Outside my window the hotel pool is glowing gently. We’re in North Carolina for a short trip. Annalie’s cousin Brett had his birthday party today and this year we were able to attend. Tomorrow we’ll hang out with Dana and Paul and Brett and Leo at their house before heading home after lunch. Troy, Annalie and Elliora are all asleep already.

I am thinking about the six baby blankets I want to make in the next three months. Two of them are already in progress. Am I insane to think I can manage that? We shall see.

I am thankful for everything, really. I feel like I whine and complain a lot these days, but I know how blessed I am. I have the luxury of being annoyed when the signal I’m using to access the internet as we drive down I-95 blips out for a second. My problems could be so much bigger, and they’re not. #diamondshoes

I am wearing a nightgown. But that’s boring, so instead I’ll tell you about two things I wore today which you may also find boring unless you are a breastfeeding mother. Feel free to skip ahead if you’re bored already.

I’ve been searching for the perfect nursing shirt for, oh, seven years, really. I think I may have finally found it: the nursing criss-cross tee from Momzelle. My main problem with most nursing shirts is that I have broad shoulders and a wide ribcage, but I’m not, shall we say, overly endowed in the chestal area—not even when I’m nursing. So shirts that fit my shoulders and torso completely droop down my front and show my bra to the world. Shirts that are more modest fit me like cling wrap, which is neither flattering nor comfortable. So I’m fairly excited to have finally found a shirt that (a) fits my proportions, (b) is comfortable and cute, and (b) is easy to nurse in. Huzzah!

The other thing I was wearing today that might interest you if you’re a nursing mother or plan on spending a lot of time holding a baby is this turquoise nursing necklace from the Etsy shop My Lil Market. I had a couple of nursing necklaces when Annalie was a baby, but they were more of the bright-tacky-plastic variety. This one is so pretty, I will probably be wearing it long after Elliora has stopped nursing. But I’ll definitely keep wearing it now because Elliora loved it. She spent several hours today playing with the beads and shoving different parts of it in her mouth. Not surprising, really; I’m sure this string of beads and stones is far more enticing than the specifically-designed-to-interest-a-baby necklaces I used to have, because babies always reject their fun toys in favor of the forbidden grown-up things, don’t they?

I am remembering that tomorrow, in addition to being my nephew Brett’s birthday, is also my other sister-in-law’s wedding anniversary and the anniversary of the day my mom, my brother and I were all baptized.

I am going to brush my teeth. Be right back.

I am currently reading I’m a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America after Twenty Years Away, by Bill Bryson. This is another one I’m re-reading. Bill Bryson is one of my favorite authors—partly because he’s hilarious in a nerdy, befuddled, self-deprecating way that just rings my bell; and partly because he once sent me a letter in reply to one I’d written him—and reading his books is kind of like eating meatloaf and mashed potatoes or homemade macaroni and cheese. It’s comfort food for my brain and soul.

I am hoping that our drive home tomorrow goes as well as the 4.5-hour drive down did. Elliora slept for a total of three hours and change, played with a toy or looked out the window for another hour, and only cried for a few minutes right after lunch and about 15 minutes at the tail end of the trip. Fingers crossed.

On my mind: Samantha and her parents.

Noticing that Annalie is almost as tall as I am. I picked her up today for the first time in a while and was kind of shocked how big she seemed. I’m sure part of that is because these days I’m usually carrying Elliora, but still.

Around the house we have way too much stuff. Troy and I were just talking yesterday about how we’re overdue for a good clearing-out and getting-rid-of. Usually we do that as we unpack after a move, but maybe we’ll do it before we move this time.

In the kitchen, I am spending a lot more time lately. (Yoda, I sound like.) Elliora loves to eat. Like, she LOVES to eat. I am happy to make most of her food but it means I’m spending quite a bit more time in the kitchen lately, feeding her as well as cooking for her. I don’t really mind a bit, though. It’s so fun to feed a baby who likes everything we’ve offered her.
Applesauce (with and without cinnamon), mashed bananas, oatmeal, mixed-grain cereal, carrots, sweet potato, butternut squash, peas, green beans, spinach, pears, peaches, mango, avocado, refried beans, broccoli, rice, beef, turkey, ham, blueberries, pumpkin, watermelon, chicken, black olive, bacon, cheddar cheese, goat cheese, plain yogurt, mashed potatoes with garlic, Cheerios, asparagus…I’m sure I’m forgetting some. Seriously, she likes everything.)

One of my favorite things is finding awesome new TV shows to watch, and then geeking out over them with friends.

From my photo archive: Speaking of Elliora eating, here is a picture of her (on the right) eating carrots at 5 months old. Annalie (on the left) was about a year old when this picture was taken in June 2005, and was eating Spaghetti-Os.

Outside my window I can hear the teenagers who live down the street playing basketball in front of our house (their basketball hoop lives in front of an unoccupied house in our cul-de-sac) and Annalie bounding around on her new Gymnic Hop Ball.

I am thinking that as good as this last episode of Castle was, next Monday’s looks even better. I’ve just recently re-watched all of Seasons 2 and 3 on iTunes while crocheting a baby blanket for my friend Laura, and I think it’s official now: Castle is my current favorite show.

I am thankful for my Ergo, and how Elliora seems to be turning out to be a better sleeper than Annalie was. She’s still not that rare creature I’ve heard about but never birthed, the Lay-Her-Down-Awake-And-She’ll-Drift-To-Sleep Baby, but she’s definitely more willing to sleep than Annalie was at this age, especially if I’m wearing her in the Ergo. We always had to trick Annalie into sleeping, she was so determined to stay awake lest she miss something.

I am wearing black yoga pants, a purple t-shirt, black Teva Mush flip-flops (my all-time favorite shoes), and Elliora in the Ergo.

I am remembering how many birthday cards I did not send this month. I know a lot of people with February birthdays.

Annalie drew this miniature portrait of our family to mark Troy’s birthday on her calendar, complete with him in a party hat.

I am going to Omaha in March with my girls! It’ll be Elliora’s first plane trip. I debated it for weeks, and had just about decided against it because the price of a direct flight from DC to Omaha was too high, when I reconsidered and checked the prices again…and there was a fare sale! The tickets were almost half the price they had been a week ago. So now, we’re making a really quick trip to Omaha to introduce Elliora to my brother and his family and my Gramma B, and so Annalie and Aurora won’t have to go almost a year between seeing each other. (We probably won’t have time to see everyone we normally see while we’re there, but if we miss you this time we will definitely catch you in May, when we’ll be there for a longer visit. Promise.)

I am currently reading American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot, by Craig Ferguson. I’m re-reading it, actually, because when we were watching The Late Late Show one night recently I was telling Troy he really needed to read it, and thinking about it made me want to read it again, so I did. If you’re a Craig Ferguson fan and you have not read this book, find it and read it. It’s hilarious and moving and really, really interesting.

I am hoping that when we get in the car and go to a movie in a little while, Elliora does not spend the entire 20-minute drive crying. She’s getting a little more resigned to her carseat with every trip.

On my mind: a friend who is in the hospital for pre-eclampsia. She and her husband will be meeting their baby girl a few weeks earlier than planned.

Noticing that Elliora isn’t such a lightweight anymore, relatively speaking. I’m sure she’s still below the 10th percentile for babies her age, but she’s noticeably heavier than she used to be.

Around the house we have been cleaning up way too much cat pee lately. Lily is almost 15 years old and totally neurotic. She has gone through phases in her life where she peed on rugs, clothes left on the floor, etc. We always take her to the vet to make sure there isn’t a physical cause, and it always turns out to be behavioral. Troy took her to the vet today, and after $400 worth of bloodwork, exams, and an x-ray, we know that it’s still behavioral. So we’re getting a third litterbox and starting Lily on Prozac. (Yes, seriously; this is the second time she’s been on Prozac in her life.)

In the kitchen, I rock. Sorry for the lack of modesty, but it’s true. I love to cook and I’m good at it. I’m so thankful that this time, having an infant has not meant I never cook. When Annalie was a tiny baby I don’t think I cooked more than two meals a month; with Elliora I’ve been managing at least two meals a week, usually three or four, plus occasional baked goods.

One of my favorite things: this Flickr group, reminding me to look for happy things. And then take pictures of them.

The other day I noticed the light was shining through the glass lamps on our dining-room ceiling fan in such a way that it refracted into a circle with a faint rainbow (which didn’t photograph very well) on the outer edge. On top of that, one of the hearts in our garland was casting a perfect heart-shaped shadow.

From my photo archive: this picture of 21-month-old Annalie eating an apple, taken almost exactly five years ago.

Whoa. This is my 800th post.

Language has always fascinated me, in both written and spoken forms. I love listening to people with accents different from mine, and especially people who are native English speakers from a different part of the world than me. When Erin and I spent two weeks traveling around Great Britain in 1998, one of our favorite pastimes was comparing vocabularies with the people we were visiting (“That jumper looks really smart on you.” “Smart!? How can a sweater look smart?” “I just mean it looks good, it looks lovely. Why, how would you say it?” “We’d say it looks sharp.” “Sharp!? How can a jumper look sharp?” etc.)

My friend Jill posted a short video of herself on her blog Jill Will Run, reading a list of words and answering some questions with regional-specific answers. She saw it done first at Healthy Tipping Point. I thought it was a really fun idea, so I made a video of my own. I can do that, now that we have electricity in our house again, after a snowstorm knocked out our power Wednesday night (along with thousands of other people in the DC metro) and we were without power for 47 hours. I’m wallowing in the luxury of having electricity again, and being able to do things like make videos and upload them to the internet.

Just for background, I was born and grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. When I was 21, I married Troy and moved to San Diego. Since then, I’ve lived in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Virginia Beach, Virginia; Tempe, Arizona; Southern Maryland; San Diego again; and the Washington, DC, metro area. I tend to pick up accents and regional expressions wherever I live. By the time we left Ottawa, I was saying “eh?” at the end of a lot of sentences, and then I picked up “y’all” when we lived in Virginia Beach. Someone listening to me during that time would have been very confused about where I was from.

bethany actually sounds like this – the accent vlog from bethany actually on Vimeo.

Wow. Watching this video, I was struck with how much I really do resemble my brother, not just in looks but in facial expressions and speech patterns. Also, I can see more clearly how much Annalie looks like me when I watch videos of myself. Weird.

Anyway! Here’s the list of words:

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

And here are the questions:

• What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
• What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
• What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
• What do you call gym shoes?
• What do you say to address a group of people?
• What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
• What do you call your grandparents?
• What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
• What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
• What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

Do you have a special name for rain falling while the sun is shining? I don’t know a term for that, but I do have a rain term that as far as I know is specific to my family: when it’s raining so hard that the drops of rain are creating circular ripples and then bouncing back up, my family calls that raining ballerinas, because if you squint it kind of looks like a ballerina with a tutu. I think my brother or I called it that years ago, and it just stuck for some reason.

Feel free to play along. If you do, please let me know in the comments where you post your videos so I can watch them! If you don’t feel like making a video, just tell me about a weird regionalism of yours.