This blog has gotten way too serious lately, and I’m starting to get all angsty about it. The last few posts may not show it, but I’m really adverse to confrontation and have never been one to put myself in the middle of disagreements. I’m basically the most passive person you’ll meet, and the last few blog posts here have me all twitchy and wishing I hadn’t put them out there. I don’t like the idea of alienating you guys, and ControverSunday notwithstanding, I’m not comfortable with the head space I’ve gotten to the last few posts.

So, I’m going to take a deep breath, step back and get back to something a little more…me. So how bout some pictures?

Sunday we had a really full, fun day as a family. First, there was the previously mentioned playdate–Jackson’s first! He did great and played well with the other little boy, but that’s where we realized that the batteries on my big camera were dead (always check before you leave the house, or make sure you’ve got extras!), and that I had forgotten the Flip. Which meant that the iPhone camera was going to have to suffice for the day.

Luckily, I think the photos from the iPhone turn out ok, for a phone camera. I got some great photos from the playdate, but I have a general policy that I won’t post other people’s photos without their consent and that goes doubly for other kids, so you’ll just have to imagine a sunny day and two of the cutest little boys in Southern California.

From the playdate, we decided we weren’t ready to head home, so a little jaunt down to the beach was in order. It was overcast at the water, which was fine by me, since it meant it wasn’t blazing hot! I had to bust out the Hipstamatic app for just one photo while we were there–I think too much of that app can be overkill, but look at this one and tell me it’s not awesome for the occasional shot!

Then it was time for a little family portrait. Don’t mind the surly baby, he really was having fun!

We did some good staring at the ocean. It’s so BIG you know, especially when you’re so little.

Then I decided to show Jackson how to antagonize seagulls. Which, come on, chasing seagulls is one of the best parts of going to beach, amirite?

At the beach, there was a little playground, so we thought it would be a good time to have Jackson try out the swings (for the first time)! I wasn’t sure he was enjoying himself, but then N.C. and I switched places, with me pushing him and N.C. in front and then he thought it was GREAT fun–is there anything better than baby belly laughs?

We ended the day with Jackson’s first slide ride, on the Daddy-mobile. I’m not sure he cared so much about the slide as he did all the kids that were around to stare at!

Sunday helped remind me, yet again, why I love living here. We have parks and beaches and sun and overcast days to enjoy pretty much year round. It was chilly at the beach, but nothing a light jacket and some running around couldn’t cure. And what better way to spend a day with your family than to just get out and enjoy the natural beauty of the place you live?

1. Look at your spouse
2. Ask: “…is that…?”
3. Panic a little when you realize that yes, it is an earthquake
4. Sit for a second to see if it stops
5. Panic a little when you realize it’s not only not stopping, it seems to be getting more intense
6. Jump up, waking up the baby you had been nursing
7. Head outside and realize, ooh, lots of trees, bad place.
8. Head back inside (yes, the ground is still shaking at this point)
9. Realize you don’t know where you should head for safety. First floor? Second floor? Doorway?
10. Stop in a doorway (sure, why not), clutching baby probably a little too close (luckily he thinks it’s a game!).
11. Realize the only shaking that’s left is you

Yesterday, a big earthquake hit about 150 miles from my house.  N.C. and I looked at each other, looked around, and the realization that we were all moving hit. It’s weird–it feels like a slow realization, but of course an earthquake happens pretty quickly. This one, though, was pretty long compared to the other few I’ve been in (I’ve probably felt fewer than 15 earthquakes in my life before yesterday), somewhere around 45 seconds-1 minute long. As someone on Twitter said, that was long enough to look around, figure out what was going on, panic, try to figure out where to go, and still have 15 seconds or so of ground shaking before it was over.

Of course, over is a relative term. Aftershocks and other minor quakes have continued in the area since then. You wanna see a graphic representation, check out the USGS site. Or look at the @CAquake Twitter stream–you’ll see what ate up most of my Twitter stream yesterday.  Most of those are so small that they don’t register for us, but a fair amount of them are “feelable”. I’ve noticed at least 10 or so myself, some of them feeling like actual quakes, and others just feeling a little like you’re bobbing in the ocean–just a slight hint of motion, enough to make you feel…something. I always end up feeling jittery and slightly motion sick following an earthquake, so I ended up feeling kind of queasy most of last night and into this morning (when I felt most of the aftershocks).

I get that I live in earthquake country and I should just get used to it. But I would guess that even those hardened to the earthquakes still don’t really get “used” to them.  They maybe don’t talk about it much, but feeling the earth move under your feet? And seeing stuff swaying and moving that shouldn’t be? That’s just not normal!

As always, more lists can be found over at Anna’s at abdpbt!

I’m starving. Again.

Nevermind that I had a full dinner less than 2 hours ago. I’m ravenous.

Again.

I am always hungry these days. I can eat a full meal, and an hour later have a sandwich, and an hour later have another complete meal…and still be hungry. And I’m talking full on carbs, proteins, fats, veggies, everything falls to the enormity of my hunger.

There’s no escape really. I’m hungry when we get up in the morning, through the day, into the evening, late into the night…and yup, when I wake up to feed the kid in the middle of the night.

If I ate every time I was hungry these days, I would literally be eating more than half the day. I mean, I’m eating a hell of a lot anyway, but if I ate every single time I was hungry I wouldn’t have much time for anything else.

I know it’s because of the breastfeeding–the kid himself is ravenous much of the time, and I know my body has to keep up with that. It’s nice on the one hand because I feel like I have a responsibility to keep eating…you know, for the kids sake. But on the other hand, damn, I wish I wasn’t starving so much!

Things I desperately need to get around to doing someday:

1. Learn to manage my “down time” with the baby. This is the key to all other things on this list.
2. Mail out birth announcements. Before the kid graduates high school preferably.
3. Get my damn flu shot before I go back to work and have to share germs with the real world.
4. Get back on the commenting on blogs bus. I like to comment on blogs I swear, but since I mostly read at 3am on my iPhone now, commenting takes a level of…awakeness and coordination that I have yet to figure out. (Although, may I say, I’m so glad it’s NaBloPoMo so that I shall always have something to read at that 3 am feeding!)
5. Download, edit, and post some of the zillion pictures that are sitting on my camera. Go ahead and edit the other zillion that are on my hard drive.
6. Start working out.
7. Barring a miracle from the post-partum fairy, go shopping for some clothes to wear when I go back to work in a few weeks. Unless pajamas became business casual while I was on maternity leave?

As always, more lists can be found over at Anna’s at abdpbt!

P.S. Totally unrelated, but isn’t this the cutest little skeleton ever?

Today is the first day of my maternity leave, and I’m at a bit of a loss of what to do with myself until the babe gets here. I mean, all I really want to do is to sit in the chair with my feet up (thanks to what appears to be some form of a lovely little thing called psd, doing much more than that gets painful fast). But I sort of feel like this is my last week or so of having time to myself for a while so I should enjoy it or something.

Since I’ve already taken care of about 98% of the nursery/baby stuff, and we’ve stocked the freezer with quick and easy foods for the first few weeks, and I’ve gotten all the healthcare paperwork as done as I can without having the kid here, I’m down to just a few things baby related to do. The rest can be for me!

So here’s my list of ideas for things to do with myself until the kid gets here:

1. This one’s easy–my 30th birthday is on Wednesday, so we’ll probably go out to dinner that night. I’m also going to see about a massage, a manicure and a pedicure. A nice day of pampering as I enter my 30′s and motherhood sounds pretty damn good.
2. Go to a matinee movie during the week.  What should we see?
3. Spend some time at the pool. Since we don’t have air conditioning (we live too close to the beach), in the afternoon when it gets hot, I think this will be a great solution!
4. Catch up on some TV & movies that N.C. has no interest in.
5. Maybe a little jaunt to the bookstore to splurge for a new book or two to read at the pool.
6. Take naps. I’ve never been well rested during my pregnancy, and heaven knows when the little one gets here I won’t be getting much sleep, so I think naps when I’m drowsy this week are in order.
7. If I get ambitious, I may organize some old photos. Ok, maybe it’s more than “some”…I’ve probably got over 1000 photos that need to be put in albums. It’s a project I’ve been meaning to take care of for a good year or so, but just never get around to.

Yeah, I dunno, that list still seems to be a little light. Any suggestions or recommendations?

As always, more lists can be found over at abdpbt: