A couple of weeks ago we got the Netflix for Wii disc that allows us to watch streaming movies on our TV. Best. thing. ever. We really need to bite the bullet and get rid of cable. We've been talking about it for a while and just haven't gotten around to it. I do want to make sure we can still get local channels once we drop it. The Netflix Instant Watch selection is so well-rounded I think I could watch things on it for a long time without running out of things to watch.

I realized a while back that I'm way out of the movie loop. That makes me sad. I also don't read nearly as much as I used to. Growing up, I devoured books. I think that internet time has replaced a lot of my reading and movie-watching time. Now that I have a Ipod with wireless internet, even at times when in the past a book would be a given, like in a doctor's office, I'm more likely to be on Facebook. Jason and I used to love going to the movies and spent way too much money hitting the Lefont Plaza, Landmark (which was called something different back then), and Tara Theaters when we first moved to Atlanta.

Recently on Netflix I saw the movie Doubt, which stars Meryl Streep, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams. I found this character-driven film to be food for my atrophyed-by-reality-television brain. The pace of the film was slow but tantalizingly so, building towards a brilliant climax and denouement that's left me pondering for days. I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but the primary plot deals with possible abuse of power in a religious situation, specifically a Catholic sex abuse scandal; how our faith guides us on the continuum between doubt and certainty; and what we cling to and to whom we turn in the absence of certainty. As I watched the movie I found myself thinking about my own instincts and the times that I do and don't listen to them. I really related to Amy Adams' character, who found herself unwittingly tangled in a web of scandal when she, an optimist, desperately longed for peace. In one memorable scene Meryl Streep's character accused Adams' character, "You just want things to be resolved so you can have simplicity back." I thought, "That's so me!" There are times in my life that I'll do almost anything to avoid conflict. It doesn't always serve me well.

I have been bursting to talk about the movie, especially since I've been Googling and finding that there are a variety of interpretations of almost every scene. I wanted to talk about it so badly that I actually recounted the entire plot to Jason on a car trip the other day, essentially ruining the entire film for him. But I know he'll never get around to watching it, anyway. That's the way it goes with us. We're trying to watch Mad Men together and we've managed two episodes over the past eleven weeks. For us that's one of the realities of being in a relationship for nine years and having two young children. It's a bummer, but I feel really good about our relationship overall and look forward to one day in the future when we'll have time to sit around and watch movies all the time again. A full time housekeeper would free up a lot of time for those pursuits--just sayin'--not that that'll ever happen. ;) If anyone reading this has seen the movie and wants to chat me up, please do so while it's fresh in my mind! I'm so foggy these days that I'll probably forget the details in a couple of weeks. If you haven't seen the movie yet, you should. I love a juicy dramatic movie.

I find myself blogging late on a Sunday night (Monday morning) yet again. No shower tonight, but I could probably use one. I got one this morning, but that was in Pensacola, and it was muggy there today! Weather is one thing Jason and I definitely don't miss about Pensacola. I hate my "Pensacola [extra frizzy] hair." Jason hates his too (it's kind of curly), but I think it's cute. Neither one of us likes the stickiness that we just can't shake off. I find that even after being outside only briefly I get so hot that I still feel gross a couple of hours later.

Anneliese got to meet a lot of people, but there are still a lot of people who have yet to meet her! We got to see a lot of Jason's family, including Jason's mom and his brother and brother's fiance, all of whom live out of town. His youngest brother has always lived in Pensacola but is in the process of moving to California. We had full, full days, getting up early in the morning and visiting all day and not getting to bed until ten or later.

Nora was in rare form on the car ride home this afternoon. I think she was in the process of crashing from a major, several-days'-long sugar high. I don't know if I'd seen her that way before and it was kind of scary! We're far from sugarfree; we're a "everything in moderation" family. I've always kind of rolled my eyes at supposed correlation between excess sugar and behavior problems. But I'm starting to wonder if there's some credence to the idea. Of course it's hard to isolate one factor when we're also traveling and there's lots of excitement, late bedtimes, etc. But we do eat more junk than usual when we travel and it's something we should probably keep an eye on in the future.

Speaking of traveling--we're planning a week in Pensacola around July 4, so I hope we'll get to see some more people then. We were also thinking of renting a place at the beach in August, but I'm not sure how that's going to work out given the oil spill. Everyone we spoke to over this visit was very worried about the effect of the spill and the ramifications it's going to have on local industry, everything from fishing to tourism and trickling on down. I hope it doesn't turn out to be as bad as some people fear. If the beach is unusable because of the spill, we probably won't rent a place since beachgoing was going to be our focus. We have been kicking around some other road trip ideas, including either Philly or Chicago, but after this recent reminder of what it's like to travel in the car with an infant, I think we might end up having a "staycation." Which is the cheesiest "word" in the world, but I can appreciate it on some level because it's very succinct! It might be nice to have a lot of family time and check out some things in Atlanta we've either never been to or haven't been to in years. We could also do a weekend in Chattanooga or Athens if we wanted to get out of town for a few days. The more I think about it the more excited I am at the prospect of staying at home, having Jason take some time off, and spending all that time together. It's no secret that I love Atlanta, and the fact that I'm still chomping at the bit to get out and do all the things it has to offer really confirms that it's the best place for our family to be.

I'm still thinking about what I want to do with those last few garden squares. Time's a wasting--I need to get some seeds or transplants in the ground. While I was at my mom's house, I had limited internet access. I spent a lot of time thumbing through a old Southern Living Annual Recipe book looking for recipes and inspiration. I saw one for cilantro pesto--intriguing! I wonder the best way to eat it? When I think pesto my mind automatically goes to pasta, pizza, and bread--three things that I should probably be eating less, not more of. I took home a small bagful of my grandfather's compost. He died almost four years ago and was ill for a while before that, so it's really old. I didn't even know he had compost back there. My grandmother was boggled that I only took a grocery bagful, like what was the point I guess, but we really don't need a lot right now. It's a component of the original soil mix for our square foot garden, but once the soil is in the box you only need to add a trowel of compost every time you replant. We're also making our own compost, so that will be ready eventually. I might end up taking a lot more of Grandfather's compost if one day we build another bed, but for now we're all set.

Cute baby:



Cute big girl:



My desktop weather app is grumbling something fierce and Jason told me there's a 100% chance of rain for tomorrow. I foresee a stay-at-home day. I hope I at least get a grocery list done, because the cupboards are looking pretty bare. Truth be told I'm probably not up to taking them both out on a rainy day to restock, but if I can at least get a list made then Jason or I can get it done tomorrow evening. I hope.

Pictures

This post is mostly pictures since I haven't posted any since Anneliese has been born. Also, if you're friends with me on FB, these are mostly different than the ones I posted there. Let's go in chronological order.

Just for fun, here's Jason the day before Anneliese was born, as we were leaving for Barnsley. This is after it had been snowing for about an hour. Note: this amount of snow is absolutely crazy for Atlanta and pretty much the biggest snowfall I've ever experienced. I haven't posted my birth story, but it begins with a car trip from Barnsley to Emory Midtown, and at times I thought I might give birth in the car. (I totally didn't, though.)



First pic Jason took of Anneliese. In fact, ONLY PIC JASON TOOK during labor, delivery, or afterwards. The next pictures on my camera were from seven hours later when I got a hold of it. I cried, "This is the only picture you took?!" and he said, "Hmm. I could have sworn I took more." I later got some from my doula (thank God).



Some time in the first day or so.



Four days old (with major jaundice, which isn't as apparent here as it is in other pictures, but she was yellow).



Two weeks.



Also two weeks, looking a lot like Nora in the profile, but her other features are pretty different, I think.



Three weeks.



Recent--9ish weeks.



Nora on Easter.



And--this is how I sign off just about every email these days--baby's awake, gotta go.

Nora and Anneliese got their first bath together tonight. A friend loaned us this bath seat thing; it's like a mesh bouncer that she can recline in. We put a few inches of water in the tub and plopped them in. At first, she wasn't so sure. This girl hasn't had a lot of baths in her life because Mama's lazy (and Mama believes it's not necessary for tinies). After I snapped a couple of pictures, I left Jason in there with the girls and went to do something in the kitchen. I heard the sound of giggling and singing. That took me back to my own childhood! A few minutes later Jason had finished bathing Anneliese and Nora had dumped a cup of water on her too forcefully and the whole situation kind of devolved, as expected.

We had lettuce out of our garden this evening. I said that it was maybe the best lettuce I've had in my entire life. Part of it was that it was a darn good variety of lettuce. The other part is that my pride in my garden tastes goooooood. The rest of the salad ingredients came from Whole Foods ($5 for cherry tomatoes say what?), but I'm looking forward to the day we get to harvest our own cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. The tomato plants are looking great; we'll probably need to set up our trellis soon. I got a bell pepper transplant at our church plant sale on Saturday. I abused it for the rest of the weekend (left it in the trunk of the car, it got knocked over) but it looked like it still had some life in it when I planted it, so we'll see. I also sowed the cucumber seeds today. We have four squares left and we're trying to decide what to do. I'm thinking beans--bush or pole? I would love some kind of squash, but don't have the room right now. Basil? Beets? I'm already thinking ahead to summer and fall, too.

Here's what things are looking like these days.



Now I'm off to work on my La Leche League application, which I've been working on for literally years now. I'm feeling all fired up about some stuff and ready to be done with the application part so I can get in the trenches and help some people.

Where were we, then?

It's one a.m. Anneliese, 10 weeks old, has been mostly sleeping through the night for a week or so now. I am revisiting my old friend, the late night shower. I had forgotten about the late night shower, even though that was part of my life for months, maybe even the first year, after Nora was born. I don't have time during the day so showering late at night when Jason is asleep, but around to (I hope) wake up if the baby cries, becomes my routine. This is, for me, part of life with a baby.

Another part is the baby crying in the car. My heart beats so fast it feels like it will come out of my chest, and my mind races. Do I need to pull over and comfort the baby? Will the comfort continue once I buckle her back in and start driving, or will she go back so screaming? Is it faster to (eek) just keep driving so we can get there and everybody can be happy and settled? There's no one-size fits all answer to this. Anneliese has been a relatively happy car baby, but in the past week or two we've had a few tough rides. I hope this isn't becoming our new reality. Nora hated the car for the first several months of life but chilled out when she was finally old enough to appreciate a toy or two, a stage that is coming soon for Anneliese. We'll see.

My gripes are minor, though. Really, the adjustment to life with two children has been more seamless than I expected. The day after I came home from the hospital Nora had to go to school, and so our new life began. After several days away from Nora, I really wanted to be the one to get her ready. Jason took care of Anneliese while I got Nora dressed and gave her breakfast and then we were off. (Anneliese had jaundice, so every morning that week we set off as a family of four and dropped Nora at school, then stopped by the hospital for blood work.) It felt so good to walk Nora into her classroom looking at least a little bit less pregnant than I had at pick-up the previous Thursday. I was the mother of two!

It helps that Anneliese has a incredibly laid back personality, something that is part of Nora's personality, too, but it took Nora a little longer to grow into it. It helps that she's the second child and we know we didn't break the first one so most everything will probably be okay. We were like, "We got this," from the very beginning. Changing diapers is like riding a bicycle--we'd changed a few thousand before and we're pretty fast at it. Okay, like there's so much skill involved, I know, but when Nora was born it had probably been a good decade or more since I'd changed any back in my baby-sitting days. And breastfeeding is a lot easier when you've fed a baby before and you know what to look for to know everything is going smoothly. I think the circumstances of this birth, which turned out to be a relatively easy one for me, made a big difference, too.

So now we are a family of four. And we have done a lot in ten weeks. We've cuddled, rested, played, and enjoyed lots of yummy food from our friends and members of our church. That meant that we didn't have to cook dinner for almost a month! Then we got back in the swing of things and started cooking again, which is actually fun in a way--I found I'd missed it. Jason has been busy at work. Nora has been busy at school and is full of wonder for the world. In her little world, this whole changing of the seasons thing is a big deal! When Anneliese was first born we were having wintery mix, aka snow and rain nastiness; two weeks ago we had 90 degree days. We've been to Greenville, the Atlanta Botanical Garden, Fernbank, Nora went on a special Saturday zoo trip with her teacher, and we've been, you know, everywhere else. Restaurants and malls and Home Depot, oh my.

We also went to Hastings Garden Center, which is a neat plant nursery and has a cool miniature train that Nora can't wait to see again. We planted a little garden of our own, a square foot garden. It's so small that my grandmother kind of dissed it and said it wasn't worth mentioning, but we're intensely proud of it so I'm mentioning it. It's our little sixteen feet of tomato plants, flowers, onions, lettuce, carrots, parsley, cilantro, bell pepper, and cucumber. And maybe a few other things, we'll see. We've done mostly transplants and attempted to start a few things from seed. We've really enjoyed putting it together and I know we're going to love eating out of it. We've already had some of the herbs, and the lettuce is ready for harvest any day now. Surprisingly, the only plant that looks really sad is a flower. I haven't take pictures since we first planted but I need to. As I've told several people, I don't think it's bad at all for someone who had never before in her adult life dug a hole in the ground! My parents weren't into gardening so I had practically no kid experience. Thank God for Google and the library. Both of the above help me succeed as a functional adult.

I don't want to end this on a gripe, but I have to go dry my hair. Major pitfall of the late night shower. If I sleep on wet hair, my hair will be more than impossible the next day. Mega cliche alert, but any minor inconveniences of being a mom? My kids are worth it.

Oh, hay there, blog. I kind of forgot about you. Like usual.

Here's the update on us. I had a baby! It seems really redundant to post that here because I'm pretty sure everybody who reads this is also on Facebook or speaks to me in real life. For the sake of posterity, though, I'll announce that Anneliese Joy was born on Feb 13 weighing 8 lbs, 11 oz. I had a natural birth and it was awesome. She's 8 weeks old now, and she's a smiling, happy, delightfully squishy baby. Check her out!



Not the best pic I have of her, actually, but it happens to be one of the most recent. I'll post some more later. Maybe!

We also started a garden and we're looking forward to an awesome summer.

More later, I hope!

Okay, so clearly I am experimenting with free blog templates and it's not going so well. I didn't realize the one I just uploaded had "kindergarten" as part of its graphics and clearly that doesn't work. Also, these narrow columns cut off my pictures. This is one of those times where I briefly wish I had some design sense or some motivation to figure it out for myself, but I don't. I guess I'll keep looking at free templates and hope I find something that works soon.