4 Parties

I think maybe we are crazy. We took Boyo to 4 parties this weekend. What is confusing to me is that he cries much less with lots of noise, commotion, new people and late hours than if he is just sitting at home on a normal day. Although most parents probably wouldn't attempt this, it seems to have worked out fine for us and I'd do it again. I suppose it will get worse as he gets older and is less portable.

The bars in Mpls have gone no smoking so all I need to maintain my rock n roll lifestyle now is an effective set of baby earplugs or a little decibel reader so I know when music is too loud for baby ears. I am sure that some of the outdoor concerts I have been to this year would fall outside the safe range.

I don't know why my parenting philosophy is so opposite of most people's. Most parents seem to think that they should not attempt to put their children in any environment they might not like. I prefer to do the things that I like- barring any obvious dangers to a 5 month old. If he likes it- great. If he doesn't he'll let me know and we will remove him from the environment/comfort him/etc. He doesn't seem to mind when I'm dancing with him to a Ramones song instead of a Raffi song and I think he will probably get a lot more out of a happy mom that an environment smoothed of all edges.

Time Wasters

Ack! I should be blocked from these sites. Hopefully they are both passing obsessions:

Web Suduko

Celebritrade

Dream Laughs

Some of my favorite things:

• Baby laughing in his sleep

• Dog barking in his sleep

Boyo woke me up at 4:55 am. I fed him and put him back in his bassinet by the side of our bed. As I am drifting off to sleep I suddenly hear chuckling. I look at Boyo and he is chortling and smiling in his sleep. It just blows me away that in 5 short months he has gone from a being that could not even focus on what's around him or smile to a small boy who has his own internal world that can generate dreams that make him laugh.

Our pug dog, Voltron is also quite amusing. It cracks me up when he has dreams that inspire a muffled barking. Sometimes they even startle him awake and he'll jump up from sleeping to run to the door and bark at some imaginary intuder.

I AM Evie Saltine

Since starting this blog I've been grappling with the issue of how anonymous to make it. I have created pseudonyms for my family but do I include pictures? Do I include pictures of the pets and the baby but not of the adults? Should I withhold or change details of a story? I don't have any illusion that I am completely unidentifiable to people who know me. I had a radio show on a public access station for 9 years so I am well aware of the creepy ownership that listeners can feel for you and fully expect there to be some freaks (not in a good way) reading this. They are hopefully outnumbered by the quiet masses that I hope to entertain briefly on their journey through the web.

Yesterday I got to take on a pseudonym in front of hundreds of people. We enjoyed a beautiful summer evening at movies and music in the park with some friends. My friend 'Evie Saltine' had to leave before the night was over and told me "If I win the $100 gift basket you can pretend you're me." She did win and I ran up as Evie Saltine and claimed my prize. I knew the guy that was DJing on stage but he just smirked and I picked up my gift basket and was photographed as Evie.

There are a couple of interesting commentaries on blogging over at Bitch Ph.D. Here's one on blogging anonymously and here's one about the nanny that made the mistake of telling her employer about her blog. Of course I am also thinking about Valerie Plume who's life was endangered by the evil Karl Rove's leak and the reporters pressed to reveal their anonymous sources in that case. Link to a primer on the scandel.

Quiz: Doll or Baby?

Can you tell which of the photos is of a child and which is of a doll?

The one on the left is Izzie, the February winner of a child pageant photo contest in the 0-18 months category! The one on the right is Charli, a doll sold on Ebay for $606.06. Charli is a product of reborning where great efforts are made to create a doll that looks exactly like a newborn while Izzie is a child whose photo has been retouched to match some bizarre glamour-shots-for-tots aesthetic.

Both are adult idealizations of childhood that create something unreal and monsterous. When I look at Boyo I am torn between trying to absorb as much 'baby' as I can because I know it goes so fast and being insanely curious about what he will grow into. It would be great if years from now I could come back and hold him as a baby for a few minutes. My sister once mentioned how cool it would be if you could look at a baby and imagine what they would be like as an adult the same way you can look at an adult and imagine what they were like as a baby. I guess this is what these age maps are trying to get at but they also end up looking creepy.











Thanks to BoingBoing for the pageant photography and age map info.

Baby Weight

I reached a milestone today. This morning the scale read the same as my pre-pregnancy weight. I hope I'm not jinxing this by writing about it but I am frankly amazed that it has been this easy. We are a week shy of Boyo being 5 months old and I thought it would take a lot longer. I have always struggled to stay on the upper edge of a 'normal' weight and took over a year to lose 15 pounds before I got pregnant. I'm still trying to make sense of the factors that have contributed to the weight coming off. Here are some contenders:

• Breastfeeding: I've read this takes 500 calories a day
  
• The Boyo is happiest in his stroller or being carried so we've done a lot of walking
• Running: I starting running as soon as I could, not huge distances but I did make myself run a 5k a couple weeks ago
• Walking and running have both been made easier by the Bob Revolution stroller- a total splurge but the front wheel locks for running and unlocks for easy maneuvering and it's our only stroller
• Boyo does not like to sit. He likes to be in motion so I am more active now
• I've become too cheap to go out to lunch at work so I'm eating healthier during the day
• There is just so much to do. Motopop and I had been used to long stretches of couchsitting and tv watching but now things like laundry and cooking have to be shoved into the schedule somewhere which means more time on your feet
• Prenatal yoga helped me stay in shape during pregnancy

I was worried that pregnancy would make me feel bad about my body but it has had the opposite effect. Before pregnancy being on the heavy end seemed like a personal failure. After pregnancy I had a REASON to be carrying extra weight and my body had accomplished the amazing task of growing an entire person. I felt good about my body even though my stomach was floppy and full of stretch marks.

Since I am still breastfeeding I am not dieting or making an effort to lose weight. I am looking at this period as a chance for my weight to reset itself to it's ideal level. This could be now or it could be ten to twenty pounds less. I would still be in the 'normal' weight range if I lost more but the Boyo's nutrition it the top priority now.

Summer Vacation

I spent the long weekend in beautiful northern Minnesota where trees grow directly out of rocks. Here is a picture courtesy of my cousin:

There are many things growing in my neighborhood as well. There are many beautiful boulevard gardens near my house and one has a very interesting plant. Amongst the weeds growing around a tree in the boulevard there is a marijuana plant. I check on it every time I walk by. I'm waiting to see if anyone notices.