Nurse Mom

The past few days have been pretty full. Last weekend, Lucia attended her first formal event. Chad’s friends from college got married and he was one of the secondary sponsors. Little Lucia was just adorable. :) People would actually stop and stare at her. Well, I don’t really blame them. ;)

You can't see it here, but we were actually
wearing the same colors. ;) Deliberate, of course.

The next day, Lucia had dinner with her ninangs. It was a simple, intimate, and free flowing gathering with my favorite people in the world. (A local celebrity was in the restaurant along with us and she actually approached me and had a conversation with me because of the baby wrap I was using. Haha!)

Oi, but the next day, she started showing signs of uneasiness. She started coughing a little...and then more...until she sounded like she was hoarse. After that, she refused to eat her mush. That night, as she was sleeping, she would wake up in a coughing fit, as if to catch her breath. We went to the ER the next day to get her nebulized. We went to her actual pedia this morning, and he said Lucia has a viral throat infection. To make matters worse, Chad caught the same virus, and now his throat’s down as well. (Meanwhile, my throat’s just a little scratchy, but I’m otherwise fine. For now!)

Chad was ordered to stay home for a few days, so I guess I’m going to have to be Nurse Mom for a few days. Not that I mind. I kinda like that all my chickens are in my coop, at least for a few days. :) My month-long vacation will be coming to a close soon, and I’m hoping to get the most out of it.

Thank you to Ninang Joepi for the last two pictures!

Bling-Bling

Another milestone for our plucky duck! :)

This morning, we went to the pediatrician for another well baby visit for today marks her 5th month. (Hurray! Fanfare!) She got another Hepatitis B vaccine and then we went to the pedia next door to get her ears pierced.

Bah.

I am so glad he didn't listen to those so-called advisers. Ugh. Hurray for non-mainstream music (also known as ART!). A huge part of me wishes that he won't win. The franchise doesn't deserve him. The AI goopy monster might eat him alive. :(






Byooteeful.

Kinda reminds me of this guy.

For the Love of Pink

(You know I'm on a break because I'm on my second posting for the day!)

So J. Crew President and Creative Director Jenna Lyons came out in their recent catalog with her son. In the catalog, Lyons is shown painting her toddler's toes a hot bright pink (not that it matters -- just that the coincidence is awesome -- but my toes are the exact same shade, same brand of nail polish, too) because it is the child's favorite color. Apparently there's a bit of an uproar because the toddler happens to be a boy. I stumbled upon the article here.

Grace

Dear 16 Year Old Lucia,

I am writing to you today because I am tragically loony. It is sometimes endearing (it makes your Daddy laugh almost all the time) and mostly debilitating for yours truly. (Heads up, you just might inherit that.)

Today, my loony-ness has manifested itself as preemptive fears for the future. At this very moment (the neighbor is miraculously quiet right now), everything is still and perfect. As I drink in the essence that is this perfection, I, of course, entertain the possibility of its exact opposite in the near future. Because I don't mind a little rain in my parade, thankyouverymuch. (Again, prepare yourself.)

By now, you must be in the throes of puberty (oh, how you'd hate my having said that). Hopefully, we've had The Talk already, so you know what you should or shouldn't do by now (and by George, you better not be doing what you shouldn't be doing, young lady). You're probably dating some hapless fool behind our backs (for I see no other possibility, your daddy shall have none of this tomfoolery out in the open—wait until you're 31, that is his missive). You're probably hating us for being too strict, too baduy, too "there." You're probably begging for your own hover craft (for I have great hopes that we shall have been weaned from these bloody filthy cars by then). You're probably wearing too much make up. Your skirts are probably too short.

You shall be all these and more for I was 16 and I deserve that karma. I was horrid to the point of I-don't-wanna-talk-about-it. And so, you shall be all these and I shall love you even more. Because at least then it will make sense. Because now...

Now, it doesn't make sense. You are so perfect in your little pudginess. Your different smells are intoxicating (yes, even after a spit up). Your impish smiles are to die for. The way your toes curl when you breastfeed melts my heart. The way you sleep in the exact same position all the time just blows me away. After all the horrible things I've done and will continue to do, it shall never make sense how I can deserve something like you.

I shall remember these days, the halcyon days of my prime and your infancy, when protecting you against the noisy neighbor was my highest mandate. Soon, it shall be much more complicated. It shall be much more daunting.

But even as things become more difficult, I doubt that I shall ever really deserve you. You are God's grace in the flesh; thank the Lord that his grace is given freely even though hardly deserved.

Sleep, sleep, sleep. When you wake up, I'll be feeding you some mashed bananas. You like those.

Oh, wait. I'm supposed to be writing to 16 Year Old Lucia. But then, I suppose you will always be this roly poly infant to me, no matter how old you become.

So, Lucia. My darling puffalump. My princess munchkinitu. Grow and be well and be God's servant. But if you decide to linger a while longer in this stage, that won't be so bad either.

I love you.

xoxo,
Mommy

Luci, 3 days old

Lucia, 4 months old

Lalala, It's Tuesday!

Lucia's nap is running a bit long so I've had all this free time to listen to music and aimlessly wander around the World Wide Web (archaic term alert). Been listening/watching these videos the whole afternoon.

Here's a song from The Jerk. I watched the movie a long time ago and I can hardly remember the story, but this song I've always remembered. The Bird and the Bee has a pretty cool cover of this song, too.





This one's from Joe Versus the Volcano, when the Meg Ryan-Tom Hanks love team (haha, another archaic term alert) was fresh and funny (and not old and predictable).





Now this song of Imogen Heap was part of some soundtrack, just so we'd stick to the theme. Truth be told though, I just wanted to listen to this song again because it is just pure awesomesauce with peanut butter AND caramel drizzling on the side.





Aaand, of course, she's awake now. Hope you enjoyed the songs. Happy Tuesday, everyone! Tootles!

You Get Stronger

I have precious few Me Times scattered about throughout the day, and they usually last about 5-10 minutes (bathroom and eating breaks). The longest Me Time I have is at night, just when Lucia falls asleep. I'm usually super exhausted by then, but mentally I'm usually still pretty wired. That's when I catch up on my NPR podcasts.

I developed the habit of listening to NPR and leaving it on as ambient sound when I lived in Grand Rapids (my family and I moved there in 2001 -- I moved back here, but most of them are still there). I sorely miss NPR (and sucks to you, GOP, for cutting their funding -- and now they're after PBS!) so I thank them eternally for making their free podcasts readily available for me.

Genetics (Finally, My Chin is My Chin)

So we were able to dig these up. This was Chad:

Here I was at roughly the same age:

And here's our little Duckie Princess:

As Simple as Marrying the One You Love

I'm talking about marriage as a civil union here, m'kay? I don't want to open that can of worms (and by "that" I mean the other attribute of marriage). Just so's y'all know and we're all clear. (Although, I acknowledge that most arguments to the contrary stem from that. I hear ya. Still.)

I saw this in my aunt's Facebook newsfeed this morning and I still can't get over how awesome it is, so I'm sharing it here. I have no doubt that both his mothers are proud of him. Heck, I'm proud of him.

And So We Meet Again, Proust

Because I've had nothing to do the whole day (wait, let's relish that thought once more: I've had nothing to do the whole day) but take care of Duckie, I've basically been trolling the Internet. Out of Web sites to visit and still very much un-sleepy, I decided to visit my old blog and chanced upon this meme I did a little over two years ago.

It's essentially a meme based on the last page of Vanity Fair (favorite magazine!) wherein known personalities answer a bunch of questions and hopefully (depending on whether the responder was forthcoming...or cool), the reader gains a more profound knowledge of the person.

I had fun answering that and I had more fun rereading my answers from two years ago. Not a lot has changed, but then a lot has changed. You know what I mean? So in the interest of self knowledge and self-indulgence (and absolute I-have-nothing-else-to-do-ness), here we go (again)...

Bert, Ernie, Sheep, Bocelli, Elmo, and a Duck

And so I'm done! :) Well, I'm still waiting for feedback for edits, but most of my writing work is done -- done enough so that I can have an honest to goodness weekend. Hah!

Don't get me wrong. I love my side jobs. In fact, the added work keeps me sane. The coffee-fueled writing frenzy makes me feel alive. (I've NEVER been sporty nor outdoorsy, so this is the nerdy equivalent of an adrenaline rush from...doing something that would require me to sweat...I would imagine.) It's just that the past week has been a little brutal as far as deadlines are concerned. The two writing jobs I had managed to have similar deadlines, so my brain's been on overdrive the past few weeks. Oh, and did I mention that we still don't have a yaya? Yup, so all that plus taking care of an infant, full time. It's a good thing school's been out for a while.

So anyway, the Duckster and I have the usual night time routine. Some nights, she's so wired up though, it takes a bit to make her sleepy. She's also been trying to master the rollover for a few weeks and just managed to perfect it this week. She's so good at it now, she's actually a little cocky about it -- as cocky as a four and a half month old could be, haha. She's been so gung-ho with this rolling over bit, she positively delights in it, refusing to sleep even though she's clearly sleepy.

So what to do? Go to YouTube, of course. I made her watch this video first; not so much to make her sleepy but, well, because I wanted to see it. Hehe.






And then she watched this video and I kid you not, she really did become sleepy after watching it!






I don't know what to love more, the new lyrics, Elmo's attempt at vibrato, or finding out that Elmo has purple eyeshadow pala. Hehehe. I kid. Of course I love the fact that it made Lucia sleepy.

For about five minutes.

Because as am writing this, she is tugging at my shirt, a little annoyed because I caged her with pillows and my body so she won't roll over to the side. I'm not heeding her cries, I'm pretending to ignore her because she tends to put herself to sleep when I do so. I just have to wait it out.

...This is me drumming my fingers...

But I love how she has these little quirks now. It's like I'm getting to know her as a person now and not just this huge ball of adorable fluff.

So, I know it sucks not to have a yaya...but did I also mention how awesome it is not to have a yaya? :)

Yeah. So happy weekend. I'm going to have an awesome one.