New Game +

     It got harder, LOL. The baby thing. It was hard, and then it got easier. And now we're finally clearing the full tilt New Game +. This must be what leather feels like being stretched over a comically large drum. Doesn't feel great.

Also, just for fun;
The blowouts (poop bombs) become more and more impressive. I'm almost proud that my breastmilk can clean Mung Bean out in one fell swoop. Just woosh. /System retoot.

The maiden spake her distress in flowery prose.


In the mean time, behold the guests that our outdoor shelter has had recently!

I knew the kitties were coming, and then the oppossums came. Then the raccoon!

Our newest guest is this little mouse. So sweet! I gotta put cheese out or something. Just for this little guy, lol. 

We recently smelled newer guests in our back yard. The unmistakable scent of skunks. They're so cute to me, omg. I was excited and hoped to see one. And I did, but not how I was hoping to. More on that later.

Also, I just need to document how special my first day back at work after materniy leave was. I don't know if it was fate or what. My first special person that I got the honor of working with was a Disney fan. So much so that the family made sure that their Minnie plushie remained with them always. It was like, serendipity. And this may sound kinda stupid but all the paperwork I did for this person was written in Disney font. Because that's how I roll.

If you don't know, I trained myself to write like Walter Disney during Mortuary school. Why?

Why not? So now I do. And it's fantastic. And look. We came together this way and learning to write like that was worth it. Thanks, Past-Cynthia. 

When I went to set up the state room, I left a message with their flowers with my condolences and signed it as a fellow Disney fan. I hope it brought the family even just a tiny bit of comfort.


I can't buy overpriced baby clothes like this anymore. 

They're so soft, and stretchy, and nice, and cute. And the butt ruffles. But I'm a little embarassed for how much I paid for just these 3. Town idiot tier foolery. So when Mung Bean grows out of them, I'm repurposing the fabric for like pillows or puppets or something.

I think my hair is actually falling out now! About time. Sheesh. If I develop a bald spot, I'll like... Idk, write some cool lore for myself or something. 

I feel a little bad getting this delivered every month lol. Like, imagine getting the mail and you just see this magazine and you're just like, trying to start your day and are reminded you're married to me. Not because of like, other cool magazines, no. No, it's because urns.

Anyway, how's it been? Well, since our last trip to California Adventure was pretty much us digging ourselves into a pit for no reason, this last time was a lot easier, and more fun!

We went for the Food & Wine Festival!

Lifa and Smurr in tow. We finally talked Smurr into getting a Magic Key Pass.

THE GOSPEL SPREADS.

Yes, Mung Bean has Oswald ears as well. I don't know if Cris did that on purpose, but she got me those little ears for my birthday, and because I have a tiny head, the band that they're on are a great fit for Mung Bean. So it just worked out incredible that way. 

Another generation will know about Oswald and Ub Iwerks.

So many wheels

The Food & Wine Festival is great. It's one of my favorite events in California Adventure.

This year there were two passes to choose from. The 8 ticket one or the 4. They got the 4, I got the 8 to share with Mr. Chicken.

It's basically a great time to come sample some savory delights and treats with some booze. All kinds of booze. There's an ube beer. We didn't try it that time but when I go back, I'm getting it lol.

So this was the sirloin mac n cheese thing and the savory spam musubi bowl thing. Both were pretty good!

This was the asada thing. It was alright. The green sauce carried it lol. And the mango sticky rice churro was AWESOME. I really liked that.

I think he's carrying the birria mac n cheese? That was pretty good too.

Man, this was like, the ideal day. Just some Bros and the Bean.

Avenger's Campus was a must. Shawrma cart was selling the Captain America shield .. sippy... cups? LOOL. Mr. Chicken bought one for Lifa but Lifa had already run off and gotten one, hahahha. So they're twinsies now. 

Throughout the day, I had to run off to the baby center and attend to Mung Bean, but honestly it was completely fine. I'd just meet up with them after. And Mung Bean seemed to enjoy all the sights and sounds- except for when she was napping and a show came on at Avenger's Campus. That pissed her off, but I mean, I get it.

looolol. 
Dizknee H4cKz0Rz
"They done Goof'd themselves"

Becky is radiant, okay.

I ship her and Hei Hei

Oh my god. They could be our next Disneybounds HOW CUTE
And Mung Bean will just have to live with that.

Well, that day was awesome. We spent most of it in California Adventure. We were gonna check Disneyland a little more but it got late and kinda cold, so we called it.

Man. So, why did I say that things felt like New Game +? Well, there's this thing called "Sleep Regression." We didn't really know much about it, but when it started it hit us hard.  And it's finally on its way out, methinks. Feels like it is, I don't know for sure though.

Mung Bean had been sleeping through the night and having decent naps, until one day it just wasn't like that. Weirdly, the 30-45 minute naps became more consistent until it was only those or not at all. And sleeping through the night just wasn't happening. It was like when we came home from the hospital all over again. 

Mr. Chicken got the worst of it because for 3 weeks, he tanked her while also working from home. With what he does for work plus trying to balance this period of dank chaos, this is some of the most intense stuff he's faced. I was already back at work, so he was on his own during the day. And when I'd get home at midnight, I'd tank her over night when she'd wake up. And get as much sleep as I could lol, which often wasn't much.

It sucked. Very draining. Tested us. In spite of it all though, I'm proud of us for getting through it stronger and with some more understanding.

I'm patient, but only because I worked retail for like 15+ years with defensive, unapproachable bosses and colleagues. Undesireables are my second nature; ya girl can cope, solve, and adapt. And this is also because I accepted that there's no use in trying to control anything. I don't like chaos, unpredictability, random or surprise interruptions throughout my day. But I've given in and am not resisting it. Mr. Chicken is the same, but unfortunately with a work schedule, it's do or die. Or go crazy. 

I'd told him on week 2 that if he needed me to come home from work early, I would. He stuck it out til the weekend, I was so proud of him. But he took a lot of damage. It'd be one thing if he was staying at home watching her without having to work, but no. He was balancing both. Crazy hard mode.

This past week has seen more calm and better rest for all of us. I've picked up on some things and introduced new rituals that help calm everyone, and it's been working. I'm proud to say that I got a way to put Mung Bean down for sleeps without much resisting or crying, and it's been great because it's affected everything that follows. When Mung Bean goes to sleep calmly, everything else falls into place. 

Except for last night. I wonder if a nightmare was to blame. Sounded scary. Poor baby.

Now I wanna take a nap lol. Ugh.

Ah, I'm the owner of new bifocals now, yay!

The tech at the optomitrist picked them out. I tried on several other styles, but he nailed it I guess. Damn, it was that easy huh LOL. I like to think I'm like... cool and mysterious. In a Spongebob sort of way. But guess not.

Damn. Our baby is so cute. 
Alright, that's out of my system.
Moving along.

I've been enjoying work. But I miss Mung Bean when I'm there. By the time I get home everyone is already asleep. If I'm lucky (and I am more often than not) Mung Bean awakes between 3:30-4:30am. This means I get to scoop her out of the bassinet and we snuggle back to sleep together, with Mr. Chicken and Ophelia. I so so so look forward to this after work.

I also... I'm gonna toot my own horn. This is TMi but I use wearables to keep my supply going while I'm working (not around CH2O fumes) and that's gotta be some kind of ... cosmically... weird... ironic... kind of sit-com silly... unspoken thing. And why would it be talked about? But there are so many mortician moms that do it! Or have to take breaks to go pump while caring for our dead and their families. IS THAT NOT, LIKE, KIND OF.... HAVING SO MANY LAYERS OF... INDESCRIBABLE, UNPARALLELED... THINGIES TO IT??

There's this incredible, life-giving function our motherhood gifts us with... coupled with American society's biggest, ingrained taboo. But there we are, doing it. And with so many of us in the death care field... I mean... it feels kinda not great to say out loud. Why is that? I love it. It's totally normal, but also it's not like I'm oblivious to social mores.

Anyway, yeah I do that and I get shit done and I hope Mung Bean is proud of me some day. Because I challenge myself this way (happily and willingly) to give her her very own custom, nutrient rich, super-food nourishment and a cool story for her friends.

Aaaaaand someone recently hit another milestone! WHO COULD IT BE??

Also, thank you again to my old co-worker Jane for this blankie, haha. It's sooo soft!

As time goes by, little Mung Bean continues to teach us another world of experiences. So much exp. But I love it all. I know as the years go by, there will be days when I miss how little she is. I already found a bib that still smells like how she did when she was a newborn. I'm never washing it, lol. It's in my headboard by my pillow.

I do miss being able to just turn off my brain and get lost in games though. But... that is there waiting for me, unaltered by time. Unless there's a patch or something.
But Mung Bean changes daily, and it's so cool to see how far we've come together - our little family. 

That's so cool, lol.


Ah, yes. So earlier I mentioned skunks.

Is that chicken wire? Yeah. With nitril gloves and small trash liners.

Mr Chicken told me that he saw some remains in the back yard. I was like omg :(. He thought it was a skunk. Said it was sort of in tact, but wasn't 100%. So I went back and investigated. One thing was for sure; depending on the condition of the remains, I was hoping to procure some bones, at least the skull.

What?

Shaddup.

So I went back and there it was. I got sad. It was smaller. Not little, but not full grown. And yes, it was a skunk. I had a feeling we had some skunks take residence somewhere in our back yard because we could smell them. I was honestly hoping they'd come eat at the shelter, but they never did. Apparently there were 2. Now I'm assuming just the one is left. I think this may have been an offspring. Which made me really, really sad. 

I inspected it more and it was actually pretty intact. There was some considerable dessication on the head and paws. But yeah, it fell prey to a predator, or predators. I'm assuming it was the larger tom cats that frequent our back yard. There are a few that I've caught having turf wars back there. Poor baby. They didn't even bother finishing it. The vermin were doing that part at this point.

So, because this baby was still nourishing the earth, I decided against disturbing it with procuring anything until it was ready for me to.

I just couldn't desecrate its little body. The earth wasn't finished with this baby, and it'd be actually fucked up for me to intervene this early out of vanity. So I did the next best thing.

I decided to give it a nicer place to rest and return to the earth in peace with some beauty around it. I walked around our back yard and it wasn't until then that I realized how beautifully these fallen avocado tree leaves shimmer. Almost metalic. Kinda like the metal caskets we have. How fitting. So I scavenged for just the right ones.

Then we needed flowers. Reminded me of Flower, from Bambi. The little skunk. Definitely need flowers. We don't have a lot, so I picked some off of the ones we do have, and scrounged for anything else.

Strays in mind, I asked Mr. Chicken if we had anything I could use to barricade our little friend. He cut me some chicken wire from the garage and I did my best to protect this little baby. I pounded those barbs into the earth as much as I could, and used sticks to anchor the sides down and reinforce the wire.

Today I found out that the remains had been taken. I haven't gone to check myself. I don't need to. I can guess that the strays dislodged everything and took my little buddy.

Sigh. I'm sad. But at the same time, those remains will still nourish something. I just won't get my pickings of bones after the fact. But I have to ask myself why I barricaded the body.

It's true, I wanted to eventually retrieve bones left behind. But I also wanted this little buddy to be left alone and just have peace. It kinda pissed me off how the strays left the body. They didn't even finish what they started, from the looks of it- a horrible way to die. So yeah, I wanted it to have a nice place to rest, undisturbed, until the earth was done with it. Which I know would've taken several weeks, but I was totally cool with that. I think the natural process of how we break down is incredible, because we are still nourishment after death. But anyway. I'm rambling now.

Yeah. I guess I can go look in the morning. At least clean up the chicken wire so no other little critters get trapped in it or something. 

Am I gonna do this stuff with Mung Bean? 
100%
Death is a natural process in all living things. It comes with complex layers, emotionally and environmentally. And Mung Bean will learn to navigate it gracefully and with respect. Mommy will guide her. None of this "morbid curiosity" crap. There's nothing to be curious about. It's all out there full blast on the internet. What we really need is respect and understanding.

And that's my kind of rant. 

:D

Lookit!!

I got more cute mortuary post-its huehuehue. Amanda makes em and they're so cute. And her little note, waaaaahh. She threw in a Turner sticker too AMANDA WHY YU SO CYOO?!!?

If you like mortuary thingies, can grab some cyoo stuff heeeree.

We use so many post-its at work omg. I'm so readyyyy to use these, Mr. Krabs.








Anyway, it's late and I think time to pour one out into a bottle for Mung Bean's 2nd breakfast.

I hope the week brings you reader some good luck, lotta green fun, and excellent chill down time to recline somewhere and just enjoy a quiet moment. Don't take it for granted, haha!

A thousand times good night! ^_^