Kate the Great's Merry Adventures In Iowa!
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Below are the 10 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Kate the Great" journal:[<< Previous 10 entries]
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04:15 pm
[Link] | Weirdest: I was very sick for a couple weeks, despite almost never leaving the house and using lots of hand sanitizer when I did, and no one else here got sick. Somehow I got strep throat (confirmed at the doctor's), a very bad cough, and pinkeye all at the same time! The doctor looked super horrified that I'd still been nursing a four-week-old baby for the five days before I went in to be checked. I had to go around the house wearing a surgical mask and sleep in another room for a few days while Ben took care of the baby.
Weirdest #2: I was delighted. Too much earth-shattering "being mommy" all at once, I was gagging for a breather and there it came. I considered it a gift from the Almighty Himself.
Best: I'm about to go back to work, and I am excited about it (I have a serious bookish itch that being Mommy just ain't scratching), and we have a great nanny lined up to take care of Avigail! She's a big tattooed Mexican-BRITISH lady who has raised seven children of her own. She is AWESOME. The other day she even came and gave Avigail a bath and she didn't scream once! (She HATES being naked or wet.) Oh, and she likes to clean. And she's been a good friend of my boss' family for a couple years. And she buys and makes Avigail little presents. Like I said, she's awesome.
Worst: Paying for childcare makes me imagine my paycheck with little stick figure arms and legs and head, slitting its little stick figure wrists. Even though, somehow, our awesome nanny will be costing us significantly less than a California day care (for infants, the average first year is $11,580. I'm gonna faint, yo.) Nanny's only $200/week. Still... allow me to barf right here on the living room floor.
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07:20 am
[Link] | Well, I've NEVER gone this long without a post!
A lot has been happening -- most notably I gave birth to a perfect, beautiful baby girl.
Named "Newborn Mosetick" most of the time we were at the hospital, we finally named her Avigail Renee.
(Yes, Avigail with a V.)
She grows and changes every day! I'm starting a blog about her, and backdating it, because I want to remember everything.
http://kbambabyblog.wordpress.com
The name "K-bam!" is really just short for "Kate, Ben & Avigail Mosetick."
My friend Jade was right -- this baby is just drawing us so much closer as a couple and together as a new little family of three. She's the best thing that could have happened to us. I'm overwhelmed by all the love! (And I'm happy to admit that I'm nevertheless eager to get back to work!)
( A few pictures )
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09:34 am
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preeeeeesents!
My computer just got returned to me after Geek Squad absconded with it for about a month. It got a new hard drive. Ben put OpenSUSE on it, a Linux operating system. He's been spending all his free time these days tinkering with Linux. It's almost entirely superseding piano practice for the moment!
The general Linux (open source operating systems, in lieu of, say, Windows) mascot is a penguin. When I booted up my computer today, there was an igloo and penguins walking around wearing Santa hats on it instead of the normal plain blue background. :)
There are many apps to choose from. I chose only a bouncy ball for my desktop page. I can click it and toss it around, it's a lot of fun. :)
Last night went really well. Per my family tradition, we opened our presents last night. :)
But first, we watched A Christmas Story. Conveniently, TBS is playing a 24-hour marathon of it. :)
Ben got his remaining two presents from me:
-An 8-disc DVD set of the 1976 Bayreuth festival production of Wagner's Ring Cycle opera series (which is playing right now). It was a groundbreaking, overtly Marxist, very well-acted performance of the opera. Ben says it debuted to a lot of anger and bad reviews, but by the last performance, it got an hour and a half ovation!
-A royal purple cashmere sweater. 'Cause Ben is secure in his masculinity and I wanted to do something a little extravagant for him. And it was like $100 off. :)
And we opened all the presents from my parents:
-I got three sweaters (my mom's go-to for people who completely space on actually asking for anything)
-A nice watch
-27 Dresses on DVD (because my attempt at giving her a Christmas list was, "Ummmm go to the five-dollar movie section at Wal-Mart and pick something out." :))
-A collection of five early Cary Grant movies
We both got a very beautiful, ornate, silver five-picture frame that says "Our Wedding" on it. We really like that.
Ben got a maroon sweater that is very nearly as soft as the cashmere one I got him, and, well, I kind of like it better than the one I got him.
He also got a little classic Old Spice gift set.
And! he got a very nice dress shirt/tie combo.
He's very pleased with all his gifts. I wish my mom could have seen him react to them all! :) I just tried to describe his reactions to her when I called her late last night so we could thank her, and she sounded very pleased (and a little relieved). :)
Ohhhh yeah -- we also got a card in the mail from my grandma. She gave us forty bucks. Score.
Next I plan to gift myself with Harry Potter 7.2! :)
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11:03 am
[Link] |
Merry Christmas!
Ben and I are spending our first Christmas by ourselves. We're both from Chicagoland, and Ben's dad is in Oregon, and we're down in California. Even the people whose house we're staying at aren't here. It's just the two (and a half) of us.
We didn't go back to Chicago because:
-It costs too much (Ben's reason)
-I'm just reaching that point in pregnancy where it's unsafe for me to fly (pressure changes can cause premature labor)
-My folks threw out my bed, anyway.
So we are here inventing our own Christmas traditions!
For dinner we will have crescent rolls... and octopus... and Rice Krispies treats. :)
I've been really pushing on finding "special" things to do for Christmas, because... well, it's Christmas! For instance, I told him that no, we may not have frozen pizza for dinner. (He doesn't really have family Christmas traditions... his mom's birthday is on Christmas Day, and she's Jewish (some years more militantly than others), so it's really been up in the air what he's done every year before now.)
With no parents around to prevent us, we opened one present each last night, on Christmas Eve Eve.
Ben got me an iPhone. I think he was so excited and that's why he was pushing so hard for an early gift exchange. My resistance wore down pretty easily. 'Cause I totally knew he'd gotten me and iPhone and, yeah, I wanted to play with it. :)
It's white with a dark blue cover (my favorite color). And he also got a nifty stylus thing for it, which I like because I am prone to lunch-and-touch technology and I know my iPhone will get crazy smudged. :)
I gave him a wireless mouse, which he really really likes. It has a one-year battery life, came with a battery, and works really, really well. And it's a pretty blue color so it won't get mixed up with any other mouse. :) He is very intolerant of using a laptop without a separate mouse. (Indeed, right now he is using two laptops at once and has walked off with my mouse as well as the one I gave him. His old mouse, which died frequently, is lying abandoned on the counter beside me.)
I have two more presents for him, and then we filled up under the Christmas tree with gifts from my parents for us both. :) A small, carefully packed box can really... pack a lot in! :D
I'd like to watch A Christmas Story (the one about the kid who wants an air rifle), and tomorrow morning make waffles (frozen waffles, no waffle maker here :() and GO TO THE BEACH (the house we're staying at is 10 minutes from the Pacific Ocean).
And, of course, go to mass. :)
Today, Ben has taken to listening to my baby belly -- he has done that before, but today he is actually hearing her slosh around in there -- movements that I can't even feel. Only two months to go!
Two nights ago I dreamed about her. I dreamed that I was at some family gathering at my grandma's house (hmm, Christmas, perhaps?), and I noticed a can of powdered baby formula on the kitchen table.
"Oh no," I thought. "That's for my baby. I have a baby! I haven't fed her since this morning, and it's late at night! I forgot all about her!"
So I ran through the house frantically looking for her, and finally found her, tucked carefully in blankets on the floor of my mom's childhood bedroom. I only saw the top of her little baby head sticking out. I touched it -- my brain vividly conjured up memories of touching real baby heads, warm and fuzzy -- and knew she was safe, asleep, and cared for. It was such a relief.
And it made Baby much more real to me. Much more than feeling Baby-for-real squirming around in my tummy, oddly enough.
So, that's good. :) I've been having a very difficult time getting my head around this whole having a baby idea and that little dream is TREMENDOUS progress!
More updates soon, I hope... LiveJournal is fun! :)
Much love,
KtG
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09:18 am
[Link] |
rofl
"I would be so proud if, like, Baby Girl`s first sentence was 'Say hello to my little friend.' Would you be upset if I engineered that?" -Ben
I will be delighted if he engineers that!
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09:41 am
[Link] | Wow, it's been a long time...
Bests:
-My birthday! It was October 14th. Ben and I went out for every meal (McDonald's for breakfast but that counts, I got pancakes).
-I didn't know what I wanted, but Ben got me the best gift he's ever given me: a gift certificate for a one-hour pregnancy massage. It is SO PERFECT that I cannot believe I didn't think of it myself! The perfectness of it makes me feel rather well-loved. :)
-My boss drove out of her way AND interrupted a meeting I was in with HER boss to bring me cupcakes and make everyone sing me happy birthday. :)
-My grandma-in-law sent me $100 for my birthday. I didn't know she even knew when my birthday was!
-Ben has taken to building fires in the fireplace as well as having delicious meals ready for me when I get home from work. He calls himself "house god" and I say "yes indeed!"
-At Sales School I was unanimously voted class MVP. I won $50 in gas station gift cards. I also won a tremendous ego boost.
-Oh, and I'm really excited about Baby Girl (as she is now called). I'm so impatient to have her in my arms instead of in my uterus! "Best" because I used to be... well... frankly really pissed off about being pregnant and... well... blaming Baby for it personally as if Baby had arrived and caused morning sickness out of malice aforethought.
I have two pictures -- one from our big ultrasound a few weeks ago, one of my two days ago.
( Baby Girl )
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02:22 pm
[Link] | "Before you freak out, wait until you see it finished." -Ben's greeting to me when I came home to see the living room halfway-rearranged.
I love him.
:)
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10:33 am
[Link] | I think about this tip a lot. It concerns and haunts me a lot when, say, a friend excitedly tells me about this great tip she just read about and how revolutionary it will be in her marriage or in a friendship, or when I watch people get into fights over simple misunderstandings.
I might be thinking of it this morning because the first portion of this tip keeps getting emphasized in my training at work.
This Week's Tip(s): Take the time to really listen to what the other person is saying before jumping to conclusions about what they mean or diverting your attention to think up your response. You can't read their mind! Paraphrase what they said back to them to make sure you understood them correctly.
This tip applies particularly to people you know very well. Of course we know what our close friends or parents or partner thinks! Of course they had better be able to read our minds by now, too!
Story time!
I'm reminded of a frustrating incident I remember from first grade.
Main characters:
-Me
-Miss Orton, our student teacher
-a "Peach" colored crayon
Setting:
-coloring time
My "Peach" colored crayon was in my backpack. I was coloring a picture (perhaps a drawing of myself), and I got to where only my skin was left. Realizing that I'm not quite vampire-level pale, I went to Miss Orton to ask if I could get my crayon so I could finish my picture.
I walked up to her and looked straight up at the very tall grown-up so I could ask, "Can I get my Peach?"
"It's not snack time," she said.
"I know," I said. "Can I get my Peach?"
"It's not snack time."
"But can I get my Peach?"
"You can get your peach at snack time."
"But I need to finish my picture."
"Then go color it!"
"But I need my Peach. My Peach is in my backpack."
"You can get your peach at snack time."
"But... my Peach!"
"You can get it at snack time."
"I won't need it at snack time, I need it now." I pointed back at the coloring on my desk.
"You'll have to wait for snack time."
"But it's right there." I pointed at my backpack.
"I know it's right there, but you'll have to wait for snack time. Go finish your coloring."
So I went back to my coloring and started coloring myself a nice jaundiced sunshine yellow color.
Miss Orton, wandering around the room to check our progress, got to me and asked why I was coloring myself yellow. We'd all been taught about choosing "shades of brown" for flesh tones.
I replied, frustrated, "You wouldn't let me get my Peach!"
Miss Orton paused for a few seconds, the connections clicking into place in her mind.
"Ohhhhh," she said finally. "You meant your Peach crayon."
"YEAH!!!" Duh, lady.
"I thought you meant peach like the fruit."
"EWWWW NO I HATE PEACHES!!!!"
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07:21 pm
[Link] | I got this LiveJournal nine (9) years ago today! What a lot has changed... I'm so glad to have become who I have become by now. :)
It's also the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It seems right for me to mention that this once.
Where I was at the time doesn't really matter... remembering those who were actually there, if only for a minute or two, bears much more significance.
A photo taken by a friend of mine in NYC today, at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum:
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05:53 pm
[Link] |
More people like ME!
Today Ben brought in the mail and was excited to see that we got a card addressed to both of us from my mom. :)
On the front is a shiny drawing of planet Earth, and it says "This world needs more people like you"
On the inside it says: "Glad to see you're doing something about it! Congrats parents-to-be"
:D
Just before that, Ben brought in a nice box wrapped in brown paper from my bff Amanda. :)
I scampered around the house a bit, too excited to settle down to open it!
The USPS did a great job of taping that paper onto that box! After several minutes with a scissors I got through to the Pampers box underneath.
Did Amanda send me diapers? I wondered. (She didn't. Someone donated books to the library she works at, carried in a Pampers box. She thought it would be fun. :))
The first thing I saw was an adorable (adorable) plush giraffe. I'd told Amanda once that "Baby wants giraffes!" because that's all I've really been inspired about baby-stuff-wise. If I have a passionate desire to get giraffe toys, I figure, Baby wants giraffes.
So she sent Baby his/her first giraffe toy. :)
And it winds up and plays rock-a-bye baby.
It's so wonderful it made me cry.
But first I was all elated and cuddling it so much that Ben took about four pictures of me with it on his phone.
There's a wonderful blue and green and white blanket that Amanda crocheted.
There's a bag of dried fruit -- pineapple, papaya, and mango. What a great mix.
There's a box of Multi-Grain Cheerios. :)
There's a card with an octopus on the front that says, "If I could hug you with eight arms without totally freaking you out, I would." :)
It had a $10 BetterWorldBooks.com gift certificate inside. :)
And then there were all the books she already bought:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar (with baby-friendly cardboard pages)
Eating the Alphabet (also with baby-friendly cardboard pages), which is an alphabet book with fruits & veggies for all the illustrations. What a healthy baby we will have!
A Spiritual Guide through Pregnancy
Rose Daughter, a novel Amanda thought I'd like (mommies need Me Time, too)
Selling with Integrity, to help inspire my new career in insurance sales
Your Pregnancy Week by Week, which goes into great detail for each week. I am rabid for all the week-by-week info on any website I can find so I'm the most excited for this one! :)
and, of course,
What to Expect When You're Expecting
What an amazing care package!!!! Amanda is such a wonderful friend. :)
Oh yeah and it cost $30.20 to ship all that to me.
Current Mood:  loved
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