Thursday

I’m home from vacation and trying to keep my head up.  I am drowning here with stuff and things and baby and dogs and life.  Everything is fine!  Just very busy.

Misc

My Sunshine is crawling for real and she is fast…almost took a header off the bed the other day while I was putting on my pj’s.  This basically leaves me with no time for anything because I am constantly on the floor with her.  She is a good napper…in her car seat…in the car…or in her stroller on a walk.  So I don’t get anything done at home while she’s napping because I’m either driving around or walking my 3 mile loop…which is good, helps me get out and get some exercise and with the weather warming up, it’s a nice time of year to be outside.

Her new favorite activity is feeding crackers to the dogs.  She loves unsalted Saltines (what? yeah) so I give her the whole cracker and she holds her hand out, lets the dog nibble the cracker, then yanks it back and screams with delight.  The dogs get their fair share of crumbs so they are still happy.

Today she and I are taking our first solo flight.  I am a little nervous but trying not to stress too much.  I am fairly confident that she will be a model passenger, I’m just unsure of how to navigate all the steps without an extra par of hands (i.e.,  my husband) to help.  Thankfully my destination has a stroller and a car seat so that eliminates a huge burden.  But my carry on is ENORMOUS, I’m bringing my Boppy nursing pillow and I’ll have the baby strapped in my Ergo carrier so that should be an interesting sight.  Crazy bag lady with baby, coming through!

Be back in a week.

Thoughts

Sometimes your days suck, things go wrong, people make you angry, you stub your toe, trip over a pet, want to scream and tear out your hair.

Every day is precious.  It’s hard not to take life for granted when it seems endless, but in a flash bad things can happen and your most prized possessions, the ones you love, can be taken from you.  Every moment, good or bad, counts.  I try to keep this in mind at all times, so when I get angry about something miniscule or feel like holding a grudge, I can let it all melt away because in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter.

Love matters.

Some Things

This story of the unexpected death of a 17 month old baby has been haunting me the past few days, ever since I saw it on the joyunexpected Twitter feed I follow…I didn’t read the Sphor’s blog (that link may or may not work, they have been having a lot of trouble with server overload) or know anything about them at all, but now their baby has died and I feel just so, so sad for them.  It is truly heartbreaking and  when I try to imagine what it would be like if it were me this was happening to…I can barely fathom.  Losing Jen was hard enough.  Losing my child, my baby, might break me.

They are accepting donations for the March of Dimes and also for the family themselves.  I’m not really asking anyone to donate there but you can if you want.  I know it would be appreciated.

A friend of mine is walking for the March of Dimes also and I am kind of asking you to maybe, if you can, donate to her because she really needs the funds.  It’s for a good cause and I thought that maybe, in honor of the baby who just died, Madeline Alice Spohr, a few dollars could be spared to help other babies.

***************

This week is Passover and although I was raised Jewish, I don’t practice or follow at all and it shows.  My parents are out of town while my BIL and niece are away for spring break and yesterday I decided to go out to the cemetary to put flowers out for my sister and my uncle.  And I totally forgot it was Passover until I turned into the cemetary to find the gates were CLOSED.

I might not have been so pissed except that the cemetary is kind of a hike from my house.  But I spotted the service entrance gate unlocked so I drove in, hoping to see an employee and beg for some time.  Except I didn’t see anyone, so after hesitating for a few minutes, I went ahead and drove to the graves.  I didn’t stay long, just put the flowers down and left, scared of having the gates locked or getting in trouble for tresspassing.  More time would have been nice; I’ll just have to go back some other time when I know no one else will be there.  I prefer to go alone.

***************

Thank you, in advance, if you donate.  And if you don’t, no hard feelings.  Just thought I’d ask.

UPDATE: If you do want to donate $$ to the Spohr family, you could win a Nikon Coolpix 10.0 mp camera.  See this post on Joy Unexpected for details.

Video

I know I’ve been absent lately, not for any particular reason…just hanging out with my baby, thinking about my sister, pondering my niece’s future, celebrating anniversaries with my husband.  So here’s this.