girl at large

I like to write about life when you have a job, some kids, a fixer upper and a fatal disease.

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  • Searching

    House hunting in winter sucks. Our budget means a fixer upper, which we love, but come on! It has to be at least mostly structurally sound. Milwaukee has some ugly, ugly housing stock right now.

    According to the listings, the highlight of the Wisconsin home apparently is the basement bar.

    I am determined not to buy a house by the pound– bigger is not always better, especially when it comes to Midwestern heating bills and renovations. I’d rather have a little gem that I can afford to fix up now with the best materials rather than in ten years and too cheaply. I miss the days of being able to vacuum my whole apartment without ever changing outlets. I don’t want to own and maintain rooms we never use.

    But every house we have seen, regardless of size, has been a trashed mess. Do people really live like this? Is this really all you get for your money?

    My dreams of something “cool” with “potential” are fading. At this point, I’d settle for “not gross”.

  • Take the Second Exit for Santa’s Workshop

    Baby Vivienne can’t appreciate it yet, but her mom loves the crap out of Christmas. I can’t wait until she understands leaving her shoes out for St. Nick, leaving cookies for Santa Claus and leaving mom and dad asleep on Christmas morning.

    I love cookies, Yule logs, putting another log on the fire, singing carols and Carole King, wrapping presents, picking just the perfect present and judging someones esteem of me by their present.

    Yes, I said it.

    It’s not pretty, it’s not Christian (which I also am not), but it’s true. When your significant other gives you a laminated wall map, and only a laminate wall map, the thought will float in your mind as your heart sinks in your belly that perhaps your beloved thinks less of you, thinks that you were not nice this year, thinks you are ….a delivery driver.


    Take the Second Exit for Santa's Workshop

  • Not Guilty

    I returned to work, only part-time for the month of December, yesterday.

    Everyone, and by everyone I mean everyone, including my dental hygienist, has asked “How are you?”, “Are you ok?”, “How are you handling it?”. Imagine the accompanying head tilt and sympathetic expression.

    I have not entered my child into a gulag. I have delivered her to a facility that is designed and dedicated to the care of children, with the backing of the state, county, city and the respected YMCA organization. It is regulated, licensed and inspected. There are FOUR ladies committed to her care in a lovely, toy and baby equipment-filled room with only a few other infants. They each have degrees in child development, training in infant CPR, certificates galore and ongoing education requirements.

    I have a GED and a functioning uterus. I should have dropped the kid off weeks ago!


    Not Guilty

  • They Like What They Like

    Sleepy baby. Sleeping on the diaper changing pad. A fancy automatic swinging bassinet, a co-sleeper bed, a folding travel baby bed, a nordic designer-y bouncy chair and a pack ‘n play all available to her and what’s her favorite? The five dollar foam changing pad.


    They Like What They Like

  • Losing It

    There have been some nights when I thought I’d lose it as the Baby screamed for hour three…but we’ve gotten through that phase and learned how to calm her.
    What I do seem to be losing is my memory.

    Me, wandering around perplexed: “Somewhere in this house is a bag of breast milk”.

    Paul: “I thought you had two”!

    Losing It

    Losing It

    Losing It

  • Snoozing

    Paulie took a few candid shots of his sleeping family this morning. Ruby was actually awake, on baby-watching duty. I was sound asleep…for 6 hours straight! Little Miss Viv is giving us a solid 5 to 6 hours each night for a few nights in a row now. Keeping my fingers crossed that she keeps it up!

    Snoozing

    Snoozing

    Snoozing

  • Our Little Package

    How can such a wee little baby need such a big vehicle?

    Oh, right…it’s all the supplies that need the extra space!

    (We had the new station wagon for less than 12 hours before Mom insisted on a trip to Target as our first outing).

    Our Little Package

    Our Little Package

    Our Little Package

  • Dear Darling Daughter,

    Dear Darling Daughter,

    Thank you. You have given me the greatest gift a mother could ask for. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. No other achievement, no award nor perfect grades could compare. I will be forever proud of you, and eternally grateful to you for…

    sleeping through the night!

    Love,
    Your grateful Mom


    Dear Darling Daughter,

  • Great Big….Occasion

    We took the train to Chicago yesterday, to bring Vivienne to meet her Great Grandma Mickey. First choo choo train, first visit to Chicago, first time seeing Great Grandma Mickey. Another BIG day.

    Best quote from Grandma Mickey, while I was nursing:

    “Peggy, take a picture of this. I want a picture of that great big boob and that little head. Look at that big boob! And that little head! It’s a beautiful picture. Peggy, did you get that picture, did you?!”

    Aunt Peg, in her classic understated style: “I’m not sure Kate wants to be that exposed”.


    Great Big....Occasion

  • Another Big Day

    It was another eventful day—-first a Rossetto gathering to celebrate Zia Lilliana’s birthday, then dinner at our house with Tom, Suzanne and Jack to celebrate Mom’s birthday. Miss Vivienne slept through all the noise, talking and laughing, driving, shifting in and out of cars and slings, a missed feeding, a diaper change in the hatch of the car….sleep, sleep, sleep.

    10 pm when the house is quiet, the lights are low and we are trying to go to bed? Scream, scream, scream.

    Another Big Day

    Another Big Day