Peter, Leslie and John

How to Wear Pregnant Lady Out

2011-12-12T08:30:00.000-08:00

I suppose it doesn't take a lot to wear a pregnant lady out. But I've been enjoying so much more energy these days (second trimester, I love you!) that I wonder if this would have worn even Lance Armstrong out.

I go to a playgroup every Thursday morning at 8:30 am. That's early, I know, but we started in the summer when you would spontaneously combust if you were out doors after 10 am. We usually meet at the park. Given the chilly weather lately, coupled with the holiday season being in full swing, I thought it would be fun this past Thursday to take a break from the park and meet at my house to decorate Christmas cookies.

Usually about 5 or 6 of us plus kids will show up to the playgroup. But this week everyone came out! We had 12 moms and 12 toddlers running, sometimes crying, playing, crafting and decorating all over my house! I loved it and from what I could tell, fun was had by all. But, let me tell you, it took me a good two days to recover from this little shin dig. It's not that it was difficult to prepare; all I did was bake some cookies. And the mess afterward was surprisingly less than you might think given the combination of toddlers, icing and sprinkles (though the more I looked around my dining room, the more icing smears I detected!). Nevertheless, the hustle and bustle required several naps to recover.

John before the party started. He still has a cookie in his mouth and he's signing "more."

Decorating snowmen with stickers.

Target has these really great snowmen decorating packages. The snowmen and stickers are foam. Since everyone couldn't decorate cookies at the same time, I was looking for something else that the kids could do that would be simple, cheap and not make an intractable mess. This was the answer! The package cost $5 and stickers are self-explanatory. They did get everywhere but they were perfectly easy to sweep up!

As you can see, some children (ahem, my own) did not quite catch on to the finer points of cookie decorating. But all quickly became proficient at the cookie eating involved! Some of the older ones did enjoy the decorating. One little 2 year old spent at least 15 minutes painstakingly decorating his cookie bite-by-bite.

John did not make it out of his pajamas for the duration of the party. When you expect people at your house at 8:30 am, some things just don't get done! The toilets were clean and the cookies were done! That's what's important!

I used this recipe from i am baker for the sugar cookies and icing. Delicious. I love that blog.

Counting Petal Page

2011-12-10T08:30:00.000-08:00

A little about me: I am Leslie, I have a blog called, creatively, peterandleslie.blogspot.com. Peter, being my husband. Our son, John, is 18 months and we are expecting another baby in April.

I was excited to participate in the quiet book swap because it is such a cute idea. But also because I've been wanting to learn and grow in craftiness (like, arts and crafts, not deception!). I have a sewing machine which I have used but, until recently, was not very comfortable with. I thought that doing this would give me a goal and force me to overcome at least part of the learning curve that I had been using as an excuse for not doing more sewing projects. I'm definitely glad I did it because I do feel much more comfortable with my machine. I can thread it now without having to read the step-by-step instructions each time! I'm by no means an expert (I even attempted to sew on the velcro sticky dots which is a no no!) but I've got the confidence to try more projects. Not to mention, I've got 18 other adorable pages coming my way!

I will say that a good motto for doing something like this is: "Don't forget: it's for 18 month-olds." Meaning, details like perfectly straight seems will not necessarily be appreciated by the target audience. So, have fun!

Materials:
2.5 yards Pellon Peltex 70 ultra firm stabilizer
Pages of stiffened felt: orange (2), light blue (2), yellow (1), green (1)
Sticky velcro dots from Hobby Lobby 75/pack (2) and 15/pack (1)
Miscellaneous: thread, sharpies

Inspiration:
Serving Pink Lemonade
I used the template from this blog, deviating very little. I modified her instructions in that I didn't fuse the felt pieces onto the pellon; I only sewed them. I don't know if fusing would add stability or some other benefit. With 20 pages to make, I was going for the most streamlined process I could manage! I also wrote the numbers onto the flower petals rather than fusing on felt numbers. Again, with 20 pages, I thought that cutting out the numbers for all those petals (160 in all!) would be prohibitively time consuming.

Assembly:

1. Cut the Pellon into 20 8.5 X10 sheets.

2. Trace the individual template pieces (flower petals, stem, flower pot and flower center) onto the stiffened felt and cut out.

3. Sew flower pot, stem and center of flower onto Pellon. The flower pot functions as a pocket, so leave the top open only sewing around the sides and bottom.

4. Trace flower petals around flower center with sharpie

5. Apply velcro sticky dots to each flower petal (soft side of velcro) and within each traced flower petal (rough side of velcro).

6. Write numbers 1-8 on each petal

6. Voila! Finis!

I didn't document the assembly process but here is a picture of the finished product where you can see all the components.

Lessons learned:
Overall, you can't go very wrong with this (I don't think! I'm open to feedback from the other quiet book swappers who might have critiques of my page!). But it would be ideal to use sew-on velcro as the stick-on kind will not hold up very well long-term. I intend to reinforce mine by hand stitching each one on. Had I had more time (much more time!) and resources, I would have used the sew-on velcro. But as it was, that would have been too time consuming and more expensive than the sticky dots.

Since I live out of town, I didn't get to go to the swap in person but I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's work. Here's to (hopefully) many quiet minutes of quiet, well-behaved children exploring their quiet books!

Quiet Book Swap

2011-12-09T11:14:00.000-08:00

I recently participated in a quiet book swap. Here is an explanation of what a quiet book is and here is an explanation of a quiet book swap.

The swap was coordinated by Laura, a blog-friend that I went to A&M with. She asked each of the participants to write a blog post about the making of our quiet book page. Each day she'll be posting on her blog one of those entries which will detail a different page and how it was constructed. There will be 18 in all, plus a post about the cover. It will be kind of like a tutorial for making your own if you ever wanted to do so.

I thought this was a great idea. You'd have to ask Laura how difficult it was to coordinate but if you're inclined, it would be a fun project to do with friends!

I'll post the entry I wrote about my page here tomorrow.

Just so you know, making one of these does require some equipment. Most pages required sewing. But, if you can get your hands on a machine, this is very doable. Another of my friends who participated had never sewn before. She borrowed her mother in law's machine and made an adorable page with a puppy on it!

Also, if you have a baby who's not quite of age to appreciate the activities on these pages, that doesn't mean it's too early to make one if you want to. I've realized that crafty projects like this are much easier before children get mobile! Of course, you can still do them after the kids begin running around like crazy. It just means you just have to carve out time during naps or after bed time. I still try very diligently to nap when the baby naps! So take advantage of the time when you can sit the kids in one place and they can't toddle away to Timbuktu while your head is turned for a split second!

Thanksgiving Tree

2011-11-30T11:11:00.000-08:00

Several years ago a friend of mine posted on her blog about a Thanksgiving tree she'd made. Each day in November she and her family would write something for which they were thankful on a paper leaf and stick it onto the tree. I fell in love with the idea and I knew that I wanted to do something similar when I had kids (though it's not a bad idea for anyone to do whether single, married, childless etc...). There are so many variatio ns of this around the inter webs that you really can't go wrong.

But I wanted to do something that I could do the prep work for one year and then use the pieces year after year. Here is what we ended up with:

Last year I had a family friend from church, who is a carpenter, cut this tree out of plywood. I had intended to use it last November. But, as I was learning at the time, when you have children (or possibly just when you're me) sometimes things that you think will only take you 10 minutes will actually take you a year to get around to (I had this problem before children too so I can't totally blame it on John although he makes for a convenient excuse. ;o) )

This year we stained the tree, Peter installed hooks and I cut out and laminated what seemed like approximately 7,000 leaves, poked holes in them and tied ribbon through the holes. We wrote what we are thankful for on the leaves with dry erase markers so they can be erased and used year after year. If there are any special ones that I'd like to save I can use a permanent marker and put it in a scrapbook.

My goal was to do this each day in November. We got around to it once. (In all fairness we didn't have the tree in working order until about the 15th and then I went out of town on the 21st!) But it's a start! John's still too young to recall any of this so we're having a few practice years!

I have big plans for the tree. I also, in coming years, hope to use it as a resurrection tree leading up to Easter and possibly an advent tree as well.

I'm looking forward to when John will be able to participate more and we don't have to guess what he's most thankful for. Though we did guess for him this year and I'm pretty sure among his top three are his mama, his lovie, and bananas (bananas might be number one but I'm just vain enough to put myself first).

I think this is such a fun way to cultivate thanksgiving and contentment! There are so many things to be thankful for that a leaf for everyday in November wouldn't even begin to cover it!

"But we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise." Ps 79:13

Entertainment for Minutes On End

2011-11-28T08:30:00.000-08:00

I've been combing through the book Slow and Steady Get Me Ready to get ideas for toddler activities. It's a book of weekly preschool activities for children from birth to age 5. There are 260 activities total. Someone gave me the book when John was very young. I have not by any means followed the program week by week. I've done probably less than a dozen of the activities with John. For the last several weeks, though, I've been following the schedule more closely because he's becoming much more interested in simple preschool activities. I've been researching things to keep us busy and out of trouble!

Today, I was pleasantly surprised to find that some common household objects provided John with minutes of endless entertainment (bearing in mind that 15 minutes to an 18 month old is like an hour or more to the rest of us) and, I'd like to think, an opportunity to develop cognitive and motor skills:

Spice Containers

This activity isn't directly from Slow and Steady but since I've been looking through the book, some concepts from it were in my mind. Just marvel at all the things that these spice containers can teach us (or, at least, can teach you if you are an 18 month old):

The containers can demonstrate the concepts of big and little
The tops can demonstrate open and closed
You can practice fine motor skills by opening and closing the lids and also attempting to screw them on
You can match the correct lid to the correct container
You can drop small objects inside, also developing motor skills, while discussing what fits and what doesn't

I mean, really, is there even that much to do at Disney World!?

I started writing this post back on the 18th and since then, he's gone back to these several times to play. I love things like this that are 1) economical, 2) simple, and 3) hopefully developing skills and knowledge.

I feel like a year ago I would have been at a loss to come up with something to do with spice containers to entertain a toddler. And now I'm all, "what can't you do with spice containers?!" It takes a special kind of knowledge to see so many possibilities in a spice container. I don't inherently possess such knowledge but I'm getting better! The best person to be around to develop such an appreciation is John because he's not old and sophisticated enough yet to realize that spice containers aren't spectacular. Maybe he'll never get to that point. Instead I hope he keeps his sense of wonder and curiosity about the world!

18 Months

2011-11-13T21:02:00.000-08:00

Sweet John is 18 months today. (And it also happens to be my mom's 29th birthday! Happy Birthday mom!) I thought that development happened rapidly in the first year but it has continued as quickly this year. I'm constantly amazed at the pace at which he picks up new things. There are too many cute things to mention but here are a few that I can think of at the moment:

He answers "no" to almost every question we ask.

"Did you sleep well?"
"No."

"Are you having fun?"
"No."

This is charming because he shakes his head while smiling so sweetly and he doesn't understand the conversation. I imagine "no" might become more frustrating in the future when there's actual defiance behind it.

Handily, I've already taught him what we say to a crying baby. When asked "what do you say when a baby is crying?", he puts his pointer finger to his lips and replies "shhhhhh." This should be useful come spring.

He's added elephant and monkey to his animal sound repertoire. It's so cute!

He continues to add new words and signs to his vocabulary. I'm so glad that we did baby signs because, though he has started saying words now, he has a much broader vocabulary with the signs. They have been hugely helpful over the past 6 months.

I know there are a ton of things I am forgetting. I sometimes wish that I could videotape his whole life so that I'll remember every little precious thing. I guess that's not really practical but here are two videos that Peter took this weekend. One is of him hobbling in his cast. He just started walking on it this past weekend. The other shows him doing his elephant sound. Enjoy!

P.S. As you will see, the cast has not curtailed his ability to climb in the least!

Update

2011-11-10T20:04:00.001-08:00

Pregnancy:

I've heard that two things happen earlier in your second pregnancy: feeling fetal movement and showing. And both are true for me! I've really enjoyed feeling the baby moving more this early. I don't even think I'd felt John move at this point yet. The fact that strangers have started to ask me when I'm due is also exciting, though about two months ahead of the time when people started to take note that I was pregnant with John. This isn't a bad thing, yet it has me wondering: if I'm two months bigger than I was with John at this point, am I going to end up looking and feeling 48 weeks pregnant by the time this is all over!? Rationally, I don't think things quite work that way. But I'm hoping all my maternity clothes hold out!

John:

Since he got his cast, it's like John has started over in his motor skills development. Last week he could only scoot and roll around, then he started to crawl, now he's pulling up and starting to hobble. Overall he's handling things really well. He hasn't been in pain. The worst part is that he gets frustrated that he can't be as mobile as he'd like and we haven't been going outside much because I don't want him crawling around in the dirt and getting grit inside the cast. Generally he's a happy little camper.

We've been watching way too much tv, however, in lieu of not being able to do much outside. We'll have some habits to break when this month is up! (I have all of the songs on the Baby Signing Time dvd's memorized!)

We attempted a first real bath last Friday and it did not go well! Prior to that I'd just been wiping John down. Friday Peter and I wrapped his cast in plastic bags, ran water in the shower, and attempted to give him a good old-fashioned scrubbing. Also, his hair really needed a washing because it had been smeared with mashed potatoes at a recent meal. I think this was the least fun bath time of John's life. He was miserable because he wanted to play in the water but could not. The plastic bags fell off mid way through and at some point while wrangling a slippery baby, Peter actually thought he might've accidentally broken John's arm (he didn't!). Yet I suppose we can consider it success because it did not result in a trip to the orthopedist to get a wet cast replaced with a dry one.

Food:

I found a good toddler (and mom!) snack. We've been getting some pears from the farmer's market that are very good but hard, like apples. John will eat them but he's not great at it, not having his full complement of teeth and all. He kind of has to shave away at the slices. So, I've been baking the pears with honey and cinnamon on top. Baking them makes them soft enough for John to eat. They're delicious! Like dessert. In fact, if I can convince him that fruit like this is dessert, I will be very happy!

As far as actual desserts, I think I found my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. They're very simple but really good. And there are a lot of variations included in the recipe.

A Not -So-Subtle Announcement

2011-11-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

I made a subtle announcement in this blog post. But only one person commented on it. (You got it, Susie!) So, here's something a little less subtle:

18 weeks pregnant with baby number two and showing a little earlier this time!

Pregnancy FAQ:

Due: April

How am I feeling: Much better now.

Will we find out the gender: No. Well, not until the birthday.

Do I want a boy or girl: Boy. Of course I'd be thrilled with a girl. But John has been such a joy that if he'd been a jellyfish, I'd want another jellyfish. And thank goodness he wasn't a jellyfish because can you imagine carrying around all of that saltwater aquarium equipment?! Peter says he'd be happy either way. We have this conversation all the time:

Me: What do you think it is?
Peter: I don't know, it could be either.
Me: I know but what do you think?!
Peter: sigh

I think it's another boy. And so far I'm 100% on gender predictions in my pregnancies!

The knowledge of this pregnancy was much more sobering than the first one. I was feeling quite discouraged for a while chasing John around while dead tired and sometimes queasy. I questioned how I was ever going to add another child to the mix without ending up in the loony bin- even if I just checked myself in for a nap! These days, the first trimester cloud has lifted, my energy is rebounding and I'm a lot more excited about things. Plus I've noticed that many of my friends have two children (or more) and none of them have had to check themselves into the loony bin. Not even for a nap. Don't get me wrong, I was always thankful and excited about the new baby. But I was doubting my ability to cope with it all. Now that I can make it through the day without either throwing up or having to take a nap, I have a much sunnier outlook!

Incidentally, I want to say that the term "morning sickness" could only have been coined by a man. Someone who had merely theoretical knowledge of such a thing. Mine was never just in the morning and it was worse at night.

We waited longer than I'd anticipated to tell people for various reasons. One was that we could never decide how we wanted to do it (we ended up putting him in his big brother t-shirt and seeing who noticed). After I got a stomach virus at the end of the first trimester, I wanted to go to my next doctor's appointment just to make sure he didn't have any concerns. After waiting all those weeks, we didn't let the baby out of the bag a moment too soon. When the news was out several people informed me that they had noticed that I was getting a gut. And they're very right. Like blowing up a balloon, things give more easily the second time around!

Word Wise Wednesday

2011-11-02T20:09:00.001-07:00

I was recently politely taken to task about my use of the word anyways on this blog. (And, please, do correct me! By all means!) The commenter said that since I'm into correct grammar she was surprised that I was using it. First, let me point out that though I do indeed appreciate correct grammar and often wish I had an excuse to do more sentence diagramming, I do not claim to be good at it! I'm certainly an amateur. I'm like those guys that drink beer, eat junk food and watch every single football game. They're not actually good at football. They just like it. All they can do is yell at the screen, admonishing the players to "focus!," but they have very few, if any, football skills.

Today was the first time I had ever heard that the word anyways might not be proper usage. But it appears to be true. I have not consulted a formal style manual (I actually don't have one and I am too cheap to buy one for the sake of writing occasional grammar posts on my blog, though it would be helpful!) but according to a brief online course through Google U, anyways is a colloquial corruption of anyway. It is considered nonstandard usage and therefore should be avoided. If you are really die hard or having a conversation with an English professor, perhaps you should avoid it altogether. If you're more lax with your grammar you can get by with avoiding it in writing, especially any professional writing. And if you're texting with someone from my sister's peer group, you must, of course, use the tech-savvy generation's spelling: n e way.

I learn something new everyday! And sometimes it's a little embarrassing that I'm just now learning these things. Like when I didn't learn until game 7 of the World Series that St. Louis wasn't in Minnesota! I don't know what I was thinking...

John Decided to be an Invalid for Halloween

2011-10-31T17:58:00.000-07:00

Without consulting with me, John made a last minute costume change from lion:

to invalid:
Maybe he thought he'd get more sympathy and thus more candy. Which ended up being true. Though we had no plans to go trick-or-treating and I did not intend to give him any candy, he did get a lollipop at the pediatric orthopedist's office. So, if this was a clever ploy for sympathy and sweets, I suppose it worked!

Last night we were at a Fall Festival and I put John in the moon bounce which he luuuuuuuvs. However this time, the results were less than fun. He fell. He wasn't bounced upon by other kids, he just fell and started crying. I pulled him out but he wouldn't readily calm down. Not even when offered a banana which usually mollifies all of his problems. It took a good 40 minutes to soothe him. Meanwhile he was grasping at his right shin and was unable to bear weight on it.

At this point we were contemplating an ER visit. Thankfully we called our pediatricians' office and spoke to the doctor on call. He advised us that if we could get John comfortable enough to sleep, we should do that and make an office visit in the morning. Best advice ever. I'm so glad we didn't spend the night in the ER. Of course, if John hadn't calmed down we would have gone. But he was able to sleep most of the night. He did wake up a few times and I went in once around 3 am to give him more Ibuprofen. During which time he asked to eat and read a book. So, even though the pain probably woke him up, he wasn't suffering badly enough to dampen his interest in making farm animal sounds.

This morning he still couldn't bear weight on his right leg although he was feeling much better. He couldn't walk but he wasn't fussy. He was able to move his right leg without pain which he couldn't do the night before. Even though he couldn't bear weight, he seemed so happy that I considered waiting longer to go in to the pediatrician's office. I reasoned that maybe it would just continue to improve. But Peter thought we should go so we got an appointment for 9:10 am. I'm so glad we got an early one because we spent most of the day visiting doctors. It turns out that he has a spiral fracture in his right tibia and will be in a cast for the next four weeks. Poor baby! He was so good today through it all. He is the happiest patient you will ever see. He waves at everyone and smiles and asks people for snacks. He only ever fussed when someone was examining his leg.

I don't really know what to expect over the next four weeks. I don't know how mobile he will be. He can't walk now which is frustrating for him. I think he'll adapt but I don't really know how much we'll be able to do. This will be a huge change for such an active boy and for me- the mother of a very active toddler.

Here is what I've learned about Toddler's Fractures for anyone who might one day find themselves in a similar situation:

John's specific type of fracture is a common occurrence referred to as a Toddler's Fracture. As the name suggests, John's age group is prone to them. They can occur after seemingly benign falls, which John's was. I am a little surprised to be dealing with fractures before he's even two years old. But apparently it's not unusual and not an indication of anything more serious.

A fracture is not necessarily an emergency. Of course, when we made the choice not to go to the ER, we didn't necessarily know that there was a fracture. We knew there was the possibility of one. But if you can calm the child down and make him reasonably comfortable there's no reason to rush to the ER. I only say this because Peter and I were ready to go thinking that a fracture needs to be taken care of immediately. Some fractures are urgent but if the child can rest and be comfortable then you can probably wait until morning to be evaluated. If you can avoid an ER visit, that seems like the better choice! Spending the night in the ER is nearly dead last on the list of things I'd like to do.

That said, if a child cannot bear weight after a few hours, he will need to be seen and X-rays will need to be done. I was contemplating waiting longer before going to the pediatrician after he seemed to be doing better this morning. But according to our doctor if they can't bear weight within a few hours of an injury, you should make an appointment.

I'll keep you updated! Hopefully this will not be the first of many trips to the pediatric orthopedist. But with a rambunctious boy, is that wishful thinking?

Fall Recipes and Photos

2011-10-30T18:38:00.000-07:00

I always get so excited about Fall cooking (mainly baking). Last year I had a whole list of new things to try but I didn't make any of my old favorites. So, I thought that this year I'd try to make my favorites and cool it on trying new things. No such luck! I haven't gone crazy with new recipes but the itch is there and the lineup is in my mind. Anyways, here are two I've tried so far:

Pumpkin Cranberry muffins- These were delicious but sweet. Next time I plan to use whole wheat flour and cut down a bit on the sugar.

Pumpkin Cornmeal muffins- With these I did cut down on the sugar, which I won't do next time. They have a really nice flavor but they're a little bland! I might cut down on the sugar for John's muffins but not for mine!

I've been making mini muffins for John. They're easy on busy mornings!

Another Fall love of mine is pumpkin patches. John and I have been making the rounds from San Antonio to Louisiana (I did not go to SA or Louisiana just for the pumpkin patches, however. I am not so die hard. We were visiting family.) Last year taking pictures was so easy when John couldn't even sit up unassisted and had to be propped up by the pumpkins. This year is a different story. I have to take 1,000 pictures of that little rascal to get one where he's sitting still!

I'm going to try to photoshop my sister's arm out of this one. (Nothing against you, aunt Di di!)

Don't you just love that pumpkin orange color?! It's one of my favorites!

Not a pumpkin patch picture, but I'm throwing this one in for free!

Word Wise Wednesday Even Though I Know It's Friday

2011-10-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday night after my Bible study, I could be found lurking around an empty parking lot taking grainy photos with my phone. What could I have been doing? Only documenting the downfall of our society (at least grammatically speaking)! People, this is what the world is coming to. In the future, our children will have no idea what a plural possessive is and here is evidence:

This establishment purports to be an academy. Could the irony be any more palpable?

And there's this gem:
Due to the poor quality, you probably can't read the slogan of this "academy" posted on their van: Learning Begins Here. I hope it doesn't end there because I think some things will be lacking!

Am I mission something? I almost can't believe that it would get to the point of hanging a huge neon sign without someone proofreading.

17 Months

2011-10-13T17:50:00.000-07:00

John is 17 months today. It's hard for me to even think about what kind of things he's doing these days because just picturing him makes me want to take a nap. He's very busy! But he's so sweet and affectionate and smart. I'm grateful Peter puts in the long hours to support John's and my bon bon-eating lifestyle. I'm glad I can be home with him for these fleeting baby years that I'm sure I'll look back on wondering how they passed so quickly.

I think he's started saying a few words. I say "I think" because I don't think anyone else would recognize them as words. But I suppose we don't start out life with the elocution of Shakespearean actors. His vocabulary includes: No, night night, go, uh-oh, and Moe- the name of our neighbors' dog. Apparently Moe is really someone special for John because he says Moe and he doesn't even say Mama or Dada!

"Uh-oh" occasionally provides appropriate commentary to my blunders around the house. When I broke a plate, for example, he declared: "Uh-oh!" He also will sometimes give himself away when he's doing something he's not supposed to be doing by saying "no." I was cleaning this week and moved a lamp to the edge of the table so I could clean underneath it. I told him not to touch it, then I heard him saying "no, no, no." I looked over and he was doing exactly what I had told him not to do!

He's added more signs. He does: More, please, down, thank you, hot, eat, banana, apple, cereal, all done. He might do a few more that I can't recall at the moment.

He loves to read books, often bringing them to me and then plopping in my lap. He has his favorites that we read ad infinitum. And he has some that he just won't sit through. He loves to throw balls and to climb. He also loves firetrucks and construction vehicles; he points them out when we're driving.

He has now started correctly identifying the parts of his face. He also knows toes and belly button- belly button being his favorite body part to point out.

When we're standing in front of a mirror and I say "where's a handsome boy?" he'll point to himself! I taught him that. Perhaps this is breeding an inflated ego? But I'm only teaching him the truth! Here are some pictures. Sorry for the poor quality. They were all taken with my phone:

Now this is what I'm talking about! He loves vacuum cleaners and brooms. Here he is with a toy vacuum I bought him. But, soon, very soon, I'm going to transition him to real cleaning tools and then: goodbye housework! Hello free maid service!

Chillaxing in the cart at Target

Banana Monster
He loves bananas. When he sees them at the grocery store, I occasionally get him one if he's being particularly adamant.

No Sick Days For Moms

2011-10-05T17:54:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to get on here and explain my recent, unplanned, blogging hiatus. I wanted to post, I had ideas! I just couldn't make it happen. We've had a rough month or so. Actually, things didn't really get rough until this Monday.

Peter has been logging some long hours. Last month he would usually come home for dinner but then he'd have a few more hours of work to do on the computer. Thus, during my normal uninterrupted computer times, the computer has been occupied for the past month.

Last week John got sick. A stomach bug. The way everything went down, including the moment he unleashed his projectile vomit, was eerily similar to the way it happened at his first birthday. For those who aren't familiar with the first birthday story: he vomited all over me just as we were sitting down to eat at his party (thankfully this time I escaped the regurgitated deluge). Then everyone staying at my mother's house ended up being violently ill; 6 of us all jockeying for position over the toilet for a memorable 12 hours.

So, I was immediately scared that the same horrible sickness was going to strike down Peter and I and everyone at Black Eyed Pea that night (where John threw up). As the week went on, I thought we'd escaped it. We hunkered down for a few days. John recovered and the weekend was mostly great. Except Sunday night I didn't feel so well.

Monday, I was vomiting all day. This, in itself, while not fun, is not highly unusual and might not have been so upsetting to me except for the fact that this week Peter's work schedule has been outrageous. He took Monday morning off. But he went in for the afternoon and the whole team had to stay until 9 pm to finish seeing the teems of patients at the clinic. This left me with John Monday afternoon which was probably a mistake because that wore me out. Regardless, we discovered that Peter cannot easily miss work. Tuesday a saint from my church took John from 7:30 am to 2 pm. Literally, I believe this woman is the reason I was able to get out of bed today. So I slept yesterday morning and had John yesterday afternoon again. I felt better yesterday, I wasn't nauseous but I was so tired. Walking from my bed to the bathroom made me feel like I needed a nap.

Overall things went pretty well, though. I even felt well enough to go out and get some chicken noodle soup for dinner. Which I ate and kept down for a while. But in the evening things fell apart. Peter didn't get home again until after nine. I wasn't sure that my energy level would ever rebound enough to take care of my highly energetic toddler. I was making phone calls to loved ones in tears mostly trying to enlist help for this weekend when Peter will be on call. I finally erupted into sobs which led to me throwing up all my chicken noodle soup!

I felt so desperate and discouraged mostly because it seemed like Peter can never take off work. Which isn't totally true. He technically can but it puts a huge burden on his colleagues. As I mentioned above, they all had to stay until late in the evening when he took off Monday morning. In my mind I felt the weight of the next three years of residency, and possibly beyond, thinking "I can't get sick for the next three years! Nothing can go wrong for three years!" I was just at the end of my rope. Clearly there were some sickness and fatigue induced histrionics involved. But all I could see last night was me having to care for John by myself everyday for the next three years having my big pink vomit bowl at the ready for heaving into (I have indeed been carrying around such a bowl. It works well for me because I'm not great at making it to the toilet or trash can.).

Today was so much better! I can't even explain how much better. Even though I'm not feeling 100%, the fog of tiredness and illness has lifted. It's amazing what that can do for one's outlook! Compared to last night it's as if I came out of a coma. The difference is night and day. I now realize it was a little dramatic of me to assume I would never have any energy again. But in my exhausted, nauseated stupor, I couldn't imagine how I would ever regain it. Today, I could actually walk to the bathroom without feeling like I needed to lay down. I had the energy to play with John. Things are back in a more normal perspective.

Anyways, God has been very gracious to us with our health, for which I am very thankful. It must be obvious that I don't usually get sick when one little stomach bug sends me into a tailspin of desperate tears. I'm thankful for our health and for the church. Another family from church was willing to take John this afternoon if I needed it. I didn't have to take them up on it but it's a huge blessing to have people to turn to in times of need. And I'm also thankful for big pink bowls. Seriously, usually when I get sick I have to clean up my own vomit from the floor, or wherever I throw up when I don't make it to the bathroom. My vomit bowl solved the problem!

Now He's All Business

2011-09-17T18:40:00.000-07:00

We gave John his first, long overdue, haircut last night. He had grown quite a mullet which was garnering frequent comments. So, we finally cut his hair last night and I surprised myself by becoming nostalgic and saying things like:

"John look at all your beautiful hair! We're cutting off all of John's beautiful hair!"

Now, post hair cut, he looks so old to me! Old meaning like a little boy and less like a baby. But he does look much more clean cut. I didn't quite realize the extent of the mullet until we had cut it off.

Party in the back

Post haircut

After a cut and style by Peter

Peter may have missed his calling as a barber. He does his own haircuts and they always look smashing. As does John's, as you can see.

This has nothing to do with mullets, but we babysat the other night for a friend's baby who is a week younger than John. Aren't they cute?

We had fun, but I'm definitely glad that I don't have twins. My mother in law had her oldest child and then a set of twins 17 months apart. She had 3 under 2! Now that I have one 16 month old who runs me ragged daily, I really think anyone who can make it through 3 under 2 should be President or get a Nobel prize or something, right?

The Trouble With Mom Hearing

2011-09-12T08:30:00.000-07:00

Over Labor Day Weekend we visited our families in San Antonio. One of my goals was to sleep until I woke up naturally at least one day while Peter got up with John. This posed some challenges because Peter could sleep through a gun fight and will never hear John crying when he wakes up. I, on the other hand, will be aroused by the sound of air particles circulating through space.

I hear everything! I hear those O2 particles colliding! I may be exaggerating a little bit. But I've heard a few people talk about "mom hearing": the idea that after they've had kids they're attune to every little bump in the night (or day). I don't know if this phenomenon actually has to do with becoming a mother. It's possible that there just weren't nearly so many things to hear in the middle of the night before I had a baby. But I do feel like my sleep has gotten much lighter as I've grown older.

Anyways, our challenge in San Antonio wasn't resolved very successfully. One night I put ear plugs in hoping that when John cried loud enough in the morning Peter, or someone else in the house, would hear it and get up with him. This worked! Peter did hear John and I didn't! But then Peter said "John's awake," which I did hear since Peter was right next to me. Then after that, even with ear plugs in, I was awake and I could hear John squawking downstairs, which he customarily does when his food is not forthcoming at a pace he approves of. I could hear this despite the fact that John was at the other end of the house and I had earplugs in.

Has anyone else experienced the "mom hearing"? I suppose acute senses are something to be grateful for. Maybe one day it will save us from a disaster like a mudslide. I think I could probably hear mud creeping down a hill. I only wish that I had a portable soundproof booth for those moments when I really don't need to hear anything.

Poop All Day

2011-09-10T08:30:00.000-07:00

John poops all day long. 3,4,5, times. Often it's a very small amount. But when he has these episodes, I'm washing his bottom and giving him "dry time" all day long in an effort to keep the diaper rash at bay. It's more of a nuisance than anything. But, if I could do something to avoid having to change that many dirty diapers, I'd say "bring it on!"

I mentioned this to our pediatrician who did not seem concerned. He asked about John's diet and seemed to think things were okay there. So, at the end of last week a friend of mine mentioned that her daughter was going all day long and that they'd taken her off dairy and that she seemed to improve. So, I tried it with John. This is only day three but there has been a marked decrease in poop. I'm giving him lactaid milk and I've cut out other dairy. But he has better days and worse days regarding BM's so it's too early to tell if no dairy is the solution.

I don't think he has a true lactose intolerance. He's never acted like his stomach is upset, or thrown up. It's just the poop. I'm hoping that this is a phase that he will grow out of. I understand that many children have trouble with whole milk and dairy initially but eventually become able to digest it. But that's my question: if you have kids, or have spent a lot of time with kids, is pooping all day a normal phase for some kids? Does it stop? Has anyone had my experience with cutting out dairy?

We're not thinking about potty training just yet but my mother-in-low pointed out that it would be very difficult to do with John's frequency. I agree! I'm hoping things slow down within the next 9 months to a year- intestines wise, that is!

I'll tell you what, I'm excited about having more kids. I've loved every phase John has been through from newborn sugar lump to never-stops-moving toddler. But I do look forward to the day, if it ever comes again, when the only behind I have to wipe is my own!

Mensa, here we come

2011-09-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

John is technically speech delayed, I was informed at his 15 month appointment. Technically, but not really. Sort of but not exactly. He doesn't say any words (not even Mama, Dada). But he does signs which my pediatrician said some people count as words. Apparently some research has been done that suggests that the same parts of the brain are active when speaking as when signing.

Despite this, Peter and I (who are not biased) have decided that John is headed straight for Mensa. If fact, I'm surprised that they haven't called requesting his membership.

He can now do three animal sounds. He does his lion (which I posted a video of a few weeks ago), and now he can do snake and owl.

He also can correctly identify his head and belly. (Any other body part you ask him about, he will just point to his mouth.)

He's also started doing two more signs: "hot", and "thank you."

We are so impressed with our boy and truly believe he is a genius! Strangely enough, I briefly looked at the Mensa website and they didn't list animal sounds or correctly identifying body parts as part of their requirements. There must be some mistake.

Regarding the speech delay, I'm feeling pretty laid back about it. I know he's understanding things. I know of plenty of kids who didn't speak until closer to two who are now doing just fine for themselves (Peter being one example). The longer I'm a parent (which, admittedly hasn't been very long) the more skeptical I am of those milestone charts. They serve their purpose, I guess, but there's such a huge variety of normal that I think they can also plant little seeds of paranoia.

In my super-laid-back parenting attitude, I don't want to overlook an actual problem. So the plan is to wait until 18 months and then get an Early Childhood Intervention referral if we need it. Which, I will happily do. It's free and it can't hurt. And maybe it would help. I'm serious about getting him into Mensa.

Here, I should post a picture of John. But I've been remiss at taking photos lately because he never sits still!

International Literacy Day: August Books

2011-09-08T20:12:00.000-07:00

So, apparently today is International Literacy Day. In honor, I'm going to review my August books. Oddly enough, I meant to post about August books a few days ago on National Read A Book Day. I promise I don't make a habit of memorizing all of these National/International Days on the calendar, somehow I just happen to notice them! Anyways, how apropos to discuss books today! Though, literacy is en vogue everyday, no? Here goes:

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

This was okay, not great. I didn't really get into it. It's a mystery detective series set between WWI and WWII, Maisie Dobbs is the detective. I just didn't find the ending very believable or the mystery super absorbing.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua- Audiobook

This was a book club book and, sadly, I did not get to attend the meeting. I was disappointed because this book certainly sparks discussion. It's a memoir about the superiority of Chinese parenting. The writer is a little over-the-top and, at times, I found her to be downright cruel in her parenting. But I loved this book because she had some very valid criticisms of Western Parenting, I thought. Very interesting perspective!

The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer

I read this in college and remembered really liking it. I read it again last month for my church's book club. I still really liked it, though it was more brain-muddling than I remembered. There was a lot of profound stuff that I'm still mulling over. It's a short read but not necessarily easy or quick!

Word Wise Wednesday

2011-08-31T19:34:00.000-07:00

This might be my last WWW post. It's been fun. But I'm running out of ideas. And I feel like, with my limited time to write, I'm only writing about punctuation or grammar lately.

We'll see. Even with my limited knowledge, I continue to be devoted to correct punctuation and grammar (though, I'm sure I'm often ignorant of correct usage). Even in text messages! But my initial mission of wanting to rid the world of grammar abusers might have been overly ambitious. (That wasn't really my mission, I guess, but it does make me so sad to read the horrendous English that people post on facebook these days.)

Also, I have to return Eats, Shoots and Leaves back to the library. Surprisingly enough, I've been able to renew it a few times. No one else had put a hold on it! Imagine that! You really should read it.

Anyways, I definitely wanted to cover the colon which Lynn Truss illuminated beautifully for me:

"Expectation is what these stops (punctuation marks) are about; expectation and elastic energy. Like internal springs, they propel you forward in a sentence towards more information, and the essential difference between them is that while the semicolon lightly propels you in any direction related to the foregoing, the colon nudges you along lines already subtly laid down." pg 100

" A colon is nearly always preceded by a complete sentence, and in its simplest usage it rather theatrically announces what is to come. Like a well-trained magician's assistant, it pauses slightly to give you time to get a bit worried, and then efficiently whisks away the cloth and reveals the trick complete." pg 103

As an example she gives the following sentence punctuated in three ways:

"Tom locked himself in the shed. England lost to Argentina."

Above, these may or may not be related. Just two facts in the past tense.

"Tom locked himself in the shed; England lost to Argentina."

The semicolon conveys that these sentences are related, yet not necessarily in a causal fashion. We can't be sure that Tom locked himself in the shed because England lost to Argentina. These two things could simply be on a list of things "that really got on the nerves of someone else. 'It was a terrible day, Mum: Tom locked himself in the shed; England lost to Argentina; the rabbit electrocuted himself by biting into the power cable of the washing machine.'" pg 112

"Tom locked himself in the shed: England lost to Argentina"

The colon makes it crystal clear. Tom locked himself in the shed because England lost to Argentina.

I thought this was a fabulous example of punctuation usage and also how various marks can influence the interpretation of a sentence. Hopefully you will find it equally helpful!

Recipes!

2011-08-30T17:40:00.000-07:00

I recently tried a new recipe: Blackened Tilapia Baja Tacos
This was delicious. The only thing is that it should probably be accompanied by some sides to make it more filling. I just made the tacos and I thought we'd have leftovers but we ate them all. Peter ate 5. John also gobbled this up.

I also finally made the Blueberry Cheesecake that I'd been wanting to make since we picked blueberries in June. It was delicious. Though I don't quite know if it will go on my list of favorite cheesecakes to make. It didn't knock my socks off.

Finally, I would like to share a quote with you that was spoken by my dear husband this past weekend:

"I just can't get enough of these British country living shows!"

This he uttered completely of his own accord. I suppose I should preface by saying that we started watching a series on Netflix called Downton Abbey. It is part of the PBS Masterpiece Classic series. We became absorbed. It is set, as you might have guessed, at an English country estate on the eve of WWI. It is a delicious drama about the ruling class, their servants and all of the social mores that that simultaneously keep them divided and make them necessary to each other.

It was so good and well done! The last episode left us unusually cliff-hanging. So, we searched and found that there's a series two coming in the fall.

All that to say, this is one of the reasons that I love Peter! He's also partial to Jane Austen (more British country living stories). Not to detract from his manhood, I should say that he's also a fan of the Bourne trilogy. (But really, is it not a truth universally acknowledged that a man (single or otherwise) in possession of a good intellect must be partial to Jane Austen?)

Word Wise Wednesday: The Semicolon Revisited

2011-08-24T19:25:00.000-07:00

If you never properly grasped the correct usage of the semicolon or colon in school it might have been because your English teacher was really there to coach volleyball. But it might also be because many, many people debate correct usages. Many famous and talented authors use, even idolize, those marks. Others, equally famous and talented, think that their use will precipitate the end of the world. So, if you never gained proper command of them, it may just be because no one else ever has either. Or, rather, the usage regarding such punctuation is extravagantly subjective. It seems one of the only consistencies in the English language is that someone is always arguing over one point or another.

That said, I thought that Lynn Truss gave such a clarifying explanation of these two marks in Eats, Shoots & Leaves that I'd like to write about them here.

I've already written that you should use a semicolon when connecting a list separated by commas and you may use it to connect two related, complete clauses. Those are the technical rules.

A more nuanced idea explained Truss is that the semicolon should convey expectation:

"The semicolon tells you that there is still some question about the preceding full sentence; something needs to be added... The period tells you that that is that; if you didn't get all the meaning you wanted or expected, anyway you got all the writer intended to parcel out and now you have to move along. But with the semicolon there you get a pleasant feeling of expectancy; there is more to come; read on; it will get clearer. " pg 100

Another quote:

"The semicolon has been rightly called 'a compliment from the writer to the reader'. And a mighty compliment it is, too. The sub-text of a semicolon is, 'Now this is a hint. The elements of this sentence, although grammatically distinct, are actually elements of a single notion. I can make it plainer for you- but hey! You're a reader! I don't need to draw you a map!' By the same token, however, an over-reliance on semicolons- to give an air of authorial intention to half-formed ideas thrown together on the page- is rather more of a compliment than some of us care to receive." pg 108

I've really found my study of the semicolon very fascinating. I have learned that the use of the semicolon is really an art form and that punctuation can be nearly as important as word choice and syntax. I'm happy to have learned this. Yet, I know my limits. Punctuation may be an art form and, unfortunately, most of us aren't going to be Picasso. Actually, I don't even aspire to be that guy painting trees on PBS. But one day I would like to write a novel. It's on my "bucket list," you could say. I figure that at least knowing how to use a semicolon is a small step in the right direction. And if the novel doesn't work out, I'll at least be able to drive my children to become math majors with my ruthless editing of their papers.

Next week, the colon!

John the Lion

2011-08-23T18:35:00.000-07:00

Peter recently got a new camera with video capabilities! Here's a short video of some of John's tricks.

On Sunday he learned to roar. I'm trying to teach him that roaring is what a lion says.

A friend was over Sunday and I was explaining to her how John learned to roar.

"Peter was changing John's diaper and..."

"... growling at John?" She questioned.

"...yes. I suppose that is what happened." I said.

For some reason it sounded awfully strange as I started to explain it but, there you have it. Peter was roaring while changing John's diaper and John imitated it. Is that unorthodox diaper- changing behavior?

You can also see John answering other simple questions and doing the signs for down and more.

Word Wise Wednesday

2011-08-17T18:15:00.000-07:00

This post is the story of how I lost all faith in the public school system. Okay, that's a little overly dramatic. I haven't lost all faith in the public school system. Just most of it. And it wasn't all lost because of this episode either. But it is true that I have had this chip on my shoulder for the last 10 years.

Enormity. Do you know what it means? If you don't, you're in good company that includes ivy league educated presidents and English teachers alike. Aparantly no one knows what it means except a few devoted "wordies" around the web that like to make lists of the most commonly misused words in the English language and people like me who have had the meaning etched into my memory because of a bad experience in high school. So that makes 10 of us.

When I was writing papers in high school, much like I do today, I often scoured the thesaurus to see if I could find more sophisticated words to use beyond my everyday vocabulary which, these days, consists of mostly the phrase: "John, no!" (You can see how writing would quickly become limited with only those words at my disposal!)

So, I knew that when I used the word enormity in a paper in 10th grade that I was describing some monstrous evil. Yes, it means monstrous evil. I can see why people might think that it means enormous. The two words share some of the same letters. And, according to dictionary.com com, one of its meanings is enormous. So, I can see where people might be confused.

This is another raging debate in the word world. Some only acknowledge the definition "monstrous evil" (and those in that camp are quite vehement). Some acknowledge both meanings. Most neither know nor care. But if you're like my high school English teacher you think that it only means huge and you shame young high school students who may have a bigger vocabulary than you.

So, that's what happened I was shamed in front of the entire class for using a word correctly! It was a very quiet day in class where everyone was writing. The details are fuzzy now so many years later. But I found myself at her podium flabbergasted that she was so loudly critiquing my paper and word choices in front of my peers who, of course, were all listening intently! Could she not have used an inside voice?

But really, the critique is not what bothers me so much. What really gets my goat is that she thought that enormity means huge. Well, it might mean that, though, I contend, and I am not alone, that that is not its primary meaning. But some words in the English language have more than one meaning! And thank goodness for that! So, when I said that John had tears running down his face, you don't jump to the conclusion that he's been mauled by a bear and will require extensive reconstructive surgery! Because tears and tears (rips) are different! Even though they're the same! My point is, should she not have known that words can have more than one meaning?! And, I daresay, shouldn't she have known the definition of enormity, being an English teacher?! And, I'll acknowledge, no one can know what every word means, so maybe if she couldn't know the definition, shouldn't she have at least been less enthusiastic in her criticism when I was maintaining that I knew what it meant?! Do they just let anyone off the street teach high school English?

And that's why I'll never forget the definition of that word. It's a pity that there really aren't very many opportunities to use it in everyday conversation. I suppose I could say: "John, it's an enormity to disobey your mama!"

National Breastfeeding Month

2011-08-15T18:13:00.000-07:00

This time last year I wrote a post during National Breastfeeding Month; John was on his way to becoming the biggest 4 month old in the world courtesy of mama's milk (since that's all he was eating at the time.)!

These days he's no longer the largest baby in the world. And while I did enjoy having a huge chunk of a baby, I suppose it's a good thing for him to level off the growth charts. I'm sure it's awfully hard to buy pants when you're the largest boy in the world.

Anyways, I was reminded about National Breastfeeding Month again yesterday when I came across this article.

The article discusses that many hospitals don't give women practical support for nursing. I worked at a hospital whose policies were downright antagonistic to breastfeeding, I thought. The babies had to be taken to the nursery within an hour of birth. It was very difficult to do all of the post-birth things, let the mother and father and family hold the baby, take pictures etc, etc, etc and nurse the baby all in one hour. The babies remained in the nursery for at least 4 hours. It is totally unnecessary for healthy babies to be away from their mothers for that long. I will never work at a place like that again if I can help it.

Anyways, this got me thinking about what I would tell a new mom who planned to breastfeed. So, I'm sending this unsolicited advice over the interwebs for anyone who might be interested:

1) Educate yourself

Don't count on your OB/pediatrician/nurses/lactation consultants to have the information that you need. OB's and pediatricians are not necessarily experts on lactation. As for nurses, frankly, when I was a nurse working in labor and delivery, most of the girls I worked with, myself included, had never nursed a baby. When patients asked for my help, I could only regurgitate what I had read. Lactation consultants are a great resource but may not always be available. When I was in the hospital with John I was eager to speak to one. She came by when I was in the shower and never returned. Hopefully the medical professionals who are involved with the labor, delivery and care of the baby will be helpful to nursing mothers, but that doesn't mean you should go in unprepared. Educating yourself also means finding out what kind of policies the hospital has in place for you and the baby after birth. For example, contrary to the hospital where I worked, the hospital where I delivered John was very friendly to nursing mothers. The babies did not ever have to be away from their mothers after birth. John did have to go to the nursery because his glucose was low. But parents could go into the nursery. Peter and I gave him his first bath there. And after his blood sugar rose to normal, he returned and stayed with me the whole time, and I nursed for what seemed like 48 hours straight (It was all kind of a blur).

2) Know your community resources

When you leave the hospital, know where you can turn when you encounter challenges. In my opinion, the greatest resources are other nursing mothers. La Leche League has consultans that you can call. I did call one of them once. They also have meetings where you can meet other moms. I believe you can also make appointments with lactation consultants at the hospital where you delivered, depending on the hospital's policy, I guess. This was true where I delivered John.

3) Give it time

Even though nursing was pretty easy for me, there was an adjustment phase. It definitely got easier as he became more alert and his feedings spaced out. But this took about 1 month to 6 weeks.

There is a way in which breastfeeding is very natural, as in that is the way it is done in nature. Yet, it's actually a learned behavior for both mom and baby, and for many it does not come "naturally." For me, breastfeeding actually did come very easily. But even I had my challenges.

One thing I often heard was that breastfeeding should not hurt. Well, okay. In my experience it wasn't excruciating but it wasn't comfortable either. The first month was a big adjustment. That's part of the reason I sought out a lactation consultant while I was in the hospital after having John. Thankfully though, I had read so many books that I was confident that he was latching on well so we kept going and things eventually improved. These helped with the soreness.

Later on, he had some reflux. He would cry and arch his back and wouldn't nurse. My pediatrician was able to help with this issue.

And finally at around 2.5 or 3 months, John started to have more input into his feedings. At first I timed him 30 minutes (15 on each side) so that I made sure he had long enough to get adequate milk, including hind milk. Around 3 months, he wouldn't nurse that long and he also wouldn't nurse as frequently as I had been initiating feedings. This wasn't a problem, per se, but it was an adjustment and I didn't really know how to take it at first. I wanted to make sure that he was getting enough but I couldn't force him to eat. This was when I called a la leche league person.

All that to say, even when it's easy, you don't always know what's going on! But being prepared and knowing who you can go to for help certainly makes a difference. After nursing for 15 months (I just weaned him about a week ago), I can say I had an incredibly positive experience! There is nothing sweeter than holding a soft baby so close. And once they start moving, feeding time might be the only cuddle time you get!

Fat Lip

2011-08-13T15:40:00.000-07:00

John with a fat lip

John is 15 months today. I think it was a good day for him. Though there was an episode in the middle when he fell flat on his face while running at top speed (top speed for him) and busted his bottom lip, which you can see in the picture above.

Speaking of running at top speeds, the boy never stops. He never sits down. He is so very busy! It is exhausting just watching him! But this is a very fun age (as usual, I always say that.) He continues to improve his motor skills: he runs, climbs, stomps his feet, claps his hands, spins around, throws a ball. He loves to put things in other things and then take them out.

Still no verbal words but he's signs "more," "down," and "please." I'm not concerned about the lack of words because I know he understands a lot. When asked "how old are you?" he holds up his pointer finger. When asked "where is your head?" or "did you bump your head (which he often does)?" he pats his head. He can follow commands like "sit down," "go get a book," "put such and such into such and such."

Responding to "how old are you?"

Responding to "Where's your head?" in quite a dramatic fashion

Though he is lengthening out and getting skinny, he still loves to eat. Fruit is his favorite: peaches, melon, berries, bananas. He loves fruit. He will eat veggies with some coaxing. He also likes eggs and cheese. But he'll eat just about anything.

He still takes two naps, one at 10 am and one at 3 pm (I love this). He goes to bed at 8 pm. He now has a "lovie," pictured above. He's had that little thing in his crib since he was born along with a few other small toys. But he's recently shown a preference for that particular one. He carries it around while sucking his thumb.

He also loves to stand on that footstool that you can see above. Today Peter dubbed it the "death stool" because it frequently topples over. He has yet to hurt himself (and I really don't think he will hurt himself, it's like a foot off the ground...). I just asked Peter if we should admit on this blog that we let our son climb onto and topple off of a "death stool." He replied that his parents let their children do it. This stool used to be at his grandparents' house. When they would visit, all the kids would climb on and fall off. So the death stool is an established Ness Family Tradition and we must respect tradition! Besides they all turned out okay (most of them).

Word Wise Wednesday: Punctuation Never Looked So Cute

2011-08-10T19:33:00.000-07:00

I just got back today from San Antonio. I originally went for my 10 year (!) high school reunion last weekend, but ended up staying for longer than I had originally planned. I was keeping my mom company while my jet-setting sister flew off to soak up some sun in Miami. I am worn out! I don't know why. It's not like I was super busy or anything, but travel always seems exhausting. I hope to write about my reunion soon. I'm so glad I went. But for now I'll leave you with this:

This is the dress I almost bought to wear to the reunion. It is a dress from a website called Modcloth and guess what it's called? Declarative Imperative! It's basically a dress of periods, people! Or, as they say in England, full stops. How fun is that?! I bet you didn't know that punctuation was so fashionable. Here's the description of the dress online:

"Although all punctuation marks certainly fill irreplaceable roles in structure, the most hard-working of all must be the full stop. Parsing out paragraphs into digestible chunks of information or adding. extra. emphasis. for effect, these simple dots tirelessly devote themselves to enhancing our understanding. In their honor, you've decided to festoon yourself in a flock of full stops fancifully frolicking on this fetching frock. Although some may favor the flashiness of exclamations and others may prefer the ambiguity of the interrogative, you prefer elegant simplicity. You'll be making just the right statement in this declaratory dress. Period."

Though this might possibly be the perfect dress for me, in the end I didn't buy anything new because I am cheap. Actually, I wore a skirt that I bought in high school. I think that skirt is about 12 years old. Gotta love vintage!

Word Wise Wednesday: Semicolon. Let's be honest; you don't know how to use one.

2011-08-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

The idea for this little grammarrific series that I'm trying to do came to me one day when I was consulting dictionary.com. They had an article discussing the "maddening and mysterious" semicolon.

Truly, it is maddening and mysterious. Some think it is superfluous in our punctuation lexicon. Others think that its use, when mastered, elevates writing to new heights. I suppose I am more apt to agree with the latter. However, I'm not one of those people who can use the semicolon masterfully. Perhaps one day.

There was one semester in college in which I thought that I thoroughly understood the semicolon. Consequently, I eschewed all other forms of punctuation and composed papers using the semicolon almost exclusively. Needless to say, I unwittingly proved to several proof readers that I understood it not at all.

So, when venturing into the nebulous universe of semicolon usage, I think a good guideline is this: You don't have to use it. Unlike the comma or period, it is never necessary. So don't use it unless you're certain that it's correct. You might even want to refrain unless you can be sure that it adds something to your writing.

Now, for those of us that yearn to unlock the mystery of the semicolon and harness its powers for the betterment of mankind through skillful punctuation, let's start easy:

I think the most simple and easy-to-remember way to use a semicolon is when listing items that are separated by comas. This is perhaps the only case where you must use it. But it's very easy to use in this situation.

For example: "I've traveled to Seattle, Washington; Austin, Texas; and Salt Lake City, Utah."

Or, for a more complex sentence:

"My favorite people include Samuel Slaughterjaws, a famous unicorn hunter; my uncle Wilford, a world champion at mayonnaise eating contests; and Nikola Tesla, the most awesome dude ever to fire a lightening bolt at an angry peasant." (Taken from The Oatmeal.com)

Easy enough, right? This usage is also known as the "super-comma." See? Punctuation is exciting!

The only other hard and fast rule that I have gleaned regarding the semicolon is this: it is used to connect two complete sentences without a conjunction.

Example: My aunt also had hairy knuckles; she loved to wash and comb them. (The Oatmeal.com)

So, why would you use a semicolon between two complete clauses when you could just as easily use a period? This is where the semicolon becomes more complicated and more dependent on the writer's command of it. Basically, the semicolon is used to convey a fluidity, a connectedness between sentences, that the period does not convey. So you must determine in the flow of your writing where you want a complete pause (period) and where you want a moderate pause (semicolon). If you want a slight or no pause, a comma may be in order.

To recap:

Always use a semicolon when separating items in a list separated by commas. It may also be used when connecting two independent clauses where you wish to emphasize the connection between sentences rather than a complete stop. Regarding the latter usage, when in doubt, use another form of punctuation! (This is also my philosophy of parallel parking.)

I'm not yet done with the semicolon; it's like an enigma wrapped in mystery. But for now, if you want more, here is an article that's probably more entertaining and easier to understand than what you just read through! You're welcome!

July Books

2011-08-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

I read, or rather, listened to a lot of books in June and July. I signed up for the Houston public library reading club. They were doing drawings for the Nook Color every week. Unhappily, the drawings end tomorrow and I don't think I've won one. Oh well, I read a lot of good books nonetheless!

The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson- Audio Book

This was for a book club. Stieg Larsson is a Swedish writer who tackles themes of right-wing extremism and violence against women in his writing. He wrote a series of crime novels called the Millennium Trilogy, the first of which is The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo. From what I gather, this is a very popular series with a Swedish movie already made and an American movie in the works. I found this to be just okay. I can appreciate that he takes up the banner against violence towards women. But I didn't like a lot of the violence in the book (I wouldn't call it gratuitous but, unlike the Hunger Games which I review below, it is graphic), I didn't really care for any of the characters and I found the crime mystery to be only so-so. So, I don't plan to read any others in the series.

Catching Fire and Mocking Jay by Suzanne Collins- Audio Books

These were also for a book club. These were parts two and three in the Hunger Games trilogy. I would totally recommend this series for those that are up for the violent premise. Unlike the book I mentioned above, I didn't find the violence terribly graphic. For some reason it didn't get to me nearly as much as The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo. Though it was brutal at times, I found it to be a worthwhile and insightful examination of violence and human nature. The first book, The Hunger Games, draws you in with its exciting story. The final two go progressively deeper into the the characters, their relationships and their society while still being gripping tales.

The Laws of Kindness by Mary Beeke

This was a book examining kindness from a Christian perspective. Overall, I wasn't impressed. I didn't find it especially well-written or organized. I don't mean to pan the book. There were some great things in it, but I think there are better books out there.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynn Truss

Loved this! It is a witty, even laugh-out-loud hilarious, book about punctuation and why it's important. Of course I would recommend this.

The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell- Audio Book

This was not what I thought it was when I requested it from the library. I thought it was about Roger Williams who was a devout Puritan Separatist and also an ardent defender of religious liberty and the separation of church and state. He founded Providence Plantation, which is modern-day Rhode Island. Roger Williams was in the book, but it wasn't so much about him. It was a rather scathing portrait of puritans and the author's premise that some of their ideals formed the foundation of "American Exceptionalism," an attitude that has led to the oppression of Native Americans and a host of other peoples and nations throughout our history. As a historical examination, I thought it was worthwhile. Especially since most of us are taught the public-school fairy tale about Pilgrims and Indians and Thanksgiving. As an examination of the Puritans' religion, I wouldn't recommend it. The author, a self-described atheist has an undeniable bias. Of course, as a Christian, I have my own bias. I don't think we can ever totally discard our biases. But I think she has some misunderstandings about Christianity and uses some examples of christian behavior and thought that really aren't Christian at all.

Sunday Pancakes And Some Cute John Pictures

2011-07-31T19:42:00.000-07:00

For once I'm posting my Sunday Pancakes on Sunday!

Here's what we tried today. They were good! Hazelnut has a distinct flavor that you can really taste. However, as I'm typing this with Peter reading over my shoulder he said "I really didn't even notice the flavor."

Ha.

It was there, trust me.

Part of the reason I'm trying new things so much is because I feel like one day, hopefully after a few more kids are added in, it may be a huge luxury to try a new recipe. I'll have to fall back on the ones I've become quick at throwing together over the years. I love trying new things and we're enjoying experimenting with pancakes. This is also why I read so many books. I've always loved to read but I've been more ambitious lately because I see a day in my future where the only book I read might be The Very Hungry Caterpillar over and over again...

I wish I had captured this seconds before. He was fully in the cabinet, crouched, looking out at me smiling.

Love this boy! He's a delicious dish!

Dog Sitting

2011-07-28T09:30:00.000-07:00

We recently dog sat (yikes, is that the correct way to say that? Because that doesn't invoke pleasant images.) for some dear friends of ours.

John likes Taffy's beds almost as much as he likes Taffy.

I have to say, I am so happy that I don't have any pets! And I'm sad about that. A little. Peter and I couldn't have pets for the first four years that we were married because we lived in student housing. I always had cats growing up and pined for the day when I could have my very own cat. Then we got two cats; they were very sweet cats. They did shed everywhere and occasionally peed on a pile of towels. But I could deal with that. Then John was born and they started peeing all over the furniture. That I couldn't deal with. So now they live a content, albeit less luxurious, life in my mother's back yard.

I mostly thought of this as a fluke. Eventually I saw us having more cats and possibly a dog. I used to feel sorry for people who didn't want pets, supposing them to lead cold, unhappy little lives. Now, I am one of those people. Yet rather than leading a cold, unhappy life, I see that those non-pet people were probably just busy or, busy or not, they didn't want to pick up dog poop in a bag three times a day or spend their lives in the fruitless battle against pet fur.

Taffy, the dog we kept, is a really good and sweet dog. She's obedient and she's very good with John. But she still needs the attention that living beings require: food, potty breaks, affection. And I found myself begrudging her those things because my time and attention are pulled so many other places over the course of the day! We were happy to keep her for a while. John loved it. But I fear I'm one of those non-pet people now. The kind that prefers clean furniture over a purring cat. The kind that is too concerned about germs to appreciate a dog's kiss. The kind that is too practical to be drawn in by the mind-blowing cuteness of a tiny kitten. This is a little sad to me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not shedding any tears. One day maybe we'll be a pet family again when we don't have kids in diapers. If not, we can always visit Taffy. In the meantime, I'm happy that I don't have two creatures demanding food and potty breaks first thing in the morning!

Word Wise Wednesday

2011-07-27T19:22:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago the question was posed: What to do with proper nouns that end in 's' when making them possessive? This is a conundrum. It is quite pertinent to me, my last name ending in 's'.

Well, it turns out that there is a raging debate over this very question in the punctuation world. You may be surprised (or completely unsurprised) to learn that there is always a fierce debate of some kind among grammar/punctuationphiles. Probably because many grammar and punctuationphiles are impossible-to-please sticklers.

Perhaps because this debate has little hope of ever being solved, you have options! Meaning that no matter what you do, some people will think you are ignorant, others will laud you for using correct punctuation in a punctuation-ignorant world. And, I suppose we should admit that most will not care one way or the other and some may not even know what an apostrophe is.

Laura, a former proofreader (I'm so jealous that you had that job!) and commenter said that, according to AP format, a singular possessive proper noun that ends in 's' should have an apostrophe after the 's':

James' car. (Please correct me if that's not what you meant, Laura!)

However, according to the Purdue Online Writing Lab, either "James's car" or "James' car" is acceptable. Choices! Just go with what strikes your fancy! Isn't punctuation fun?!

For plural possessive proper nouns (say that three times fast), put the apostrophe after the 's':

The Joneses' car

I'll admit, that looks clunky but what should the Joneses do? Change their names? No. I do not think that they want to stand in that social security office line for the sake of avoiding an awkward plural possessive!

According to Eats, Shoots and Leaves, there are various disagreements over the above rules throughout the punctuation world and it's best not to get too worked up. The author states that the only consistency she found in the dozen or so punctuation guides she consulted was that they used the poet John Keats' name (or John Keats's name!) to illustrate their various and sometimes opposing points.

So, go crazy and say Keats' or Keats's but whichever you choose, be consistent. (And when I say crazy, I mean crazy within the bounds of punctuation decorum, of course. Don't go writing "Ja'mes car" or anything like that. Even people who don't know what an apostrophe is will recognize that you're not the brightest crayon in the box.)

Sunday Pancakes

2011-07-26T21:03:00.000-07:00

These are the pancakes we ate last Sunday:

Peanut Butter Pancakes

I loved these! We ate them with jam, per the recipe notes. And I ate leftovers with honey. (I eat peanut butter and honey sandwiches A LOT. I love that combo.) Though I loved these, Peter just informed me that he can't believe that I preferred these over the pancakes that we ate the Sunday before, which were:

Blueberry Pancakes

I thought these were, meh, but Peter really loved them.

I had been looking forward to posting some success stories from all my blueberry baking. Unfortunately, none of the recipes have knocked me off my feet (which may be a good thing because I don't want to hurt myself!). (I had originally written "knocked me off of my feet", but then I decided to get rid of that extraneous preposition!) I have yet to make the blueberry cheesecake, I hope to make it this weekend.

Word Wise Wednesday: Relax! Here's a Rule You Can Break

2011-07-20T19:48:00.000-07:00

Yeesh. I've been remiss in blogging. John has been under the weather and clingy, we've been dog sitting and I've been searching for a dress to wear to my 10 year (!) high school reunion that is in two weeks! I can scarcely believe it! More on that later. If the dress I have my eye on works out, it will make for an especially fun and fashionable Word Wise Wednesday post! (Really.)

I was so thrilled that last week's WWW post generated discussion! I am going to reply but, because of the above goings-on, I haven't had a chance.

For today: Some of you might be constantly haunted by something your high school English teacher told you (I am haunted by many things my high school English teacher told me). You might have been taught a rule that you feel you should observe but you find it nearly impossible to follow all the time. When it is possible, you find that adhering to it strictly, especially in casual conversation, makes you sound like a stuck up word snob (which you may be, but still it makes you uncomfortable to think that others might think that you are just trying to show off your erudition, when really you just love to follow grammar rules).

I'm speaking of the dangling preposition. Does it give you a little pang of guilt every time one slips out, hanging from your sentence like a convict from a noose?

Well, you can relax. It's not necessary to always ensure your prepositions are tucked nicely in their clauses rather than dangling over the precipice of the bad grammar inferno. In fact, sometimes not dangling your prepositions can sound ridiculous, as in this quote attributed to Winston Churchill: "That is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I shall not put."

I have read that the Columbia and the Chicago style manuals agree with this position, but I have not confirmed this personally.

Another ridiculous example: "About what are you thinking?"

I mean, come on. Who talks that way? Not even the staunchest grammarphile will say that. For the sake of not sounding like a pedagogue, let's just dangle that "about" and say "what are you thinking about?" The occasional dangled preposition might just ensure that you still have friends who are willing to have a conversation with you.

So, besides the fact that tucking your prepositions can sound inane, all the "to whom's" and "of which's" required to tuck those prepositions in can make things sound awfully clunky. So, don't worry if your prepositions dangle occasionally. There are times when a dangling preposition sounds cleaner. There are also times when a tucked-in preposition is more graceful. So use your judgment and don't feel guilty about breaking your high school English teacher's rule (in this case)!

BUT, there is at least one situation in which you should avoid the dangling preposition at all costs: when the preposition can be deleted from the clause and the meaning of the sentence will not change, by all means, get that preposition out of there! And quick!

Here's a classic example: "Were are you at?"

There is absolutely no reason that "at" should be there. Just say, "where are you?"

Another example: "Where are you going to?"

Again, if you remove the "to," the meaning of the sentence is still crystal clear. Nix the "to" and say, "where are you going?"

There are other, less urgent, cases where prepositions are unnecessary:

"Sally jumped off of the dock."

"John stood outside of the door."

You really don't need the "of" in either of those cases. You can streamline your writing by culling all of those extraneous prepositions and throwing them into the bad grammar inferno.

Word Wise Wednesday

2011-07-13T19:56:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I saw the book Eats, Shoots & Leaves in an airport. I remember thinking, I want to read that sometime. It's a book about punctuation. (Don't look so excited.) So, since I'm on a mission to become a less-ignorant grammarian (I consider punctuation a subset of grammar), I recently picked it up from the library.

I really can't explain exactly why I'm suddenly interested in mastering the rules of grammar. I don't know of many (okay, any) other people who read books about punctuation for leisure. Perhaps I just don't run in the right circles? All I can say is that I would like to improve my writing skills. As I edit my posts I've been paying a little more attention to whether or not my sentences are grammatically correct and I became slightly disconcerted to realize that many times, I don't actually know. And now, here you are, helping me to work through my grammatical demons. Yay! (Am I normal? Don't answer that.)

I digress. Back to the book. It's fabulous. But it has shown me that I knew even less than I thought I did about correct punctuation. I was going to do this first WWW post about the semi colon. But my reading has shown me that I have about as much understanding of the semi colon as I have of rocket science. And what do I know about rocket science? Well, I have seen a rocket once or twice. Who knew that the semi colon conveys buckets of nuanced meaning?

The semi colon will have to wait. Possibly until I obtain another degree. So, here's an easy tidbit, a piece of information that has somehow eluded me in my 12 years of school and 6 years of higher education:

You probably all know that to make a singular word possessive, you and an -'s: Peter's hat. Leslie's questionable sanity.

To denote a plural possessive, you add an s': The cats' box (more than one cat); the girls' shoes (more than one girl).

But there are exceptions! I was surprised to learn that when you want to show the possessive of a plural word that does not end in -s, you use the -'s again! Did you know this?!? I did not.

For example: children. Children, the plural of child, does not end in -s. The correct plural possessive of children is children's. Not childrens', as you would think according to the rules above.

Correct plural possessive: The children's toys.

Another good example: women. Women's is the correct plural possessive, not womens', again contrary to the rules.

Correct plural possessive: The Women's movement.

You learn something new everyday! Some days, more than you anticipated!

14 Months Today

2011-07-13T09:36:00.001-07:00

Sweet John is 14 months today. He's just as happy and delicious as ever! As you know, being 14 months old, he has terribly many things on his mind and must fit an astonishing amount of activities in his schedule; running to and fro, entreating snacks from strangers at the library, clapping, play dates, naps, all of these things keep him very busy!

He had his first dentist appointment yesterday. I wouldn't have taken him so early in life except for the fact that we just started seeing a new dentist who sees kids also. They offered to make an appointment for John, and there's no copay, so we went for it! There's really nothing to it at his age. She brushed his teeth and put some fluoride on them. She checked to see if any other teeth are on their way in. And she talked to me about brushing habits for John. So we've started brushing which John lets me do and even finds entertaining.

He has continued to sign "more" and "get down." "More," to him, generally adheres to its literal meaning. While, "get down," must often be interpreted more broadly to mean "I want to change my situation." He signs get down when we wants to get down (imagine that!), but also when he wants to get out of the pool, for example, or when he's gotten bored of playing and wants to do something else. He has added "please" to his repertoire of signs. It is so cute! He's a polite little guy! I'm sure he doesn't comprehend the meaning of "please", but it's a start!

He loves to clap. He understands when I say it. When, for example, we sing "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands." But, in his mind, there are specific clap-worthy occasions. In the mornings when I get him up, usually he has thrown all of his toys out of the crib. I hand them to him one-by-one to put back in the crib and he claps after he puts each one in.

He's almost totally eating table food. I'm still nursing a little. But other than that, he pretty much eats what we eat. He no longer wants to be spoon fed, but prefers to finger feed himself. This has upped the mess factor at mealtime but I suppose I can't spoon feed him forever for the sake of cleanliness. Even those of us with highly developed fine motor skills are not immune to the occasional spill at dinnertime, after all!

He loves snacks and if there are any to be found where he can reach them, he will ferret them out. Last week he pulled a peach out of Peter's satchel and ate it to the pit. (Actually, it was pretty funny because John snatched the peach while Peter was in the bathroom. So John comes into the bathroom eating Peter's peach and since Peter is, ahem, preoccupied, all he can do is watch while John devours his peach.) Yesterday we went to story time at the library and he spent a lot of the time accosting children with snacks and signing "more". It sort of drives me crazy that mothers are always feeding their kids snacks. Even though, I acknowledge, I'm part of this problem. But John never wants snacks until he sees other kids with snacks. So I carry snacks around not because I think John will get hungry, but because I know that I'll have to feed him something if he sees other kids eating. But, I digress.

John has made an important life choice about what he wants to do when he grows up. Some of you might think it too early to be making such decisions. But he's clearly indicated that he wants to be a doctor:

Vacation!

2011-07-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

We spent the last week of June in Salt Lake City. It was great to be out of our everyday routine, catch up with friends and enjoy parts of nature that aren't found around Houston. Here's a recap:

The Flights
I was concerned about the flights with John. He is a very easy-tempered baby but he likes to move. I was worried that if I tried to confine him to our laps he would transform into a fire-breathing dragon. You know how they frown upon flame-throwing devices being brought onto planes these days.

So... does this mean we can safely stow him in the overhead bins?

Happily, he was superb on both flights. He slept much less than I would've preferred, considering how tired he was- only about 40 minutes per flight split up into shorter naps. But he didn't scream the entire time (or very much at all). Success!

Finally asleep!

The Visit

We stayed with some very gracious friends who have an awesome house nestled in the foothills with a spectacular view of the valley and surrounding mountains. They were also kind enough to let us drive their Mazda sports car while we were there. Which was pretty funny, trying to get our car seat, stroller, pack and play, etc in and out of that sleek little thing! (The husband of this family is a pediatric surgeon in case you were wondering how they came to possess such an amazing house and have extra sports cars sitting around).

Our view from the back porch of the house

We had a great time catching up with friends. I wish I'd taken more pictures of the people we saw. Most of our visiting also involved eating at our favorite places, which is always a highlight of any trip we take.

The 800 mg Ibuprofen Hike
We were really looking forward to getting out and doing a day hike. We were able to do a few short ones in the city. However, we were having a hard time finding a hike that we could do in the mountains. SLC had so much snow this year that many of the peaks are still blanketed in it. Having already learned the hard way that snow-covered hikes are sometimes not so fun, we searched for one that was clear. One day I pointed across the valley to a peak that didn't look like it had any snow on it.

"Why can't we do that one?" I asked

It turns out that the one I pointed to was Mt. Olympus. It is in the pictures above, at the far right of the lower one. It is at a lower elevation and gets a lot of sun which explains why no snow remained. It's only 3.5 miles one way. It seemed like a good choice! Except for one thing. It gains 4,000 feet of elevation in that 3.5 miles; it's steep. It is a classic hike in that area so we decided to give it a try reasoning that the worst that could happen is that we get too tired, turn around and come home.

Well, that didn't happen. Actually, we did indeed get tired and come home but not before we made it to the top. It was a spectacular view. However, while coming down is usually the easy part, this hike was so steep that the descent was perhaps as taxing as climbing up. The descent is also what warranted the 800 mg of Ibuprofen that we swallowed when we returned home. (Not so much because we were in unbearable pain, though our knees were worn out, but because we wanted to curb inflammation that was sure to come after such a pounding.)

I'm so glad we did it because who knows when we'll be near the mountains again. BUT, I would not recommend hiking Mt. Olympus with a child. There was some steep stuff at the end that made me very nervous. Thankfully, Peter was as cool as a cucumber and he carted John down the steepest parts. Still though, get a baby sitter if you want to do this one!

Word Wise Wednesday

2011-07-06T12:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, I had an idea that may or may not be good or attainable for me. I enjoy writing and I'd like to improve my writing skillz. Lately I've found myself composing posts in my head about various grammar-related topics that I'd like to discuss such as commonly misused words and punctuation marks. Beyond that, I have had a growing uneasy feeling that I don't actually know how to use commas, and that most of my sentences are run-ons.

I am one of those rare people who fervently wishes that I'd had the opportunity to diagram more sentences in high school. Seriously, I find it enthralling. Yet, correct grammar, I've found, like other aspects of language, requires constant practice. If you don't use it, you lose it. (At least I do.) And goodness knows, most of us have lost it. Of all the grammar I must have learned at some point in my life, little remains in my working knowledge. You might have noticed from reading here that I sprinkle commas around haphazardly like an over-zealous flower girl gleefully tossing daisies around the entire church.

So, every Wednesday I'm tentatively planning to write a grammarphile post, hence: Word Wise Wednesday. This might fall through, as regular deadlines are not my forte. But, if nothing else, I might learn a thing or two. I'm hoping to clear up some of my own grammar misunderstandings so that I appear less ignorant and grow more adept at writing.

Any of you reading this who happen to be grammarphiles can accompany me on my grammarlicious journey! On the other hand, if this kind of thing makes you have a semi-anaphylactic reaction, I understand. Some of us (surely it's not only me?) just can't let go of those heady, sentence-diagramming high school days.

June Books

2011-07-05T15:13:00.001-07:00

I've rekindled my love for audio books recently. In the past, the only time I've listened to them was on road trips. But now I listen when I go jogging and when I'm doing mindless things around this house like dishes, laundry or cleaning. So I inundated the library with requests and now I have 7 or 8 downloaded to my iPod. Sometimes technology and I get along!

The Hobbit by J.R.R . Tolkein

I listened to this one on audio book. Loved it! When we were driving to SLC the summer we moved there, Peter and I listened to The LOTR trilogy which was read by the same man who reads The Hobbit. He is great! The nuances in his voice blew my mind- more so in LOTR. But he's still great in The Hobbit. I can see why this one is a classic. I hope I can read it with John one day.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I also listened to this one on audio book. This is the first book in the Hunger Games trilogy. This series is hugely popular. Every book club that I know of has read it. I am going through the series for one of my book clubs. There is a movie slated to come out within the next year, I believe. This book was very gripping and I'm looking forward to reading the other two. It is supposed to be a young adult novel. However, I don't really think it's appropriate for young adults because it contains disturbing material. It's very violent and the premise is somewhat Lord of the Flies-ish. Everyone I know who has read this series couldn't put it down. I'd recommend it as long as you know that you're not picking up a fluffy book about kittens and puppies frolicking in a field with butterflies. This one is considerably darker.

The Shaping of a Christian Home by Elisabeth Elliot

Elisabeth Elliot is one of my favorite Christian writers. Often while reading her books I find myself saying "she's writing what I'm thinking!" This was a memoir of her childhood and particularly how her parents structured their home and imparted their values. I loved reading this and would recommend it.

Happy 4th!

2011-07-04T11:06:00.000-07:00

Happy Independence Day, everyone! What a day to reflect on our independence from those pesky Brits. (Though, as I've said before, the downside might be that we also did away with all of their fabulous hats.)

Anyways, we are also celebrating Peter's independence from the tyrannical world of Internal Medicine. Last year he spent his first year of residency, otherwise known as "intern year," in internal medicine. Most specialties require that doctors do one year of general medicine before going on to train in their specialty. This seems to be a perfectly valid idea. The unfortunate part is that scheduling in internal medicine is grueling. Whereas scheduling in ophthalmology is sublime! There are not so many ophthalmological emergencies, you see.

In June Peter finished his intern year in general medicine and July 1st was his first day of ophthalmology residency. Consequently, this Independence Day is the first holiday he's had off in over a year. Unless you count Halloween.

As we speak he is studying, disciplined soul that he is. "Holiday" has a more liberal definition in the medical world. Still, any day that he doesn't have to go into the hospital is nice. We went to the park this morning. And we're going to a barbecue tonight. So, hitting the books for a few hours in the middle of the day isn't bad! He's very excited to embark on this new phase of his training. In only 3 to 5 more years he will be eligible for gainful employment!

We went to the splash fountain at Hermann Park this morning. Then we walked around the lake and through the Japanese garden. We had a lovely time. I only wished we'd arrived a smidge earlier to avoid the hotter heat (as there's no way to avoid the heat altogether).

For what it's worth, I want to mention that I bought John an i play swim diaper. Mine was $8 at HEB. I wanted to try to avoid disposables so I grabbed this one when I saw it. This is the only one I've used so I have nothing to compare it to. But so far I've been really happy with it. Today he took a prodigious bowel movement at the splash park and everything stayed well-contained. Clean up was fairly easy.

This cute little swim outfit was one of his birthday presents. Thanks, Carolyn!

As you can tell, I'm doing my best to ensure that his skin retains its pale hue.

I hope you all have as much fun today as John in the splash park!

In Season: Blueberries

2011-06-28T15:30:00.000-07:00

On Father's Day of all days Peter graciously accompanied me, his sometimes harebrained wife, out blueberry picking. There's nothing obviously harebrained about this except that our schedules necessitated that we go in the middle of the blistering hot afternoon.

Despite the heat (which really wasn't that bad in the shade) a good time was had by all. John was noticeably absent, being watched by friends. Which greatly contributed to our good time. Don't get me wrong, I almost always prefer to have him with us. But I don't think he would have had the patience to endure over an hour of berry picking in the heat. Maybe next year.

I love picking fruit for several reasons, all of which I've written about before. But here's a recap:

1) It's usually much cheaper. These blueberries were $2/lb. They're usually $3/qt at HEB.
2) It is a reason to get outdoors which is important to us despite the heat.
3) It facilitates good conversation.
4) You can buy in bulk, freeze the berries and use them for months.

I hope that this can be a family tradition of ours. I want John to grow up knowing where food comes from. I want him to see the connections between the way we treat our environment and how that effects the food that we eat, the water that we drink, the air that we breath etc.

We've been having blueberries in smoothies quite a bit. Here are a few recipes that I hope to try soon:

Blueberry Cheesecake

Spiced Blueberry Pie

Blueberry Pancakes
Blueberry Pound Cake

As always, I'll let you know if any are keepers!

A Sign of the Times

2011-06-27T20:54:00.001-07:00

So, John has started doing two signs. And it is so cute. I wish I could get video of him performing them but we don't have a video camera (not even on Peter's iPhone) and, if we did, he probably wouldn't do them in front of the camera. He tends to get very distracted by cameras. (Is it a little neglectful that we don't have a video camera? I kind of have a pang of regret while I'm typing this. What are we going to do in our twilight years if we don't have videos of John signing to watch?!)

He does the signs for "more" and "get down". It has been so fun to see him starting to communicate. However, the downside is that he now perpetually wants to get down. And most times it seems the answer is "no, we're not going to get down right now."

It's as if the ability to ask has heightened his expectation of the gratification of his demands. Poor guy. It's hard to live a life in which most of the stuff you want to do is forbidden by your mean mama who demands that you sit in your high chair while you eat your food!

I am glad that he has started picking up on some signs because I see no words on the horizon. Of course, it could happen really quickly. Maybe tomorrow he'll start spewing words like a fire hydrant spews water. But for now, I'm happy to see some form of non-crying communication.

The other day he worked himself into a tizzy trying to get underneath the china hutch where he does not fit. I was busy cleaning and wasn't paying him too much attention. I kept making comments about the futility of trying to crawl underneath when he simply will not fit, explaining that there are laws of physics (or geometry or thermodynamics or something...) at work that prevent us from passing through solid objects! Finally I realized that he was very distraught and it occurred to me that he might be trying to get to something that had fallen underneath. Bingo. Do you know what was the object of so much consternation:

Half an O. Seriously, he eats about a million per day. But that did not curb his determination to get that half.

Here he is happily eating the fruit of all of that frustration.

Yes, I let him eat off the floor.

2011: A Cake Odyssey

2011-06-22T08:30:00.000-07:00

We took a break from our Sunday pancakes in May because Peter had to work almost every Sunday. We started back up this month. But one week a friend came over to make us smoothies and last Sunday I made Toffee French Toast for Father's Day. But the first Sunday in June I made these Peach Buttermilk Pancakes. These were so good! They are my second favorite of all the pancakes I've made so far. The first being Orange Chocolate Chip.

The recipe calls for 2 cups of all purpose baking mix which I did not have. So I used this recipe reduced to yield 2 cups.

Back when I intended to post this at the beginning of June peaches were in season around here. I was hoping to make more peach recipes but with triple digit temperatures at the end of "spring" peach season ended really quickly!

Yesterday was only the first day of summer. Can you believe it? How many more days to go?

I'm going to go stand in front of the freezer now.

Father's Day

2011-06-21T09:20:00.000-07:00

I am so thankful for Peter who celebrated his second Father's Day on Sunday. And I know John shares my sentiments even though he may lack the articulation.

For a gift we, John and I, made a Father's Day flower pot:

This was more difficult than I had anticipated (why I thought it would be easy to neatly capture a squirming toddler's foot or hand print on a flower pot, I can't fathom.). John and I had differing artistic visions. His was more avant garde and included paint in his ears. But, with a little persuading (read: brute force) we were able to make this delightful pot. My plan was to plant a symbolic flower in it. Alas, meeting deadlines is not my forte. So, I didn't get that done by Father's Day morn when we presented the gift. But I still may do it. It's the thought that counts?

To celebrate on Sunday I made Toffee French Toast with P ecans for breakfast. This was excellent! The toffee sauce was delicious. As is everything that is made of butter, brown sugar and cream. But the french toast itself had a lovely flavor. This is definitely a great recipe for a special occasion. Or any day, really!

I hope everyone else had a lovely Father's Day!

Some pictures of John on Father's Day:

His clothes are a little bit big but isn't this a cute outfit?!

He got it for his birthday. (From Dawn, I think. Thanks Dawn! We love it!)

If You Cook It, He Will Come

2011-06-15T08:30:00.000-07:00

If you want to be friends with John, you only need to have one thing: food. Any kind of food, all kinds of food. If you have anything edible (or, I should say, anything that he considers edible), he will seek you out and not leave your side until every last morsel is consumed. You will never have such a loyal BFF!

It need not be expensive or gourmet food. Far from having discriminating tastes, he will be equally interested weather you happen to have dog food or ice cream.

One Sunday this month a friend of mine came over with her adorable 7.5 week old fluff ball of a puppy. We put John and the puppy on the floor to play. I went into the kitchen and when I came back, instead of playing with the puppy, John was on his hands and knees with his head hanging dejectedly, crying. I learned that he was upset because my friend would not give him any dog food. I only wish I'd taken a picture of this pitiful scene!

Of course, if you are hungry and you actually want to eat your food you might consider locking yourself in the bathroom and enjoying your snack there.

The pictures below capture his M.O. quite well. He starts out begging for a bite from Peter (despite the fact that he had just had lunch) then he takes a mini little stroll to give himself time to swallow. At which point he turns back for another bite. In this situation he came towards me because he was interested in the camera that I was holding. This goes on until Peter has made it clear that he has no more food.

Right now one of John's favorite things to eat is a smoothie. He LOVES smoothies. When he sees me getting the blender out in the morning to make one, he prances and frets in anticipation at my feet until he has his little smoothie in his hands. He becomes indignant when I have to take the cup away either because the smoothie is gone or, occasionally, to fill it up with more smoothie!

If you take this away from me, I will call CPS.

13 Months

2011-06-13T10:17:00.001-07:00

Last month I didn't write much about what John was doing developmentally. Instead I posted about his birthday extravaganza which was quite exciting enough! So here's an update:

At 13 months he is walking full time. He falls frequently but he has also learned to stand on his own without pulling up on anything. He is climbing on furniture and we are working on training him to only sit on chairs, couches etc. I say " we only sit..." many thousands of times per day. The one exception is our futon in the study which we've decided to let him continue running around on because it makes him so happy! He knows how to get up and down without hurting himself.

Now that he's become a full-time biped, he's also got it in his noggin that he should run away from me. Particularly when he's holding something that he knows that he's not supposed to have, like my cell phone. The phone he's often able to get off of a table or dresser using another skill that he's honing: standing on tip-toes and reaching. That skill being enhanced by continued vertical growth. He can get to almost anything now, people, is what I'm saying!

He has taken a page out of the angsty teenager playbook. By which I mean that he likes to go in his room and close the door. (He loves closing doors in general.) Instead of brooding over the unfairness of life and how his parents don't know anything, however, he usually just looks at books. Lately I've let him stay in there for a while. There's nothing in the room that I know of that could be dangerous to him. He bangs on the door when he wants to come out.

He spends a lot of his day walking around the house picking up things in one room and depositing them in another. This makes for some strange findings at the end of the day. Like the colander in the study, board books in the kitchen, coasters in John's room and my underwear in the recycling bin. Yes that did happen. He pulled them out of a clean pile of laundry and put them into the recycling bin. I'm all for recycling but that's a little extreme for even me!

He started pointing and points at everything accompanied by an inquisitive little grunt. Still no discernible words or signs.

What a fun age is 13 months! There hasn't been a month yet where I haven't said that...

The Definition of Ironic?

2011-06-11T15:30:00.000-07:00

Ironic is a difficult word. I don't completely understand how to use it. A while ago Peter and I were trying to define it (this is what nerds do for fun on a Saturday night). Despite the fact that it is a word tossed about frequently in conversation, neither of us could come up with a great definition.

So we consulted dictionary.com and realized that this lack of understanding is way bigger than just Peter and I. It affects our whole society- perhaps even you! It turns out that ( at least according to dictionary.com) ironic may be one of the most abused words in the English language. A lot of what people think is ironic, technically isn't. Like Alanis Morrissette's song that is replete with un-ironic statements.

I think I understand it in its simplest sense: It would be ironic if were to say "what a nice day" if it were raining cats and dogs outside. In that situation I would intend to convey the opposite of what I actually said. That incongruity between the literal and intended meaning being a basic definition of irony. I don't have a good grasp of the word when it comes to describing more complex scenarios.

But Peter related a story to me when he got home form work a few mornings ago and I thought, this is ironic. This has to be ironic. What do you think?

There was some disturbance in the ER (he didn't know exactly of what nature, disturbances of all kinds being commonplace in the ER) so security guards were roaming about. Peter's colleague, a petite, 20-something female, made an offhand comment to a few of the guards. She said something along the lines of "you guys are intimidating". She said it in a lighthearted way, in passing and thought nothing of it. Until later on that night when she walked passed the security guards in the hall speaking with her supervising physician. She overheard them say that they were upset by her remark. They had called their boss, they were now speaking to her supervisor. They were really taking this one all the way to the top.

Please tell me, is this not ironic on so many levels? It's like a parfait of irony. (Unless I really don't understand the term...)

You might have some of the same questions that ran through my mind at this point such as: "They're insulted at being called intimidating? Is that not their job?" or "Are these security guards 13 year old girls?"

Let's just give them the benefit of the doubt and pretend for a moment that she was being intentionally derogatory with her comment. Even then, to actually be offended by one rude remark from a young female would require extraordinarily delicate sensibilities for people who routinely deal with gun-wielding, curse-spitting, disease-ridden ER patrons.

On the other had, if they thought she was being genuine and were genuinely offended that she found them to be intimidating, well then, I think its time to find some people who have a better understanding of the job description, don't ya think?

This has to be some form of irony, am I right? Put that in a song, Alanis!

Google U

2011-06-08T11:47:00.000-07:00

Do you suppose there will be a time when we will dispense with formal education in favor of simple Google searches?

Google searches are so much less expensive and much more to the point. And since we know that everything we read on the internet is likely to be true, I see this as a real possibility. I suppose the downside is that students would miss out on things like marching band.

Anyways, yesterday I took a Google U refresher course on childhood illnesses. John turned up with an odd rash and I took to Google to see if I could find a diagnosis. As I reviewed childhood diseases from chicken pox to yeast infections, I was relieved to find that he most likely has a case of the nearly harmless hand-foot-and-mouth disease (picture here). It is a common childhood virus that usually resolves on its own within a week or so.

I was pleased to find that he wasn't suffering from something much worse like nastiness-spewing- from-both-ends-itis or, the dreaded, not-long-for-this-world-virus syndrome. Now, after my research, I feel much more equipped to diagnose childhood diseases! Thanks, Google U!

Luckily, he's a happy, diseased, little fellow:

May Books

2011-06-06T19:16:00.001-07:00

I can't believe that it's already June. Is it just me or does time seem to speed up as you get older?

June has brought with it some scorching weather. We have had a few triple digit days already. The weather reports I've been listening to sound like a description of a film noir flick: sultry, hot and steamy. One meteorologist recently commented that it won't cool down for the next few days. And I was thinking "this is June in Texas. It's not going to cool down for another 4 months." But I guess if by "cool down" you mean it will only be 97 degrees instead of 102, then I do hope it does "cool down" soon.

Anyways, in May I started 4 books but only finished one:

In My Father's House by Corrie Ten Boom

I liked this book it. It was an easy read. It is the memoir of Corrie Ten Boom's life prior to WWII. After the Nazi occupation of Holland she was involved in the Dutch resistance and eventually spent time in a concentration camp for her work hiding Jews. She wrote about her experience during WWII in The Hiding Place which is such an incredible book. In My Father's House was about her earlier life. She recounts some experiences that God used to prepare her for what she was later to experience during WWII. It was a pleasant but not spectacular read. But the Hiding Place is spectacular and you should read it!

John's First Year: Sleep Through the Night

2011-05-26T07:30:00.000-07:00

When I was pregnant, I read a veritable library of books on labor and delivery. This despite the fact that I was a labor and delivery nurse and already knew quite a bit about the subject. I failed to read anything about newborns. In my nursing career, I dealt with babies up to a few hours old until they went to the nursery. I reasoned that I would be okay with those early hours. Which only left me with the remaining 17.999 years to figure out.

When we got relatively settled in Houston, I made a beeline to the library to get books on babies. Infant sleep was at the forefront of my mind because my sleep was being rudely interrupted night after night.

Sleep training is a very controversial topic these days it seems. I certainly don't consider myself an expert on that or anything else in parenting. I only have one easy baby who I have managed to keep alive for a merely a year. I'm a parenting novice. Nevertheless, I wanted to share what worked for us in getting John to sleep through the night. He is a fabulous sleeper. No doubt his easy temperament has something to do with his good sleep habits. But I think our choices helped too. In fact, I truly believe we could have ended up with a totally different baby had we not established the habits that we did. I'll never know this for sure, but I have reasons for believing this way. I'm recording what worked for us in detail as much so that I'll remember it for the next baby as the hope that this information might be of use to anyone else.

Since about day three of his life, John has slept well at night. Don't get me wrong, he woke up every few hours to eat but he went back to sleep easily. I never had one of those up all night, pacing the halls with a screaming baby nights (see? parenting novice). Most of our sleep trouble involved napping and getting him to sleep initially at night.

The first book I read on the subject of sleep was Baby 411. It's not specifically about sleep but I liked the section on sleep. It laid out many of the popular sleep theories and methods and evaluated them side by side. I liked the aspect that I could gather a few different theories and then research them on my own. That said, the authors definitely favored the method popularized by Richard Ferber in Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems, which I also read and found useful. Based mostly on those two books, here are the principles that I followed:

1) For the first two months do whatever you have to do to get the kid to sleep.

Fortunately for me, I didn't have to use drastic measures to get John to sleep. But the idea is that babies under four months aren't good at self-soothing. Which means they might need help to get to sleep. At this point letting them cry it out might not work (though I know some people for whom it has worked) because they are not neurologically mature enough to calm themselves down. For John, what worked to get him to sleep was rocking and swaddling. I would swaddle him up and rock him to sleep for naps. Before bed and during the night I nursed him.

2) Months 3-4 establish good sleep habits.

I guess what constitutes good sleep habits is up for debate. But the routine that was most often recommended to me by friends and pediatricians was eat, wake, sleep. This order of things prevents the baby from needing to eat to fall asleep (Though I did nurse John to sleep before bed. And during the night, of course, there was ideally no "wake time" in the cycle). During these months I was still rocking him to sleep. But I was also trying to get him to fall into a routine, which he did pretty easily. It might surprise you to learn, as it did me, that babies take naps as often as every 1.5 hours. If your baby is fussy and you've fed him recently (and there's nothing else obviously wrong with him), he might be crying because he's tired. That was often the case with us. I tried to notice when he would become tired, like when he would doze off in the swing, and then I'd lay him down for a nap. So we fell into an eat, wake, sleep cycle with him napping every 2-ish hours. The naps would last anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. This was by no means a rigid schedule. But it was a routine that helped me to plan my day and to anticipate what John would need.

3) Starting around 4 months old put the baby down tired but awake so that he can learn to fall asleep without help.

Finally after four months and 11 pounds of weight gain (for John!), I was exhausted by rocking that chunk of a boy to sleep multiple times per day and was ready for him to learn the art of falling to sleep on his own. I had been assured by all of my reading and by speaking to John's pediatrician that a four month old is fully capable of soothing himself to sleep, despite initial protests (crying). So, I nixed the rocking and put him in his crib drowsy but not asleep. He cried. Mostly for 5 minutes or less. But sometimes longer. Rarely for 20 minutes or more.

Here's why I think I could have ended up with a totally different baby if I'd made different choices: In my reading, it was also frequently recommended to go in and comfort and reassure the baby (without picking him up) at varying intervals while he is learning to fall asleep on his own. I tried that. Only, when I would go into the room, instead of being comforted, John would become enraged. Angry that I was in the room but was not picking him up to play. So I stopped going in. And when I stopped going in, he fell asleep more quickly with less crying. I think if I would have gotten worked up and continued to go in and out of his room attempting to soothe him, he might never have fallen asleep. Then I would never have gotten any sleep. Which means that one of us would most likely have been committed to a state institution by now.

There were several months like this where for every nap and before bed I would put him down tired but awake and he would cry. Like I said, usually only for a few minutes. But gradually, he learned to go to sleep on his own. Around somewhere between 6 and 8 months, if he cried at all, it was only long enough for him to get his thumb into his mouth. Today, I can put him in his crib fully awake for a nap or for bedtime. He smiles at me while I blow kisses to him from the doorway and he lays down and goes to sleep. He takes two good naps and sleeps for 11 hours at night. It took some time, and some research and some discipline, but I think our sleep training has been a success! We are all healthy, happy and well-rested around here these days. (Unless I decide to stay up all night reading...)

Of course, there's no one method that will work for everyone and it's import to do what works for you. But I've met several people who have 9,10, 11 months olds and older who mention to me that their babies still wake every two hours at night like a newborn and require 30 minutes or more to be rocked back to sleep. When do any of them get any sleep between waking, feeding and putting back to sleep?! I imagine the entire family is exhausted! I never give my advice unless asked (unless it's on my blog where people can feel free to read or not...) but I want to tell them that it doesn't have to be that way! Of course, if you prefer to have the company of your 11 month old throughout the night, more power to you. But if you'd like an unbroken night of rest, it is possible. You don't have to do what I did, but find a way that will work for you and stick with it!

Small Time Crooks

2011-05-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

The couple that's arraigned together stays together, right?! I can only hope.

I was driving home from Goodwill last week when I was pulled over. I was a little baffled because I knew I wasn't speeding. He was stopping me for out of date inspection and registration. Who gets pulled over for that?! During this episode I could not have more authentically come across as a car thief if I'd been trying.

The officer asked for my license, which I had, thankfully, and insurance, which I could not find. It was later found inexplicably on the floor in the back of the car. I was flustered, naturally. And I began to stammer out the reason why the registration was out of date while explaining that I do indeed have current insurance despite the fact that I cannot produce evidence of such. "By the way, did you see my cute baby in the back of the car who needs money to go to college?"

The reason for the expired registration is, in my opinion, one of the better reasons a person could have. We bought this car six months ago from a private seller who had posted his car online. When we tried to have the title transferred (which we did try!) we realized that we had to have the seller's signature on the title transfer application. A document that we didn't even know about until we attempted to transfer the title after the sale had been made. Do most people know about this application and have one ready when purchasing a car?! I was surprised that the seller's name was required on a paper which seemed like something that most people would not look into until they are already done interacting with the seller. But perhaps Peter and I are just simpletons. When we realized we would need to get back in touch with the seller, Peter didn't even have his contact information anymore. Eventually Peter tracked him down but it took a while for them to find a time to meet. I'll admit, we should have had this done by now but it got buried under other priories and then pretty soon I'm getting pulled over six months later. Without transferring the title, we couldn't update the registration. "Don't you see, Officer, this is all a big misunderstanding! Along with the fact that I can't locate my current insurance."

After my spiel, he went back to his car to determine who's vehicle I'd stolen, I'm sure, being that I was so antsy, the title was not in my name and I could not produce insurance. He returned and, to my surprise, he did not read me any Miranda rights or tell me that we needed to go down town. He simply gave me a court date, explaining that I should be able to get everything cleared if I can produce all the correct documents for the court.

Meanwhile, the next day, Peter is in a minor fender bender. Hilariously, a young Asian boy (about 10 years old) who was involved along with his mother who didn't speak English very well, threatened to sue Peter for all he is worth. Eventually the boy calmed down, a police report was written and Peter was also issued a ticket for reckless driving (Peter is not a reckless driver but, alas, the accident was his fault). The officer mentioned that Peter could pay the ticket or he could appear at court. The officer said that if he, the officer, didn't show up at the court date, Peter could get the fine dropped. We're assuming since he said this, that he most likely will not show up. Won't that be a barrel of laughs if we're assuming incorrectly? You do know what they say about people who assume too much...

When Peter arrived home after his accident, we were comparing tickets. Guess what. We have the same court date! Isn't that cute?! June 16th. Justice will be done.

It Began and Ended With Vomiting

2011-05-23T18:29:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I feel like my life sees more than its fair share of bodily fluids. Perhaps its just my perception.

Last post I wrote about John's first birthday party during which he vomited for the first time ever. (This is not counting all the spit up of his first several months of life. Spit up and vomit are very different, which many of you already know. Spit up, while not pleasant, is much less disgusting, in my opinion.) His party was Saturday night. We had driven into San Antonio earlier that day. Peter's schedule had worked out nicely so that he could take Sunday and Monday off. We were looking forward to time with family and a little time to relax- more than we had anticipated since Peter rarely has two days in a row off.

We were able to enjoy most of our day Sunday. Which included a book discussion over Cleopatra's Daughter with my mom and her friends to which everyone wore a homemade hat in the style of the Royal Wedding. This kind of thing would only ever happen at my mother's house with her friends. Not that I wasn't a willing participant.

Sunday evening I began to feel a little nauseated. Peter and I went to dinner with some friends during which I stared at my veggie sandwich as if it were as palatable as a cat carcass. Finally towards the end of the meal I ran to the bathroom for my own "baby John moment." Thankfully, I made it in the toilet, unlike my son. We went home and I went to bed shortly thereafter. Overnight, one by one everyone under my mom's roof fell victim to whatever it was that was that had made me sick. We all spent the night jockeying for position on or over the toilet.

I didn't know that everyone else had become ill, however, when John woke up bright-eyed at 6:30 am on Monday morning. I got up with him- he showed no signs of being sick whatsoever. I told myself that the very next person to arise would get the pleasure of John's company while I went back to sleep. Then, it slowly dawned on me that no one else was going to wake up. Well, not that day. No one died. But everyone slept the day away. Except John who was positively brimming with energy! Yay!

We never determined what made us all sick. We ruled out food poisoning relatively certainly. It could be that John gave us all a virus that he had. But John never seemed sick. Everyone else seemed like death warmed over.

Most of us perked up by that afternoon, so Peter and I were able drive back to Houston Monday evening. On the way out of town we stopped by Smoothie King. My goodness. Have you been to Smoothie King? It is like Starbucks on steroids in terms of the decisions that have to be made.

They had a helpful sign which outlined the process of choosing a smoothie. Methinks the menu is a might complicated when it requires an algorithm simply to order. There were four steps. The first injunction was to "pick your function." Is it necessary for my smoothie to have a function, I wondered? I can't remember what the functions were, something about bulking up or slimming down. I pretty much only wanted to eat something that would not make an encore appearance outside of my stomach.

While I'm trying to follow the instructions for choosing my smoothie Peter nudges me and says "look who's behind you."

"Who?!" I ask, a little panicked because I look like someone who has had a poor night of sleep punctuated with moments of cradling the toilet bowl as if it were a long lost child. I wasn't in the mood to reminisce with high school friends.

"It's David Robinson," Peter said.

"Oh. Thanks goodness, it's only David Robinson." Relieved, I turned and stole a glimpse of David Robinson, a former Spurs player for those that don't know him. (Which I would not if I hadn't been raised in San Antonio.) He, of course, is a very tall man and he drives a very nice Porsche, which we saw as we exited. And he is just the person I would want to see in a Smoothie King looking the way I did since he most certainly didn't give me a second glance.

I finally managed to order a smoothie without knowing what exactly would be in it despite the posted tutorial. Whatever it was, it stayed down.

While I was laying on my sick bed Sunday night I was reminded of this Bible verse: "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thess. 5:16-18 I found several things to be thankful for that night and afterward:

1. I'm so thankful that I can be sick in the lap of luxury with things like, air conditioning, running water, pillows and huge plastic bowls in which I can throw up without ever leaving the comfort of my bed.

2. I'm thankful that the vomiting and diarrhea portion of the illness passed quickly for me. As I mentioned, John was healthy and full of energy. As I realized that no one else would be waking up to help me with him I also realized that I only felt weak and tired. Which is much better than feeling like everything that I've ever ingested is pounding at the doors of my body to get out like crazed prisoners.

3. I'm thankful that John didn't get sick. He has had a very healthy first year!

4. I'm thankful that whatever made us sick was not something that we ate at the party. There were around 30 people there and we would have felt terrible if they had all gotten sick.

5. I'm so thankful for restored health! Everyone seems to be back to normal now. What a gift!

First Birthday Party: Projectile Vomiting Edition

2011-05-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

It was a memorable first birthday party.

There was succulent grilled fajita meat. There were the indulgent banana split cake and the whimsical ice cream cone cupcakes. Family and friends were gathered around. The weather was sublime, absolutely sublime.

Banana Split Cake

Mini Banana Split Cake

Ice Cream Cone Cakes

And then there was the entire Dole factory's worth of regurgitated pineapples spewing from John's mouth covering my person from stem to stern.

First birthday, first projectile vomit. At least I'll never forget it!

John didn't, and still doesn't, appear to be sick. He acted like his happy self for the duration of our celebration. He has been having some intestinal issues for the past week or so in the form of a few episodes of diarrhea. But mostly it didn't seem like anything was wrong.

I had just filled a little plate for him with chicken, cheese and guacamole and was about to put him into his highchair when the gate of his bowels opened and gushed forth what seemed like gallons of sour, frothing pineapple vomit. It was quite shocking. He has never projectile vomited before. Visions of the exorcist flashed through my mind. He spewed three or four times while I stood there in the deluge, dumbfounded.

Someone finally came and took him, suggesting that I aim him away from me. That never even occurred to me! I was so surprised by how much was flowing out!

How he ingested so much pineapple, I don't quite know. I had cut up about half a ring for him to eat. Prior to that, my mom had been feeding him little pieces as well. It didn't seem like that much. But even if we both fed him much more than we thought we did, it still doesn't seem likely that we would have inadvertently given him the equivalent of an entire tropical island. And yet, nearly an entire tropical island's worth came out. I was surprised he could hold that much. He's had pineapples before and never had a problem. I don't know exactly what was wrong. But, it didn't really seem to matter because he seemed completely happy, projectile vomit notwithstanding!

Aside from that, the party was a success. We were happy to have our families and a few friends around. We are also happy that they are gracious because a few of them were casualties of "pineapple incident." Peter's aunt and sister were later spit up upon during a smaller, non projectile episode. Whenever you're around kids, you should probably just acknowledge that being soiled with some type of bodily fluids is always a possibility. Then, if you manage to escape squeaky clean, you will be pleasantly surprised!

We did get a picture of John with his birthday cake. But considering the events of the day, I thought better of letting him eat it. But the rest of us got to eat cake, and I suppose that's all that really matters, right? Hopefully, in the coming years, John will have many more birthdays and many more cakes and far fewer pineapples.

John while we sang Happy Birthday. He doesn't look too happy here. This isn't representative of the way he felt at the party. Mostly I think he wasn't sure what was going on because he's not used to 30 people simultaneously breaking out in song.

One

2011-05-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

May 13, 2010

My baby boy is one today. I can't believe it. I am in awe that a year has passed and that he's changed so much. And that the next year will bring even more marvel.

I have to say that May 13th, 2010 was the best day of my life in some ways. I don't mean that I haven't loved John so much more everyday after that or that the births of any subsequent children will be any less important. But on May 13th, 2010, the day John was born, our circumstances were so ideal and our lives were so simple.

I was actually admitted to the hospital on the morning of May 12th. My friend reminded me of that yesterday. I asked Peter "do you remember what we were doing yesterday last year?" He paused for a moment, then replied: "walking." That's exactly right. If there is one word to sum up that day, walking is it. We walked for hours. But out of all the days that a person could be required to walk for hours, May 12th, 2010 was a good one. It was cool, clear and we had a great view of the mountains.

It was just the two of us, well three of us as of 3:46 pm on May 13th, we had no family in town and no other children. We were free to sit and stare at our baby. And eat pie. (There was a Marie Calendar's across the street.) Though it would have been nice to have family in town, it would have meant that we would have had to share John. As it was, we had him all to ourselves. We had no other children to consider during my marathon labor or postpartum days. We could just snuggle up to our baby for hours upon hours without interruption! Things were so simple and I don't know if they'll ever be that simple again.

My favorite memories were of Peter. I think he was one of "those dads" in the delivery room. First of all, he missed his most important line because he was so deliriously happy. Prior to delivery we hadn't found out whether John was a boy or a girl. When he was born everyone was waiting for the big announcement but Peter had to be prompted by the midwife because he was off in la la land. (As John came out I looked down and saw boy parts, so I wasn't kept in suspense...) Then when the nurse carried John to the infant warmer to do all of her measuring and weighing and all of the other nonsense that they have to do (I can say that it's mostly nonsense because I used to do that in my job) Peter kept on picking him up and bringing him back to me! I had to tell him to let the nurse do her job! He was so endearing.

During my postpartum hospital stay there was a brief moment of hysteria one night when I'd been breastfeeding for what seemed like 4 hours straight while Peter slept soundly in his reclining chair. And I was like "It's the middle of the night and I should be sleeping! And if I'm not sleeping, no one should be sleeping!" But that was really a very small episode. Aside from that I couldn't imagine a more perfect, peaceful experience. And I'll get to relive it every May 13th.

Happy Birthday, baby boy!

May 13, 2011

Things I Liked For Baby's First Year

2011-05-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

For what it's worth, I wanted to share a list of baby things that I found useful over John's first year:

0-3 Months

Swaddle Blanket
I didn't even know what one of these was until our friends gave us one before John was born. I am so glad we got one because I wouldn't have known to look for it. John did not sleep without being swaddled until he was three or four months old. Without it he would flail his arms and wake himself up. It's like a cute little baby straight jacket!

Swing
We used this all the time in the first several months. After he learned to turn over we used it less and less because he wanted to be on the floor rolling hither and thither. I have never heard anyone say that the swing did not soothe their baby. John was a serious swinger:

Travel Crib/Bassinet
For the first 4 months John slept in this beside our bed. But it has proven itself even more useful since then. I keep it in my car and take it almost everywhere. It is really compact. John will sleep in it anywhere whether for a nap or overnight. I don't know how typical this is of most children. It has been a huge help for me to be able to, for example, put John to sleep in it at my Tuesday night Bible study which I had to do several times when Peter was on call. (We didn't spend the night at the Bible study. I would wake him up and take him home and put him back to sleep in his crib. He's always been really good at going back down at night after waking up for whatever reason...)

Play Yard
There are so many variations of play yards with dangling objects. We referred to ours as John's farm. This is one of the first toys he was able to interact with starting at about 2 months. He was so cute laying on the floor batting at the dangling sheep and pig.

Burp Cloths
My suggestion is to keep several burp cloths in every room at arm's reach at all times. If your baby doesn't spit up a lot at first you might think, like I did, that he is a super-talented genius baby who is completely above regurgitation unlike all of those other regular babies. Then one day I read that infants often won't start spitting up until around 8 weeks. Sure enough, when he was two months old my smugness was doused in curdled milk. There was a month or two (maybe 3 or 4...) in which I smelled like sour milk all day everyday. Don't bother changing clothes unless you want to wash your entire wardrobe daily. Just get used to it. It will pass.

Breast Pump
This was helpful to have mostly for my peace of mind. I didn't ever end up needing most of the milk I pumped. I pumped a lot because I wanted to ensure a good supply. But it was helpful to have milk on hand to send with him when I left him in the nursery at the YMCA or on the rare occasions that I wasn't around during feeding time. The main comment I wanted to make regarding breast pumps is to make sure to see if your insurance covers them. I got a Medela Pump in Style model which is over $200 in stores. The insurance I had in SLC covered it and I only had to pay a $30 copay.

3-6 months

Jogging Stroller
We bought a BOB stroller. They are expensive but we found ours on craigslist with the car seat adapter and cup holder included for well over half-off the full price. I love this stroller. It helped me get back into shape. And, with its swiveling front wheel, it is much nicer to maneuver than a typical, four-wheeled stroller. It comes in handy when you find yourself involved in a high-speed chase on foot. You just never know what will happen when you go out for a walk.

Bouncer
There are a lot of variations on the bouncer as well. I can't find a picture of him in it, but John loved the Rain Forest Bouncer that we bought it at a consignment shop.

Johnny Jumper
We got this for free from Peter's sister. John LOVED it. I still use it occasionally when I'm taking a shower. I've heard a lot of people say that their babies didn't like it. So I'd suggest borrowing one to try it out if possible.

6-9 Months

Bumbo
We used this a lot during these months. I started feeding him rice cereal at 6 months. We didn't have a high chair until my mom bought us one at nine months. So we used the bumbo at pretty much every solid feeding for three months. He also liked to do some reading in the Bumbo:

9-12 Months

These days John still uses some things from the earlier categories like the travel crib and jogging stroller. However, most of those things are stored in his closet. Since he is mobile now, he doesn't want to be confined in anything (like a swing or bouncer). I think a baby this age would be happy with any number of toys or non toys (e.g. tupperware, old cell phones...). But here are some things he has shown a particular interest in:

Things That Move
Obviously this is a very broad category. One example is a free wind-up car we received when Peter ran the Houston Half Marathon. John really likes it and now he will go retrieve it and bring it back to me to wind up again.

Touch and Feel or Flap Books
John seems most interested in books where he can feel different textures like Clifford's Furry Friends or books that have flaps to open like Dear Zoo. Three words: Half Priced Books

Almost all of these things we got for free or used. I totally recommend avoiding buying baby things new or full price. Babies go through stages, and products that accompany those stages, lightening fast. You can find a lot of baby items at consignment stores, craigslist or garage sales that are like new because they were probably only used for a few months. Then you can put all the money that you save on baby stuff into a college fund!

I'd love to hear any of your suggestions for toddler "must haves." Or even any baby items not on my list since we'll hopefully have another baby or two. (Though not within the next nine months as far as I know...)

April Books

2011-05-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
April was a big reading month. Thanks in part to my iPod which I bought from my sister. She usually has the updated models and gives me the old ones which are outmoded after days of use. I listened to The Help on the iPod. I would not have been able to read, in the old fashioned sense, this many books in one month.

I loved the Help. I would recommend it. I got it initially to listen to while jogging. But I got absorbed in it and began listening, oh, all the time. I love audio books. They can make the most mundane chores full of intrigue!

Evidence Not Seen by Darlene Diebler Rose
This is a great true story of a missionary in New Guinea who was captured by the Japanese during WWII. She remained for 4 years in a POW camp. The story of her faith and how God provided for her was very edifying. I was particularly impressed by the fact that she had devoted so much time to memorizing scripture before the war. When the hard times came, when she was in solitary confinement, for example, the verses that she had hidden in her heart were life-giving. I would recommend this.

On Becoming Babywise II by Gary Ezzo and Robert Buckman
I keep reading the babywise books even though I tend not to get a ton out of them. So many people seem to love them. I thought maybe this one would have some more of what I was looking for but found lacking in the Toddlerwise one I read in March. I liked this one better. It has some good stuff but overall: Meh.

Shepherding A Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp
Technically I finished this one in May but most of it was read in April. It was recommended to me as the best Biblical parenting material out there by a trusted friend whose children at (approximately) 7, 4, 2, and 3 months are more mature than I was when I graduated from college. It is about exactly what the title suggests: getting at the heart of a child rather than controlling behavior. Isn't that always the crux of life- getting at the heart of the matter? I was really encouraged to read this. I would recommend it. It did make me feel that parenting is much more wonderful and much harder than I had anticipated.

A Movable Feast by Earnest Hemingway
This was one of my book club's books. It is Earnest Hemingway's memoir about living as an expat in Paris during the 1920's. There were some enjoyable things about it. But if I were going to read a Hemingway book, I wouldn't read this one. I don't think it's the best example of his writing. Also, from what I read about it, it's not entirely honest. For example, he portrays himself as a starving artist when he apparently had access to a lot of money. Furthermore, it was published posthumously and had been edited by several different people with varying agendas.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-07T22:08:00.000-07:00

Last year I thought I might have my baby by Mother's Day. I was due May 6th and Mother's Day was May 9th. Originally my "due date" was at the end of April. Even though I knew that first-timers are likely to be "late," I thought that I might just be snorggling my baby's face by May 9th but that wasn't the case.

Instead John was content in my womb. He was packing on the ounces thanks to vicarious doses of Mexican food of which I happily partook for last year's Mother's Day lunch.

Since it's Mother's Day month and John's birthday month, I'm planning on posting entries about my first year as a mom. However, being a mother often precludes writing about being a mother. But I'm working on a few posts so hopefully I'll finish them before the month is over!

This year's Mother's Day was wonderful. We ate lunch with a wonderful family from our church. But the best part is that I had cake for dinner! (As much as I write about cake and frosting, I really am a healthy eater.)

And Happy Mother's day to all of you mothers out there. And not only women who have given birth to children but women everywhere who love and invest in the lives of little ones around them- Happy Mother's day to you!

International Eat Handfulls of Frosting Day

2011-05-06T14:43:00.000-07:00

Did you know that today is International No Diet Day? (I interpreted that to mean that I should fill my bathtub with frosting and swim in it. Unfortunately, I didn't quite have enough frosting on hand to accomplish this...). I didn't know it either until I got an email from my favorite recipe website with a recipe to try that is definitely in keeping with the theme of the day: Buttered Rum Pound Cake with Bananas Foster Sauce. Say that three times fast.

Is there a day left on the calendar that is not an "International Day of... take your pick?" If so, I have a few ideas that might fill up the holes. Perhaps international hat day. Definitely international everyone take a nap day (babies and almost-one-year-olds included!).

Anyways, I think everyday should be no diet day. I don't diet. Instead I try to make healthy choices everyday. And, of course, indulge in food every once and a while. I love frosting and would never willingly abstain from it for the sake of diet. That would only be setting myself up for failure.

In the spirit of "no diet lifestyle," here are some healthy recipes we've tried recently and enjoyed (Peter requested more seafood so we've tried some new seafood recipes lately):

Blackened Cumin-Cayenne Tilapia

Lemon-Pepper Shrimp Scampi

And here are a some treats, the last two pancake recipes that we've tried:

Pam-Cakes with Buttered Honey Syrup

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes with Bourbon Pecan Sauce

Just don't eat honey butter everyday and you'll be fine!

God Save the Queen...

2011-04-29T19:29:00.000-07:00

... and all the princesses and their hats.

A friend of mine invited John and I over to watch to Royal Wedding. I was very happy because this was much less pathetic than me watching it by myself. I tried to find something suitable for John to wear to a Royal Wedding (viewing). But so far he hasn't acquired any baby clothes that approximate the uniform of a Colonel of the Irish Guards, for example. I settled for dressing him in Union Jack colors. Red, white and blue also happen to be the colors for about 40 other countries. But today it was in honor of William and Kate!

So, we sipped tea while we watched all the pomp and fanfare. I don't know what has come over me but I bought everything the royals were selling hook, line and sinker. Even though I have no idea what they do with their time since they no longer govern, I want them to stay around because they know how to put on a show! I thought it was a beautiful ceremony and procession.

I was particularly looking forward to seeing what kind of dress Kate would wear. She did not disappoint! Is she not the most elegant person ever to walk the earth? Speak now or forever hold your peace. That settles it, then!

Also, of course, I wanted to see all of the hats. There were some questionable choices:

These are my favorites:

It's like art on your head! Which ones do you like?

Philip Treacy is a famous milliner in London. I only learned that today when my friend told me that he outfitted many of the wedding guests. If he ever rolls out a line of hats for Target, I'm getting one in every color.

In Season: Strawberries

2011-04-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

I don't actually know if strawberries are still in season. I believe their time is waning. But they were in season a few weeks ago which is when I intended to write this post.

Peter and John and I went strawberry picking earlier this month and came home with 15 pounds of strawberries. Most of which are now frozen. And in about 10 days I ate strawberries at nearly every meal while trying 5 new recipes.

Here are the keepers:

Strawberry Orange Muffins and, last week's pancakes, S trawberry Pancake Roll-ups. We will use the frozen strawberries all summer in smoothies.

Overall we enjoyed our strawberry picking experience. John, however, was not too keen on remaining in the carrier and grew a mite grumpy towards the end. But it was his nap time after all. And I think he gets his sleeping habits from his mother so I shan't judge. He did enjoy the spoils of his parents labor, though:

Are these not the cutest, most kissable cheeks ever?

One thing I learned is that you should pick the bright red strawberries and not the deep red ones. My picking strategy was governed by the knowledge that strawberries don't ripen after they are picked so you should pick ones that are fully red. This is true, but I picked the deep red ones that don't seem to have as much flavor. A pity to learn this lesson 15 pounds of strawberries after the fact. But when you do things like puree them with sugar and mix them with cream cheese, they really manage to come out quite nicely! They aren't bad but I'll know better for next time.

After Easter

2011-04-27T21:04:00.000-07:00

I read a really great post on this blog about the Monday after Easter Sunday. We all need "everyday" days and "especially" days. Perhaps we know this intuitively- everyone likes to have a celebration!- but we also know this is true because God ordained many "especially" days to punctuate the "everyday" days for His people, the Israelites. He instituted feasts that would help them to remember what He had done for them, from bringing them out of slavery in Egypt to providing for them while wandering in the desert waiting to enter the promised land. We need those same reminders now. We need days to step out of the ordinary and remember, reflect and celebrate God and His gifts in our lives. And, if you're like me, sometimes the anticipation of the holiday and the felicity of celebration can recede into a kind of bereft feeling as the "especially" days fade and the everyday routines take over. But, thankfully, to quote from the blog:

In "Abounding Works" Nancy rejoices that "The good news continues to be good news from one morning to the next. So, even though I'm mopping up from the feasting, the rejoicing extends from one Sunday to the next, all year long."

Throughout the ordinary and extraordinary days, the resurrection, and its attending joy, is true all year long!

And also, I have to include some cute John pictures since that's what you all came to see!

Above he has trapped himself in a cabinet. He crawled in there and then began to cry for help when he couldn't back himself out. I, being the sympathetic mother that I am, went to get the camera to take a picture before rendering aid.

If you can tell me that you wouldn't eat this face up, you must have a heart of reinforced titanium steel with spikes on it!

He is really interested in climbing. You can't quite tell that he's climbed on anything except in the first picture. He has scaled a shelf that sits on our floor that is probably 18 inches high. I'm surprised that he's climbing like this. I mean, it's no Mt. Everest but the boy can't even walk yet! Is this normal pre-toddler behavior or is this the prelude to a china cabinet-climbing, ceiling fan-swinging monkey toddler? Peter is thrilled because he understands this to mean that John will enjoy climbing mountains. I also like to climb mountains so I wouldn't be disappointed if this were the case. Yet I'm wary because the house is not a mountain to be scaled. And, in fact, there are no mountains in close proximity to Houston. So, I suppose he'll just have to be one of those kids who climbs up the slide the wrong way much to the chagrin of all of the other children on the playground.

Psalm 22

2011-04-22T19:30:00.000-07:00

Psalm 22 was written by David. Out of David's own cries for help and hope of deliverance a picture of the suffering savior is revealed. 1,000 Years before the crucifixion took place David, a foreshadow of Christ himself, points to the Messiah. Good reflections for this Good Friday.

22:1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.

3 Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises [1] of Israel.
4 In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried and were rescued;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
8 “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”

9 Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.
10 On you was I cast from my birth,
and from my mother's womb you have been my God.
11 Be not far from me,
for trouble is near,
and there is none to help.

12 Many bulls encompass me;
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
13 they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion.

14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.

16 For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet [2]—
17 I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me;
18 they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.

19 But you, O Lord, do not be far off!
O you my help, come quickly to my aid!
20 Deliver my soul from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dog!
21 Save me from the mouth of the lion!
You have rescued [3] me from the horns of the wild oxen!

22 I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,
and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him.

25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will perform before those who fear him.
26 The afflicted [4] shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the Lord!
May your hearts live forever!

27 All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before you.
28 For kingship belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.

29 All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
even the one who could not keep himself alive.
30 Posterity shall serve him;
it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
31 they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,
that he has done it.

Confession

2011-04-19T21:16:00.001-07:00

I really don't keep up with many live British people. I mean, if I had any live British friends, then I would take more of an interest. But my family mostly prefers to stick to long-deceased Britons.

But, I have to confess, I am so excited about the royal wedding. And I have no idea why. Mostly, I really like Kate Middleton. Again, I have no idea why. It's not as if we've ever had a heart to heart. What got my attention initially was her hats. Every time I see a picture of her she is wearing the most fabulous hat. Admittedly, they are ridiculous. If I were wearing this someone would probably call animal control thinking that I'd been ravaged by a flock of rabid partridges. But she totally pulls it off with panache! She exudes class, which is nice to see when America seems to be filled with Paris Hiltons flashing their underwear for attention.

Now, here's a question that I could fathom making the subject of a dissertation if I were to return to school to study history:

When America threw off the shackles of the tyrannical rule of the British Empire did we inadvertently enslave ourselves to dull (that is hatless) fashion? It seems that somewhere in the hot pursuit of our democratic ideals, we gave up the right to wear a bird's nest on our head if we feel like it. And that begs the question: was it worth it? I'm not so sure. I do like to vote but... hmm. The hats are so cute!

Anyways, Kate is a commoner. What would King Henry VIII think?!? Perhaps it's better that he's not around to voice his opinion. But this gives the rest of us a chance at the British throne. Well, not me. I'm already married. But my sister is single and Prince Harry is single. And it now seems possible that my mother's dreams of being British royalty could become a reality. There is a chance! And if my sister has a royal wedding, you better believe I'll be wearing a hat.

The Fellowship of the Diaper Rash

2011-04-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

My apologies to J.R.R. Tolkien for this post.

One Rash to rule them all, One Rash to find them,
One Rash to bring them all and in the redness bind them

It all started at the end of January. It seemed innocent enough at the time. I had no clue that it was the harbinger of an epic battle. But that's how all sagas begin, right?

John had a bout of diarrhea during the last few weeks of January. I recorded the ordeal on this very blog since I am apparently committed to sharing all the information about bodily functions that you never wanted to know.

His sweet little baby bottom was no match for the onslaught of poop and soon became red and excoriated: diaper rash. Diaper rash? You may be thinking. Babies get diaper rash all the time! True but this was no ordinary rash. It was insidious in its trickery. It frequently waxed and waned. One day it seemed to be all but healed and the next it would flare up like the balrog that killed Gandalf (except, spoiler alert!, he didn't really die. Nor does anyone in this story, fear not.).

Like a hobbit dilly dallying in the shire while evil lurks on the borders, I was lulled into complacence by these healing episodes and then shocked when the rash relapsed. Here and there I dabbled with various remedies only to find that the rash had won again. I had been blinded to its power until finally I realized that this had been going on for nearly 6 weeks! I was certainly verging on (if not already in the territory) of negligent motherhood by letting this rash have dominion over my baby's behind for so long. I realized I had to fight. And yet everything in my power had already failed: Desitin, changing brands of diapers and wipes, antifungal cream, triple antibiotic ointment, going diaper-less and baby powder! All hopelessly unequal to the foe!

Until I realized: this is just like Lord of the Rings! I need all of them at the same time! And that day was initiated the Fellowship of the Diaper Rash: morning and night we gave him a "bottom bath" followed by "dry time" in which he roamed about, singing folk songs, without a diaper on so as to let his nether regions dry. Each time we changed him we slathered his bottom with a parfait of either antifungal cream, desitin and baby powder or antibiotic cream, desitin and baby powder. We upgraded even further to the costliest diapers and wipes in the land, also we employed fervent prayer.

With their powers combined, these were a force to be reckoned with! All of these remedies played their part. But the Frodo and Sam of this story, if you will (and why wouldn't you? Because you've already followed the ridiculous analogy this far...), are "dry time" and a change in his pooping habits.

Dry time, though it pays dividends in healing a sore bottom, is a terrifying thing. Think of The Fellowship Of The Ring when they're in the mines of Moria. I had similar feelings of anxiety. Only instead of Orchs I was dreading bodily fluids.

There were several times I turned my back momentarily only to turn around to find John crawling through his own poop or splashing about happily in a puddle of his own urine. But, as we learned from Frodo and Sam, I had to press onward or face certain doom. Thanks goodness for tile flooring. It's like mithril for a stay at home mom.

Perhaps the Gollum of the story was John's own bowel movements. The diarrhea lasted about 10 days. That is 10 days longer than I would have preferred. But I was dismayed to learn that after a bout of diarrhea, the gut can take weeks to reestablish its normal patterns. This was definitely the case with John. After that initial 10 day episode, he continued to have small, frequent poops night and day, day and night. His bottom was constantly sitting in excrement which never allowed the rash to fully heal.

When his intestines returned to their normal functions, the rash lost much of its powers. With dry time and normal bowel functions combined we reached the end of all things (for the diaper rash). Now I'm happy to report that lilly-white, chunky baby flesh reigns supreme on John's bottom. None of us have plans to sail to across the sea to another world a la Frodo.

I learned several things from this battle with diaper rash:

1) Pampers wipes really are superior at cleaning the bottom. They seem to adhere to poop rather than just smearing it around. They are also gentler on a baby behind. That said, we're still going back to the cheap wipes. But we will use Pampers in the event of a relapse. Which I hope won't happen because, according to LOTR, the evil was destroyed once and for all...

2) Pampers diapers, however, meh. They aren't more impressive than the much cheaper Target brand, to me. I don't think they had a huge effect on the resolution of the rash.

3) Dry time seems to be the ticket. Since this saga, whenever his bottom is looking red, I give him a bottom bath and dry time before bed or in the morning if he's dirtied his diaper over night.

I'm going to be really surprised if no one makes this into a 9 hour movie trilogy.

Eleven Months Yesterday

2011-04-14T10:57:00.000-07:00

I had a cute idea (or what I thought might be a cute idea) to make this 11 month update like a personal classified add. You know, like, baby John loves long rides in the stroller etc...But, never having written one, I consulted Google to get ideas for what one might place in a personal add. Then I quickly realized that perusing personal adds on the internet is not an edifying undertaking. So, I'll just have to tell you about baby John at eleven months in a boring list format. Better boring than illicit, amiright?

Baby John, 11 facts for 11 months:

1. He loves to be on the go. At the library's baby time he he quickly tires of playing with the other babies and the huge pile of toys and prefers crawling out the door into the main library. Perhaps this is the sign of a budding bibliophile?! Maybe the books offered in baby time are just not challenging enough and he's after some Dostoevsky. Since he can't yet verbalize, I'll have to wait a little while longer for an answer. After those first few steps he took at the Children's Museum a few weeks ago, he definitely hasn't taken off. He's still cruising along, standing by himself occasionally and taking a rare step but mostly crawling.

2. He LOVES to eat. And he will eat anything. It doesn't matter what it is as long as it's being shoveled down his gullet. I think he gets this from his dad. I've fed him some exotic things like chick pea curry, spicy polenta, cous cous and hummus. I've also fed him tame foods like lasagna, fajitas and oatmeal with fruit. He has eaten all of it with enthusiasm.

3. He has started grinding his five teeth (two on bottom, three on top) which produces a skin-crawling sound. This can't be good for his teeth but I'm pretty sure I'm powerless to stop it, right?

4. He is alarmed by white billowy things. Like trash bags. He yells every time I shake a new trash bag out before putting it in the trash can. I found it funny. Of all things to be alarmed by... trash bags?

5. On the other hand, he LOVES the vacuum cleaner. I think what he most likes is the air that it emits like a warm breeze. He happily follows me around, his hair blowing in the dust-laden wind. So, as soon as he can walk I'm going to put that child to work.

6. He likes pillow time. This is when I put pillows on the floor in the living room and he flops around on them. I didn't know that he liked flopping so much. I found this out quite by accident one day while cleaning. It's so cute! Now I kind of want to make him his own flopping pillow that maybe he can also use for lounging later on when we start showing him tv. But of course if I provide him with a flopping pillow, I will be ensuring that he will flop on everything except that pillow.

Pillow Time

7. I still haven't heard any clear words. He might be saying mama but I'm still not sure.

8. He's adopted the philosophy of most children in that when I want to sit still and hold him he prefers to move about. Yet when I want him to move about entertaining himself, he prefers to be held. To that end he employs this charming little maneuver that we have dubbed the wet noodle. When I'm holding him and he wants to get down he holds his arms up, goes limps and squirms.

Wet Noodle

9. His new thing with eating is biting the spoon and not letting me take it out of out of his mouth.

10. He shuffles around with this walker like a little old fellow. But he has become much more adept at it over the last month or so. And he loves to play with his house. He thinks it's hilarious when I crawl through the door. And, I'm sure it is hilarious. It's quite and undertaking to squeeze through there. (I bought both of those toys at a garage sale!)

11. He likes touch and feel books and will usually follow my injunctions to "pet furry Clifford."

And here's a bonus fact for you:

12. Every night before he goes to bed, we sneak in and look at him. Often we touch his face or his belly. Sometimes he wakes up. But we don't stop doing it because we're selfish and we miss him when he's asleep!

Strawberry Pancakes

2011-04-11T18:38:00.000-07:00

Actually our Sunday pancakes weren't strawberry but the topping was. And it was Delicious. Did you notice the capital D there?! Delicious with a capital D! Now you know I'm serious. Here's the recipe: Strawberries Romanoff Pancakes with Brown Sugar Sour Cream Sauce.

Now, you might be thinking: "That recipe has a lot of words in it. It's probably complicated." Wrong! It's very simple. You could even make the topping the night before. I'm telling you I was eating the brown sugar sour cream by the spoonful. If brown sugar sour cream sounds weird to you, that's okay. Just give it a try and you might be licking the carton clean (not that I did that... hypothetically speaking.). The recipe for the Strawberries Romanoff with Brown Sugar Sour Cream Sauce links to another recipe for the pancakes. I liked the pancake recipe but you could also put this topping on anything. Okay, not anything. Like, probably not filet mingon. But almost any kind of pancakes, waffles, french toast, biscuits, shortcake, angel food cake, pound cake etc. You could also just eat it by itself like the strawberries romanoff that they serve at La Madeleine's.

Men of the interwebs, if there are any of you besides Peter who read this, mother's day is coming up next month. Just saying. (Peter, this does not apply to you because I already made this recipe. If you decide to go the breakfast route, you'll have to think of something else. :o) (But you know that you don't have to make me breakfast or buy me anything. All I'll ever want for any gift giving occasion from here on out is a nap.)

Awkward Family Photos

2011-04-09T11:08:00.000-07:00

Thursday evening I arduously waded through almost every single picture we've taken since John was born. Snapfish had emailed me a coupon for 111 prints for $1.11. Normally I like looking at pictures of John. But this task became tedious. I had to stop for several snack breaks.

Since he will be a year soon I was trying to choose a selection from his first year so that I can make a baby book. That's right, he's almost one and I haven't started a baby book. For most people, I think, this level of neglect in documentation usually comes with subsequent children. For me, this may mean that for future offspring I just reprint pictures of John and tell them that they all looked alike in babyhood.

Never did it occur to me that I didn't really have to look through every single picture. I could have just searched here and there looking for significant milestones or holidays, etc. I tend to get carried away. In the end when I submitted my order Snapfish wouldn't except my coupon code. I've emailed them hoping that they will rectify the situation. I hope I didn't look through nearly 1,000 pictures for nothing! Of course, I could still order them without the coupon but, being cheap, I was only wanting to pay $1.11.

Anyways, while searching, I found a few gems of the awkward family photo variety:

I'm not sure what's going on here. I'm the only one looking at the camera and my sister seems to have taken a liking to the scarecrow.

This is what happens when dad dresses the baby. I dont' take pride in matchy-matchy baby clothes. All of our clothes for John are hand-me-downs. Which I am completely happy with! I work with what I've got. Yet even I tend to eschew the turtleneck/shorts combination.

And from this morning, a cute case of bedhead. People pay good money for the "bed head" look, you know. But baby John doesn't even have to visit a salon or use product!

March Books

2011-04-06T08:41:00.000-07:00

What Did You Expect?: Redeeming the Realities of Marriage by Paul Tripp

I started this book way back in August and finally just finished it in March. I would recommend it to anyone married, getting married or who may ever get married. There is no shortage of marriage and relationship books on the market but I have a feeling that most of them skirt around the biggest marital problem. The book I read in premarital counseling before I got married seemed to suppose that most marital problems stem from stereotypical communication breakdowns between men and women. I won't deny that communication is difficult. I have had enormous trouble trying to communicate what kind of haircut I want. I don't know what words I should use to convey that I don't want to look stupid. Anyways, I digress, but if it's difficult to communicate regarding a haircut, then certainly these troubles will be magnified when you're actually trying to build a life with someone. But that's not the main problem. Tripp proposes that our main problem in marriage is that we're sinners. Sinners married to sinners. There's no way that's going to turn out well without 1) God and 2) hard work. This book cuts to the chase. It debunks the popular "happily ever after" myths surrounding marriage. It's not that marriage can't be" happily ever after" but it's not going to get there on its own without some good old-fashioned elbow grease. He points out that most marriages don't end dramatically as the result of a devastating betrayal or offense. Many simply whither out of neglect. Marriage is usually either made or broken not in a few watershed moments but in ten thousand little daily occurrences. It really encouraged me to try to make every moment count towards strengthening my relationship to Peter and not to excuse even small moments of selfishness or laziness. (I have a long way to go in this arena.) Though I do highly recommend it, I will say that it is a little long and can be wordy (much like this review) and repetitive at times.

Twelve Extraordinary Women by John MacArthur

This was the March read for my church's book club. It is about 12 women of the Bible. Each chapter is devoted to one woman. John MacArthur points out what we modern women can learn from each of their stories. While reading this I wasn't too excited about it. I felt like I'd heard most of it before and I just wasn't clinging to every word. At the book discussion I found myself liking it more as I heard other people's thoughts. There are some jewels of insight in it but overall I wouldn't say that it is a must read.

I've been really interested in learning ways that I can structure our (my and John's) days. I never was a structure person before I had a baby. But now I have come to value routines. Currently we have a schedule that I really like but no schedule lasts very long in childhood, I think. I'm trying to prepare for the next stage. As he enters toddler hood I want to incorporate activities that will direct his burgeoning energy and mobility in constructive ways. I also want to teach him to sit quietly and play independently. That said, I think I have my work cut out for me for the next few years. I read the next two books to learn more about toddler hood and get ideas for activities for us.

On Becoming Toddlerwise by Garry Ezzo

This is a quick read but I found it pretty useless. It does have some ideas for structuring a toddler's day but overall I didn't get much out of it. Also there's a chapter in which they're encouraging parents to consider why they're doing what they're doing rather than just how to do it. For example, consider why you're choosing one method of discipline over another rather than just learning how to carry out the particular method you've chosen. There seems to be some merit in this advice but they presented it in a weird parable with talking parrots and owls. I found it strange.

Creative Family Times: Practical Activities For Building Character in Your Preschooler by Allen and Connie Hadidian and Will and Lindy Wilson

This is a short little book that I really liked. It's only 63 pages. Each of the 12 chapters describes a "practical activity for building character" in preschoolers. Some examples: play time, tape time (perhaps mp3 time for our generation), sit time, prayer time, scripture memory time, mom/dad time. Some of these suggestions are similar to those in Toddlerwise. But, for some reason, I was way more inspired while reading this book. I loved a lot of the ideas. Some can be started early, some later in toddler/preschoolerhood. Having not put any of these ideas into practice, I can't speak to the ways that they've personally effected us but I do plan to start incorporating some of them into our days. I would recommend this book for anyone at home with small kids wondering "what do I do with them?" Like I said, I haven't actually used any of the ideas and I don't anticipate using all of them exactly as described. But the book is a good springboard for thinking creatively about how to use our time intentionally.

2011: A Cake Odyssey

2011-04-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

Orange-Ricotta Pancakes were on yesterday's menu. These were good. The batter incorporated beaten egg whites which resulted in light, fluffy pancakes. This was very nice. However, I found them difficult to bake possibly because of the egg whites. They were hard to flip before they were cooked through. But they browned really easily. Most of them were really dark though not burnt. They had a lovely, subtle orange flavor.

I found the serving suggestion to be a little off. Supposedly this would serve five people with three pancakes each. I made 13 pancakes out of the batter but they were petite and light. I think this would serve three or four adults depending on their appetites.

Orange-Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Pancakes is still the favorite.

Technically he's a Utahn

2011-04-01T15:54:00.000-07:00

When we moved back to Texas last May people often commented on how fortunate it is that we could get John back here- to the land of his ancestors- so quickly. Mostly we just smiled and nodded in response to this. But secretly, we're happy he's a Utahn. I don't think any two people have had more fun in any place than Peter and I did in Salt Lake City. The culmination of the year was, of course, John's birth. So, he's our connection. Utah will always be the place where we had our firstborn son.

Don't get me wrong, I love Texas. Especially San Antonio and the Hill Country. My qualms are that it is too hot and the only mountains are clear on the other side of the state. Also, it's too hot. Did I already say that?

Anyways, when in Rome, as they say, we mus act accordingly. So we took him this week to get some pictures in the bluebonnets. It is a fine Texas tradition, one that I have been looking forward to.

Happy April! I hope you didn't get fooled today. No one put anything past me today, that I know of. But my main companion was John. Who knows what would have gone down if someone over the age of one was in the house.

He didn't quite know what to do at first when I plopped him down in a field on the side of the road.

But he quickly realized he should do what he always does: turn on the charm.

Having a bluebonnet snack. A petal which I could not apprehend before it was in his mouth. Again, organic right?

Highlights from San Antonio trip- a month after the fact

2011-03-31T09:00:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately we forgot to bring our camera to San Antonio so I don't have many pictures. Nevertheless, here are the highlights of our February San Antonio trip efficiently enumerated (in no particular order).

1. Eating a cinnamon roll approximately the size of John. Granted, this three pound cinnamon roll weighed less than John does. But I'm pretty sure that when he sleeps with his knees tucked underneath him, the pastry rivals his size. This cinnamon roll is the claim to fame of Lulu's cafe. It has gotten some press recently as it was featured on the show Man vs. Food. So we decided to give it a try. Unfortunately the only thing special about it was its size. It was not extraordinarily delicious. But, if you're like me and you like cinnamon rolls, you definitely get to eat your fill with this one.

2. Cute, cute, cute John after a trip in the car with the windows down. Don't his little wind-blown hairs look adorable!

3. I got to eat at nearly every restaurant in San Antonio. Caparelli's Pizza and Magnolia House are among our favorites. We always have a long list of places we want to eat when we visit.

4. Despite what they may tell you, I roundly beat Peter, Jacob, my brother in law, and Daniele, his wife, at Dance Central, an X box game.

Technically, Danielle got a higher score. But after the contest Peter informed me that, unbeknownst to me, they had selected a harder dance for me. I practically had to break dance and I was amazed that Danielle bested my score when all she had to do was step side to side.

Anyways, the real highlight of the evening was Jacob. Some may say that the Ness family has no rhythm. Well, they haven't seen Jacob dance. Jacob has a hip move that would make young girls swoon and grown men cry. It would even put Elvis to shame. Which shouldn't be a surprise because, as you can see from the picture below, Jacob is almost exactly like Elvis:

If Elvis were an engineer, that is.

5. John got his first taste of chocolate cake and ice cream, courtesy of his grand parents. I was told that I should not even attempt to stop my mom from feeding him sweets because when I'm not present to oversee his diet she plans to indulge all of his cravings. Fair enough, I suppose that's the right of a grand parent.

He also had is first taste of oak tree. My mom has many oaks and consequently leaves are tracked into her house by the bajillions. We were vigilant in trying to keep them from John but one got past us. The day after we returned home Peter found a fully intact leaf in his diaper. At least is was organic. I mean, it doesn't get much more organic than raw leaves, right?

6. And, last but not least, our favorite thing is always spending time with our friends and family in San Antonio. We always enjoy our time there and look forward to going back!

2011: A Cake Odyssey

2011-03-30T19:40:00.000-07:00

First of all, is not odyssey one of the strangest words? Maybe it's just me, but I'm trying to determine if I spelled it correctly and I just keep staring at the letters until they become meaningless.

Oh well.

So, I decided that the only thing hindering my pancake dreams was me! I'm going to try to make it happen this year. 2011: A Cake Odyssey- pancakes, that is!

I actually meant to post this last Sunday. Better late than never?

Carrot cake pancakes were on the menu last Sunday. They were fine but not special. Peter is always flabbergasted when I insist on asking him if my dishes are special. "I know it's good but is it special?" This is partially how I evaluate whether or not I should make it again. Peter is usually not much help with this, however. His reply is usually something along the lines of "it was good but I don't want to eat it everyday." Which is a fine sentiment but not very helpful because I rarely get so excited about a meal that I plan to make it every day. But he has to throw that caveat in there because I have been known to be passionate about certain foods.

The orange-chocolate chip pancakes were better.

Tune in for next week!

On Raising Boys Who Read

2011-03-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

I like this article. It's about how to raise boys that read. If I can get my son(s) to "become desperate enough to read Jane Austen," I will be a happy mother indeed. (And I know my daughters-in-law will luuuuuuuv me!)

On a semi-related note, if his first word is "mama", of which I'm not quite sure yet, I'm really hoping his second one will be "book". If it's something like "playstation" then I know I'm in trouble.

My Baby Is Growing Up Too Fast blah, blah, blah...

2011-03-25T09:21:00.001-07:00

I know everyone says it. Parents complaining about the years flying by and now their little baby is all grown up. It's true! It's all true! I have three updates that I was going to save for his eleven month post but I just couldn't wait.

1) Teeth. For a brief time I though he had been overcome by the Twilight phenomenon and was going to go vampire for a while. And by this I mean that the only upper tooth he had cut was his left incisor. But then, abruptly, his two front teeth emerged! And I'm kind of sad! He won't look like a baby anymore with all those teeth! And he'll probably start to test them out on things that may not always be food!

2) Words. He may know ma ma. I'm not certain. I've noticed that he seems to consistently say it around me. Unfortunately he usually says it when he's whining for me to pick him up while I'm trying to get something done on the kitchen. It's quite pitiful, him sitting on the floor whimpering mamamamama. But I'm starting to think that he associates that sound with me.

3) Steps. He took three steps last night in pursuit of a stranger's cell phone. They were bona fide, unassisted steps. They were not stumbles but slow, steady steps! That said, I don't quite think his walking career has begun in earnest. We were at the children's museum where he was cruising around when he spotted a lady's cell phone which led him to let go of what he was holding onto and toddle over to her. This came out of nowhere. I have never even seen him hint at an independent step until last night. So, I'm not convinced that he's going to take off. But he might! He's capable of it, I guess. Time will tell.

My baby is becoming a walking, talking, masticating person! What?!? I don't even know how this happened. But it's very very exciting. I often get so attached to whatever he's doing in the here and now that I forget that there's so much to look forward to.

Upcycling

2011-03-24T09:29:00.000-07:00

We have two big green recycling bins in our kitchen under one of the counters. That was the most convenient place for them, but as you can imagine, they contain a holy grail of baby temptations. He doesn't want his toys but he really wants paper (which I would let him have if he didn't chew and swallow it). Since most of the stuff in the bins is not very clean or very safe (e.g. aluminum cans) we are constantly training him not to pull things out. But I made him his own little recycling bin of safe, clean, plastic containers that he can scatter all over the floor to his heart's content.

I recently had an idea for an upgrade to his would-be landfill toys. This idea is so simple and obvious that you've probably already thought of it. Some of us require a little more time. I got the idea from some of the toys that he plays with at baby time at the library. They are clear plastic tubes filled with things like bells, feathers, and beads that the babies can shake and turn back and forth. I believe they are from lakeshore learning, which probably means that they are expensive. At least compared to what I made which was nearly free!

I bought some beads, bells and pom poms and put them in some of John's recyclable containers. Most are soda bottles but I also had two spice containers. Now instead of just plastic containers, they're colorful, noisy plastic containers!

John is enthralled with them! They kept him rapt yesterday for 20 minutes or so. Which, in baby time, is like a light year.

One man's trash, another baby's treasure!

Delicious Pancakes

2011-03-21T13:44:00.000-07:00

I have a fantasy that involves a family tradition of having pancakes every Sunday before church. As fantasies go, this one seems pretty doable. It's not like I'm dreaming of becoming a rocket scientist or being able to navigate using cardinal directions- those things in are in the realm of delusion for me.

The problem is that even when I was single, punctuality was not my strong suit. When you add a baby into the mix, there are some Sundays when I come waltzing into Sunday school 45 minutes late just happy that I made it at all.

But this past Sunday I pulled off a pancake breakfast. Actually, I only chose the recipe and made the batter. Peter actually cooked the pancakes while I ironed my pants. I'm pretty much opposed to ironing. I would have thrown the pants in the dryer with a damp towel except there was already a load in the dryer that I hadn't yet removed. So, my systems had failed me this particular morning. But I digress.

Anyways, the pancakes were delicious. Peter's mother and two of his younger siblings were in town to share them with us. We so enjoyed their company. And we made it to church on time!

Orange-chocolate chip buttermilk pancakes is what we made. Let me know if you try them!

10 Months!

2011-03-13T20:44:00.001-07:00

Today John is 10 months old. If I had to use one word to describe this month for him it would be poop. Or perhaps, more accurately, diaper rash. But that may be the subject of another post. Instead I want to talk about some of his more pleasant accomplishments of this month.

He continues to pull up and cruise around. And now he has started standing unassisted but only for a few seconds at a time. And though he has not started walking, he has started climbing. When we were in San Antonio at my mom's house, which has stairs, he showed himself quite adept at ascending them. And once or twice he's actually stood up on a step stool that we have at our house. So when he does develop the independence to walk on his own I think he will be a tour de force of gross motor skills.

He has started giving kisses, but not readily. He is very stingy with them but will usually give in to my relentless nagging and finally plant one on my cheek around the 10th rendition of "can mama have a kiss?" These kisses are quite... enthusiastic, shall we say? I love to get them but it's not so much a kiss as an onslaught of saliva and sometimes snot. But they are so precious to me!

He has the wave down, sort of. He doesn't always do it in the proper context but he's catching on. He at least knows that when he waves he's likely to get lots of attention. Which he does. He frequently waves to people in public and then basks in the attending responses of "oohs" and "ahhhs" and "aren't you a happy boys?".

He's grown enough hair to have bedhead in the morning. An inconsequential but cute accomplishment, I think.

He is the happiest baby ever. I suppose I've not met all the babies in the world but I'm pretty sure that he would be in the top 10. He's so easy going, he smiles nearly non stop, he does great on our schedule but he's not tied to it, he eats anything, he goes to sleep without a complaint, he's not shy of strangers but loves to be around other people. He makes me simultaneously want another baby but also wonder if we should quit while we're ahead. Which we will definitely not do. We want more children but I wonder what are the chances that I will have another baby that is so easy? Could I love a grumpy baby? It's a joy to love a happy one. But I know it is possible to love a grumpy baby because my parents loved me! And Peter's parents loved him! So it can be done! But I'd still prefer another happy baby... though it's definitely not worth worrying over, I really have no say in the matter. In the profoundly wise words of my mother in law: "You get what you get and don't throw a fit."

February Books

2011-03-07T08:14:00.000-08:00

Here are my book reviews for February!

These first two are the March and April books for the mom's book club in my neighborhood that I joined. I ended up having to read them really close together because of library hold situations.

1) Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran

This is a historical novel set mostly in ancient Rome. The story is told from the point of view of Cleopatra and Marc Antony's daughter, Cleopatra Selene, who was raised for a time in Rome after Octavian defeated Marc Antony and conquered Egypt. I'm not usually one to choose historical fiction. I usually find history interesting enough that I don't feel it needs to be gussied up with an author's imaginings. But I was thoroughly impressed with this book. Supposedly it was meticulously researched and presents an accurate picture of ancient Roman society which was fascinating. All of the characters, save two, were real people. At the end the author discusses what happened to each after the conclusion of the story. She also discusses some of the similarities between ancient Roman society and our own society which I found really interesting. Despite the historical backdrop, it is by no means a tedious tome of historical details. It is very readable and engaging. I would recommend it.

2) Blood and Money by Thomas Thompson

This is a true crime story that took place in Houston in the early 70's. I like true crime and especially courtroom dramas so I found it interesting. But it was really long and wordy and probably could have been cut down a little. The crime surrounded a socialite in a troubled marriage who died of a mysterious sickness. Her husband was tried for murder (it was a very weak charge because cause of death was never actually determined) but his case ended in a mistrial. Then a few years later the husband was murdered. So, it was a very sad story full of real-life examples of human depravity. But it went deeper than that. The crimes committed, the circumstances surrounding them and the legal interventions that resulted highlighted societal ills like corruption in the legal system and racial and socioeconomic relations. I liked it but I would only recommend it if you really like courtroom intrigue. Probably half of the book is about lawyers jumping through loopholes.

3) The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn

I read this one after the pastor at my church gave this sermon on gospel generosity. The book had a similar message- that we should give as a result of what has been done for us through the cross. But the book went into more detail on the subject. It had many examples of people who were able to give away many times the amount that they earned while depending on God to supply their needs. One example that I remember was a man who had a family and earned $50,000 per year. He was able to give it all away but still have all of his needs provided for through various means. I believe this man was able to eventually give a million dollars to various Christian ministries all while making around $50,000. It was inspiring and challenging. I would recommend it, it was very short.

I haven't forgotten about my grand prize drawing! Thank you all for commenting! One of you will be the lucky winner! According to the stats that blogger gives me, I think I may have a few more readers out there. But I understand if you want to remain blog lurkers. I also anonymously lurk around a few blogs. I have to go to bed now so I'll do my drawing tomorrow. :o)

For you, blog friends, one billion white roses

2011-03-01T09:30:00.000-08:00

I meant to get this in during luuuuuv month. But we have been on vacation in San Antonio where I unintentionally became remiss with my blogging. Since it was the week leading up to the Academy Awards, there were Oscar-winning movies playing all day and all night on TCM and AMC. So, I was very, very busy with cinematic pursuits. (And that's the reason we will never have cable.)

Anyways, I wanted to share this lovely (at least potentially lovely) rose cake idea with you. The original with a tutorial is here. Mine did not turn out quite so elegant or wedding-worthy. But because I kept my expectations near rock bottom (as I usually do with crafty baking projects), I was still pleased with the outcome:

When asked how it looked Peter diplomatically replied: "Some look like roses, some look more like....spirals." Fair enough! I think the icing tip was bigger on the original in the tutorial because her roses were a lot larger than I could make mine. I would definitely try this again. I especially loved the icing recipe that is included with the tutorial which is on the blog I am baker. This blog will make you want to quit your day job, mortgage your house and open a bakery (at least that is the effect it has on me). You will probably also drool all over your keyboard. She has some gorgeous, delicious ideas. She is also a mother of two which makes me wonder if she is also a robot. How does she do it?!

I'm not looking to be the Cake Boss or anything, but I love the idea of knowing how to make pretty cakes for showers and parties and birthdays, and what have you (Is there ever a reason not to have cake?). I'm going to try and practice here and there to get my baking skillz up to snuff.

So, I give these billions of white roses to you, readers. There might not be billions on the cake itself. But when you take into account the number that I wiped off and then redid, I'm sure it comes close to ten figures (I think that's the number of figures in a billion).

Even though you can't gustatorily share in these delicious white roses, I do want to give you a gift. Well, at least one of you. Also, I'm curious as to who is reading here this these days. So, if you leave me a comment telling me something that you luuuuuv, I will draw one name and send you a copy of Treasuring God in Our Traditions, one of my beloved books from January's reading. (If only a few of you leave a comment, then you might all get one!) Or if you don't want that, perhaps you would like a Chick-fil-a coupon? I'll think of something. I'd just like to know who's out there so tell me hello!

And stay tuned because this month my theme is going to be leprechauns. ;o)

Everyone Loves Baby John

2011-02-28T09:30:00.000-08:00

John being lavished with attention. He's even kind of like "Ladies, can I have some space here? There's only so much of me to go around!"

When I became pregnant with John, I was unsure of the reception that I would get from some of my family and friends. I was worried that my mother wasn't ready to be a grandmother since she is only 29 ( she has been 29 for a few years). Not many 29 year olds are prepared for the rigorous doting that grandmotherhood requires. My sister has a very demanding academic and social schedule. And some of my closest friends are ambitious career people and world travelers.

I was uncertain how they would feel about a baby.

I'm not trying to imply that my family and friends are ogres who eat small children for breakfast. This was more my lack of faith than anything about them.

I couldn't have been more wrong about their response. I have been wonderfully surprised by the love that has been lavished on my son. (True, who could resist John?!)

My sister is so good with him. She holds him and plays with him and is a good sport when he gets a death-grip on her hair. When I am in San Antonio, all of her friends come over asking to see him and commenting on all of the pictures that she has posted of him on facebook. They even want to peek in on him when he's sleeping. And though she usually is too busy to answer when I call, she does have time to text me asking about baby John.

My friends love him as well and have been nothing but supportive and excited. They buy him stylish hipster-type gifts and bid me give him many kisses on their behalf in their absence. You should see how they break out the cameras when they're around him. You would think Brangelina was in the room.

And my mother, John has won her over. She doesn't even hold it against him that he gave her a title that is boasted mostly by old people (of which my mother is definitely not- let me remind you, she is only 29). She definitely likes John better than she likes me. And this is okay with me, provided that I can still stay at her house when baby John comes to visit. This was evident one night a few months ago when I was visiting San Antonio. She and I were both leaving town the next morning. As she went to bed she said "John is so sweet! Tell Baby John (who was already asleep) goodnight and goodbye for me!" Then she retreated to her room.

"Mom! Mooooom!", I called after her, "You didn't say goodbye and goodnight to me! You just told me to tell baby John goodbye and goodnight! Surely you still must have some regard for me I am Baby John's mother, after all!"

She soon rectified this with goodnights, goodbyes, hugs and kisses all around. But it's obvious to me that I must stay in Baby John's good graces. If not, I fear I'll get written out of the will.

I've been surprised by the way that this outpouring of love towards John has affected me. I feel so loved because he is so loved. I don't quite understand it and I feel that I'm only at the tip of the iceberg of something that I can't even explain. All I can say is that the love shown towards him has been so affirming to me in a way that I didn't even know that I needed affirmation. And I'm grateful for it.

For My Love

2011-02-20T13:00:00.000-08:00

Dancing in the Minefields by Andrew Peterson:

I was nineteen, you were twenty-one
The year we got engaged
Everyone said we were much too young
But we did it anyway

We bought our rings for forty each
From a pawn shop down the road
We made our vows and took the leap
Now fifteen years ago

We went dancing in the minefields
We went sailing in the storm
And it was harder than we dreamed
But I believe that's what the promise is for

"I do" are the two most famous last words
The beginning of the end
But to lose your life for another I've heard
Is a good place to begin

'Cause the only way to find your life
Is to lay your own life down
And I believe it's an easy price
For the life that we have found

And we're dancing in the minefields
We're sailing in the storm
This is harder than we dreamed
But I believe that's what the promise is for

So when I lose my way, find me
When I loose love's chains, bind me
At the end of all my faith, till the end of all my days
When I forget my name, remind me

'Cause we bear the light of the Son of Man
So there's nothing left to fear
So I'll walk with you in the shadowlands
Till the shadows disappear

'Cause he promised not to leave us
And his promises are true
So in the face of all this chaos, baby,
I can dance with you

The course of true luuuuuuuv never did run smooth

2011-02-19T18:09:00.000-08:00

Valentine's might be over (I hope you all ate chocolate, sniffed roses and snuggled with your luuuuv all day long!) but I have a few more luuuuuuuuuv posts to go. And this one is my own love story. The title is another Shakespeare quote. I've quoted him a lot this month; that fellow wrote a lot about love! And that sentiment is certainly true of my love story with Peter. It was a bumpy ride. For me anyways. I think Peter might have sailed merrily along through all of this....

Peter and I met as sophmores in high school at the tender age of 15. But it wasn't until we had attained the ripe old age and accompanying maturity of 17 that we began dating (I guess Peter was 18, which means he was even more mature). It was our senior year.

It was a predictably immature high school romance. We dated several months and then, tragically and surprisingly, our feelings changed. So we broke up. We went our separate ways but to the same university- Texas A&M. This wasn't on purpose. This happened because I was stupid enough to only apply to one public school in Texas and A&M was it. When it was determined that the finances were not available to go to a private school, I had no choice. I'm really the most pitiful Aggie a person has ever seen. I have regrets about my choice of colleges but I suppose if I hadn't gone there then I wouldn't be telling this story (and I'm so glad I am!).

My freshman year was so hard for me. I had had a close group of friends in high school and we spent hours upon hours together. This level of camaraderie has eluded me since those days. But never more so than that first year of college. It's not that I don't have good friends now. It's just that the amount of time you can spend just hanging out decreases rapidly outside of high school. In my experience, having less time to spend with friends really limits the depths of the relationships. None of my best friends went to A&M and I struggled to make strong relationships.

But Peter was there and we ended up doing things together by default since neither of us knew very many other people. This was uber unhealthy for me. In typical female fashion, I really wanted to still be good friends with my ex. In typical male fashion, Peter couldn't have cared less. Eventually there was some falling out, I don't presently remember what it was about (which will tell you how serious it must have been) and I stopped wanting his friendship and started hoping that he would die. "I don't actually want him to die because his family would miss him," I reasoned, "but it would be easier for me if he was dead."

It was a good thing to stop being friends with Peter though it left me even more lonely. But something was happening. Freshman year was difficult but it was a turning point in my life. A really wonderful thing occurred. I had always considered myself a Christian and had gone to college with a goal of getting closer to God. So I joined a freshman Bible study. I slowly realized that most of my beliefs actually contradicted teachings of Christianity. I realized that I either needed to believe and act like a Christian should or stop calling myself one. Though the latter was really never a valid option for me. So it came down to essentially changing my worldview from a secular-yet-quasi-spiritual, self-centered, materialistic, culturally acceptable one to a Biblical one. This was difficult and would have been impossible apart from God's grace. One of the most painful things was confronting the wickedness of my own heart. But, of course, that is why Christ came to die. Because we are all evil and in need of a savior. So there was pain but there was immense hope. And throughout my college years and beyond I continue to lean more and more on the promise of this hope in Christ that I had found.

Interestingly enough, across campus, Peter was having a similar experience. And these two experiences are really the crux of the story because had we not each become Christians, this story would be completely different. And it would have been more tragic than anything Shakespeare ever wrote. I shudder at the thought!

Fast forward to sometime Sophomore year. I no longer wish death on Peter and we've ended up going to the same church. We're not really friends but we have some common acquaintances and we can say hello to each other with no hard feelings.

One day around this time I'm sitting in my dorm room at my desk and I suddenly have the knowledge that I'm going to marry Peter. It just bombarded into my brain. I didn't put much stock in this revelation or make any wedding plans just yet. We hardly even spoke to each other except in passing! But I felt that it was an urging of the Holy Spirit and I knew I would just have to be patient to see if it came to pass.

Fast forward again to my senior year. I'm slightly frustrated by now because I felt like I was going to marry Peter but we're still merely acquaintances. I certainly wasn't making any of my life decisions based on a feeling I once had when I was sitting at my desk two years before. Besides, there was this nagging friendship with another guy from high school that always had the expectation of something more (in my mind anyways). So, I'm a senior in college and I have a mind full of possibilities but no actual dates. It's not that I was in a hurry to run down the aisle but I was anxious for a resolution to these two possibilities. One afternoon I was sitting in the chapel on campus and I prayed that God would bring just that- a resolution to these relationships so that I could either stop thinking about them or move forward with one or the other (or neither, not both!). And, similar to the time at my desk, I just knew that in three days I'd have an answer. Again, I felt this was an urging of the Holy Spirit but I would just have to wait to find out. It was a Tuesday.

On Friday Peter called and asked me out on a date! From then on was a whirlwind. We were married eleven months later. The eleven months we dated and the first year of our marriage were not without their rocky patches. I was having major struggles with grief over my dad dying in 2003. The years between his death and 2006 were difficult for me.

But I don't doubt for a minute God's grace in putting Peter and I together. We are so blessed to have each other. We are like minded in all the important areas including (especially!) outdoor recreation. If we had not both become Christians early in our college years I definitely would not be saying that. Because as far as we are from being Christ-like now, those two teenagers who first started dating over ten years ago were utterly without hope for this life or the next. We have a long way to go but we have Christ's righteousness that covers our sins and God's faithfulness to sustain us on our journey through this life. Our love story would not be if it were not for God who loved us first.

"In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth." Ephesians 1:8-10

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T09:30:00.000-08:00

Look out! A little chubby cupid is going to strike luuuuuuuuuuuv into your heart! Don't bother trying to resist (like you could...).

Now, where did I put that bow and arrow?

Perhaps I don't need any weapons to strike luuuuuuv into the world.

I think my cute face and squeezable baby flesh will do the trick.

We went to a very romantic pediatrician appointment this morning. Here are 9 month stats:

Weight: 21 lbs, 58% (my biggest baby in the world is no more!)
Height: 29 1/4 in, 81% (but he's still on the tall side!)
Head Circumference: 18 in, 63% (With an above average sized head! Because he's so smart....)

Much love to you all! (Watch out for cupids.)

Baby John: 9 months of Luuuuuuuv

2011-02-13T09:43:00.000-08:00

John turned nine months today and I cannot believe how the time has flown. He's knocking on the door of a year! It has been a while since I interviewed him so I sat down with him to get his take on life so far:

Mom (M): Baby John, thank you for taking the time to chat with me! I wanted to check in with you about what's going on as you approach your first birthday. What kinds of things are you doing?

It's getting harder to take pictures because he's always going after the camera

Baby John (BJ): Well, around six months, in a span of about a month, I learned to sit, crawl and pull up. And I've pretty much held steady since then. Though I am getting ever bolder regarding the distances I will crawl. I love to explore!

I'm also using a lot more consonant sounds in speech. I've been saying da da for a while and I know you are anxiously awaiting the ma ma. My receptive language is developing. I recognize my name and the word no (a tiresome word I've heard many times lately...).

I am thisclose to being able to wave hello! I'm also working on other signs like, eat, up, more, and please. I can't do these yet but I assume since you say them to me millions of times per day, I'll probably catch on soon.

I'm also working on my sense of entitlement. I really feel that if I want something, then it should be mine. I know this is an area where we tend to disagree. Hey! Let's agree to disagree, amirite?

For his nine month birthday we got him a car!

M: That's cute but I don't quite abide by the "agree to disagree" philosophy in this case. We'll revisit this more in the coming years, I'm sure. Since you are so accomplished at pulling up, when do you think you will walk?

BJ: You know mom, I really can't say. As long as I can hold onto something I can outstand anyone in line at the post office. It's the moving of my feet that eludes me. I don't know how you guys do it walking around on two feet all day!

M: It does have its challenges! But I'm curious, Baby John, what is the worst thing that can happen to you on any given day?

BJ: I'd definitely have to say nose wiping for this one. When you try to wipe the snot off from underneath my nose it sends me into back-arching, head-wagging paroxysms of despair!

Actually, that's not true. He was "helping" his dad clean out the car.

M: I've noticed. And why do you think this is?

BJ: Mom, I really can't answer that. There are several services rendered me throughout the day that I fail to appreciate. Changing my diaper and clothes are are other examples. Even though you insist that having a diaper change is far preferable to sitting in my own urine, sometimes it just irks me! I guess these things just take time out of my day that I could be having fun.

M: And what fun things do you like to do during your day?

BJ: I'm so glad you asked! I really like to be out and about. I usually get lots of attention, which I also love. Everyone always comments on how happy I am! Which, is 99% true but they don't know how cranky I can be sometimes when it's just you and me at home and I'm bored and tired.

I like being around people, I go to the nursery at church and also at the Y and I love both those places and they love me as well! I also like to go to baby time at the library. I love interacting with my peers there, they are often convenient for me to chew or pull up on.

I mostly love to be with you and dad, singing songs, reading books, playing toys, being thrown up in the air and caught, jogging, playing peek-a-boo. All sorts of things! But I don't like to sit still for very long, that's for sure!

M: I'm so glad that you are happy doing so many things! It is a joy for me to spend my days with you and it only gets better and better! Happy 9 month birthday! And, of course, never forget that I luuuuuuuuuuuuv you!

"One of the greatest pleasures in my life is paper."

luve is not luve*

2011-02-10T07:41:00.000-08:00

Today I'm posting one of my favorite Shakespearean sonnets. It also happens to be pretty much the only sonnet that I'm familiar with and it is a luuuuuuuuuv sonnet, of course:

Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

I first heard this sonnet in the movie adaptation Sense and Sensibility** with Emma Thompson and I was moved by it.

I love William's description of love. It's very idealistic. But that is the way many of us imagine that it should be: enduring through tumultuous circumstances, unwearied by the passage of time, remaining steadfast even to the "edge of doom". Yet is seems like in real life love is not like this. It is fickle. It comes and goes. Sometimes it even seems to turn into hate. For example, when you see two people who were once married, and presumably in love, now divorced and fighting each other tooth and nail over their season tickets to the opera and their cat while they badmouth each other to their children.

So where is the disconnect between what we think love should be and what it actually is? Why do we have so few examples of enduring love in our world?

Shakespeare concludes the sonnet by saying:

"If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved."

By that he means that if the glowing description of love that he's written about is proven to be false, then he must renounce his beliefs regarding the subject. Furthermore, he maintains that if he's wrong about the perfect nature of love, that no man has ever loved.

I was going to simply post the sonnet in honor of luuuuuuuv month but as I read it again, I was struck by that last couplet. I feel that Willie is wrong in his description of love and therefore that no man has ever loved. I also think that Shakespeare himself knew that the ideal that he holds up could never be found in a human heart. If you read any number of his plays you will see human depravity on flamboyant display- usually couched in bawdy humor with some fairies or specters thrown in.

A lot of what we, myself included, feel is love is nothing more than selfish fantasies, self-serving emotions and lust.

But Shakespeare isn't totally wrong because that perfect love does exist. The one that endures to doom. And it did endure to doom and not only that but it conquered doom. God is love. (1 John 4:8) He demonstrated his love to us in that while we were sinners Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10).

And for those who believe in Him, we must love. But not only that, we can love. Christ freed us from self and sin so that we can love each other. (Happy Valentine's Day!) And when we do love each other that is a sign that God abides in us and that His love is being perfected in us! (1 John 1:12). I don't even understand it. So often the love I give to others is terribly incomplete and riddled with selfishness. But then I must cast myself all the more on God's perfect love and it's gift of salvation.

Shakespeare was onto something. No man ever loved except One. And we love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

* When I was googling to find the sonnet I typed in "luve is not luve" by mistake. My brain, sometimes it's like "peace out." And then I have finagle my way through the day without it. If only I knew where it goes off to... probably Cancun.

** I will not definitively say that you cannot have a happy life if you haven't seen this movie but I can't fathom how you can. Though there are many things that I can't fathom, so it may be possible. ;o) (Watch the movie, is what I'm saying. Its my favorite!)

January Books

2011-02-09T06:30:00.000-08:00

This post is a bit of a cheat because I wrote it before I decided that my posts for the month would be luuuuuuuuuv-themed. But I think it works because I am a bibliophile and that essentially means book luuuuuuuuuuuver.

Last year a blogging friend of mine read over 50 books and she has 2 small children. I was duly inspired to set some reading goals for myself this year. My goal isn't 50, but I'm hoping to read maybe 1-2 per month. We're also starting a book club at my church and I joined a book club in my neighborhood so that I can meet more moms in the area.

So, I've got a lot of books to read! I'm hoping to write reviews each month. Here are my January books:

1. Humility: True Greatness by C.J. Mahaney

This was the January read for the church book club. This is a short book with a lot of food for thought. I loved it and would highly recommend it. I hesitate to write too much because many of the concepts in the book were so simple yet so challenging. He gave a lot of practical suggestions for cultivating humility. And he also spoke about why humility is important: it is at the heart of the gospel. The ultimate example being Christ who died for a stubborn, ungrateful and rebellious people. Definitely worth reading especially since it is short.

2. Treasuring God in our Traditions by Noel Piper

I luuuuuuuuuuuuuuv this book! I want everyone to read it! It is also very short. I have been looking forward to reading this for a long time. It is about family traditions (as you may have guessed). Growing up, my family really didn't have many customs specific to us. But I am so excited about forming traditions with Peter and our child(ren). I think there are so many opportunities to develop creative traditions that make life fun, remind us and teach our children where our hope lies. Noel Piper has a lot of inspiring ideas along those lines. I would highly recommend this book, it made me so happy!

3. Bringing Home the Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World's Most Coveted Handbag by Michael Tonello

This is the February book for my neighborhood book club. I think a book discussion group is a great way to make friends. You can get to know people really well because the literature introduces many topics that otherwise might never come up in conversation. The downside is that you're reading other people's book picks which are sometimes books that you would never choose. This can be a good way to branch out of a literature rut. But sometimes it ends up being just that: a book you would never choose. This book, is a memoir that I would not recommend.

It wasn't terrible. It was a decently fun and quick read. The writing was entertaining enough. But I feel that it added very little of value to my life.

It did provide a glimpse into a world that I will NEVER be apart of. The Birkin, for those of you who are not in the luxury goods market, is a high-end handbag that costs upwards of $10,000. Now, I might one day spend $10,000 on a handbag. But that will only be if it doubles as a bomb shelter, a babysitter, does my grocery shopping, cleans my house and allows me to eat handfuls of frosting without gaining a calorie.

The author of the book found a way to buy these handbags all over Europe and resell them on ebay, mostly to customers in the U.S. where they're more difficult to get. There were some funny encounters; like when the author had to hire a body guard to rescue a bag of his that was being "held hostage". But mostly it was a lot of him recounting his travels to exotic locales and what he ate and drank there. It became repetitive.

The one redeeming part of the book came towards the end when, after a family tragedy, he realized how empty are the excesses and extravagances of the luxury goods world. So he got out of the business. And then the book ended rather abruptly.

I have to admit, part of me wished I could have his job. He basically went shopping in exotic cities, posted things on eBay, and then made thousands of dollars (usually enough to cover his travel and then profit on top of that). That doesn't sound so bad! But I don't really think I'd fit into the luxury brands world. Somehow I don't think they'd take me seriously in my thrift shop couture.

Amore: Luuuuuuuuv Italian Style

2011-02-05T14:53:00.000-08:00

Ahhhh. Italiano, it is the language of love, is it not? Don't Italians spend their days cruising around on gondolas passionately singing about their feelings? Isn't it Valentine's Day every day in Italy?

Perhaps not, I've never been to Italy. But they do seem to have the reputation of being lovers over there.

Either way, spaghetti and meatballs: that says love. To Peter anyways. And not just spaghetti and meatballs but all types of food (especially free), as I mentioned in my last post. The way to his heart is through his stomach.

And you know one of the ways to my heart? Through the freezer.

I luuuuuuuv having meals in the freezer. It makes my heart so haaapeeeee. It takes a load off of me because I know if I have "one of those days" I can just defrost something without having to cook. Or if we go out of town and come home to a bare fridge, I have food already prepared. Or if just I go out of town with the wee one, Peter will be able to eat meals that aren't solely from Taco Cabana (or Chick-fil-A).

It's also a good way to love others. I wanted to have meals already prepared to give to people who are going through stressful times, for one reason or another.

Other people have loved our family very well through their willingness to bring us meals. Our church in Salt Lake City brought us food after John was born and our church in Houston did the same thing when we moved back. It was helpful beyond words!

Somewhere around the holidays we depleted our freezer meals. So my goal for February has been to stock back up. My plan is not to run out again but to replace meal by meal. Yesterday I began the process by making three batches of Meatballs and Red Sauce. I've posted this recipe before. It is one of our favorites.

So this type of luuuuuuuuv doesn't just have to be Italian, obviously. You can make French food or Mexican food, Icelandic or Greek. Whatever suits you (not that I know what Icelanders eat)! But if you do make some Italian food you should listen to the Italian-cookin' play list Peter made me:
That's Amore
Mambo Italiano

It's meager but fun. Let me know if you have any suggestions!

Who invented the freezer?? I hope that person won the Nobel Prize!

Buon appetito!

The Second Thing About Luuuuuv

2011-02-04T08:30:00.000-08:00

The second thing about love is that sometimes it makes you do crazy things that you might not do if you weren't blinded by passion.

Peter loves free food. (Between his love for food and my love for frosting, you would think that we would both be more rotund than we are...) And at times he will go to lengths to get it. Rarely have his sacrifices for freebies surpassed inconvenience. He might have to linger at work in the evening listening to a lecture to get free dinner, for example. But Wednesday night he went to lengths that surprised even me.

A few friends of ours were going to camp out over night at a Chick-Fil-A opening from 6 am on Wednesday until 6 am Thursday. Apparently when that store opens they let 100 people camp in their parking lot. Those who stay for 24 hours get a year's worth of free chicken sandwiches (52 coupons).

This all sounds nice and good except for the fact that we are having hard freezes and high winds.

Peter has some cold-weather camping gear which we lent to our friends to help them endure unto the end. We gave them our mummy sleeping bags, a 4-season tent, and our camping pads (pads that go under the sleeping bag cushioning you from the hard, unmerciful ground. Please, don't go camping without one).

Then yesterday evening I called one of our friends to see how they were holding up. They were doing fine. She also mentioned that there was still space left because 100 people hadn't shown up at 6 am and a few had left (I can't imagine why.). I relayed this information to Peter. I could immediately see the gears turning in his head. He couldn't have gone for 24 hours because he had to work, but he could go spend the night and still get the coupons.

"Leslie, that's like $300 worth of free food!" he said, his eyes lighting up.

"Indeed" I replied, unimpressed.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not one to turn my nose up at free food. But, for some strange reason, this did not sound like a good idea to me.

So, I left him to work out the details with our friends who were already camping while I went to exercise. I didn't think he'd do it. Especially not since we'd lent out all of our cold-weather gear. He only had long underwear left to keep him warm!

I was wrong. I called him on my way home and he was on his way to Chick-Fil-A without a sleeping bag, mattress pad or tent (but with his long underwear on!). There was room for him in one of the other tents, so he didn't have to sleep outside and he did have a few blankets. But I still don't know how he managed to stay warm (though he assured me that he did.).

And for spending an uncomfortable, frosty night on the unyielding ground of a Chick-Fil-A parking lot, he has 52 coupons for free chicken sandwiches to show! He was happy with the outcome. And I suppose this will be the Year of Chick-Fil-A in our house!

To paraphrase a quote from Shakespeare:

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the {stomach};
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind."
- A Midsummer Night's Dream

The first thing about luuuuuuv

2011-02-03T07:30:00.000-08:00

whipped topping dollops

The first thing about love is that it makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside. But when you're hubby is working long hours and it's freezing outside, sometimes you may need a little help. Enter: hot chocolate.

I love hot chocolate. I love drinking hot drinks of all kinds, coffee, wassail, tea. The problem is that I live in Houston. It's quite a rare thing here to get the right combination of cold weather and hot drinks so that you can appreciate them both simultaneously, each enhanced by the other. Usually, I just end up drinking the hot drinks and sweating through it.

Today, it was unquestionably a day for hot chocolate. It is cold, lows in the 20's. (The forecasters are predicting a "wintry mix" for tomorrow night. I don't know what that is but doesn't it sound delightful? I'm told it might mean snow!). So, I invited some friends over for some hot chocolate. Unfortunately, what didn't line up today was other people's schedules. Only one person could make it. But since I spend my winters here just waiting for the next time I can drink hot chocolate when it's cold, I decided to go ahead and do it up big.

I made this hot chocolate. This was really tasty. There might be better hot chocolate recipes out there with less high fructose corn syrup. But what I was really excited about were the whipped topping dollops that accompanied the hot chocolate. I think these are precious, precious, precious! I definitely hope to make them again. I used heath bars, cinnamon, and shaved Andes mints as toppings.

My friend and I had a lovely time and since there were only two of us, I have some leftover hot chocolate. It will hopefully get us to the weekend. Then the weather will warm up and we'll have to make some lemonade and go work on our tans. Such is a Texas winter.

I hope you all are staying warm and fuzzy!

Luuuuuuuuuuuv

2011-02-02T07:50:00.000-08:00

Happy February to you all! And what a month it is. When you hear the word February, don't you just think pink and lace paper hearts? Perhaps it's just me. It's the month of luuuuuuuuv! Don't you just love luuuuuuuv?

Actually, I think love is a strange word in our language. In other languages there are different words to describe various types of love. In English, however, I can say that I love Peter and I love frosting. And, to someone observing on a technical level, it would appear that perhaps I could have married a can of frosting and been just as happy (which, I'll admit, might come close to the truth in my case).

Since Nestle and Hallmark saw fit to fill this void in our lives between Christmas and Easter with Valentine's Day, I'm going to make luuuuuuuv the theme of my posts this month. I don't really know where this will go, but it seems like it could be fun. :o)

I've always enjoyed Valentine's Day. Even when I was single. I will not dismiss a holiday (as silly and consumer-motivated as it might be) that promotes the eating of chocolate!

Much luuuuuv to you all and hopefully I'll be able to think of some lovely things to write here this month. (Though, I know most of you only come for the pictures.)

Totally unrelated: When you come to this blog and it looks stupid (now, for example), I would just like you all to know that I know that it looks stupid. I am simply incapable of fixing it. I'm inept at most computer-y type things. I'm thankful enough that I can turn one on (because with many electronics, I can't even get that far). I'm trying to learn some design skills for the blog but it is very far from the top of my list of priorities.

Celebration of Life

2011-01-31T18:57:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was the Houston marathon and 1/2 marathon. This was one of my post-baby, get-back- into-shape fitness goals. Actually, the goal was originally the San Antonio 1/2 marathon in November but that just snuck up way too soon and I wasn't ready. So, the revised goal was the Houston 1/2 Marathon. I consider my goal met because we did 13.1 miles in one of our training runs. Unfortunately, I was unable to participate in the official race because my snuggle bunches of oats (That is, John.) was sick and my plans to send him to our church's nursery fell through. (He's doing better now!)

But, I am super proud of Peter who ran it much faster than he would have had I been with him! He got to run it with his brother Jacob, Jacob's wife Daniele, and his sister Julie who all came in town for the race. Way to go to all of them! Jacob, Daniele and Julie are 1/2 marathon aficionados now. They run one like every other month. Here's my tribute to two of them from their first 1/2 marathon. (Sorry for not writing a new tribute for you! Hope you'll excuse my laziness!)

Anyways, I've written before about my experience in running and how I have found it transformational in some ways that I couldn't really understand. Upon more reflection my thoughts have become slightly more cohesive.

I find it to be a unique celebration of life. I was struck both times I ran long races by how many people had overcome significant obstacles to get there (I use the term "ran" loosely as a three toed sloth could probably "run" faster than I did...) . Some were cancer survivors, some were running in memory of someone they'd lost, some were well-advanced in age. On man was running his 30th marathon, some were running their first in their 40's, 50's or 60's. It was quite a diverse group and everyone had their reasons for being there.

My story wasn't nearly as exciting as a lot of the other runners. I was young and healthy and needed a goal to motivate my exercise. But being so physically challenged, and seeing others overcoming diverse difficulties made me so thankful for life and health- thankful to God, the author of life and giver of health. It was, for me, an expression of the glory of this earthly life and body (1 Corin 15:40). Both temporal things as this life will end and this body will decay. But still both incredible gifts.

And both are a shadow of what is to come for those who hope in Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:50-58

"0 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."

The Best Things About Having a Sick Baby

2011-01-28T16:40:00.001-08:00

I have a sick baby. This morning he spiked a low grade fever and then in the afternoon, it rose to 101.4. He doesn't feel well. And it tugs at my heart to see him in such a pitiful state! Things aren't too serious. I spoke to the pediatrician's office and since he's eating, peeing, and the fever is amenable to tylenol, we're just waiting it out.

He goes back and forth between pitiful and cheerful. After his fever early in the afternoon, he rallied post nap and enjoyed scattering tupperware far and wide in the kitchen. But then he sunk into a listless daze and I put him to sleep.

I, of course, am not happy that he is ill, nor would I ever wish him to be sick but there is a silver lining: First of all, he has taken two two hour naps both yesterday and today. Hello, free time! The second is that he has been so snugly! Since the day he learned to roll over, his main purpose in life has been to quickly occupy any space which he is not presently occupying. Today, however, he willingly rocked with me, sat in my lap, and fell asleep in my arms twice.

I am praying that he will recover quickly and that he doesn't get any worse. But I'll take all the snuggling I can get.

Speaking of Uniqueness

2011-01-27T08:30:00.000-08:00

A few posts ago I wrote about my family's quirky holiday habit of discussing King Henry VIII. And that's really only a sliver of a fraction of the quirkiness that is my life. I most definitely wouldn't have it any other way.

A few days after Christmas I went to San Antonio to visit two of my best friends from high school who were in town. This is the three of us with our mothers. Vanessa is on the left, I'm in the middle and Jennifer on the right:

We all became very close in theater during high school. We preformed in probably half a dozen plays together. Which I think might be surprising to people who know me now. I don't think I come across as a flamboyant, dramatic type. But I have been known to deliver a line or two in my day: "Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth! Be bloody, bold and resolute; laugh to scorn the power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth!" My breakout role was playing the ghost of a bloody child in Macbeth. But my personal favorite was when we did A Midsummer Night's Dream. Vanessa and I were fairies. We were decked out in so much glitter that I think I got the last of it washed out of my hair just last week!

And our theatrical side still emerges from time to time. And, like a tempest, it whirls and swirls and often overtakes all others present. Like when we were all opening gifts together a few days after Christmas. We wanted to get a picture of all of us. Now, for most people, this would be simple enough. Not for us! Our photo session required rehearsals!

Kyle, the only male in the pictured, was also part of our theater crowd. He married Vanessa. We wanted a photo of all of us, so Kyle planned to set the timer on the camera. Then we proceeded to rehearse our themed pictures so that we could display our proper faces in quick succession to keep up with the rapid pace of the timed photos. And here are the results:

"More Somber"

"Smiling"

"Shock and Awe"

"Something Smells"

It is so nice to have friends around whom you can be yourself. (And not only that, but they actually like yourself.)

The best boys ever

2011-01-25T21:32:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I am just overwhelmed by how blessed I am. What did I do to deserve all of this? Nothing. I did nothing. And in fact, I don't deserve any of it. But God had been so kind and gracious to me.

Everything is fun and games until you get your nose eaten off by a two-toothed wonder.

I can't imagine a more perfect life on earth (except maybe if frosting was a health food). I managed to land a husband that is way out of my league. And he goes to work all day and sometimes all night so that I can sit at home and eat bon bons with my baby.

And there is no one who I would rather spend my days with than this little monkey (soon he'll be able to eat bon bons too!). Even with the diarrhea of late, I feel privileged to have such a cute little bottom to wipe!

Psalm 16

1 Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
I have no good apart from you.”

3 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,
in whom is all my delight.^b

4 The sorrows of those who run after^c another god shall multiply;
their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
or take their names on my lips.

5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.

6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.

8 I have set the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being^e rejoices;
my flesh also dwells secure.

10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption.^f

11 You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.