Dude, 7 months? Whoa!

Sidelying seemed to increase spitting up for us as well. I swear, sometimes it seemed like she spit up more than she ate. And then I'd freak out cause she's so small.

Lily will have occasional monster spits. As I've said, she'll overeat, hit the vomitorium, and come back for more. On her side, she somehow manages to fit even more inside her tummy than usual (possibly the attraction).

I wouldn't be shocked if she's doubled her weight by now. She managed dainty for a month, then went straight for linebacker.

What color are her eyes?

Dead of the Emeline cuteness. I love the dog dish picture! I still see some Empress in Emeline.

Bright blue. Just like Joe's.

I still see some Empress in Emeline.

It's the smartass look, isn't it?

It's the smartass look, isn't it?

That and the "See that? That's mine." look.

SO FUCKING CUTE I AM TEH DED!

I need more Emma time soon.

Er....what???? The one that looks like Clark Kent?? Do explain.

Yes. He looks to me like the bastard lovechild of you and Clark Kent.

Empress, your baby is adorable. As is Lily. In fact, Go Team Buffistas: The Next Generation.

Hey Fay! Tell us more about date boy. He seems right geeky, but in a good way.

JZ and I are back from watching the Devilettes go go dance, belly dancing watching, and also dancing ourselves to Prince & Michael Jackson and their cohorts. I haven't even heard "Centipede" since the 90s.

Hi.

I think I'm still on Israeli time. Or something. Very much awake, though I slept from just before dinner until around 1 AM.

Israel was fantastic. We saw all kinds of stuff, and Shabbat in Jerusalem was amazing, and the scenery is gorgeous (though there was enough litter that several of us were considering starting some kind of group to clean up all the hiking trails), and the Western Wall tunnels were just neat, and the Mediterranean is gorgeous.

As for the tour group, the other people in my group were fabulous, and I have really never seen group dynamics work that well in my life. We saw a bunch of historical and religious sites, and there were a whole bunch of hikes (way too many in my opinion, but I hurt my knee on the second one and then couldn't do any of the others). We also had a bunch of political and media people come and talk to us. Most of them were pretty interesting, but there wasn't quite as wide a range of opinions as I would have liked. We talked a lot about the disengagement, and about how it's being covered both in and out of Israel -- they said that they're expecting 6,000 foreign journalists covering it, and there are about 9,000 Israelis being evacuated, and there's only one main road going from Gaza to Israel. No idea how that's all going to work out.

And there's lots of other stuff, too, but my brain isn't working quite linearly right now.

(Pauses, takes deep breath)

Warning, rant ahead. I figure if I rant, I can avoid a full-on meltdown.

I want a do-over for this week. I'm not going to check my spelling.

I'm not sure where to start, because it's mainly petty annoying things and our own ability to be VERY VERY STUPID.

So I guess I'll start with the stupid. We bought a car. We probably paid a little too much, turns out the dealer we bought from is shady, and we were so tired, stressed, and overly warm that we caved and bought the thing without taking it to a mechanic for a check. I'm tempted to start a movement to get a three day right of recision on the ballot for car purchases at dealerships. Suffice it to say, they tried to pull some illegal crap, Paul called them on it, but the whole experience has been horrible, and we've spent the last two days beating ourselves up about our stupidity. And really, I think it's my fault, because I just wanted the car hunt OVER with, because it was stressing me out, and that was stupid. Anyhow, it's in the shop at the moment for a check and a tune up, and I hope it will turn out to not be the biggest mistake we've made in ages, but that may in fact be hoping against hope.

What the hell is wrong with us? It's not like we don't know the rules of car buying. Oh, and the topper? The AC isn't working. We'll know tomorrow if it's a cheap fix or if they lied about its condition, which is totally possible. AC is the main reason we were getting a replacement car. If it's hosed, I'm going to cry. Lily cannot deal with heat, and we realized on our first really warm day that we were not going to make it through the summer without AC unless we wanted to lose our eardrums.

Regardless, we now have a car we'll have to deal with, and I can't even think about the thing without feeling sick, so I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to actually drive it.

So, stupidity out of the way, on to RANTS OF RIGHTEOUS FURY.

I have a wedding to go to in a month, for an old friend. Formal attire requested. I've been trying, for the past several weeks, to find a dress, a top, anything. Nursingwear must have been designed by formula companies. It's all overpriced, ugly, and I'm lucky if I can find it to fit me. (Hell, I'm lucky if I can find a nursing bra to fit me.) I can't go to a formal wedding without something that will let me nurse in public without flashing the joint, because Lillian doesn't dig the whole bottle thing.

There are a handful of places that make slightly less ugly nursing clothing, but they're all very overpriced and define extra large as a 12. The closer this gets, the more panicked I feel about finding something to wear. This is the most stupid, petty thing in the world, but it's driving me nuts. I'm jonesing for maternity clothes, for fuck's sake.

It's bad enough that I'm still basically stuck in drawstring pants and sloppy tees for everyday wear. In the everyday wear, I'm not really going anywhere more fancy than the mall or Target. There will be people here I haven't seen in years, and for various reasons, I'd really rather not look like extra large ass on toast.

Why, if breastfeeding is so fucking important (and it is), is it so hard to get clothing to allow you to, oh, leave the fucking house looking human? Christ, between the lack of decent support for it in public places (we shan't even start on workplaces), assholes like Barbara Walters and Starr What'sherass talking about how unseemly it is, and a complete black hole of fashionable clothing, no wonder so many women just give up.

All I want is a simple black dress in a natural fiber in a large size. Is that really too much to ask? Just one fucking dress so I can hold my head up high in a situation I'm very nervous about indeed.

Feh.

On the bright side, if I can't find anything to wear and am forced to just retire to my house, at least I won't have to deal with the car.

Okay. Rant over.

Back to dress hunting.