didionville

last week, d-man, eavan, and i went to our little mall to look high-and-low for a pair of waterproof and insulated mittens for didion. on top of the parental needs for warmth and durability, d-man wanted his mittens to be orange (!!!) …

there wasn’t a pair to be found anywhere in that pathetic place. forget the orange requirement; there were zero toddler mittens. ZERO.

now i know i was looking for an item in early november that parents with school-age children had long since purchased. i get it. i know. i was late, but if i recall correctly, when other parents were stocking up on winter gear for their progeny, i was pushing out one of my own.

but if i didn’t already know i was going to come up empty handed, thank the glorious heavens above i had some broad at gap kids set me straight …

after circling the racks at gap kids for a good 10 minutes, while two employees complained about their manager, i was finally asked by the older woman from about 20 feet away …

woman (in mildly irritated voice, as if *i* was the manager she was just bitching about): can i help you find something?

me (pointing to rack at front of store): um, yes, is that rack it as far as boys coats and winterwear?

the woman then gives me the most inordinately exaggerated snorting scoff. i’m thinking, “bitch, i didn’t ask you if kool-aid might cure cancer or if lollipops and afternoon naps might bring about peace in the mideast.” but not only do i get the scoff, i get the lecture …

woman (post snort): they. are. gawwwwwnnnnn. YOU needed to be here two months ago.

now i understand empathy and compassion run thin in the rarefied air surrounding the throne this woman apparently sits on … as middle-aged ruler of the other part-time, minimum wage worker at the gap kids in the poughkeepsie galleria on a thursday afternoon … but what about the dark circles under my eyes; the leaking nursing tank; the spit-up stain on my shoulder; my stringy, unwashed hair; and the — um — six-week-old baby in the stroller my three-year-old was hanging on indicated to the woman that i was, perhaps, sitting around with my thumb up my ass “two months ago”?

it crossed my mind to tell her that “two months ago” the soles of my feet were facing the ceiling of a delivery room, where i was turning my lower abdomen inside out to pump out a kid, and, gosh, that really screwed up my mitten-shopping plans.

but instead i said that i was from california and simply don’t understand winter, especially since in california, there are no coats.

her reply to me?

“honey, you are in new york now. you need to get used to it.”

how depressingly true on so many levels, and — this being my fifth winter and year here, i apparently, am still fighting getting “used to it.”

cosmic balance, though, was in the offing as the young woman at jc penney was very kind. alas, winter mittens for the d-man were not to be had.

i would have to go online, and after my fruitless search through the mall and heartwarming interaction at gap kids, i redoubled my efforts to find mittens that were not only warm, waterproof, insulated, and durable but also … O-R-A-N-G-E, dammit!

voila:

landsend to the rescue

the mittens came in yesterday’s mail, and they rock. hard. super deluxe and soft and warm … i am going to get a pair for myself.

and thus, we return to the title of this post … to the biATCH at the poughkeepsie galleria gap kids (a store you will now never find me), i say …

SUCK IT!

i hauled d-man and eavan to the pediatrician this morning for d-man’s three-year checkup. he — as usual — is a total stud.

after the appointment, we picked steven up for lunch, but there were timing issues … eavan needed to eat not long after we got to the restaurant, so i stood and swayed in the disabled stall of the ladies room, holding her, as the two of us christened yet another non-home location with some good ol’ breastfeeding. (up to that point, we had pretty much stayed in the parking lot milieu … i think we have breastfed in the front seat of the prius in four or five different lots, but i digress.) while we were doing our thing in the big stall, a woman came in with a young child who needed to go “poopie.” the kid did his biz, and the woman cleaned him up in the stall next to us … then the two of them LEFT THE RESTROOM WITHOUT WASHING THEIR HANDS!!!

yuck!

the skin on didion’s hands is dry and mine is drier from the amount of hand washing that goes on around here. shame on that woman. this is why i touch next-to-nothing in public restrooms with my hands … and i cringe thinking about all the stuff non-handwashing people are touching around me.

gross!

***

bonus adventure: turns out eavan enjoys herself a heaping bowl of old-fashioned colic every few days or so. tonight, she outdid herself … steven and i almost maxed out our resourcefulness when it came to tricks to soothe the child. it doesn’t help that she flat out R-E-F-U-S-E-S to take a pacifier. at one point tonight, steven was holding her in some strange contortionist position, bouncing and swaying around our bedroom, while i turned on the vacuum … and since i had the vacuum on, i really had no excuse not to use it for its non-baby purpose … but one clean bedroom floor later, eavan was still on fire … crying, screaming, squirming …

enter the superhero team of google and amazon … as i write this, we are halfway through the inaugural listening party of natural womb sounds. this may well be the best $0.89 we have or will ever spend. it took about 15 minutes before eavan gave up the colic kick. she is sleeping now … not 100% soundly, but we’ll take what we can get …

lordy, did a certain three-year-old make a haul for his birthday! (by the way, the awesome monster pj’s came special delivery from cousin annika. they are quite the favored garments!)

d-man came downstairs to find a big ol' stack of goodies

the view from above, with all key players in place

yes, that is the cat in the foreground, getting in on the action

naomi and her family got didion an awesome walking stick, with a carved bear head at the top. it was so thoughtful. didion LOVES walking sticks.

auntie loretta sent didion — among other nifty things — a really cool activity set about ancient egypt. the kit has everything: activity books, hieroglyphics to color (which didion and mommy did about an hour after opening the box), and cool masks …

g-ma linda and g-pa chuck introduced didion to the wonderful world of (washable, thank god) markers … yes, he is wearing blue marker above his lip.

they also got him — drumroll, please — a thomas scooter!

the kid is, seriously, holding up his hand, yelling that he doesn't want his picture taken. hrmph!

the day before didion’s birthday, we had friends over to celebrate … wonderful families from our street. we are really lucky to have so many cool people living around us, and the vibe at the party was very chill (among the adults) and crazy, frenetic among the kids … there were kids running amok for six hours straight! (yes, my kid’s birthday parties last that long … because i look at it as an opportunity to get moms and dads together to chill over food and booze.) while we were — as usual — lax about photographing the event, steven was insightful enough to know documenting cake-related action was molto importante.

and while i might’ve bypassed pastry garden during the great cupcake adventure of 2010, i most assuredly relied on them for one heck of a birthday cake … hazelnut cake with chocolate ganache and vanilla cream fillings and buttercream frosting. woot!

g-ma linda and g-pa chuck visited the last week of october, in time for d-man’s birthday and the magical few days when the trees are in full color for autumn. we hit up the walkway bridge again, during their visit. notice the crazy bloom of color from only a couple of weeks prior.

all of the above photos are views of ulster county (other side of the hudson). steven took some neat pics of the structure of the bridge, too.

didion digs the bridge.

this year was d-man’s first full-blown halloween: costume, trick-or-treating, incessant begging for candy afterward … the whole shebang.

and it was a glowing success. he LOVED it.

costume selection was fairly easy. for the first three weeks of october, he wanted to be a pink pig. at the beginning of last week, i asked him for the zillionth time if he was sure about the pig — since we needed to go buy the supplies, and there was no going back post-purchase — he abruptly switched gears (though, keeping in the rural-animal realm) and decided he wanted to be a bunny rabbit.

i actually was relieved … an easier costume to create.

voila:

the ears were a semi-bust … largely because i made the mistake of thinking the fabric glue i was buying would actually glue fabric. silly me. but the other important components were trouble free.

he was insistent that we document his mittened bunny hands

the tail is quilt batting, gathered and held with a pony-tail hairband, then loosely baste-stitched to the sweat pants

at the last minute, i was able to avoid disaster, remembering the kid needed a bunny’s face!

steven took d-man trick-or-treating with our neighbors and reports that d-man had a great time. he loved running from house to house. he was very polite … always remembering to say “thank you,” and when people offered him more than one piece of candy, he always demurred … taking only one. (i am sure the people were begging him to take more. there wasn’t much traffic this year. i was handing candy out by the handful to kids, just to get rid of it.)

now we have a whole year to plan next year’s costume …

the mid-hudson bridge, as seen from the walkway

the walkway bridge is a really awesome addition to our little city. earlier this month, we made a family trek to the bridge. i was in a relatively good mood — not beat down with exhaustion — AND showered, so i wanted the family unit to go on a wee adventure. granted, by the time we made it out the door, the bridge was set to close in 45 minutes, but we caught the beginning of a nifty sunset and dinner at the “train station restaurant.”

quite pretty

lots o' crew practice

the leaves are starting to turn ... two more weeks to max color

crescent moons at dusk are really cool!

i must’ve been riding high on something because not even the protests of a three-year-old (“i don’t waaaaaaant my picture taken with mommy!!!”) in the middle of the bridge, with people all around, dampened my mood.

getting revved up to cry

here come the tears

blast off!

that said, i really could’ve used a little mascara.

today’s lesson …

me to didion: “do not — repeat DO NOT — put ANY toy in ANY hole in your body. period. NO TOY in ANY HOLE. not in your ears, your nose, your mouth, your penis, or your butt. NO TOYS ANYWHERE IN YOUR BODY.”

what prompted such a directive? when i noticed in my peripheral vision that the fake sneezing didion was doing (“AHHH-CHOO! AHHH-CHOO!”) was an attempt to blow the small action figure out of his nose, the action figure that was shoved into one nostril up to its shoulders.

eavan was born last tuesday. the saturday before, we headed out to hurd’s farm with our neighbors for a fun afternoon among the apples. we cruised the corn maze, ate cider donuts, and enjoyed some unseasonably warm but very comfortable weather.

of course, there was an ulterior motive: a lot of traipsing around for me in the hopes of kick-starting some baby delivering. while it is likely no more than coincidence, i still like to think my bod appreciated the exercise and returned the favor with a quick and few-days-early delivery.

here’s d-man in his car on the cow train:

there was also a giant slide:

but the thing i liked most was the apple slingshot. not only did i aim mine to fly perfectly between the two haystack targets, i got CRAZEEEEE distance. though, i believe the look on the kid’s face behind me pretty much summarizes the effect of an enormously pregnant woman wielding crude weaponry on a saturday afternoon.