Category Archives: NaBloPoMo

pretty in purple

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I have a feeling that I’ll be doing a lot of these photo entries when I have nothing else to write about for NaBloPoMo. These are some that I took this morning, that I just think are insanely cute.

walking to the grocery store

Cate and I walked to Food Lion this morning for some groceries. We do this at least once a week, when we only need a few things from the store. Cate rides in the stroller, and I put everything in the bottom of the stroller to haul it home. She gets fresh air on our walk, I get some exercise, and it’s environmentally friendly. It’s a win-win-win situation.

Cate loves autumn

After we got home from the store, she ran around in the yard, enjoying the satisfying crunch-crunch-crunch of the leaves under her feet.

Cate loves autumn

Do you see all those leaves? Would you believe that I raked the yard TWICE last week, and it still looks like that? Our next-door neighbors have offered to lend us their leaf blower, probably less from a sense of generosity and more because they don’t want our leaves to end up in their yard. I never understood the purpose of a leaf blower before, but after trying to rake the yard myself multiple times per week and still not staying on top of it? Heck yeah, I’ll gladly borrow that leaf blower, thank you.

Cate loves autumn

But you know, I’ll worry about the yard later. Right now I want to go chase my baby around some more and listen to her fantastic laugh.

toddler excerpts from today

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1. Playing outside in the yard this morning, Cate walked over to my car and tried to open the driver’s seat door. I opened it for her, she climbed in and started pretending to drive. I know all kids probably do this at some point, but this was a first for us and it cracked me up. Then she saw herself in the vanity mirror, laughed and said, “It’s Catie!!” She doesn’t usually say that to the mirror (or identify herself in the third person), I guess she just wasn’t expecting the vanity mirror to be there.

2. She plays with her toy cell phone a lot, and usually she answers it with “hello?”, then she babbles for a while, and finally says, “ok, bye!” as she hangs up. That’s pretty much a dead-on impression of me on the phone. But after tonight, I’m thinking she has a career ahead of her as an impatient, bossy, high-powered CEO. Her toy cell phone rang, she flipped it open, and barked “WHAT?” into the receiver. Heck yeah, that’s my girl. For the record, I have no idea where that one came from. Yes, the robocalls over the past few weeks really did get on our nerves, but I swear that neither Dave nor I are ever that rude on the phone.

Later, she hit one of the buttons on her phone that played a pre-programmed message. It’s a recorded voice that says, “Hi there! Wanna come out to play?” Cate shrugged and said, “OK.” Totally nonchalant, just yeah, that’s cool, whatever.

3. Tonight after her bath, I brought her into Dave’s office to say goodnight. (Lest you think he’s slaving away working on Sunday night, rest assured that he wasn’t. He was watching TV.) On our way out, she waved and said, “Bye, Daddy! See you! Bah-duboo!” That last word right there is the closest we’ve gotten so far to an “I love you,” and I have to say, that was pretty awesome. I’m only a tiny bit jealous that she said it to Dave first.

have a holly jolly early-November

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When we lived out in the boonies, we never put decorations on the outside of our house during the holidays. What would be the point? We lived on a remote, dead-end street. Barely anyone would’ve ever seen it other than us. So we never bothered.

Halloween was our first holiday in the suburbs, and our first experience seeing just how nuts the people around here go with their decorations. I was a little embarassed that we didn’t do anything. Well, ok, I put a pumpkin on the front stoop as sort of an autumn-type decoration, but I didn’t carve it or even draw on a jack o’lantern face with a Sharpie, because I suck horribly at all things that require even a teeny-tiny bit of artistic talent.

So, we’ve come to the conclusion that we’re going to have to step things up quite a bit for Christmas. A couple of our neighbors have informed me that everyone puts their Christmas lights up the weekend after Thanksgiving. Um, ok? Seems a bit ridiculous to me since it’s going to be up for a month, but sure, whatever.

To be honest, I’m a little excited at the idea of getting the outside of the house all spiffed up for Christmas, because my parents never did that. My mom would hang up a wreath on the front door, and since our front porch had white columns on it, she’d take a wide red ribbon and spiral it up the columns to make them look like candy canes. But we never had lights outside or anything. I’d really like to get in the habit of decorating the house for Christmas, I think Cate will really get into it as she gets older.

Today, Cate and I met up with Cat, Tony, e-baby, and Tony’s sister Diana to do a little pre-Christmas shopping. We hit a couple of stores to check out their selection of Christmas decorations. I didn’t buy anything today, I was just trying to get some ideas. Lowe’s hardware store has some great stuff – Cate and e-baby both loved all of the animatronic dancing, singing toys – but let’s get real, I’m not going to drop $200 on a giant inflatable Santa and stable (with a stall for each reindeer, labeled Donner, Blitzen, etc.). We also went to Big Lots (or as Cat calls it, Poverty Barn), and they had tons of stuff, which was pretty cheap, so I’ll probably end up heading back there to pick up some stuff. And I noticed that the dollar store near our house has Christmas decorations, so I think I’ll definitely be able to find sufficient supplies for the house that won’t hurt our bank account too much. I haven’t decided how extensive we’re going to get with the decor, though. I’ll have to balance my ambition with my hatred of working in the yard when it’s cold outside.

What about y’all? Anyone else go crazy with Christmas decorations, do you boycott them altogether, or do you find a happy medium?

biking with my baby

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I don’t have much to report, but since it’s NaBloPoMo, and my sister requested pictures of Cate in the bike trailer because she had no idea what a bike trailer was, here goes:

going out for a bike ride

Please ignore the mushroom head effect that my bike helmet gives me. And I don’t know what’s going on with my face, I seem to be baring my teeth more than smiling. Eh, they can’t all be great pictures, right?

going out for a bike ride

You can’t really tell because we weren’t moving yet, but she does like the bike a lot once we get going. Well, most of the time. Today she screamed the whole way home because she wasn’t ready to leave the playground when it was time for us to go – also probably because she didn’t get enough sleep last night and she was due for a nap. Her bike helmet is a little large on her (why on earth don’t they make helmets for kids younger than 3?), so at some point during her meltdown, she thrashed her head around and knocked her helmet forward so she essentially had blinders on. I had to stop to help her readjust; it was kind of hard not to laugh when she looked like a giant helmet with a nose and mouth underneath it.

When we got back from the playground, she took a nice long nap and has been sweet as pie ever since. We went to the grocery store, came home, played outside with the neighborhood kids, and made dinner. She even got in some cuddle time with her Daddy.

I put a spell on you, ka-zam!

It’s been a good day.

Thanksgiving plans

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What with all of the election excitement, I forgot to mention that the reason why I might not be able to do NaBloPoMo this year is because Cate and I are flying to Mississippi for the second half of the month. My mom is having her breast reconstruction surgery, which, on the scale of all that she’s endured so far for her cancer, is pretty minor. It’s outpatient surgery, she’ll be home the same day, but I imagine she’ll feel as flattened as a fly on a windshield.

So, since my mom will undoubtedly be feeling bad, I’ll be there to help out with meals, running errands, and whatever else she needs. And Cate will be there because grandbabies have scientifically-proven healing powers. Watch her try to stay in bed when Cate runs in to greet her in the morning with an ear-splitting, “HI, MIMI!!!” Ha! It can’t be done. She’ll have to get up and about immediately.

I think I’ve already emailed most of the people I know in Jackson to try to make plans to see each other, but we’ll be there from November 18th through the 29th, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. (My mom intentionally planned her surgery right before a major holiday so that air fares would be at their most expensive. Kidding! She did it so my brother and sister can take time off to come to visit their baby niece while we’re in town.) Anyway, if you want to meet up, drop me an email and let me know.

So, that’s why I have a very half-assed commitment to NaBloPoMo this year. I’ll be keeping up with it until we leave for Mississippi, but beyond that, I think all bets are off. We’ll see. I’ll try. But no promises.

proud of us

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I can’t stop misting up today. I rewatched Obama’s acceptance speech online and it made me start crying all over again. I am so, so happy. I love that this is the first presidential election since Cate was born, and that as she grows up, she will never know a world in which an African-American can’t be President.

Since I was talking about contrasts yesterday, I noticed another one: I think it’s interesting that when I look at the status updates of my Facebook friends, they’re pretty evenly split. Most of my current friends, people who I’ve met and become friends with as an adult, were elated about Obama’s win. But I’ve also reconnected with a lot of people from elementary and high school on Facebook, people who for the most part still live in Mississippi, and who are generally extremely conservative. From them, I see them say that they’re disappointed, afraid, worried, “praying for our government,” “just sick about it,” etc. It’s strange to see the reactions in such stark opposites.

So just in case any of them read this blog, or to anyone else who’s worried for our future, let me just say: RELAX. I think regardless of who won, the next four years are going to be pretty rough. We have two wars going on, an economic crisis, an environment that’s steadily getting shot to crap, and a whole host of other problems. So it’d be a tough road no matter who the president happens to be. But I truly believe that you doubters will find that Obama will have a broad administration that incorporates the interests of both parties, unlike the Bush administration that has consistently catered to the Republican base, while essentially ignoring everyone else.

Now, I realize that the Republican base is going to be upset because they aren’t going to be pandered to anymore. And yeah, that sucks for them. But politics is a cycle. The pendulum swings one way, and it has to swing back the other way. That’s democracy, that’s fairness, and it’s one of many things that makes this country great.

So really, people who are freaking out about Obama taking away your guns or mandating gay marriage or whatever? Seriously, chill. It’s not going to happen. He’s going to have way bigger fish to fry once he gets in office. The people who are freaking out about socialism and taxes? Look, your taxes will only increase if you make more than $250K a year. And if you do make that much money, consider yourself blessed and quit bitching about having to go back to Clinton-era tax rates (which is all that’s going to happen; Obama wants to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the super-wealthy, not raise them to historic new levels).

Personally, my family makes a pretty good living, but like 95% of Americans, we’re under that $250K line, so we’ll actually get THREE TIMES the tax break that we would’ve gotten under McCain’s proposed tax plan. You won’t hear any complaints about that from me.

And if any conservatives are reading this and are still upset? Well, now you know exactly how I felt in 2004.

Catie hearts Obama
Cate loves both blue and red. Left and right. Democrats and Republicans. And most especially, she loves the Nabisco Corporation for their Saltines. Mmm.

a study in contrasts

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One of the great things about NaBloPoMo is that there isn’t enough time to leave an entry at the top of the page waiting for more snarky comments. So! Moving on!

Today is Election Day, and since I voted over a week ago, this morning I headed off to my local Obama campaign office to volunteer. Originally they told me that I was going to be making calls, but when I arrived, they said that they needed more people to do neighborhood canvassing, which is what I did on Saturday. I had worn comfortable shoes and felt up for it, so sure, why not? Whatever way I can help out is fine with me. I joined up with a team – an older man who said he had bad knees but was willing to drive, and another much older lady (around 80-ish), who said she was volunteering so she wouldn’t be sitting at home staring at the TV and worrying all day. Boy, could I ever relate to that. (Seriously, CNN is on as I type. Cate is napping so I’m enjoying my break from Noggin.)

The difference in my experience between Saturday and today was absolutely astounding. I don’t even know exactly how to describe this, but it was truly profound.

Saturday: It was a beautiful sunny day, and the neighborhood that I was assigned to was predominantly white and upper-class (some Asian and Indian mixed in, but for the most part it was Caucasian Central). We were smack in the middle of suburbia; an upscale mall was nearby, a Whole Foods, several well-manicured green spaces, local parks, etc. It was posh, to say the least. The houses were close enough together that usually the driver would park and the other three volunteers in the car would fan out and go to a nearby house. No one ever had to walk far from the car to the assigned house and back. The people we met were generally polite, but some of them were a little icy and very rarely seemed enthusiastic about our presence.

Today: The weather was cold, gray, and rainy. The area we were assigned to was very rural; most of the roads were gravel, not paved. Instead of McMansions in suburbia, I was knocking on the doors of run-down, delapidated mobile homes, most of which had chickens and turkeys running around loose in their front yards. Think of every stereotype you know about poor, rural, Southern life, then multiply it times ten. I’d seen places like this from the highway before, but I’d never been in it. I’d never walked up those muddy driveways, shooing the hens out of my way as I went, and knocked on the doors. I was almost attacked by a watchdog who clearly believed that all unknown visitors had bad intentions. The residents we met were almost 100% African-American.

The people I met today were generally friendlier than the ones I met on Saturday. Perhaps being in such a remote area, they haven’t been targeted by as many political campaigns this year; maybe it was Election Day Fever, who knows. People seemed excited, even if they were just informing me that they’d participated in early voting. However, many people seemed taken aback to see me – a 30-something, suburban-mom-looking, white woman – as the representative from the Obama campaign that was there to speak with them. Lois, the older lady I was working with, got even more shocked reactions than I did. But then, why would you expect a frail little old lady to come out advocating for the more progressive candidate? The surprised reactions made total sense to us. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt quite so insanely overprivileged and blessed in my entire life.

It just struck me how very different these two worlds are, how very different these people are, how very different their issues and concerns must be, and yet the two groups have both come to Barack Obama as the candidate that best represents them. I love that I had the opportunity to see the diversity firsthand.

I don’t know if I’ll be able to stay awake until they get the election results announced tonight, but I’m going to try. I have a feeling that if I decide to crash early, I’ll be needing a Tylenol PM to settle myself down and turn my brain off so that I can sleep.

SIDE NOTE: I shouldn’t have to add this on my blog entries, but apparently it’s necessary. You’re totally allowed to disagree with my viewpoints, but respect for others is requested – nay, demanded. Nasty, hateful comments will be deleted. Thank you.