• Unity ‘08, a citizen-based movement attempting nothing less than to change the character of politics today, and
• The excellent article where I heard of it.

My emotional gut reaction upon reading the article was “It’s about fucking time”, and I hope you agree.

While you read, Jacob will be practicing his fashion model skillz.

See you Monday!

It will be the first time I’ve been away from Jacob overnight since his birth almost two years ago. He’s changed so much over the last two years I can scarcely contain it all in my head. He’s still my little baby, in my head. Here in the real world, though, he’s absolutely becoming his own articulate and capable person.

We’ve been preparing him for the weekend the way we prepare him for everything, by talking about it endlessly beforehand. The other day, out of nowhere, he looked up from his trucks and said:

“Mommy fly Maine in airplane for weekend… funeral?

Um, hello? Was I ever really worried about him speaking late?

How I’ve missed you.

(Yes, yes, of course there were baby pictures too. Go take a gander at the whole set, if you want.)

Things we did this weekend instead of getting on that travel prep?

Played with some water.

Rearranged some furniture.

Watered some plants.

Played the world’s first-ever teapot flute.

In other words, we had a great time and didn’t sweat the small stuff. One way or another, we’ll make it! And I’m reeeeally looking forward to it.

Hopefully we will see some of you soon, actually. As I mentioned in my last post, we’re soon to be headed to New England. All three of us arrive at Logan god-awful early Thursday the 21st; Jon leaves for Venice on something like July 2, and Jacob and I leave on July 9th. Tentatively, we’re going to try to do Providence/Sturbridge/Boston things until Tuesday the 26th, then go to Maine for most of the rest of the time. Jon and I are hoping to get away baby-free down to Boston for a night… we’ll see. It would probably be the weekend involving the 30th.

So! Let me know if you’d like to make plans.

In the course of the 12 days we were there, we saw bitter cold (4.1 degrees, baby!), relative warmth with accompanying rain, and a blizzard. Fun times! Jacob loved the snow, and on the whole loved the trip. Even the airplane rides weren’t so bad.

One of the most rewarding things about this trip was getting to see Jacob’s interaction with his grandparents. He started talking in earnest while we were in Maine, and managed to call Nancy “Neenee” (Nanny) while we were there. I really felt, for the first time, that the visit gave Jacob a big benefit, in addition to being great for those he was visiting. It was a wonderful way to mark his transition into a communicating, highly autonomous person.

I snapped this picture of him at my maternal grandmother’s house. I loved seeing him next to his one-year-younger self. He looks so much older, so much more like a little boy, in the pictures from this trip.

He’s really sounding like a little boy, too. Jacob jumped from being nearly silent to speaking in two-word sentences in the course of about two weeks. When we hopped on the plane, he wasn’t saying much other than “Mama”, “Dada”, and “Bye”. Today, the favored game was to run around the house admonishing me to “Mum-mum, tickle!!! Tickle tickle tickle, Mum-mum!!!”

As he gets more able to meet his basic needs without our help, our thoughts are turning more and more to the next baby. We really want at least one more, and I’m starting to feel like if I get too far past the baby stage I just won’t want to go through it again.

So what’s the holdup? Me, really. I hated pregnancy so much that it’s tough to contemplate going through it again. Add in the 20 pounds I’m still carrying around from the first pregnancy, and I just can’t deal. Since the fall is my internal deadline for the next pregnancy, Jon and I are both back on the South Beach diet. Today is day one, and we’re both suffering through the requisite sugar-crash and zombie-like fascination with all things baked.

On the bright side, and this is why I’ve tagged this entry “Gloat”, there are worse places to start South Beach than CA in the spring. Our dinner tonight was white fish freshly caught in the bay this morning, along with a fresh salad and the season’s first asparagus. Spring has totally sprung here, and I hope it’s not too far in coming wherever you happen to be.

Another day, not long after that, Jon decided to get his outdoor herb garden started for the year.

Today, the high in Pebble Beach is 65 degrees. It’s already 50, and sunny, and beautiful.

Today, the high in Portland ME is 17 degrees, and currently it’s only 2.

Wednesday night, Jacob and I will fly from our warm, sunny paradise to a frozen tundra. The things we do for family. :) I’m a little ashamed, honestly, at how quickly I’ve adjusted to the great weather we have here. Jon and I were talking last night about what we’d do in ME, and at least the first 5 ideas tossed around wouldn’t work in a cold, snowy place. I’m sure we’ll have a great time, though, and Jacob is looking forward to seeing his grandparents.

Honestly, the thing I’m most apprehensive about is the air travel required. It’s the first time I’ll be flying solo with Jacob, and I’m pretty uncertain that 2 arms will be sufficient. I ordered an attachment to our carseat that turns it into a stroller, and hopefully it will arrive today or tomorrow. Then at least I could contend with “only” a suitcase, a backback, a carseat, and a toddler (theoretically) riding in the carseat.

Aah! It sounds insane when I write it that way. Wish me luck!

(Oh, and I upgraded the WordPress version that powers this blog. Hopefully, for those of you with problems commenting and viewing extended entries, this will take care of things. Please let me know if you continue to have issues with the site.)