Oh, the internet has been so heavy the last few days, hasn’t it? It’s seemed that way to me, and since my opinion is the only one that matters I will simply assume you’re nodding your head (and possibly composing rhyming odes to my perspicacity). I’ve been feeling all riled-up and opinion-having, but that takes a lot of energy. Energy I do not have. Enough, I say! Let the fluffy kittens come out to play!

Today’s fluffy kitten love-fest (or, things that are happy-making and not in the least bit controversial):

My initials on a tee shirt. I am the JNB-est. (Heeeeeeeee.)

Veer has a link to The Art of The Can, an interesting way to get rid of all those Red Bull cans you’ve got laying around. (And by ‘you’ I mean, actually, you. I get wired just thinking about Red Bull.)

Kipiis: a bib clip and alien toy all in one!

It’s all kerfuffle, all the time at my favorite message board, so instead of letting the meta-angst get me down, I’m here to spread joy and love amongst my readers. I am not unlike the Tooth Fairy in that regard. Also, I steal teeth.

Here are ten things that have made me happy in the last week:

1. New shoes! I am wearing them right now, in fact, and my feet are having a little party.
2. The baby’s molars are almost all the way in, and he’s “only” waking up three or four times during the night (instead of 6-8). That’s practically sleeping through the night! If, of course, by “night” you mean “the hours between 1 and 4am.”
3. Speaking of the baby (and, er, speaking), he’s begun saying “Mama” when he means me. Tee! I’ll miss the meowing, but it’s nice that he hasn’t gone straight from infancy to calling me “Mom.” (Did I mention the meowing? A few weeks ago he started meowing in this wee falsetto that sounded remarkably like the cats. Cute! In addition, he’d come up to me and go “Mom?” in the same falsetto, leading me to wonder which one of us he thought was a cat.)
4. Our AppleTV arrived this morning, whee!
5. I have ten friends on Virb, and only one of them is someone I’m married to!
6. My kid dances like crazy, and it’s the cutest thing in the world to watch.
7. I just had a bowl of rocky road ice cream.
8. I am digging the hell out of Twitter, and Twittervision just makes it better.
9. I tweaked the template for our design blog and it looks pretty damned good, which is exciting since I know almost no CSS.
10. Tomorrow is the last day of my Art History class, at which time I can honestly say I am on “Spring Break.” Hee.

So, spill: what’s been making you happy lately? And if it’s lip gloss, post brand and color, please. A girl needs her connections.

technorati tags:kerfuffle, list, happy

My friend cleaned out her closets the other day and gave me all her fat clothes. As she is someone of impeccable style, this was somewhat like Christmas…albeit a depressing and demoralizing Christmas. So, just like Christmas!

Suddenly my closet contains more than just some skirts and a single, sad business suit that never really fit properly to begin with. I have pants! Pants, I tell you! And shirts! Shirts I can button over my massive chest-area!

Obviously I find this somewhat exciting.

As a result of this sudden clothes-having, I’ve been motivated to actually get dressed most mornings, and that means I am continually having to answer the question “What shoes will I wear with this?” Eagle-eyed readers will remember the sad, sad day last year when I realized none of my pre-pregnancy shoes would fit on my suddenly huge and plank-like feet*, which meant that several years’ worth of careful shoe-collecting and meticulous sale-scouring were all dumped unceremoniously in a large box in the storage closet. Since then I’ve managed to acquire a pair of sneakers (white) and a pair of warm boots, but aside from that? Not a whole lot.

After yesterday’s internet debacle, I decided to spend some quality time at Shoe Pavilion. I’ve been wanting some cute, sporty little Mary Jane-inspired flats, and they had them in spades…just not in my size. This is nothing new. Apparently those of us whose feet are size 9 and larger do not require such things as “shoes.”

However, I found myself being drawn to a section I rarely visit: the Dansko section. Dansko, in case you don’t know, makes a series of clunky, clog-like shoes that are rumored to be terribly comfortable, much like Birkenstocks, but like Birkenstocks, I have always given them a wide berth. I was a Goth, after all. Goths do not wear comfortable shoes. Granted, my current choice in footwear is an ancient pair of Ugg knock-offs, but still.

The pair I kept coming back to was the least clog-like of the bunch; a cute, clunky Mary Jane. I’d walk by, check them out, walk away again. It was very single-girl-in-a-bar. “What’s a cute pair of Mary Janes doing in a place like this? Oh – you’re Dansko. Oh. Uh – go to any health-food stores lately? Ha, ha. I’m totally kidding. But, uh – did you?” I tried on some other shoes, but they were all just eh. I mean, if I had enough free cash to buy a new pair of shoes every couple of months, there were definitely some contenders…but since my footwear purchases are few and far between, I want to make the most of them. And the Danskos, they beckoned. Also, they were on sale for $45.

Long story short, I am now the owner of a pair of suspiciously clog-like Dansko Mary Janes. True to rumor, they are insanely comfortable, and with some stripey tights and a black dress might even pass as Gothy. Although given my current lifestyle, the health food store scenario? Somewhat more likely.

* It is only fair to note that my feet are actually a size 9 1/2, which was another unwelcome revelation but one I feel obligated to point out, lest anyone feel I should be building character by cramming my feet into my old shoes. A half size: maybe. A whole size? That’s way more character than I need.

technorati tags:dankso, wardrobe, zaftig

I’m posting this from my BlackBerry Pearl, which I have to say is pretty seriously cool. Not as cool: the fact that the internet is down at the office *again*. WTF, ISP?

(Or, How I Got To Blog While My Kid Watched A DVD)

Today I need to disconnect and return the DVR (only, what, three weeks after we got rid of the cable? Go me), clean the house (since I appear to have volunteered to possibly host a get-together this weekend, maybe), do some homework, crochet, pick up my holds at the library, sign for the package containing the new potty seat (whee!), send back the Netflix, buy some yarn, put away my crafting supplies, e-mail a client, update our business website, drop off a check at the bank, and make some lunch. Note that several of these things involve me being in two places at once. Good thing I discovered time travel!

Naturally I am going to take this time to recap my awesome Crafty Mamas Bazaar experience and wax lyrical about my upcoming Cranky Pals newsletter, whichisreallycoolandyoushouldsignup.

So in case the “awesome” wasn’t hint enough, the Crafty Mamas Bazaar? Awesome. I had a great time, sold some toys, chatted with some moms…bought an Ergo…all in all, a very fruitful experience and one I will most likely repeat next month (sans Ergo purchase, of course).

The folks at Milagros are wonderful, and it’s so great of them to host this thing and make everyone feel so welcome. Plus they have one of the coolest local baby shops this side of LilyToad. Speaking of, that’s another thing I should add to my list: drop off unsold toys at LilyToad.

All the new designs are up at the Cranky Pals website, by the way, including Happy Fun Baby’s new favorite, Lulu Heartbreak. She has a detachable heart! Detachable! This causes me joy.

Another thing that causes me joy? The brand spankin‘ new Cranky Pals newsletter! I spent the better part of Sunday designing it (what? I was on a roll) and I’m so pleased with it I could just burst. And it’s messy, the bursting, so why not sign up and see for yourself? Every name on the subscription list makes me feel that much more validated, and isn’t that what the internet is all about?

technorati tags:cranky pals, crafty mamas bazaar, milagros, lilytoad, lulu heartbreak, ergo

You’re all chomping at the bit for a sleep update, aren’t you? I know. It’s keeping you up at night (ha!). Well, you’re just going to have to wait a little longer, because sleep training got derailed by the introduction of molars into my child’s previously molar-free mouth area. Can I take this opportunity to say how much I loathe molars? The molar, it is pure calcified evil. How much does he need stupid molars, anyway? There’s plenty of food out there that does not require intensive chewing. Take the humble banana, for instance. The banana demands nothing of the teeth. We love the banana.

But the molars seem determined to make their appearance all at once, and the emergence of three new teeth has reduced my usually cheerful and accomodating baby to a series of shrieking, back-arching tantrums and marathon nursing sessions which leave me feeling utterly sucked dry, which, if you are wondering, is not a particulalry pleasant way to feel, especially at almost fifteen months post-partum when the idea of weaning had, up to a few weeks ago, seemed like such an attainable goal.

Sleeping through the night also seemed attainable, but like so many other things, it’s being put on hold until the tooth situation is under control. Currently the monkey is waking up between four and six times a night, and the only thing that will get him to go back to sleep is nursing. If I don’t nurse, the crying quickly – very quickly – escalates to screaming, and at that point he’s too upset to nurse so one of us has to get up with him, walk him around, calm him down…and then I have to nurse him. So I prefer to cut out the middle-man, as it were, and just go straight to the boob. I will worry about bad night-nursing habits later.

As proof, I just got Sleep Solutions for your Baby, Toddler and Preschooler from Amazon.com, and as soon as I can wake up enough to actually read it I will enthusiastically implement any and all sleep ideas.

technorati tags:sleep solutions, baby, molars, nursing

I’m almost 14 months post-partum, and I finally feel like I belong in my skin.

I was taking a bath the other night and noticed the way my belly fat jiggled. That wasn’t unusual, because, dude – the belly, it jiggles, much like a bowl full of jelly, were you to fill a bowl with jelly and then try and fit it into a pair of jeans. But instead of instantly flashing back to my pregnancy or thinking that’s what happens when you give birth, I just thought that’s my belly.

Yeah, some epiphany, right? But it really was, and here’s why: my body is mine again. It might be flabby and lumpy and unattractively coiffed, but sometime in the last couple of weeks I stopped feeling like a vehicle for the continued sustenance of my kid and started feeling like a person who is also a mom. I mean, yes, I’m still nursing, so it’s not like I can exist separately from the kid for more than a couple of hours at a time, but now that he’s snarfing down every solid he can find the nursing seems a bit more secondary…and the mom thing, oddly, seems more deliberate. My body isn’t what makes me a mom; being a mom is.

I still don’t fit into most of my pre-preg clothes, but at least now I feel like doing something to get into shape is less like auto maintenance and more like – well, exercising. That’s something, right? Especially since I don’t even own a car.

technorati tags:motherhood, body image