joyful

I was inspired by Shanti Town to make a list of things that bring me joy and make me grateful to be alive.

Sitting at my desk and wishing that I could have another cup of decaf even though I know I shouldn't and then realizing that I never drank it and it's sitting right there and then drinking it and it's delicious.

My little toddler saying, "mama, dada, mama, dada, mama." because he sometimes blurs us into one entity.

Asking my little toddler for a kiss and having him pull out his binky and plant a big wet one on me. I don't care that it messes up my lipstick and I don't wipe off his slobber because I want it just to dry on my face so that I can carry little particles of him around with me all day long.

My mom sending me text photos while I'm at work of my toddler playing naked in my grammy's backyard with his cousins just like I used to.

Knowing that while I'm at work, my husband is taking care of our toddler, especially when he burns his little hand.

Sharing every silly little thing my toddler does with my husband because I know he cares about every silly little thing.

The sun shine the sun shine the sun shine. 75 degrees and sunny most of the time. why doesn't every one live here? Oh yeah earthquakes, drought, fires, traffic and housing prices. All totally worth it people!

Finally finishing painting my kitchen. Maybe some small progress is happening after all? I need to post before and after photos.

Feeling my little baby kick at me from inside my belly. I feel like a Jiffy Pop. Omg. do they still make Jiffy Pop? it's the best! I feel like a popcorn maker.

Galivanting Monkey had her baby! Fred is here. She pushed that baby out, dear god. What a champion. They don't call her the Wizard for nothing.

I'll stop there. I should do this more often. Of course, now there's something that is causing me anxiety that I need to share with you. Every one I know who is pregnant is having a boy and now I'm afraid that someone is going to name their baby boy our baby boy's name. I'm trying to talk Dup into letting me tell the pregnant people the baby's name so that it won't happen but he won't budge. The name we have picked is fairly uncommon but gaining popularity and you know, it's just the power of the collective unconscious. It's impossible to have an original thought in your brain. I'm not thinking it "WE" are thinking it. It's NUTZ. Since we've decided on the name I've heard of some people naming their babies this name and even one person who named their dog this name and now I'm completely anxiety ridden over it. I'm mostly afraid that the woman who lives in our condo complex who is 3 weeks ahead of me is going to use it, even though it's very unlikely considering her taste and ours is very different. I didn't have this anxiety with Davey's name because his name is so common but it's funny because now it's so popular to name your child something unusual that his name has become much less common. We were signing him up for his day care and the teacher asked me what his name is and I said, "David" and she said, "Oh how unusual!" I was like, "what?" She said, "no one names their child David anymore." Which I thought was so funny. She's right too. If you look at the cubbies with all of the kids names it's like, Miles, Riley, Cougar, Addison, Aidan, Aidan, Aidan. Every kid is named Aidan these days. Must be from Sex and the City. Anyway...

I would like to make a plea to the universe to remove my baby's name from the collective consciousness of just the people 1 degree away from me. Anyone else can have it, I'm not delusional. I just don't want our neighbor to have it.

I need to just make my mind blank when I'm around pregnant people but I'm like Dan Akroid in Ghost Busters when he accidentally thinks of the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man.