Zora Travels

Lucky #9

Noodle is now slumbering in the state of Nevada.  It was her ninth airplane ride...this one packed with Pacquiao fight fans...and after a bumpy and nauseating descent into the Las Vegas Valley, playing with Aunti Anna, and cuddling with her Lola, she insisted on her same bed time.  Quite the little schedule she's keeping.

This weekend's gallivanting is nipping at the heels of our Washington trip.  Luckily, Nora is a super-traveler.  Ever the observer and social butterfly.  This makes traveling with her enjoyable.  Not that post-baby vacations are at all similar to those of pre-baby.  I have these hazy memories of landing in Vegas, helping myself to several Bailey's on ice, snacking on salty nuts, and staying up into the wee hours of the morning watching International Househunters.  Mornings were lazy...waking up well after 10am...smelling the sizzle of breakfast.  Drinking giant cups of coffee.  Bathing in the light of the giant television.

Now there are glasses of water, bowls of blueberries for snacking, and an early bed time (to preserve my energy for the multiple nursings).  Gurgles will wake me at dawn.  Noodle and I will greet the desert morning light around 6:00am.  Breakfast will contain the colors of the rainbow...little shine; lotta fiber.  Coffee will be herbal tea.

But, hey, at least there will still be the television.  All of our parents have cable and glorious shiny televisions.  Daniel and I both sit slack-jawed drooling in each of their homes.  Playing a tricky game of keeping Nora's face turned while loving the images ourselves (our hypocrisy starts early).

Someone once said that vacations are more work for the mother than staying at home.  Oh, how true this is.  The thinking, packing, traveling, unpacking, sleeping pattern shifts, nap concerns, and repacking, traveling, unpacking, laundry, re-shifting sleeping patters, and re-establishing naps.  It's exhausting.  And worth it.  We are going to keep right on doing it.  Whenever possible.  Nora needs to visit our families...and also the big beautiful world.

After all, Daniel and I met because of travel.  I typed the following words into the search window on match.com.

"Gabriel Garcia Marquez + travel"

Splish-Splash

Directions for a great afternoon:

• Collect three chubby babies
• Put them each in swim diapers
• Fill a $5 pool from Target
• Throw in a few cheap plastic toys
• Let babies frolic whilst moms eat watermelon
• Dry babies
• Watch them eat teething biscuits whilst continuing to chat

**It's that simple.

So, when the moments come of exhaustion, frustration, envy, isolation, and stunted intellect, I want to remember a day like today.  A crisp morning send off to Daniel, followed by talking in the driveway to nice neighbors.  A bootcamp workout in the shade while my mom cared for Noodle (thanks, Mom!).  A late morning coffee with friends and their babies.  And an afternoon of play like the one above. 

In the evening there was even a moment that I will long savor.  I was standing in the kitchen, wrapping blue corn tortillas around veggie sausage links, blue cheese, and lettuce, as Nora played on the quilt with her wooden spoons.  NPR news prattled on about the only story of the past few days (someone prominent has apparently been killed).  Soon, I notice her heading off the quilt.  On the prowl.  Where will she go?  Towards the allure of the cat food?  To the DVD's and electronic equipment?  Towards Maxwell licking his areas on the rug?  To the pile of sandals and shoes?  Nope.  She pads and pads and shimmies her way straight towards me.  Suddenly my mouth is full of tacos and her little hands are smacking the tops off my feet.  Noodle just wanted some time with mama.  It had been too long.  Time granted, Buddha Bee Bee.

Here's some pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copycat

When I read other blogs before writing my own post, I am doomed to repeat their themes.  It's like in high school whenever I would hear someone with an accent, I would instantly change my own speech patterns to mimic them.  This would annoy those around me.  I found it amusing, even patting myself on the back for such talent.  Surely the proper cadence of Liverpool, Sydney, Berlin, and Tijuana were butchered by my tongue, but I loved the lingual gymnastics.

But now I face this screen with Claire's recent post about places that shape us and Luke's post about historical moments that will resonate years from now for little Alice.  These thoughts will now take flight on their kite strings...hoping to catch their own wind eventually.

***before these thoughts; however, I need to finally post just a bit about little Alice.  Nora's kindred spririt in the Northwest.  Her Evergreen soul-sister.  These two spicy girls share so much (besides super parents)...and it was with much anticipation that they finally met upon Courtney's parents' lawn when I flew home.  Here are some of my favorite pics from the event.  Maybe at the next encounter, they will take more of an interest in eachother...and not just Alice's shoes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regarding places and their hold upon our hearts and minds...my trip "home" last week was made more special precisely because Nora was in my lap as the tiny plane bumped over the Cascade Mountains.  Her chubby fingers (with razor-sharp hang nails) gripped mine as we we fell into the embrace of the Wenatchee Valley.  As we skipped along the runway, the Columbia River slithered her shiny skin back towards my father's house and Lake Chelan, and the snow-capped peaks reminded me of the four seasons.

Using "home" for Washington is taking liberties with the concept.  I have been a "California girl" far longer than I ever ran along the river with my dog in the Evergreen State.  But those early years stamped the scent of apply blossoms, the trickle of Pete's creek (pronounced crick), the texture of river reeds formed into necklaces, and the taste of sun-warmed strawberries bursting in my mouth as I plucked the morning crop from the hillside. 

Regarding the historical events Nora will associate with her infancy.  The Jasmine Revolutions, Osama's death, Obama's presidency, Alabama tornadoes, Japanese earthquakes/tsunami, California's deficit, Tea Partiers, "birthers," US debt ceiling, Guantanamo Bay, "don't ask; don't tell," "right to marry"...which concepts and figures will she even recognize from this list?  Which will I still remember?

Yes (with head bashedly drooping), I watched the royal wedding with my daughter (as my mom did with me).  I'll also keep the Newsweek magazine that covers it...but I also have the LA Times from Obama's inauguration.  Not a perfect balance...but it's something.  Papers for her to one day finger, headlines, and ads, and articles to ponder from years long since passed.  It is exciting to consider all the treasures of paper, glass, metal, stone, and canvas that her box will accumulate over the years.  Providing hours of enjoyment some dusty afternoon.  She'll also have my letters written in her wire-bound journal...from the first days I knew of a growing seed within my body...the first heartbeat, the first labor pains, our first morning together when we danced with her father in the hospital room...and a calendar from her first year with memories hastily noted on each day.

Today's square will read, "clapped over and over."

Bravo, Noodle, bravo indeed.

Below is a video of our giggling good times...and some pics from my "Global Storytime" that I lead a few times a month.   I announced today, by the way, that I will start passing around a little basket from now on, during storytime, and the suggested donation of $1-$2 from each mom will go towards sponsoring a child at the Kololo school through Ethiopian Reads and TESFA, Julie's fabulous fundraising project.  We only need $252 per year...and I think my "Mommy & Me" friends can swing it.  We shall see.  A book in the hands of our children will help put a book in the hands of the "Kololo Cuties."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No baby + free sake = trouble

I just returned home from a monthly "Mom's Night Out" with some friends.  They are a new group of women I met in January.  Nora was still a little puddin' pie, unable to roll over, both of us sleep-deprived, and she was still quite the screamer.  On a beautiful crisp January day, in the middle of my first motherhood winter, there were suddenly these fellow moms who could go on walks, meet for coffee, and enjoy languid afternoons talking about all things baby.

And once every few weeks...our beloved partners stay home to watch over monitors of slumbering babies...and we meet up for dinner and drinks.  Tonight's dinner was not spectacular but the ambiance, the comradery, the flames dancing from the fire pit, the karaoke, and the $1 sake shots made for an interesting night.  A night of laughter, loads of "How's your baby?," followed by sincere interest in the response, and a plethora of scary house-breaking-in stories to make me completely paranoid.

I sang, "Bobby McGee," "Stop in the Name of Love." and "Walkin' after Midnight."  It was a hoot!

Now I'm home.  Pumping my nightly bottle (remember 4 oz = freedom) and feeling grateful for my new friends.  Women who are recent addition in my life but because of this experience we share, have already come to mean so much to me.

Fotos am Sonntag: 32 Weeks - Owl Girl

The sun was magnificent today.  Warm air and blue skies greeted Noodle and I this afternoon as we spread out on the grass for our belated photo shoot.  Nora is 32 weeks old.  Crawling after objects of her fancy.  Splashing that two-teeth gummy smile at Daniel and I.  Wowing us with her vocalizations, her grins, her straight-body protestations, and her flapping arms that madly flail when she's revving up.

I am also proclaiming today my intention to blog each day in May.  There are many meandering thoughts that I often wish to spill into cyberspace.  Travel dreams and memories and wishes.  This daily writing will encourage me to maintain a vocabulary, a hunger, a mind, and a voice that goes beyond motherhood and the minutiae of hours passed with Nuglett.  Pulling ideas from the thick puddles in my mind and making connection to a world that is so much bigger than this little house and my little life within in.

Love her clasped hands in this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Squinting from the bright sun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just a pile of sweetness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Oh, Silly Mama, surely you don't think these blocks are going to stay together."