Sunday, April 26, 2009

Happy (Belated) Earth Day!

Yesterday, our little community held its Earth Day celebration, a tad belatedly. As Matthew, good man that he is, stayed home to tend to our bit of earth and mow the yard, Dory, Mama P and I went.



Dory started here but after a wee bit of fussing...



...moved to here.



The day was gorgeous, the sun blazing over head and immediately I realized we might have a small issue, i.e. sun + anyone in my gene pool= Trouble. As Dory is not a fan of hats...



... except for waving them around, this can be problematic.

But help was only a few booths away! Supermama Kristy (mother and proprietor of Zoonique Baby, a truly wonderful local cloth diaper store) came to our rescue. Wielding a bottle of baby sunscreen, she let us lather Dory up. Once Little One was safely covered in this natural lotion (and smelling quite lovely) I could turn my attention to the delectable cloth diaper display. (Sidenote: we cloth diaper, Matthew and I are huge fans, and one day I will write more about this and all its fantastic elements. For now, I'll show you that cloth diapering is not only...



... economical and environmentally green, but also incredibly fun, particularly when dealing with a store like Zoonique that has an absolute riot of prints, colors, patterns and styles.)





How beautiful is that display? You can't even take it all in can you? Besides many varities of cloth diapers that she makes herself (and that we love- we're a big fan of her fitteds), she makes bibs, wet bags, burp cloths, shoes... the woman is a zenith in the cloth diaper field. And she's here, in East Tennessee. How cool is that?!

There were many, many groups, many, many vendors and many, many people there, along with some pretty cool bands.







But once Dory started to look like this...



we headed home. She slept on the walk back to the car, slept through the transfer to the car seat, slept the five minute drive home... Wee One was wiped OUT. The adults, admittedly, were looking a bit sluggish too. Everyone was ready for a nap and already I had plans of climbing back into bed, cuddling up with Miss Girl and having a long, leisurely rest...

Except...



...what the...



is she...


wide awake?

I don't know how it happened, but after two hours in all that noisy, interesting chaos and a five minute sleep in the car, she woke up refreshed and ready to get going. There were no naps in Adultland that day.

Even with that said, it was a very good day here in the Mojo household.

Also, it's important to mention, besides taking care of the lawn, Matthew vacuumed the house, did laundry, put away diapers and was still ready to crack open a beer and turn on the NFL draft at four. That, in my opinion, is a Man's Man.  Thinking back on that, I would have to upgrade yesterday to a great Mojo day.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

A Day at the Park

I'm sure I was told it, but I really didn't realize how motherhood can prepare you for anything. I knew about the physical preaparation; I'd heard enough friends laugh about "everything but the kitchen sink" when they went out. I fell right in step with that and, if you happen to be out with me during the day, there isn't much you might want that I couldn't provide. Stacks of diapers, toys, change of clothes, more toys, bottles of water for Mom, small diaper bag, more toys, snacks for Mom, big diaper bag as back-up, and on and on- most of the time, I feel about as prepared as one woman can be.

However, I didn't realize how much being a parent would mentally prepare me for anything. One more wonderful revelation since Dory's birth: my priorities are straighter than ever. We have a healthy family, a particularly healthy daughter and everything after that is the proverbial icing on the cake.

When Matthew came home, almost eight weeks ago, and announced his company had closed all their offices in the U.S., I realized I wasn't panicked. A year ago, I would have taken the news much like Dory responded to the baby swing at the park:



But I felt a little more like her when we first got out of the car at the park:



And as Matthew explained about his generous severance package, about our extended health benefits, and even his hope to go back to school and get his teaching degree, I felt exactly like Dory feels pretty much all the time:







I did my quick mental run down: Dory well and happy? Check. Matthew and I well and happy? Check.

It was hard to worry after that. There's uncertainity right now, but I can see change as being something interesting, something welcome. Matthew's job had not been something he enjoyed in a long time, though I believe he brought excellence to the day-to-day difficulty. Still, the loss was not a loss at all and this was not a sad day for us. Change came at the best possible time, in the softest possible way.

In fact, excitement crept into the house, slipping in through the open doors and windows, the feeling of possibility blowing in with the the fresh spring breezes. What an opportunity for us as a family! Matthew's been home to see this time of explosive growth in Dory, as she moved from sitting, to rolling, to cheerful chattering and almost, any day now crawling. We've been on the go ever since, taking advantage of beautiful weather, free time and our enjoyment of each other. Matthew particularly appreciates this time he has with his girl.



He's working out what he wants to do next and we're all getting excited about what the future holds. When Dory was born I felt, so clearly, that anything is possible. Here we are, in the season of her first spring, and I feel even more deliciously hopeful about our future.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Updates Coming!

That's probably not fair, to make an entire post just to say "I'll be posting again soon." But I've been looking for this one particular camera wire, this one pesky wire that does the small job of taking the pictures off my camera and putting them on my laptop. I've searched for this wire for weeks now. I knew there were probably three places it would be and I looked those three places over and over again without success. Which meant I wasn't surprised when I discovered in a bag of knitting. Tah-dah!

So pictures and updates coming soon!