spicetart

It's ONLY been 6 months. So???

Yeah, 6 months later I write a new post.  I think I'm ready to start blogging again.  Turn away, food lovers, it is unlikely that I will go back to blogging about food, as all I eat is the food provided at my kick-ass job and...carrots.  Not fascinating.

However, I've been inspired to be indulge my desire to write again, inspired by many sources (my family, B. Smith, Joss Whedon - don't ask).  2008 was an intense year, and 2009 promises to be more of the same.  Some people even think I should have a 3rd baby.  Crazy people *cough* Chris. 

So yeah, more insanity just ahead.

Scarlett Is Born

Scarlett Suzanne Newman Buchanan was born on December 5, in the morning, at home in the water, into her dad and my midwive's loving hands.  8 pounds, 14 ounces, 21 inches and a huge head!  She is a sweet and friendly little girl, and so far, a very good sleeper.  She's also growing very quickly, already 11+ pounds (and weighed 3 pounds more than Ivy at birth - crazy!)

I will be writing up her birth story but will not post it here.  Please email me if you are interested in hearing about our beautiful home birth.

And Ivy is almost 2 years old, I can't beleive how fast it has gone.  She is a very good big sister, and is very sweet to her little sister.  Hopefully they will grow up to be best friends...

On hold

Things have come up that have basically made our decision for us about India - we are not going. So that's that. I may not post for a while since I am dealing with some grim personal business that needs all my attention. I'd love to use my blog as a place I could write about all the things that are happening, but I just can't open this all up in such a public way. Anyway, hope to be back at some point with a more cheerful post, and at least some pictures of Ivy.

Did you say India?

So in the past few months, Chris's company has been talking about sending him to India to work for a year. I think he wants Ivy and me (and the fetus) to go too.

So this thought has been brewing and stewing and causing alternating fits of anxiety and excitement, and India? Really? Like tigers and samosas and the Taj Mahal India?

Bangalore, to be precise, southern India, where it is supposed to be cooler. I think this is one of those cases where cooler means not the scorching-pit-of-hell hot, but more the town next door to the scorching-pit-of-hell. And there really aren't tigers there in Bangalore, though I hear that there are plenty of cows and stray dogs roaming the streets. Sounds almost like Montana!! Except for the, you know, pollution and open, running sewers, and horrible sad poverty. But really, there is excitement too, at the possibility of an adventure. I try not to let my romantic notions get the best of me, it is after all a big bustling city full-o-high techiness.

So should we do it? I'll post my list of pros and cons next. Once I figure them out.

Buns in the Oven

It has been embarrassingly long since I have posted, but at least this time I have a real and valid reason, not an oh-I-am-just-too-busy-with-blah-blah kind of reason.  No this time, I was busy throwing up and sleeping and walking around like a complaining zombie, because, yes, I am pregnant with Numero 2.

Already?  Yes.

But I'm feeling much better and more me like, so hopefully I'll start cooking again, at least more than sweet potato and oranges.

I've got about 27 weeks until all hell breaks loose.

I'm Not a Hipster, but My Baby Is.

I've recently been reading the discussion about Hipster Parents - Do They Suck or What? that has been ongoing since the publishing of this article in Time magazine, and subsequently this post about in on the Poop and this stuff on Babble and this and this and this.  Yeah, no one cares about this topic clearly.  I find it all very interesting, and don't know where I stand, except to ask...can I be a hipster parent too?

I mean, how does one do it?  Did you have to be a hipster before the baby?  If so, I'm out.   I have no ironic t-shirts, but I do have one that says Oakland, which I think might be hipster, because Oakland is where all the disenfranchised San Francisco hipsters go when they have kids, or something.  Ivy has no ironic t-shirts, though I have sifted through all the ironic t-shirt websites and laughed and thought my baby would be perfect in that Now that I'm safe, I'm Pro-Choice shirt, you know, for the irony.

Oh, I did buy a onesie that said "Babys Rock" in KISS lettering.  But I bought it at Old Navy, so I know that doesn't count.  I don't think Old Navy is hipster, but I'd have to ask my hipster friends.  And "Babys Rock" isn't really ironic, it's more, just, true.

And now that I think about it, I bought a black and white t-shirt that says "I Do All My Own Stunts" because now that Ivy is learning to walk, she falls every 10-15 steps or so...but I bought it on the sale rack at Target, so that might not count. OR just maybe, it is totally hipster exactly BECAUSE I bought it on the sale rack at Target.  Is there a handbook for this shit?

At the end of the day, I figure that the way that other people are raising their children seems A) cooler than the way you do it, B) lamer than the way you do it or C) just plain wrong.  I'd like to be a hipster, if only because they seem to have a lot of time, money, and energy.  On that I could be wrong, but a girl can dream.

TV Rots Yer Brains

If television rots your brains, I am in real trouble.  But if it is too late for me, is there hope for Ivy?  She doesn't really watch the TV when it is on.  Sometimes she will glance at it, usually if something loud or bright is on, but for the most part she is much more interested in finding a way to put the whole paper towel cardboard roll in her mouth. 

But would she watch BabyFirstTV?  Finally, a channel just for babies!  They have been feeling so left out, but now babies can sit in their rooms and watch their own little TV and their spongy brains can absorb, uh, stuff.  Some people have actually claimed that these types of television shows are educational, that they teach little brains about, uh, stuff, and that you are actually making baby smarter by plopping him in front of the tube.  Don't get me wrong, I am not opposed to babies watching a little Baby Einstein, but let's not pretend that it's educational; mainly, those shows give mom and dad some time to do a few things that that need to be done.  I also don't think that a little TV is detrimental to an infant, even though it is not recommended by the American Association of Pediatrics that babies under 2 watch any TV.  And even if it is a wee bit harmful, I watched loads of TV when I was young and look at me!

And I just read today that people have more TVs in their house than people.  Yikes.  But really, who needs friends and bike rides and farmers markets and baseball games and wine tasting and coffee on the benches outside of Peets, who really needs any of that when you have the television?  Maybe it is not harmful to baby, but there have got to be better ways to entertain a person.  I will try to remember this the next time I sit down for the newest episode of Project Runway.

This is not a food blog.

My blog is neither about food nor is it a blog.  Discuss.

You may have noticed that I don't write.  About food or anything else.  I keep meaning to, I even took pictures of some recent meals, but really, what food blogger wants to read about the trouble with making your own rice cereal for your 6 month old??  I mean, I'd read it, because let me tell you, it's not as easy as it sounds, but I know YOU don't want to read it.  So.

First, I want to thank all those food bloggers who have kept a link to my site on their site - probably with the hopes that I would one day return and take up the food writing again.  To them, thank you, but you can remove my link now.  You've done your part.

Second, just like I didn't want to do, this blog will likely become a baby blog, because in all honesty, that's what I do.  Baby, baby, baby.  And I want to write about the baby because there are so many interesting (to me) observations about this whole parenting-baby-urban mom-cloth-or-diaper thing that really gets my blood pumping.  Yep, it's no longer excitement about The French Laundry reservations, but my baby sat up this week.  Holy crap!

So I guess this is sort of a goodbye to my blog of old, a hello to my blog of new.  I just really need a place to write some of this stuff down.  And I paid for this site, dammit.  So foodies and fooders, move along, nothing to see here, and thanks for all the love.

Molly

Who wants an update??

Sorry, no time for food bloggin'.  Oh how I miss those days of traveling an hour just for a restaurant or spending a whole Sunday cooking and drinking wine.  I miss you guys!

Baby Ivy is doing well, she's a very happy 11 week old and has thankfully passed that fussy-newborn-all-the-time phase.  She enjoyed a trip to the Ferry Building Farmers Market this weekend, her first trip to Slanted Door was also a success.  It also appears that we have a little art critic on our hands as she expressed her approval of Robert Motherwell's At Five in the Afternoon during our recent visit to the fabulous new De Young Museum.  Nothing else got as many coos and ahs - sounds like approval to me!

The rumors are true!

Introducing Ivy Carrico Newman Buchanan!

Born February 21, 2006, 8:38 p.m.
A tiny 6 pounds, 2 ounces and 19 inches long.

I will spare you all the labor details, but will say that my relief that it was over was only matched by my joy that she was so perfect and kissable and squishable.

Thanks for all the thoughtful emails, we are spending our time eating and sleeping and snuggling and will respond soon.