Higgeldy Piggeldy

Despite the decided lack of Spring-like weather and fertile natural rebirth that I consider Easter to be a celebration of, our Easter was rather delightful. Noah enjoyed hunting for eggs four times, and received a landslide of art supplies, toys and candy. We saw a bevy of family at two lovely gluttonous meals – and everyone seemed happy and to be having a fine time. I was very impressed by the fact that not only did my Dad hide eggs for Noah in 38 degree weather – he also had dyed them himself. And I was overjoyed watching Noah scampering around Grandma’s house with his cousins – those by blood, and those soon to be by marriage. It was really a nice day. Some folks dread the family functions, and I admit at times I have been in that camp. But with Noah I have a newfound appreciation for our family circle and how much love we get.

I have a bunch of pedestrian mis-matched stuff to mention, so please bear with me while I get some of this out there. First off I have to talk about something that has been causing me great agony – my hair. I got it cut a couple of weeks ago and though at first I didn’t mind it much, over time I’ve grown to hate it. And you know how when you get your haircut and noone comments on it you can tell it looks BAD – because if it looked good at all people would compliment you on it. There are a few problems. First off – I now have bangs. My problem with this is that bangs don’t work for me. By the end of the day they are oily and not lying correctly and I want nothing more than to get them out of my face. The second problem is that the cut is probably too long for my face shape, which is totally my fault because I’ve been hanging on to length as a novelty. The third issue is color – my hair has been it’s natural mousy brown for about two years now and I’m very sick of it. Because I never stopped nursing and I did a bunch of hair color/cancer research for a freelance client – I swore off dying my hair. And as I get older it gets more dark and mucky looking. I hate it. But I’m pregnant and afraid to do anything about it. Plus – it’s so pricey to get color and it’s a never-ending cycle of dying roots and whatnot. And speaking of pregnancy, color and hate – I’ll also mention that I’ve been meaning to whiten my teeth for three years now. I told myself I would do it as a reward for quitting smoking three years ago (YAY Me!) but because of the nursing and the chemicals I’ve kept putting it off. And after ten years of smoking they REALLY need it. REALLY. So yeah – I’m getting bigger by the minute, have bad skin, bad hair and yellow teeth. I’m a real winner.

On a more positive note – I’m very excited we made it on the list to join the Greensgrow CSA this year. With all the commentary (and blogs) I’ve read on the importance of eating more naturally and more locally – I think this is going to be a great step for us. Not only does the CSA provide fruit and greens – they also include milk, eggs, meat, fresh flowers, bread and the occasional local beer! It should be fun and challenging to figure out what we can make with everything we receive each week. I’ll keep you posted on any fun recipe discoveries.

I have a bunch of other stuff on the local front. A couple of weeks ago, thanks to all Mark’s efforts to help green our neighborhood, we got a street tree planted in front of our house. Right now Mr. Tree looks like a large twig, but hopefully he’ll soon be far more picturesque. Mark is doing a fine job thus far giving him 15 gallons of water every Saturday – and I think that is a huge accomplishment because every plant I’ve ever had died due to lack of water. This is of course why I am not scooping up a garden plot in our community garden at the end of the street. Mark said “Don’t you want to teach Noah how to garden?” My reply was “As soon as someone shows me, I’ll be happy to do so. Plus – I’ve never gardened before and I’m not going to start the summer I’m 8 months pregnant!” However we did help clean the garden this past Saturday, so hopefully just helping the other gardeners out will be a good lesson. Anything else community related? Oh – we’re supporting Matt Ruben for Philadelphia City Council at Large. He did an incredibly job as the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association president – and I know he’d be a great advocate for change on the City Council. So if you're voting in the Philadelphia primaries I highly recommend him.

Do I sound like some sort of developing urban hippie? We’ve just tried to become more aware and involved since Noah was born – and honestly Mark does the bulk of the legwork on most stuff. But I try to be moderate in most things – striving to be thoughtful but not extremist. But then again maybe it’s ridiculous to give your kid very watered down organic apple juice and then feed him Twizzlers. Who knows? I guess we’re all just trying our best.

Hmmm. What else? Noah’s art class ends next week. We’ll be sad to see it go. He really loved it. For his next class I’m planning to enroll him in swimming lessons at the YMCA. That should get him water ready for our beach trip at the end of June. And I'm in a tizzy over considering whether to enroll him in some sort of limited preschool program in the Fall or just hold off - but that's a whole other post.

OH the baby! I’ve dreaded mentioning this because it’s such a minefield and though I want to hear opinions, I also don’t. But here it is. NAMES. We are still at a loss for a baby name for this boy. For the longest time Ray was at the top of our list – not Raymond, just Ray – and I still really like that. But I’m not feeling convinced. What do you think? Somehow completely independent of any connection to Billy Ray Cyrus (I SWEAR!) I also like Cyrus – Cy for short. I picked it up from Cy Tolliver on Deadwood – and I like that Cyrus means “the sun,” but anytime I mention it to people I don’t get a very positive response. Thoughts? Also on my list, though not necessarily Mark’s – are Quinn, Luke, Gabriel, Konrad, Lee, Reed, Dean, Alden, and Glenn. Though Mark has specifically said we should not pick another biblical name so as not to convince others we are Bible thumpers – and that he doesn’t like Glenn or Dean. I like Konrad, it’s a family name, but I don’t want my boy called Connie. Input? I can’t promise I will take your opinions as gospel, but I will consider them.