From the yearly archives:

2004

Why compromise?

November 8, 2004

Listening to the Connection the other day, they had a panel of conservative activists and pundits on the air, chatting about what they expected from the President they’d just so enthusiastically elected. At one point, the announcer said to one of his guests, “These are pretty deep issues we’re talking about. Abortion. Whether or not [...]

Read the full article →

in other news…

October 27, 2004

my baby just took a three hour nap, during which I did a little writing and then wandered aimlessly for awhile, wondering what I could/should be doing with my time. Only to think of a whole laundry list of small household tasks I’d love to get done, as soon as she woke up. in other [...]

Read the full article →

Rio is amazing

October 25, 2004

Proof, as if it could be needed: after only a week of scootching, she is teaching herself to crawl. She’s become such an effective scootcher so quickly that I thought she might not bother, but here she is, balanced precariously on her hands and knees, struggling to keep her body aloft on tiny little muscles, [...]

Read the full article →

Big Firsts

October 22, 2004

i realize that in all my bitching and moaning, i’ve given precious little room to all the amazing changes Rio has gone through in the past two weeks. So here for posterity: On Oct. 8 (the same day her dad went for surgery), she popped her first tooth. The second one followed a week later, [...]

Read the full article →

“oh baby! your nose is having a hard day!”

October 22, 2004

What else does one say to a tiny person who has just, in the space of five minutes: a) crawled off the side of the bed, landing face first b) made a miracle recovery from her 16-inch fall to the Floor of Doom, crying for about 30 seconds, nursing maybe twice that long and then [...]

Read the full article →

parenting vs. sex

October 20, 2004

Dropping the Kid off at aikido, with the baby happily asleep in the backseat, I turned to M and said, “OK, we have fifty minutes of free time. What do you want to do? Get some lunch, go to Wal-Mart and buy socks? Hit a yard sale?” “I want to have sex again.” I was [...]

Read the full article →

the only conversation I’ve had this morning

October 16, 2004

Kid: I can’t do my homework this morning because I don’t have any lined paper. (this is the beginning of the conversation. Not, “good morning” or “hello” or even “you! listen and obey!”, which means I’m only gradually tuning in as the sentence is coming out. And I’m totally confused: I slept about two hours, [...]

Read the full article →

sleep is for the childless

October 5, 2004

Rio has given up sleep. She was up until midnight last night, an hour after her dad and I had turned out every light in the house and curled up in bed. She went down under duress, after he walked her back and forth in his arms in the dark for twenty minutes. She was [...]

Read the full article →

baby update!

August 12, 2004

SHE ROLLED OVER! All by herself, without any assistance from me. four times. She’d lay on her back , and then tip up on one side, and then down on her belly, and I’d roll her back and she’d do it again. Also, she started vowelizing a few days ago. No one can translate what [...]

Read the full article →

fountain of youth

July 23, 2004

last night as I lay beside my sleeping girl chatting with her dad before we too drifted into dreamland, I heard a strange lapping sound. Looking down, I saw that the pressure of the mattress touching my breast had caused it to spout milk, which was raining in a perfect little arc right into the [...]