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Windy Walking
It’s been raining here pretty hard here lately. I’m sure lots of people will be making fun of us, how we Californians can’t drive in the rain, how the news makes every little rain drop seem like the biggest story of the year, how our houses are sliding off the cliffs into the ocean… bla bla bla. That’s all true… but the rain to me means: not so much walking outside. And when you have a baby who gets bored easily, this is a very bad thing.
My two month old gets bored easily. Really! Toby says we have made a monster. She’s a combo of me being high maintenance with a short attention span that needs to be constantly entertained and Toby who has a short fuse and anger issues. So we’ve made a child who gets bored and mad easily. You should see her. She doesn’t cry like a normal baby. No tears and sad faces and distressed sounds. Noooooooo, she yells. She yells in quick loud dolphin-like screeches with lots of air space in between just to make sure her point has sunk in.
When she gets in this state (which is the usual 4-7pm baby witching hour) I carry her around the living room over my shoulder so she can get maximum viewing capabilities. This is the only thing she likes. Believe me I’ve tried everything. When she gets bored of the living room she shrieks to be walked to another room. We do this with every room in the house and then we walk onto the patio. The cold rainy air doesn’t scare us. We are bored and we must be entertained!
Yesterday I was itching to get out on a normal walk but it was still pretty cold and windy. I’m sure you east coast readers are laughing at me and calling this weather summer-like but to me it’s a bit chilly to be taking a baby out in. But I couldn’t stand it anymore. All the screeching!
So we bundled up and out we went.
I’m so glad we did. It was a beautiful day to go down to the beach. The sun was out and the sky was so blue. The sea gulls were playing games with each other in the giant updrafts off the harbor. The clouds were like castles and the sand was blown into little miniature sand dunes. The waves were huge and tumultuous, you could see white caps for miles and miles. I had a great time snapping photos.
Baby Bug went to sleep. Of course. That little squirt.
I’ve uploaded theses pictures onto flickr here for you so you can see what it really looked like, without the slide show dithering.
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summer preview
I took a walk down to main beach yesterday. It was the first time I’d done “cardiac hill” since I was eight months pregnant. Guess what? I’m completely out of shape. I was huffing and puffing like a couch potato. I had to stop half way up and “take in the view” which is code for “catch my stinkin’ breath”. This is silly since I pretty much take a walk every day.
My usual walk is about an hour long and has a stop along the way at Starbucks. My “cardiac hill” walk is only about 30 minutes and does not include Starbucks. Guess which day I lost a pound doing which walk? Cardiac Hill of course. So is it because I huffed and puffed or is it because a decaf grande latte with three packages of sugar in the raw has a zillion calories?
Don’t worry, I’m not really “dieting”. I know I need some of this blubber to be able to keep nursing properly. But I’m just a little anxious to get rid of the last fifteen pounds. I lost the first fifteen pretty quickly, I think that spoiled me. It was super fun to get on the scale every day and watch them just fall off. It was like I was on a magic diet. Look I can eat oreos and still lose weight! Rock on!
I’m just worried the last fifteen won’t come off and I’ll be like my mom, blaming my weight troubles on having kids for the rest of my life. My poor mom. I’m always trying so hard not to be her when actually she is the most beautiful mother you could ever want. If I end up being half as good of a mom as she is I should be happy. Of course I want to be healthy and being overweight is not healthy but I have to stay grounded and realize that I just live in Orange County where image is everything. It can turn your brain to mush after a while. Moderation is everything.
Anyway, my walk was beautiful. It was a gloriously sunny day with just enough of a crisp breeze to keep you from sweating. I love it when it’s like that. There were all kinds of people out sun bathing and kids playing in the surf. There was even a really old lady in a bikini with skin that looked like brown leather. She looked like she was about ninety-two! I guess she wasn’t that worried about skin cancer.
Baby Bug and I stopped half way and plopped ourselves down in the sand for a few minutes. Since I only had her in the baby carrier and not in the stroller (that is stocked with the diaper bag that contains all), I completely forgot any kind of beach wear–like a big floppy hat and a towel. I tried to shade her with a receiving blanket but that was a sandy mess. I think some sand even got on her pacifier. I was waiting for her to make a funny face when she tasted the gritty salt, but she didn’t. I don’t even think she knew we were at the beach. She was too busy nuzzling around for the boob. Maybe in a few months she’ll get excited about the beach.
I just got a birthday beach party invitation for a little girl who’s turning five. Guess what the theme is? Mermaids. I’m already dreaming up the perfect mermaid costume for Baby Bug. An aquamarine quilted lame (“la-may”) tail sack with elastic at the top to keep it on and a onsie with felt sea shells sewed on for the bikini top… what do you think? Won’t that be fun? If only I had my own personal seamstress living with me.
