May 24th, 2011

So being a parent in crazy. It is so much work, joy, emotions, tiredness... I'm feeling more things than I ever have in my life! I own cloth diapers and breastfeed, who would have thought!

Tonight I am sitting on my bed, next to my adorable, sleeping baby. He looks so sweet and this was a long, hot day (we visited Elk Neck State Park, in Maryland). Just looking at him invokes so many emotions. I love how he looks, all peaceful and relaxed. I want to much to keep him safe and surrounded by love for as long as I possibly can. I want him to feel secure about himself, to know that he is perfect the way he is. I can't wait to actually play with him, teach him things, cook with him! I can, however, wait to wake him up for his diaper change...

Aunt Elizabeth

Jaxon has four Aunties, so far he has only met on of them... His Aunt Elizabeth. And he loves her:

But how can you not love her :)

I have this little cat. We call her Baby Cat, mostly because when I adopted her she was the smallest of my cats. She was shy, would MAYBE let me pet her once a day. And I by pet I mean one pet, and she was gone again!
We got her while I was living in a small apartment in Philadelphia, she is a beautiful little grey striped cat, about 2 years old now. About 4 months after she joined my family we moved to Lebanon Pa, to live with the family I was nannying for at the time. The family we moved in with also had 2 cats, so cat count is up to 4 and guess who was at the bottom of the kitty totem pole? Baby Cat. So she stayed in my room a lot and at long last, warmed up to me! It was great, she was my little shadow, no one else could touch her. I loved her! Well I still love her. BUT. Now that my son has joined us and we have moved AGAIN, she is a completely different cat.
 

 She is now a loudmouth. She hates closed doors, will meow at them, scratch at them... generally hate them... even if every other door in the house is open! She meows at everything, and at nothing. She like to pick fights with me. She knows where I like to lay the baby on my bed, she will wait until I pick up the baby then she quickly lays down in his place and becomes "liquid cat" so I can't push her out of the way. Liquid cat with claws. At night she comes FLYING into our room, dives onto the bed landing on both of us as many times as possible before rocketing back into the hall.... It's a good thing she is cute. I know it's mostly that she is jealous, I don't love on her like I used to and her new behavior is so annoying I would just like to sell her to the gypsies, but D likes her, so that option is out... As I am typing this she is sitting sleepily at the end of my bed, waiting for my feet to make the slightest move so she can pounce on them, making me glad it's still winter and I have heavy blankets on the bed still!

I DO still love her though, and one of these days things will calm down, we will all get into a new routine and settled into the new house/life. Hopefully I will have skin on my feet when that magical time arrives. =)

Bodie, Ca

"By 1880 the phrase "Badman from Bodie" described the town's rambunctious inhabitants, earning the community a reputation for violence that rivaled Tombstone, Deadwood and Dodge City."~http://www.bodiehistory.com/

One of my favorite places, ever, is Bodie, California. In 1859 gold was in this area and by 1879, Bodie had a population of about 10,000 people at its peak! But the weather is pretty harsh there, so hot in the summer and sets records for cold weather in the winter, plus there were a few fires and eventually the last gold mine closed in 1942, making it a ghost town.

As I am inexplicable drawn to forgotten places; abandoned houses, graveyards, factories, and towns,this place is perfect as there is so much to see at one particular spot. The former residents just left, there are all kinds furniture, cloths, canned food, cars just littered all around the park.

My last trip to Bodie was in July of 2007. I don't know what we were thinking exactly, it was wicked hot! But my sister and I were determined to go for a road trip before I moved to Pennsylvania, so away we went. My family lives near Fresno, CA so we drove all the way through Yosemite (always beautiful!) and camped by a reservoir near Bridgeport, Ca. Like I said, it was SO hot, we were both on the edge of heat exhaustion. We tried to swim in the reservoir but it was warm, Mono Lake was warm and smelled weird... so we got ice cream at the general store in Bridgeport! Ice cream makes almost everything better...

I would highly recommend visiting Bodie, if you get the chance. It is being maintained in a "state of arrested decay" so it wont be around for ever and it is so interesting/fun to see this part of our country's history! Just don't go in July...

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