Random Tuesday

It's been warm and quite humid here the last day or two; my feeling is that if I wanted to live in weather like this, I'd have moved to Austin! Which, clearly, I didn't.

I feel bad for not having taken many pictures of the Infanta recently. She is growing and changing so very fast... I should record it better. But mostly lately, I'm too busy trying to keep up with her (or keep her out of something dangerous, or getting her to nap) to even think of the camera!

We actually got some gaming in this evening! And my characters weren't useless! Yay!

Time to get Herself to bed.

Chez Geek

In this case, I'm not referring to the card game, but our occupation this afternoon. We took an absolutely lovely spring afternoon, and spent it playing board games in good company. Lots of fun, but I'm totally pooped now.

Just us girls

Tonight's the first night of me missing the D&D game to take care of my baby. On the one hand, I want to play, dangit! On the other hand, I'm not missing the posturing and drama that tend to go with the group's get-togethers. I'm looking forward to sitting down with a movie and some of Amy's Toasted Coconut-Chocolate Chunk Yummies! The which I've been craving for several days now, and am finally getting around to making.

Being Mama

...isn't all fun and games. As it were.

I have a regular weekly D&D night. A bunch of us get together down at the local game store and rent the private room so that we don't have try to compete with the anime club that meets there the same night. I have been bringing the Infanta and letting her crawl around and whatnot, but it's been requiring more and more attention from everyone in the group to keep her out of trouble - like, not letting her chew on everyone's laptop cords. It's really not fair to ask everyone to help me babysit, but I've been trying to ignore that so that I can get a little gaming in.

I've also been realizing recently that she's starting to turn into a toddler. I looked at her face the other day, and she's looking older, and not like even an older baby anymore, even though she's not quite walking (although cruising just fine, thankyouverymuch). She's also getting past the 8-9 month sleep regression, and wanting to be in bed by much earlier in the evening.

So near the end of last evening, after everyone's concerted efforts to keep my little teething cord maniac wrangled, I had to come to the conclusion that I'm going to have to quit going to D&D night. Although there were some noises made about bringing one of the games (we have two campaigns going) to our house so that I can continue to play, I'm not counting on that happening. I'm not very happy about this.

There are two main reasons I'm not happy:

1) I won't get to flex my gaming muscles. I've been a gamer for as long as I can remember; it's as much a part of my identity as being a knitter has become, and it kills me to not be able to have that part of my life active. It's especially bad when my husband gets to go and I don't! And no, I won't ask him to quit - that wouldn't be fair to him. For one thing, he needs to have things to do without me; I don't want to be one of those controlling spouses that never lets her partner do anything solo!

2) I'll be stuck home alone with the baby. But, you say, you're already a SAHM, what's a few hours more? Well, that's just the thing. I am home alone with the baby all day every day (unless I manage to drag us out somewhere - not that easy when I'm dependent on buses or rides from other people). By the evening, I'm tired and needing time for myself; whether it's to cook, shower, sew, or just do nothing, I need some non-baby time. If Daddy's not home, I don't get it. I actually managed to get a shower today while Daddy wasn't home for the first time in ten months!!! But that was only because I decided that the Infanta could be more or less trusted to play independently in the bathroom... and I only got about half my shower business done because she was done before I was.

I love my baby, and in the grand scheme of things, I'm willing to give up this particular adult activity while my children are little. For one thing, they won't be little forever; for another, I'll be able to pick up again when they're older. This doesn't mean I have to like it! But I think I understand better now why the gaming nights when I was a kid were always at our house.

When Tuesday is Monday

Yesterday was lovely. We spent it quietly doing couple of chores, juggling the Infanta (who was inclined to be very fussy), and playing Agricola. It was even nice enough during the afternoon that a walk to Safeway was very enjoyable!

Today isn't being so fun so far... mainly between the Infanta being fussy and my glasses only helping somewhat. *sigh*

Oh, well, you can't have everything.

25. Geek knitting

When I saw this post over at the Mario Scarf blog the other day, I knew I needed a new dice bag. My old one is not uncrafty - I made it... maybe 15 years ago? out of leather, with beading - but it's old, and not knitted, and I've always been paranoid (justifiably) about the hand-cut thong drawstrings breaking. So I took a couple of evenings away from other projects and made a new one. I didn't have any Kureyon on hand, so I snagged a ball of Silk Garden out of the Clapotis project I'm never going to finish, and used that instead.

16. Fun with a dose of suckage.

January is still sucking. I'm feeling on the edge of PPD, and would probably be fully into it if I weren't on brain meds. Sheer anxiety is kicking my ass at night; the Infanta slept for six hours during the first part of last night, and anxiety had me awake for fully half that time.

But I had an enjoyable evening, anyway. My brother is running a game of Dungeons and Dragons (4th ed) with a local gaming group at a local game store, and I've joined it. I'm not all that much of a fan of D&D, but since it's pretty much the only game going right now, I'll take it. Making it more fun for me is that another player's wife (who is one of the potential clients I mentioned last week) has been happily watching the Infanta during part of the times we're playing, so I'm not trying to tank and juggle baby simultaneously the whole session (Josh helps, too, but since he's playing, there's still the baby at the table). I'm not counting on her being present, because she has her own life, but if she's hanging out with us while we play anyway, at least she can get a baby fix, and give me a break, so it works out for us both. :)

I realize that it may come as a surprise to some of you out there that I play games like D&D. Well, I do! I've been a gamer for pretty much all of my life - and by gamer, I mean tabletop role-playing games, not video games (which are a much newer part of my life). I hadn't had much chance to play in the last several years, but I'm enjoying my opportunity now! Plus, it mixes well with knitting. ;)

I think it's contagious.

Here's the obligatory baby picture so Gran doesn't complain (as much ;P ). It's a few weeks old; she's currently asleep on Daddy, part-time miserable with her first real cold.

Megan had food poisoning in the middle of last week, from some bad fast food. I wouldn't bother to mention it here, except that I saw her Friday at the LLL meeting, and then spent all of last night puking my guts out, I think from something I ate at dinner. Josh, the lucky bum, had no issues at all. So today, he's doing the majority of the Lina care while I'm miserable on the couch. I'd enjoy it more if I didn't feel like a$$.

Meanwhile, I think I'm going to work on preparing for the Pendragon game I'm ramping up to running; I have the Howard Pyle version out from the library (different edition, but meh). They also had Malory, but I thought that choosing an edition that I could (and would) actually read in the time I have was the better part of valor.