A little of this, a little of that

I don't have the gift of follow-through. Or a lot of uninterrupted time, for that matter. Tres, in particular, likes to come glomp on me as soon as I sit down to type. "Help me, help me Mommy!" she says, begging me to hoist her onto my lap, where she proceeds to jump up and down on my legs and cover my eyes. It's awesome, let me tell you. Not surprisingly, this leads to half-finished blog posts.

Well, dangit! I'm tired of putting off their completion any longer! Also, I am too tired to actually complete them. So here you go:


Career Goals [from about two weeks ago]

Uno, having watched Babe this morning, has decided that as soon as she's old enough she will run for President of the United States on a platform of vegetarianism. And also the important issue of lemonade vs. water in drinking fountains (she supports lemonade).

Dos continues to aspire to be a soldier, though she hasn't yet settled on a particular branch of the military.

Tres told me yesterday (even before seeing Babe!) that when she grows up she wants to be a baby pig. Or maybe the letter N.


Favorite Things [from last weekend]

I am not as, um, special as Oprah, so I will not be giving anything away. Sorry. But seriously, how awesome is this stuff?

Have One on Me by Joanna Newsom - The eccentric folk harpist is an acquired taste, an artist people either love or hate with little in between. I get that. I've loved her since I first heard Sprout And The Bean on college radio in West Texas, but this latest album of hers.... Wah! It's so lovely, lyrically, musically. It feels like the soundtrack to some wonderfully moody afternoon, a solitary drive on back roads or a walk in the woods. I don't know. It's just fabulous. I can't say enough. (I started by downloading On A Good Day and Occident, but in the end I had to get the whole thing. Anyway, those are good places to start.)

Clickin' Moms - I just added a banner for this forum to my side bar. I follow lots of photographers' blogs for inspiration and appreciate the articles at Digital Photography School, but in terms of direct, supportive and helpful interaction with other photographers of all levels, Clickin' Moms is the place for me. It is a subscription-based forum, but the price is small; at (IIRC) around $6 per month, I think I get way more than my money's worth. (And despite the name, not all the forum members are moms. Most are, but it's certainly not required!)

eShakti - Have you ever thought to yourself, "Wow, that dress would look great on me if only it had (any / shorter / longer / different) sleeves or X neckline instead of Y..."? As one whose religious choices can narrow her clothing options, I can tell you I think that all the freaking time, lol. Though I imagine a lot of women do, actually; what flatters one body type doesn't suit every body type. Well here comes eShakti to the rescue! They offer customizable women's clothing in sizes 0-26w to which you can make adjustments (sleeve, neckline, hem length, etc) or get a more precise fit than you would elsewhere. I've never ordered from there, as I just stumbled on the site today, so I can't speak to the quality. But the prices seem very reasonable, especially considering the service they offer.

Cook This, Not That!: Kitchen Survival Guide - We eat out way too much. Way too ridiculously much. I picked this book up at the grocery store after Uno conned me into making a fancy dinner for Valentine's Day and needed a good recipe for roast chicken. That recipe, and others I've tried since, are all very easy and tasty -- and all have (along with the main photo of the completed dish) a small picture of a comparable meal from a restaurant with a note about how many calories the restaurant version has vs. the one in the book. HOLY COW. No wonder I'm not skinny, lol. Long story short, this cookbook is a very handy reference and a good motivator to cook at home!

[There was supposed to be more stuff after that, but I've forgotten now what it was. :-P]


Depressed [from a couple nights ago]

Uno is terribly homesick; she tells me every day how much she hates it here, how much she misses her old friends and the mountains and the Taco Bus, how mad she is at Grandma for smoking (she knows that among our reasons for moving was the precarious health of DH's parents who live here; Uno's 7yo brain has interpreted that to mean that it's all MIL's fault that our lives were uprooted -- *sigh*).

She has random stomach aches. She never wants to go to school (though she continues to do well, and she has lots of friends). I've talked to her teacher, who says that Uno does fine during the very structured moments or the wild and crazy fun of recess -- but that she'll sometimes find Uno silently crying in the in-between times when she has a moment to herself to think about things. When she asks what's wrong, Uno never says anything more than, "I'll be okay. I just miss my mom."

Which is odd, because at home she's always mad at me. I don't love her enough; I treat her like a slave; I couldn't possibly be her real mother or I wouldn't behave the way I do with her.

None of this was an issue before Christmas break; she seemed to have adjusted just fine to the move before then. As I said, she has lots of friends; she's constantly being invited to birthday parties. Her teacher doesn't believe she's being bullied by anyone, and Uno insists nobody has been mean to her. She's just ... homesick.

I don't know what to do for her. I feel like I should know; I was a mopey kid, too. I remember writing a note to the world when I was about her age -- a plea to someone, anyone to notice me and love me. "I feel like everybody takes me for granite," the note said. My smart-alecky brother found it tucked at the bottom of a tree where I'd left it. "People think you're a rock?" he asked. Cue humiliation and further mopiness.

Of course my childish melancholy evolved into something more pathological as I grew up. Uno (any of them, really) has a strong genetic predisposition to depression, if she doesn't have it already. I don't want that for her, but I don't know how to prevent it -- and frankly her outbursts irritate / anger me more often than stoke the fires of my compassion. How terrible is that? I just want the whining and melodrama to stop; I don't want to see the worst parts of myself reflected in her. (So you see, she's right: I am a horrible mother.)

So far my strategy has been to assure her that it's okay to miss our old life. I remind her how much we loved West Texas, but that we came to love the Mountain West too. I let her know that I miss our old home, too, and my family and friends. I try to reminisce in a positive way, and then brainstorm with her the things we like about our new life here (a movie theater closer than an hour away! A bowling alley! The other side of the family that we rarely saw before! Beautiful National Forest land! Fireflies in the summer! Snow days for no good reason!).

[I meant to write more, but I'm sure this is enough. Any ideas / experiences from my friends in Comment Land?]


* * *

Well, that about clears out the recent unfinished posts. I'll finish with some fun baby-isms from the increasingly grown up (2yo) Tres to lighten the mood:

Helicopter = hellodoctor
Hippopotamus = happomotomus
Ice cream = hice cream
Small baby dog = puppet (a mix between puppy and "I want to pet it," I believe)

:-)


~RCH~