A Smattering of Realizations

The present was an egg laid by the past that had the future inside its shell. – Zora Neale Hurston.

I’ve been wanting to post about a few things, but they’re unrelated so I figured I’d just write a smattering or realizations:

1. What to Really Pack in your Maternity Hospital Bag

I thought this was a funny moment. When visiting the OB a few weeks ago, I met a nurse who handed me a sheaf of papers – preregistration hospital papers, brochures, and the list. The list of What to Pack in your Hospital Bag. I told her that I wouldn’t be packing magazines, a journal, or CDs and during labor I wouldn’t have time for those things: I’d just want the baby born at that point. She raised her eyebrows and looked at me knowingly and asked, “Have you done this before?” When I told her I had, she admitted she wouldn’t pack that stuff either, smiled and instead moved the papers to the side and we had a fun conversation about our kids acting up. This pregnancy around, I don’t have a list of questions during my doctor appointments. Rather, I have a restless Z who is reluctantly strapped in to her stroller and wheeled from waiting room, to nurse station, to waiting room again, then to doctor’s room! Needless to say, by the time we see the doctor, Z is pretty much done, I am pretty much done! The doctor will listen to the baby’s heartbeat (Z likes this part now that I’ve told her it sounds like a train!) and we are usually good to go!

2. Photography Business:

It feels nice to have started my photography business! I’m happy to have taken the leap and still can’t believe I did. It’s been a year since I’ve started this blog, and I’ve really enjoyed photographing clients and bonding with families. I remember a few years ago during my years of teaching I loved taking photos of my students’ candid moments and wished that one day that could be my job. It feels really nice to have photography on the side, something that creatively challenges me, allows me to interact with my favorite people: children, and a plus to earn a little money! I also love blogging the images and seeing my clients feedback when they get to see and preserve their memories. A BIG Thank you to all my clients and Facebook fans and Blog followers! October has been a busy month photographing people and it’s not over yet – I still have a few more photoshoots coming up! Once November starts, I will be officially taking a break from photographing clients as I don’t want to commit to taking someone’s photos, and go into labor, and not be able to edit/upload/give the client the images! Or worse go into labor at a photoshoot! So just to keep it safe, I should be done November first and should pick up at a later time, once I’m settled back into life.

3. Egg Cracking:

I’ve been trying to involve Z in the cooking process so I usually sit at her little Ikea table and crack the eggs there and whip them in front of her. I usually let her ‘whip’ the egg. She will stir it with a fork for a minute or so and then be done. The other day just before I proceeded to crack the egg, she grabbed it from me, started thwacking it on the table and cracked it pretty neatly into the bowl! I was pretty impressed so have been letting her crack her own eggs to a certain extent. Some days we have more shell in the bowl, some days less, but it’s fun to see her crack her own egg. (We do remove the shell!!) Unfortunately eating the egg is give or take, and after cooking it etc, she will either have a few good bites or barely have a bite – so unpredictable!

Brown Eggs seem so much prettier than white eggs.

All of these concepts seemed easy for her to grasp, which surprised me. Where had I been when she was tooling up her brain? ~ Phyllis Theroux.

Here she has already struck the egg, but is trying repeatedly to find the cracks! No luck yet!

So I didn’t get an image of the egg cracked in the bowl, and it was getting messy, and sticky fingers plus a fancy shmancy camera aren’t a good combo, so I have the final image of the cooked egg below!

So we sometimes make shapes in the sandwiches to get her to eat them more. That day it didn’t work! I try to leave the crusts intact just so she’ll get used to eating them, and she’s not picky about crusts, hence the cutter didn’t totally cut the bread out! See the gingerbread man? Unfortunately this sandwich barely got eaten!

More smatterings later! I need to go edit a family’s photos, and stock up on sleep! 1 more egg quote that I liked…