Sunday
- Ever since M has developed a passion for "swingin," I've been trying to figure out how we could make it more accessible to her, more frequently. First of course I asked around in the neighborhood to find out if there were any parks around that I had missed somehow. Nope. (Um, civic infrastructure? Is it because it's the South? Or is the West the only region in the country that's really into this kind of thing?) The only park in the vicinity with swings takes 10-15 minutes to drive to. With M begging to go swinging at least 5 times a day, that just isn't going to work. Not that I would take her five times a day even if there were a park around the corner, but twice a day, sure. Twice I would totally do. But even once a day seems excessive on the gas usage when it's that far away. Not to mention standing in the humid heat for an hour while she swings. So next I thought we'd buy a swingset for our backyard so that we can swing several times a day, but not have to be out in the heat for very long at a time. But thats another no-go, because I discovered that, dude, swingsets are EXPENSIVE. Seriously? For seven or eight pieces of wood and a bunch of screws you're going to charge $400??? Are you kidding? My next thought honestly was pretty much the definition of white trash. J and I were at Home Depot and I wandered into the PVC pipe aisle. . .you know where this is going, right? I was all "Can't we just buy the big thick pipes and the elbow joints that go with them and screw a bunch of them together and somehow come up with a swingset?" Sadly I was totally serious. J was kind enough to take me at least a little bit seriously, though he had the sense to say "Yeah we could do it, but let's do it another day, kay?" So that was pretty much the low point of desperation. But then yesterday I had a flash of inspiration. I had a memory of my dad doing chin-ups on a bar set in a doorway. "J! Do they still make chin-up bars? You know, the kind that you can put in a doorway?" He said he hadn't seen one since the 80's, but I persevered. I called the local sporting goods store and after a couple of tries found a location that carried the very thing--for $20! Combine that with the $20 I spent on a baby swing a few months ago (thinking maybe one of the trees in our backyard would work, which turned out to be a negative), and you have a $40 swing right in the comfort of my own home. I felt pretty proud of my accomplishment until M was in it for an hour and a half today, absolutely REFUSING to get out. Oh well, at least I was in an air conditioned house with the TV on rather than sweating at the park slapping at flying insects.
- I talked to my new friend JA tonight. She has a 4 1/2 week old baby, whom it sounds like is, unfortunately, a carbon copy of M as a newborn. Don't get me wrong, I loved her with all my heart, etc. etc. But it would be less than honest to say that she was easy for the first 4 months of her life. I guess the best I can say is that I hope for JA's sake that her little one will grow into a 9 month old as fun and sweet as M became--because it took until that point for her to grow out of her serious high maintenance-ness. Anyway, I'm going over there tomorrow to take her the bible of ornery babies, Health Sleep Habits Happy Child, and also three of the slings from my collection to see if any of them will work for her.
- I didn't have anything planned for dinner until about 10 minutes before S got here, but I managed to pull together a really delicious Thai meal with what I had in the pantry. Coconut jasmine rice with coconut curry chicken and a green salad. Yum! I love it when my pantry has the right things in it to be able to pull good things together without a ton of planning and trips to the grocery store.
- I reconnected with an old friend today. Haven't talked to her in a year and a half. Now she has a one-year old, a different job, and everything that goes with being a working mom. Amazing how motherhood mellows some women out and makes them so much more. . .human.
Wow, I guess today was only a four-thing day. Probably preferable to let that be okay than to come up with more just to have five.
