best not to reinforce whining, but it is sucking the life out of my day. Any suggestions?

Fact 3: I got a haircut this past weekend, and I'm feeling ambivalent about it, but other people seem to like it. Brian says it's in style, and the truth is that I would not know that apart from him. What's in style is not really my thing ... so I'm thinking I'm going to keep it and trust him. The alternative is to cut it short, and this seems like the wrong moment in my life for a drastic haircut. So, you know, whatever.

Kudos 2: My dad - it's always so complicated to talk about families when you have more than one person with the same title, and I get tired of needing some sort of parenthetical every time I want to bring him up. Dwane, my adoptive dad, is who you can always assume I'm talking about, unless otherwise specified - is one of my favorite people. If you know me in real life you already know that. When I was a kid, he had a few goals in life: he wanted to have and raise kids (check), he wanted to build a house, and he wanted to buy a boat. He's not much of a hunter, but he loves to fish, and always wanted to be able to do more of it. The year that we moved to Nashville, my parents sold the house where they raised us and built a house on the lake. Seems we were all pursuing dreams that year. Two weeks ago, my dad bought a boat. It's been cleaned, it's been waxed, it's been docked. And Monday, my dad will take his children and grandchild out in his boat for the first time. I'm really excited about this. Excited that he has done what he waited so long (and worked so hard) to do, and excited that my kids will grow up the way I did, going to visit their grandparents on the lake, learning to enjoy the world that grows outside of a neighborhood. So, yay for us. And kudos to Dad.

Happy Friday everyone. Check back in a few hours, and I'll add some pictures of Asher's cool new kitchen set.

7 comments:

Laura Mielke said...

GREAT POST. I grew up visiting my grandfather DeDe (deedee) on the Lake Martin. He had a stroke when I was very young and was left paralyzed and bed ridden so up until I was a freshman at UA I would visit him at the lake cabin. Some of my most vivid memories are of the smell of the cabin, how cold his room was from the window AC unit, laying alongside him in the hospital bed, holding his hand, and us watching out the window the seado's race on the lake. DeDe couldn't talk very good so we just layed there :*)

aubrey said...

I have memories of your grandparents and the lake (there was a small "bope" and a lot of screaming at an imaginary snake)! I am so excited for your dad (he deserves nothing less than for his dreams to come true) and for Asher and Silas! Good times and memories are just on the horizon!!!

Stephanie said...

Aubrey, I laughed when I read your post. I remember screaming at an imaginary snake, too. And it was you and I who took that raft out in the slew (how do you spell slew anyway?) and spent all afternoon trying to paddle the 100 yards back home.

Asher and Silas have a lot to look forward to.

Anonymous said...

You have such a good family - kitchen sets and bopes. Excellent. So glad your dad is getting to achieve his dream!!

The Bean said...

Baby bean has a kitchen that she makes pretend soup and sandwichs (or as she says samiches) out of. And I am almost 18 weeks will know on June 12th if we're having a boy or girl.

Missy said...

Teeth. I blame everything on teeth. Pour in the Motrin.

Anonymous said...

Hmm...new haircut, some midriff, and a double jogging stroller...sounds like you're a styling and profiling hot mama.