Remembering...

I read this on A Small Tribe. It's an excerpt from Baby Catcher: Confessions of a Modern Midwife by Peggy Vincent.

"So my first child, this not-yet-teenaged boy, pulled a wooden chair to my side and draped his thin arm across my shoulders , saying "Well, Mom, here's how it is. See, I was one (Spirit Baby) myself, so that must be how I know. Anyway, every woman has a circle of babies that goes around and around above her head and those babies are all the possible babies she could have her in whole life. Every month, one of those babies is first in line. If she gets pregnant, then that's the baby that's born. If she doesn't get pregnant, the baby goes back in the circle and keeps going around with all the others. If she gets pregnant but something bad happens before the baby's born...now listen Mom, here's the really cool part- it goes back into the circle, but it becomes a Spirit Baby, and all the other babies give it cuts. Each month it's always first in line. Isn't that great?"


She would be a year old today.

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The Good Stuff: Annie's Treasure Trove

Today I stopped by my favorite little shop in Brooklyn: Annie's Blue Ribbon General Store to buy a birthday gift for a friend. This store is such a gem in a neighborhood that otherwise isn't so pretty. Everything in Annie's store is unique or cute or pretty or funny or all of the above. It's a great place to get a gift for almost anyone in your life. I wanted to set a limit of $10 to spend on my friend today and walked out spending $48 because E and I just had to have this great Japanese Quince candle by Seda France for ourselves:

It's burning as I type this and our apartment smells divine!

For the birthday gift I bought an adorable fuchsia *peace* Buddha and some yummy peach lip gloss in a cool vintage-y tin.

Annie is so über-sweet & cool, which makes shopping here that much more enjoyable. It's very hard for me to walk by this store and not go in. I think I did alright today considering I only bought one thing for myself...and it's really for our home, not me! Check out Annie's blog to see what other great finds she has in store!

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Things that go bump

While taking my quick shower this morning before heading to mommy/baby group in Fort Greene Park, I heard Indio crying and E trying to settle him down. And then I heard the most dreaded sound of a new mom: a large bang and the piercing cry of my flesh and blood. I knew he had hit his head and quickly tried to rinse off all the soap before checking on E since I didn't want him to think he couldn't handle the situation on his own.

Once semi-dried and out of the tub, I asked E what happened to which he replied that he had whacked Indio's precious little noggin on the door frame while trying to get the exercise ball in position for some pre-nap bouncing/soothing. Ack! What were we supposed to do? Do we call the doctor? Head the to the ER? Ice? What???

There was a definite bump and redness above his right eye, but he seemed fine. E didn't think we needed to call Dr. Ajl, but in light of the recent news about head injuries I did anyway. Dr. Ajl called back about an hour later to relieve my worries, telling me Indio will be fine and to just keep an eye on him.

I guess this is only the beginning of many bumps and bruises to come.

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City Mouse

Today I proved that I can mother like no other in this chaotic city. Indio and I headed into Manhattan with Sophia for a long day of lunching, shopping, and good ol' catching up since I hadn't seen Sophia in what felt like ages. The first 3 hrs of our day were pretty nondescript other than the atrocious lines at Babies R Us in Union Square. Indy slept until after we finished our lunch at Lannan. I breastfed him at the restaurant but waited to change his diaper until we left the restaurant so as not to gross out the other patrons.

It was a gorgeous day [so long overdue after this sloppy winter] so I decided to change Indio in Union Square Park, just as Hank Azaria walked by! Sophia and I headed to 5th Ave to window shop and at the Gap Indio began his hungry cry, so off to a dressing room we went for another feed.

Indio was fantastic the entire day and endured my and Sophia's languorous walks through the shops of Union Square and lower 5th Ave without so much as a fuss when he was hungry or wet. He even made it through an hour at Forever 21! I was pretty proud of myself for lasting so long and being able to breastfeed without any hesitation. But the most impressive part of the day was on our way home on the R train. Indio was getting restless and it was time for him to eat once again [I told you it was a long day!]. At first I was just going to let all the passengers on the train endure his cries since it was only a few more stops till we were home, but his little cries broke my heart and I ended up breastfeeding him ON THE TRAIN. Never have I felt so liberated.

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The Good Stuff: Shutterbug

I have been coveting a digital SLR camera for what feels like forever, but couldn't justify the price tag of a new camera when my little Canon SD800IS takes great photos. I've Googled the different models out there on so many occasions I could probably recite the specific features of each camera by heart. [That doesn't mean I know what half of it means though!] Emil has been on my case to decide on a make and model, mostly because I'm sure he's sick of hearing me spew out facts about why a dSLR would be so great while continually saying I don't need one, but also because I take so many photos, especially since Indio's birth

I finally agreed to go to J&R sometime soon to "try out" the Canon Rebel XS and XSi with the Nikon D60 because I wasn't quite sure which one I would buy if I were buying a dSLR. So, the day before my birthday, after a delicious brunch at reBar, Emil told me that my gift was a dSLR of my choice! He wouldn't listen to my protests that I didn't need one, we shouldn't be spending the money, blah, blah, blah...

So, we walked over the Brooklyn Bridge [apparently along with every other New Yorker and tourist who thought it was a beautiful day for a stroll] to J&R and after a lengthy discussion with the salesperson, I went home with this:
The Nikon D60. It was part of a package deal that came with a 18-55mm lens as well as a 55-200mm lens. I'm so excited to try it out!

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Brooklyn Icon: Tom's Diner

Finally, after almost 6 years of living in Brooklyn, I made it over to Tom's Restaurant on Washington Ave in Prospect Heights. I had heard stories about his famous shakes and crab cakes so many times in the past that I just had to sample at least one. Alicia and I ordered the chocolate shake while Emil stuck to his usual, strawberry. While waiting for our milkshakes to be shook, we were served a sweet, hot coffee concoction that even Emil enjoyed. Tom came over to greet Indio and gave me 4 quarters, each from a different state, to add to Indy's college fund.

After a filling lunch at Szechuan Delight, there was no room for crab cakes. We'll have to come back for a taste another day.

Milkshakes for Baby

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It's getting hot in here

Indio felt really warm last night so I brought out the dreaded rectal thermometer to take his temperature. It was 101.7F! Now, being a first time mom with a first time fever on her hands I think I was pretty calm. I pulled out the behemoth tome, The Baby Book by Dr. Sears to see how serious this fever was [and what my freakout level should be]. Then I checked with my online community, TB and called the after-hours Dr line. This whole time, Indio was completely happy, smiley and acting like normal.

While waiting for a call back, I gave Indy some infant Tylenol, which he seemed to enjoy. Dr Chung called us back and told me if his temperature doesn't go down below 100.4F in an hour to take him into the ER! I didn't want to even think about doing that b/c all I remembered was in Newborn Care class we were told that taking a baby to the ER with a fever would result in a spinal tap if his temperature was above 100.3F! I couldn't even imagine Indio going through a spinal tap. Luckily, jojo, a pediatrician on TB reassured me that he was too old to fall into the *drastic measures* spinal tap category and that actually, his temp wasn't that high and he didn't even need Tylenol, especially since his spirits were still high. Phew, I instantly began breathing again!

Today, Indy continued to be happy, smiley but his fever didn't diminish too much. It was 100.8F in the morning and has now come down to 99.5F. He is sleeping soundly in his cosleeper [woohoo...we have crossed that line of sleeping on his own vs. sleeping in our bed!]. We have an appt with Dr. Ajl in the morning. I guess if he's completely ok by then, he will have to get a few more immunizations. I hope Emil's ready b/c I won't be in the room for that.

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