I'm not ready

My baby is growing up.

Every day there's a new word or a new something. Two days ago I pointed to a duck and said, "What's that?" expecting to hear the usual "dah-DAH!" And she said, "Duck!" I almost crumbled in a little heap right there.

Yesterday she said "more" as she signed it. She had never ever done that before, but she did it again today. (After we saw a street sweeping machine thingy. I explained to her that it was making the streets clean, and she said, "Ah kleen! More!") What's next? Is she going to say please and sign thank you? Just turn my world upside down, why don't you!

It's not like Miss M is my last child, as the roiling in my abdomen reminds me on a very regular basis. I'll get to experience these little growing up moments again. But not with her, I guess. I feel happy and sad and proud and terrified all at once.

My profound thought for the day...brought to you by the fact that we are out of flour so I could only make one batch of muffins and had to skip the brownies, too.

Stolen internet no longer....

Last night's post was courtesy of borrowing someone else's wireless connection. Vaguely icky. People probably do it to us all the time; we keep meaning to encrypt it.

But now we're back on track. For the record, it was more than 28 hours of being disconnected. (Many hours for Taxman to make fun of me, but he could use his computer, his phone, and he spent all day with people over 3 feet tall. Although Miss M was super cute today, and entertained herself enough that I got a lot of Shabbat cooking done even before she went to bed!)

When the cable guy showed up (the problem was across our building and even wider, thanks to Con Edison), I was very happy to see him. It would have been better if he had been carrying pizza as well--hey, it was 6:30--but reconnecting me to the universe beyond NPR and the local radio stations was very appreciated!

Further technical difficulties

I had just gotten used to actually plugging the computer into a router again (only when Miss M was sleeping) when all hell apparently broke loose down at our cable company. Actually, I don't know what happened; I just hope nobody was hurt. If not, there had better be some refunds coming.

All I know is that we have not had phone (VOIP), internet (cable), or TV since at least 2pm, if not earlier. I may lose my mind.

On Shabbat I am happy to go without all these things, but then I am in the zone. Taxman is with me for entertainment. I hoard copies of The New Yorker for Shabbat. I read cookbooks. I attempt to nap.

help!

I may be sleep deprived, but I'm not stupid

Warning, vent ahead.

In my life I've owned a lot of clothes from the Gap and Old Navy. I am a casual kind of person. I like denim. I like cotton. I like clothes that don't have to be dry cleaned. I dress Miss M in a lot of (sale priced) babyGap.

But SERIOUSLY! Do I look illiterate?

I went to return a gift of Miss M's for $18.49 worth of store credit, to be spent when she outgrows her 18-24 month clothes. Gap was heavily advertising their new petite and tall sizes. Being a petite size, I was vaguely interested. I admit I was sucked into their little poster that said, "Sign up on-line to receive e-mail updates! Coupon and free shipping from gap.com!"

So I signed up, using my "extra" hotmail account left over from my single days...where all the junk mail goes. I got a nice chatty email from Gap customer service, explaining that the coupon was not a coupon for a discount but for free shipping from gap.com...for purchases of $100 or more. Cripes. I never spend that much at the Gap at once. Maybe in three trips. Or four, if the sale racks are particularly good to me.

But it gets better! The coupon for free shipping expired on 12/31/05. When did I receive the super-mysterious coupon code? 1/16/06. Did they expect me to go back in time to use such a bargain? I fired off an email back to customer service asking something to that effect, but to no avail. Potentially because I was using my super-snarky voice. But SERIOUSLY!!!!

Then there was the Old Navy fiasco. Two years ago I bought some maternity clothes from them, and I was hoping to just add a skirt or two to my (very boring) wardrobe. So a couple of observations from the Old Navy maternity section...

1. Umm, design department? Weird shades of brown and tan are NOT the new black. There is a reason why women, at their most oddly shaped and vulnerable, body-wise, like black. It doesn't matter that spring is eight weeks away. WHERE IS THE BLACK?
2. I don't want jeans that ignore the fact I am pregnant. I WANT OVERALLS! Comfort over style. I couldn't find overalls that fit during my first pregnancy either...getting annoyed here.
3. I would be out of my mind to think about plunking down $34.50 for a skirt that already makes my ass look big. I am only 29 weeks along, and I know from experience I am only going to get bigger. Buy my pre-pregnancy size indeed.

I would be much more coherent if Miss M had been sleeping better, but around here you take what you get.

Rant over....

Finally joining the ranks of civilized bloggers

While Miss M was sleeping I managed to figure out Haloscan (easy, easy) and BlogRolling (not quite as easy, but not hard).

But then she woke up before I could do anything more interesting....

"DOWN!"

Miss M's new favorite spoken word, apparently, is "down." Or "DOWN!" to be more accurate. She uses it all the time. When I pick her up from someplace interesting (the edge of the street, the floor of a public bathroom, our apartment hallway--which is a great place to lie down, apparently), when I try to strap her into the stroller, or when she falls down, either accidentally or on purpose. In the last context, "DOWN!" is slowly replacing "Ah-boom," which is kind of a shame, I think. For two reasons: first, "Ah-boom" is really so much cuter; and second, "Ah-boom" sounds nothing like "DAMN!"*** (Unfortunately, "DOWN!" issuing from Miss M's mouth can make no such claim.)

***I really, really, really try very hard not to curse in front of her. Or Taxman, because it bothers him.

SAD for toddlers?

Can toddlers be affected by Seasonal Affective Disorder? This is my pondering for the day.

Today is a day much like Saturday. (The day of the very early and very long nap.) Very grey and very rainy, and, as a special bonus, incredibly windy. I had decided during the 3am bathroom run that it was very unlikely we were going to leave the house today because a) we have that luxury and b) Taxman's dry cleaning can wait. And I hate those plastic rain covers for strollers. I am constantly checking to make sure she is breathing.

Miss M rallied at 7:30, knocked on the bathroom door a lot while Taxman was in the potty, ate oatmeal and melon for breakfast, watched Sesame Street, got her talons (uh, toenails) cut, played with blocks, colored with crayons, colored with markers, had a snack, boogied to Laurie Berkner. An ordinary day.

But two "off" things. First, she requested to nurse during Sesame Street. The mid-morning nursing has not been popular around here for a few months. She did nurse, half lying, half sitting, and with her attention mostly on the letter of the day. P, in case you were wondering.

Then she got whiny and asked to nurse again at a quarter to 12. I thought maybe she was hungry again, so I asked if she was. More half-crying, so I asked if she was sleepy. She then signed "sleep," and kept signing to nurse. I wasn't expecting her to want to nap for another hour at least, but we trundled off to the bedroom...and she's been out cold for an hour and a half.

Somehow I feel like if we had been out and about, or even if it had been sunny instead of gloomy, that she'd just be going to nap now.

Hmm....