Miguelina

Goodbye 2006!

We just got back from our Christmas trip to Miami (going to the beach in December is awesome.  My fellow New Englanders, White Christmases are overrated.  Trust me on this.)  and were rewarded with a pretty yet manageable dusting of snow upon to welcome us home.  It couldn't be more perfect, really. 

Since this is the last day of the year, I had all sorts of plans to get myself ready for the New Year.  Do you do this too?  It's like somehow, January 1st will be a magical blank slate and the year will be just right IF I get my brand new planner in order, start the year with all my laundry clean and put away and if I finally catch up on my email and phone calls.  So, the 31st is usually a very crazy hectic day.

However, and I believe this is a sign that I may be becoming an adult, I've decided to do what I felt like doing today, which can be summed up as 'not much'.  I can get organized - tomorrow!  Instead, we're resting up for a New Year's Party with a few friends.  We've earned it.  Oh,  and I made a cake:

I may not be able to partake of much of tonight's sparkling beverages, but I want to be sure I can have some serious chocolate.   So I volunteered to make a cake.  A very chocolately cake.  I don't know, nor care, whether chocolate is traditional New Year's fare - I just know that I'm 26 weeks pregnant.  (If you live near Boston and were looking for some chocolate, my apologies, for it appears that I may have wiped out the stock at a couple of shops.)

Have a Happy New Year!

Boys

A few weeks ago, we learned that a baby boy(!) will be joining the adorable toddler boy we already have.  Which means that I will be the lone female in this household (at least for a while) and that even if we have another child, and it turns out to be a girl, I will forever be outnumbered.

Getting used to this idea has taken some time.

I always assumed that I would have a daughter.  After all, I'm a daughter myself, so it's familiar territory.   It's definitely not because I want to have a little girl to play dress up with (I hate when people say that by the way.  I mean, little girls aren't Barbie dolls, but I digress..) because to be honest, having to worry about matching tights and shoes and color coordinating outfits gives me a headache sometimes.  And that's just getting myself dressed - I couldn't imagine having to go through that with a child. 

The thing is, my world has mostly been a woman's world - and I've liked it.  I can't help it if I imagined myself sharing it with a daughter.  I like going out with "the girls."  I like "girly" things (I can spend hours at stationery shops - it's scary how happy pretty paper can make me.)   Even at business school, where we only made up 30% of the class, the ladies were mostly in charge.  I've always worked in companies where women outnumber men - and in industries where it was all about the woman's purchasing power - because we make most of the economic decisions anyways.  So for me, it has been all about being a woman.

But not anymore.

When we found out that our family would be a boy family, my OB-GYN (a woman, of course) put her hand on my shoulder, looked me in the eyes and said "as a mother of three boys, I have to warn you:  Your bathrooms will never be the same."  And with a wink and a smile, I was initiated into a new sisterhood, one that I never really knew existed - I became a Mom Of Boys.  And you know what?  I think I will like it.  I get to be the sole female in the house, and thus expect to be spoiled accordingly.  I can see it now - I'll start wearing pink and carrying a fluffy white dog to counterbalance the testosterone levels at home.  And spa days with the girls will probably be the standard Mother's Day present for a while.  I'll get to be a girly-girl, not only guilt-free but also for diversity's sakes.  It is my duty!  Of course, it also means that I have to be a role model and will represent All Of Womanhood to my boys for many, many years - that's a little scary (specially if I do indulge in all the girly things I'm imagining right now), but I don't have to worry about that for a while.  (How very Scarlett O'Hara of me!  I'm even turning into a Southern Belle.)

It also means that I get to be the Mother-In-Law.  Twice.   I don't know if that makes me want to laugh maniacally or cry.

Is it December Already?

So...I didn't make it to 50,000 words on NaNoWriMo.

But that's fine.  I learned a lot by participating.  First, fiction writing is fun - as long as you allow yourself to be creative.  I know this is earth-shattering stuff - but I did get a taste for it and I've even joined a writer's group that will (hopefully) be kind when I share my stuff with them.

Second, I learned that giving yourself a crazy deadline when you have a toddler and are halfway through a pregnancy is dumb.  It was obvious that I couldn't write at a 1,700 word-a-day pace.  So I've learned to take it easy on myself, because there are only so many hours in the day where one can nap, and those hours are precious and few.

So I didn't finish, which means that it was about time that I took down that word count meter that has been taunting me for a month now.

I decided that since it is christmastime I should use the freed real estate on the sidebar with something festive.  I would love to post pictures of the beautiful way I decorated our home this Christmas, but this year we will not have a tree of our very own.

Instead, I cheated and posted pictures from last year.

I'm fine with that.  Starting next Christmas, we will probably have every Christmas at home until the kids are teens (gasp!) , so this is our last chance to go somewhere warm.  We're going to spend Christmas with my parents, so I'm leaving the major decorating up to them.

No tree.  The pesebre is up and that's it.  There will be no white Christmas this year.  Instead we will have palm trees strung with lights, pork instead of turkey, and ponche instead of eggnog.

Also, there will be no pine needles to vacuum.

I can't wait!