I'm here, no worries

Wow, I haven't blogged in nearly three months. Yikes. There are some recent pictures on the Nani Blog.

We went to New York City last weekend. It was quite fun, but I think it's a trip that must be made without a toddler. I don't get the whole New York thing; it's just another big city. Though I did very much enjoy the 9/11 Memorial, which was far more emotional than I anticipated.

Also, we went to Mood fabrics, from Project Runway.

"Thank you Mood"

The Memorial and Mood were the only NYC items on my list. Check and check.

We even saw the Statue of Liberty.

Gold

When taking pictures of our favorite subjects, there are exceptional shots we always hope to achieve. The Shot. The one you immediately want to print and hang on your wall. The really tough to get shots (well, for me--many of you bloggers are amazing photographers; I don't know how you choose which of your many amazing photos to display).

I got The Shot of Nadine last week while we were in Richmond. As soon as I took it, I got ridiculously excited and couldn't wait to get home to see it on the computer and edit it and send it to be printed. It's that good. Wanna see it? (Yes, this is purely a brag post.)

Practically perfect in every way

I posted a video on the Nani blog. Nadine is singing the "Months of the Year" song that I learned . . . in elementary school? (Probably right after we learned "Home Means Nevada.") Do you other BC people remember learning the "Months of the Year" song, or am I totally mis-remembering where I learned it? Maybe it was in church . . ..

(Random church insert: We sang a song about the primary colors [which are one, two, three--red, yellow, and blue] and, because the part of church devoted to children is called Primary, I thought those were the colors of Primary. Kinda like school colors. I was embarrassingly old, probably nearly high school [or even in high school!] when I put together that the church's Primary doesn't have official colors, but that we were actually singing about those primary colors that form the foundation of all other colors. Heh.)

Regardless, I taught it (the months song) to Nadine, who learned the words in a ridiculously short amount of time. And I had to get it on video, because it's so cute.

It seems like a rather blustery day

Last Friday night, we were chatting with the newly-arrived Whitney, when suddenly the Creepy Wind started up. The kind that whips around the house (which is impressive to do in a townhouse) in ghostly noises, and shakes the trees from side to side. Then the lights started to flicker. Then the lights went out. For 27 hours. I am very grateful we got our power back as quickly as we did, and that it was a limited outage, which meant many restaurants 15 minutes away were open.

The storm was incredible to watch. Not only did we have winds of more than 60 mph and pelting rain, but we had near-constant lightning for at least 40 minutes.

The next day, we found this as we drove down one of the back roads.

It's a tree branch. Lying on the power lines. Suspended above a road. So cool!
(The desert rat in me is still amazed the east coast tree branches are as big as southern Nevada's trees.)

We slept in the basement the second night. The temperatures were up to a muggy 100 degrees, which made for very hot nights. Nadine enjoyed wearing my headlamp, so of course I got pictures, which are on the Nani blog. Nadine was a very good trouper through the entire outage, even though she didn't want to sleep in the basement (mmmm, I'm grateful for basements).

Freeeeeeedommmmmmmm!

Todd and I just spent two wonderful, fun-filled weeks away from Nadine. His parents are fantastic and they flew out to watch Nadine for us. It was really great to be a couple again and, at least for me, to selfishly enjoy a vacation (seriously, when we got to the airport I wanted to cry out, a la William Wallace, but without the torture).

We joined my parents and sisters in South America and crossed two things off Todd's bucket list: we visited Machu Picchu and Iguazu Falls. We also got to spend a couple days in Buenos Aires, where Todd served his mission, which was fun too. (We didn't actually see the areas where he served; he said they're far too dangerous. Missionaries are incredible.)

Souvenir shopping in Peru was fun and colorful.

These cute girls posed for a picture . . . then asked us to pay them for it. "Un sol" became our vacation joke.

My sister ordered, and my dad and Todd ate some of, guinea pig ("cuy"). They had it on most menus in Peru. This is the head. See the teeth? And the ears? It nearly goes without saying, but I did not eat the guinea pig. I could barely look at it.

The Incas were incredible at fitting the stones together. The stone behind us is one massive stone. I'm amazed they moved all the stones (this is in Cusco, which was the capitol of South America during the Incan reign).

Machu Picchu!

We hiked to the Inca Gate. It was a bit of a hike, but very fun and had a great view. This is Kelsey, me, my dad, and my mom.

And us again. Todd was nice to make sure I wasn't always behind the camera.

We had just hiked straight up the peaked mountain behind Machu Picchu, Huayna Picchu, which involved lots and lots of stairs for about 45 minutes. It was grueling (especially at 8000 feet), but so worth it. Luckily you can't tell how sweaty we were.

There were several llamas around nearly all the time, but we were rarely close to them. For some random reason I really wanted a picture of a llama.

Say it with me: "Llama face!"

This is the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires. It's where their president lives. The balcony up top is what the president uses to address the people; Evita famously waved from it.

Iguazu Falls.

The falls were actually dry, but still stunning. And the dryness allowed us to see the plants and rocks around the falls.

We went to the Argentina and Brazil side of the falls. You get completely different views from each. This is the Brazil side.

Argentina side.

And of course we got pictures of bugs. This ant was bigger than a penny.

The Caminito in Buenos Aires. It's basically an area with wonderfully bright colors, tango dancers, shops, and weird statues.

And there you have it, a sampling of the 670 pictures I took during our trip.

Annie Get Your Gun (or, A 'Slate'-worthy Rant)

At a recent book club, the topic of conversation turned to giving birth (why, in groups of mothers, does the conversation nearly always devolve into birth stories? I enjoy telling mine, but my goodness! I also enjoy a break from talking about children.).

I started thinking about birth stories, different ways of giving birth, the fact women judge each other about their birthing choices, and women judging each other in general. Why do we do this to each other? Why do some women enjoy patting themselves on the back, engaging in one-upmanship, and smugly humming the song, “Anything you can do I can do better”? I wish women would be supportive of each other and celebrate any success in the very difficult job that is motherhood.

For me, the most frustrating “debate” is epidural vs no epidural.

I had an epidural. I loved it. I will have one again. Me having an epidural doesn’t make me any less of a mother. I still carried a baby for nine months and then propelled her from my body. I don’t expect judgment or praise for doing what I did; it is what it is. I made an educated and informed decision, and other women make their own (hopefully) educated and informed decisions to have a baby at home, in a hospital without having an epidural, and via cesarean section (collectively, my favorite people have used all of these methods).

Drugs, no drugs (I can’t stand the term “natural;” the very act of removing a baby from your body is natural, as is taking drugs to alleviate pain), C-section—all are valid ways to have a baby. No method is superior to the others, and no woman should feel less of a mother because of the method she chose or what was deemed medically necessary for her. Carrying and giving birth to a baby is tough and painful, and for that alone we should support each other (and when I say "don’t judge," I also mean do not militantly recruit others to your way of doing things; scare tactics are nasty).

Some women have babies in a hospital, some women don’t have epidurals, and some women are unable to naturally have babies—all methods are valid and deserve no judgment. We’re all in the same boat, ladies! We’re trying to raise children to become responsible, productive, interesting, non-annoying adults. Why can’t we all just get along?

I truly don’t understand this phenomenon. Do some women feel diminished if another woman has a different birth experience than hers? This doesn’t happen in any other area of medicine. When someone has her appendix removed, the following exchange never happens: 

Oh, you had surgery? Did you go natural?

WHAT?! How selfish of you to use anesthesia. Your experience was so diminished.

Don’t you know hospitals are dangerous?

When my appendix was removed, I didn’t have any drugs. It was removed at home. By my neighbor.

I’m going to give you some web sites full of anecdotal evidence about why your choice is wrong.

I’m also going to show you a video full of anecdotal propaganda about why your choice is wrong.

Next time you have an organ removed, you really should do it my way.

Seriously. Isn’t that an odd exchange? Yet a variation of the above conversation happens every time women discuss giving birth. Some women smugly insist their way is superior than another way, and this is incorrect and unfair. There are many ways to do a good thing.

Why do we judge the choices other moms make? Except in the cases of child abuse and smoking around children (and other practices that have actual scientific, verifiable evidence of their negative effects), we shouldn't question what other parents do. Most women are doing the best they can do, and we should support that. There are many different, effective, positive ways to give birth to and raise children. My way of doing it is no less valid than yours, even if it is different.

Stop judging. Stop it.

Nani blog updated

I added what is honestly one of my favorite Nani videos ever. Ever. And lots of Easter pictures.

Nani blog updated

With TWO videos, and some pictures.

Nani blog updated

I've updated Nadine's blog with pictures of her first paid hair cut.

Also, a quick story just about Jen.

One of the things I really like about living in Maryland is that we quite frequently have geese fly over our house, honking at each other. Those of you who did not grow up in the beautiful wasteland that is the desert will not understand this, but it's still strange to me to live among wildlife, especially large birds. So I thoroughly enjoy hearing and seeing the geese.

A few weeks ago, huge flocks of geese flew over our house every day, and I loved the loud cacophony of their honking. I finally got a picture of them flying over us. Seriously, there were at least 40 geese flying together. So cool.

Nani blog updated

Click here.

We can't stop patting ourselves on the back (which I know is prideful, but . . . whatever)

When I bought my house 8ish years ago, I bought a set of living room furniture at a garage sale. The upholstery is hideously ugly and dated, and itchy, but the cushions are actually really soft and it has fantastic wood detailing.

About six (maybe even seven) years ago I bought fabric to re-cover the loveseat. But I knew this was a lofty project that I hesitated to begin, so the fabric has either been in a drawer or haphazardly draped on the loveseat.

So, on December 30 (a month and a half ago; this was a LONG time coming) I finally decided to see how much effort it would really take to re-cover the dang thing. I had to use a screwdriver to pop out the wood covers on top of the screws that hold the wood panels into place. 60+ years of glue made that sometimes difficult, and I scratched the crap out of some of the holes. But we removed the panels. That was a huge first step (and, now that it was scratched and somewhat disassembled, we were forced into action).

Next I cut the back of the couch to reveal its inner workings. We saw that the main cushion is really only held in place by staples and elbow grease (well, and the springs; but we decided to just put the new fabric directly over the old, which saved lots of time and headache), so we got excited as we realized this was actually something we could do. The fabric was barely not wide enough to be pulled and stapled, so I used my sewing machine to sew two panels to either side of the fabric.

Luckily Todd has a staple gun; this project would've been near impossible without it. And it was really fun to use.

Then we got to work on the sides. In order to do as good of a job as the original, we'd need to take apart the arms (this is a really well made couch). I wasn't willing to risk us being unable to reassemble the couch, so we rigged it using techniques we saw as we disassembled the couch. 

Todd is very handy and an excellent problem solver, so he figured out ways to seamlessly integrate one piece of fabric into another. You can barely tell that the arms have two different pieces of fabric. And that some of it is tacked with cardboard and staples.

The wood panels on the arms made it much easier to drape the fabric on the arms (we totally learned draping on Project Runway), because the seams were covered by the wood panel.

I hand-sewed several parts, like the piece of fabric across the front, but it was actually enjoyable because I got to use an upholstery needle. That's an addicting implement (yes, I know how nerdy that sounds).

I hand-sewed the seat cushions, because I didn't want the stress of figuring out how to do it on the machine. They're not perfect, but they look pretty good, and as of last night they're done!

The finished product is AMAZING. I know we shouldn't toot our own horns, but seriously, I'm so happy with it. Now I want to bring it back into the living room (too bad we don't have space for it). I love that the wood detail stands out so well in it now--it got lost in all that horrible yellow and brown before. Though we now have the problem of owning a white piece of furniture (yikes; obviously I bought the fabric years before having children was even an issue), but that's ok--if it gets nasty, we'll just cover it again.

Here's a before and after (I wish I would've taken a better "before").

Updates

The Nadine blog is updated. There are a few Christmas pictures.

Speaking of Christmas, here's a quick gush: in order to make full use of my fun new camera, I've wanted a good photo editing software. We've been watching Amazon, and it had a great deal on the one we wanted, so Todd bought it for me for Christmas. I've only skimmed the surface of what the software can do, but I'm very much enjoying it so far. I use it to edit the RAW photos, and what a difference it makes.

As an example, here's the original picture we took.

Here's a very quick Lightroom cleanup. So cool huh!

(These pictures are at the Washington DC Temple Festival of Lights.)