Baby Dolls Abound

Throughout Scout's young life she has been given 3 baby dolls for different Christmases and Birthdays. None of them got more then about 5 minutes of attention from her before ending up at the bottom of her stuffed animal box. They just haven't been her thing. Don't get me wrong, she does have the "little girl nurturing thing" going, she just hasn't had any interest in human like babies. She has put to bed countless numbers of monkeys, kitties, doggies, elephants, zebras, etc. in little doll beds. Has fed them bottles, cradled them in her arms, rolled her monkey around the grocery store many times in her dolly stroller. I've even been made to put a diaper on Cookie Monster and a Care Bear.
Things have been changing in our household since news of our impending arrival. It started with an interest in two of her dolls. She knew they needed a mommy but thought she was too young, she was the older sister. This would have been fine except it gave me a lot more responsibility then I was willing. She wanted me to carry them around while doing housework and put them to bed every night in my bed with me (and Rob) no less. Every night after she went to sleep they would get shooed to the floor and there they would stay until she came into our room in the morning and I would inevitably get it from her. "Mom! Your babies fell off!" "Oops" I'd say and put them back into bed. I would use her to babysit as much as I could, but for a good month or so I was the primary care giver.
Well as you can see from the pictures, Scout has assumed the role of mom (let's face it, I was probably fired). What a super mom she is too! She is juggling quite a handful with all those babies on her front and back and in the stroller (she found the smallest doll recently in some forgotten place somewhere). She has yet to take all 3 with her at one time but I can see it happening any day now.

I think it's cute that the prospects of a baby sister have made her see her dolls in a different light. I think we should get her one of those more lifelike baby dolls that come with a blanket and change of clothes and bottles etc for when the baby is born. I think she would really like one to take care of with me when I take care of creepy baby george.Very silly, and I didn't think it right to let this picture just sit in my computer lost in the archives.



Speaking of silly, if you caught a glimpse of something red on her face in that picture at the park..... there you go. Where did this kid come from??

Another Girl

If you haven't heard the news already I would be very surprised. But we (especially Scout) are very happy to announce that we are having a little girl. What's more, she is looking very healthy and doesn't have a dang thing wrong with her.

Now, when I awaited my ultrasound when I was preggo with Scout, for months I was absolutely consumed with her gender and finding out. It wasn't until the moment before the tech put the stick on my belly that I panicked and a million concerns about the baby's well being flooded my thoughts. Luckily, I only experienced a few seconds of this feeling before seeing her move around and be perfect and healthy and had legs and arms. Well, I am not the happy go lucky woman I once was. This time, I have gone through years worrying about this baby and if it is going to be healthy and normal. It's been magnified since carrying this baby, but I've pretty much worried about yesterday for years.

A funny thing happens when you loose a baby in utero. All of a sudden, people start telling you about every person they had ever met that had a nightmare of a pregnancy. I don't know if it is just what pops into their heads (I know I do it too, it's a total human nature thing). But all I heard were stories about every chromosomal abnormality in the book and plenty of umbilical cord accidents and scary births. Just two months after my loss a woman in my ward I had sat next to just 2 days before she gave birth, died in childbirth following a really rare complication and left I think 7 young children (plus, the poor baby had a huge cyst on her neck -totally unrelated to the mother's complication). What I am trying to say is, pregnancy and birth suddenly became a very scary thing and I couldn't believe that any babies were ever born healthy. Not to mention I was going through blood tests to check for cancer every week to see if my pregnancy had given me cancer (who knew that was even out there?) . Anyway, my condition gave me several golf ball size cysts on my ovaries, then I suffered from infertility, had to go on fertility drugs. All these things together made me doubt my abilities to ever grow a healthy egg into a healthy baby.

This whole pregnancy I've been excited but there has ALWAYS been a little cloud over my head that there could be something wrong. The scare of having another molar pregnancy went away in the first 7 weeks when I got my first ultrasound (Thanks to being "high risk" now I get early ultrasounds). But the baby at that point was only a little bean with a heart. Most of my fears didn't go away though, I was waiting to toss them aside in favor of my 20 week ultrasound when they can really get a look at the bean. Well the time for that came yesterday and let me tell you, I have been a nervous wreck for about a week. Rob was nervous too, he said that he is trying not to get too excited about the baby. I think we were both waiting for the ultrasound before we took a good, deep breath.

Luckily it was at 9 in the morning so I didn't have to be a total wreck all day. I started to relax the minute she put the stick on my belly this time and saw a head, body, two arms and two legs. I am sure I was annoying since every time she said anything I would go, "that's good right??" She did thorough measurements, checked heart chambers, major blood vessels, leg length, arm length, spine, face, this baby got the works -and passed with flying colors, she looked perfect. AND measured 3 days big, so there is a compromise between my two due dates, but they didn't officially move it, but he unofficially did to the 16th. (Small victory.)

She was sitting with her little ankles crossed and was sound asleep the whole time (a drastic contrast to Scout who was moving around so much the tech had a very difficult time doing the measurements). The tech even kept making comments about what an active one I had. Her feet didn't hold still for a second, it was quite funny. Anyway, this one was lazy as could be. The tech was trying to make sure about gender she said she had a good idea, but wasn't sure. So she giggled my stomach quite a bit to get her up and at-em and we got to watch her wake up and she actually yawned. It was very cute to see. Then she moved around and stretched a bit and she finally told us with assurance that we had a little girl. Scout was right there with us watching the screen and I said, "Scout! You're going to have a sister!" And she immediately went into a happy dance. Cutest thing ever. I was so happy for her. After that she was showing us all some ballet moves and really getting into it. She really gets it and is really excited. She kept telling everyone she wanted a sister, I kept telling her that a little brother would be fun too. I don't think she believed me, but I wanted to cover our bases. Well, she was right all along. And, Rob and I couldn't be more thrilled at the miracle that is a healthy baby.
Now, everyone needs to help me talk Rob into the name "Mallory".

Jonny Greenwood, Master Musician

It's time for another installment in my Radiohead series. It's no secret, I'm a little obsessed with Jonny. Here's the deal- he's bloody brilliant. Not only is he a major creative force behind the music of Radiohead, he writes classical music, is the "composer-in-residence" for the BBC (anyone know what that means?) plays several instruments (besides the guitar- viola, xylophone, glockenspiel, ondes Martenot, banjo*, harmonica and drums) *I've heard that he has tried to sneak the banjo into some of Radiohead's songs and the rest of the band will have none of it. He also wrote the score for There Will Be Blood --can you imagine that movie without that haunting score? He was robbed of an Oscar nom since he used a little music he had written earlier, although I can't imagine he cares much. He also does most to all of the electronic computer generated sounds that make Radiohead Radiohead. Besides all of that, the man can play the guitar like no other. Out of a long line of brilliant lead guitarists in the past 40 years or so, none have moved me the way his playing has. I certainly won't say he is the best guitarist the world has known, what I will say is that his style of playing and what he writes is totally in sync with my soul and ears.
He has his own style of playing (one that keeps him in an arm brace from injuries and nowadays usually just preventative) and watching him play, I am not surprised. Because of his unique style, I think I ought to show you rather then just tell you. When I did Thom's post I focused on the lyrics of their songs, so I displayed the lyrics and enabled you to listen to the song too. I think showing you how Jonny plays is the appropriate way to go here.

I am going to start with probably my favorite song to hear him play.

Too bad he isn't featured more. Ah well, Thom is great in this video that was very well directed by the way. I love at the end when the whole band goes to the window to see what is going on below. The whole band except Jonny as he is most certainly still back there playing away.


You can watch this one if only just for his shirt.

Whoever owns the rights to their videos, the record company they left unamicably a few years ago perhaps- has disabled all embeding on their videos, some miracle gave me Just (I don't know how I found that), anyway you'll have to go here to see Creep.
It is long rumored that Jonny hates this song and tried to ruin it with some guitar antics. I have no idea if this is true, but if it is he failed miserably as I find his guitar work makes this song. One of my favorite images of Jonny will always be him beating his guitar while playing this song. Have a laugh at Thom's hair in this one. I think Kurt Cobain had a similar hairstyle around the same time. An interesting (yet cute) style that happened in the nineties. Jonny's is notable too. Speaking of his hair, it would break my heart if he ever cut his. But I think we're safe. I don't know if he could play without his hair in his face.

Here is a little live action of Jonny using some of his computer sound skills. You may not be able to tell what he is doing, but at the end during his solo thing he is using a complicated computer program he controls with his guitar and a series of pedals. Interesting stuff.
On a sidenote, this song is from Hail to the Thief which was written soon after Thom's first son was born. The whole album shows the impact this event had in his life. This song is a lullaby for him. Rockin lullaby. Good stuff. I suppose it's the stuff Scout falls asleep to also.
While I am at it, here is a little tidbit about the personal side of Jonny. He has been married for most of the band's life and I think is the only one that is married although, the rest have been in long term relationships with kids and stuff. He has three kids: Tamir, Omri and Zohar (sweet names, I can only guess his Israli wife has a heavy hand in the names). I want a kid named Zohar. He drinks rarely, which is also from what I hear, quite different from the rest of his bandmates. He also owns chickens. He hates cds, he favors records and uses those when ever possible.
A picture posted on their website by Jonny's brother (his older brother Colin is the bass player for Radiohead). This was taken during the current tour and was entitled "No one will play Scrabble with Jonny".

There is something about it that I love.

Scout's Art Gallery

Scout loves to draw, and I have collected some of my favorite pictures she's drawn over the last 6 months and thought I would post them.

A snake


This is a picture of me, Rob and Scout (with a baby in her tummy), 2 peaches and a dancing monkey

This is a portrait of me

and another one-
these were done about 6 months apart and my favorite part about them is that she included my little green ipod shuffle on my hip- both times.


This is a parrot, and includes his lunch of 3 avocados and 3 apples (if it seems a little trippy and psychedelic, note that it was done during a Motrin induced lull that Sunday when she had the high fever)


This is a picture of her (the red blob at the bottom) and a sleeping moon


This is B

This is a lizard family


This is a snake family
She named them all and wrote their names next to them. The only problem is "Scout" is the only name she knows how to write...

A jellyfish, a ghost and a giraffe next to a tree

Grandpa
(Grandpa must appear very tall indeed to a child -I love his arms!)

This one kills me and I thought I would let you all guess on what it might be a picture of....

Confetti

Rob received a check in the mail, a payment on a job he is doing painting someone's basement. The check was accompanied by this:We both had a good laugh when he opened it. But I can't let it go- my curiosity over the ordeal is twofold:

1. Who sends confetti with payment on a check to your painter?
2. What company makes this particular confetti and for what purpose? Someone graduating from handyman school? Happy birthday cheer for the plumber in your life? Congrats on that new set of power tools?

I am totally befuddled (and amused).

An advantage in raising a slim-hipped child

Pants that served the purpose they were made for (clam diggers for a child 12-18 months) - make cute board shorts for a child creeping up on 4.