Today

We had a bit of a party today. It was loud, kind of crazy, pretty messy. There was toddler snot and tears. There was too much food that got too cold before it could be eaten. Beers that were abandoned. 

There were balls flying all over the place. 

It was perfection *

Our friends and our friends kids were all in one place, playing together (as developmentally appropriate) and getting to know each other. 

It makes me so happy to have time to get to know these little people (even as I attempt to get mine to cooperate). I'm excited that as we go forward the age gaps between these guys will shrink along with our need to mange their interactions. 

*id ideally live for my sister and her kids to be here too but that's not too likely. But maybe. 

Reading so light it flows into your ears!

Now that I’m back at work and commuting by myself I have started listening to audiobooks again. I have found that the best audiobooks for me are narrative non-fiction. I like books with many chapters or vignettes that don’t necessarily build on previous chapters so that I can listen to them as I’m able to but not get too lost if I need to stop multiple times or get distracted by driving or work or some other unimportant issue.

 

My favorite of this genre have been history of science type books. 

-          Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

-          The Disappearing Spoon

-          Gulp (many of Mary Roach’s books fit )

-          I read and absolutely went gaga for all of the Call the Midwives books

-          Emperor of All Maladies (I’m actually still working on this one, the history of cancer…sucks)

 

But recently I’ve noticed the other trend in my read-listening- memoirs. I LOVE them. I like hearing about other people’s lives. It has made me realize a) I have led a very lucky and charmed life and b) I will likely never be great.

 

Some of the good ones in this genre

-          When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi

-          A Queer and Pleasant Danger, Kate Bornstein

-          The Sound of Gravel, Ruth Wariner

 

Fiction is the hardest via audiobook for me but I like rereading classics this way. It is easier when you know the story a bit.

 

I have read or reread quite a few:

-          Uncle Tom’s Cabin (I am considering writing a thesis with the rough title “ Mulattos and their Role in Abolition” because rereading it I was stricken that one of the main storylines was about a boy being sold away from his mother and by the description of his lineage he is nearly the same percentage black as Andrew) 

-          The Jungle, Upton Sinclair. 

-          Pollyanna

-          Slaughterhouse Five

 

New fiction definitely stays with me less but has been pretty fun.

-          The audiobook of The Martian was fantastic

-          Where’d you go Bernadette àSpoiler: She didn’t go anywhere fast enough for me

-          Still Alice- that was a horror book

-          In the Unlikely Event- this is the new Judy Blume book and it also scared the heck out of me.

 

 

Parental Indignities

I am compiling a list of some of the things you might run into as a parent which just suck as an adult. 

1. Kiddie pools. I mean the one foot deep cess pools you often find alongside a real human sized pool. WHY!!! It's not like you can leave your kid in it unattended. So you stand there either hot or freezing, swimsuit clad body exposed, in a body of water that likely doesn't offer a large enough dilution factor for the amount of human waste it holds. They suck. Just hold and play with your kid in the real pool. (This does not apply to plastic backyard swimming pools). 

2. Pink eye. It is so common and honestly not that big of deal. But parents need to run meetings, interact with bank tellers and do other tasks that would be easier if you didn't look like death. 

3. Lice. See #2 above but add an extra layer of panic and disgust. 

4. Chuck e cheese. Not really. I love the chuckster!

Werk, werk, werk

Updates. 

We made it out the door with everything we needed. 

These two were raring to go and get me and Andrew off. 

I got to work despite dire warnings from the local news. 

Only to find that my work computer didn't trust me anymore. 

I hadn't needed to worry about lunch since I still had freezer burned fixings from four months ago. 

Pumping was fine. I even remembered to bring a prefold to catch drips. 

Because I'm a Cracker Jack employee I left at 4:45 to avoid the continuation of carmeggedon. 

Michael and Miranda had already picked up Andrew. And the children were reunited. 

So it was all good. But, as I remember distinctly feeling after the first day of school, I can't believe we have to do it again tomorrow. 

Signing off

Well, it is a work night for me. 

I am a huge bundle of nerves. I feel like I don't remember anything. Don't remember what i do, don't remember how to pump, don't remember how I commuted and stayed sane. 

I decided to latch onto one aspect of this that I can attempt to control.

I'm attempting to set myself up for pumping success. 

I'm a terrible blogger/writer/person? because I read an article and this line made me laugh and take a screenshot but didn't make me jot down the author. 

With the help of a very generous buy nothing neighbor, a few Amazon knockoffs and the two sets I had from andrew, I assembled a huge stash of pump parts. I am going to attempt to wash all my parts in Sunday for the week. 

The buy nothing neighbor gave me two bags full of parts and lids! Only I need larger flanges so I had to buy replacements of those. But now we have about 10 spare small funnels. 

I envision Michael chipping veggies and I washing bottles and etc. while chatting about the week ahead. Reality might be more "oh shit I have 12,000 pieces to wash" the minute I lay down for bed. We will see. 

My car needs gas, I didn't get stuff for lunch and I never acquired a bag to hold the ridiculous amount of stuff I have piled on the table to take with me. 

But I do have this pretty line of steamed pump parts all in a row.

I'm scared, I'm distracted, I'm excited, I'm disappointed with myself, I'm proud of myself, I'm worried. I'm probably not going to sleep too well tonight. 

Cute kids for good measure. 

I did get to go on a field trip with this guy's class on my last week home and Miranda rolled back to tummy for me!

Action shot. 

Post roll like a boss.