Thursday, April 17, 2008

have you seen toy story?



Because I have. I've seen it at least once a day for the last three weeks. Occasionally, I have seen it twice a day. The miracle? I STILL LIKE IT. That's got to be a pretty fuckin' sound movie there to withstand a godzillion consecutive viewings like that.

You know what one trick is? Watching a movie like that over and over? You watch different parts of the screen. See how they animated the windowsill in the upper right hand corner. See how they made the wood floor look very shiny, and behold the subtle shadows of the banisters. You can get a lot of mileage out of this technique. Savor the animation. Saaaavor it.

And then you can focus on the voiceovers. Imagine the actors in front of their microphones, doing different takes. See if you can guess which ones made them laugh and they had to do them over.
Then you can imagine different friends of yours in different parts, if you have a lot of actor friends. (Even if you don't. Just imagine which friends and acquaintances are existentially right for the different parts.) Who do I know who'd make a good Woody? Yeah, that guy'd be good. THAT guy would be a great Buzz Lightyear. I'm going to pretend he's Buzz Lightyear during this scene. What about this friend? Is there a role for him here? Mr. Potatohead? Not bad. The pig? The dinosaur? I think I'm going to read him for the pig. The pig and Mr. Potatohead. For when I direct the stage show. The tiny experimental Seattle theater version of Toy Story. Good. Good.

Finn and I were watching Toy Story the other day, and it came to the part where Buzz finds out he's just a toy and there's that melancholy Randy Newman musical interlude where Buzz is staggering around all disillusioned. Finn wandered off and started playing with a window handle, so I paused the movie. He turned around and said, "No, let's watch it. Let the man sing."

Let the man sing.

Finn is also in love with the pit bull in the movie, the bad neighbor kid's dog. He'll pop awake in the morning, "Want to see the big white dog! Want to say hi to him!" And he'll stare at the dog lovingly and make me rewind the dog parts fifty times, and he'll say, "I want to pick him up." Then he'll note that "he's very heavy". Theoretically.

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I'm still pregnant, everyone! And that means that I'm very tired and moody and I'm forced to eat ice cream sandwiches. Toy Story : Finn as ice cream sandwiches : me.

Also, I'll be frank. We're rooting for a girl. Until further notice, I'm living the dream. This is the last child we're going to have, so I'm bookmarking awesome little lady outfits on the web like a crazy person right now. We thought Finn was a girl at first last time, and we think he's the best thing since sliced bread, so it's not like we're going to be bummed out if it's Fred. Fred would get a hero's welcome. But we have booked a ticket for Oona. C'mon, little mama. Break for the double X.

We haven't told Finn yet. We're going to wait until I start to show. In the meantime, we're just talking about babies a lot. What do you think about babies? Look at this baby in this magazine. What do you think? Look at that mommy's tummy. There's a baby in there. How about this baby? What do you think? You remember Linus? and Luna? Linus is Luna's big brother. Linus is a big brother. Just sayin'.

Finn loves looking at babies. I pointed to one baby and he declared, "THAT is a CUTIE." And, naturally - like he does with everything else in this world from pit bulls to his friend Miles to giant construction cranes and houses - he wants to pick babies up. If you see Finn somewhere, and he looks at you, know that he's thinking about what it would be like to pick you up.

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Our due date is festive, being Christmas Eve, but it's also sort of crappy. It makes me nervous. I'm wanting to go for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) and I'm afraid that everyone's going to subconsciously - or consciously - hurry me into a cesarean so they can get back to their families and their stockings and eggnog. The midwife I wanted isn't accepting clients for my due date, and it looks like it's going to be the same deal with the doula I was hoping to use. No room at the inn feelings starting up!

The recovery from my cesarean with Finn was GOD. AWFUL. I don't want a repeat!

If you're a groovy Jewish VBAC-supporting certified nurse-midwife who oversees births at Group Health (which has the lowest c-section rate in the state) and you're free in late December, call me.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

A of all: congratulations. Yay, babies and more of 'em.

B of all: I don't think my midwife fits your qualifications, but she is awesome and it must be stated. So I am going to suggest you go here and contact them because they were the other people I interviewed and were pretty great and I seem to recall VBAC info. But if they don't they might be able to suggest someone...and we have appointment with our midwife on Monday (because she's also our pediatrician) and I'll ask her, too.

C of all) Before Nora was born, we were all "ohnosoclosetoChristmas" and then when she was born (on the 22nd) we were all YAYAYAYAYAYAY snowy baby! Which is to say: I'm thinking the idea of it sucks only beforehand and that being a kid with a birthday close to or on Christmas is only suckwad if you don't plan ahead and make it special. Or maybe I'm wrong and Nora and Oona/Fred can create a performance project dedicated to the horrors of yuletide birth.

girlysmack said...

Let me preface this by saying I will keep my fingers (or at least my toes because I can do that) crossed for you to have a successful, beautiful VBAC.

Now, having said that, and firmly, sincerely meaning it, I wanted to let you know that I had 2 c-sections and the recovery after the second one was cake compared to the first time! Ya know, just so ya know.

Anonymous said...

I just have to put in a plug for my unbelievably cool OB. I know that is not what you asked for, but I loved her so much that I really sort of feel compelled to share her with everyone, but feel free to ignore me if you want... :-)


Anyway, I felt so taken care of by her and she was totally supportive of my decision to give birth with as little medical intervention as possible. As a result, I was able to give birth having had no drugs and no icky episiotomy, both of which I really didn't want. She was so understanding and kind.


She practices at Swedish though, which I realize is also not what you asked for.. Her name is Teresa Burdick, and I just had to share her with you because my experience with her was so wonderful.

Scott Chicken said...

OK, speaking as a Capricornious 5 days post X-mas kind of guy I can say that the advantages of being born then are:

a) if you don't get it for Christmas you can be fairly sure you'll get it for your birthday. Unless it's a pony.

b) while you're not the oldest kid in your class you're probably pretty close, which is cool 'cause you get to drive first.

c) two words: Tax Deduction. That was the big bummer with Miss Maya waiting until January 4th - we had to wait another whole year for the write-off. I mean really, couldn't she have been 5 days more earlier?

As for midwives and Group Health, no experience with the VBAC thing but we loved the people at Seattle Home Maternity Service. Suzie and Marge are both awesome, they work (or did 7 years ago) with GHC (although for our delivery they were mainly in doula mode), and made everything as easy as possible. Don't know if they're taking new patients or if they've got a Christmas Blackout, but it's worth looking into.

And as for GHC, they were awesome as well. We'd planned to have Maya at home and were bummed when circumstances required that we have her "in hospital", but everyone there was accommodating, stayed out of the way, and the OB (Dr. Green, I think) was in the room for all of 5 minutes for the actual delivery and a couple sutures.

Oh, and as for the wanting a girl thing, I know exactly how you feel, so I'll be thinking good Oona thoughts for ya!

Tina Rowley said...

You guys are great!

I'm not worried about the baby having a Christmas birthday - oh, we're going to style that shit out for the little bunny every year so the bunny knows that the birthday is a whole special separate deal.

It's the giving birth at a time when a lot of people who are involved will likely want to be at home with their families that gives me pause. (Erin, it's great to hear that your second c-section was easier! Seriously, that relaxed something in my gut.) I'm just concerned that it's going to be tougher to find folks that I like that do what we need to do, scheduling-wise, and that whoever we find is going to be subliminally more open to resorting to the c-section so they can get home.

Bleeeah blah bloo.

Sadly, we can't give birth in a birth center. VBACs are illegal in birth centers in WA. You either gotta go home birth or hospital for a VBAC here. We went for the home birth last time and had to transfer, which was sucktastic, so we want to avoid that this time. Best to start out in a hospital, we feel.

We'll check out Teresa Burdick and see if she's down with the VBAC. She sounds lovely.

You guys are princes among men, lady-style, except Scott, who fits the bill directly. (Princesses among women does not have the ring to it I'm looking for.)

Mother Theresa said...

Mank, I remember those days. We have seen Winnie the Pooh like a million times. Too bad we didn't have Toy Story back then. We do now and we've seen it quite a few times, and it is still good. You could try watching it in Spanish or Japanese or something, just for fun. I mean you probably know all the lines by heart anyway, so it's not like you'd be missing out on anything. Good luck on finding someone to deliver that Christmas baby of yours and I hope it's a girl. We wished for a boy after two girls and we got...another girl! But we're cool with that now. :)

L. said...

let the man sing. oh, yes.

Anonymous said...

Cool, I am glad that you are going to check out Dr Burdick. I really felt like she was very midwife-y, while secretly being a doctor. She is sort of earth-mother-y, but without the "woo" factor that makes me crazy. I really hope that she is down with the VBAC for you.

I will cheer for Oona for you too!

momster said...

I successfully had a VBAC 2-1/2 years after my C-section. Both times were in the hospital. With my first labor I wasn't making any progress and then my daughter's heart beat started doing wacky things. Thus the unplanned C-section. My second labor was very different and I had much more intense contractions and an intense urge to push which I didn't have the first time. I did have an epidural, but it only worked on one side of my body! THAT was a weird sensation.

And I simply must add that I, too, love Toy Story.

Deb Abramson said...

I'm Jewish and VBAC-supporting, and I like to think I'm groovy. Are you really tied to the "certified nurse-midwife" piece of it?