7 months

Activities

There a holiday fair held by my company.  I'm going to try making various things to sell.  I figured it would be a great way to keep creating stuff, do some things unrelated to parenting almost every day, and hey, if I sell anything I get extra cash, which isn't too shabby.  Assuming I make more than I spend on the materials. Oh, business! How terrible I am about you!  Things I've made so far: knit neck warmers, and a practice batch of caramels. I'm thinking of also making some gingerbread cookies. And if I really pull it together, some sewn gift items, too.  Only thirteen more days to go, so not sure how successful I'll be, but I'll do my best.

Yesterday I re-instituted a stair climbing regime at my job.  I work on the fifth floor.  The lactation room is in the basement.  That means if I walk down and up every time I pump, I travel the stairway six times each work day.  If I climb my way up in the morning that's seven times.  Since I've fallen off the wagon when it comes to regularly going to the gym, this could help me feel a lot better without changing very much about my day.

This weekend my guy and I benefit from two date nights while we have friends and family babysit, and one activity with friends each day.  I'm positively giddy at the prospect.  I could really use some social time - my patience has been thin recently.  When minor annoyances tick me off in ways that make me clench my jar it's clear the time has come for a break.  So this weekend is full of breaks: with people to hold down the fort, people to hold the baby, people to talk to about non-baby things. And then next weekend we see some family and friends for the holiday - a different type of break, but a break nonetheless.

Democracy in action

 I am a big democracy dork: I love my right to vote; I love doing my civic duty; I love my small part in the big picture of my country.  This morning we went to vote together as a family.  And I was so excited and happy to be able to take my son with me to the polls.  Okay, so, he slept through almost the entire time we were at the polling place.  But I'll be able to tell him how he was a part of the democratic process in the first year of his life, and how he accompanied me while I filled out my ballot.  He'll hear how we walked in a cold November morning, he in a fuzzy warm bunting his grandmother got for him, to arrive at our designated polling place.  He'll hear how we waited in line for 45 minutes.  He'll hear about how we ran into our neighbors and talked to strangers when normally we don't.  He'll hear how we gave our address and gave our names and got a ballot in return.   He'll hear how we enthusiastically elected the first woman senator Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren.  And he'll hear how we so, so proudly reelected Barack Obama as President.  I am so grateful for all of us, in my family and outside my family, that we have the leader we do for the next four years.  I am incredibly grateful that my boy's first four and a half years are under this administration.