Thinking that...

A sleepy smile given around two fingers inhabiting such a sweet mouth
+
A little hand that reaches up to touch my neck
+
The wiggling of tiny feet encased in a blue sleeper
=

The reason why nothing I'm doing is more important than this moment.

Inauguration

So...CNN and Facebook had this lovely marriage of Live feed, which was awesome. Until about a bazillion people logged on, and guess who's feed went down RIGHT as Obama was being sworn in. If you guess me, you are right. Though I bet if you guess names of other people you'd probably be right as well. Fuh-Reaking out thus ensued. Seriously, I had been watching since nine in the morning, I had suffered through CNN trying to fill the hours where the Obama family was in church or invisible in their motorcade. I had seen his limo roll past excited people. I even listened to some woman in a horrible hat make inane remarks about "there are so many people!" "Do you hear the excitement??!! But what about the excitement!!??!!" I had watched the interviews where they accosted black people on the street about finally "having their day" (I'm still trying to decide if that's offensive), I know why Dick Cheney is in a wheelchair, I know there's no room for Bush to have his going away party in D.C., and how they handle moving the new president in. I am officially a creeper on our inauguration. Little addicted, I know. But personally, I think someone as dedicated as myself should have first dibs on bandwidth. You 11 o'clock slackers can go watch it on Hulu or something.

So, when my feed went down (we don't have television) I scrambled to find another one. MSNBC was slightly better, but froze every 10 seconds. At least I got to hear his speech, albeit with really long pauses. That plus a baby that decided to get fussy, right. then. didn't add to my enjoyment of the hiccupping feed. No matter. I'll watch the speech again with my hubby when we can hold hands in silence as a little family and hope good things for our country.

I think the thing that fascinates me the most about this is that President Obama (finally, btw.) looks like he's about to go get a massage instead of get sworn into presidency of a country that's on the brink. He's got decisions that I would not want to be in charge of and somehow manages to remain as cool as ice.

Here's hoping.

Introducing: The creatures.

So, we have one 6 month old baby, Helena (referred to here as Ena) and three cats. That's right. We're -this- much shy of being crazy cat people, and instead of putting their food in bowls scattering their food in handfuls on the floor akin to feeding chickens. Come to think of it, this may be equally effective.

Cats, as I have discovered, have personality. Being allergic to them, I had previously thought that cats were fuzzy allergens that seemed to be very attracted to me, seemingly for their penchant for watching my eyes swell shut as I claw at them crying "they itch, they itch!!!!!!!" But hey, then I got married to a dear man who said clutching these sweet purring sleeping cats that he would get rid of them if I needed him too. I said no, that's why God created allergy pills, and would you looooook at them, they're sleeping! And purring! OMG, and doing it upside down is that not the cutest(excuse me as I descend into cooing and unintelligable cat speak)(!!!)

Right, so then I had a baby (after we added one cat, my wisdom tooth extraction present). And while I love our cats, I would also take them to the nearest taxidermy and have them all stuffed. You wanna know why? Because we have a teeny tiny house with beautiful wood floors and 80 lbs cats that want to jump off the highest pieces of furniture known to man that can possible fit in this house. You know why else? Because there's three of them! That's right, two can be fighting and racing like antelope in heat (only heavier and wearing Dutch clogs) through the entire house, which takes all of 11 seconds, while the other is sleeping. So they can do it in shifts!! There can be an infinitum of cat revelry which also includes meowing loudly outside of Ena's room. Score!!

My way of dealing with this has been to get a nuclear grade spray bottle and spray them with water whenever they are being extra annoying. So, I've just super glued it to my hand. But you know what's really awesome about this, is spraying water at cats make them run. And meow! Wow, I've really solved this whole annoying problem!!!

Ena has also been very sensitive this week, and I just ordered a book on "wonderweeks" where apparently, as kids reach new developemental milestones they have meltdowns within certain weeks. Clingy, crying, and oh, the emotion!!! Everything turns into crying. Moved too fast? Cry. Too loud of noises? Cry. Feeling too much joy? Cry. (recently, she's added this half-laughing/half-crying stressed out exuberance thing to her repetoire that makes me concerned for her mental stability.) As I have taken her temperature threventyhundred times just to make sure she's okay, as well as checked everything else I could, and have concluded...developmental jump, teething, or growth spurt. And as my usually laidback extremely easy going baby has morphed into a very sensitive one, we'll be continue to keep an eye on her. She's better today though than yesterday, when she wouldn't go to sleep unless she was rocked. And the rocking can't be too fast. And I want to be upright which is obviously the most conducive for sleep. Okay, you can put me down a little. TOO FAR, TOOFAR!!!! (Cry!!!!) Okay, better. Sort of. For now. Now add the bouncing. TOO MUCH!!!! (Cry!!!!!) Where did you learn this crazy oceanic movement? I could have---zzzzz.

Oh thank god.