They needed all the help they could get

Which is why I, a die-hard Mariners fan, don't feel guilty about providing this little good luck charm to the Mets. Besides, the Mariners still handily won the three-game series.

All in the family

One thing I love about the Caselli clan -- they have daily conversations about poop. I'm not talking about toilet humor here, although I've never claimed to have a sophisticated sense of humor and enjoy a good poop joke as much as the next person.

No, this is more of a keeping-each-other-posted-about-personal-health type thing. I discovered this after John's mom, two sisters and niece came to visit us for a week.

I have to say, it now makes much more sense why whenever I've said things to John like the following: "I think I feel a headache coming on" or "My elbow hurts," his response is either "Have you pooped today?" or "Go take an enema."

That's my neat little seque into posting about our week with John's family in town. (I think after this post I'll be all caught up...)

Their visit was pretty much all about Sofia, though we did get in some good touristy activities, like riding the tram at Alyeska and visiting the zoo. I was a little disappointed in the polar bears at the zoo, who didn't seem to get the memo that they were supposed to be putting on a show for us. Instead, they just stayed draped over the rocks like they'd had a rough Saturday night:

I have to admit I'm a little foggy on all the details of this week, as this was before Sofia was sleeping through the night. But I do know for sure the highlight of the week was a trip down to Homer, and we have high oil prices to thank for that!

With fuel prices being what they are, the tourist season has been pretty slow this year. Thus we were able to rent not only a van so we could all drive together, but a beautiful beachfront condo on the end of the spit that easily fit all of us. Even packing the van was exciting, as a moose just happened to run through our front yard when everyone was out there.

We spent our time enjoying the view of otters constantly playing just off the shoreline and eagles hanging out all over the place. Our little superstar Gianna did plenty of beachcombing and entertaining of the crowds:

Here are some other highlights from the fam's visit...

Aunt Lisa gave Sofia a bath:

Johnny made us his famous Caesar salad. He's, um, apparently proud of his cheese:

Gianna took Bella and Lucy for about a thousand walks. They LOVED her:

And lots of posing:

We can't forget Lucy and Bella. And yes, they're pooping quite regularly these days:

*Thanks to Lisa and Toni for all these pics! I, of course, continued this week in my fine tradition of forgetting to take pictures.

It's all about the boobs

While my life recently has seemed to revolve around boobs the last few months, last Saturday really WAS all about the boobs for a lot of women -- the Run for Women (a fund-raiser for breast cancer, for those of you not familiar).

Sofia, me and about a dozen other bellydancers did the 5-miler together as the Bellydancer Babes for Breast Cancer team. (Quick side note: yes, I realize the problem with that team name. Yes, it bugs me, but you gotta play with the cards you're dealt.)

I do believe our team was a crowd favorite, as I gathered from the grins of the police officers whom the gals kept shimmying up to. As it turns out, the porta-potty our team decorated was also a crowd favorite -- it came in second place, yeah!

I'm so proud of Sofia for completing her first Run for Women! Soon enough, she'll actually be doing it on foot.

Where did the last two months go?

It's Sofia's two-month birthday today, and I face it with a lot of different emotions. I can't believe she's already been with us for two months...pretty soon I'll be saying I can't believe she's been with us for two years...16 years...21 years...wow.

She's changing so much already -- smiling every day, and now she's not only learned to suck on her fist, but she's gotten really good at bringing her hand directly to her mouth, not just accidentally landing on it. Ha, pretty soon that little fist going to her mouth will be full of all sorts of things we don't want going in her mouth.

She loves bouncing in her little vibrating chair, as long as she is close by her people. She must be telling herself jokes, because she'll squeal with delight at who knows what. Needless to say, these happy times are the highlights of my days.

But as she gets bigger, plenty of other emotions come along with the pride and joy of watching her grow. So often I end up questioning if I'm doing this right, and if decisions we make in our parenting style are causing any damage to her. Case in point: attachment parenting vs. the cry it out method. I've come across some research that says this is what happens when you let a baby cry: "increased heart rate and blood pressure, reduced oxygen level, elevated cerebral blood pressure, depleted energy reserves and oxygen, interrupted mother-infant interaction, brain injury, and cardiac dysfunction." Cripes.

And other more minor questions: Is our car seat putting a dent in our baby's skull??? How do I hold Sofia while in bellydance costume complete with 20 pounds of metal jewelry without scratching her? Sheesh, these things no one tells you about...

I guess bottom line is I need to stick with my initial approach to parenting -- follow the mommy instincts. If Sofia continues to cry no matter what form of soothing we lavish on her, perhaps being put down for a couple minutes in a dim, quiet room is the best thing. So -- attachment parenting? Cry it out? No need for labels here, we'll just keep on keeping on with what we're doing.

And really? Our child sleeps through the night. Boo-yah.

Solstice in Chickaloon

When the sun comes out in Alaska, we celebrate. Can you blame us after enduring 6-7 months of winter? So when the longest day of the year rolls around, it's really time to celebrate.

For these reasons I found myself strapping Sofia into the car yesterday and leaving town for Chickaloon, looking to escape the rain and join some friends in a little patch of sunshine up north to mark summer solstice.

Not having traveled up the Glenn Highway past Palmer in some time, my geography of where Chickaloon is was a little foggy...as were my notes on how to get there. Hense a few tense moments when I thought I might have to drive past Glennallen, a mere 145 miles past Palmer. Heh. Oops. *Note to self: take better notes next time.*

We made it out there in less than two hours, and found the wonderful little plot of land that was our destination. My friend Melea and her family live on a gorgeous 34-acre plot, complete with lovely gardens, hot tubs made out of fish bins and heated by campfires, cabins, a yurt, hammocks galore and a covered stage complete with PA system. Not to mention the dozens of people and dogs who had come to enjoy this little slice of paradise on the longest day of the year!

It didn't take too long for Sofia and I to claim an open hammock and swing in the breeze with Marla and Shawna. And, um, dogs. Lots and lots of dogs. And we had nothing to do in the world except swing and look at the blue sky -- a nice change from gloomy, gray Anchorage.

As we lazily whiled away the hours, more and more people showed up, bearing food and drink. We feasted on grilled salmon, kebobs and amazing grilled veggies. Apparently, one of the folks who has a cabin on this land also owns an Italian deli back in A-town. We definitely reaped the benefits of this!

Eventually the band set up, and the bellydancers donned their garb. The lovely ladies danced to the sounds of the sitar, drums, bass guitar and keyboard. Other entertainment included hearing Iris' story of giving birth to her first baby just two weeks ago -- after only four hours of labor, she delivered him in her car in the parking lot of the birthing center. It put a smile on my face to hear that her gorgeous boy was brought into the world by the same midwife who delivered Sofia, Trina.

Sofia and I reluctantly left Chickaloon for home just when the party was really kicking into gear, but it was time for us to be at home. And, alas, no pictures. I realized I forgot my camera about halfway to Chickaloon. There's always next time!

Who is that masked man?

Sarah requested a pic of all three of us, so here you go! I aim to please...

I have good excuses! Really!

One week in New York + one week with relatives in town + one NASTY computer virus that took me offline for two weeks = more than a month without a post.

But I'm back! Motherhood has not got the best of me, and I won't go this long without an update again! That said, I don't even know where to start. A lot of stories and photos accumulate in one month...let's start with New York and work our way forward....here's the post I started when my computer went down:

Just when I was starting to feel a little cooped up in the house, our family got thrown a bit of a curve ball, and I’m proud to say we hit this one out of the park. Ha, the Mets and Mariners could learn a lesson from us…but I digress.

Sadly, our adventure was precipitated by a death in the family, John’s grandmother. We had one day to put together a trip to New York for the funeral, and we made it there by the skin of our teeth just in time to change out of our traveling duds and make it to the funeral. It was a wonderful thing for John to be there with his family, and for Sofia to meet the other side of her family.

With the cousins:

And because flying to New York on standby with a five-week-old baby and one day notice wasn’t enough of a challenge for us, we decided to stay in Manhattan for a few days and see the sights. Thus the adventure continued!

We decided right away we loved New Yorkers upon meeting our cabbie who was taking us from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Within about five minutes, we had all established our racial and religious backgrounds, and what REALLY goes on in Greenwich Village:

Cabbie: There's Greenwich Village.

Us: Oh, we thought about checking that out.

Cabbie: That's for the people who, you know, like dah same sex.

Pause.

Cabbie: You know. Gay.

Ah, thanks! Needless to say, no one beats around the bush in NY. Anyway, in that fashion we arrived at our Manhattan hotel a little more educated, and crashed in exhaustion.

Our first day began with a walk in Central Park, which was just two blocks from our hotel. We ended up walking there every day. That park is definitely the reason so many people are able to continue to live in New York. Without it...I'm convinced they'd go insane.

The park is packed with free spirits. Drummers, hula hoopers, roller bladers, roller skaters...you name it, someone's doing it in Central Park. Hey, keep that mind out of the gutter!

This guy was one of my favorites:

Later that day we met John's mom, who was coming up from Brooklyn to hang out with us for a day. Just when she thought she was done with interminable cab rides, we turned right around and loaded back into a cab bound for the Staten Island ferry. We covered the one mile to the ferry in an impressive 40 minutes! Not that I'm saying traffic is bad in NY or anything.

So we loaded onto the ferry, which took us right past the Statue of Liberty. We discovered two factors that lead to bad pictures: 1) Backlighting. 2) Strangers who clearly have no idea how to frame a shot. See below...if you squint, you can see the statue in the background...

Here's one better-ish shot I did manage to get:

So, every time we travel, Johnny gets this inexplicable craving for Chinese food. When we got our feet back on solid ground, we had yet another cabbie drop us off in Chinatown. Now, my husband has a stomach that's apparently made of iron, but Mom and I aren't quite so lucky. We were just a BIT skeptical of all the mystery restaurants we found in Chinatown, so we hoofed over to Little Italy. There we found a joint with photos of Sinatra, various Yankees and an assortment of other Italians on the wall. We figured it must be good. In the end, the meal could've been better, but you couldn't beat the company!

Once we got Mom safely off to the airport on her way home to Vegas the next day, we continued seeing all the NY sights. Next up was the Museum of Natural History, which had a live snake and lizard exhibit. This, of course, made Johnny want to set up a terrarium for an iguana at home. Thankfully he hasn't found the time to do this yet! Sofia got to meet some dinos:

We also made a trip to the Museum of Modern Art, but I have no pictures of that. While there was some amazing work at the museum, I definitely had some moments when I felt like we were all the victims of some large-scale prank. I mean, here we were in this huge, famous museum packed with people, and we were standing around looking at...an Airstream trailer. And silverware. And toasters. And strange "art" made of twigs and Christmas lights. I guess I just don't "get" modern art...

Further wandering around Manhattan took us past tons of famous places:

Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Center:

Sex and the City movie premiere! Yeah! No, we didn't see any of the stars, but it was still soooo cool to be by the red carpet. And yes, Johnny thinks I'm a complete dork for being so excited about this.

Our last big NY adventure was taking the subway out to Queens for a Mets game at Shea Stadium. Mama was pretty nervous about this one and, frankly, spent more time stressing out about it than actually enjoying it. We watched the Mets lose until the 7th inning, then beat it out of there. Sofia was NOT a happy camper...she was crying just like her daddy does when the Mets lose. Which is often.

On the subway:

All in all, we had an amazing week. We wandered around Times Square, Sofia slept. We ate at the Stage Deli, where Johnny got his 5-inch-tall pastrami on rye, and I had some strange potato dish that I think my stomach is STILL digesting. Sofia slept through that, too. We got held up an extra day because we were flying standby...and, Sofia slept. We finally caught a flight home...Sofia slept. Are you catching the theme here? I'll leave you with these final NY pictures: