A Date

We have arranged to swap childcare with a couple from our childbirth education class (and doesn’t that seem like ages ago). Tuesday was part 2: Zebediah spent a few hours with them and we went to a movie and dinner.

For the record: Dark Knight and sushi. I could write about my opinion of the movie, but really the point was that we watched it, all the way through, in a movie theater. (I can say that on the Luo Lin scream-o-meter it elicited only one scream, but my reactions do not seem to mirror those of the average movie-goer.)

The best thing was that Zebediah was so tired when we picked him up that he only nursed for a few minutes before falling asleep.

This is the first month we’ve tried the child swap. I hope we manage to keep it up when things get busy.

Old Married Couple

I have a bad habit of getting interested in a book after my husband starts reading it. Then I take it while he’s not looking and sometimes he gets tired of retrieving it from me and starts another one. To be fair, it’s not for long, since I read faster than he does. Also, he is usually working on a few different books at the same time anyway.

My husband sometimes gets interested in something I’m reading and reads over my shoulder, which can drive me crazy if I am in a mood where I need a bit of personal space. Sometimes I just leave and let him read whatever instead of whining about it.

This is how we ended up reading each other’s books at the dining table the other night. (For the record, he got my Generation Xby Douglas Coupland, newly acquired from Half Price Books and I got his Magnificat by Julian May, which we have both read before.)

Besotted

We’d like to think we are not typical, boring parents obsessed with our child, but we did have a conversation last night about whether Zebediah was more adorable when:

a. lying on his back holding up a book and pretending to read it. (Hey, if there are no words on the page, looking at the pictures is reading it.

b. while playing

c. with a spoonful of spinach dip on his nose

I suggested a. My husband countered with b. We settled on c.

Also, my husband has been known to post about Z on the political blog he writes for.

Call Me Maggot

When Doctor Mama wrote her post on how to start running a couple of years ago, I thought it was interesting, but I had no desire to start running. I preferred walking, around the neighborhood or on the treadmill at the gym. When I tried a bit of running on the treadmill, it was very uncomfortable. I was happy with my walking, swimming, yoga, and dancing.

Recently, though, I decided I did want to start, so I looked up her old posts.

I don’t know why my body told me it was time to start running when we are well into triple digit temperatures here, but it did, so I am.

Partly, I just needed to get a little more active. I haven’t been swimming since sometime at the end of last year. We manage to get to dancing about 10% as often as we used to. And, because we actually live in a walkable neighborhood now, I do more short walks to the playground or grocery store instead of daily exercise-length walks. I’ve been to about four yoga classes since Z was born.  (I did sign us up for a Mother/Tot yoga series, so maybe that will get the yoga momentum going.) Everything except walking got harder logistically after Zebediah was born, of course, and then last semester was essentially four months in survival mode. Even daily walks fell by the wayside.

But for whatever reason, I decided it was time to run. I have a hand-me-down jog stroller, so I figured that Zebediah and the stroller could provide a kind of cover for the embarrassingly slow running that is so important in Doctor Mama’s program.

The first time, I ran so slow that I sped up when I daydreamed instead of slowing down, which is what usually happens when I walk anywhere for more than a few minutes. (In fact, I think I sped up and started walking).  But I figured out a pace and now I can say that I am capable of running for a half hour.

So far, I have done four runs with Zebediah and two with my husband.  Since I am running every other day, as instructed, and Z is in day care two days a week, this week I had to run without the stroller. Then Mr. Luo decided he wanted to come with me in place of some of his regular biking. He is a bad influence, becuause both times I have ended up with a twenty-nine minute run, instead of a half hour, but it is nice to get out together. Also, his slow run/walk is even more awkward than mine, so he is a good substitute for the baby-and-stroller-as distraction.

I hope I am not jinxing this by writing about it so soon. The real test of my persistence will be once classes start again.

I’m Shocked, Shocked

OK, I’m not that surprised that the IRS is auditing our 2005 return. But if they think the medical expenses that year were too high, I can’t wait till they see the itemized deductions for 2006 (two ivf/pgd cycles instead of just one).