Bagels: sweet or savory?

So this contest is open, yo. Leave a comment to enter and I will pick a random winner of a prize as yet to be determined. And I give good prize (just saying). Contest closes on July 4 at (um) 12 noon Central Time. If you don't have a blog, you can still totally participate. Swistle will explain how.

Don't forget to also enter all the other contests listed on that entry. You have many chances to win! Many different prizes! And many opportunities to also give gifts to total strangers. Good luck.

When Mimiclaus was born, we weren't really sure if she looked like Alliclaus. It has quickly, however, become infinitely apparent that she looks just like me.

She's so fair that Sarah likes to tell me, "If she was one shade lighter, you'd have some explaining to do." She wasn't "blessed" with Alliclaus' gigundo head or her thick, dark hair. And really, I can't tell if they look alike or not. I get a lot of comments that they don't look anything alike. But sometimes I'll see a picture of Alliclaus when she was a baby and think it looks an awful lot like Mimiclaus.

In the interest of getting real with myself, I would like your opinion. Do you think my girls look alike? Do they at the very least look related?

Alliclaus on September 19, 2006, when she was almost six months old

Mimiclaus today, almost six months old

So, what do you think? Additionally, I'm considering changing the girls' pseudonyms on this here blog to something a little bit more name-ish and a little less cutesy. Thoughts?

But, seriously. It's like their doing marching drills up there. How hard is it necessary to walk to get yourself from one end of the house to the other? Mimiclaus just fell asleep and now she is awake again (with barely a ten minute nap) because they are stomp, stomp, stomping around the apartment. Just sit down and watch TV, already!

Of course, I won't say anything. I'll just passive-aggressively post about it on my blog.

Got any bad neighbor stories to share?

I don't generally creep into the high number channels on our cable box because I'm old skool like that. Andres, however, loves Planet Green and G4. G4 is, for those of you who don't know, a channel for gamers. I think the G stands for gamer, but it sure as shit might as well stand for geek. It's got shows about video games and viral videos and, inexplicably, it shows Cheaters and Cops. I thought the channel had nothing for me. Until one day, I came into the living room while Andres was wielding the remote, and I had a complete paradigm shift.

Ninja Warrior (along with Unbeatable Banzuke, which is not really my favorite) is part of G4's "duty-free TV" programming, which is really just subtitled Japanese game shows, with a bit of American intro type stuff attached. Ninja Warrior is...I don't even know how to describe its magnificence. It's kind of like American Gladiators, but there are no gladiators. That's not a very good way to explain it. In any case, 100 people attempt to beat an obstacle course. Most of them don't. In fact, there've only been, like, three people EVER to complete the course. I wish there was a way to describe it that would convey it's awesomeness, but there isn't. To know ninja is to love ninja.

The first time I saw it, I thought it was stupid. Then I sat down and watched it for five hours straight. Now I know all the "Ninja Warrior All-Stars" by name and even know most of the frequent failures that come back year after year.

I suppose I should be embarrassed to admit this. I'm not, though. Mostly because Rebecca totally admitted to me that she and her husband watch it, too. She's actually the one who turned me on to using, "Ninja, please," which is perhaps the phrase in my life that most cracks me up these days. I think of Rebecca as almost too cool for me, so her love of Ninja Warrior has absolved me of all geek guilt.

I've spent my weekend watching Ninja Warrior and I believe I'll consider that the reason I survived it.

In high school, I couldn't have cared less about politics. When I got to undergrad, I realized that my deep concern about justice for the poor was perhaps not best exercised in the political field, but that learning about politicians, voting responsibly and communicating with my representatives were certainly on the list of ways to make small changes that I believed were important. Watching Meet the Press informed my understanding of the political world, perhaps more than any single influence should. I'm not a fan of television news in general. I get most of my news from the Internet. But I trusted Tim Russert. Meet the Press was the first show that I put on my DVR. In the days before it, I would be lying if I said that I didn't occasionally miss church because I was so involved with Tim's interview.

I was devastated when I learned of Russert's passing. I watched Meet the Press late last night with a box of Kleenex. It was a lovely tribute to Russert. I will miss his moderation of Meet the Press deeply. I want to believe that Russert's legacy will be the number of people in my generation who became politically active because of his consistent, reliable work in political journalism. He will be missed, but his life certainly falls into the category of short but full.

I wish I had sent a fan letter, though that seems like a kind of crazy thing to do. Instead, I will have to simply think a "thank you" to him, for my increased knowledge and passion because of his work.

I need to thank Marilyn for doing this, because it kept me busy today while my entire work productivity was tied up in an IT error. Awesome.

In case you want to participate, here's the deets.

1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
2. Using only the first page, pick an image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker).

The Questions

1. What is your first name? Elizabeth


2. What is your favorite food? chorizo


3. To which high school did you go? Eastlake


4. What is your favorite color? red


5. Who is your celebrity crush? Taye Diggs


6. Favorite drink? Bailey's


7. Dream vacation? Alaskan cruise


8. Favorite dessert? Christmas cookies


9. What you want to be when you grow up? scientist (I answered with what I wanted to be when I was a kid.)


10. What do you love most in life? Andres


11. One word to describe you. neurotic


12. Your flickr name bethiclaus

Additionally, Sweetney sent a flickr email to me at the worst possible second. Her challenge?

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Post a photo of yourself taken right now. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, grab a camera (photobooth obviously helps) and snap. No retouching, just the rawness of a moment in time. Then post your photo on flickr or your blog/site, and share the link in comments here. Ready? GO.

Unfortunately, for me, I had just finished working out and was just checking me email briefly before hopping in the shower. The resulting picture can speak for itself I think.

Have a good weekend, yo.

You want to see my kids cuteness. I know you do. (Plus, you can see the girls' real names. Please don't use them here, though. We try to keep it un-Googlable around these parts.) Here are the entries.

I'm even more enamored with Rebecca than usual, since she invited me to go see Sex and the City with a bunch of girls this Monday night. Someone has a social life! Heh. We're also starting the eHarmony of Bromances, but that is a post for another day.

My shit has been broke forEVAH, so I finally took Cagey's advice and contacted my hosting company and they fixed me right up. I would have done it sooner, but it turns out grad school is HARD when you have a toddler and a newborn. It's probably for the best I was on a hiatus. The blog would just be one more thing I could find time to do instead of all the other crap I should actually be doing.

In any case, I feel like it would be ridiculous to try to catch you all up on the haps around here, but I'll give you some of the highlights.

• Mimiclaus is a significantly more demanding baby than Alliclaus was. My one piece of advice to people considering children: Have the hard one first.
• Mimiclaus came with me to class starting when she was ten days old. It was awesome. If by awesome you mean I was neither a great student nor a great parent during those hours. But the semester is over and I am thankful that we were able to work it out in the short term.
• I bounced back really quickly healthwise after having Mimiclaus, but my God, the weight. Everyone said it would be harder to lose the baby weight the second time around. I really wanted to hit them in the face for saying it, but they weren't lying. Jerks.
• We're heading back to San Diego in July for Sarah and Josue's wedding, and while I'm stoked to be there for their big day, I'm starting to think I never want to travel ever until my children are, I don't know, in high school? When does it become easy to travel with children?
• We have a Wii!

Surely other things have happened in the four months I've been gone, but I can't really keep track of them. I'm a little sad I haven't done a lot more documenting of Mimiclaus' first months, but I'm sure it would have just been a bunch of worrying and hand-wringing about "Is she getting enough of my attention? Will she feel like her sister had a better deal?" Instead, I've spared you that and am back when I'm finally starting to overcome those fears.

I'm so glad to be back. Newest pictures at flickr.

Salem was a great cat and he kept me company for a little more than a year while I was desperately lonely after moving to Kansas City. Andrés worked opposing shifts to mine and I spent a lot of evenings alone. Having someone at home eager to see me made my days much more pleasant. I could never explain how much I needed that little kitty in those early days.

Since we brought Alliclaus home, however, Salem has never really adjusted. He is apparently one of the many cats who don't do well living with children. We've always been very strict with Alliclaus about leaving Salem alone, but his stress level seemed to skyrocket anyway. He began peeing on my clothes and the baby's and also increased his scratching/biting even as he got older and farther away from his kittenhood.

I've been desperately sad about the decision since last Monday, when I first contacted the Humane Society. They've been nothing but nice and confirmed that we had tried all the options they generally recommend (both Prozac and Feliway pheremone treatment). Still, Salem is a black male cat, notoriously difficult to place, and now he has a behavioral issue as well. I feel like we should have tried something else or otherwise learned to live with his behavior.

Our vet believe that Salem will be better off in another home, one without children, but I'm fearful he won't find one. The guilt is extreme and my hormones are not helping.

More than anything else, though, I just miss my first baby.

Mimiclaus was born January 9, 2008 at 12:59 p.m.
8 lbs, 12 oz., 19.5 inches, 14.5 inch head
So much for a baby who was "so much smaller" than Alliclaus.

Considering how big she was, we had a super-easy labor and delivery. They broke my water at 7:00, I went into labor at 10:30, I started pushing at 12:55 and she was born before 1:00. It was so different than with Alliclaus that I could hardly believe it was real.

Not so different than with Alliclaus? Big baby, rising bilirubin, poor breast milk supply. We're supplementing some with formula (shut it if you have something to say on that point), but I am cautiously hopeful that things might smooth out since Mimiclaus is interested in breastfeeding where Alliclaus could have cared less for, oh, say, twelve weeks or so.

Alliclaus is relatively good with the new baby. She is certainly struggling with the change in her life, but seems to be mostly taking it in stride. It helps that my mom's in town to help us out.

I'm the mother of two now.

I'm so lucky.

Now, she's asking for me and pointing me out in pictures unprompted. It's pretty awesome. Except that apparently Momnee required too much effort, so I am now Mon. I'm really not prepared for my kid to go from Mommy to Mom, but I'm definitely not all about the referring to me as Mon. Hopefully, as the speech gets better, we'll go back to Mommy. Or at least Momnee.

She's got some other words coming on that are less exciting to hear. While I'm positive that she hasn't yet picked up any of my swear words, she is frequently saying "cock" and "fuck" when referrring to trucks and frogs. And because she knows I'm mortified, she says it over and over again. Relentlessly. I think I'll try to teach her other words to refer to those things. Like toad instead of frog. Who needs zoological accuracy when you can avoid immense humiliation?

Well, the weekend is here. Talk to you on Monday.

So I'm letting Alliclaus go up the stairs on her own in spite of the fact that it means I'm on the staircase for upwards of five minutes at a time and just praying that she doesn't wake up until Andrés comes home. When that doesn't work, I carry her down the stairs as quickly and carefully as I can and hope for the best.

We're pretty close to making a decision to move into an apartment in another part of town in February. We're doing it mostly because it will move us close enough to my work that I would be able to come home to breastfeed, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of no more stairs. I can't believe that my laziness has reached this degree, but I am going to blame it on the pregnancy and believe that the laziness will go away with the heartburn and the backaches once this baby gets born.

Since I know we're hoping for a 39-week induction, I had them check my cervix. I'm at 2+ cm and am 70% effaced. This is good news, so I'm hoping that next week will bring a firm date for the induction. Hopefully, my OB will be on the same page. I don't know if I'll be able to start my class if I have a five day-old.

I got some books for Christmas, so I am happy to say that I'll have a few new reads while I'm endlessly strapped to the breast pump (although I am certainly hoping that I'll have to spend less time with that this time). We're getting excited about Sarah's arrival (in a little more than a week) and now I'm starting to want everything in the house spotlessly clean (I'm always a little late in the nesting). The office is open tomorrow and Friday, so I'm hopeful I'll get in a few hours at the office before my last day (January 4).

The heartburn is slowly killing me, so I am off to take more Tums.

These were taken in the church nursery on Sunday. It will likely be the only time she will wear the Christmas dress. Luckily, I waited until Saturday to buy it and therefore got it for, like, ten bucks.

And here's a quick picture from this morning. Alliclaus' aunt and uncle sent her a rocking horse for Christmas. She's still a little too short for it, but she likes to rock on it.

See you tomorrow!