Meet Scarlette and Kayla Aimee

I've mentioned Kayla Aimee here before...  She and her husband are the VERY proud parents of Scarlette, a teeny, tiny dynamo who was born 15 weeks premature. 

15 weeks.

I look at my 27-1/2 month old great niece and I think how BIG she is compared to the day she was born.  She was 8 lbs, 4 oz, and 20-3/4 inches long when she was born.  I thought that was so small.  J wouldn't even hold her until she was, oh, almost a toddler.  Okay, that's an exaggeration but he totally refused to hold her when she was a newborn.  He waited until she was, I don't know, 6 or 8 months old...  Me?  I held her the day she was born.  And she wrapped me around those teeny tiny fingers of hers at 2 hours of age.

Scarlette was, if I'm not mistaken, 1 pound, 8 oz, when she was born.  Kayla couldn't hold her baby daughter until Scarlette was 30 days old. 

30 days.

30 days. I can't even conceive of what that was like.

But then I read her post today.  And now I get it.

It's World Prematurity Day.

Please take 3 minutes of your day and read this post.  Meet Kayla and Scarlette.  Take 3 minutes to watch her video.

http://www.kaylaaimee.com/2012/11/world-prematurity-day/

I read Kayla's blog every day.  I see pictures of Scarlette today and I think she's just like Great Niece E.  But you know what?  After 156 days and nights in the hospital, after feeding tubes and quarantines, she's NOT like Great Niece E.  Take a look at her sitting on her deck steps.  That's when you realize just how small she is for her age.  But she has made leaps and bounds from the day she was born.  The day she broke MY heart when I saw the picture of her fingers on her mommy's finger. 

It's almost unbelievable that she's as she is today.  After all Scarlette and her parents have been through, they are now a healthy, happy family, but they had a tough start, and they've beaten the odds.

Please think about all the premature babies out there struggling to make it.  Please pray for them, and for the ones who aren't suffering or struggling any longer.

Thanks to Scarlette, I'll never take a baby's health for granted any more.  We've been lucky in our family.  Even my sister who was 6 weeks premature, she was a GIANT compared to Scarlette, and my dad used to talk about holding her in the palm of his one hand. 

But he could hold her.

[Dad, meet Scarlette...]

And now Kayla and her husband can hold their Scarlette.  Thanks to the Lord and the medical angels he had in place to care for that beautiful little baby.

Kayla, I'll be keeping up with Scarlette as long as you continue to share her with us by way of your blog.  Thanks for the beautiful reminder about today.

Sending you to a great blog...

Thought today I'd send you over to a favorite blog'o'mine:  Kayla Aimee Only Slightly Neurotic. 

I've been reading Kayla's blog since just after her beautiful daughter was born.  Scarlette was born (quite) a bit ahead of schedule and has had some health issues, but thanks to God and her wonderful doctors, she's doing just great!  Kayla posts awesome stories and photos about her baby girl, and each one is better than the one before!

Every once in a while she just posts a fun, everyday kind of post.  Here's today's:  Lacking Common Sense: Me and UPS. 

Uh, UPS?  Hope you read this one!!

Surprise! I'm not thin!

So several months ago I found the wild and wily ways of a brunette bombshell.  Yesterday Meg posted a post (?) entitled "perfect bodies, cellulite, and a little rebellion."

Thank you, Meg.  Thank you for doing what you do so well - writing what I'm thinking, even though you don't know me and I don't know you.  You captured it to perfection: 

"i don't have a perfect body.

i have cellulite; i will always have cellulite....

my body isn't perfect. i have cellulite and fleshy hips and more moles than a person can count....

but holy hell if i don't love this body of mine....

and certainly there are mornings i wish i knew what it was to be blond with thinner hips and perkier boobs....

i lost years of my life to wanting to lose weight.

and then, not too terribely long ago, i realized that the desire to change my body was the least interesting thing about me.

(that desire is in fact the least interesting thing about every woman i know).

you see, i think to love our bodies in a world or a society or whatever-you-want-to-call-it that tells us we shouldn't is a powerful act of rebellion--an even greater act of love.

i want to know what it is to live to in a world, where we, as women, say enough. enough of this nonsense. and okay, so we're not there yet, i know that. but at least let me add my voice to my betters and my peers who have gone before me and said, there's more to life than this, and so i love my body just as it is."

The thing is, I'm 51.  51-and-a-half, yesterday, to be exact.  And Meg?  She's NOT 51.  She's MUCH younger.  And she's come to this epiphany so much earlier in her life, and that's the AWESOME part of it - she'll have a much happier, more balanced life because of it. 

It took me a LONG time to realize I'm not my body.  Sure, I could lose few pounds.  Can't we all?  I could probably lose 20-30 and still be completely healthy, not too skinny, and just fine. 

But if I don't?

So.What.

You know what people need to realize?  That our husbands love us.  The us we are now, not the us we'll be in 30 pounds.  Our families and friends love us, the us we are now, not the us we'll be in 30 pounds.  And we have to learn to love us, the us we are now, not the us we'll be in 30 pounds.  They love and we need to learn to love the PEOPLE we are, not the weight we are.

And I'm getting there.  Yes, I'm still a WW member, I still hope to lose a few pounds sooner rather than later.  But I am SO DARNED PROUD that I went for a walk with my husband yesterday, only a 1/2 mile walk around our neighborhood, but we went for a walk.  THEN I went to the gym.  The gym I'm paying for each month but not using.  And I went inside!!!  I didn't just drive by on the way to Dunkin' Donuts for a Lite Iced Caramel Latte.  And I rode the stationary bike, I rode it for 4-and-a-half miles!  Okay, 10 minutes at no incline, 10 minutes at a incline of 2, and 10 minutes at no incline again.  But I rode it.

Slow and steady does the job.  Eventually I'll be back at a steeper incline, at a faster rate (although I'll always be walking, not running).  And eventually I'll even use the machines to work my upper body, those spaghetti arms (they're floppy like cooked spaghetti, NOT thin and firm like uncooked spaghetti!)...

But you know what?  I'll never be skinny.  I'll never be a size zero.  (Which, btw, as long as we're talking here, IS.NOT.A.REAL.SIZE.  It was invented a few years ago, and as far as I'm concerned, just means I'm really wearing a 10 or 12, NOT a 12 or 14!  It forced me to add 2 more sizes onto my "real" size.  Tell me THAT doesn't suck the big one!)

And that's okay.  It's okay not to be pin-thin.  It's okay to have a bit of a big butt, a stomach that's not quite as flat as I'd like it to be (and btw, Dr. K., NOT cool to tell me I can't blame my tummy on those fibroids I'm sporting!  I've used that excuse for a while and no one called me on it!), boobs that aren't quite as perky as I'd like them to be (hubby says they're perfect for my body!  So there!), flabby arms and thighs...  It's okay.

Meg, LOVE your blog, and thanks for putting it all out there, that it's okay to have cellulite, and that the greatest achievement we could hope for would be to love our bodies as they are, not to lose those 30 pounds!  If only all of us could see it your way!!!

$24 for 8 different meals!

I'm a huge fan of John and Sherry at Young House Love and Young House Life.

They live in Richmond, VA, and these past couple of weekends they've been going to local events.  This weekend was the Broad Appetit street fair where you could sample the specialties from some 60 local restaurants:  $3 per sample plate; I guess it's like an outdoor tapas restaurant!

For $24 they had a wonderful selection of food, including what I'm sure would have been my favorites, seared scallops and shrimp and quinoa.  Take a look!

http://life.younghouselove.com/2012/06/broad-appetit/

The man makes stools...

I saw this video on Dooce.com and, well, if what people say makes THIS guy feel good, what he DOES makes me feel insignificant...  It's only about 2 or 3 minutes long, so if you have the time to spare...

http://vimeo.com/23095780

I wish Katie was my friend...

Bower Power is one of my all-time favorite blogs.  To see the funniest, frickin' post I've read in a VERY long time, click here.  And be sure to read it, and scroll down, and see what a beautiful family Katie Bower has...  I SO wish I was friends with her!!!  I just KNOW we'd get along!!!  You'll know why when you get to the bottom of her post...

On Being a Woman...

I'm not a feminist.  That's the last word I would use to describe myself. 

I think it's because I just automatically and unconsciously (until I really think about it) put a negative connotation on the word "feminism."

And I'm wrong to do that, I know.  I'm where I am today, in my life, in my career, in the world, because a lot of women stood up for themselves, their mothers and aunts and grandparents, and for their unborn children and younger sisters and cousins, stood up and shouted, "We're not going to take it anymore!" 

We vote.  We work.  We own homes.  We have valued opinions.  Sure, a feminist can be still be stereotyped to be a bra-burner, a political rant, an in-your-face, gruff sort of woman always fighting the men even when she doesn't need to, but of course, not all of them are...  It's a stereotype that needs to be tossed.

But I do think sometimes that many women DO still fight a battle that has been raging for generations, whether we know it or not.  And I ran across this blog post today on The Wild and Wily Ways of a Brunette Bombshell.  I don't know the author of the blog, and I never saw the article she's reposting, but man, did it strike a chord with me today.

There are some women I know who are living this every day.  And I probably encourage them to fight back a bit more than I should:  after all, I'm not living in their shoes.  I should really support them any way I can, and not tell them, "You should fight back!"

I'm lucky to be married to my husband, a man who respects me, my abilities, my brains, my heart, who believes in me, believes that I can do anything I put my mind to even when I'm doubting myself.

The women mentioned in this article (original author is Yahsar Ali) do exist, even today, in 2012, after all we women went through in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and on...  They're still living with those sly little comments that do nothing but demean them, even - and I do truly believe this - even when the men in their lives don't realize what they're doing! 

We've learned, women, now let's teach the men in our lives to cut this $&*# out!!!  Be sure to teach your sons and nephews and husbands and brothers NOT to make comments like "You're overreacting!  You're so sensitive!  Get a grip:  I was just kidding!"

Bottom line, guys?  If you have to say that after we react to whatever it is you just said?  IT WAS A STUPID THING TO SAY AND YOU SHOULD HAVE NEVER SAID IT!!!

Am I pretty?

I read this blog called Carrying a Cat by the Tail!  Spuds is a single dad with 6 kids, 2 of them girls.  He posted a really funny piece the other day about Halloween and I linked to it a couple of days ago.

Today's post?  Not so funny.  Heartwarming?  Yes.  Important?  Double yes! 

Spuds knows how important it is to make sure his daughters know they are beautiful.  Inside AND out. 

My parents never made a big deal about our looks.  No "You're the most beautiful girls in the world"" or "You're so much prettier than XYZ!"  I didn't grow up thinking looks were important.

But I'm a girl.  I got to a point in my life where I knew I wasn't as pretty as some of the other girls in my class.  I knew I didn't have a great body.  Admittedly, no one ran screaming into the wind when they met me, but no one dropped dead of shock over how beautiful I was, either!  If you ask me to describe myself, my description will always be the same:  "I don't see Jaclyn Smith in the mirror in the morning, but young children don't run away screaming when they see me!"

When we get dressed up and my husband tells me I look pretty, my first and only thought is "Not pretty, but better than usual."  I'm 50, soon to be 51, and it's taken me a long, long time to almost believe I'm okay the way I am.  And I credit my husband for that.  Not for the thousands of compliments he's tossed my way (NOT!) but because he makes me feel loved.  Accepted.  Okay the way I am.  In fact, BETTER than okay just the way I am.  Just what he wants in his life and in his heart.  And that makes me feel pretty.

Spuds doesn't want his daughters to grow up putting themselves down.  He's one smart cookie.  He knows how important it is that his girls know, with every fiber of their being, that they're beautiful, that their dad loves them and that he knows how beautiful they are.  And he's going to make sure they remember...  What a lovely gift from Daddy to his girls...

Read his post here...

http://blirred-reality.blogspot.com/2011/11/youre-perfect-and-beautiful.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CarryingACatByTheTail+%28Carrying+a+Cat+by+the+Tail%21%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Halloween

I'm not particularly "into" Halloween.  For a while, as a child, I'm sure I was.  (Mom seems to remember me being excited to put on a costume...  I seem to remember loving bottomless Smarties...)

And when we first moved into our house, I was excited to decorate for Halloween and buy tons'o'bad-for-me'candy and give it to all the cute little kids who were going to be ringing my doorbell...

I'm Catholic but I live in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood.  We get some trick-or-treaters but we don't get nearly enough for me to dole out a candy bar or two or twelve to get rid of said bad-for-me-candy...  So for a while I bought a bag of candy I didn't really like so there'd be no temptation to eat it. 

You see where this is going?  There are starving children... and I ate the candy I didn't like, so I went back to buying what I did like - it wasn't worth feeling sick over what I ate...

Then I finally figured it out.

Don't be home on Halloween.  Go to your sister-in-law's house, go to B&N, go shopping, go out to dinner, have a colonoscopy, anything not to be home listening to the doorbell ring 8000 times because THIS year you didn't buy any candy...

So this year I went to my sister-in-law's (option #1 above!) and that was cool 'cause I got to see my little E dressed up like Madonna, right down to the fingerless gloves!  She was so cute!  [Oh, before I cause you all to have a mini-stroke at the thought of cone-shaped brassieres on a little almost-16-month-old, we're talking Like-a-Virgin-Madonna with a pink/white/gray/black tulle skirt, a poofy and lacy barette with hot pink ribbons/feathers in her hair, flat pink glitter maryjane shoes, black leggings, and a cute top with her initial "E" on the front...  nothing inappropriate...]

Then I came to work today, and caught up on one of my favorite blog feeds, Carrying a Cat by the Tail.

Did YOU know God tastes like salt?  Intrigued?  Read Spuds' Halloween post!!!  You'll know from whence I speak...  Word to the wise:  do NOT be drinking your hot coffee or cold Dr. Pepper/Diet Coke when you read the punchline!!!

Funniest Post Ever - full disclosure: it's not mine!

For the record, I have not yet read anything else at all by The Bloggess but I will be playing catch up all weekend.

And for the record, this is the single, funniest, MOST HYSTERICAL BLOG POST I HAVE EVER READ.

PLEASE take 2 minutes and read this.  I promise you won't regret it.  (Apologies in advance for the mild profanities.)

http://thebloggess.com/2011/06/and-thats-why-you-should-learn-to-pick-your-battles/

Ouch, that HAD to hurt!!!

If you don't want to read about tattoos and/or piercings, please don't click on the following link.  But if you want to read a short funny blog post about the newest piercing fad to hit the NY beaches, please visit Laid Off Dad at http://laidoffdad.typepad.com/lod/2011/06/beyonce.html.  I "found" Doug years ago (I don't even remember how - perhaps through Dooce?) and I've been a fan ever since.

It really isn't that bad...

There's this blog I read called because I said so, written by the VERY talented Dawn Meehan.  Dawn is mom to 6, recently divorced, and on her own with apparently no help from her ex...  6 kids - I can't imagine it - but one thing that comes across in her writing is that she had a great attitude about it all...  No matter how bad it gets, and it can get pretty bad, she loves her kids and values her kids and the life they have together.  The proof is in her writing - take 2 minutes and read this one blog entry...
http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/2011/01/tale-of-due-pities.html

It's all in how you look at things...  Thanks, Dawn, for reminding me that as bad it might appear now, at this minute, you can always choose to see the silver lining...

Drive By - What a Great Idea!

One of my favorite design blogs is The Inspired Room.  Melissa has awesome taste, and this?  This is one of her best ideas!  She likes to drive by and take pictures of houses that appeal to her, or perhaps it's a picture of a special characteristic of the house (the color of their front door, for example). 

Well this house is about 4 miles from my home, on the way to the hospital; unfortunately we've had to pass it too many times!  Every time I pass it I swear I'm going to take a photo of it because although the Tudor style doesn't do it for me, all those flowers do!!!

Melissa, thanks for the inspiration!!!

Where Women Create & Knitterly

There's an awesome blog about women's studios: Where Women Create.

Today I read her blog post about Knitterly, a yarn shop in Petaluma, CA.

I don't knit and barely can crochet, but if I'm within 50 miles of Petaluma, I'M THERE!!!

The store is gorgeous! And they're giving away a surprise package to a random poster. By posting on Facebook, Twitter, and on your blog, you get a few extra chances to win! I'd love to win this for my mama!!!

I'm over at a new blog, too!!!

So if you're interested take a meander on over to BookTeaCatDog. It's a blog co-authored by my two sisters AND yours truly...

We're not the most interesting people in the world, I admit, but I have to say Middle Sister is an awesome author(ess) and I LOVE her writing style! You will, too!

Little Sister hasn't contributed to the site yet, but we're hoping to see a post from her soon...

I don't know how I'm going to keep track of what I post where, and I sure don't want to lose any of my readers so I'm hoping you'll add our combo blog to your blogroll if you're following me... :-D

Might I also refer you to The Mossy Nest, my middle sister's personal blog, and Tea in the Parlor, her tea-related blog, if you're interested in tea and tea cozies...

And feel free to visit Little Sister's new site: Must Luv Pets. She has a real cute video of her puppy and one of her cats - it's a must see!

Words to Live By...

I read childsplayX2 on a regular basis. Yesterday's post, Fear Can Suck It, is IT, man! Every one of us, with or without kids, should read this and take it to heart.

I would print it here so it's easy for you to read, but it's copyrighted so go to this blog post and read it and know that this dad, who loves his children so very much, really should make your list of "Blogs I Read on a Regular Basis."

That last paragraph ROCKS! And the idea of realizing all I can be??? AWESOME!

My all time favorite Dooce blog post is...

One foot in front of the other.

For the record. So that I don't ever forget.

Someone needs your prayers

I have been keeping up with The Vedra Family these past two years. Their beautiful baby Ellie was born in 2007 with a rare, unknown neurological disorder. This beautiful family has simply gone on, blessed by God with a strength born of love, to care for this extremely disabled baby.

She is absolutely beautiful.

Her mama got pregnant again. They asked for prayers that their new baby would be healthy.

Hannah Grace was born at 12:06 this morning. It appears she suffers from the same debilitating disorder that her older sister does. She was rushed into the NICU immediately.

I don't know Emily and Adam, or their older sons, Noah and Seth. But what I do know from reading their blog is that this family, in the face of such extreme disappointment and worry - this family is consumed by love and patience and grace. This young couple has made a wonderful home for their children, for all four of them, and I pray, and ask you to pray also, that God continues to help them through whatever it is that faces them.

Take a few moments and browse through their blog: The Vedra Family. You will come away with a new appreciation for your own health and your family's, as well as a broken heart, that two such beautiful little angels face this long road. They are lucky to have the family they have.

Win an Elisa Lou bag!!!

Melissa at The Inspired Room is giving away an Elisa Lou bag!
OMG! The colors! The design! The bag!
Go leave her a comment - maybe you'll win!!!
(But if you don't, I hope I do!!!)

Oops, I missed it!

I missed 04:05:06 on 07/08/09.
And there were two of them, AM and PM.
And I missed them both.
I also missed 07/08/09 @ 10:11:12.
Again, missed 'em both, AM and PM.
Oh, well.
Saw a challenge on Liz Kartchner's blog Just Us and thought, "Cool! I can do that!"
But I didn't.
Par for the course.