Fishing
Just because I feel like I don’t have much to say at the moment, you should not be deprived of the uber-cuterness that is my Clarkie.
Have I ever mentioned how ENORMOUS his feet are?
They’re delicious. I understand why he needs to put them in his mouth.
So, I’ve never done this before, but I need to ask a favor. Could you help me get back on my blogging horse with some topic ideas? Have any burning questions about the care and feeding of a 6 month old? I am expert! (bonus points for saying this in a Karl Hungus voice) Are you one of my few imaginary internet friends? Anything you want to know? IRL peeps, do you remember a funny story that should be recorded for posterity’s sake? (bonus points for saying that last bit in a Count Rugen voice) Whatevs!
Please help my Mama. I stole her brain cells.
Posted by Jenny @
10:47 pm |
Month 6
June 17, 2009 | Clark
Clark! The lights are on! This month it seems like you became a whole new person. You’re so interested in everything all of a sudden. You will examine something carefully, all cross eyed, between your chubby little paws for what seems like a very long time. You will sit in your high chair in the kitchen and happily watch me make dinner, too.
You have had your 6 month appointment and all is well. You weigh 16lbs, 10oz and are 27 and 3/4 inches long. This makes you barely in the 50th percentile for weight, and the 90th for both height and head size. Apparently you’re tall and skinny? And destined to be a movie star, what with the big head? I can’t believe I have such a skinny baby. Your small size fuzzi bunz still have plenty of room.
We’re feeding you, trust me. In fact this month you started real food! So far you’ve just eaten rice cereal and bananas. Once you figured out that you should not grab the spoon and try to chew on it, nor should you eat your bib, all has gone swimmingly. We’ll try peas and avocados next.
Speaking of things in your mouth, YOUR FREAKING TEETH. I’ve had strangers in the grocery store jump back and exclaim, “Look at all those teeth!” You are some kind of tooth growing mutant, apparently. The books say you should be starting teething about now, but you have SIX teeth already. More than your little friend Maia, who is 16 months old.
You can’t tell in these pictures, but you’re also getting more hair, finally. It seems to be super blond, not so much red as we’d hoped. I’m sure you’re going to be lovely and golden as a child, destined for dishwater as an adult, like your mama. Don’t worry though, son. You can get highlights, too. (Not for the waiting room of your dental practice. - High five, HIMYM fans.)
The pictures, by the way, come from the talented ladies from the last Me Ra Koh workshop, where the two of us were asked to model. I hope that one day you will realize that it was your loving mother that took all the thousands of pictures of you, that I was there for your childhood. Thanks to Me Ra and the gals, you will at least have a few of us together. The sitting took place during your nap time, incidentally, and you were not the most cooperative subject. Mommy needed a cocktail after that one, for sure.
I seem always to round up these letters with the mooshy bits so here goes. My boy, you make my heart more full every day. It continues to amaze me how much I miss you when you are just napping or at your grandmas for a few hours, even when I’m happy to have the break, I still wish to have you in my arms, to sniff your head and nom nom nom your neck and your chubby little arms. I apologize for all the squeezing. I try not to go all Lennie on you, but it’s hard sometimes. When I’m carrying you upstairs to change your diaper, I take the opportunity to squeeze you extra tight and try to freeze the feeling of your little body in my arms. Just tonight I got all tear-y after I put you to bed, thinking about how one day you will grow up and leave me. I’m crazy, but I guess you know that by now.
Posted by Jenny @
8:49 pm |
Big News.
…tumbleweeds
Oh good lord. Is anyone still here? Hellooooooooo? I don’t blame you if I’m talking to myself. Gone are the days of three posts a week. I’m lucky if I do one! I have so much to say, too, but about a million things to do in my limited spare time. Let it be known that my kitchen is staying dirty during this naptime so that I may update my stale-ass blog. Don’t come over. I’ll be embarrassed.
So what have y’all been up to? Me, I’ve been busy with my New Career. I keep meaning to do some epic post about it, but clearly, that isn’t happening. So here goes.
It probably comes as no surprise, given my previous posts, that I’m about to embark on a career in Bullfighting. No, just kidding. Photography!
A couple of months ago, a friend asked me if she could send me some photography business, and I was all, “Um. Yes! Yes you can.” Then SB and I arranged the finances a bit so that I could start putting my unemployment checks entirely towards gear and training. Then I stopped blogging because I needed to spend every spare moment thinking up a name, designing a logo, building a website, taking photos, editing photos, and on and on.
So, finally, without much fanfare, I announce Ginger Jacobs Photography. Why Ginger? Well, because Jenny is boring and common. Ginger has always been my karaoke name, or my table reservation name, the name I use when Jenny won’t do because someone else will take my turn or my latte. Ginger Jacobs is the saucier version of myself who has the guts to do this. Ginger wears big rings and will tell you what to do, and won’t get nervous. Ginger knows that out of the 200 shots she takes in a sitting, there will be plenty of good ones, so she doesn’t stress out.
I hate it when people blog about not blogging, but there it is. That’s my excuse. I think it’s a good one. So far, things are going really well! I’ve started a photography blog (um, it’s kind of stale, too, surprise surprise), which is where I will normally post such things, but here are a few of my favorite images I’ve taken so far. I hope you like them! Please don’t tell me if you don’t.
You like? Now for the plug.
You can find my new website here: gingerjacobs.com
You can find my new photography blog here: gingerjacobsphotography.wordpress.com
You can follow my photography related musings on twitter here: GingerJacobs
Should you be local and interested in having your pictures taken (families, babies, bellies, seniors, weddings, events) please contact me!
Posted by Jenny @
1:48 pm |
Vegas!
The boys and their Vegas Maystaches. Commentary withheld.
If you follow me on the Twitters, you know SB and I went to Vegas over the weekend with a really fun group of friends. Clark stayed with his grandma. It was a big step for everyone!
I was really worried that Clark would be sad, or that I would be so too sad to have any fun. Or worse, that I WOULDN’T be sad to be away from him.
But everyone had a fabulous time, and I think it was good for all of us. Clark was perfectly fine without us, better probably, because his Grandma puts more effort into entertaining him 24/7 than we do. And it was good for SB and I as a couple to have some time away.
It was also good for us as parents. I didn’t NOT miss Clark as I’d feared. I missed him a ton. I was afraid I might party like crazy and and be all, “WOO HOO! SCREW BABIES! YEAH!” but that didn’t happen. I had a great time in Vegas, did plenty of partying, but I longed to be back home, being a mom, and that made me very happy. This trip reminded me that I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing right now. As much as I dislike this about myself, I can be a “grass is greener”-type sometimes, so this was a lovely reminder to have.
As far as Vegas is concerned, I do not recommend going over a holiday weekend. It was crazy crowded and you had to wait for everything. But of course, we were in good company and the weather was DELICIOUS, so we had a wonderful time. There was much pool sitting and cocktail sipping, and we got to go see Cirque du Soleil, which blew my goddamn mind. Blew. My. Mind. I kept saying, I think I know JUST enough about yoga and pliates to know that what they did was freaking IMPOSSIBLE. When you have to stop and remind yourself that it’s real people and not CGI, you know it’s a good show.
Anyway, we’re back to reality and I’m happy. This morning, I was noisily kissing Clark’s neck and making him giggle, when he grabbed a hunk of my hair with one hand, my tender neck skin with his pointy claws on the other, and used his shockingly sharp teeth to bite my cheek, all at the same time. Yes. It’s good to be home with lovely, and abusive, little boy.
Posted by Jenny @
1:18 pm |
Touched By a Gangsta
Yesterday morning, Clark was up way too early as ususal. After he’d kicked and babbled and smiled his toothy grin at me from the side car for long enough that it was clear we weren’t going back to sleep, I finally scooped him up and headed downstairs to make coffee. As I blearily started grinding the beans, I realized that these lyrics were bouncing around in my sleepy head:
I love it when you call me me Big Pop-pa
Throw your hands in the a-ir
If you’re a true play-ah
I love it when you call me Big Pop-pa
etc.
I paused to to wonder at the utter random-ness of that song being stuck in my little, white, mom-head, bopped along with it, and went about my day.
But then later, I was in the car. I have a pattern I follow in order, of 6 radio station presets until a good song makes me stay. I usually end up staying with the first one or two stations, but that time, commercials and bad music had me on choice number 5, which happens to be KUBE. This is the station that all the kids listen to, the one with the current pop music on it. And I shit you not, they were PLAYING THAT SONG. Really! How random is it that I was in the car, listening to the radio, that I got five deep in my station rotation, and that the hot pop station was playing a song from 15 years ago?
And then, AND THEN, the song ended and they said it was the Notorious B. I. G’s birthday.
Can you believe it? Isn’t that crazy? So, perhaps I was visited in the night by Biggie Smalls. Let’s hope his message wasn’t too important, because apparently, I’m too fatigued to remember it.
Posted by Jenny @
12:35 am |
4th Annual Birthday Goal Post
Firstly, please enjoy this hilarious picture, because I’m about to get all navel-gazey on you. Caption suggestions are welcome in the comments.
A little late, but it’s that time of year again. I make my resolutions on my birthday instead of in the dead of winter, when I’m more likely to be couch surfing with a pint of icecream and an entire season of some show. Now then. Let’s see how we did. Here are last year’s goals:
1. Continue learning to be a proper geek. Specifically, not just learn complicated stuff at work, but try to apply these skills to things I like to do, like design and whatnot. I’d like to get over my fear of Photoshop, and also, perhaps tackle redesigning this blog.
Wellll… hmm. I’d say I did fairly well on this front. As you can see, the blog is still the same, but I did manage to finish out another contract at Microsoft without breaking anything. Recently, I’ve been doing all kinds of scary techie-type things related to photography, so I’d say my geekiness is coming along quite nicely. I still hate all things Sci-Fi related, however, much to SB’s dismay.
2. Figure out how to keep this job or get a different one in IT, but improve my quality of life. Do I need to spell this one out? GET OUT OF THE FREAKING CAR. Get back some of those 20 hours a week, 32.5 days a year I spend sitting in traffic.
Christ on a cracker, I feel so badly for the me of last year with that STOOPID commute. Four hours a day, dude. I really can’t believe I did that. Well, needless to say, my quality of life has GREATLY improved.
3. Keep up the fitness regime. Achieving number 2 will greatly improve the odds of this.
I will say I definitely did well on this one, until Clark was born, that is. (We’ll get to my current sloth later.) Let us not forget that I am crazy insane and actually trained for a marathon whilst pregnant. I walked 20 miles at 26 weeks pregnant, and completed a half marathon at 30 weeks. I walked an hour on the treadmill the day before Clark was born. I’m actually quite proud of myself for all that! Yay me.
4. Complete a couple of fitness events. SB and I plan to do the ALS DoubleDay, an 85mile bikeride in July, (Dude. We need to start training. Kristina? When do you start kicking my ass in gear?) and also… three friends and I plan to walk the Portland Marathon in October. There I said it.
Check and check! *high fives*
5. Get pregnant. Have easy pregnancy. Birth beautiful child. Be perfect mother. That should be easy.
Well, now. I DID get pregnant. And in retrospect, my pregnancy WAS easy. This is not the amnesia hormones talking, I seriously lucked out. Once I got the lower back issues sorted, I was fine. He came a week early, even, so I never got that uncomfortable in the end. And I DID birth a beautiful child. He’s so SO beautiful. The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Sometimes I trip out on just his eyelashes or his porcelain skin.
About the perfect mother part. I’m doing my best. I think I do okay.
6. And what kind of goal list would this be if I didn’t put Spanish and the guitar on here? Maybe this is the year!
FAIL. I was busy.
So! 2009. My 33rd year.
1. Keep improving my photography. Not just the quality of my images, but all the related technical aspects. I want to know how to use everything in Lightroom, and to continue rocking my Manual Mode. Keep learning, too. Attend as many seminars or workshops as I can. And always remember that I love it. Trust my eye. And if I say it’s a good picture, it is. Don’t get stuck imagining the criticism of my peers.
2. By this time next year, I want to be in the height of fitness again. And I want to appreciate it. I think back to the time, around the fall before I got pregnant, when I was going to Bikram 3-5 times a week and being asked to DEMONSTRATE POSES TO THE CLASS. Did I appreciate my awesomeness? No! And I probably still would have told you I needed to lose weight, because I am a stoopid stoopid girl. If I ever get back there again, I’m going to KNOW I’m strong and powerful, and I’m going to be kind to my body.
3. I want to become a more positive person. Lately, I’ve been trying to repeat to myself over and over that I’m too blessed to be stressed. It’s SO TRUE. I mean seriously, on a global scale, you , me, and everyone we know has hit the freaking jackpot. Again with the awareness. I want to always appreciate how incredibly awesome my life is. Also, negative thoughts cause wrinkles. It’s true.
4. Be the best mother I can be. I don’t mean this in a ’setting expectations too high’ kind of way, or a ‘never letting him eat dirt’ kind of way, just that he deserves my best effort always. Ensuring his health, well-being, and prosperity as a human are my most important jobs in this life. I hope to always remember this. My alma matter, PLU’s mission statement is “educating for lives of service”, and without sounding to matyr-y or like I’m always going to let him have his way, I want to think of parenting as service to the person I want him to grow into.
5. So, Spanish and the Guitar. I’m hoping that we do some traveling in the next year where I can get some practice on the Spanish. And as for the guitar, as much as I wanted my kids to grow up in a musical household, it may just have to be when he’s a little older. So, consider the slack cut on that one for this year.
As always, if you’re still with me after all that navel-gazing, thanks so much. That’s what blogs are for, right?
Posted by Jenny @
7:43 pm |
Month Five
May 18, 2009 | Clark
Dear Clark,
This is the month where you became much more portable. We took you on a plane for the first time, (For the record, A- on the way there, B-/C+ on the way home) and also, you learned to love your Ergo carrier, which RULES. It’s so fun to wear you, all close and snuggly. I also feel, in general, like now we could take you almost anywhere and you’d be able to hang.
You have two teeth now, and man, those suckers are sharp. (Sidebar for those reading along in 2009, you know that video on the Youtubes with the cute brittish kids? Charlie! It huuuuhrts! We say that all the time.) There’ve been some rough days, with the teething. Only 18 more to go, kid!
You’ve become a whiz at bouncing in your doorway jumping chair thing. I have no pictures of this, because you bounce bounce bounce so much that you’re always blurry. You’ll have to take my word for it, but it’s the cutest thing ever. Especially when you tire of it and start to cry, but you can’t stop bouncing.
Hanging out on your tummy and holding your head up, is no big whoop for you now, either. It’s still not your favorite thing, though.
Clark, my boy, I can’t believe how much I love you! You may be thinking, yes, duh, of course you do, but I really feel like this month something changed. You’ve become such a nice little companion. I miss you so much when we leave you with Grandma. I ache to have your little body in my arms. People are always telling me how fast this all goes, and how much I’ll miss this time, but I have to say, I’m loving you getting bigger, older, and more alert. I want so badly to know what’s going on in there, behind that twinkle.
Love, Mama
Posted by Jenny @
10:43 pm |
Epic.
So, I haven’t gotten around to that Goal Post yet, but I will. First I have to tell you about the AMAZING past few days we’ve had. Believe it or not, we took Clark with us to San Francisco. On an airplane. Dude has never been to the mall, he’s only been to the grocery store once, but we took him to San Francisco. On the way to the airport, after accomplishing the feat that is packing for yourself AND your baby, I kept thinking, this is no big deal. And then I’d be like, Um, No, it’s a HUGE DEAL. HUGE.
And you know what? We survived. Not only that, it went really well! Clark exceeded expectations left and right. He was great on the plane. He only fussed a little on the hot, longass airporter ride. He slept just as he usually does, on a queen size bed further away from me than he’s ever slept. He learned to love his Ergo carrier. I’m telling you, it really feels like we turned a corner.
We went to San Fran so that I could attend a photography workshop. I could go on and on, and I probably will in future posts, but should you be interested in such things, Me Ra Koh, the photographer who put it on, did a post about the first day here. It’s a great post with lovely pictures detailing our first day of the workshop, and also the first night meet and greet, seen below:
Yep.
It was called the “Discovery Workshop” and boy, do I have some discovery to do. That picture just kind of says it all. Who the heck am I? Sorry to get all navel-gazey on you, but this thing really had me “discovering” to say the least.
I can’t seem to figure out who I’m supposed to be now. I’ll preface by saying, every mom must go through this, so bring on the thoughts in the comments. It’s just that I used to define myself by my career, by my extreme fitness routines, by my cruise director-y social life…and I don’t have any of those things anymore. I have different things, better things, but now that we’re coming out of the newborn fog, who am I supposed to be? Am I supposed to try to recapture the old me, or make a new me? And if it’s a new me, who is she?
Anyway, the workshop helped me to articulate all that for the first time. I’d been feeling it, but hadn’t been specific about what was bugging me. SO, the Goal Post is coming, as well as a New Career, but I have some mulling to do.
Posted by Jenny @
11:37 am |
My Jesus Year
Today is my 33rd birthday. It’s been lovely. This morning, Clark was up at seven. SB took him away and gave me two blissful hours of earplug-cocoon sleep. When I got up, I found Clark napping and SB mopping, so I took a shower. (Clark sleeping, SB mopping, me bathing? What a miraculous trifecta!) Normally such a detail in someone’s day would not be worth sharing, but I’m sure the moms among you can attest to the noteworthy naure of getting a shower.
SB was able to get away from work for a little while in the middle of the day, so I got to get away. I got a mani, my first in a million years. Then I went to the mall (I will never again go to the mall without thinking about Robin Sparkles.) where I did one large, efficient, sweep through Macy’s, combing through rack after rack, loading my arms with about 35 shirts. I waited until the attendant was distacted and darted into the 4 garment limit changing room, where I tried on all 35 of them in about 3.5 minutes. (Always returning them properly to their hangers, of course. I worked retail.)
Anyway, there was some shopping. Then I went home and took a nap with Clark. It was very warm and snuggly.
We were about to leave for dinner at my parent’s house when all of a sudden I felt like making people meet us for drinks later. I called my mom and asked her if she would watch Clark. She said yes, though I did notice a weird pause. Then I started sending a text to about 10 people and SB had to tell me to Stop It, Please Ms Cruise Director, that it was already planned, my mom was in, and some pals were already meeting us at The Tempest and there were going to be cupcakes. Nice, eh? He’s a good one.
So then there was dinner at my parent’s house. It was lovely as always to hang out with my parents and sister, my SB, and my baby. I’m so lucky. And then drinks and cupcakes with fun friends.
So. Lucky.
It was a great day! I do plan to do my annual Birthday Goal Post, hopefully tomorrow.
Posted by Jenny @
12:00 am |
I was so wrong.
April 22, 2009 | Clark
When you have a baby, sometimes people give you Stupid Clothes. If it’s a girl, I imagine these may take the form of shirts that say “Mommy’s Little Princess” or something like that. For Clark, there were some jammies that had a dog playing football, a sport I plan to forbid him to play. One time he was wearing them and I happened to have a Sharpie nearby so just wrote NO! on all the footballs. Much better.
Then there was this ducky onsie. I thought it was Stupid so it just kinda hung out in the botttom of the drawer. Today, after he barfed on his first cute outfit, I decided to put him in the Stupid duck onesie. Oh dear. I was wrong.
I was so wrong.
Posted by Jenny @
9:43 pm |
