I'm just a posting fool!

Do I have too much time on my hands, or just some extra energy? Not sure, but figure I may as well keep the blog up to date when I can, so here goes another post!

Hank had three cool 'firsts' this week. I already wrote about the haircut. Second, there was his first rock concert! We took him with us on Thursday night to see the Counting Crows play in Concord. We got lawn seats so it wouldn't be too loud, and Hank was able to crawl around and enjoy himself. It was really fun.

But the coolest 'first' this week was Hank's first steps! I wouldn't go as far as to say he's walking yet, but he will take a couple of steps without holding on to anything, or touching anything. It is really cool! The first time he did it I was sitting on the floor in the living room. He was pulling up on the glider, pushing it back and forth. He then pivoted towards me, raised his arms into the air, and then took two steps towards me, and -- plop!-- landed on his bottom. I was so delighted! Hank was grinning and giggling, like he knew he had done something really important. I swooped him up in my arms and gave him tons of kisses and an airplane ride to celebrate. Hooray for steps!

Overall, Hank has just been so much fun to be around these days. I can hardly get enough of him, I just want to snuggle him up and play and play. He's mostly been sleeping through the night again, but a couple of nights ago he needed me to sleep on his floor with him again, and I admit, I'd kind of missed it.

Love, love, love being a mama.

I LOVE HAIRCUTS!!

I LOVE HAIRCUTS!!, originally uploaded by allthingssara.

So I posted something a few days ago about Hank needing a haircut. This time we decided we would not be doing it ourselves in the bath tub with the dull, safety scissors. Instead we took him to a Kids' barbershop. It was great! Henry sat in the barber's chair and held Hank. The hairdresser (!) wrapped Hank up in a smock, gave him a toy, and turned on a kiddie video, and then snip snip snip gave him a most excellent haircut! (this picture is from partway through the cut -- not quite finished). Hank was an excellent client -- he didn't cry at all or squirm too much, and the woman who cut his hair, well, let's just say I've never seen anyone move so fast with a pair of scissors and still have a pretty decent* haircut come as a result...

* I say pretty decent because she left it good and floppy like we'd asked, cut it very evenly, but poor Hank still wound up looking a little bit like one of the Three Stooges, which was my biggest fear. Sigh...

Another Day Is Done

After a loooooooong couple of days, the details of which I don't really care to remember so I won't be chronicling them here, Henry ditched his Ruby-on-Rails programming meeting and we went for a family walk at sun down. It was so relaxing. Now we are home, the lights are down low, I'm having some dinner, and Henry is getting Hank down to bed. I can hear him singing softly to Hank 'home home on the range' and it is melting my heart.

I work with a lot of people whose families are in sheer turmoil, whose children are being pulled in so many directions it must make their heads spin. Some days are harder than others and on those days I try to take stock of the good in my life. Today I found myself drifting in my mind to My Happy Place, and there were Henry and Hank waiting for me. I was so delighted to see them both at the end of my day.

Today I am grateful to have a lot of love in my life.

Pointy hair

Pointy hair, originally uploaded by hjw3001.

Clearly it was getting to be time for a haircut....

Warning

Rant ahead.

Dear Disaffected Hillary Voters....

....who are now planning to vote for McCain because of Sarah Palin:

Yes, you.

This is an open letter to you.

WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU PEOPLE?? You are registered democrats! Many of you call yourselves feminists!! You stand for ideals and issues and positions on which she (not to mention McCain) stands on the complete opposite side!! Didn't you hear Hillary ask you at the DNC to THINK (yes, operative word here is THINK) why you had supported Hillary? Was is because she was Hillary and had a certain platform that you believed in? Or was it simply because she was a woman and that was what appealed to you and won your vote? Do you really think that she is interchangeable with Hillary? If it was because of the platform, you need to vote Obama. If it was because she is a woman, then that is some mixed up idea of feminism, because this is clearly the wrong woman to be voting for.

Put your brains back on, people.

edited to add a link to an Opinion piece from the LA Times that says what I've got on my mind so much more eloquently: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-steinem4-2008sep04,0,7541303.story

a quote from the above that sums up my disappointment:

"This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.

"Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton's candidacy stood for -- and that Barack Obama's still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."

I will take the last sentence of the quote above and take it one step farther -- in my mind, a woman who calls herself a feminist who actually votes for that ticket, is like a deer signing up to join the NRA. There are better ways to get women in the white house, and there are better candidates out there for women and for feminists, even if they are men.

Thank you, Gloria Steinem, for your eloquence and perspective! I am always happy we share an alma mater.

Dear Hank...

... GET TIRED AND GO TO SLEEP!!! It is 9 pm. It is way past bed time. In fact, it is pretty much my bed time. Yet you are still putt putting around your room, in jammies, in the dark, chit chatting like bed time is a foreign concept. Oh good. You just whimpered. I swear you were rubbing your eyes an hour ago... Oh thank goodness, you are rubbing your eyes again. Perhaps you will sleep soon.

Love,
Mommy

PS: if we could avoid the late night/early morning slumber party tonight, that would be delightful. Smooches. Go to bed.

The month in photos...

I think this is my favorite photo of Hank from the last month. He looks happy like this almost all the time. We are so lucky. He laughs a lot, talks a lot, claps his hands all the time, is starting to wave hello and goodbye, and says 'Mama!' and 'Dada!' He can sign 'milk' and we are working on 'book', 'cat', 'more', and 'food'. He's very communicative and makes no qualms about telling us what he wants or what is on his mind.

Of course he's also become very mommy-centric this month, and he's started to exhibit some serious separation anxiety. So very often he does more than his fair share of screaming and crying (this is usually when he says 'mama, mama, mama, mama!!!!' over and over again). Actually, the first time he did this at a day care drop off, I was so surprised that he was upset that I was leaving that I stopped and looked at him and he crawled over to me, babbling and crying and tried to climb up my legs. I had to pry him off in order to leave. :( it was sad! The only way to temper this when we are at home (because he does it when he is on one side of his gate and I am on the other) has been to take a stab at babyproofing the living room. I'm sure it could be made safer, but for the time being it is ok. He loves to cruise around in here, and we got a long tunnel that he loves to go through. One of the best games these days is for me to go to one end, wait for him to start crawling towards me, and then I zip over to the other end so that when he gets to where he thinks I am waiting he finds that he has to turn around and come find me again. It must be a little infuriating for him, but it is funny as hell for us! Mean mommy....

Oh and all that sleep training I wrote about a month ago has gone out the window... between a cold that won't go away, the teething that never seems to end, and being on the brink of learning to walk, this kid just won't sleep these days. Life is far too exciting. Which means 4:30 am seems like a perfectly good and reasonable time to get up in the morning, which means we;ve had to spend a lot of wee hours trying to sleep on his floor while he putters around his room around us, and sometimes curls up next to us to nap.


























The diaper pail, while perhaps not so hygenic, is a great place to hang out and pick up chicks... 'Hey, baby!'















I try not to get too political here on the blog, but I love this picture of my moms' group with all the babies dressed in their Obama onesies. I wish the quality were a little better, and that some people hadn't been cut out, but it is a pretty good picture of Hank and all his baby friends.















'What should I play with first???' Decisions, decisions...
















This is a photo of Hank and Riley mere moments before Hank's first cat scratch. Poor baby! We felt terrible! But he bounced back quickly and just adores the cats. The cats are not so crazy about Hank. Hank is quick, though, and he chases them all over the living room. They can barely get out of his way.

Felt Rabbit

Felt Rabbit, originally uploaded by allthingssara.

I've been busy trying to make a cohesive look for my Etsy shop, RabbitPatch. This little guy isn't for sale yet, but he's become my little mascot -- he's all over my shop and I had business cards made up with him on them, too. He's made of felt, hand sewn, and stuffed with polyfill and bells. He's pretty cute!

Recently added to the shop is some stationary -- thank you notes and some blank notes as well. I've got more to list where those came from, if only I can find the time!

I've also been experimenting with bath and body products -- it was so fun! I made a few jars of body butter and some bath salts. They need some tweaking, but they are pretty good as is. I probably won't be trying to sell these, but I'm having a good time messing around with them.

Pinecrest Lake

Pinecrest Lake Trip, originally uploaded by allthingssara.

A few weeks ago we went to Pinecrest Lake with Melissa, Emmett, Tommy, and the twins. The Nolan family did the unthinkable -- camped for eight nights with a six year old and two three month olds! I am still in awe. We took the easy way out and stayed in a small cabin with a slanted floor and a sloping bed. But at least we had plumbing!

It was so nice to go to Pinecrest. Henry and I had ended up there for an afternoon by accident a couple of years ago, but other than that I really hadn't spent any time there since we used to go to the Lair of the Bear so many years ago. We loved being at the lake. Hank was a trooper -- went swimming with us and loved hanign out in his play tent on the beach. Also, he is officially Tommy's biggest fan. It was very cute watching Tommy crack up Hank for three days straight.

I think my favorite moment was when Henry and I were out in the lake with Hank in his little floaty boat and Hank just drifted off for a nap in him floaty boat as we floated him along the beach. It was irresistably cute.