Resolved

Inspired by the "12 Days of Christmas" I decided to make a 9-part resolution this year...Be it hereby resolved, in 2009, I will (at least):

- Bake 9 different types of healthy muffins

- Commit 8 random acts of kindness

- Send 7, handwritten, snail-mail letters to friends

- Drink 6 glasses of water every day

- Exercise at the gym 5 times each month

- Find 4 (hopefully wonderful) men for 4 (hopefully wonderful) dates

- Dote on each of my 3 rabbits for 3 minutes a day

- Read 2 books that have over 200 pages each

- Get back to Djournaling for Django an average of 1x each week, so he will continue to know all I can find time to tell him about these first precious years of his life that he won't otherwise stand a chance of remembering on his own.

How about you? What is/are your resolution(s)?

Catching Up

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I'm giving up on 'Catching Up' for the moment, because it feels like I'd have to go swimming in mashed potatoes everytime I think about having to find a way to chronicle the entirety of December 2008. I realize this may become the blog-entry-in-progress that never gets finished, a la the book on how to stop procrastinating that never gets read. Nevertheless, onward ho...2009 has already begun!

Special Birthday Video Message from L.A. Uncles

Personally, I find it nearly impossible to believe that any uncle(s) would send a special birthday video message without including a round of personally-sung "Happy Birthday to You," but these uncles of Django's do live in L.A. That's got to explain it somehow.

Oh, and when I refused to post this video to the blog, saying it just didn't meet my standards for inclusion without the song, they threatened to withhold special birthday gifts they're bringing me for Django's birthday happy hour this Friday. Hmpf.

I'm not usually one to cave to such pressure. But, this way, I have technically fulfilled my end of the bargain while getting to complain about it, too...You go ahead and watch. You'll see. The song is just begging to be sung.

Now We Are One

Memory -- or, mine anyway -- is a sentimental creature. A dramatic and fickle one, too. It doesn't always work. When it does, it almost never just replays it like it really was. (I mean, really, when was the last time you remembered an ordinary day?) Which is why, in part, I've been writing this blog all year. I didn't trust myself to remember much with any degree of accuracy if I didn't write it down as it happened. And yet, after all the words, there remains a simple feeling: this day last year was the best day of my life.

As Rachel just said in an email to me: "With all the good and bad and constant flow of achingly poignant moments, I can't remember who I was or what I was doing without them [her 2 boys]."

Me neither. And here's to it.

Down/Up

At Nana's house over Thanksgiving, Django decided to premiere -- not one, but two -- new tricks: 1) safely getting down from elevated places; and 2) leveraging up from the floor without help from people or things. I love these skills, I do, but pleeeeese someone tell me that leaping recklessly off playground equipment doesn't come next.

This Time Last Year

I've always had much for which to be thankful. Always been one of the proverbial lucky ones. And, if I don't blow it big somewhere along the way, I like to think that chances are good Django will be, too -- though I won't be taking that for granted.

With Django's 1st birthday just a few days away, I've found myself spending quite a bit of time thinking back to this time last year...Making the usual 3.5 hour drive down the coast to convene with family over a giant Thanksgiving meal didn't sound very appealing to my then-170lb self. First of all, it would've meant having to catch my 3 rabbits and get them into a rental car, too -- which is no easy feat, even without 30lbs of baby dangling out in front. Secondly, the only thing I felt there was room for in my stomach was bubbly water. And, finally, possibly going into labor on the 101 just wasn't part of the birth plan. I didn't want to risk it.

As it turned out, the usual hosts of the family Thanksgiving on the central coast -- the Kautz clan -- all came down with a stomach flu and had to cancel the event. I ended up spending my evening still in the Bay Area at the emergency vet hospital with Honeybun, the head of my rabbit household, who had mysteriously gone all wonky, unable to sit up straight or hop without toppling over and twitching violently. It would've been a lost & miserable holiday all around, if it wasn't for Tori bringing over cheery, little Zoe and a late-night plate of Thanksgiving leftovers from her house, and joining me for a much-needed glass of wine.

This year, by contrast, was absolutely everything Thanksgiving is cracked-up to be, and absolutely everything last Thanksgiving was not -- full of family, food, happiness and health for all creatures, great & small. But that's not exactly what I felt most grateful for at the end of the day. It was the sense that I'm living a life-in-motion now, in a way I never have before. (I don't mean toddler-chasing, either, though that's certainly a new sport for me.) In fact, I mean something I'm not actually sure I can describe, something like the difference between swimming and treading water. I'd say the feeling has something to do with moving 'forward' except that would imply I have a destination in mind. In reality, I don't think I know any more about where I'm 'going' with my life this year than I did last, possibly even less, but I do have the distinct impression I'm now really getting somewhere. And I know exactly who to thank.

Splishin' & Splashin'

Django got his third go-round of a stomach virus on the verge of this weekend I'd jam-packed with exciting plans. Boo-hoo. So we missed the Workers' Rights Clinic/Mike Gaitley Lovefest on Thursday, Alex Momtchiloff's 45th birthday/20th year in the Bay Area on Friday, a visit to the Little Farm in Tilden Park with Judy formerly-Rummelsburg & her family today, and possibly Elizabeth's Going-Away party and Monique's Dude-We (Obama)-Won party tonight. Did I say boo-hoo, already? Oh yeah, I did.

As retroactive consolation, on the Tuesday Veterans' Day Holiday earlier in the week we did make it to the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito with Jill, young Kate & baby Meghan, for a glorious -- if overcast and overcrowded -- day at, among other things, the Tot Spot play-stream. Those of you who have seen the video proof of Django's interest in the rabbits' water bowl (9/7/08,) won't be at all surprised by his interest here.* Luckily, I had what I call his Jersey track suit in my bag so he didn't have to spend the rest of this fun day dripping wet.

*P.S. I spared you the 2-minute long clip of Django doing much the same, only with the addition of a slightly older, splashy competitor, because a) it is too damned long for anyone but me to want to watch; and, b) Django didn't show his wet face as nicely.