Mommy baby TV time

Ok, I have a confession. Since Ara was a new born I have been watching Gilmore Girls with her. We call it "Mommy baby TV time". I'ts a nice escape from reality into a world of happy people who talk fast. Unfortunately, I usually miss the show now because of my teaching schedule. So one night I was updating my ipod and I found a podcast about my show! Woot! It's a really well produced podcast done by this young sounding married couple and it's as charming as the show. If you want to be a nerd like me you can check them out here. After discovering this podcast and one other about the game I play, FFXI I started searching for more. I have always loved listening to talk while I'm driving or falling asleep. Like putting on a movie but leaving the TV off and just hearing the dialouge. Or books on CD! I love those! When I was in school I had this lame data entry job so I recorded the sound of my favorite movies and listened to them at work. Wow, when I tell Ara that she is going to be amazed at how I lived in a pre iWorld isn't she? I'm trying to stay on topic, I really am. So... Podcasts, nifty and free. Now I want to do a podcast but we all know that would end up being the all Ara all the time podcast and no one wants to hear that!

Singing in the Car!

La la la! My little musician singing in the car on the long trip home from Grandpa's house. That violin in her hand is actually something my Sister bought for Joey and when Ara became attached to it.. well it suffices to say she was amused. It actually plays about 5 different songs in the most awful sounding impression of a beginning violinist. In order to make the songs play though you have to press on the strings, when they connect with each other the songs play.

That is how it would work in theory anyway.

In it's current state however, the strings get stuck together and it just sounds one high pitched note incessantly.

That's what it is doing in this picture.

One note.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Ara sings along at the top of her lungs and especially enjoys it when Momma and Daddy do as well. So here we are driving along all singing one note like we are some sort of malfunctioning egg timer. The trip takes about an hour. That's right an hour. Mercifully Ara fell asleep about 20 minutes in but we we're afraid if we reached back and stopped the violin from playing she would wake up. Ah, the sacrifices we make for our little ones.

blip

I haven't posted in a long time. There are a few reasons for this. One, I ran out of web space! Two, I haven't made it a priority. Three, Blogger never wants to cooperate with me. I may move my blog back over to Blogger's site if I can't manage to delete enough junk.

I think it has been 4 years now that my web hosting and domain name have been donated to me by a very kind woman I met online years ago in chat. Her chat name was Dragongirl and we were both very active in a computer help chat room on MSN. It was through that chat room that I became interested in graphic and web design. My domain expires in April and I don't want one of those seedy looking ad companies to buy my name and plaster it with advertisements. That happened with the other domain I helped to administrate PCHConline.com when we decided not to renew. I hope I can figure out how to switch it over to me and pay it before that happens. I would be so sad to see fluteloop.com belong to someone else. It has been so much fun to learn and express myself through this site.

Recently, Fun and I have been working on a forum for the group of people we play ffxi with. I was really reluctant to even open Photoshop after such a long hiatus but I have found it to be just what I needed. Along those lines I am considering a change in career. I have been toying with the idea of going back to school to get a digital arts certificate or something along those lines. I want to put some good thought and research into this move though, because I do not need a useless degree with no actual job potential.

Beep beep

Angel

Angel, passed Friday November 17, 2006. In her youth she was a terror. Small in stature but a bully none the less! She always wanted to sleep curled up under my chin so that I would breath fur. Ara loved her because she tolerated her 'petting' and love. I miss her.

Sweet Pea

What is Wierd About You/Myspace Rant

I have always had an issue with using a dish from the dish rack. I guess I feel like it was too recently dirty. Or, you know when you really need a fork, but they are all dirty so you wash one really fast. Yeah, I have a really hard time with that too.
If it's still wet.. ick.
If you dried it with a dish towel.. ick.

There I feel better now.

Speaking of things that bother me though. Myspace.com. Every single time I naively look at at a myspace page I am amazed. What makes people think that some hideous, busy, and distracting picture is a good background? Hello, we can't even read your text! Also, don't put music on your site. Please. I mean paleeeeeeeeease. I don't want to hear some low quality, slow loading, music that is not of my choosing. Then there is the issue where all your friends THINK they know their myspace address and yet mysteriously it takes 30 minutes of searching myspace and then google because myspace search sucks to locate the page. I think they do that on purpose to keep you on myspace longer. And last but certainly not least, once you finally find the page you are looking for, you can't actually view anything unless you sign up. Brilliant. Annoying.

I play an online game, ffxi and it seems like everyone you meet has a myspace. It's part of our culture now despite my feelings. Like the Ipod, blogging, IMing, and the use of 'lol'. I will never escape it. I don't feel however that, that is any reason to stop ranting about it!

One side note though, parents for the love of god supervise your children online. It is scary how many teens are online begging for someone to pay attention to them. You may not realize it, but there is some freak on the internet who does.

She is small, and very funny.

In perspective Ara is very small, but look through my eyes and her face fills my vision. I was trying to teach her about kisses today and by the her bath time she kept offering me her 'My Little Pony" to kiss and giggling. My persistence paid off though because as I carried her to bed she gave me 7 kisses! Her birthday is in 12 days now and I am feeling so nostalgic about last year and how I can't believe it's been a year, and how she has grown so much. Today, she was entertaining herself by standing at the coffee table and driving a toy car back and forth. She even makes the car sounds, so ferociously so that she drools like a mad woman. I sat watching her play and every once in a while she would look up at me and smile. She doesn't find it odd that her Mother stares at her all the time! We took a walk downtown today since it was pretty mild summer weather. I felt on top of the world strolling along with my girl. We stopped in some of the shops, we shared an organic fruit pop from the CoOp, we got Joey a 250 year old salt rock from the Himalayas (don't ask), and Ara toppled a book display in the charming book store. Good times!

My Toddler!

Ara started walking last Sunday 7.16.06. She just stood up in the middle of the room and took 4 of the smallest little steps. We watching in silence, with our eyes welling up with tears. She is usually pretty cautious and fairly graceful considering she is so new. Her birthday party is all planned and I am so excited. I am even going to try to bake the cake lol! I already got 3 cake mixes, the extras are for an error margin!

P.S. Hugs to Chris and Audra. Chris you stay safe and come back.

Update on the craving

I just realized what I'm craving.. I haven't had one in a REALLY long time, like years. It's a grilled chicken sandwich from McDonalds, with a ton of that honey mustard you have to ask for. Oh and french fries. Ohhhh the starchy, crispy, carbo-licious goodness.

~I need something to read.

I just finished reading the entire Harry Potter series again. I read the Half Blood Prince last summer for the first time (while pregnant) and I missed a lot of the details. I think I read to fast the first time. Anyway, now I'm sort of at a loss for what to read. I was thinking of re-reading Under a Tuscan Sun, but I feel stuck in a rut re-reading books all the time. That is exactly what I read last summer. Of course, I read MANY books about parenting and child development but what I need is an "unwind" book. So I have been sitting here trying to think of my favorite authors.. which is very non-adventurous of me. I do LOVE Kinsolver and I never did read the Poisonwood Bible, but I don't feel drawn to it.

I am just rambling

in text

for people to read

and somehow that seems ironic to me.

I'm craving.. something. It's the kind of craving where you can almost smell what you want. Some sort of salty-crunchy maybe. Wish I could eat salty-crunchy...

Rymi and Ohm

Yesterday, Fun and I met our first online friends ever. Needless to say we were nervous! They drove down from Phoenix and we had a late lunch and then went.. roller skating! We had fun, they were normal and all was good! I just hope they thought WE were normal...

Fish!

A few days ago Ara started looking up at the fish tank and saying quietly, "shhhh".

At the grocery store we stopped to look at the lobsters in a tank and she tells me,
"Mam (a combination of Mom and Mama I think) F-shhhhh".

Today we were in the pool and I told her she was a fish.

Now when I make a swimming motion with my arms we both laugh and say, "F-shhhh".

She is my secret joy.

Control. Do you need it?

Control Our Junk.com! Hilarious-satisfying waste of your time. You can control the.. junk remotely from your computer. My Brother actually found the site.


Since we are on the subject of webcams. Yesterday I had Ara on my lap and I was looking for pictures of zoo animals to show her. I stumbled across the San Diego Zoo cams. We watched the elephant and panda bears. Once again the internet brings far away things close!

Ara and I have been swimming, and I am LOVING watching her learn about things that float, kicking her legs, using her arms to move the water to bring things closer. You cannot help but be effected by her curious and optimistic view of the world. Motherhood is beautiful.

Multi-tasking

I recently had the realization that I am ALWAYs multi-tasking.

I'm driving in the car --I'm raising a child.

Buying groceries --I'm raising a child.

Taking a shower --I'm raising a child.

I never do anything without Ara on my mind. I am so different from myself a year ago I am unrecognizable. I would have laughed my ass off if someone told me I would be feeling like a regimented schedule is awesome someday. Or that I would NOT think that 7 AM is freakishly early. I guess it really just says a lot about me that I didn't think Motherhood would change me so completely. I was naive in thinking that Ara would live my life, I pictured us hanging out at Barnes with cutesy baby in the stroller napping happily. I thought of us hiking with her in one of those backpacks. Us in fancy restaurants with our angel in the car seat making happy coo- noises. Not to say that we don't do those things but our life is definitely much more Ara-oriented! I cringe when I think of taking her out before her afternoon nap. I fume over people who set appointment in the middle of Ara's lunchtime.

And, do not even THINK of making noise while she is sleeping unless you would like to incur my wrath!

Ara Update:

• She is almost ready to walk. If you turn her toy box over she pushes it around like a shopping cart.

• She is SIGNING back! I swell with pride and love every time she does the sign for milk or tells me she is hungry.

• She is talking more and more and responds with signs. Kitty, Dada, Mom, Bam-pa (Grandpa), Ja ja (cousin Joey), Ba-na-na.

• She imitates talking on the phone with any toy that even remotely resembles one. Or when the real phone rings.

• She played with the big kids in the McD's Playplace (see picture)!

Peaches for free!

All this time I've been slicing an dicing every piece of fruit so tiny and it turns out she loves nothing more than a pealed whole peach. This is the picture of happiness! Ara went to her ped today, she has pink eye. I have NO idea how she came into contact with pink eye except maybe when we went to the library yesterday. Anyway, her little eyes are so puffy and goopy. She doesn't let it slow her down though!

My feelings for the day: Relief that it's over!

Goodnight!

Araness

There was a moment today when Ara caught my gaze and looked straight into my eyes for what seemed like a minute. As I looked into those dark dark brown eyes I was almost startled by her depth. I see such intelligence, curiosity, and love inside those eyes.

Ara has been sort of complaining lately as she crawls/cruises in the living room. She really wants to explore and finds her safety zone boring. I hate having to constantly bring her back when she crawls away. I don't want to discourage her, so I started trying to think of different ways to engage her mind. We got her some giant Crayons and a piece of paper and she was SO excited. I actually have Ara's first artistic expression in my hand. I have also been trying to change my tone of voice when I say "aht aht aht" to stop her from eating the crayons. I can't understand, I am doing everything the "child experts" say to do and my baby thinks it's really funny! She laughs and laughs. She even holds the crayon near her mouth and looks at me expectantly!

Cut and Paste Thoughts

Book: Goblet of Fire (yes again)

Activity: Playing FFXI tonight. BLM Ka-Boom. We recently reactivated our characters since we stopped playing a while ago. Not our old old characters though, sadly.

Music: Evanescence, I haven't listed to them in forever (so don't call me an emo).

Karma: So this lady sat in a chair next to me in class, picked up my pencil and kept it. The next day, one of my students gave me a gift; a pack of pencils, pens, and super cool highlighter post-it pens. Lose a pencil, gain many pencils!

On my Mind: I should make a To-Do list because I feel like I have a lot to do! What kind of people stick random bumper stickers on their cars? I saw a van today that read, "It's all about me" and "If you don't like abortion, don't have one" you do have to wonder.

Araness: Little wonder girl was in a kind of quiet mood today. Her Daddy has been working more so she wanted to be close to me all day, and I have NO objections to Ara-love. Head-hugs galore! She is cruising now, and even trying to stand without support.

TO DO:
Upload Ara pictures to Yahoo and have them printed
Have a set of pictures sent to CA grandma
Call Thursday student
Think about summer teaching day
Read chapter in child development book
Look at other child development books
Grocery store!
Get Ara a new toy box

Parenting Class :: Now go to your room!

We have our second session of our Parenting Class tomorrow night. At our first class last week we learned about the 3 basic styles of parenting.
1. Authorative
2. Permissive
3. Democratic
We discussed each style and it was clear that we were supposed to come to the conclusion that Democratic is the way to be. We did actually agree with that conclusion so that was convenient. Democratic parenting involves giving your child choices, which can be challenging. I do like the ultimate goal though, and that is to instill in your child a sense of worth and belonging. Parenting is a daunting task. I am so glad we are taking this class because it seems like consistency is the key to everything and we should start from the very beginning. It's strange, the more you are a parent the more you think about how you are a daughter. My own experiences from childhood keep popping up in my mind and I seem to see them from a completely different perspective. Anyway, we asked so many questions in class that the other students started to make fun of us! At the end of class the teacher asked each of us to talk about something we had learned. One guy said that he learned that new parents ask a lot of questions! Pfft. At the end of this 6 week class we will be getting a certificate. I will be a certified Mom. Woot.

Diet Update: Damn these strawberries are good (snaking on strawberries while I type). I am feeling much more energetic today! It is amazing how sugar, carbs, and caffeine can fool you into thinking you have energy. With sleep, water, and healthy food I feel like a semi-new person! I will feel much MUCH better though when I can fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans.

Ara Update: The girl is on the move! Today Fun supported her as she walked across the room to me. She still drags her feet and no way does she have the balance to stand on her own yet but she looks damn cute! We had to buy her a playpen today because she is so fast we were starting to worry. It is a very cool playpen though and she seems to think its fun. It has a little zipper door that you can open so she can roam in and out until you need to close it up. It has a canopy that is all mesh so you can even take it outside and spare her mosquito bites! What did people do before all of these nifty and convenient inventions? She is doing this new thing where she puts one hand on her head and says, "ha". We think she is mimicking talking on the phone! She says the "ha" if you say "hi" so we are pretty sure that's what she is saying. So far we have identified Kitty, Joey, Em, Mom, Dada, and Bampa (grandpa). She also seems like MAYBE she is using the sign for food, although she uses it sometimes just to signal that she wants something not necessarily food.

And so the endless chasing begins! Ara is like a wind-up-toy now; you have to constantly take her back to a starting point so she doesn't get too far out of range. We even got out this giant tent-like fort that Joey has and she squealed with joy as she crawled through it. Ara is ecstatic to finally be mobile (translation: follow Joey). I will post the tent photos soon, I took them on my sister's camera and I haven’t transferred them here yet. I have been making all of Ara's finger foods and she has decided (to my delight) that she would just rather eat that than the jars of baby food. I'm so flattered! No one has ever liked my cooking before. I do wonder though what to do, as I stare at the cupboard FILLED with jars of baby food.

I'm feeling really lethargic, I have been going hard core on the diet and I think it is just the adjustment period. I had gotten used to carbs, and I am craving something sweet so much! Plus Ara is all of the sudden so much faster than she used to be! I went to the birth center for a routine exam and I was really surprised how emotional I was. I was flooded with memories, good memories. I have such a warm spot in my heart for that place and the women who work there (sorry I've never seen a male working there). The midwives and nurses are the most caring people you can ever hope to come across in the health industry. I can't say enough about them, I hope someday the world will suddenly change and money hungry no heart hospitals and insurance companies will look to places like the Birth and Woman's Health Center for inspiration.

And... I'm tired and rambling. Goodnight!