Saturday, January 12, 2008

Cara Mama - It's What I Do

Cara Mama,

You asked me two questions this morning that I will now answer:

1. Why do I have to get into everything?
2. Why do I have to put everything in my mouth?

The answer to both is:
Because I'm a baby.

And as Daddy later said, I need to explore the world around me, and part of that exploration is done with my mouth.

After all, how am I going to know what's yummy and what's icky if I don't try it all? By the way, refrigerator door = tasty!

I hope that helps!

La tua curiosa bambina,
Pumpkin

Friday, January 11, 2008

Cara Figlia - Beautiful Girl

Cara figlia (dear daughter),

I wanted to take this time to tell you how beautiful you are. You look so much like your father, with his skin and eye coloring. You actually have my dark brown hair and my almond-shaped eyes, but other than that, you are definitely your father's daughter. It's a good thing he's so cute. ;-)

Your sweet pale skin has pink touches to it--not peaches-and-cream complexion but roses-and-cream. You don't have my italian olive skin, and I know I'll have to learn the importance of sunscreen for you, but your skin just glows, especially when you get a good night's sleep (like last night, YEAH!). And your whole body is just as soft as butter. I just want to eat you up! (But apparently, you are not food.)

It's not the color of your eyes that is so striking, although the blue with gold flecks is lovely. It's that they are so bright. Once, a stranger complemented how beautiful you are and how piercing your eyes are. I always call you bright-eyes, because there is just some quality to your eyes that I can't describe in any other way than bright and piercing. Maybe I need a thesaurus...

Your smile just lights up my life, especially when you do your open mouth smile with the your eyes crinkled. Like you are just the happiest thing in the world and are smiling as wide as you can! Just thinking and writing about your smiles makes me smile and melts my heart.

You are a truly beautiful baby, but not just because of your physical features. Your skin is soft and pale and sweet, but it's even more beautiful because of how you snuggle it against me. Your eyes are not just bright and lovely, but they are even more striking because of how intently you look at the things around, and how they light up when they see me. Your smile is not just pretty because of your rosy little lips and cute little teeth, but it is the best smile in the world because it means you are happy and you love me.

Grazie, mia bella, per tutti (Thank you, my beauty, for everything),
Mama

Thursday, January 10, 2008

There's No Crying in Baseball!

Ever have one of those days when you feel like you are about to burst into tears all day long for any reason and no reason? But you can't because you are surrounded by other people? And maybe you have a big presentation in front of your new management team and you don't want your face to be blotchy or your make-up to run? And the last you want to do is talk in front of or to other people or be at work or even be out of bed? But you are crazy busy at work and so you have to be doing stuff all day long even though you are exhausted and sleep deprived and extremely cranky? And maybe you blew up at your partner because you had to ask him/her for help and you hate asking for help even when you know you need it?

No, you haven't? Yeah, me neither.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Watering My Baby

On Sunday, the Pumpkin and I went to our first class of Water Babies! My good friend and her baby, who is 15 months old, also went, and it's fun to have a friend to go with. Not that I didn't talk to all the other moms and dads, because I will strike up a conversation with anyone.

Here's how the class went:

Once I got us changed into our bathing suits* and our stuff locked in the locker, we joined the class and headed into the very shallow area of the pool. We sat the babies in the water and dribbled water over their heads to get them used to it. The Pumpkin liked splashing around, but wasn't thrilled with the water dripping into her face.

Then we got colored rings and threw them a little way in front of the babies to get them to crawl to them. I felt like I was playing fetch with my dog, including the part where after the second time, the Pumpkin just kept going. Just like my dog, who says "forget this 'fetch it back' stuff, I'm going to check out what's over there!" But it was really cute and we had fun with this part, because the Pumpkin loves to crawl around in the bath tub and now she had ROOM to crawl! We crawled over to other babies and smiled and splashed a bit, and I kept trying to herd her back to our spot next to my friend. Her baby was just sitting there taking it all in, trying to figure out what the heck everyone was doing.

Then, we went into deeper water. Not deep enough were we could stand and the babies still be in the water, so we all crouched down in the water, holding the babies. The girl who was leading the class then told us how we were to blow in the babies' faces and dunk them under. I was not sure about this, but willing to try. The first time, I think it went okay, the second time the Pumpkin was looking wary, the third time she decided she definitely didn't like it. Neither did my friend's baby, so at least we were not alone.

Next, we put them on the walls and played Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, when we slid the babies off the wall into the water. The Pumpkin thought this was fun at first, but again, started to dislike it as it went on, especially the sitting on the wall part. She was much happier just being in the water and splashing around. And that's what we did mostly for the rest of class. First floating them on their backs, and then on their stomachs, then holding a floating barbel and then the parents blowing bubbles in the water with the babies watching. My girl and my friend's boy both did pretty well during those.

I think the Pumpkin's favorite part was at the end, when we all got in a big circle and went around, singing "Ring Around the Rosy" and dunking them on "all fall down" except that I didn't dunk the Pumpkin. She didn't like being dunked, and I wanted her to enjoy the class, so we just bounced on that part. She thought that was fun, and splashed and giggled. My friend did the dunk like she was supposed to, and her boy let it be known he did!not!like!that! So I was glad that I didn't do the dunk, because I'm sure that the Pumpkin would have started wailing!

All in all, I think it was a fun first class. The Pumpkin loved crawling in the super shallow water and bouncing and splashing in the deeper water. I will try dunking her at least once each class, but I won't push it. We have 5 more classes, and I'm so excited! I LOVE the water and am so glad to be able to share it with her.

*Note: It is very hard to change yourself and your baby in the locker room when you don't want the baby to sit on the floor and she refuses to stand (although she constantly wants to stand every other second of the day). It is a much better idea to wear the bathing suits to rec center under your clothes. Now that I know this, I thought I'd share.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Book Review - Anansi Boys

I finished Anansi Boys, by Neil Gaiman, this weekend. That was the first book on my list (see TBR Book List on the left) for the To Be Read Challenge 2008. Not only am I feeling pretty good about already finishing January's book, but the book was fantastic.

Once again, Gaiman writes a great book, with an interesting plot, well-rounded characters and surprises that I didn't see coming. Some I did see coming, but as Londo and I agree, Gaiman likely intended the readers to see those coming. This story, like his others, is so well written, with things you don't suspect as important coming into play later. Things you might overlook become key to the plot, and you realize just how tight of a story it is. And that's how I like my stories.

I'm not going to sum up what the book was about. I used to hate doing book reports because I felt like I was just re-writing what was written on the back of the book. If you want to know what it was about, read the back of the book. Then, buy the book and read the whole thing. It was definitely worth it.

Now, on to Jane Eyre. Based on the commenter cara's recommendation, I'm going to read Jane Eyre next so I can read The Eyre Affair. Since I'm done with my January book so early, I feel like I have time to get at least one other book in. Or I'm going to read one of my romance novels. It will all depend on my mood tomorrow...

Monday, January 7, 2008

Question of the Week - Super Power

Well, I finished Anansi Boys, and once again Neil Gaiman rocks my world. I will do a bit of a review soon. Also, I of course need to address the Redskins game, which I will do now:

Why oh why do I even get my hopes up? That game was awful! They did nothing, nothing, more nothing, and then... Wow! They looked great for a few minutes, like magic--scoring two in a row, and almost a third, getting my hopes up... And then, crap! They fell apart. Again. Sigh. So the Redskins are out of the playoffs, as I knew they would be. But they did have a nice run for a while.

Now, on to today's post. It is Monday, and here at Cara Mama's that means it's question time. In honor of the supernatural nature of Neil Gaiman's writing, today's question is:

If you could have any super power, what would it be?

My answer is the same answer it has been for many, many years (as this isn't a new question for me to ponder). I would be able to become any animal, which would include the ability to talk to all animals since the ability to become an animal would enable me to communicate with the animals. But when I'm not the animal, I would like to look normal (and not be green).

I'm very curious what other people would be, and if you've given it a lot of thought, the way I have.

Learning I Have Hypertension

This past winter, I discovered I have developed high blood pressure. This came as a surprise for me, since I generally had always had blood ...