Word.

I recently read that at my son's age (19 1/2 mo), he's adding a new word to his vocabulary every 90 minutes. Now, I don't know if that's just waking hours, or averaged based on a 24 hour day. What I do know is that, regardless, that's a lot of new stuff to say. I think it's referred to as the "language explosion". I love hearing him say new things. The only problem is that a lot of those newbies totally throw me for a loop. It took me about a week to realize, for instance, that "awahnee" means "I want it." In case you think he's referring to the famous lodge at Yosemite. And "iman" is not the supermodel from the 80s married to David Bowie. "Iman" means "Come on". Wyattese is a tricky language, but I have a team of translators on the job day and night.

This week has been rough. Wyatt's been great, but I've had a cold. It's hard to be on top of everything when your head is in a vice grip. And so, my kid has a few more freedoms than usual right now. Hey Wyatt, climb down from that 10' ladder. If you fall down, it could take me a while to remember how to dial 9-1-1. We're making it work, though. I thought about calling in sick, but figured leaving Wyatt in his crib all day would be asking for trouble. Out of pure hunger, he'd figure out how to climb out, and then my prison tactics would go the way of the dodo bird. Can't have that.

We're also prepping for more quality one-on-one mommy-kid time. That's glass half full code for single motherhood. Ryan's leaving again for South Dakota on Friday. The good news is that Wyatt and I get to fly out to see him on Tuesday and stay for a couple days for Thanksgiving. So it's only 4 days solo bookended by 2 more days solo. Ryan should be home by next Sunday sometime. And thanks to the same generous benefactor that allows us to use the SD ranch, we'll be flying private, so I won't have to do the airport security thing with a toddler. I'll admit it seriously weirds me out that my son's first flight will be on a private jet. I may need to get pics of him next to the plane in the hanger with sunglasses on, and start calling him Vinnie Chase. (I'm not sure. Is the mommy blog reading demographic the same as the Entourage demographic? Show of hands...) So anyway, the flight should be a lot easier than a typical traveling-with-toddler scenario. But lest you think he's being raised a spoiled brat, I hasten to remind you that he has a built-in humility regulator: i.e. we're raising him in humble Bakersfield. (Apologies to Bakersfield, which is actually a rad place to live. Sadly, a lot of people won't see it that way, because their only real education about Bakersfield has come from its freeway properties and it's non-LAness.)

So, anyway, to summarize: Wyatt talks. I'm sick. South Dakota for Thanksgiving. Bakersfield is rad.

Living on the Surface of the Sun

It's summertime in Bakersfield. This is the time of year when I question the wisdom of moving away from the gorgeous coastal climate of Marina del Rey to oven-baked Bakersfield for love. Then Fall comes along and I forget all about the miseries of summer. I assume this phenomenon is no different than living in the Midwest or Northeast in the winters, though. No one can tell me subzero temperatures are a party. It's the same deal. You stay inside more. You take advantage of artificial climate control. You grit your teeth and bear it because you know it's just a couple uncomfortable months, and it'll be over soon. And there's a reason such a huge percentage of the population of the country live in places that don't have perfect weather all year long. Those places are frickin' expensive! So we sacrifice a couple months of yucky weather for home ownership, low-stress commutes, and some expendable income to visit those perfect climates on demand. I think it's actually a pretty good deal. I just have to give myself the sales pitch a little more frequently when the temps jump past 100 degrees... :)


Wyatt is 15 months old now. Hard to believe. He runs. He climbs. He dances. He speaks Wyattese peppered with English here and there. (His favorite word is "Daddie", which sounds like "Daddy" but actually means "Sadie", our dog. Ha!) He has a sense of humor and plays pretend and has very strong opinions about all sorts of things which show in his myriad of facial expressions. I keep flashing back to the tiny bundle of a being he used to be. I keep remembering how we'd grasp at straws to assign personality to little instinctual baby behaviors. And now here he is, projecting his personality so boldly, there's no mistaking it. He's stubborn and goofy and stubborn and mellow and stubborn and loving and STUBBORN. Tons of fun and frustrating to the core, all at the same time!


Hard right. Next week, we're going camping. But before you get a picture of tents and cooking over an open flame in your head, you should go back and read my "camping" blog from a year ago. Just so we're clear, I'm a spoiled brat in that arena. I grew up going to a beautiful cabin in the Sierras with all the comforts of home. I don't think making life harder and less comfortable on purpose constitutes a vacation. But I think this trip will be a lot of fun. To start, we're going to be camping in Peteluma right on the Russian River. That means wineries and civilization are nearby. Did I mention wineries? Yes, wineries. Also, our friends Travis and Amber are loaning us their motor home for the trip. It's a really nice one, so we'll be far from roughing it. And lastly, our son will be a 15 month old on this trip instead of a 4 month old like he was on the last one. I won't be nursing, something I did not enjoy despite all my attempts to be a good little earth mother, and I won't be trying to decipher different kinds of cries from a squirming blob. Yes, I like having a toddler better than I liked having a baby, even with the occasional tantrums and him getting into everything. Because even with all that frustrating work, I still feel a lot more fulfilled parenting a little person than simply keeping a little blob alive. I know. I know. Everyone has their own opinions on that. But for me, when we have another one, I could just skip to him/her being about a year old, I'd be a happy camper. (Bada bing. Hope you pun-lovers enjoyed that one.)



I'm sure there's more. There has to be, because this is my first blog in like 3 months. But I don't have the energy to tell you about it right now, and you could probably do without several more paragraphs. So, stay tuned. Maybe I'll do a little better at keeping this sucker up to date now. Maybe I won't. :-)~

Changing Formats

Guess what I found out. When you try to compartmentalize your life into two separate blogs, and you've already had issues getting motivated to write, you end up giving up on the harder blog. (In case there's any question, this was the harder one. It requires effort to ignore a pregnancy and admit failure when the professional side of things takes a bit of a tumble.) And so, I'm merging the blogs. My apologies to anyone who was hoping to avoid talk of pregnancy and babies! But alas, it grows into a bigger piece of my pie all the time. I can no longer avoid it. I'll try really hard to at least maintain some balance. We'll see... :)

I'm going to post my last three Myspace blogs below, just so you're caught up (if you want to be). After that, the two blogs will probably mirror each other. The only difference is that I think I'm planning to post more pictures on this one. We'll see how that goes... So, here's the review of past musings, from oldest to newest. (So you don't have to read backwards.)

Friday, Feb 1, 2008

Childbirth Class 2, Massage and Music

Well, last night was our second childbirth class. It was much more of what I was expecting (and hoping for) in a childbirth class. So I guess the first one was just a soft intro. Last night we learned all about the childbirth process, watched the standard videos (much to Ryan's chagrin) and practiced different techniques for dealing with labor. It also made me realize that despite the pain, I want to try to go as long as I can without getting an epidural. I'm not going to beat myself up if I decide to get one, but I do want to hold off as long as humanly possible. Mainly, because I don't want it to slow down my labor, and I want to be able to stay mobile for as long as possible for the sake of gravity and all that. So I've kind of come full circle even from where I stood on it a week ago! I also found it interesting that according to our instructor (who's employed by our hospital), only about half of their labor and delivery patients get epidurals. That's really low by most hospital's standards, so they must really support natural labor there. (That or her numbers are wrong.) Anyway, food for thought.

On another topic (kind of), I got my first prenatal massage today. Heaven. Pure heaven. And Lorre, my massage therapist, told me she knows the right pressure points for getting labor started. So I scheduled another massage for 2 weeks before my due date. :) I have every intention of requesting that she hit those pressure points! By 38 weeks, I'll be ready, and so will Wyatt.

Lastly, Ryan and I are going to a George Strait concert up in Fresno tonight. I think it'll be fun. He's just one of those musicians who can put on a great show. I know a lot of you aren't country fans, but even then, you'd probably enjoy it. He's kind of a cultural icon, ya know?
Well, I guess that's all for now. I'm also going to my great aunt Joan's memorial service tomorrow morning. But that's more of a sad topic, so I don't think I'll say much about that.

I'll be 32 weeks pregnant tomorrow. Wow.

Wednesday, Feb 6, 2008

A Passing, Among Other Things...

My grandma passed away yesterday. She's the first of my grandparents to pass, and I just wasn't expecting it. I knew her health had been declining, but somehow it just didn't occur to me that it would happen this soon. I don't really have a lot to say, but it's kind of a surreal time in life to be going to funerals. I guess the whole 'circle of life' concept comes into play here, but it's never really that simple, is it?

We're expecting Wyatt to make his appearance in around 7 1/2 weeks, give or take. Needless to say, the method of his exit has been running around, knocking things over in my head lately. I still have an ideal in mind, of course. I vote that he comes about 2 weeks early, weighs in the 6lb. range, and comes quickly, easily, and without incident. Which is, of course, totally typical for a first baby... ha. Yeah, well... a girl can dream.

Ryan is going to be out of town this weekend. He's meeting up with his friend Josh (who lives in Redding) up in Carmel. It's going to be a mix of your basic guy time, plus some accountability and motivation for both life and business. They're planning to get together on a somewhat regular basis, which I think is great. And of course, I'm calling in reinforcements for my time alone. Andrea is coming to visit Friday night through Sunday morning, and Talitha and baby Riley might be coming Saturday night through Sunday. I'm looking forward to some quality girl time, either way.

Friday, Feb 8, 2008

Childbirth Class 3 and Weekend Plans

Three down. Two to go. We have a break next week because our class would have landed on Valentine's Day. I guess the assumption is, if you're knocked up, odds are you either have a Valentine to celebrate with or you'll be too busy making a voodoo doll of whoever formerly played that role to be bothered with a childbirth class that day. But anyway, it was another pretty useful class last night. We went over the stages of labor, specifically early labor and when to go to the hospital. We also went over different forms of breathing (questionable...I'll let you know when I'm actually in labor and don't just have a clothes pin on my ear) and some massage stuff. So yeah... it's starting to get real. I'm excited, but I'm also getting nervous...

I'll be 33 weeks tomorrow. 7 weeks to go, give or take.

In other news, Andrea is coming to Bakersfield to hang out with me this weekend! Ryan is on his way up to Carmel Valley even as we speak to meet up with his buddy Josh, who lives in Redding. So it'll be nice to have a friend in town, for sure. I'm taking Andrea with me up to Fresno, where we're having sort of a "celebration of life" get together with my family to remember my grandma. She didn't want a funeral or memorial service, so we decided just getting the family together to honor her and for a certain level of closure would probably be a good idea. It should be pretty casual, but I'm happy Andrea will be with me. I told Ryan not to cancel his trip. He only met Nonna twice, and he's been planning this trip for months. It would be different if it was an official funeral or memorial service, but since this is kind of an impromptu get-together, it's different.

But anyway, other than that, I'm just really looking forward to a girl weekend. :) Maybe we'll catch a chick flick or get pedicures or go shopping. All of the above? Perhaps. Complete veg-fest? Perhaps.