Cracklin Oat Bran Has Lost a Customer

I keep saying I'm going to catch up on the cyclone that was the last 6 months. And now that we are all back in the US, in one spot, together, with no major events on the horizon for at least a month, I will. But first. A few little tidbits for you, that you would rather I not share!
I know how to win you over, Peanuts, don't I? Here is some stuff about poo.

1) Guess what is not good for potty training? Traveling for months and months!
2) Nonetheless. Now that we're settling back into our crooked version of 'normal life', Little One has jumped back on the bandwagon. We haven't made a good strong push (ha ha. that's not punny.) for consistency, but I think we're pretty ready. As of yesterday She even uses the real toilet. Her idea. Go team, go! Tips, encouragement, and handi-wipes are welcome in the weeks ahead, Peanuts. Bring 'em on!
4) All this awareness about bodily functions has had some interesting side effects. For instance. Have I mentioned the confusion over the naming of shampoo? We are trying to emphasize the sham.
Also. If Little One has to potty, everyone has to potty. Sometimes She forgets to potty Herself because She is so busy holding babydoll/puppy/elephant/fire truck over the potty and saying "poo poo! go! go!" Then gasping, grabbing my hand, and running me over to show me the imaginary proof of Fire Truck going potty like a big girl.
And. At breakfast.
C: "Hi my Little One! Are you eating breakfast? Mommy's going to sit and eat some breakfast too!"
Little One: (peers over into my bowl. Wrinkles Her nose. Looks up at me.) "No!"
C: "What's wrong, Little One?"
Little One: (Pointing and pointing, almost standing in Her chair with excitement, hollering so that I get.the.point.) "POOP! POOO-OOOP!!!!!!" "PooP!"
C: "Little One. That is my cereal. I am not eating poop."

She never did believe me.

Feeling hungary. Think I'll have some budapest.

Bad puns aside, we are off to Hungary! We wouldn't want to be home for more than 5 minutes, now would we?! NO!
I will be back in a week or two with pictures. In the meantime, please send me rational-sanity vibes so that I don't get committed to a Hungarian asylum. Because J and I are leaving the continent....but Little One is not. Her grandparents are all teaming up to get Her good and spoiled while we are gone. And J and I are conducting a great experiment to see if it's even possible to have fun without Her. Hmm. Sounds a bit dubious. But we'll try!
Sziasztok!

Mrs. Dr.

Today I went from being a student's wife to a doctors wife. That's a pretty big title switch! I mean, sure, the hard part is just starting, but. DOCTOR Honey?! MRS. Doctor J? Frankly, I think we're getting a little too fancy for our pants around here.
But J. My goodness. Can't say we haven't earned it.

Fitting That I Would have a Flower Child

I already mentioned my friend A and how she had a weekend full of parties and topped it off with a wedding. But did I tell you the most important part? Little One got to be the flower girl! Little One is a pretty cautious thing, so I wasn't sure how all the excitement would go over. And when She first arrived in the changing room, with the many bridesmaids running around screaming, "OMG! Hairspray! Who has HAIRSPRAY!" and "Where's my lip-gloss-not-that-one-the-lighter-pinkish-shimmery-one-I-need-it-now-where-IS-it?" well. She was a little overwhelmed.

She thought about hiding under an ottoman with Her puppy until it all just blew over. But then...

"Mom! What was that?"


"Do you guys hear that?!"


"Is this?.....I think it is!"


"DANCE PARTY!"


Once Little One got to be in the center of a circle nodding Her head like yeah and moving Her hips like Yeah, She was good to go. And I'm happy to say that She did a really good flower-girling job. She didn't balk at the sudden crowd staring at Her. She didn't run the wrong way, pick Her nose, or even (miraculously) try to dive into the fountain on the way down the aisle.


She did great, and then proceeded to rock the reception!


No, seriously, the rocks were Her favorite part.


Then Her aunt picked Her up for bedtime, so J and I could have a date night and do the rest of the rocking out for Her. Thanks Auntie!

It was a great string of pre-wedding events that reminded me how much I love my girls, and how much I am too old for anything that involves the paradoxical combination of really nice shoes and unintelligible sticky stuff.
It was a beautiful ceremony that reminded me how wonderfully happy I am to be married to J, and to have people in my life to stand beside on important days; because it's not all the time you get to physically show your friends how much you love to Be There. It was nice to have Little One there to focus on so that I wouldn't cry too much. And it was a really fun party.

A. You are welcome for getting married first and having a Little One just so that you could have a flower girl this cute at your wedding. You are welcome for being admitted into the OML club. Congrats! And for being such a wonderful friend, person, bride, and auntie, Thank you.

Happy Mother's Day to You! Yes, YOU.

How interesting that Mother's Day and World AIDS Orphans Day fall in the same weekend this year.
It's overwhelming to try to wrap my mind around the enormity of the gratefulness I feel for having been able to be a mother. I love to hear Her scream at me, "NO Mama! NO!" I do! Because She has grown to be a toddler, and I am here to witness it.
I feel the weight of that privilege extra in light of these two Days of remembrance. In America, if we can't get pregnant, we have a litany of medical interventions to help us. We take for granted that we have the care and nutrition for a healthy pregnancy, we take for granted that we will have a team of people there to make sure our deliveries end with a family that is happy and whole. That we will see them take steps, go to kindergarten, that we will get to roll our eyes when they become teenagers. It's a rare tragedy when one of those steps does not fall into place in the end.

But most mothers in the world do not have that.

In East Africa, one in 11 women who become pregnant will not live to hold their child. Count 11 mothers in your life. Imagine what would happen with one of them gone.
In Ethiopia, more than 1 in 10 babies die. (In the US it is less than 1 in 100).
Count 10 children in your life. Imagine if one was lost.
In most of the world, becoming a mother is a tenuous thing.
It is too much to expect, almost too much to hope for, that your children will all survive to become adults, and that you will live long enough to see it happen.

There are over 15 million children around the world orphaned by AIDS alone. That's more children than all of the people in New York, Paris, and Bangkok combined.

What if Little One was one of those children? Who would keep Her safe? Who would teach Her things She needs to know? Who would remember Her favorite lullaby when She wakes up from a bad dream? Who would hug Her?

For Mother's Day I want to celebrate, and I will, because I have so much to be happy about, both as a mom and because of my own mom, and all the mothers that make my life so great!

But I also want to remember the wishes in the hearts of moms around the world, whose babies are now left in our hands, as a global community, to look after. I love the quote that "children belong to the world". They do. It makes us all mothers and fathers, whether we have our "own" children or not.

What better day than Mother's Day, what better day than World AIDS Orphans Day, to take a step towards keeping more mothers and babies alive to celebrate together.

http://www.fromharmtohome.org/?ms=ws_ircz_zzz_home_zz_10zzzz

And what better day to take a step towards caring for those children left in our hands.

http://www.artistsforcharity.org/afcchildrenshome/

If you have children, if you have a mother, celebrate! Celebrate hard; we are so lucky.
If you think you don't have children, if you think you are not part of the community of mothers, think again. In the world, you belong to all the children, and they belong to you.
Happy Mothers Day.

More Toddlers Should be Elected Heads of State

Today we went to the Natural History Museum to see the new "human origins" exhibit.
There was a floor sculpture of a "2-year-old Neanderthal", just exactly Little One's size.
She walked up and faced him, swaying side to side with Her hands clasped behind Her. Looking. She stepped in closer. At first She drew a few "awww"s from the museum staff, and then a small crowd of onlookers started watching. She looked closely at Neanderthal.
And then Her eyes lit up and She pointed- "nose." Then touched Her own nose.
"Mows". Touched Her mouth.
"Eye!" and pointed to Her eyes, and mine. "Daddy! Eye!" We all have eyes.
She got right into its face and scrutinized.
"Ear!" She looked at the crowd excitedly, pulling on Her earlobes too.
She went on. We all had feet. Arms. Belly button!
After discovering all the similarities Neanderthal shared with Her, She stood up and pronounced, "Baby! Awwww." And gave him a long, tight hug. She walked around to the other side, and gave him another hug, a pat on the back, and a kiss. "Baby".
That's right, Little One. That boxy, hairy, naked extinct creature is a baby. Just like you. He has eyes and ears and toes, just like us. And he doesn't seem to mind a good hug.
What if we all responded to meeting others who are different from us by searching for commonalities and reaching out to them? Somehow in that crowded exhibition hall, I think that the toddler and the Neanderthal were the wisest of us all.

Where the heck we've been

Hello. Hello, Peanuts, if any of you are still there.
We're still here, just beginning to emerge from chaos and look around to see if the outside world still exists. When Little One and I got home, we arrived in the early launch stage of some fairly major house projects, and it has been utter chaos since.
I don't mind if life is a little messy, a little unpredictable and changing all the time. I don't mind, say, traveling for 4 months with a small child. As long as I can eventually come home, where everything has a place and gets into it at some point before bedtime.
J and I both get a little edgy when things are too messy, especially when some of those 'messes' involve, oh, exposed electrical wires, open cans of paint, random, pointy hardware strewn about....you know. The type that cause mortal peril to our beloved child. Also dirty dishes. We hate that!
At one point there was not one single room in the entire house that was not a complete disaster. We didn't have anywhere to even shove stuff to make a path. It was hazardous just walking around, and poor J and I couldn't find anything to grab on to except each others throats.
So you can see, Peanuts, I hope, why I have not been around here much. For one, I could hardly even find my computer among the rubble, and besides which I felt the need to spend every ounce of energy not consumed with saving Little One from danger at the last minute to get things in order around here.
The dust is (literally) finally settling now, and we are all feeling much better. So hopefully I will do some catching up soon. I think I really left off somewhere in AZ. Well since then Little One and I went to Texas again, made our way back home, destroyed and resuscitated the house, and are now busy making sure our friends know we still exist, and gearing up for a BIG event.
Whew!
I'll try to catch up on all that a little in between, and in the meantime we are back in DC! Come by! Visit! We miss you! And -as of the last few days-you won't even need to bring a hard hat.