Pure Luxury

I sat on the soft velvet hassock, the scent of sandalwood and exotic spices drifting around me. A soft breeze blew through the open-air room as the young man seated before me gently took my hand in his. I smiled nervously and looked around, half expecting my husband to come walking up. I was giddy and excited - I'd never done anything like this before - but I forced myself to remain calm and steady. The young man began his work.

He held my hand in his left hand. In his right he held a small squeeze bottle that contained a thick brown paste. Slowly, carefully, he began to squeeze a thin line of the paste onto the back of my hand. I watched as the lines took the form of a lotus flower stretching across the back of my hand. The design grew larger and larger until my fingers, hand, and part of my arm were covered with swirls and flowers.

Afterwards, when I met up again with my husband and daughter, I was smiling brightly. Though I'd done a few simple henna designs myself at home, this was the first one that I'd had someone else do for me and the experience was so incredibly different. And it didn't end when the artist finished his work.

As we walked around the grounds of the renaissance festival, I had to be careful not to brush my arm against anything or it could smudge the design. But the caution I took made me feel special as opposed to feeling like a chore. Now, days later, I look down at the design and can still feel the curious mix of excitement and relaxation that accompanied getting the design.

It is tradition in India for a bride to get designs on her hands and feet for her wedding, and then not to do housework until after the designs have faded. I can just imagine how that must feel - to be adorned with beautiful, intricate drawings that give you the chance and excuse to hold yourself as special.

Feeling beautiful and special - what incredible, simple luxury!

Counting Down

In one week I go to the doctor and have the stitch in my cervix removed. After that, the baby I've been carrying around - worrying and daydreaming about for the past 8 months - could arrive any time.

Or, he could decide to sit and wait it out until his September 30th due date.

Obviously, the prudent thing to do would be to be prepared for the baby to arrive early. And so my living room is filled with baby furniture, the bassinet stacked with new clothes and soft, cuddly blankies. The washing machine is running non-stop during the day as I wash everything. I've already rearranged the bedroom to allow me to put the bassinet next to the bed when the baby first comes home. I've given my husband more than a few reminders that he'll need to bring my rocking chair up from the basement.

But by far the hardest - and most important - thing to do is prepare my daughter to be a big sister. She's been helping me - with going through the new clothes and doing laundry. She's tried to claim some of the toys we got at a baby shower as her own, but readily gave them back when I explained they were for the new baby. (She gently lay the little ducky on my belly and said "Here, baby, this is for you." I just melted at that.)

I've been telling her that she's getting to be a big girl and that when the baby comes he'll be too small to do anything. I've assured her that even though Mommy and Daddy will need to spend a lot of time taking care of the baby, she's still our very special girl and we will always love her. I've promised that when the baby naps, I'll spend time with just her.

There's no telling how things will go, but I guess before too long we'll see. All I can really do is what every expectant parent can do - try to plan and prepare, but just take things as they come and do the best I can.

Spam Spam Spam Spam

Just a quicky here. Due to the lovely spamming of my comments by an anonymous ad bot, I've had to set the blog to only allow comments by people registered with blogger. I don't think it will really effect my readers any - those who are registered with blogger already will leave comments and those who aren't will just drop me a line in other ways as they usually do.

Just wanted to give a little heads up about it though - just in case.

Gotta love marketing vultures

Child's Play

I figure that since it's been over a month since I've updated, by now I must have killed off whatever regular readership I may have had. Time to dust off the ol' blog and post something!

Spellbound

My daughter loves watching the Harry Potter movies and one of her favorite games now is to pretend our sofa is the flying car from The Chamber of Secrets. So she grabs me by the hand and takes me to the sofa (making sure I buckle my seat belt - I'm so proud of her!) and then we play out all the flying car scenes.

First we have to catch up to the train. Oh no! The train is actually behind us! AHHHHH!

Then we land in the whomping willow and it starts whomping the car! AHHHHH!

Then we have to run away from the spiders - AHHHHH! It is at this point in the movie when a giant spider reaches in the car window and grabs Ron. Harry has to cast a spell to get the spider off Ron. He aims his wand and shouts "Arania Exeme!" (or something that sounds like that - really don't know).

So Rhi turns to me and says "Oh no! A spider's got you!" She points a plastic drinking straw at me and casts her spell....

"A LOT OF EGGS ON YOU!"

Do the Bunny Hop

I've been trying to do some more arts-and-crafts type things with Rhi, so I went to a craft store and got all sorts of various supplies. Yesterday morning my husband had a migraine and so he slept in - I figured it was a good chance to work on a little project with Rhi. We sat at the table and made a little bunny puppet on a popsicle stick. After gluing all the pieces down, I told her we had to let the bunny dry before she could play with it. That was fine with her - she had another idea of what we could do.

She ran to her bedroom and came back out with two sets of bunny ears. She handed me one and said "Let's play bunny!"

So my husband woke up to the sight of his 3 year old running down the hall being waddled after by his 7-months pregnant wife - both still in pj's and both wearing bunny ears - playing bunny tag. She was Little Bunny, I was Mommy Bunny, her baby doll was Baby Bunny, and once fully awake (though still bewildered about what was going on) my husband was dubbed Big Nutbrown Hare.

I can think of worse ways to spend a weekend morning!