This is why I haven't written

So November 2010 may not go down in Chaplin-Kramer history as the most blogged-about month. We've certainly been busy, but that's not why I haven't written. I've been busier and still managed to post a few photos or update Jack's twitter feed from time to time. I haven't written because November was a great big pile of crap that I didn't care to share with anyone and that we are just digging ourselves out of  now. I usually write a nightly prayer about what I'm thankful for that day, and I even had to suspend that activity for a while because I was getting too sarcastic and seemed to be missing the whole point: "Dear God, thank you for friends who turn out to not be friends at all but people who treat you worse than strangers and call you deceitful instead of giving you the benefit of the doubt that you haven't been plotting all along to destroy their lives, because it is helpful to be reminded that there are people out there who suck." "Dear God, thank you for two bosses who can't seem to even agree with themselves let alone each other because what I really need in my life right now is more confusion and misdirection." "Dear God, thank you for these wretched colds that we have all contracted, and for Jack's inability to sleep when he's all stuffed up, and for our inability to sleep being a direct result of Jack's inability to sleep. Who needs sleep anyway? What a waste of time!" "Dear God, thank you for the ever-escalating financial fiasco that is our house remodel, I'm so totally stoked to be poor because I heard then I'll be truly blessed or something." I don't really think those are the kinds of prayers that God, or the universe, or anyone wants to hear. No one likes a smart ass.

But things are slowly and steadily getting better. And instead of focusing on all the bad things, I can now highlight some of the things we really do have to be thankful for, just in time for Thanksgiving.

- This little girl.



Even if I am not on her mommy's list of favorite people right now, I am thankful for the friendship Jack has had with her, the things he has learned from her, and the wonderful time they have when they're together. I took these photos after coming home from work one day and finding them in the bed of the nanny's truck, trading hats and throwing hats and laughing deliriously with the kind of toddler joy that makes a grown-up remember we shouldn't take ourselves so seriously.

- A house we are no longer embarrassed to point out is our own!



Let's not talk about what it took to get it this way (it involved, among other things, a dream deferred: selling the airstream), but we are proud that coming up on its 101st birthday, our house is finally donning a look that it deserves.

- A new nanny.



Cousin Lauren will now be taking Jack two days a week, moving up to three whenever I can finally disentangle myself from my current nanny-share, and taking care of the new baby as well when she comes along. I am so overjoyed at the prospect of keeping our childcare in the family, I only wish we'd thought of it sooner. Jack loves singing songs with his Lo-lo and whenever she comes over he makes a beeline for the songbook his nana gave him and brings it to her. It's very sweet. He has all the gestures down for "I'm a little teapot" and knows some of the words to "Twinkle Twinkle" (or, as he says it, "Tinkle, tinkle", which I think is adorable).

- Meat. This may sound odd for a former vegan, but I am thankful for the livestock industry, not just for the nourishment and deliciousness it provides, but for the interesting work it gives Danny (even if it is why I haven't seen him in these past weeks leading up to Turkey Day) and the exciting new research direction it is giving me (even if I lack a mentor and any clue of how I'm actually going to do it), and for the potential it presents for a truly sustainable closed-system food ecology.

- And I should also mention, the back pain that has plagued me for the past month, which made me stop running way earlier in this pregnancy than the last one, and was generally ruining my everyday outlook, has mysteriously vanished. I'm not sure if it's related to all the other stuff, and if so whether cause or effect (was I in such a bad mood about everything because I was in pain, or was I holding tension because of all that stress?), but hallelujah! It is gone! For now, at least.

Those last two didn't have pictures, so in case you're bored now from all that text, here's a video of Jack being really cute with his nana.