Ch-ch-ch-changes.

As usual, I may have lasted a week on my resolve to blog more often. However, I now know I have an end date to the uproar and upheaval in my life that has been preventing me from posting. My wonderful husband has accepted a new position, and we are leaving a teeming metropolis for a beautiful, friendly small town in a month. This weekend we are going to try to find our new home. I am really looking forward to starting this new chapter in our life together.

The boys are doing great. The big one is starting to get more and more involved with the little one, and it is so cute to see them sort of playing together every once in awhile. Little guy is getting so big and really wants to try to walk now that he has fully mastered off-the-ground crawling. He will be 1 in less than a week. Where does the time go?

The other day, my big boy heard his brother fussing on the monitor while playing downstairs with his daddy. He said, "Daddy, (little brother) is crying. I have to help him stop crying. (Little brother), STOP CRYING!" If only that worked, my darling. He also enjoys singing all sorts of songs, much to our delight. I hope we can get him into piano lessons as soon as they deem him "old enough," as well as swim lessons so he can take advantage of his grandparents' pool.

If anyone has a brilliant idea for the next poetry challenge, I'm all ears. For the next few weeks I will probably be buried in boxes and in organizing/purging frenzies, but I will be listening nonetheless.

Haiku News

Potter movies end,
bringing magic to a close
with some childhoods.

Politician thinks
his county'd be better off
in South Calif. Hmm.

A noble idea:
California would include
gays in history.

Congress needs to stop
acting like whiny babies
and fix the budget.

Treading water.

I just celebrated 10 years of marriage to my wonderful husband on Friday. While we are very happy, we are also kind of in a holding pattern of late. He is looking for a new job, and depending on where he finds it we are most likely going to move. How big a move remains to be seen, so right now we are just waiting. (For me, this includes hypothetical house searching on the internet.) It has been several months now and it is getting harder to wait as we go along. I know the right thing will happen when it's supposed to, I just wish that time was NOW so we could start making plans for when and how to go where we're going. Doing all this with little kids will be a first; when we moved into this house I was in my second trimester with my first son.

For now, I guess the healthiest thing is just to try to be patient, and meanwhile enjoy my time here in the city with the boys and try not to let the little things pass me by while I'm worrying about stuff I can't control.

Haiku News

Blago jury finds
ex-governor guilty on
seventeen charges.

Finally showing
that you can't get away with
pay-to-play 'round here.

TSA denies
asking 95-year-old
to remove diaper.

More testimony
in the Knox murder appeal;
nothing is resolved.

Franco's latest thing:
creating invisible
art offered for sale. 

I think I completely forgot to post this after writing it over a day ago. Where is my head?

Running my brain.

Hey folks!

I did my second 8 mile run in two weeks today, and I am pleased to say that while I am still not setting any land-speed records, I did shave a few minutes off last week's time. Probably partly because although it was still quite warm it was much less humid today than last Saturday.

I really wish I could tell two runners I encountered on the path today about their unfortunate wardrobe choices. One woman was wearing white running shorts and a black sports bra, but she (hopefully) had no idea that when her white shorts got wet they revealed the lacy underwear she had on underneath. Even if I had been close enough to tell her I probably wouldn't have, since then she would still have to find her way home knowing how exposed she was. Sigh. Another runner, a man, was wearing light gray cotton shorts to run in, and his groin area was quite sweaty...so that area of his shorts darkened considerably, making it appear as if he'd peed on himself. Guys: if you don't want to spring for technical fabric running gear, at least make it black or some other dark color!! Yikes.

Haiku News

Way to go, New York!
legalizing gay marriage
as everyone should.

This is probably
one of the only times that
they're sixth for something.

As if Holocaust
victims suffered not enough,
some women were raped.

On a lighter note,
Winklevoss twins just can't stop
suing Zuckerberg.

They're back!

I think it's high time to reinstate Haiku News. I don't even know why I stopped doing them. I am also going to try and post at least a few times a week for the rest of the year, we'll see how that goes.

"Jackass" Ryan Dunn
wrapped his car around a tree;
don't drink and drive, kids.

In related news,
Ebert's comments on Dunn's fate
got his page removed.

Megan Fox was fired
from "Transformers" sequel by
linking Bay, Hitler.

"Lost" actor marries
teenage girlfriend; I'm sure they
have tons in common.

Stay tuned for more!

100 days.

It's hard to believe that there are only 100 days at most until our next little boy arrives. My doctor has already assured me that because of my first son's hefty 9 pound-plus birth weight, she likely won't let me exceed the due date. He is so strong, even though he barely weighs over a pound at this point. I don't remember my older son kicking quite so often or so hard. I hope that doesn't mean he'll be a handful, but even if he is, I will love him more than life.

I am eager to find out whether this little guy shares my eldest's fair skin, hair and eyes or if he takes more after daddy's dark handsomeness. I'll get a bit of a hint in a few weeks when we have a 3-D ultrasound, but until then I'll just have my daydreams.

I am so proud of my two-year-old. He is coming out with new words daily, and I can tell he wants to say even more. I have no doubt he will be talking in paragraphs before I know it. The other day he was pretending to eat a sticker and saying "Mmm, yelicious." He learned the words "awesome" and "cool" this week, ensuring his hipster status. Listening to him trying to sing all the words of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is pretty entertaining, as he still doesn't know all the words, so he replaces some of them with rhyming syllables. Ahh.

Haiku News

Stocks rallied today,

good news for my 529

for my sons' college.

Seems it is unclear

whether 8-year-old knows just

what he gave at school.

Man's old Atari

video game cartridge fetched

over $30k!?

Minerva, pity party of one.

Sigh.

My son has gotten over the cold we both had last week, and seemed back to his sunny self today.

Other than that, today was, shall we say, challenging.

I was getting the boy ready for our afternoon walk when a sadly-familiar odor of urine wafted under my nose. Sure enough, our dog had taken a huge pee on my living room rug. Again. This time at least I can't blame myself because she had gone out on her regular schedule today. After we returned from the walk and I let her out again, I steam-cleaned the rug. It hadn't even had time to dry before I smelled something rather worse than pee. Yep, she decided to poop the biggest poop I've ever seen my 12 pound dog produce on the exact same spot. Anyone want a dog? Cheap? Free???

To top it off, I let myself blow off some steam on Facebook the other day by posting a status update related to my neighbor's daughter's trike being left on our common porch. My son sees it daily and has lately been carrying on or whining because he can't ride it. He doesn't have one yet but he will shortly. Anyway, I had made mention of the situation on Facebook, even throwing in the choice phrase of "stupid trike", and my neighbor saw it. Lovely. I don't think she liked me much to start with, but that certainly didn't help the situation. Of course I wrote her a message apologizing profusely and saying it wasn't her fault that my son was upset at all, there probably isn't anywhere else she can put it anyway, but I don't know if that will help things much. Sigh.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Haiku News

A breath of fresh air:

Coburn defends Pelosi,

then rips on Fox News.

Bad medicine here:

doctors perform c-section,

woman not pregnant.

Airline adds new charge

for passengers' carry-ons;

what's next? Charge for air?

Convalescing.

My sincere apologies for another prolonged absence. I contracted a nasty cold last Sunday and am only just getting over a stubborn cruddy cough, which I can tell you is at least 30 times more annoying when pregnant. Particularly because your choice of medications available is severely curtailed.

I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This morning I woke up after a relatively unbroken night's sleep, the first in a week. I was nearly floored (even though I was still lying down) by a huge wave of love and contentment. I realized how lucky I was to have such a wonderful husband and two (almost) beautiful little boys, and how much I loved them. I wished my husband hadn't already left for work so I could give him a huge hug. Adding to my increasing sense of glee is a prediction for several days of 70-degree weather in the next few days. The boy's new spring/summer wardrobe is in the wash in preparation for warmer days ahead. Birds have been helping me wake up the past few days.

I am confident that once I finally kick this illness, I will finally have energy to do some things I have been putting off. Namely, writing more poetry and hopefully biting the bullet and starting to edit that novel I wrote in November. Part of my motivation for writing more poetry is that April is National Poetry Month. Any ideas for topics/ other poetry-related things you'd like to see here are quite welcome, consider the comments section my suggestion box. A heads-up for this week's Poetry Challenge: I think it's high time we did Spring poems.

Haiku News

If you are surprised

Ricky Martin has come out,

you have no gay-dar.

High up on my list

of things I would never watch:

Levi Johnston's show.

Scary things afoot:

Michigan-based militia

planned to kill police.

A few small conversations.

"Mommy?"

"Yes, honey?"

"You OK, Mommy?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Are you OK?"

"I fine."

****

"Mommy?"

"Yes, honey?"

"Where going?"

"I'm going to be here with you, sweetie."

****

"Sweetie, after your snack we'll get your shoes on and go on a walk to the park!"

"Shoes on, walk, park! Whee!"

Haiku News

Way to go, Ms. James,

but your timing could have been

better--March Madness?

New Jersey Wal-Mart

has a mystery to solve:

who's the PA jerk?

This piece makes me sad,

between ignorant adults

and lazy parents.

Could it be?

The snow has melted. The sun seems to be out more than the clouds of late. The past two days I have been able to take the boy for a walk without needing a jacket of any kind. In fact, yesterday was the first day I could take the boy to the park and put him on a swing in months. The look on his face was priceless. Could it be...spring? I am hoping against hope that this is indeed the case. I am tired of my nose running and my fingers hurting anytime I venture outside for longer than a few minutes.

The boy is really turning into a mimic these days. Yesterday he sneezed and I said "bless you," which he promptly repeated. He is also working on "I love you". His pronunciation of "dinosaur" reminds me of a New Yorker even though he has never heard that accent before. I am finding that more and more he will repeat something I said moments before. While I do not generally use any sort of bad language, I will definitely need to be on high alert from now on that I don't say anything I don't want a tiny voice repeating.

As for the littlest one, last Friday we found out our boy is getting a little brother. He is already a bit of a wily one; I have had several days where I could feel him kick high enough to put my hand on my belly and feel it from the outside, but it seems that every time I am around other people he stays conveniently head up so that all his kicks are too low to put a hand on. Stinker.

Haiku News

I'm sorry, but why

should I care that George Clooney

frowned at the Oscars?

I will never know

what drives teachers to have sex

with teenage students.

This one makes me ill:

since when is love "dangerous"

to a high school prom?

Anticipation...

It is so hard to wait for things sometimes. Now that little munchkin has started regularly making his/her presence known, it's getting more "real" and I am really excited about the "big" ultrasound on Friday. Last time we kept it a surprise, which was awesome, but this time I just have to know if our little boy is getting a little brother or a little sister. So hopefully if the baby cooperates we'll know in just under 48 hours. Now that it's so close it is really hard to wait. I am trying to keep busy, but I'm sure you are familiar with the feeling: the more you are looking forward to something, the slower time seems to go until you get there. Sigh...at least tomorrow I will have my mom here to help me pass the time.

Speaking of big brother, he is just so funny lately. He seems to be able to recognize the numbers 1, 3, 4 and 5, and often if you start counting he will join you. If he starts it himself though, it is likely to sound like "Four, five, four, five!" He also likes to say "green," although I don't think he quite knows what that is yet. He is just learning Mickey and Minnie Mouse, and Minnie frequently comes out "money," as in the other day when he pointed at her picture and said "Yaaaaay Money!" What a silly guy. We live close enough to our church to be able to walk, and the last few weeks we have taken our little boy by the hand and had him walk to church with us rather than riding in the stroller. I am proud to say he will frequently make both trips with no problems.

Haiku News

"Take your child to work"

taken to a new level:

kid directs airplanes.

Lesson for the wise:

if a girl asks for your kid,

call authorities.

Another good tip:

when departing on cruise ships,

bring sanitizer.

Miss me?

I do.

Seriously, sometimes I miss my brain lately. I think the process of growing a new baby eats it to a certain extent. "Pregnancy brain" is in full effect from early on, and I'm lucky to remember to take my son upstairs with me when I go to change his diaper. I mispronounce words or get sentences in the wrong order. Once I plop down on the couch for the night it's usually over for me to get anything else done. Oh, and lately babe rewards my laziness with a few barrel rolls or gentle shadow-boxing. Ahh.

My little boy is the cutest thing ever lately. He loves making all kinds of animal noises (my personal favorites: the peacock: "ah-aaah" and the frog: "bi-hit") and lately has been pretty obsessed with letters. I swear, I do not sit him down with flash cards, he just has been pointing at them and I will tell him what they are, and he remembers. He has an alphabet puzzle that he will go through and name most of the letters right off the bat with no prompting. He just turned two on the 4th. We may be in trouble here. :)

To top it off, I am somewhat of an Olympic nerd so I am continuously distracted by watching the various Olympic events, particularly the figure skating (even though the new scoring system leaves me completely baffled). I guess I am a sucker for the looks on Olympians' faces (not JUST Americans, really anyone) that realize that all of their hard work and dedication has paid off in winning a medal. Or sometimes (such as in the case of the American pairs skaters) they are just happy with getting a personal best score. I love that. Having competed on a much lower level in horseback riding, I remember having personal goals that felt just as good as winning when I reached them.

So, this is my way of saying, my apologies for being so absent lately. I guess it is shortchanging my son if I don't come on and keep track of what he's doing despite my mental lameness. I am going to try to be better now (I know, I've said that before too...I mean it this time!). I will be back tomorrow with a new poetry challenge.

Haiku News

Girl sues principal

over Facebook page against

teacher; cites free speech.

Kevin Eubanks quits

"Tonight Show with Jay Leno;"

some know when to leave.

Problems keep coming

for Toyota; now U.S.

probing Corollas.

Urgh.

So, a couple at our church who have been absent for awhile came back to baptize their two children, the younger of which is 7 months old. When the wife saw me, she asked if I was 6 or 7 months pregnant. Uh, no, lady, try 3 1/2. Sheesh, it's really nice to make another woman feel like a cow when she's nowhere near as big as she will get at the end! If my last pregnancy is any indication, I will be pretty large even at 7 months... but I guess that's what happens when you are short-waisted. There's nowhere for baby to go but out. :)

Haiku News

Toyota suspends

sales: a pesky problem with

accelerator.

Missing Tech student

believed found on remote farm;

sad news for family.

"Pants on the Ground" guy:

I seem to be alone in

being over you.

Milkshake day.

I've been looking forward to today for quite some time. Today marks the day I decided it would be safe to announce to the world that we are expecting again. I was a bit more cautious this time, since we've so recently been burned, but this one seems to be sticking around. I guess now you all know why I've been so flaky and tired lately.

I suppose I should explain the title of this post. It's Milkshake Day because I decided if I made it to 13 weeks this time I would celebrate with a milkshake from our local ice cream place, which are enormous but not super healthy, so I only indulge once in a blue moon. I don't think a milkshake has ever tasted quite so sweet. Now I feel like I can actually start looking forward to July with some degree of certainty and breathe at least a little sigh of relief.

Haiku News

Infrastructure throws

a wrench in Haiti relief;

hope that straightens out.

Snow Day.

Well, the storm our weathermen had been predicting hit as expected. I ended up counting my shoveling the front walk and sweeping snow off our porch and stairs as my exercise for the day. I love snow but I wish it knew how to keep itself off of the sidewalk and stairs all by itself. Sigh.

The boy was charming as always. He finally started singing again today--he'd taken a few weeks' hiatus--returning to his old favorite, "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." He doesn't really know most of the words, so he makes them up as he goes along, but it is still the cutest thing ever, if I do say so myself.

Haiku News

Burned body in trash

identified as former

Playboy model--yikes.

Newark TSA

agent left post, allowing

security breach.

Do we really need

our cars to read Twitter feeds

aloud as we drive?

200th Post.

This here is my 200th post. In it I will have to offer yet another apology: I just don't have enough mental energy to get the poetry challenge up tonight. In all honesty, I didn't get any entries in the Christmas week one anyway (even my own!), so maybe you all can weigh in on whether to extend that one or create a new one tomorrow. I would love to hear your suggestions.

The boy is really being cute lately. He likes to pile his Little People animals into his little train-cars and say "bye bye!". If you ask him where something is, he'll say "Where go?" and if he finds it, he will say "There is!" with a really cute little lisp. Sigh. I think he is enjoying being home and back in his own comfy bed because he has indulged me with good naps and night-sleeps since we've been back from vacation. I hope that continues.

Haiku News

Thanksgiving gunman

who killed four, including tot,

nabbed on TV tip.

Hubble Telescope

looks back thirteen billion years:

baby galaxies.

Nexus Smartphone claims

it's not an "iPhone killer;"

I guess time will tell.

Sluggishness.

This winter seems to have slowed my blood. It is so bitterly cold the last few days, it has made me loath to go outside or do much of anything other than sleep and burrow under blankets. I apologize for the lack of poetry challenge this week; I promise to be better next week. I figured it would be pretty pointless to put it up on a Friday night.

By my mom's request, here is the link to the recipe for the Macadamia Nut Butter cookies with dried cranberries. They are really good and don't take long to make, I recommend them so long as you have a food processor of some kind to grind up the macadamia nuts.

Haiku News

Centenarian

believed to be murdered by

roommate, nintety-eight.

"Sins of my Father"

features druglord's son's attempt

to make some amends.

Hour shortage.

Lately it has been hard to find the time to fit everything in that I would like to do. I am in the process now of making my family's favorite Christmas cookies, and while I have the first ones made I have to wait until 11PM tonight to bake the second kind (they have to chill in the fridge for 3 hours and I forgot that until I started making them at 7:30...drat! At least I will have a trusty helper in my dear husband. That will be kind of fun, since I am usually doing the cookies alone.

My little boy is growing up so fast. We asked him earlier where his knee was and he said, "Knee!" and pointed to it. He also marveled at the tropical fish tank at my doctor's office the other day and said "Ishhhh," with a very smooshy face. It used to be that he would learn a new word every week or so, now it seems to be more like one or two a day. It really won't be long now before he is breaking out long sentences!

Haiku News

Med student seeks tips

from her alma mater's coach,

wins $100k.

Can you say cheater?

Senator admits he tapped

girlfriend for a job.

Funny kid.

I love what a personality my little boy is turning out to have. He will often approach the dog's food bowl, a no-no for him, and then shake his head and say, "No-o", then walk away from it. He had the same reaction with one of his books at bedtime tonight, prompting me to think he was tired enough to skip that one.

This evening, just before dinner, the boy had been wandering around playing with the toys that caught his interest as I talked with his father about our respective days. Finally, he planted himself between us, looked up at me, and screeched: "Uuuuuuuuuuu-puh!" Well, okay, sir! What a funny little dude.

Haiku News

Tom Brokaw involved

in fatal car crash in Bronx;

he and wife unhurt.

Despite total lack

of evidence, jury finds

Knox guilty--tragic.

Delaware U. grad

student discovers letter

Tom Jefferson sent.

A Christmas miracle!

I managed to be amazed by the same phenomenon every year, it seems. I go to make one of my husband's favorite kinds of cookies, and when preparing the dough (which uses no eggs, just a lot of butter, sugar and flour) it always looks like it will never go together. Finally, I remember that the recipe has a note that says "if dry, add 1-2 tablespoons milk." I add one tablespoon of milk, fully expecting to have to add another, but five seconds later the entire bowl is filled with a completely cohesive dough. Amazing.

The other thing that I had nearly forgotten about Christmas was a child's wonder at seeing a Christmas tree. The boy and I were watching the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and I was watching his face when they pressed the button. His eyes got really wide, and then he said, "Woooooooow." Just priceless.

My dear friend and reader of this blog, Kristin, has published a poem in an online poetry journal. You can read her fine work here.

Haiku News

Graduation joy

cut short by a fatal bomb

in Mogadishu.

Amnesiac's brain

is dissected as I write;

you can watch it here.

Real-life "Terminal"

unfolds in Tokyo airport;

Chinese man squats there.

I'm back!!

Hi everyone!

I not only survived NaNoWriMo, but I won!! I never thought I would be able to catch up after starting out nine days in, but it really helped that I was able to sit down and knock out 4,000 words a day for at least five days in a row. I also found that the site Write or Die helped to kick my butt. You set a time limit and a word goal, and hit "write," and you attempt to reach your goal. As long as you keep typing, nothing bad happens, but if you stop for long enough (I think it is at least ten seconds), the site will play "MMM Bop" at full volume until you start up again. Now there is some motivation.

Another site I discovered in my writing toils was Freerice.com; when you answer one multiple choice question correctly on their site, they will donate 100 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program, and you can play as long as you like. There were a few days lately where I managed to donate quite a bit of rice, searching for an interesting vocabulary word to work into my novel.

Finally, I realized at the end of my labors that I actually have a piece with some potential. At least I don't want to burn it or bury it right now. I would like to see if I can scrape the grime off and shine it up enough to show it to other people. So I'll probably be working on that over the next month or three, but I think it is worth it. I would love to get a book published someday, and if this one is it, that would be pretty awesome.

I realize that I used to do Poetry Challenges on Tuesdays, but being that I just wrote 50,000 words in 21 days, I am pretty spent just now. I will pick that up next week. However, I think I have a few haiku in me.

Haiku News

Argentine model

dies after cosmetic butt

surgery went bad.

Baldwin calls movie

career a "complete failure;"

"Complicated" blows.

Though his mom is gone,

baby Moses has always

known a mother's love.