Mimzilla’s One More Thing…

We’ve been talking about Thanksgiving and discussing what we’re thankful for. I’m not sure if Walker gets the concept but I’m certainly satisfied with his response. We love Uncle Thayer and appreciate his knack for keeping things silly.

Daddy gave Walker a very special present — his very own gallery. Walker was so terribly excited to see all his creations hanging in his favorite part of the house (he learned to walk, throw, kick a ball, and jump in the hallway). Come on by and Walker will give you a tour of his most recent creations.

Thanksgiving week was terribly hectic. It wasn’t just that we were making soup for dinner or preparing for an extended visit to Pop-Pop’s. We also did a major upgrade to the electrical service to the house so we were without power on Monday until after 10pm (and then only a few rooms had power). We had a lot of fun having a picnic dinner on the floor of the kitchen with candles and reading Walker’s bedtime stories by flashlight. The upgrade was much more complicated than they anticipated given they had to essentially rewire all the connections and we’re terribly pleased they are perfectionists and triple-checked each connection, circuit and switch. Of course they found some old knob and tubing we’ll want to replace and there are some outlets with “reverse polarity and no grounding” which sounds like me after a particularly trying day at work…

Feeling good about the safer electrical situation in the house, we went up to Sea Ranch. Walker loves his family and was extremely excited to play with Pop-Pop and Uncle Thayer. On Thursday morning we got a picnic breakfast and went to Point Arena to watch Uncle Thayer surf. It turned out we watched him contemplate the “junky” waves and whether they were worth the pain and suffering of putting on a cold, damp wetsuit. (The answer was that yes, it was eventually worth it.) Walker was eating a muffin that I had thought was a blueberry bran but after a taste, I think it was closer to a chocolate chip mocha muffin — and may have contributed to the refusal to nap later that afternoon. No nap + holiday excitement = Sleepy Walker eating a popsicle at Dinner.

I’m thankful for all my boys, young and old. I’m thankful for a wonderful home and a good job. And I’m thankful for giggles, bubbles, balloons, tricycle rides, swings, kisses, smiles, and morning snuggles.

I’m about to run out the door to see my wonderful men but I had a very satisfying web experience today that I thought I should share.

I’ve been in the process getting life insurance, because, well, it’s an adult thing to do. I went through my financial adviser and the process was extremely long and a bit absurd. I spent over 30 minutes on the phone with a rep who asked me questions like, “When you were hospitalized for childbirth, what was the cause of the condition.” I chuckled and I replied something like, “I got knocked up.” After weeks of waiting, I got a quote that seemed like quite a lot.

After speaking to my rock star brother-in-law who is the Chief Underwriter at an insurance company, he directed me to intelliquote.com. This morning I went to the site and answered a few short questions and used a very intuitive and helpful tool for assessing my “risk” category as I’ve got a chronic condition that knocks me out of the “No Way You’ll Die Unless a Piano Falls On You” category. I got quotes from four highly rated institutions and requested an application from one of them. Within three minutes (yes, three minutes), I get a call from a rep following up on the application. A few hours later I got a confirmation of the appointment for the lab tech to come to my office and get my vitals for the underwriting process. It was truly a pleasure planning for my untimely demise and should anyone need to do the same, I suggest they check out www.intelliquote.com. Tell them I sent you.

In other news, my cell phone has mysteriously disappeared and my opinion of human nature is not high at this moment. So if I don’t answer, I’m only ignoring you until I get a replacement phone in the next few days. I’ll be experiencing digital detox in the meantime.

But I can’t post without a bit of Walker news. He dressed himself yesterday. What you can’t see is my attempt at providing a bit of class to outfit with the yellow Ralph Lauren sweater.

I just logged into my Amazon account and saw the following letter from the CEO. I think we can all agree that manufacturers have gone overboard on their packaging — making it impossible to get at the items you purchased as well as disregarding any kind of sustainable packaging. I feel it’s even more of an issue for all those wonderful kids toys we purchase Walker (and the eco-friendly inner hippie in me feels bad enough we’re propagating additional plastic toys for their inevitable extended stay in the city landfill).

So, I applaud Amazon for being customer-focused. (And no, I’m not so naive that I don’t recognize this is a good marketing tactic that differentiates them from their competition but hey, it’s a win/win program.) They could continue to ship products with impossible packaging but they’ve taken their leadership and focused it on something that not only helps the consumer but hopefully will change the way manufacturers present their products. I often feel exhausted just contemplating the work involved in solving some of the bigger problems at work, in society, or across the world. But I’m energized by Amazon’s stand.

OK. Little steps. But the iceberg can be moved.

Walker has started showing interest in some of the things we do. This morning he decided he wanted to have some coffee with his banana. Of course, we didn’t pump him full of caffeine but we did provide him with a coffee mug full of high-octane (full strength) cranberry juice. He very much enjoyed the morning ritual and it may possibly become part of his daily routine. There were many toasts with Mommy and Daddy accompanied by a jovial “clink” setting Walker up for a wonderful day of frequent peeing.

Walker is terribly interested in decorations — specifically Christmas decorations. Immediately after Halloween he started talking about them. We have no idea how it started but apparently he’s also been pestering Sofiya about Christmas decorations. We’ve been teaching him about holidays and explaining that Thanksgiving comes first. (Sometimes we tell him Turkey comes first.) So he’s now aware that in two weeks it’s “Firstgiving” and then comes “Christmas decorations.” Pop Pop has the Halloween pumpkins, cats and ghosts we made for him on his windows still and Walker made him a turkey to add to the windows. When we go up for “Firstgiving” we’ll be bringing some stuff to make some more seasonally appropriate holiday decorations — perhaps even making a dreidel or two. We may even expand his horizons to make some Hanukkah decorations.

It seems that Walker is starting to identify his emotions. Nick Jr. has little shorts between shows which teach kids about different themes and this month is all about giving thanks. Today Walker was watching the short and turns to Raow sitting next to me, points to him and says, “I’m thankful for you, Raow.” The cat sort of looked at him quizzically and sniffed his yogurt and peanut butter covered finger. I don’t believe Raow understood but I’m sure he hopes Walker would be thankful enough that he might abstain from jumping on him or chasing him around the house with clanging cymbals or bouncing balls.

Earlier this week, Adobe had layoffs and my team was impacted. It was a very difficult day for everyone. I came home and Daddy had a nice glass of red wine waiting for me and Walker had drawn me a very beautiful card. It was so very thoughtful. The next morning, we all started getting ready for work but at one point, Walker came over to me and very seriously looked me in the eye and declared, “Mommy, I so happy.” You know what? I so happy too.