30 Before 30

Today is my champagne birthday. I turn 29 on the 29th. It's not a big milestone, but next year sure is.
Between that and the new year fast approaching I have been thinking about my "do before 30" list. It's a list I have going in my head but I've never articulated. Until now.
I want this list to be something to keep me accountable to my goals, however small they are. I want to be able to at this time next year look back on the year and not think "what have I done this year??" but instead think "Wow! look at all I've acheived!" In that vein I'm not going to put vague things like "eat out less" on the list. I want concrete things I can check off. Some are things I've done before, some are not.

30. Sew something for myself, that I wear, regularly.
29. Have a professional family portrait taken, of all four of us.
28. Learn to make cheese and actually make some.
27. Send out Christmas Cards. Don't address them and forget to mail them.
26. Start to compost.
25. Send out Thank You cards to people who deserve them.
24. Knit a pair of socks, for myself.
23. Make a family tree.
22. Paint the kitchen cabinets.
21. Learn how to change a tire.
20. Skate at the Rockefeller Center.
19. Visit Ellis Island.
18. Send an anonymous gift to someone.
17. Write at least 6 handwritten letters to my Grandmother.
16. Host a dinner, at my house, for my In-Laws.
15. Go for a ride in a horse drawn carriage.
14. Grow something edible and eat it.
13. Get drunk on Champagne.
12. Visit the Museum of Modern Art.
11. Make some art I'm proud enough of to display in our home.
10. Take a yoga class.
9. Make a will.
8. Have a burger at White Manna.
7. Go to a taping of the Colbert Report.
6. Eat at Babbo.
5. Go to a wine tasting.
4. Go see the Statue of Liberty.
3. Read 6 NEW books. Not books I've previously read or part of a series.
2. Volunteer for something.
1. Lose 30 lbs.

My Baby is One Today

She's One.
Where did the time go?
A year ago Baby D was born at home. First blizzard of the year, the midwife got stuck behind a snow plow on the way over here and didn't quite make it on time.
A year ago Baby D was born into her father's hands.

A year previous, when T was born, she was a hospital birth. Everything about the way a hospital birth is set up is designed to make the laboring woman feel like she can't do this on her own. I left that experience feeling like I couldn't do the one thing my body was designed to do. Despite giving birth at a boutique hospital, I felt like nobody genuinely cared about the well being of me and my baby.
I felt like I was in a Monty Python Sketch hooked up to the machine that goes *PING*. Except it wasn't funny. At all.


So when D was born at home, in our own bed, caught by her father it was the most healing thing I could have experienced. It got a little less peaceful and intimate when the Cop and EMT arrived from when my Husband called 911. Aside from my own birth, I'm fairly certain that's the first time I've met anyone, let alone two men, whilst completely naked. The midwife arrived, spoon fed me ice cream while I nursed baby D for the first time. She helped me into the shower, helped my husband throw away the linens. She stuck around for a little bit to make sure I ate, and told me to spend the day relaxing in bed with the new little one.

T had spent the day with her Grandpa. She returned home at 9am, about 5 hours after her sister was born. When I brought the baby out of the bedroom to meet her, T got a HUGE smile on her face and she signed "baby." She loved her instantly.

These two are going to be the best of friends. I love them both so much.
Happy birthday little one!