Pregnancy Fashion: A Lovely New Belt

I was starting to think I would have a fairly easy pregnancy. But now it seems that my past has come back to say hello. A gazillion years ago I was in a car accident that, while neither of us were going very fast, totaled my car and put me in physical therapy for a year. The upshot was that my pelvis had gotten titled forward and sideways. I had to wear a lovely hip belt thing (great for a young twenty-something's ego) for the full year and get weekly chiropractic treatments. It sucked.

Today I'll be going to get another hip belt thing. All those hormones that loosen the joints and make it easier for baby to come out, are working a little too well. And in combo with my possibly-still-effed-up hips, are making my pubic bone separate a little too much too fast. It hurts like a bitch!

I won't get into all the gory details of the pain, but suffice it to say that it's getting increasingly difficult to do almost any kind of movement. Drop something on the floor? It's staying there. Pants? Who needs 'em? Getting up from a chair? Not if I can help it. I've been pretty active in pregnancy and this immobility is a major blow.

So, first, the lovely belt. If that doesn't solve it, I'll be making some chiropractic appointments. *sigh* I don't even want to get into all the delivery and long-term implications of this problem. Send me some good healing energy. I'll be needing it.

Oh - the problem I'm having is called SPD. The pelvic bone is a circle of bone that doesn't quite meet in the front. In the gap are a bunch of ligaments that usually hold the pelvis fairly immobile. In pregnancy, the surge of the hormone Relaxin softens all your joints and ligaments to make way for the baby. But if the hips are misaligned or there is too much of the hormone, or the woman is particularly sensitive to the hormone, the ligaments can relax too much and the pelvic floor becomes unstable, possibly even causing the pubic ligament to tear or separate. More fun than you can shake a stick at.

The Lentil's Library

“It’s time for bed, little mouse, little mouse,
Darkness is falling all over the house.
It’s time for bed, little goose, little goose,
The stars are out and on the loose . . .”

Just read this as a board book (you know those thick cardboard pages that babies can chew on) and was suddenly sitting on the floor in Powell's with tears streaming down my face! lol! Hello hormones!

I looked at a number of baby goodnight books (as opposed to bedtime books more appropriate for toddlers) and this one is a complete winner. I think this may need to be added to the little lentil's library pre-birth.

Also came across a ton of books that I adored as a child!

Rain Makes Applesauce (these are the most wonderful imaginative illustrations! Beautiful!)
Blueberries for Sal (this book is a zillion years old and still wonderful!)
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
Harold and the Purple Crayon
In the Night Kitchen (Maurice Sendak can do no wrong!)
The Pokey Little Puppy (my favorite Little Golden Book as a kid)
Caps for Sale (heh heh heh! love this story)
Alexander and the Horrible Terrible No-Good, Very Bad Day

Still have my copies of these books:
The King, The Mice and The Cheese
Too Much Noise (classic bed time story that I know by heart)
Jacob Had a Little Overcoat
The Monster at the End of the Book (starring Grover. Very silly and fun!)
(sorry, I lost the will to link them all)

Ah, books! I AM my father's daughter. I did have to snicker a bit because almost all of these books are Caldecot Award winners or winners of some such or other award. But, of course! :)

Last but not least on books, my yoga teacher often reads from this book during shavasana and the entries are so wonderful. I'm buying this one tonight!

A son

Yup. It's a boy. Never mind the girl dreams I've had. We'll go with that sense that I've always had that I would have boys (two to be exact). Now I feel like I have to have another so that I can see if I'm psychic or some such nonsense. (Considering that I also always though I would have a baby at 33 and got pregnant two months before turning 34. Does getting pregnant constitute "having a baby"?)

So the confirmation that its a boy makes me suddenly feel like I don't know anything about boys. Or at least, half as much as I know about girls. And probably everything I've been thinking applied to girls, applies just as much to boys too - I just have a certain perspective on it (being a girl myself).

I'm also coming to terms with the fact that I'll not be buying and making tons of adorable little dresses and barrettes and other girly things. For the record I never have had any love for cotton candy pink shirts that say, "I'm a little princess". Nevertheless, the realm of little girl clothing is truly glorious if you weed out the obnoxious stuff.

But, as I'm not going to be dressing our kid in ruffled underoos, I've spent a bit of time today looking at great boy clothing. Yes, it's out there, but it's not that easy to find. Somehow baseballs and sailboats and cars on kids who are too young to really know what they are (much less have any love for them) is just as bad as unicorns and rainbows.

I was pleased to find a selection of classics (i.e. not plastered with SpongeBob or footballs) and a great selection of organic clothing and bamboo clothing at pretty much the same prices as the aforementioned options.

Here's a few I like:

Janie & Jack Yes, I still love them. To me this stuff feels classic.

Gap Baby I know. Why does a baby need to wear name brand clothing. They don't. But sometimes you want to dress your kid up or have something that isn't going to fall apart or pill after three washes. And I especially love their organic collection. I'll keep my eye on sales. Oh, and their "favorite one piece" looks so comfy that I'd like one!

MiniMoche Okay, this is pure wish list stuff. I love the cut and styling and color choices. But it's expensive and not dress up clothes, so...

Posh Baby I hate the name as much as you do. But they have lots of nice bamboo clothing at great prices.

Alright, before I go on, I want to say that YES, I will buy garage sale clothes and happily accept all hand me downs. Most of our friends here have girls so a lot of the hand me downs are, well, inappropriate. Sure, we *could* dress our son in the pink onesie with giant hearts all over it, but I'd rather wait until (and if) he tell us that he WANTS to wear to dresses before dressing him in them.

I think our son will find enough reasons for why we aren't perfect parents, ya know?

Relaxin, Part 1

26 hormones are surging through my body. 4 of them are brand new. One of these lovely chemicals is Relaxin. Guess what it does? It makes the joints in the body loosen up (very clever). However, until the time when it's really needed (that would be the 9 month mark) it does things like make you more prone to carpal tunnel, siatic nerve pain, and low and behold! Dropping Things. That's me. Miss Slippery Fingers. Haven't broken anything yet, but it's only a matter of time, I'm sure. ;)

The Basketball, Pregnancy Dreams, and Hand-Me-Down Luv

I am now 19 weeks pregnant. For those not in the know on the weeks-countdown, that's just about 1/2 way through. 40 weeks is the total. No, it doesn't equate exactly to 9 months. One of those little secrets you only learn when you are in The Club. But I'm HUGE! There are women in my prenatal yoga class that are DUE and not as big as this. And the strangest thing is that I've gained a grand total of 4 pounds. 4! I lost 7 in the first trimester. And now I've gained 4. Math = still less than I was before I was preggers. But are you seeing this? I am totally shocked. Shocked. By the time I am 9 months along, you will wonder where the sun is because I will be blocking it out. (If I can make it out the door, that is.)


Actually the second trimester has been lovely. I have good energy. I don't crash when I eat a piece of fruit (that was weird!). And I only have a couple aches and pains. Nothing to write home about.

I did have a very vivid dream last night of giving birth to a girl. That would make two "girl" dreams now. I'm not betting on it though. Our next ultrasound is in one week and providing the chickpea cooperates, we should have the answer to that question. Daniel thinks it will be a boy. I've always imagined I would have boys. Two to be exact. Don't know why. So... we'll see.

Treva, a friend with a 6 month old, Sable, has been dropping off stuff that Sable has grown out of, or that she doesn't use. Of course, if its a boy, 80% of those clothes will be going to someone else. lol. But she did give me this lovely nursing cover so that I don't have to whip my boob out in public (which I'm sure is inevitable, anyway). But I like it a lot so maybe I'll make good use of it and not forget it at home when we are out and about. In the awful case that I do leave home without it, we are resourcefull sorts of people and I'm sure it won't be an issue. And Portland has some of the best laws about public breastfeeding so that's happy.


(Yup, that's me. "Chic Mother". Don't forget it!)

Cheaper and I like it more

Changed my mind on the crib! And this one is half the price at $229! (Now we can get an organic mattress.) Even better is that it's made from sustainably harvest wood.

The DaVinci Rivington 4-in-1 crib in Coffee. (And because you need to see it in all it's incarnations...)









The other thing I found out is that you can set up a baby registry at Amazon.com. I have to say that this is a nice thing since it seems like I'd have to register at 8 different places otherwise.Still not satisfied with the quantity of natural and organic products, but it's not too bad.

The Highly Recommended Boppy

Ooh ooh ooh! Look, I've knocked another item off the list. The Boppy! The ultimate feeding, sitting, playing pillow (and looks like it would work well for a tail bone injury that we hope none of us ever have, or maybe a boomerang that won't take heads off). I like this pattern - brown on one side and vintagey blue floral on the other. They call it Urban Vintage Brown. And the removable cover is a must for washing off that baby spit and whatnot. OMG, I just realized its the same colors as my website that hasn't been updated in many years. At least I am consitent in my tastes. Daniel likes it too so it's a win! (Giggling at the image of Daniel walking around with this pillow around his waist.) Gah! I just realized you have to buy the slipcover and pillow separately. Meh. Quarter of a star off for inconvenience in buying. But I still love it.

Boppy.com and Babies'R'Us (this is where I eat my words about registering at Babies'R'Us.)

The Baby Arsenal

So, I've been doing extensive reading about preparing the baby arsenal. A couple days ago a checked out a library book on "everything you need" and today my mother sent me a book called the "The Baby Gizmo Buying Guide." Nice that we're both in sync in that way.

And here I've been, obsessing over the $500 crib I'm in love with and not much else (we're denying that three hour foray into the online world of baby clothes that cost more than I spend on my own) and now I'm plunging head first into the endless list of gear.

I have to tell you that the idea of testing out and choosing a stroller is completely overwhelming. And the car seat and the baby carrier and the high chair and the list goes on. And for some reason all the tips and guides just make it harder because now I KNOW what I'm supposed to be looking for and can't just go on my instincts.

But I've made one decision (with Daniel's input of course - we're a team like that). We won't be putting any kind of baby bathtub on our registry. There's the sink and the bathtub and both will work fine. One down!

And on another note... I've discovered that I'm kinda freaked out by the possibility of lead paint and chemical-leaching plastics. I imagine myself with a stockpile of home-lead paint testers, inconspicuously swabbing at toys and furniture. Even though it's not really in our (mythical) budget, I'd like to try to go as natural or organic with toys and whatnot as possible.

And that brings me to my last thought, involving registries. It's unlikely that we'll be registering at Babies'R'Us (I could be wrong about this), but what other alternatives are there? I'm very confused about the baby registry thing. Is there an eco-baby registry? Let me rephrase, is there an eco-baby registry that doesn't stone you if you if you put non-organic socks on your kid? Because, I don't want to be THAT hardcore. lol.

Pali's Trieste Forever Crib in Sienna (coverts to a toddler bed, child-size daybed and full-size bed)

Power of Design, or Why I Still Have a Job

The world of graphic design has exploded now that everyone's mom and dad have photoshop and "vector" is becoming a household word. Everyone is a designer and lots of people seem to be pretty good at. How hard is it to create things that you think look good? Especially when we can be "inspired" by all the eye candy that has infiltrated every aspect of our lives. Even my butter package is beautiful! But I came across this today and was reminded, yet again, that design is no wrapping paper solution. Combined with critical thinking, design can help affect the change in the world that is needed. And critical thinking is what we get paid for. Photoshop, Illustrator, color theory, all those pantone chips are just tools that we use. A hammer and screwdriver. The power of design does not lie in the eyes, it lies in the mind.

(Paper towel dispenser that directly connects the environmental impact with the individual's consumption.)

The Remarkable Forgiveness

I've just read TUP 2 cover to cover. I laughed out loud at Eli Hopkins' The Remarkable Intruder. It was a dizzying and full of tiny recognitions of my own incongruities. What made me laugh out loud and for a long time was that the story starts out, "Did I mention I have just been beaten?" Four paragraphs later, "I might as well admit that I was never beaten, not strictly. I was thrown a birthday party..." Next paragraph: "Actually, there was a beating, but it wasn't my beating. That's where I got confused. There was something called a pinata, I have no idea what it means. I have a condition characterized by the intense and involuntary suffering that comes from sympathy for inanimate objects. It was horrible what they did."

I laughed so hard and what's more, I can relate to this. I also do not know what pinata means though I used to know a guy who made them. It was his passion. He was an "internet friend". I don't remember his name, but I think I might have met him once.

I really want to say how much I enjoyed Tup 2 and to tout it's brilliance (and all the wonderful entries), but since I know and love most of the contributers, I feel more than a little biased. So, I refrain. Tomorrow, I'm going to hear a lecture with Art Chantry at PNCA.




PNCA, incidentally, is the school that the cyclist who got killed last week went to. ........................................................
........................................................
I guess I should write about it. Maybe it will help. A block from my work, a cyclist got run over by a cement truck. I happened to be walking to work a bit after it happened and I walked right onto the scene. I was so struck with the reality of it and the tragedy (god, you'd think I could come up with better words than that). I couldn't get much done for the rest of the day. A made up scene kept playing in my head of the whole accident. The girl's terror, thankfully brief. And the driver's realization. I've heard that they aren't pressing charges and I've heard some people be irrate about that. This guy was not on drugs, not speeding, not doing anything illegal. She was in his blind spot. But, I'm thinking of the guy's innocence or lack there of. What keeps coming back to me is that this guy is going to have to live with the knowledge that he killed a young girl. The "punishment" of that knowledge is far worse than any external punishment could ever be.

Okay, I digress for a moment. I used to be part of NA (there, I outted myself). I have like 12 years clean and I really don't think about it much anymore. But I used to got to NA meetings and there were people there who's lives had gotten worse than I could imagine. There was one woman in particular who had a lot of recovery both in years and emotionally. She and her husband were both like ideals for us to look up to. Then a young guy in a truck hit and killed her husband when he was riding his motorcycle. It was a horrible thing and she suffered greatly. A year later, she asked the guy to come over and he did, with his mother. He was terrified and unsure what to expect and he couldn't forgive himself. Who could? She told him in no uncertain terms that she forgave him and she expected him to forgive himself. He needed to live a full life and more forward. I was floored when I heard about the healing capacity we have. I still am.

Picking Punk Mans

Oh lordy, how I love Pumpkin Picking. I had made some vow that I would only get one - but I think I meant that I would only carve one. And did I ever. My subconscious is working on the ultimate carving. Actually, my subconscious is working on a number of designs. It is the time of year to start thinking about my wood blocked cards. I have decided that I would delve further into self-expression. This year's cards will still be botanical in nature, but with a heavy dose of ilonaism. Yes, I am going to Ilonafy them. Maybe one day I will be able to sell sets of them. For now, they will be gifts. Unless you want to buy them (shameless plug, I know - especially for a prodcut that hasn't been produced yet). I am signing off now before further embarassing myself. Check out this punkman (that's a Savanna-ism. She's 4. I give her a lot of kudos for that one.)

It's HERE!

For 3 hours I've been sitting in the presence of greatness, completely UNAWARE!

I totally missed the fact that this beautiful thing (17" Macbook Pro) was sitting in just inside my office door when I arrived this morning. And in a few hours, Mr. IT (Charlie) is going to wisk it away and tinker with it and love it until it hums and then he is going to bring it back to me, whence I will make it sing!

http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

I, like many people I'm sure, have been a bit anxiety ridden about the approaching state of the economy. I called my Mortgage Adviser (who I absolutely LOVE), Seth Warren at Alpine Mortgage, with just the tinies hint of worry in my voice. He told me to shoosh and keep in mind that the job market is a good indicator of the economy and thus, the housing market. Well, things are going strong here in Portland. Its one of the few places in the country that the housing and job market are both going strong. The voice in the back of my head is saying, "yeah, but...Portland has historically been a late bloomer, catching up with the rest of the US economy months or even years later." I tell that voice to shut up! I don't want to know!

But then... Today, I heard the employment rating has dropped significantly (in the US, not Portland only). *sigh* I am thinking seriously about persuing a part-time teaching gig. And maybe even trying to persuade Daniel that we should get a roommate for a while.

On the positive side, I am going to have my vision checked and get glasses and daniel will be getting glasses for the first time in like 7 years!

Personal Iconography

Lesson: Over the first 1/2 of the term have students scan new doodles in their sketchbooks. These can be random (not drawn with conscious thought) and deliberate sketches. Regular assignments are to develop complex, but succint illustrations combining or using their personal iconography. The end result is a database of original, self-reflective, emotive illustrations that develop both the students' illustration ability, narrative skill, and ability to convey succint, personal expression. Example

I Want To Go Back To School

...as a teacher. Part-time, maybe evening classes. I really enjoy teaching and think I could help students deveop their critical thinking skills. I am developing my syllubus now. Just in case...

Blogtastic

Sometimes I wonder if these people have day jobs, or if they really do blog all day long. I can't stop looking at these blogs Oh Joy! and Decor8. The photos are faboulous. Here is a small sampling of their colorful sites and hopefull shows why I can't stop looking at them.

1000 Bricks

Daniel and I spent all of yesterday obtaining 1000 bricks. We had to rent a uhaul and do this in 2 trips because it turns out, bricks are REALLY heavy. It was a particularly dirty job and Daniel and I both killed a LOT of VERY VERY BIG spiders. At the end of the second load my dad and Keegan came to help us unload which is good because I don't think we could face it alone at that point. So there are now 1000 bricks piled in the back of our house. What are we going to do with it, you ask? We are going to pave and build retaining walls and who knows what else, but here is an inspirational photo of brick in Belguim

Annual Report Love

I love designing Annual Reports. There is something about the little booklet style that makes my heart go pitter-patter. I am currently designing one for a very cool hospital in Oregon and I am in the concepting phase. I came across this website annualreports.com and have a found a few gems. Anyway, it probably speaks to my dork factor that I like this site, but there it is, and I am not ashamed. Now, if only I could find a project that could 1) afford and 2) would be appropriate to use Yupo paper on, that would rock. Yupo is a synthetic paper (not made from trees) that is silky smooth, velvety, and super luxuriant feeling. It reminds me of my silk-laminated business cards that I once had a woman rub all over her face (it was a strange moment - I felt like I was intruding on something quite private).

What are labels for anyway?

Emily Post Would Be Proud

Some collegues and I were just discussing various ways to tell off angry customers when they are really mean and, well, wrong. So, I thought I'd share this recent and favorite "telling off" from a website that I love: Airfare Watch Dog

The Blog Formerly Known As WhistleFish

The world has definitely not slowed down in 2007. In fact, it will soon by 2008 and I haven't even started thinking about Christmas crafts. In the spirit of re-invention, look at this humming bird birth (the last photo with the toothpick is the one that got me)

Also, I would like to highly recommend Pandora Radio. My beautiful 80 GB Video iPod is buried in the bottom of my bag unused as I listen to Pandora Radio at work all day everyday. Sign up easy and I dont get any emails, There are no commercials, and I've discovered a lot of great music like Band Of Horses