Check it out, we’re on the cover of the Pioneer Press today! It’s a neat story about our Twitter use.
It’s interesting and weird to see yourself in print like that. I think it was a nicely written story!
My biggest nervousness comes from thinking people will come to my blog and see my horrible blog design. *Shudders* I designed this like six years ago. I have a new one that I’m working on, but you know how slow things go these days…
I can’t believe Caleb will be one year old in just two weeks!
He said his first sentence today. He looked at the cat, who was sleeping on the couch, extended his hand (his version of waving looks more like giving the power or faith healing) and said “Ha titi!” Which was putting together “hi” and “kitty.” I was like, “Dude, that’s a sentence!” A couple of weeks ago, if I shut off a light, he’d say “Aight ffffffffff.” That means that the light is off. But, he never said the light is off, so it doesn’t count as his first sentence.
Today he learned how to whistle. He puckers up his lips and this low tone comes whistling out. When I whistle back to him, he laughs and claps, then tries to whistle again but can’t because he’s laughing. So, things have to be very calm for him to share it with you!
We read lots of stories and he has his favorites. He will get a book from his shelf and bring it to me, patting it. He’ll sit in my lap and rock back and forth while I read. He will respond to me now too. I’ll say, “Where’s the ducky?” and he’ll hit the page really hard where the ducky is. Then I say “Yay! That’s the ducky!” while he claps for himself. He especially loves the books I sing to him like Wheels on the Bus and Row Row Row Your Boat.
Man can Caleb crawl. I get stopped at church a lot by people telling me how fast my kid can crawl. Usually the words “wiggly,” “curious,” and “speedy” come up as well. That’s Caleb. Man he’s fast and he gets into everything.
He is starting to “help” with jobs around the house. He helps unload the dishwasher (emptying the silverware onto the floor), and he helps with the laundry. He will sit with me and either put clothes in or take clothes out of the washer. He will also “wash” his tray or the table if I give him a washcloth and say “Clean, clean, clean!” He grins and wipes it back and forth. He also pushes the laundry basket from the top of the stairs to my bedroom and then hands me things while I fold them. I think he enjoys making himself useful.
He has started walking, and has probably done about six steps in his peak performance. I think the biggest problem slowing down his walking, besides being awesome at crawling, is that he gets distracted half way through. It’s like, “I’m going to go to mommy! I’m almost there! Just go a little further… hey! What’s that over there! It’s shiny!” Then he plops down to go explore whatever it is that he saw.
Caleb LOVES the beach. We go there once a week and he especially loves patting down dirt that I shovel into a pile and “bear walking” back and forth in and out of the water. I’m looking for a good water activity we can do once it’s too cold to be on the public beeches. On a related note, I have learned that, when babies eat sand, the body does not digest it as we would hope.
Caleb also really enjoys being outside. He crawls around our whole backyard. He likes to go to the tree and pat it, then go to the flower bed and explore the plants, then go to the playground to play on everything (with my help), then crawl over to the back step and explore the garden hose hung on the wall. I’m looking forward to getting our back patio poured so it won’t be so dirty back there. But, I’ve had an attitude of “clothes can be washed” so I don’t care if he gets dirty.
Josh and I were removing some patio block and Caleb was “helping” us. There were lots of worms under the blocks and he was fascinated by them. He’d pick them up and they’d squirm and he’d get all excited. At one point, he started sucking on one and Josh and I said “EWWWWWWWWW!!!” while I took it out of his mouth. Ewwww, indeed.
Caleb’s buddy is Ella. He will call to her and she will come to him maybe 1/2 of the time he calls. He pets her nicely by stroking her back and rubbing her neck. Sometimes he pets her not-nicely by hitting her head, but we’re working on that. One time I was sitting on the couch with Caleb and Ella sat by us, he proceeded to pet her with his feet and laugh. I also caught Caleb trying to feed Ella a piece of fuzz. She turned her head away from it so he lifted up her lip and stuck it in there. I intervened just in time so poor Ella didn’t have to eat fuzz.
I have lots of pictures of loved ones that I’ve clothes-pinned around the lower levels of Caleb’s room. He takes them off and carries them around the house. Once he was looking at some pictures upside-down, I turned them the correct direction and then he turned his head sideways to look at them because he apparently wanted to look at them that way. Who knows.
He also loves music. He will point to our iPod dock and do the sign for music and I will turn on music for him. He rocks back and forth and claps. He also will “play” the piano, guitar, and banjo whenever I let him. We signed him up for Musikgarten for fall and I’m sure he’ll love it.
Caleb uses the following signs: Finished/All Done, Round-and-Round (sign for “spin,” we use for fans & wheels), Music, Dog (hard to tell if he’s doing the sign for dog or just patting in excitement), Art (which I’m teaching him is to be used for things framed and hung on a wall… for now), and Light. He also understands other signs I use with him, but has not signed them back, including Cat, Dad, Milk, Drink, Where, and More.
He has four teeth on top and two on the bottom. Based on his fussiness tonight and some gum swelling, I think more will be here soon. He likes to chew things.
I have been preparing most of his foods from the Petit Appetit Cookbook, which is the best baby cookbook I’ve found. Heck, I love the recipes from there! He eats mini muffins, baby biscotti (usually I dip it in peach juice for him), cooked vegetables, various beans & rices, pasta, egg yolks (hard boiled), cheeses (especially loves cottage cheese & ricotta & cheddar), fruits (especially loves berries), YoBaby yogurt, meats (especially turkey lunch meat and hamburger), corn puffs, and cereal puffs. I have been giving him ice cream cones too and he loves them. I just put a tiny bit of ice cream in those kid cones and he just laughs the whole time he eats it like he’s in some kind of fantasy world or something. It’s pretty funny… and messy!
Those are the basics of what he’s doing right now. What a little joy he is!
I finally started reading the Harry Potter books. I know, horribly late, how could I wait so long?, out of the loop, blah, blah, blah. The truth of the matter was that, when the books were all in fad, I was too busy reading other stuff regarding art, art history, teaching, cultural studies, technology and other mumbo jumbo to finish my California credential, National Board certification, then master’s degree. After that came the “O crap, do I really know how to be a parent?” books. The only fiction that filtered through all of those years was the Ender and Bean series by Orson Scott Card, a bunch of David Sedaris, and some random books that I started reading by chance and simply couldn’t put down.
I admit, I’ve seen all the Harry Potter movies that have come out. So, I’m doing things backwards by doing movies first and books second. I’m okay with that.
In retrospect, I’m actually glad that I waited for two reasons. First, I like being different from the culture and that means sometimes I purposefully avoid things that are “cool” just because they are so. Do your own psychological analysis on why I’m like that, but I’ve always been a tad rebellious and I figure this is a healthier way to rebel than other potential ways. Second, because now I can just plow through all the books without having to wait with baited breath for the next book to come out. They are all out and I can read them as quickly or leisurely as I want. I think this is why I don’t watch television anymore. I wait for the complete series of a show to come out (or a complete season, or at least individual shows), then I watch it at my own pace on Hulu or through Netflix. I guess this is just how I roll these days. I like to be in control of my viewing/reading pace rather than be at the whim of what the industry thinks is the most profitable and possible way to feed their media to the public. I digress…
So, the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, was quite good. I quick little read. I loved all of the little details in it that the movie did not have. I am almost done with the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Funny thing is that I told Josh I wanted to read the book, then watch the movie, then read the next book, and watch that movie, and so on. Well, we started watching the Sorcerer’s Stone movie yesterday, but I was reading The Chamber of Secrets. I’d watch part of Sorcerer’s Stone, then Caleb would wake up and I’d read Chamber of Secrets while I nursed him back down. Then I’d go downstairs to watch some more Sorcerer’s Stone, only to have Caleb wake up again, so I’d read some more Chamber of Secrets while getting him back to sleep, then back downstairs to watch the Sorcerer’s Stone. My brain had to work really hard not to confuse the plots.
And seriously, I must say that the Harry Potter series is perfectly cast. Especially Alan Rickman as Professor Severus Snape. Seriously. That dude’s awesome.
All of this being said, I’m enjoying the books. Hopefully I’ll be able to get my hands on books 3 & 4 to read at the stuga this weekend.
While we were staying with my parents in February 2008, we heard a loud noise upstairs. My dad came inside the house and said a goshawk was chasing the pigeons. We looked on the dining room window and saw this print of a flying pigeon on the window. Turns out this pigeon ran straight into the window while trying to outfly the goshawk. The pigeon died (we found him below the window outside). But, isn’t it weird that this perfect imprint was left on the window? Must’ve been the dust in his feathers or something. Check out the detail, it’s creepy!
I was out in our yard today with Ella and Caleb. Ella was just sniffing around like usual while Caleb and I were on the swings. Then I heard this loud “Reeeee!” sound and saw three baby bunnies go bolting across the yard in different directions. Ella was standing over something with her tail wagging wildly. Caleb and I went over there and I saw a baby bunny writhing, then lay still.
It was so weird because Ella seems like this sweet, caring dog. But, something in her “ran a procedure buried deep in her ROM,” as Josh said. It’s crazy how dogs are bred for specific purposes and there are some things in them that you just can’t train out of them. It reminds me to be extra careful in selecting the breed of dog you want to welcome into your home. Ella’s breed, the miniature dachshund was developed to hunt rabbits. And that she does.
Sidenote: When we were staying with my parents during our in-between California and Minnesota time, Henson was with my dad outside. A rabbit went across the yard and my dad shouted, “Get him!” Henson took off after the rabbit, chased him through the woods, and came back carrying a hunk of fur in his teeth. So, Henson was serious about some bunny hunting too. He passed away a few weeks ago and we miss him, he was our little buddy.
I went to the doctor today for a consult before I attempted to get pregnant again (because of my miscarriage history). I left thinking about God’s sovereignty and humans worshipping at the idol of data (I had some metropolis-like imagery of humans worshipping a giant computer in my head at this point, but that’s neither here nor there.).
The doctor told me that “the data now shows” that women shouldn’t get pregnant earlier than 18 months after giving birth. Other than opinions of child-spacing, I hadn’t heard this from a medical standpoint before. I asked her why and she said that women who did so had a higher risk of anemia. I asked her to tell me more about anemia and she said it had side effects such as exhaustion and feeling too tired to get up and work (at which I said, “Man, I must already have anemia!” She didn’t think it was funny. I followed this up by saying, “Isn’t that just the sign of new parents? Exhausted? Too tired to do work?” Again, she was clearly not amused, which made me question if I ever wanted to see her again. How can you not think that’s funny!?! So sad.).
So, I asked her what the chances were of getting anemia and she said she did “not have access to that data.” So, I’m thinking, do half of all women get it? Or like 1 in 10,000? Because, if we’re going to be swinging data around to help me determine my life’s path, then I want to know all of the data.
I feel afraid for this information age. I feel that many have replaced God with data and statistics and market analysis and anything else that gets run through a computer. When you are afraid, see what the data tells you to find strength in. When you are hopeless, the data will tell you your best shot at success. When you have given up, the data will give you the strength to carry on (or tell you if you were right to give up!).
This reminds me of when my dad used to do his research at the University and, after giving years worth of data to the statistician, would be asked, “And how do you want this data to read?” Meaning, what is your report on so we can skew the data in your favor? My dad would usually respond, “Just run the numbers and you tell me if you see anything worthwhile. Then we’ll know how it reads.” He was a rebel.
The thing that data-worshippers are missing is that data and statistics can be manipulated in so many ways. Regardless of what the numbers say, human error has it’s fingerprints all over most data (poorly written measuring tools, personal bias, skewing of numbers, leaving out pertinent information, etc.) It isn’t something you can trust, and it isn’t something you should lean on as your life’s guide. And it definitely isn’t something to stake your life on.
Granted, I’m not saying that looking at data is bad or evil. I think there are times when data is very relevant and very telling. But, in this case, I think it’s probably not as big of a deal as my doctor made it out to be. (But, if I come on later and announce that I have anemia, you can toss out a quality Nelson Muntz “Ha-HA!” to me…)
In the end, I trust God’s sovereign plan for my life. He will decide how many babies I lose, and how many babies I give birth to, and how many children we adopt. Whether it be many or none. He rules over my family and I yield to Him. I trust him far more than anything spit out by a computer.
I was giving information at my new medical clinic and they asked me, among other questions, what my occupation was. I answered, “Homemaker.” I still cringe a bit when I say it, probably mostly because I’m worried that the person I’m talking to will think homemakers are lame. (I read a study recently that said much of America’s population thinks homemakers contribute to society the same as the elderly, blind, and retarded. It’s a terrible study on many fronts, but I won’t go into all that here.)
The girl I was giving the information to reviewed the information and, when she got to occupation, said “Unemployed.” I stopped her. I said, “No, I’m not unemployed, I’m a homemaker.” And she said, “Well, you don’t have a job, so that would make you unemployed.” I responded that the word “unemployed” insinuated that I was without or looking for work, and that that was not the case.
She was clearly frustrated with me at this point and explained that her pulldown menu didn’t have “homemaker” on it. So, I told her to select “education” or “maid” or “counselor” or “manager” or some other job that described a sliver of what I do. She said she couldn’t do that because it would be lying. So, I copped out a bit (poor girl) and said, “I’ve been a teacher for many years, I have my master’s degree in education, why don’t you just mark me as ‘Education’ then.” She was satisfied with that.
Ugh. I hate stuff like this.
After I ordered some invitations through Apple, I got an e-mail:
From: Apple
Subject: IMPORTANT: Billing Problem
Thinking that it was something messed up with the invites I just ordered, I opened the e-mail. It had Apple images, even Apple’s font. It said:
“We were unable to process your most recent payment. Did you recently change your bank, phone number or credit card?
“To ensure that your service is not interrupted, please update your billing information by clicking here , After a few clicks, just verify the information you entered is correct.”
I should have noticed the typos. I should have noticed the lame way it was written. I clicked on the link. The site looked like Apple’s site. It even said that if I had questions I could call 1-800-myapple for help, which I know is Apple’s number. The website asked for my name, address, credit card, social security #, mother’s maiden name…. I thought, “They already know my name and address, why would they request it? (Flag!) Since when do businesses need a social security # or my mother’s maiden name to make a transaction (Flag!).”
I looked at the web address, which was NOT Apple’s site. Here’s a fake version of what it looked like (I don’t want to give the real one lest the bastards get web traffic): http://somelamecompanyname.net/www.apple.com. Case closed, this is clearly an example of phishing.
I realize that this is obvious to most of my friends who read this blog. But, I worry about those who are not in-the-know and just want to over-emphasize my suggestions.
Normally I wouldn’t have even gone for the e-mail I got. But, I just happened to get it a few minutes after doing a transaction with Apple. I assume it was a coincidence. And, let it also be known that I just tried to go to that fake site to get a screenshot of it for this post, but it was gone. Gee, I wonder why.
For those who didn’t know about this kind of thing happening on the Net, you have been warned. Think about it. Keep it in your head.
Today, Caleb and I were hanging out in the yard with the dogs. Though he had been saying “Ella” for quite some time now, the dogs never paid any attention to him. Today, that changed. He looked at Ella, raised his hand, and said, “Ella! Ella! Ella-ella-ella-ella!” And she actually came to him! She looked up and ran right over. Boy did Caleb freak out.
Later, today, when we were inside, he picked up Henson’s toy, looked at him, raised the toy in the air, and tried his “Ella” call again. Henson ignored him, but Ella came out from under a blanket and came up to him. She licked him and he handed her the toy. (Henson came over and snatched the toy from her because that’s just the way he is.)
My boy sure does love his doggies.
My failures as a parent currently include the following:
1. Animal Sounds
We have an animal book that is really fantastic. I point to the pictures and say, “This is a lion, he says ROAR!” Caleb loves it. We read this book more than any other book and Caleb looks at it by himself a lot, turning the pages back and forth, banging on it, and babbling on about it. Anyway, there I so many animals that I have no sound for. Hippo? Giraffe? Koala? Meerkat? Is there some kind of animal sound parental tutorial I can take?
2. Girly Fingernails
I hate cutting baby fingernails. They grow way too fast and are sharp little things, so you have to keep on top of it. But, I’m bad at it. They get long and I usually don’t cut them until I notice scratches on my skin from him squeezing my arm flab too hard. I have to wait until he’s in a deep sleep, then trim them very quickly and carefully lest I wake him. There have been so many times I put him down to sleep thinking, “I have to cut his nails this time.” And then I forget. And they grow longer. And I get my arm flab pinched some more.
3. Booklight Attachment
Around this age, babies will often develop an attachment to a favorite toy or blanket. My child is attached to my bright pink booklight. I’ve kept it at my bedside ever since he was born so that I could read in the dark rooms where he nursed and fell asleep. He knows where I keep it and will get it and carry it around the house. He loves the bendy neck on it, the clip is a source of endless joy, and he also knows how to hit the button to turn it on, dim it, and then turn it off. My kid is weird. I’ve been trying to get him to attach to Grover, but so far it’s not working. I could hide my booklight and make him go cold turkey, but then I wouldn’t be able to read in the dark anymore.
