Five Favorites

Yesterday I was so delighted with Elizabeth Duffy’s 200-word “Why I Am Catholic” offering that I was inspired to write a little post of my own about what all this unruly life that springs out of Catholicism has taught me about, well, life. But then our newest little Catholic life decided that sleeping wasn’t really his style anymore, so instead of marshaling my thoughts to write something coherent I’m joining up with Jen and Hallie and telling you what my five favorites are.

Five Favorites

Seriously, what is this link-up? Why have I never seen it? Have I been living under a rock? How have I never, nay, not even once, seen this happen on Hallie’s blog, or noticed when Dweej or Andrea linked to it? Have I been that atrociously neglectful in my blog trollery? It seems so.

I don’t really get it. I scrolled through Hallie’s old favorites and it seems to just be a random collection of favorites. But favorite what? Objects? People? Works of staggering genius? Calvin and Hobbes comics? And what’s the time period here? Ever? Today? This year?

Everyone seems to have a different way of doing it. That makes me feel uneasy, because I wonder if coming into this totally unfamiliar with it means that I haven’t figured out the link-up lingo, so to speak, and will do it all wrong.

However, I love a good link-up, and my head and eyes hurt and I’m so tired that I’m feeling a little punch-drunk, so what the hockey sticks.

(BTW, this is now my favorite link-up, because five is two shorter than seven. Sorry, Jen. (I am, however, praying anxiously for your neck/heart/veins/mental health, and have been freaked out on your behalf all day and hoping the docs aren’t being chintzy with the Valium.))

Liam

Liam is my favorite child at the moment. He is just so adorable. He has this complete obsession with cars, and spends all day lining up his eleventy-billion Hot Wheels carefully around the edges of rugs and tables. Occasionally he’ll race with them, but mostly he just lines them up.

Also, he takes cars to bed. It’s freaking adorable.

Also, when I put him to bed, he asks for a kiss and then says, “just one more diss?” (he has issues with the “k” sound). And then he says it again and again, and even though I want to be annoyed at the endless kiss requests, I can’t be, because it’s the most precious thing ever.

Also, he’s my favorite because I tried to cut his hair on Good Friday and it was an unmitigated, embarrassing disaster. The Ogre had to give him a buzz cut which was tricky with Liam’s super fine hair, so it’s kind of not all the same length, and Liam didn’t even care or notice, because he’s a boy, and that is a glorious thing. And he still managed to look beyond precious in his little Easter sweater vest. See, look!

(Don’t worry, I’m not an unjust mother. I regularly rotate favorites. Except Lincoln, who only manages to be my favorite for about 2 hours at a time before he does something like poop on me or refuse to sleep for two days. The hazards of babyhood.)

Tulips

The Ogre got me loads of tulips to put around the house for Easter. I love tulips. I love their artistic, droopy, languid way of being and their jumble of leaves and the intentional way they have of being imperfectly, contemptuously glamorous. I read once about a sommelier who taught her students to characterize wine by equating it with famous actresses. So a zippy, spunky Sauvignon Blanc would be Jamie Lee Curtis, but a round, velvety Chardonnay would be Marilyn Monroe. Anyway, if you did that with flowers, tulips would definitely be Betty Davis.

This Set of Work-Out DVD’s

My neighbor loaned these to me after Florida’s demonic allergy season forced me to give up running. I’ve been doing them for 60 days, but I repeated Phase 1 (because I was that out of shape) so I still have 30 days to go.

I love them. Mostly because of the endless variety, which has kept me consistently sore for the past 2 months, but also because Lindsay Brin is not irritating like most other DVD instructors and I have never once wanted to punch her in the face. (Quite a departure from the violent thoughts I harbored toward Shawn T.) Also, she gives modifications for unfortunate mothers who have diastisis “Insult upon Injury” recti, provides 3 levels to follow in all the workouts in case you’re super out of shape like I was or just having a rough work-out day, and she combines toning and cardio in all the work-outs.

It really is the best post-natal workout I’ve ever done. I’ve lost 25 pounds since I started them 2 months ago, bringing me within 10 pounds of my pre-pregnancy weight and 25 pounds of of my where-I-should-be-but-have-not-been-since-college weight. My stomach, however, still seems to have no intention of remembering that it is not harboring a life and thus need not stick out in that embarrassing manner. So I’m staring to wonder if perhaps I need something more tailored to diastisis recti. (I’ve spent endless hours trolling the internet about it but can’t really seem to find a universal consensus on the best exercise program, so I’ll probably just have to try them all one by one until I find one that works.)

Lincoln

is now my favorite child in spite of his sleep-strike, because seriously, look at that face.

And that’s all my favorites for the day. My favorite thing tonight will be my bed, provided Lincoln gives up being wide-eyed and adorable and goes the frak to sleep. Go join the fun at Moxie Wife!