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April 23, 2009

HAIR!

The last time we visited my sister, I took one of my niece's hair clips and stuck it in Meli's growing hair. Oh my god she looked so freaking cute (and OLD!) that I totally plotzed and came home and bought a gazillion barrettes for her.

The one she's wearing in the picture above is from Lil Chatterbox. I bought this one and this one. (I specifically bought the purple pansy one with Vicki in mind. I just know how she's loves pansies.) I also bought barrettes from Baby K Designs, Tiny Sweets, and ElleBowsAndMore. I loved these from Baby K Designs so much I went back and bought a ton more from her store. And these wonderful birds from Tiny Sweets are so adorable I totally cried when I put one in Meli's hair. And my absolute favorites these days are the dragonflies from Lil Sugarplum. They stay in Meli's hair super well and are too too cute. (By the way, I found Tiny Sweets and Lil Sugarplum because they were recommended on Cool Mom Picks, a very nice product blog I follow. I've bought a bunch of interesting things through this blog and haven't been disappointed yet.)

Meli totally has my hair. Or at least it's a lot closer to my hair than G's hair. It starting to flip up in the back and she's got these really short bangs because her hair hasn't grown over her forehead yet. Just like mine was when I was her age. I'm going back to my sister's tomorrow and I'm going to have to take all the barrettes so I can show my niece. I just LOVE having a girl! I'm so not girly, not really, but my baby can be (and my niece is very girly so my sister, who's more like me, are living vicariously!)

It's been a really really rough week on all kinds of fronts. Personal, professional - you name it. We've barely had anyone come see our house which is really starting to stress me out. My husband works for a bank - although he's NOT a banker (he works in corporate services) - lest anyone want to egg my blog - but really that's all I have to say about that. Add to all this the fact that they start drilling outside every window in my house at 8AM and don't finish until 5. Even when they're not right outside my windows, the house reverberates with the noise (basically because they're either above or below me.) I have a headache by 8:30. So we're out of the house all day a lot of days (they don't work when the weather's bad, but that has it's own stresses - like they're never going to finish if it doesn't stop raining!) and by the end of the day I'm so tired I can barely move.

Even with my complaining, I know things could be so much worse. Trust me. Stress still sucks. So I'll be hanging at my sister's for a while and there might even be another great date with my husband which would make us happy to no end. Cross your fingers we get some tickets. I'll be back next week. L, C

Posted by Cara at 07:51 PM | Comments (20)

April 15, 2009

The Cure for the Taxman Blues!

I hope the tax people were kind to you this year! To make the medicine go down a bit easier, I've got some new video of my crazy girl! There's no stopping her these days, that's for sure. She's like a little old lady behind the wheel of an Oldsmobile. WATCH OUT!

Lost in the Supermarket from January One on Vimeo.

And here's a kiss from us to you:

Posted by Cara at 07:57 PM | Comments (17)

April 09, 2009

Limbo

Well, the house is on the market. Now we get to wait and see what happens. Can you say INCREDIBLY STRESSFUL? I am by nature a messy person. There's nothing I can do about it - it's in the genes - but now I have to live on the edge. Anybody can call at any moment to see the house and it needs to be PERFECT. I'm trying really hard, but the truth is I feel like no one's going to buy our place (not really any reason to think this - except maybe the economy and something my realtor said: when you're done with a place, you don't think anyone else is going to want it either) and that no one's going to come see it and yet I STILL have to live like anyone could walk in at any minute. It's a weird feeling.

Also weird is the fact that when we leave here this summer (fingers crossed we sell the place!!!) we will have lived in our building for EIGHTEEN YEARS! Can you believe it? That means that G and I have lived together for eighteen years. I only lived with my parents for seventeen years. Weird might not be the right word. Surreal? I think about it and I don't get sad or nostalgic really, just incredulous. It doesn't feel like 18 years.

I am getting nervous about the move. Not the actual physical part of moving, but being a new part of an existing community. Will I fit in? Will people like me? Will there be knitters? (Actually, the neighboring town has at least THREE yarn stores. The town we're moving to has almost NO commercial activity, so you have to go to the nearby towns for everything.) I must admit I've had fantasies about teaching all the local moms how to knit and hosting knitting days at my house. See? I'm going crazy.

I'm also trying to work through some stuff with the baby. Nothing wrong exactly, but I'm seriously thinking about having to wean her. Not because she wants it and not because I want it either but because we'd like to try to get pregnant again at the end of the summer and that means hormones that are not safe to take while breastfeeding. I'm incredibly torn - I don't feel like it's an option to wait on another baby (I will be 40 in January and if the frozen embryos we have don't work, we could be looking at an even MORE difficult time conceiving) and I am also absolutely HEARTBROKEN about having to wean my baby girl. I've read a bunch of stuff and talked to my sister (who nursed three kids until each was two) and I'm going to start slow - trying to cut out nursing sessions during the day offering up lots of snacks and distractions and eventually, later, when it's not as trying because we don't nurse so much during the day, I'll tackle the nights. I dread night weaning. Pure dread. I feel better now, though, because I thought I was going to have to start with nights and last night I tried not to nurse her once, at around 2AM and it was a DISASTER. So day weaning for now - or cutting out sessions that are just habit - and the really hard stuff later on. Still, though, it's been really sad for me even just thinking about it. We've been so fortunate to have had a fantastic time nursing - it means so much to our whole family - G included - that to end it feels so terribly sad.

I'll ask you this - please be kind in the comments. I'm in a fragile state as it is. Thank you for your support. It's really great that I have this place to come to and vent. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

PS - Thanks to everyone who voted for Gale. She made it into the top 20 which means she's into the final round. Now it's up to the powers that be. GO GALE!

Posted by Cara at 02:10 PM | Comments (81)

April 03, 2009

VOTE! NOW!

Fellow blogger, knitter and photographer extraordinaire Gale Zucker has a dream:

In her words:

I'm proposing going to Heifer Project sites around the world, to photograph and tell the stories of how the work they do changes lives directly by giving people the ability to support themselves. You know my commitment to animals, farms, youth and trying to do some good in this world. Being funded for this Dream Assignment project would enable me to multiply my efforts beyond any way I could imagine or have been able to do until now.

You know how I love Heifer - anything that can bring attention to their great works is a good thing and Gale is a wonderful photographer - have you seen her book, Shear Spirit? It's magnificent! Please follow this link and go help Gale. (You will need to register to vote, but it takes two seconds and means so much!)

Voting ends tonight! Please help!!! VOTE!

Posted by Cara at 04:07 PM | Comments (3)