here's my little guy and his cute voice

yup my littlest one is now eating solids, and he loves it!

"I'm gonna let him check it out."
"It'll fall on the floor"
"I"ll catch it!"
"Oops"

I wish dh would say,"I'm taking the kids for a few hours. You go get a pedicure, then go to a cafe and get a beer or tea and do some writing for a while. I've already taken milk out of the freezer for the baby last night so I can feed him while you're gone. Go." That is all. Is it too much to ask if I just tell him that's what I want? Or should I hope for a surprise something like that? What do you want and do you think you're gonna get it?

Ok, is this a boy thing or simply a high-energy child thing: whenever R nurses to sleep at night, he seems like an amped up little octopus; his feet are bicycling like crazy pushing at my legs, my stomach, his upper arm is wildly clutching, pulling my shirt, slapping my chest, he's breathing all heavy like he's running a marathon, smacking. Sometimes he latches off then latches on like he's a piggie rooting in the mud. It's so boisterous and frantic. Anyone have a baby that nursed like this? --read more >>

Well I went to Raiden's 4 month checkup yesterday, and it turns out through a major snafu that he never got added to the health insurance. So I couldn't even get his vaccinations. And since dh just got a new job and we won't have the new insurance until May, it looks like we'll be delaying those vacc's anyway. The ped said that'll make him susceptible to getting sick if we miss a dose because the immunity titre will go down in his system. But he's not exposed to much anyways so I think we're fine.--read more >>

do I have to have antibiotics? advil took care of my fever and the body aches/pain. my boob feels sore to the touch still, but i'm just continuing to nurse like normal.
oh and HI. i've seen ppl disappear off the site once they have their second child, and now I know why. time becomes so much more compartmentalized with way less free online time.--read more >>

The kid is 6 weeks old! I want to share the story of his beautiful homebirth. I feel like I grew so close to my midwife, and look forward to keeping in touch with her over the years. Here's our xmas pic and the story :

At midnight as Friday passed into Saturday, November 17th, I went into labor with Raiden Dio. Here's how that day started:--read more >>

My dd drew this. She just turned 3 a couple months ago.

Amazing, huh? It's like a cool comic book illustrator style. She keeps drawing these faces, now she started drawing eyebrows above them too. It all started when we were decorating the sugar cookie stars we baked for Christmas (Ayun Halliday's dirty sugar cookies recipe, in fact). We have these food coloring markers and she made faces on all the stars. But when she started doing them on paper, we were all amazed.

and I love it better than the perfect c*stco kit numbers i've been seeing at playdates' homes. these have character! made with can frosting. version 1 collapsed but it was 2 stories. this one has been in the fridge for a while, hope it's still good to eat!

it's Raiden Dio S-----!
7 lbs. 15 oz., 21.5 inches
5 hour of labor from start to finish
born 5:05am November 17!--read more >>

Please everyone, if you have a moment in your thoughts, send some NO LABOR vibes my way. I have a band gig tonight. Tomorrow dh & I have a booth at this exclusive indie craft fair. I would like to make it through both events intact. I've already had some false labor a week ago, my Brax-Hicks are getting pretty productive when they happen, and I just experienced a tiny bit of bloody show. PLEASE let me get through the next 2 days without labor. Thank you. Next week my schedule is all clear for labor --read more >>

Oh my god, I'm due this month. It's starting to dawn on me. I've passed 37 weeks, my due date is the 23rd. M was born at 38 weeks. Eeeek! It could be this week, it could be a few more weeks!--read more >>

Why do I feel most beautiful in pregnancy? I think it has to do with my belly being a source of round plenitude instead of mushy un-tautness. These are a couple photos from our band shoot with a local amateur photographer, a little over a month ago. I'm the one on the far right in the group shot. My band is The Noise Revival Orchestra Experience
--read more >>

This was the cake I made for dd's 3rd birthday:
--read more >>

if you have any music biz connections...
This is my husband's music album for kids that
he recorded. I'm passing this along in the hopes that
you know any musicians who are Grammy voting members:

The Big Bang! by Rockosaurus Rex is on the ballot for
a Grammy nomination for best children's album!

It has not been nominated yet but needs votes for the
nomination. If you or someone you know is a Grammy
voting member please check out the songs on our
profile and vote for The Big Bang! if you like what
you hear. And support Rock/Metal for kids!--read more >>

birth

1 year

2 years

3 years!
--read more >>

Hey, if any pro-public breastfeeding rights people want to help out in Austin, please go here and vote in the poll:
http://www.myfoxaustin.com/myfox/
It's on the right hand side, 4th box down or so. I don't know how long they'll keep it up there. We are having a super turnout of support on the Austinmamas listserv for a mama that posted how she was asked to *leave a store, then the entire mall* for discreetly breastfeeding her baby. Not only did it make the news, but they're holding a big ole nurse-in there on Sunday. I love pro-activeness!

Hey, I know mamas sometimes post when they put stuff up on ebay. I'm selling some of our Huge Wonder black onesies at a discount there (sizes that didn't sell in stores), so if you've ever wanted one take a look. I also have a couple Elmo & Dora outfits that we just aren't into, as well as a Celtic doorknob cover. The baby shirts are parodies of punk band Agnostic Front, Nine Inch Nails, Magritte art, tv show MASH, and the movie Natural Born Killers. Everything below $10. Thanks, and pass it on if you wanna:
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZmomerath66

I just watched this several times and each time just got madder and madder.
Here's a link to the video, bc I don't know how to embed it. And then there are my excerpts, mostly verbatim, of the most offensive parts. Believe me, hearing his smug, good ole boy, motherf*cker face saying them will make you angrier.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3DXxgralYF8
3:13 is where he starts this topic, so fast forward after it loads so you don't have to listen to the other shit.
The base of the story starts with how recently at Applebees a woman breastfeeding her baby was asked to cover up. Nurse-in was subsequently held.
Maher had these things to say about it:
"breastfeeding a baby is an intimate act, and I don't want to watch strangers performing intimate acts, at least not for free. it cheapens it"
"[lactivists advocate breastfeeding] because it's natural, well so is masturbating, and I generally don't do that in public"
"too lazy to plan ahead or cover up"
"going all janet jackson on everyone"
"you made a baby, something a dog can do"
"how activism has become narcissism"
"there is a place where breasts and food go together; it's called Hooters"--read more >>

4 years ago today, at about this hour, I was pacing around waiting for my wedding to start.

It was a beautiful day at the 3 story antique French mansion we had rented. The wedding was on the top floor, coctails & live grand piano on the first, wedding cake & desserts on the second, dinner on the tented courtyard and dancing back on the transformed 3rd floor, smoking in the basement lounge bar. I wish I could go back in time to experience it again.--read more >>

I haven't had the debate with dh yet about circumcision. Last I checked, he was still for, and I'm against. I have all the good research saved. I had one more question though, for the mamas of uncircumcized boys (or dh's if they remember). It's concerning what I've read about how the foreskin is not naturally retractable at birth, and becomes gradually retractable as the boy grows. About what age does the retraction occur? Is it very gradual, with full retraction not happening til puberty? Or are they able to fully retract it in the toddler years? Please give me that bit of info. Thank you!

I sewed a maternity top for myself, that's it in the pictures. I had scored the fabric for 50c at a thrift store, exactly the yardage needed for this pattern. The pictures were taken by my 2 yo dd! We let her run around with the digital camera yesterday and she ran around taking 100 pictures from her eye view. There's a lot of cool ones!

http://www.fuzzibunzonline.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=71

This site is having a clearance sale on first quality FB's. They're 12.57 each, and include a mother of eden microterry insert. If you buy at least two, shipping is totally free. That is insanely cheap, even at the best bulk prices three years ago I still paid more. I just bought some small black ones to up my smalls supply for baby boy, there are random ones in other sizes for sale.--read more >>

This is the newsletter I recently sent out for the t-shirt business I run with my husband, Huge Wonder. We have a workshop at home where we do the silk screening & heat press.

What's new at Huge Wonder: adult sizes, Zodiac signs, Keep Austin Metal, and $14.99 summer sale end.

In addition to our usual size options of infant 3 months to kids size 6, our t-shirts are now also available in four unisex adult sizes: SM, M, L, XL. So far, the Zodiac, Signs, and Symbols categories are available, but if you'd like any of our parody shirts in an adult size, please email us (info@hugewonder.com) and we'll add the option to that design so you can order.

We have some great new Zodiac symbol designs! Each features a silk screened Zodiac symbol in white ink, centered on black cotton.
--read more >>

We haven't had one this week yet and I feel happy sharing that I went to a prenatal yoga class today. It felt good to hold the poses and really awesome to relax at the end. I really didn't want to move back to a seated position. This place serves a yummy yogi tea afterwards, I had forgotten. Unfortunately the price has gone way up since last time I was pregnant. It was $16 for the one class! So I can't afford to go back but I do have a couple of videos that I'm inspired to do weekly. --read more >>