katie allison granju

partygirl March 30, 2007

We are having a party tomorrow night. A big potluck thing with adults and kids and neighbors and friends and acquaintances. If it doesn’t rain, I expect at least 40-60 people.

I love throwing parties. I come from a proud tradition of party-throwers. When I was growing up, my parents were always having 5 or 50 extra people over. My mother taught me that the house/food/decor/silverware doesn’t have to be perfect before you can have people over and everyone has a good time. It’s all about the mix of people. I aim for the most eclectic mix possible, combining my various subgroups of friends: journalists, horsey friends, musicians, parents of my kids’ friends, slacker artistes, politicos, neighbors in our funky neighborhood…the key is to have enough of each group present so that no one feels uncomfortable. Mingling happens best this way.

My kids love parties, too. I always encourage them to help get ready and to invite their friends and their parents. We have a good time. And it forces me to clean my house

i’ve decided…

to let my husband NAME THE BABY.

at the circumcision

I oppose circumcision, even for religious reasons. I think the decision is one a man should make on his own, not have his parents make for him as an infant.

But I’ve always wondered how I would handle it if my husband were Jewish and felt really strongly about having our son circumsized. And I wondered what it would be like to watch my baby be circumsized, as people do every day.

This is a very MOVING ACCOUNT of one mother’s reluctant agreement to allow her son to be circumcized in a traditional bris out of regard for her Jewish husband’s wishes.

baby (girl) names, redux

So help me out here. Where do you live, in general, and what are the baby girl names you are hearing a lot in your area/ What are your friends naming their little girls?

emma? March 29, 2007

I have always loved it, always planned on using it, but of course it’s THE most popular name per all the lists. Jon loves it too. It was his favorite before we realized how popular it is.

But is it so classic that it transcends popularity lists? Or is every little girl you know named Emma?

(I actually don’t know a single young Emma personally)

yes, freaky

I love The Bugaloos, so I was pleased to see them make the cut on this list of the FREAKIEST CHILDREN’S ROCK BANDS OF ALL TIME.

I’ll bet Jon doesn’t know of the Bugaloos or Sigmund and the Seamonsters or HR Puffinstuff, ’cause he’s, uhhhh, considerably younger than I

mother’s little helper

Like Lindsay, I, too, luuuuuurved the percocet they give you AFTER YOU HAVE A BABY. It made the pain go away, as well as all my troubles. Temporarily, anyway. They only give it to you for a few days, which is, of course, a Good Thing.

children don’t walk

It’s true: kids today aren’t allowed to WALK OR BIKE ANYWHERE because parents are afraid they will be snatched.

the baby is a…..

………………………………boygirlboygirlboygirlboygirlboygirlboygirl…………………………….

GIRL!

So says ultrasound this morning

Told you I’m always wrong.

Can’t wait to tell H,J and E when school lets out today!

Go and CONGRATULATE JON and offer him your words of wisdom on raising daughters.

Girl clothes are SOOOOO much cuter!

damn, i am tired

Yesterday at about noon, I started having what felt like Braxton-Hicks contractions. Painless, but quite definite. They picked up all afternoon until they started feeling pretty uncomfortable, and I was feeling quite a bit of pressure with each one. At about 4:30 pm, I called my doctor’s office from my office. They told me that since they were about to close up shop for the day, they wanted me to head over to the hospital to be checked out at L&D.

Damn.

So I met Jon over there (he kindly picked the children up and took them to their Aunt Betsy’s for playtime with cousins and a good supper) and after a short time in the ER, they took me up to the maternity floor, where I spent the next 4 hours hooked to a monitor.

The monitor showed I was having about 4 definite contractions each half hour (duh, I could have told them that), which meant I was “having some preterm labor.”

I had a GREAT nurse who was really attentive and communicative all night. She told me this is not that uncommon with 4th and subsequent babies and while it’s not something they want to see in someone in the second trimester, it’s not necessarily that worrisome unless they can’t make it stop or it happens repeatedly. The good news was that I wasn’t dilated at all, and the baby’s heartrate and movement looked excellent.

My bloodwork determined I was dehydrated. Dehydrated? I drank, like, 56 glasses of ice water all day. But whatever.

So they hooked me up to an IV bag of fluids and gave me a shot of brethine in the arm and told me these treatments should stop the contractions. WIthin an hour they had and we were finally back home at about midnight. I was exhausted and sore, but the brethine, which is technically a stimulant, kept me up all night.

So this morning I am very, very tired and sore, but now it’s time to get the kids up and off to school, and me to work. My doctor wants to see me in his office sometime this morning, so I guess I will somehow now squeeze that into an already jam-packed work day.

When I am tired like this, I find it’s important to not think about it or give in to it all day. You just have to pretend you are NOT actually tired and proceed through your day that way.

I work until 8 tonight (THursday is the day I tape the TV show I produce, and the children spend the night with their Dad). So after I get off at 8, I will come home and collapse. I’ll bet I’ll sleep like a log tonight.

And keep your fingers (and legs) crossed that I don’t have any more preterm labor.

bring. them. home…NOW March 28, 2007

A brave Marine and his fiance BEFORE HIS DEPLOYMENT.

And after he came home, THEIR WEDDING PHOTO.

Bring them home, now.

current reading March 27, 2007

I profiled INA MAY GASKIN for SALON.com a few years ago. It was one of my favorite things I’ve ver written.

breastfeeding: a pain worse than childbirth?

New mom Lindsay over at Suburban Turmoil says yes, the first few weeks of breastfeeding HURT LIKE HELL — worse than giving birth.

My response in her comments section:

But I am really, really sorry for those of you who have had this experience of hurting that bad. It sounds awful.

goodbye cinco

J., who is 11 years old, has had the good fortune to ride and show a wonderful small pony, “Cinco” for the past two years. He belongs to some friends, who bought him for their daughter a few years ago. He was too green (untrained) for their child to ride, so they have let J. ride him and show him ever since.

The original plan was for him to do the “smalls” division, but after about a year, it became clear that Cinco was a little too small, even for the smalls, and maybe just a little poky. He’s very lazy

But J. has won some really good ribbons on him in Children’s Pony, and most of all, she’s learned a huge amount from bringing him along from green little stinker to “made” pony. She also got lots of “A” horse show experience on him.

J. and Cinco:

She is almost too big for him now, and about six months ago, Cinco was leased to a younger girl at the barn, but our trainer, who is always so good to J., made an arrangement with the new lessees to allow J. to ride him at least once a week to keep him “tuned up” for this younger kid.

Yesterday we learned that Cinco will likely be going to a new barn in North Carolina for a little girl to ride in the short stirrup division. It’s a lease, not a sale, so he won’t be gone permanently, but still, J. is really sad. She knew this was coming, but she really loves Cinco. He is a very sweet, funny little pony - the kind you would love to have living in your backyard as a pet.

He will probably go to his new home later this week.

J. now has to give her full attention to the 100% green medium pony that her trainer has her riding. The idea is that J. will work really hard with “Sloane” over the next year and have him ready to do the medium greens next spring. Right now, she is working on not getting bucked off every time she gets on him

J. and Sloane:

Once again, our trainer and my dear friend has made it possible for my child, who can’t afford a pony of her very own, to keep riding and keep improving as a rider. I appreciate her more than she will ever know.

And we sure will miss little Cinco.