Monthly Archives: December 2008

Not so much with the Merry and Bright

Posted on December 25, 2008 | Comments Off on Not so much with the Merry and Bright

The funeral is Friday, so I’ll be flying south tomorrow afternoon, returning Sunday evening. We’ve done some abbreviated Christmas celebrating, with plans to do the rest once everyone is back in town in the New Year. Right now I’m mostly just glad that the Hatchling is so little that she doesn’t really know the difference; she’s just excited to be getting awesome toys and eating so many cookies.

Anyway: posting will be minimal or naught for a bit. Hope you’re all having festive, relaxing, holidays, through which I can live vicariously.

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Posted in holidays, la famiglia, travel, trials and tribulations

… and then my Grandma died.

Posted on December 23, 2008 | Comments Off on … and then my Grandma died.

For one reason or another, this has felt like a particularly stressful Christmas. I really have been trying to cut back on plans and obligations, but this pregnancy is cutting back even further on my ability to cope, so there have been numerous breakdowns this week, and they haven’t all been the Hatchling’s, if you know what I’m saying. All I want to do is sit in front of the fire and knit or read, but instead I feel obligated (by whom? No one knows!) to finish the baking, or make yet another run to Target, or do some other damn holiday-related project which only has the effect of making me more Scrooge, less Cratchit. Or something.

So anyway, given the general tenor of this year’s pre-Christmas season, it should surprise nobody that Fate has seen fit to have my Grandmother, the one who’s been slowly losing her marbles since July, die today. About 20 minutes ago, actually. She’d been hospitalized earlier this week with kidney failure and pneumonia and a host of other ills, so we knew it was only a matter of time. And I’m happy she’s gone, because she hasn’t really been alive since the summer and it was past time for her to go. But I’m also really, really sad, because she was the grandparent I was closest to and I’ll miss her so much and I wish with all my heart that my two girls could have known her. Stupid death. And stupid timing, because now of course the holiday plans are all thrown into chaos; my parents are going down south today or tomorrow and as soon as we know the funeral plans I’ll be heading down, too. If I were a more Zen person I could probably come up with something vaguely heartwarming about how it really puts everything into perspective, and how I won’t be stressing over the little things anymore but just enjoying my time with family. But I am, sadly, not in a Zen frame of mind, and stress is my major talent, so, you know. I’ll still be stressing. And sad.

Hint to Fate: now would be a REALLY good time for me to win the lottery. I’m just sayin’.

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Posted in holidays, la famiglia, trials and tribulations

So freaking awesome

Posted on December 19, 2008 | Comments Off on So freaking awesome

Just doing my bit to spread some holiday joy. And Holy Hannah, does this give me a lotta joy. Shamelessly stolen from Questionable:

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Posted in Funny Stuff

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Christmas Countdown

Posted on December 19, 2008 | Comments Off on Christmas Countdown

We’re in the final stretch, y’all. Less than a week until Santa-day. Are you ready? Because I AM NOT. I’m trying to adopt a Zen attitude about it, but it’s not working very well. Probably because it’s a Judeo-Christian holiday, and what goes better with that than a healthy sense of guilt and general overwhelmedness? I have some packages that MUST get mailed today (and I shudder to think how much I’m going to have to pay to ship them), and then it’s on to more assembling, grocery shopping, baking, and cleaning. And I mean, sure, yes, the world would still turn happily on its axis even if I didn’t make five varieties of cookies plus peanut brittle, but who would be satisfied with THAT? Only someone with a much healthier outlook on the world in general, that’s who.

How are you all out in Squabland? Everyone ready for the festivities (if you’re celebrating them)?

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Posted in holidays

Butterfingers

Posted on December 16, 2008 | Comments Off on Butterfingers

I swear, this pregnancy is making me a total klutz. I’m not saying that I’m the epitome of grace at the best of times, but the last two weeks my level of physical ineptitude has really gotten ridiculous. I can’t fix a meal without dropping at least three key items on the floor. I can no longer pour myself a drink without spilling at least a few drops. I drop … everything. Books, shoes, silverware, my glasses, you name it. I can’t even type as well as I used to be able to. IT IS IRRITATING. Particularly when I’m making many things for Christmas-type gifts, and the band-aids! I have used so many! I’m presently working on the theory that drops/smudges of actual human blood give gifts that handmade, one-of-a-kind essence that you just can’t buy. (And really, why would you WANT to?)

In other news, my other blog has been de-spammified, so there are new recommendations up for your yuletide reading pleasure.

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Posted in blog blogging, updates

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Fa la la la la, la la la la

Posted on December 15, 2008 | Comments Off on Fa la la la la, la la la la

This is the first year the Hatchling is old enough to want to help with the Christmas decorations. We finally got the tree up this weekend, and she was very “helpful” with the ornaments (or as she likes to call them, the “wondaful decowations”). Sure, she wanted to hang all of them off the same small branch, but at least she did manage to actually hang some all by herself!

Decorating the Christmas Tree, 2008 from Squab on Vimeo.

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Posted in good times, holidays

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Friday Link Dump

Posted on December 12, 2008 | Comments Off on Friday Link Dump

Trying to get rid of some of my open tabs …

Don’t get me wrong, I want higher safety standards for US toys … but leave it to congress to enact regulations that will pretty much ban small handcrafted (and safe) toys from the market. Oy.

Did you hear that Oprah’s gained weight again? This is the best possible response to that – and to anyone else who’s stuck in the lose/gain cycle.

I can’t say I’m fluent in any foreign language; nevertheless, translation – esp. of fiction and poetry – is one of my favorite literary activities (and something I have a bit of a knack for, I have been told). It’s an underappreciated art form, with many pitfalls – as the case of Elfriede Jelinek demonstrates.

The best book covers of 2008 – because some of us do, indeed, judge a book by its cover.

Enjoy.

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Posted in linkage

Checklist

Posted on December 11, 2008 | Comments Off on Checklist
  • Inability to find a comfortable position in which to sleep/sit/eat/exist? Check.
  • General grumpiness? Check.
  • Constant fatigue, due to item 1 and contributing to item 2? Check.
  • Lower back and round ligament pain? Check.
  • Irritating emotional instability? Check.
  • Possibly irrational levels of anger at Mr. Squab’s place of employment for its no-leave-nohow-for-nobody policy? Check. Maybe. Except for the irrational part, because WTF?
  • Ever-lingering nausea? Check.
  • Ravenous hunger combined with total apathy towards any actual food? Check.
  • Increasing inability to engage in complex thought because this baby is SUCKING MY BRAIN CELLS? Double Checkity Check-Check.

I tell you what, if I read one more time about the damn second trimester “glow” or “energy surge” I am going to stage a public conniption fit.

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Posted in trials and tribulations

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Irritating

Posted on December 9, 2008 | Comments Off on Irritating

So we’re all set to go to the library this morning, to FINALLY return our insanely overdue books and CDs, and the Hatchling is totally jazzed about it (“I so ‘cited to go whyherry!”) and we get there, and the damn branch doesn’t open on Tuesdays until noon. Not for lack of demand, I might add, but because our stupid, stupid governor keeps cutting the freaking budget for public services like libraries and the parks and education and don’t even get me STARTED. Grrrrrrr.

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Posted in MN, outrage

On the mend

Posted on December 8, 2008 | Comments Off on On the mend

Amoxycillin is a wonderful thing. Took the Hatchling to urgent care and only one ear was infected but it had also ruptured – OUCH – and she had a lot of lovely congestion to boot. She haaaaaaaates the medicine (can’t blame her: it’s “orange dreamsicle” flavored) but we’ve been getting it down her gullet twice a day and she’s already feeling much, much better. Last night she only woke up once, a drastic improvement over the past three days. We’re lying low today but I think we’ll actually make it.

I have to say, I did not handle this sickness well. Usually I’m pretty good with the coddling and cuddling that goes with a sick kid, but for some reason – I’m guessing because I’m already low on energy reserves due to my fetal enhancement – I was going OUT OF MY MIND this weekend. I don’t think the Hatchling picked up on it (though poor Mr. Squab did) but by last night I was just losing it left and right. Part of it was the lack of sleep, but even more than that was the feeling of no escape from the sick kiddo. She was literally attached to me for 85% of the weekend – couldn’t sleep unless she was in bed with me, couldn’t be awake unless she was right up next to me on the sofa, and if I had to get up to, you know, pee or get something to eat, she would start mournfully moaning “oh, no … OH, no … OH, NOOOO!” in escalating tones until I came back. I could not get anything done, and even if I could have gotten away for a moment I was too damn tired to accomplish anything. It was just making me totally nuts – and, like, how churlish is that? Christ, it’s not her fault she’s sick. And as Mr. Squab truthfully observed, in a few years I’ll WISH she’d snuggle with me on the sofa for the whole day. But it wasn’t helping this weekend. And then I started thinking, crap, she’s basically just behaving like a little baby … and we’re having one of those soon … and what if THAT makes me crazy like this is? ACKKKKK. Because, you know, that kind of worst-case-scenario thinking is so incredibly helpful at all times. Ahem.

Anyway, I got some sleep last night and Mr. Squab put up some Christmas decorations and cleaned up the kitchen and rubbed my back and tried not to laugh at me for bursting into tears whenever anyone looked at me crosseyed. So today things are better. Onwards and upwards, right?

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Posted in parenting highlights, trials and tribulations, updates