MaternityShare

I caught in his car seat on a drive. My mom says this to Will as a term of endearment when she speaks with him. “Mormor” is Swedish for “mother’s mother” (or “grandma”) and, I think “hjartegull” means something along the line of a pet name like “love” or “dear heart”.

I used the Voice Memos app to capture this audio on my iPhone. I pulled over after I stopped recording and emailed it to my mom. She loved that.

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I just realized I need to work on my inner tech to figure out how to post audio here ;}

Will is wont to adopt stray dogs nowadays. Today he temporarily adopted “Toby” who I am sure was named after a little pup Toby he has at home (we gave his original pup the name Toby which we made short for Toblerone. He came with a chocolate care package Will’s Lola and Lolo* gave us).

Will hugged Toby the 2nd and told him he loved him in a tender voice. It was so sweet that I wanted to buy it for him. But, I heard Billy’s voice of reason and minamalism in my head, then, asked Will to say goodbye to Toby. Will pressed Toby back into the fold of the other plushies and said a very sweet “goodbye Toby”.

I love this kid.

*Lola and Lolo are Tagalog for Grandmother and Grandfather

We have completed day two of daycare at Teacher’s family style daycare. These two days we considered a trial period to see how things went. I can tell that he is adjusting to the new setting. He is observing the other children, trying out new toys, actions, and concepts. Overall, Will seems to be thriving.

When I came to pick him up from day 2 I played with the kids, talked with Teacher about how Will’s day went and what to do moving forward.

The time has come to look for child care. Will needs the stimulation and I need to work. So, today Will and I toured a local child care center that is run by the city.

A few things that I was surprised by is that they were not open to cloth diapering but more importantly, they get their food from Sysco I am not sure on the specifics of the offerings this company has but I was told that there are no organic foods and that they use processed foods. Why are we serving sub-par foods to our children? Where ever I end up placing Will in day care I am will work to transition them over to serving healthy foods so that the children will be healthy and happy. When I was growing up, I ate pretty well but too much of the American Diet. When I found out that whole foods make me feel energized and happier I was thankful. I can’t believe how much of my life I was eating crap and feeling crappy. It doesn’t have to be like this. There are options. Just look for them. Make it happen. It is not as hard or expensive as you might thing. If you need ideas feel free to ask me but there are a ton of resources out there and an increasing awareness about this issue.

Don’t settle for sub-par food for yourself or for anyone. If you are addicted to them or just used to them, challenge yourself to make the switch to whole grains and fresh foods. I think you will find you will become addicted to feeling great. Your whole life will improve.

Will loves music. I suppose all babies do. We don’t play him music specifically for babies. He listens to our music.

I am putting together a collection of tunes that gets Will rocking. “The Will Mix”. Stay tuned. I will share it with you here.

Spoiler: his favorite artist is The Juan MacLean

Will loves to dance! Sometimes his head moves back and forth so fast he becomes a blur. I have tried to mimic him. It hurts my aging and scared neck and makes me dizzy. He also raises his fists and pumps them to the beat or just sways back and forth with his fists framing his face.

As I type, he is playing his toy xylophone / piano thing-a-ma-bob that we have on loan via the mommy toy share I am doing with my mom friends.

Rock on Will!

Billy set up his keyboard today so that Will could play with it. Will loves all the levers, dials, knobs and, buttons.

When we went to Portland earlier this month Will was in love with my mom’s piano. Oh my did he play and play and play. Billy would sit him on the bench and watch and sometimes play with Will. Will played with a art that probably only a mother could love. To my ears he was composing. And, this made my mom decide to keep the piano when she was about to sell it.

Well, this was what inspired Billy bring out the keyboard now, when Will is only 13 months old. Rock on Will.

I was just glancing through my enormous iPhoto collection and saw this pic. This is how I currently feel even though this picture was taken almost one year ago on September 5th, 2008 when Will was less than 2 months old. I think I look tired but happy and in love with my baby. Will looks so peaceful and content and happy. I have certainly had my ups and downs since Will was born and I am still having them but, I work to keep them separate from the experience I have with Will. I hate when I get so stressed out about what I “should” be doing or figuring out how the hell I am going to make money so we can have our needs and wants met. I get so stressed out about the pressures of life that I do find myself neglecting things that I value highly like my health and happiness as well as treasuring every moment with Will and playing with him.

What the hell can I do about taking care of our monetary needs and our family needs?

My mind feels pretty cluttered, my body is tight, and I am wound up as well as exhausted.

Given all the stresses I feel in my life and see in others around me I am baffled at how any of these things can even matter when we I have clean water, a roof, food, clothing, and personal safety when most of the world does not have all of these things.

Perspective. I will take a dose of that to cure me from the stress and guilt I feel pulling me down when I want to be rising up.

I appreciate my life and the gifts afforded to me. Now, I would appreciate if I would move my ass forward and do good for me, my family, and the world.

Will turned one on July 14th. In my prior post you can see a pic of him getting his bday present from mom and dad when he woke up.

We had a picnic BBQ with a lovely group of friends. (Side note: I used punchbowl.com for the invite and later found a function that shows you who look at their invite. Looks like a lot of folks had our invite go into their spam folder. Grrr.)

Our friend Art (Uncle Art) took photos. I have yet to look at mine (oops, bad mom) so, in the meantime, please enjoy Art’s photos of Will’s bday party!

We celebrated at the Emeryville Marina. We had quite a nice time!