i'm still here

And look at that, so is my banner from spring, even though that plum tree has progressed from blossoms to fruit to leaves to bare branches. Oh well, no time to do anything about that now. While all the stars are aligned – i.e., I'm fed, dressed, and showered, Kai is fed, relatively freshly diapered, and asleep, and isn't quite time to pick up Iris from school yet – I actually have a minute for the computer.

So, how are you? How about that election last Tuesday? I've got to say, it really restored my faith in humankind, or at least in my fellow Americans. Have you seen that Obama has a Flickr site? Of course you have. Unlike me, you are still plugged into the world wide web of fact, fiction, and mystery. Anyway, I'm sure he checks it every day. First thing.

In the much, much smaller picture, I've managed to post to my own Flickr site every so often, but I'll level with you: I've thought about ending this here blog-thing once and for all. But I haven't been able to let go of the idea that maybe I'll come back to it one day. I don't know if today is that day, or if I'll disappear again for several months. It's not that I don't have anything to say. My days are full. It's more that... I don't know. It's hard to explain, and I guess that's one reason I haven't been here, trying to explain it.

Instead, just to give you some sense of recap, here are some posts I've thought about writing while I've been unplugged:

News Flash: The Universe is Interactive! – in which Kai discovers he can use his own hands to reach for, touch, and even grasp things that interest him, including my dinner, which he swept off of my plate and into my lap last night. Silly baby! Pasta is for people with teeth!


Baby's First Goose Egg – in which Iris drops Kai on his head, opening the door to a lifetime of dropped-on-his-head-as-a-baby jokes. I can say this only because the injury was unsightly, but not serious.

That's What I Get for Making a Deal With the Devil – in which I explain how I ended up promising Iris a Barbie (yes, a Barbie. You know those iron-clad child-rearing principles you held so dear before you ever had an actual child? Yes, well, that's how far I've fallen from mine. There actually was what I considered a good reason, but I'm not going to go into it right now) for a month of gold-star-worthy behavior, only to find that the discontinued, deeply-discounted ballerina Barbie I ended up getting her had a broken leg, occasioning an afternoon of tears, ultimately unsuccessful doll doctoring, and begging for a replacement, which was duly procured, when I was counting on that damn Barbie's diversion value to allow me to meet a looming work deadline.

Do I get a run-on sentence award for that?


Anthroposophy and Me – in which I report on Iris' transition to Waldorf school (briefly: she loves it), and why in spite of that we're trying to figure out which other school to send her to next year (briefly: money), and the time a fellow parent actually used the term "anthroposophy" in a conversation with me without blinking an eye – or, more to the point, using a tone of voice which conveyed invisible quotation marks.

Christmas – There's no way it's going to be a handmade holiday from me this year. My studio has been gathering dust and large household objects – like the vacuum cleaner and the yoga ball – that have no place else in our house to live since Kai's birth. Sigh. I miss it, but there is a certain irony to letting the baby fuss while I try to finish making something nice for the baby, so.

Oops! Time's up. Kai and I have to run to get Iris before she turns into a pumpkin. Till next time, whenever that may be...

xoxo

[Not-so-Confidential to Tracey from Paper Dolls for Boys: Thanks for tracking me down and leaving a comment! I think it was the spur I needed to finally post this post.]