Perfect Moments

Right now the hubby has the munchkin and they're sitting in his chair watching Sesame Street. There's a turkey cooking in the oven (lovingly put there by the hubby), there's potatoes on the stove working on boiling. I've had a busy but fulfilling day at work. It's rare that a series of events comes together in just such a manner. I relish these times.

Today was hectic. Day 3 of maternity leave. Meetings, phone calls, emails, all of which my boss does all the time, but it's new to me. I left my desk at 4:00. I didn't get a lunch and so I was leaving early. I didn't leave the building until 4:20. Caught up with someone I needed to catch. Now, go figure, I added three things to my "To Do" list and a meeting to my schedule on Friday. All in 20 minutes.

Other than that, it was pretty much the same as usual. I love what I do.

For any loyal readers out there, I apologize for the lapse in posts. Turns out my hubby's been playing with 7 chicks on the side. No, not really. He's gotten hooked on this game called Chicktionary. I'm all for it. He enjoys it and it keeps his mind active. However, it does make it a bit more difficult for me to get to the computer. So if you're on the look out for my posts, get in touch with the man and tell him to leave his "chicks" alone! :)

Moon Fish

Big fan of Iron Chef America. Big fan. But tonight there was one on featuring the secret ingredient of Moon fish or Opah. I found I couldn't watch it. Take one look at this bugger and you'll figure out why! I just couldn't take those eyes looking back at me. And then, they used the fin for its "connective tissue and gelatine". It was just more than I could take. I'm hoping that they'll move to showing them cooking the fish, and not so much of the eyes and such. This is why I buy my meat in the store and don't want to know where it comes from!

Whispers

Munchkin likes to stand at the end of the ottoman by my chair. She stands there with her back to me, watching TV. And her relaxed posture almost beckons me to move and hug her. I am reminded of all the people who have told me that they grow up too quickly. And she is. So I move to hug her more and more often.

When I do, I slide my arm around her little belly. And in a world where everything seems so unstable, where what you love best could be gone in the blink of an eye, the roundness of that little belly is so reassuring. She's warm, and sweet, and wonderfully chubby. And when I whisper in her ear that I love her, she whispers back. To anyone listening it's just gibberish.

But to me, she's telling me that she loves me too.

She's Come Undone

I finished She's Come Undone well before book group. This month should be an interesting session as the book could be very controversial!

Now I'm reading The Time Traveler's Wife. Oh my gosh it is so good. Katie, you're in big trouble for suggesting this one. I'll probably have it finished before book group THIS month. And this is the book for next month. But it's just so interesting. I find myself having a hard time putting it down. The book talks about puzzle pieces coming in to fit. I think the whole book is like that. I keep waiting for the pieces to fall into place.

So exciting!

Our munchkin is officially walking. I would say that 6-8 steps is the max so far, but she's so excited about it. All this happened last night. We decided to give it another shot and all of a sudden she just took right off! All I can say is that it's about time! She's plenty old enough and has had the skills for a long time. She's just so darn proud of herself for doing it too.

All this leaves me to wonder what my child will be like as she grows. She's already so strong and independent. Just last night she was playing with the hubby and she sort of bent her fingers back and jammed them. She got this little, hurt look on her face, shook it off, and kept on going. I anticipate some rough teenage years. But, I guess what goes around, comes around. I didn't make life so easy on my parents during those years. As mom would say, "Payback's a b****."

Morning Rituals

The cutest thing happened yesterday morning. As usual, the munchkin was sitting with the hubby on the arm of his chair watching Sesame Street or some such show before we left for work/daycare. As always, I got myself ready to go and went to pick her up so we could leave. I asked if she wanted to go see Sherrie. She shook her head no. I said that she had to go. Hubby handed her to me and we leaned over to give him our kisses. As we were pulling away, she squealed in displeasure, threw herself forward towards hubby, and managed to pull herself out of my arms by grabbing his shirt. She would not sit still until she was once again situated on the arm of the chair with his arm around her. It was the cutest thing. We both loved it. It was just too bad that I actually had to take her away. Luckily, she was willing to go the second time around.

Stew

I was asked by the hubby to make stew this week. No biggie. Brown some meat, throw some veggies in the crock pot. Leave it to cook all day and you've got a fragrant, delicious meal. But the fun of stew was yet to come for us.

First of all, the munchkin LOVED it. Every time she would sign "more" I would feed her another bite. I felt good about giving her this kind of food. All the veggies, you can't go wrong. And every time I would give her a bite I said, "STEW!" Pretty soon, she was repeating "STEW". She looks so proud of herself when she does it too! It's the most adorable thing. I find her repeating more and more things.

For example, we were riding home from daycare yesterday, listening to Laurie Berkner. We were listening to the Buzz Buzz song. After all of the buzz buzzes, this sound came from the back seat. It was her trying to imitate the word buzz. Too cute. Now we really have to be careful what we say!