Rotten!

It seems that we are officially composters.

There have been rumblings about this in our house ever since we moved here last July and it has finally come to pass. In the past few months Joshua and I looked on as Jay shredded newspaper after newspaper and then eventually built his own composter from plastic tubs. Then he went to the feed store to adopt some worms and, voila, now we have a compost pile.
There's been a small learning curve for me. I have to remember to keep our food waste rather than dumping it down the garbage disposal like I used to. I also have to remember not to turn off the garage light if I get up in the middle of the night. Apparently the light in the garage reminds the worms to stay in the nasty stuff where it's dark, so it's best to leave it on. That way I won't step on piles of worms on my way out to the car.

And I also have to remember what can be composted and what cannot. This is obviously not rocket science, but sometimes I have to ask to make sure. Meat is right out, but paper towels are OK as long as they don't have cleaners or other non-organic waste on them. This is a relief to me since we go through more paper towels than I'm really comfortable with. I was beginning to think that our paper towel usage was cancelling out the environmental good we were doing by using cloth diapers. But now they get eaten by worms and put in my garden! It almost makes me feel a little better about using plastic at the grocery store.

Hopefully we'll have a great garden to show for it.

Makin' Me Nervous

My goodness I love March Madness. On the men's side I'm really only keeping up with Tennessee. But the women's games are bringing to light my occasional lack of self-discipline. I've been staying up so late watching upset after upset that I practically have to hold my eyelids open with toothpicks during the day. There are no games tonight. I'm not sure what to do with my evening. It feels empty.

On Sunday my favorite women will meet the Marist Red Foxes. Marist is seeded 13 in the women's NCAA tournament and have already soundly beaten Ohio State (a 4-seed) and Middle Tennessee State University (a 5-seed).

Tennessee's looking much better after their loss to LSU in the SEC tournament, but I'm still nervous. I know they can win. The question is, will they?

You know where I'll be Sunday night.

Update: Marist was easily handled. We'll see how things go against Ole Miss on Tuesday night. Promising regular blogging again when the tournament is over...

Let's Hear it for the Ladies!

After all the brouhaha surrounding Delta Zeta at DePauw, there's good news for a change.

The DePauw women are the 2007 Division III Women's Basketball Champions!

I happened to tune in to the university radio station just in time to hear the last three nailbiting minutes and I have to admit I was just about teary when the girls pulled it out at the last minute.

Sweet!

Random Thoughts

• It didn't take me long to become a southerner again. I knew I had made the transition when I warned Jay that it was going to be "cold" this weekend. Like 57.
  

• For the past few months Joshua has constantly asked for music when we're hanging out at home (he does this by swinging his arms back and forth as if he is "dancing" or by bringing us the remote control to start a CD). I've been so good about playing Baby Einstein CDs or silly kids' songs CDs, you know, things that are enriching and will help him appreciate good music later on. When I walked out of our bedroom this morning, Joshua and Jay were seriously jamming to none other than The Beastie Boys. Joshua usually swings his arms back and forth a little bit, sometimes spins around in the middle of the floor. This morning he was actually bouncing and moving his feet and laughing. So much for an appreciation of fine music. I guess it could be worse since Adam Yauch (MCA) is my pretend boyfriend.
  

• The other day when Joshua was infirm and needed to be carried around all day (he still isn't quite walking, yet) I put him on the bed with me while I checked my e-mail. In the course of five minutes he managed to change my screen resolution, change my keyboard setting from "qwerty" to "Dvorak," and in a feat that I have yet to undo, changed my Blogger settings to Portugese.
  

• I don't have many issues with personal space. I'll hug just about anyone, friend or stranger, but the lady at The Baker's Rack creeped me out. I was paying at the register for my lunch while holding Joshua. She said to me, "Are you pregnant?" to which I replied "Yes, I am." She proceeded to reach over the counter and grab the top of my belly, grope around it for a second, and then proclaim, "You're carrying really high!" I smiled politely and then she warned me not to get my tubes tied because even if I thought I was finished having babies with "the man you're with" I might meet someone later on that I'd like to have babies with. Mmm Hmm. But anyway, I normally wouldn't care about someone patting my belly or even rubbing it a little to greet the little person inside. But she palmed it like a freakin' basketball! In my 14 total months of being pregnant that's never happened. As Jay said, "Welcome back to the south."
  

Persona Non Grata

It all started yesterday morning when Joshua refused to have anything to do with me. He's still a little "off" from Daylight Savings Time so he was more cranky than usual and ready for a nap earlier than normal. In fact, Jay had him back in bed before he even left for work. Joshua and I met church friends for lunch, came home, and had a long afternoon nap. Then we met other friends at the park, and that's when I gave up all hope of the "Mother of the Year" award.

I was attentive. I was diligent. I repeatedly used my cat-like reflexes to keep Joshua from certain peril. He was all over the playground equipment, climbing, sliding, testing the structural integrity of the whole setup. Then he headed for a slide that was a little too steep for him to manage alone. So I hauled my big pregnant self onto the slide with him. Halfway down his left foot became caught between my left leg and the slide. Ouch. He was obviously in pain and not very happy. Fortunately, another friend showed up who is also a paramedic. She poked and pushed and pulled and twisted. She surmised it was his knee but that there was most likely nothing broken. Joshua and I sat and observed the action for awhile, but he refused to put any weight on his leg. Sa-teeeee (Vati is German for "daddy" and in our world all consonants are interchangeable) was home when we got there so we sat down for dinner. That was when I pinched his finger in the booster seat. Needless to say, Joshua ate dinner in Jay's lap. I managed not to drop him in the bathtub or scald him during bathtime, but I wasn't exactly exuding parental confidence.

This morning my kid who usually won't stop moving is content to sit on the couch and have us hand him books to flip through. I have a call into the nurse to find out if there's anything we can do to help the poor kid out. Meanwhile, guess who put Joshua down for his nap because he wouldn't even consider letting me hold him, even after I shared my scrambled egg sandwich.

I think I should put a quarter in the therapy jar, but I'm not sure whose jar it should go in, Joshua's or mine.

You Make Me Wanna Shoop!

Kelly has a blog!

In the Great Green Room..

What is it about Goodnight Moon? We recently pulled it off the bookshelf to add to our naptime/bedtime repertoire and it is simply magic. Joshua, who usually makes it through about two pages of a book before repeating, "Gook, gook, gook" and straining over the edge of the chair to see what else is available, is absolutely captivated. He stops wiggling, he leans back into my arm, and I can feel his body get heavier and heavier. Yesterday the unthinkable happened...I flipped back to the front to start over again for the third time. He shook his head 'no' and turned around to crawl up on my shoulder, a no-brainer sign that it's time to go to sleep. This from the kid who hasn't figured out how to stop moving.

Is it the alternation between the red/green color pictures and the black/white pictures? Is it the alternation between the panoramic bedroom pictures and the small pictures of the items in the room? Is there actually ether in the pages that is released as the pages turn?

I don't know, but Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd are my heroes.

If You Guessed Girl...

you were right!

Any Guesses?

I have an appointment with the doctor on Wednesday for my fetal assessment. In many cases, the ultrasound tech can determine the gender of the baby at this stage of gestation. I'd love to know, but I'm also preparing myself for the possibility that Baby Zazzy is not going to be very forthcoming. This wasn't an issue with Joshua. At my 12-week ultrasound we got a very clear picture of his boy parts, so at the 20-week fetal assessment the only question we had was, "Still a boy, right?" However, I would prefer that I not be in the same situation as Anna.

So, any guesses?

I can provide any pertinent information on an "as needed" basis.

Update: To help some, I have added some photos. The first two are from my pregnancy with Joshua. The first was taken at 16 weeks and the second was taken at 25 weeks.
This photo was taken today, at 19 weeks: