This Is The Face You Get

This is the face you get from watching strange men pack your things.
This is the face you get from packing all the things needed for 2 cats , 2 adults, and one baby for a week.
This is the face you get after packing it all in the cab that is delivering you to your hotel.
This is the face you get when the cat, on the ride to the hotel, poops in his carrier and the windows don't roll down.



This is the face you get when thinking of the 6 hour flight with two cats, two adults and one baby and all their luggage.



This is the face you get when thinking about moving to Seattle!

These are a few of our favorite things

It's our last week in Beantown so why not end on a postive note? Positives are HERE.

A Special Box of Panties, by Jack Handy

If a certain moving company has been hired to move you cross country and you have a special box of things that you want to keep 'private', such as panties as my friendly move surveyer suggested to me, you can set it aside and not have the moving guys look at it. You just have to say "Hey guys, this is my special box of panties" and they'll leave it be.

A Progression of Happiness

Bye Bye Boston

After two years in Boston we are going home--Alex has decided to depart MIT with a Masters instead of a PhD. Although my dislike of Boston is great, I did my best to remain 'neutral'--we came out here so Alex could do his graduate school thing and leaving on account of my dislike was not something I would entertain.

We're out of here in 2 weeks, which is so soon I can barely get my head around it. But what I have been able to get my head around are the fabulous amenities of modern life I will regain, such as: A doorbell; a water mixer in bathroom sink; lead free bathroom fixtures; lead free plumbing; hot water that isn't 299 degrees hot; outlets in the bathroom; lights that turn on with switches rather than strings hanging from the ceiling in center of the room; windows that close; windows that open; windows that don't come crashing down in the middle of the night; a dishwasher; a garbage disposal; a car.

And then there are the things about life in Boston that I won't miss, such as: Garbage-men who create a huge mess on trash day; people who litter; people who collect bottles the night before trash pickup and cause a huge racket with their shopping carts clanking with bottles; people who leave their dogs' poop on the sidewalk; excessive use of car horns; dirty snow; hot as Hades summers.

What I'll miss: Cannoli from Modern Pastry; the first hour of a snowfall before the heavy machinery comes out to ruin the peace and quiet; the autumn colors; the free stuff people leave on the streets on trash day; our landlord Jose, who's more of a slumlord really but he's a cheerful and funny one at that; my two good photog friends Stefanie and Stephanie.

So away we go.

P.S. To any Boston readers, sorry for hating on your city, it’s not you, it’s me ;)

Stupid is as Stupid Does

A very disheveled me pondering the payback I am receiving from my wee son. Word to the wise: babies, at least mine, hate car seats and therefore road trips are a bad idea.

Alex and I, in our rookie parent naivite, thought it would be a super duper great idea to go leaf peeping with our little man. I'm not sure what was going through our heads--strapping our guy into a car seat for hours was idotic. See, my man has lungs and use them is what he did much of the trip. I spent a good part of the afternoon sitting in the back seat tending to wailing Zander as Alex chauffeured.

This photo was taken on the one occasion we made it out of the car, for a diaper change and feed pit stop, at least it shows the foliage, as do the two shots below which I took from the backseat.

we hateses the car seat

green

orange

Family Photos

My dear friend Stefanie, photographer extraordinare, took this lovely sequence of family photos for us. If you are in the Bay State and looking for some fab portraiture, Stefanie is your woman.

Granny, Poppy and Zander

Opa, Oma and Zander

Opa

3 generations

Four New Photos

Check out the latest to be added to my stock portfolio.

Six Weeks Old

Alex's Parents. June 29, 1973. Asperg, Germany.

German Spring, Restored

Easter, 1976, Southern Germany

Alex's parents brought some photos for me to restore. Alex is 2 in this one.

Tiffany and Kofi

Zander and Kofi

Parenthood Week 5

1. Going to the bathroom, when you want and need to, becomes a luxury when you enter the realm of parenthood
2. Being alone is a luxury
3. Silence is a luxury
4. Never trust the silence, it won't last
5. Pacifiers and milk may become known as "silencers"
6. You will suddenly understand why people go on vacations you once deemed 'boring'
7. Reading. Do I still know how to read?

But, as corney and goopey as it sounds, I wouldn't change a thing cause my small small husband is the sweetest little man I've known, apart from his dad, of course.

First Smiles

Big Small Boy

Zander Meets Oma & Opa

Zander & Poppy

What's in Store

Annemarie, 2005

Finally, Autumn is upon us--Yahoo for cooler temps and warmer colors! This was taken last fall. My dear friend Annemarie is the model. Speaking of Annemarie, she was married this weekend to my dear dear friend Geoffrey. Their wedding was in France (where Geoffrey is from) so given little Zander's age we unfortunately couldn't make it but we won't hold it against him.

Photos for Sale, Choose a Photo, Any Photo

15 new images by yours truly have been added to my stock portfolio. Check 'em out HERE by entering "Mallet" as photographer.

Deferring All Things Blog

Life is exciting, so exciting that I'm going to have to hold off on writing about the details and defer the baby updating task to my better half and his blog, which is complete with new Zander photos and happenings.

Multi-tasking Papa

Zander as Smurf

Zander as Smurf

The Papa Speaks

Alex's notes on week one of Fatherhood are here

*

A List of Motherhood So Far

The whole 'you'll never sleep again' thing isn't as bad as I thought. Who knows how I'll feel about that next week.
I have no idea how single mothers manage raising children solo. Alex is a super dad and I could never do this without him.
Umbilical cord stumps are not for eating. When you get up in the night to eat some walnuts with your baby slung over your shoulder and then return to bed and find what you think is a left-over walnut in his blankey, be sure it's a nut before putting it in your mouth.
I've been reading the same article from the NewYorker for 5 days straight. Each time I get to read it I have to stop on the same column--I give up.
I've started watching the same episode of HBO's "The Wire" 3 times and have not yet actually watched it.
I did knit an entire 3 rows on a baby blanket that will be for Zander's first child at the rate I'm going.

All that said, I don't care because I've got the cutest boy EVA!!!!!!

Zander Sleeps

Alex & Zander

Alexander The Great

Alexander (Zander) Foli Todd Mallet heeded the eviction notice I posted on the 15th and made his appearance on August 16th at 9:41 am, after 13 hours of labor. He's a big boy, weighing in at a hefty 9 pounds 2 ounces. Man, childbirth is hard!!!! More on the details later.

Eviction Notice

Here is a picture.
See the picture.
It's not me, it's Lindsay, but it describes things quite well.
My Tenant's Eviction/Induction Date Has Been Set: Monday, Aug. 21

Dear Tenant,

Please vacate the premises sooner so we don't have to force you out :)

Love,
Your Landlord, Host Organism, and Mom

Butterfly

Disclaimer: No butterfly was harmed in this shoot--it was already dead.

Macro Mooshi & Yes, I'm Still Pregnant

Older & More Creative

Gerber

Yesterday, I received a most excellent bday present from Alex--the Lensbabie 2.0 and Macro lenses. When we got home from Body Worlds, showing at the Museum of Science, I dinked around with the macro lenses. These here blossoms are the result.

The Lensbaby is not a 'traditional' lens by any means. It's more of an artistic, creative sort of photo toy. The effects end up looking like photos shot with a Holga. I haven't quite mastered it yet but am having fun attempting to.

Anyway, it was a swell day to turn 33.

Unfolding Gerber

Nastrutium

Dalia

The Rescuers

Stefanie

Yesterday was a big big day for me--I left the house, used 'my words' on someone other than Alex, and shot some photos at Forest Hills. Big ups to Stefanie (photog extrodinaire-check out her site) and her kiddies for rescuing me from confinement.

Madison

Garrett

The Natural Law of Public Transportion in Extreme Conditions

I fancy myself a person of reason but must admit that I'm becoming more and more superstitious with age. I'm convinced the universe is plotting against me which is why I am a firm believer in the Natural Law of Opposites. Nevertheless, this latest curse of Mother Nature is just unfair.

To escape the heat I could go to the pool at MIT or some other 'cooling center' but the problem and reason I don't is a subsection of the Natural Law of Opposites, it's called the Natural Law of Public Transportation in Extreme Conditions.

The Natural Law of Public Transportation in Extreme Conditions works like this. Take a scorching or freezing day, or just any day where you are in a hurry, running late or maybe sick and have to rely on public transportation.

You go to the bus stop expecting a 5-minute wait, the norm, but end up waiting and waiting leaving you to wonder if the MBTA has cancelled the route in the direction you're going. It will become clear that the same route going the opposite direction has not been cancelled because during your excruciatingly hot 30 minute wait caravans of busses going the opposite direction, 3 deep, running every 5 or so minutes and almost completely empty will pass and taunt you.

The above scenario happens every time I brave the bus and it doesn't matter which direction of the route I'm waiting for--I will wait and wait and wait and count the number of busses going the opposite direction. I'll end up having conversations with the transients who occupy the benches and like all conversations with strangers these days, the talk will be baby, which is mildly pleasant.