Portrait of the blogger as a young girl

Cat's Cradle

She just wants to help

The Dud Avocado
The Dud Avocado is Elaine Dundy's loosely autobiographical first novel. It tells of the misadventures of 21-year-old ingenue Sally Jay Gorce, an American in Paris in the mid-1950s. Sally's Uncle Roger has agreed to foot the bill for two years in Europe, during which Sally wants to have some fun: stay up as late as she wants, eat whatever she wants, and meet some interesting people. She's terribly unlucky in love, has a hopeless tendency to wear the wrong thing, and manages to lose her passport during one late night of part

Big sister so sweet
The Bug is quite taken with "her" new baby. She really could not be sweeter to the little Bunny: she kisses her, picks out her clothes, reads her books, pats her gently on the head, is very concerned when her pacifier goes missing... in short, incredible success with the new addition to the family. This was definitely the unknown variable that had me most nervous; now I am simply worried that in a few years they will totally gang up on their poor mommy.Knowing the Bug's penchant for artistic expression, it should not come as a surprise that she is also presenting quite the tome of to her sister. Here's the first picture the Bug made for the newborn Bunny, which she brought to

Special delivery!
So at exactly 41 weeks, my pregnancy ended on Friday the 13th with the birth of beautiful little Anya "Bunny" Marie. She weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz., so apparently those last few weeks were dedicated to packing on the weight.On Thursday my weekly doctor's visit was accompanied by a sonogram which indicated borderline low amniotic fluid, so the doctor sent us to the hospital. Once I got there and they determined the baby's and my vitals were fine, I was given pitocin to induce labor. Things progressed pretty quickly - my cervix began to dilate and they broke my water - and I even got to relax a little once they administered the epidural. By around 5:00 in the morning, my cervix was

40 weeks +3
It actually never occurred to me that I'd go past my due date with this baby. Call it naive, call it short-sighted, either way it's the truth. So three days past the due date with no signs of any change on the horizon, I am a bit flummoxed. I have tried every "home remedy" under the sun, with the exception of chugging castor oil - that just sounds gross. I've been working from home for a couple of weeks - the commute was wiping me out, and my colleagues all feared my water could break at any moment - so I'm actually a little lonely. On the flip side, none of my clothes fit these days so at least I'm not flashing the world my unsightly business. My Mom came out at the end of last week

Halloween wrap
So it's November now, and still nothing to report in the baby news department. I can tell you I am not a fan of pointless contractions that apparently accomplish nothing, but that's about all I've got.On the plus side, though, we did get to take the Bug trick-or-treating this year - something