"Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day, I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return."


http://enjoyingthesmallthings.blogspot.com/

Carry Me, Ohio

The first time we tried to see Mark Kozelek was at what used to be the Covered Dish in Gainesville. Tim, Matt, and I sat on the floor with our beer and listened to the haunting, echoic sound of the former front man for Red House Painters. During Carry Me Ohio, an all-time favorite song of mine, he got pissed off  at the people talking in the background and stormed off stage. I later learned that he is kind of known for getting pissed and storming off stage. Nevertheless, Florida must be bad for the whole talking-during-live-music thing because Jeff Tweedy of Wilco complained about it too.

The next time we saw Mark Kozelek was at the Great American Music Hall. He was playing with Sun Kil Moon and it was an awesome show, partly because of the amazing venue - it's our favorite place in the city to see music. It was that kind of show where the richness of the music fills every crack and crevice of the music hall and you are swimming in it. At the time I was about 35 weeks pregnant, exhausted by that time of the night, and couldn't stand for long. It was funny though to be in the crowd and have people go "Whoah!!" when I turned around and they saw that big, round, beautiful belly that is now my big, round, beautiful baby daughter! During the show, he admitted to having a cat so I briefly thought about slipping him my business card. MK and I are from the same place in Ohio and currently we live in the same city so it's kind of meant to be, no?

In 1 week from now we get to see Mark Kozelek a third time and I am excited. If you've never heard of him I do recommend checking him out as a solo artist and as front man for Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon.

Here is a sweet, melancholy taste:

The Childproofer

His name is Mark and this is his entire business (http://childprooferstore.com/). He comes to your home to have a look around and tell you where you need to make adjustments so your newly mobile child doesn't accidentally hurt or kill themselves. Our wallets are a bit lighter but so are our minds. Thank goodness we aren't getting anally raped by the IRS again this year (Ada is a sweet deduction). At least we know that these things are properly installed and in the event of an earthquake we are a little safer than we were previously. We still have some issues to address on our own but here's what Mark did for us:

 

The one single heater in our old house is basically like having an engine block in the floor. It gets really hot. Like, dangerously hot (remember your sweatshirt Mandi? RIP). So Mark custom cut this gate to block off the heater so Ada doesn't crawl over it or fall on to it and burn herself. 

 

 Our shower and toilet are in separate rooms so we are just going  to block off the entire hallway with a pressure gate that has a door in it. We can go to the bathroom and Ada can't drown herself in the toilet. We'll put the cat litter boxes back here too so that she can't get into them. Gross. 

 

We're looking at an earthquake strap on the back of a mirror here.  In the living room we have a 6 x 4 foot mirror that props against the wall. Obviously, this is a huge hazard. Not anymore! It is now tethered to the wall at the top and at the bottom so Ada (or earthquake) can't move it. 

 

We have a few tall bookcases around the house. Some of our very thick, heavy textbooks and anatomy atlases  live in these shelves. Now they're tethered to the wall too. That strap can release so that the case can be moved out for cleaning etc and then moved back and strapped back to the wall. Handy.

The apple does not fall far from the tree.

 

 

During our trip to FL we got to see Diana, Laura, & Gilberto - some of our all-time favorite people in the whole wide world. Laura was born only a few weeks after Ada so Diana and I have a lot to talk about these days...not that we were ever hurting for topics in our pre-baby lives. Our wee ones have met before but they were super tiny then and pretty much just lay on the hotel bed as individual blobs who happened to be next to another baby blob. Not this time!

  

  

  

  

  

We were cracking up at these two! This seriously went on for more than 5 minutes. That's a damn long time for a tiny baby to focus on just about anything. They were focused.  Too sweet! 

Then there was just love all around the room with everyone loving on everyone else's babies!

  

Side note for the above picture: see that faint text behind D & A. Yeah, Diana and I were watching lectures remotely in the hotel room. We are nerds. In our defense, it was a really interesting dermatology talk. 

  

  

Sweet Potatoes

 

Here is Daddy preparing the sweet potatoes. Can you see the Beaba in the background on the counter, just waiting to steam some delicious, lovingly prepared vegetables? Thanks Uncle Pat & Aunt Stephanie!

 

Here is Ada enjoying her 100% organic, locally grown sweet potatoes. They are especially good because of the loving care her Daddy took in making them.