Sunday, November 19, 2006

This Week in Babyland

Perry found the playing cards with Santa Claus drinking a coke by the Christmas Tree with the children. He looked at it closely, and then said, “Drinking beer. Drinking beer.” That, I’m sure, will give you insight into what we do and do not drink in our house.

Ok, this next one was a couple of weeks ago, but I’ll tell it anyway because I haven’t yet and it’s so funny… Perry was supposed to be eating a chicken drumstick. We told him to eat his chicken. He picked it up, looked at it and said “Chicken. Brock, brock. Cute chicken. Awww. Cute. Eye, eye (and for this he pointed to the hip joint).” Then he took a huge bite out of it. David and I just looked at each other with humored and horrified faces. Hey, if he eats it, right?

Today we found a rubber band in Daisy’s diaper. And yes, we’re sure it didn’t just fall in there. She had eaten it.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Giving Our Children More Than We Had


Whether we admit it to ourselves or not, at least some part of our parenting philosophy stems from a desire to give our children what we did not receive when we were young. In my case, I’m not lamenting material things. I couldn't care less about not having a zillion Barbie dolls or about always getting wise to the “current” clothing fad just when everyone else was moving onto the next one. Despite our loving families’ attempts to lavish our children with toys and clothes, David and I are really simplistic people. We feel like the more stuff we own, the more our stuff owns us (and believe me, we’ve moved enough times to feel this acutely). No, what I really feel I want to give my children are opportunities. And by opportunities I don’t mean activities like gymnastics class, violin lessons and underwater basket-weaving classes (though that may come in handy some day!). I guess what I really want them to have are chances to discover who they are–-who God has created them to be—so that they can confidently go out there and be that specific Perry and that specific Daisy.

Example from my own life:

When I was in elementary school, the teacher got the whole class together and asked each student in turn what subject they really liked the most. She wrote it on the blackboard and then, next to it, wrote a list of careers that child might want to pursue. Students that liked science were told that they would make excellent doctors and those that liked math, engineers…that sort of thing. When the teacher came to me, I told her that I loved handwriting. She was dumbfounded. With a big smile I anticipated her response. “What can I do with handwriting?” I asked her. “Well, you…you can’t do anything with handwriting.” She said. I was crushed.

At another point in my childhood I was in girl scouts and the leader was asking all of us what we wanted to be when we grew up. I told her that I wanted to join the circus. “But what do you want to do?” I didn’t know what to answer so I just “changed my mind” and told her what the other girls did “I mean, I want to be a ballerina.” That seemed to satisfy her, though on a practicality scale, I think they both probably fall equally as low.

I’m not complaining about my life. These past 2 years, 3 in January, that I have been a wife, and shortly after that a mother, have been the happiest of my life. I wouldn’t trade them for P.T. Barnum himself. But for my kids, I want them to reach for the stars, even if I know they will fall short. Right now Perry likes to listen to stories, and sometimes he likes to “read” or “sing” them to himself. I pray that I will always be able to come up with encouraging and creative ways for him to express his gifts and abilities. And Daisy, well, if she wants to fallow me around the house and whine until I pick her up, but be happy and contented as long as she is loved and snuggled; I am happy to accommodate her for as long as this is her life’s desire.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Mommy Time

Did anyone warn you when you signed up to be a mommy that you’d be giving up some personal time? I guess I shouldn’t say “some” personal time. I’m not complaining about the middle of the night when you thought you’d actually get some sleep. I remember when Perry was first born. I had read that babies got up in the middle of the night to nurse—but for some reason I didn’t connect that with me having to actually get up out of bed while my husband lay fast asleep and oblivious to my middle of the night exertions. I trekked all the way upstairs, trying to stay awake while little Perry nursed himself back to sleep. I learned better with Daisy and she stayed in our room. I was really only concerned that we’d wake David up and since he slept so blissfully through Perry’s night feedings, I thought he probably could through Daisy’s as well. He did. But really, both my children only wanted to wake up and nurse during the night until they were 8 weeks old. So this is really overlookable.

I’m not really complaining about my lack of personal time while I’m trying to cook, either. I mean, I used to enjoy cooking. To savor the experience. To try out new recipes from posh chefs. To taste-test every-so-often and add a little pinch of the this and a little pinch of that until I had prepared a meal delightful to all the senses (for more info on my former cooking neuroses visit my brother’s blog, http://dinnerandamoviewiththenomadchef.blogspot.com/. He’s only slightly worse than myself). Cooking now is like running a marathon—I try to see if I can prepare a somewhat edible meal in less time than my previous attempt . Every member of the house is hungry, including myself—which make me really grumpy. Perry clings to my leg and whines “See, see” which means that he wants me to pick him up so that he can see what I’m doing. But mind you, I’m stir-frying veggies over a hot skillet. The last thing I want to do is to pick him up and dangle him over the steam. Daisy wiggles/crawls herself into the kitchen and does her little whiney cry. Every time I walk past her to get a knife out of the drawer or something from the fridge, she turns to face me, tries to wiggle/crawl over to my new location, and cries louder. Wow, reading over this, it seems like this is a big thing to complain about. But they don’t do this every evening. Some days are just better than others.

Right now my biggest pet peeve revolves around not, as far as they babies are concerned, being allowed to have private bathroom privileges. Almost every time I go into the bathroom and, um, sit down, Perry comes in after me with a big smile and starts to play with all the magazines in the magazine rack on the floor. He pulls them out, points to the people and wants me to read to him. Daisy eventually wanders in, in her own chubby, wiggly way, and whines at me to pick her up. Let me remind you her that I’m sitting on the toilet! Not only would it be nice to have a little bit of privacy for privacy’s sake, but how about just a moment to think and regroup.

David says I bring it on myself. After all, I’m the one that leaves the door to the bathroom ajar. And you know, sitting here writing it all out I can see that he does indeed have a point. But, see, Perry’s got the sonar that when any door of the house is shut, he can sense it. He immediately runs over and tries to open it, and when that doesn’t work, he cries and bangs on it until someone opens it for him. So even if I were to shut the door, I wouldn’t really be having any private moments anyway.

“How on earth are you able to write this blog, then” you ask, “if you don’t even have any free time to yourself in which to think clearly let alone formulate grammatically correct sentences?” Well, the babies are napping now. And you know what? I miss them.

Monday, October 23, 2006

It is Monday morning. 8:40am. I go in with the babies to wake David up. I plop them down onto the bed to snuggle him awake and I sit in front of the computer to check my e-mail.

"Have you posted on your blog lately?" David asks.

"No."

"You should."

"When?" (with sarcasm) "There's no time when I'm free that you're not on the computer.

"Right now."

"Right now?! With Daisy crying because she'd rather get down on the floor and play and Perry roaming around the room looking for things to break? Yeah, this is a perfect time."

"Just two lines. You can write just two lines. You're getting to be as bad as your Uncle Oliver."

Oliver hasn't updated his blog in who knows how long. I take the opportunity. Daisy stopped crying. Perry really hasn't broken anything...yet.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Anecdotes

I had given Perry some meatballs earlier today and when he finished them I took him out of his seat and left his bowl on the table. Then I went out to do the laundry. When I came back in, he had put the bowl with the left-over meatballs on the floor. He was squatting beside it and in front of Daisy (now 6 months)--trying to give her a bite off of his little plastic fork and saying "meatball" over and over again. Daisy just licked her lips. In his mind I guess this wasn't very new. For quite some time now he's been trying to stick a pacifier in her mouth. And he frequently tries to stick his own fingers in there. So why not food? Never before has she so enjoyed what he's given her. It was so cute! I stopped him and told him that it was very sweet of him, but that she was too little for his meatballs. Then I told Daisy that her brother must love her so much to share his yummy food with her. She smiled and laughed--I think she can tell he loves her.

I often tell Perry to go talk or sing to Daisy when she gets upset. And he usually succeeds in cheering her up. While washing dishes today I heard Perry laughing and I peeked my head around the corner into the living room. I could see him lying on his side next to Daisy on the blanket that lay on the floor, smiling and talking to her. The other day I was sitting on the sofa burping her and Perry was sitting next to me. Like her age dictates, she was sticking her tongue out. Perry thought this was hilarious. So he started sticking his tongue out at her, with intermittent laughs.

I guess this is all to answer the question I hear so often: "How is Perry doing with his younger sister?"

Now when he's been separated from her, he looks forward to seeing her again. Like when he wakes up from his nap or when she wakes up from her's, or when he's been visiting my in-laws down the street. He longingly calls out her name now just as often as he calls for "Mommy" or "Daddy." It's heart-warming to see him start to show love for her, and to see her genuinely return his love the only way she can--with a smile and a giggle.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

A BLOG!?!

I'm sure that's what David will say when I tell him that I've started my own blog. He's got his own, and has had it for a year or so (http://www.davesisland.blogspot.com/). His questioning won't be out of hypocrisy, just puzzled humor.

When he first started his blog I laughed. "That's so stupid!" I said. "The average net surfer isn't going to want to read about you. Some day in the not so distant future, when we've done away with all other forms of media, some scientist who's been working on a cure for cancer for years and years and years will finally find it and want to post his discovery on the internet but he won't be able to. It will be full. Full of people's silly personal blogs. There just won't be any more room." So who's the hypocrite now?

Perhaps my reasons for starting this blog will be justification enough?

My hope is that I'll be able to keep this up-to-date with information about my family, and particularly about my children Perry and Daisy, so that my family will be able to see/read how we are doing. Since I married a Nomad, you never know when we'll be moving next and which members of our local family will find themselves suddenly separated from our babies and will be very interested in this blog.