Planet Lu

Who's the Boss?

2009-07-02T19:24:00.002-05:00

Lucy: Can I have some juice?
Jason: Have you finished your water?
Lucy: Ask Mom! Mom is the REAL boss. Mama, can I have some juice?
Jason (walking out of room): I'm done...
Kate: Wait, come back, you're the real boss!!!

Oh Yeah, I'm Pregnant

2009-07-01T11:14:00.004-05:00

Pregnancy starts out as a pretty abstract construct. You spend several months worrying about it, concealing it, searching for reassurance of it. Soon enough, you have some nice, round proof, sweet reminders every once in while, but it's just an idea.

And suddenly, it's for real. For real, for real. That reality struck me when Lucy and I measured one of her babies — an infant-sized, healthy-looking thing — and determined that Lemon is a little bigger than that baby. Every so often, I hold that doll up to my abdomen to get a sense of where Lemon is and what's going on in there. Totally weird.

Little Orphan Lucy

2009-06-23T17:22:00.002-05:00

Lucy must be having some anxiety about the upcoming Major Life Change. She keeps asking me if the movie "Annie" is real, and are there really kids who don't have parents. And she's been very affectionate toward the dogs, saying things like, "I will always love Clifford. I never want a new dog."

Also, she has been playing with a stuffed cat she's named Kitty Kitty. If you ask where Kitty Kitty came from, Lucy will tell you this sad story about how Kitty Kitty's mother and family were out walking, and they found a new baby cat they loved more than Kitty Kitty, and they picked up the new kitten and left Kitty Kitty on the street.

Poor kid. All this change is a lot to process.

Dad!

2009-06-21T08:39:00.002-05:00

What would we do without this fabulous man? Happy Father's Day, Jason (Dad)!

Strange Customs Involving Teeth

2009-06-18T11:16:00.002-05:00

Much to her delight, Lucy lost ANOTHER tooth right next to the other one she lost, which means she now has "a place to rest my thumb when I am sucking it."

Last night on my way home from work, I had to help the Tooth Fairy out and get some special money to leave under Lu's pillow. I went to the 7-11 and asked for either some silver dollars or some $2 bills. The clerk, whom I would guess was a recent immigrant from the Indian sub-continent, wanted to know why I wanted "special money." I found myself explaining the American tradition of the tooth fairy to this guy: an interesting cultural exchange that ended with him saying "Very nice."

When I got home, I read on Wikipedia that in India and some other Asian countries, "when a child loses a tooth the usual custom is that he or she should throw it onto the roof if it came from the lower jaw, or into the space beneath the floor if it came from the upper jaw. While doing this, the child shouts a request for the tooth to be replaced with the tooth of a mouse."

Maybe we will do that for the next tooth.

Little Miss Silver Lining

2009-06-15T21:48:00.002-05:00

My day was bad. Not catastrophic, just the kind of stressful, exhausting day that puts a little cloud over your head. I worked late and got home just in time to give Lu a bath, during which we discussed our Two Best Things. I confessed I'd had such a bad day that I couldn't think of Two Best Things, only like, Seven Worst Things. I said my day was like Alexander's, and she seemed to understand.

As I was putting her to bed, I said, "You know, now I have a Best Thing, and that's getting to see you." She thought for a minute and said, "No, Mom, you have three Best Things — no four! Getting to see me, getting to see Dad, reading me one book, and then reading me another book. See, that's four!"

That's positivity. I should also add that, for all her Mary Sunshine attitude, she confessed that one of her Worst Things was "when I, um, told Melinda something not very nice, and that is...that I wished she was dead."

Uh, yeah. That's a Worst Thing.

Lucy Meets Lemon

2009-06-10T20:44:00.003-05:00

We took Lucy to my 28-week doctor's appointment, where she got to hold the heart monitor and see baby on the ultrasound screen. As we exclaimed, "Look, Lucy, what do you think?! It's the baby!!!" she was nonplussed. She said, "It looks like a sea turtle."

Which it kind of does: a brilliant, charming, gorgeous sea turtle who's destined to test well.

So in case you can't make out the little genius, this is a closeup of the face, turned to the side, hand under the chin.

Tiny Dancer

2009-06-08T13:28:00.003-05:00

Lu's dance recital was Sunday and it was pretty damn cute. She wasn't the best dancer from a technical standpoint, but she certainly had the most stage presence, as evidenced by the photo above. See the whole gallery here.

Internal Perspective Check

2009-06-04T11:59:00.002-05:00

Lately, just when I am inclined to get bent out of shape about some minor (or major) irritation, it's like there's someone poking me, reassuring me, "Hey man, don't freak out, we're cool." The poke is coming from MY UTERUS. Where there is a person living.

The sensation never stops being a weird, delightful reminder that it's what's on the inside that counts.

These Are Not My Pajamas

2009-06-01T10:23:00.002-05:00

On several occasions in the past couple of weeks, Lucy has expressed concern that I am wearing my pajamas out in the world. You know, because many of the maternity clothes I wear on the weekends or evenings are knit, stretchy and pajama-like. And also, I have been so tired I have taken to falling asleep in my clothes. Oh, and there may have been a couple of trips to the grocery store in actual pajamas.

Lost Tooth, Lost Youth

2009-05-26T09:22:00.008-05:00

Lucy lost her first tooth last week. She is elated; she has shown every person she has encountered since. This morning, she told me she dreamed that she had lost all her teeth and had her grown-up teeth. The thought of this made me so sad.

In no time, she will have that awkward kid mouth, full of holes and too-big teeth, a gappy pitstop on the way to a full-fledged grown-up face. Where is the time going (someone cue "Sunrise, Sunset" in the background, please)? While I am focused on this new, milestone gap in her mouth, I need to remind myself about where the time goes – it slips through all the other gaps between milestones.

I regularly read this blog called The Happiness Project. The writer of the blog created a really sweet, corny short movie that sums up how I feel.

Beach!

2009-05-25T09:34:00.003-05:00

We had a great time as always. Here's proof:

Hello!

2009-05-19T11:28:00.002-05:00

I promise to write an actual blog entry soon, but in the meantime, here are some fast facts:
• Lucy has a very, very loose tooth and she would love to show it to you. Ew.
• We went to the beach this weekend and Lucy hates the sand, the seaweed and the salt. But she LOVES eating Doritos, swimming in the nearby pool and bossing people around, all of which can be done more cheaply at home, but oh well, we had fun.
• Lemon is 26 weeks cooked and as big as a rutabaga.
• Lucy's new favorite thing to eat is chicken drumsticks.

Is it Wrong...

2009-05-11T10:41:00.001-05:00

...that one of my primary feasibility tests for a baby name is shouting it across the house?

Mark This Moment in My Pregnancy

2009-05-07T23:28:00.004-05:00

This is the cutest I am going to be for a long, long time. The moment between "Is she chubby or is she pregnant?" and "Oh my god, she looks like she might burst, somebody get her a chair."

I am wearing a darling, borrowed maternity dress (thanks, Jennie) with a shirred band of elastic around the middle that announces I am pregnant. I realize this because all day long, people have been saying, "Hey, look at you, you're pregnant!" I am in the Cute Phase. If I'm remembering correctly, the Cute Phase lasted about three weeks last time around, and I suspect the increasing heat will cost me at least one of those this time. So I really hope I see you soon.

That Dreadful Screaming

2009-05-05T08:56:00.002-05:00

Last night, Nini and Carter came over for dinner. After dinner, Carter was a little fussy trying to go to sleep and Lucy said, "Can Carter and Nini go home now? That screaming is hurting my ears. He's too screamy. It's DREADFUL."

Before I could chide her for being rude, I had to laugh. That, dreadful? "Dreadful," as in filled with dread, the emotion that overtakes you every evening at 7 in anticipation of the two straight hours of screaming between 10 and midnight. Dreadful is seeing that first flash on the baby monitor: the beast is stirring. Dreadful is 2 a.m., feeling like no one else in the world is awake except you and the beast.

I know dreadful, kiddo, and it was YOU.

Disneyland

2009-05-04T08:35:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago, Baga and Opa took Lucy to Disneyland. It was magical, as promised. She had dinner with a princess, tried her hand at animation, got autographs from the full pantheon of Disney characters, rode scary rides, saw fireworks and stayed up late. You can see from the dark circles under her eyes in the photo above: all that magic can wear a kid out.

Meanwhile, Jason and I went to Disneyland of food, otherwise known as San Francisco/Marin County, to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary. I will post photos and descriptions soon, but I will say we had a couple of near-religious experiences with fresh peas.

Unlisted

2009-04-24T20:55:00.000-05:00

As we were saying the “Bad Dreams” prayer tonight…

Lucy: “Maybe we should write God a letter about the bad dreams.”
K: “Okay, we can do that.”
L: “Do you have his address?”
K: “No, but that’s okay.”
L: “We need his address otherwise the mailman won’t know where to take the letter.”
K: “Well, God doesn’t exactly have an address. He’s kind of all around us, all the time.”
L: “Maybe we could just call him.”
K: “I don’t think he has a phone number, but if you talk to him he can hear you.”
L: “Opa has Santa’s phone number. I bet we could just ask him.”

Um, No

2009-04-22T18:09:00.004-05:00

I am clearly outside the target market for American Apparel, but is this a good idea even for a younger, hipper and lither model mom-to-be? I have a certain "go on with your bad self" sense of pride that American Apparel would market to me, that this woman would even put such a get-up on her sexy, fecund self. And yet...I will be the one in the muumuu, thank you very much.

Did You Know...

2009-04-21T17:28:00.000-05:00

...sandwiches are not for dinner?

It's a...

2009-04-15T21:02:00.003-05:00

SURPRISE. During our 20-week ultrasound, we resisted the urge to find out the sex (sorry Pie, call Dr. P. if you really must know), but did find out everything is AOK. The kind sonographer even told us the baby's arm position was "very advanced" and its brain was "really smart-looking." Well, duh. Pictures below. Good luck making any sense of them (Jason tried valiantly to find out the sex), but we are told everything is beautiful.

A footprint on the left, then another shot of a foot profile on the right.

Profile. Schnoz looks okay so far.

Five toes.

Sideways front view of face, with little hands in front, boxing.

Birds & Bees Lesson #3: Mom's Changing Shape

2009-04-13T19:50:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, Lucy was rubbing my belly, which has gotten pretty round and pregnant. Upon encountering the indentation of my belly button — she couldn't quite make it out over my shirt, and it's getting kind of weird and flat anyway — she asked, "Is that your vagina?"

"Uh, no. That's my belly button, see?"

"Then where's your vagina?"

"Same place it always was."

2:30 A.M.

2009-04-06T07:55:00.003-05:00

She woke this morning at 2:30, calling for us.

"Mom, I'm afraid I won't wake up on time and we will be late. So I am going to stay awake in my bed until morning, but I will be very quiet."

She left for Disneyland with Baga and Opa just now. I have never seen her so excited.

Blackmail

2009-04-04T15:13:00.003-05:00

Dearest Lucy. This is official notice of me holding your teenage years hostage. Have a nice day.

Freedom!

2009-04-03T09:05:00.002-05:00

My dears,

I'd like apologize to you for my ill temper these last several weeks. If I've been snippy, or thoughtless or irrational or hysterical, I'm sorry. Please let me explain.

You see, it's my pants. For at least a month, I have been squeezing myself into my "regular" pants. And apparently they have been cutting off the circulation to the happiness region of my brain.

I am realizing this now because I have on MATERNITY PANTS. Stretchy, cradling maternity blacks in a forgiving shade of black. I am reborn. The birds are singing more sweetly. The colors of spring are more vivid. Everyone is kinder and more attractive. I love you. And you and you and you.

But mostly I love these pants. Sorry I have been so awful lately. I am better now.

Sincerely,
Kate

P.S. I truly believe we could have a shot at peace in the Middle East if every person came to the negotiating table wearing these pants.