We're having a koyote birthday/housewarming/end of summer BBQ potluck tomorrow (Wednesday the 13th) evening. We'll be providing grilled meat, veggies, cake, and stuff.

RSVP here if you're interested. Address to follow in a locked post - tell me if you're interested in coming and aren't able to see it.

Really rushed post...

Happy 3rd Birthday Leif!

Just a reminder - his party is at 4:00 (until whenever) this Saturday at the playground at Slide Hill Park in Davis. It's a potluck, so please bring food, but don't feel obligated to bring presents. There is a (pay) pool there, and I've heard something about the possibility of swimming elsewhere afterwards, so bring a swimsuit if you want. RSVP here if you can, but feel free to show up if you don't.

Most of the guests will be adults and there won't be any organized kids games or anything (though you may be roped into building a sandcastle or two), so please don't be turned off by the idea of a kid's party :)

Happy Birthday to my dear little brother, hideousallusion!

Appetite changes are definitely kicking in.

We went to a party today. Most of the food was pretty unappetizing, even though I'd usually like it. Which made me feel kind of bad, since koyote did most of the cooking, except that it's his fault in the first place, so I shouldn't feel too bad.

Soy may be turning me off again. Possibly sesame oil, too.

I was seriously considering grabbing beef/pork off people's plates until I finally got some of my own. No interest in chicken, though. Usually I probably would have passed up the red meat entirely in favor of the chicken, or possibly even just stuck with the tofu.

A seaweed salad I'd usually be all over looked gross.

Sweet stuff is less appetizing. I still ate more than I should have, but that was largely out of habit and because it seemed more paletable than most of the rest of the food.

I don't normally like baba ganoush much, but either the stuff there was unusually good, or it's another Weird Pregnancy Appetite Thing. I didn't eat nearly enough of it. (No, really. I had one bite of it and somehow didn't manage to get back to it). The tapenad was yummy, too.

Hmm. I think that Mediterranean in general seems a lot more appetizing than Oriental.

I'm going for the strawberries big time, but had some rather disappointing blackberries.

I get so tired these days. By noon I feel like I've pulled an all nighter. There was a four week old baby there who was happy just being held by whoever for most of the time, rather than running around like a banshee. Made me want a more sedentary model of child. Though I'm sure that once I get one, I'll be quite ready for it to entertain itself as well as Leif does.

(And yes, I know the phrase is "screaming like a banshee." He did plenty of that, too)

The doctor's test yesterday said I was pregnant. Ya think?

This morning Leif decided to take a nap at 9:30AM. This is quite unusual for him, but turned out to be a good thing later.

Today I ran over a bull snake on my bike. I think the trailer went over it, too. I surprised myself by immediately starting to sob, but it seemed to be ok - it slithered away into the brush as soon as it got over the shock.

We went to a BBQ this evening. It was great fun. Leif surprised us by falling asleep on the way there (probably due to his way-early morning nap), and surprised us even more by staying passed out for a good hour and a half or more. I actually had time to socialize. Wow. This is very not normal!

When he woke up and discovered that he was at the playground with lots of yummy food and nice people, he was quite happy.

He played with a little boy who turned two a few days ago and was talking up a storm. He not only said he was going up the ladder - he said (correctly) that he was going up the right side of the ladder.

As I've said, I'm not particularly worried about Leif, but it is tough seeing other kids Leif's age or younger letting everyone know exactly what is going on inside their heads. I expect they also tend to get interacted with on a higher level, as it is obvious how much they understand. I'm guilty of this myself. I know he understands a lot, but the more verbal 2 year olds seem to be understanding more than I've attributed to him. I don't know whether there is any truth to this or not.

It also makes me wonder if I'm not doing enough to mentally stimulate him. I know, kids develop at different rates and all. But I'm the mom - worrying is my job.

Leif threw a little one year old girl today. He wasn't trying to be mean - a big kid (10-12) was carrying him around yesterday, and he had a blast. From the way it happened, I expect he was just trying to do the same for her, but didn't quite have the strength to actually hold on. Still, it was incredibly embarrasing. He THREW her, geez! I guess we'll be keeping a very very close eye on him near smaller kids for a while.

I love our washing machine. It makes me happy.

The party went well. The number who showed up was just about perfect, given the space we have. Much fun was had, and we'll be subsisting off of hummus and tatziki for the next week or so. We got to meet essara_lemuroid and family, which was nice, as we aren't really friends with many parents around here.

I have a new icon. Yay.

Leif has started getting really grabby and possessive in the past few days. I know part of it is just his age, but it's a little distressing seeing other kids treat Leif that way, and then having him immediately turn around and do the same thing (the main episodes of grabbiness were over the chalk, and earlier that day he'd had crayons taken away from him by their owner).

It's hard to know what to do when it comes to the other kids. We can get Leif to share, but we can't force other kids to behave a certain way, and Leif's too young to understand why we want him to act differently.

Speaking of disturbing, it's interesting seeing how suggestible he is when watching movies. His Wiggles movie has a song about having a drink of water, and he very frequently asks for a drink of water during that song.

Thankfully, they don't really "advertise" much in that particular movie beyond water, bananas, and vegetables.

Leif says "No" in the most adorable manner. He has an amazingly cute voice when he chooses to use it. "No" is especially cute for some reason.

Was reading through a parenting community, and found one post about a parent who had been seen verbally abusing her kid, saying (and forcing him to say) how he had been a huge mistake and ruined her life. People expressed proper horror. A bit further back, there was a post asking what people would do if their 13 year old daughter got pregnant. A lot of people said something along the lines of "If she chose to keep the baby, that's the end of her social life. I'm not providing free babysitting."

Isn't that the kind of attitude that can lead to that sort of situation? I understand not wanting to be the de facto parent... but if the baby had come at a more socially acceptable time, I imagine the grandparents would be falling all over themselves to watch the baby from time to time so the mom could do something social.

I also imagine that if the parents had another baby when the child was 13, the child would be expected to babysit and otherwise care for the baby on a regular basis.

We're having a Mediterranean Potluck Memorial Day Weekend OMGWTFBBQ!!!111!11!

It's happening on Sunday, from about 5:00 - 10:00PM. Ending time is pretty solid, since we have to get Leif to bed, but the party can migrate if people aren't ready to go home.

Please bring a vegetarian dish to share (Preferably Mediterranean, but it doesn't have to be! Ask if you need inspiration. There WILL be meat on the grill - we just want to make it easy for the vegetarians to know what they can eat.) . If you don't feel like cooking, we need:

• Fresh veggies or fruit
  
• Feta cheese
  
• Drinks, alcoholic and non (remember there will be kids around, so things can't get too wild :)
  
• Money for supplies
  

We'll be providing lots of rice, hummus, stuffed grape leaves, kitchen space, and whatever else we decide is necessary after getting RSVPs :) We'll also be BBQing lamb kebabs, but budget demands we beg for $2.00 a serving.

(Yeah, I know, we're being awfully demanding hosts, but it's the only way we can throw a party right now :)

If you have folding chairs, bring them if you want. We have seating for about seven people as it is.

Directions are in a locked post. If you can't read it, leave an anonymous comment with your email - anonymous comments are screened, so I'll be the only one who sees it.

Please RSVP with the number of people and the type of food you're bringing, and how many servings of meat (if any) you want. Kids are welcome, of course!

It's 4:50.

I'm sleepy finally, but I can't go to sleep, because I'm officially supposed to be up in 10 minutes to go with koyote to the airport.

I got to bed at about midnight. Not sure when I actually got to sleep, but some time at least half an hour after that.

I slept reasonably well till 3:00, when I woke up. I then fell back asleep, and had a seemingly very long dream in which I stressed about moving. I woke up, looked at the clock, and it was 3:15.

I lay around for half an hour or so trying to sleep, and then got up. And here I am now.

This most likely means that, as soon as I'm back from the airport, I'll pass out for several hours and then not be able to sleep properly tonight. Grrr.

Too much to do. Monday I have work and a prenatal appointment. Tuesday and Wednesday the movers are here. Thursday I have work in the morning, a take-home final due in one class, and an in-class final, various little assignments, and a paper due (none of which I've actually started yet) in the other (in Sacramento). Friday is my last day at work, my work baby shower, and my mom and stepdad will be arriving and staying till Sunday. We're planning to go to Santa Cruz to visit my brother on Saturday. I fly the Wednesday after that.

I have to have packing of random small things, sorting and donating of stuff that I don't need anymore, and packing for the next month or so done by Tuesday. Everything that potentially requires my physical presence at work should be done by Friday. Two of the cats need to be shipped on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, and appropriate kennels need to be obtained prior to this. The van needs to be sold off for whatever we can get for it by...um...Friday, since otherwise I'll need time to arrange to donate it, and the next Monday is Memorial Day. The apartment needs to be cleaned by sometime late Tuesday before I leave, but I'm not overly concerned about that, since I'll have half of Sunday and all of Monday and Tuesday with very little else that needs to be done, and I'm not counting on getting any of the security deposit back anyways. Except I'll have to find someone to lend me a vacuum cleaner and cleaning supplies, since ours will all be somewhere around Missouri at that point. Bills need to be paid whenever. I need to get to the DMV and get my ID card renewed, since it expires in August, and I'd like to at least have the option of having a California ID in the future. Utilities need to be cancelled. Food needs to be obtained during this time, which will be kind of a pain since, after Tuesday, I will have nothing much available in terms of cooking and eating supplies, and subsiding on fast food and takeout for a week is less than ideal.

Ok, I have now used up my whining quota for the week. I will go shower.

Speaking of showers... on the good side of things, we had a baby shower/going away party yesterday. It was nice. Though I can't help wondering how common it is to have a baby shower where people discuss D&D, Linux, and The Matrix much more than anything having to do with babies :)