9.28.2012
When it gets personal
I’ve been wanting to have a conversation with Kent about
gay marriage for a long time now, ever since I found out last year about
Chick-Fil-A’s “charitable” contributions to Focus on the Family. We had been regular attendees with friends at
Chick-Fil-A’s family night, scoring a free kid’s meal and fun activities and
generally enjoying the kind employees and kid-friendly atmosphere. I thought Chick-Fil-A was fantastic. And then I found out almost a year ago that
whenever I bought a salad or a milkshake or a fruit cup for my kids, some of my
money was going to organizations that directly oppose one of my most fervent
beliefs, that of the right of two adults in a loving relationship to marry each
other, even if they happen to be of the same gender. This was long before Chick-Fil-A’s owner had
made public statements about his beliefs, spurring a nationwide debate—I was
having my own private boycott long before that.
When the flames leapt up this summer and suddenly *everyone* was talking
about Chick-Fil-A, I felt more than a little vindicated.
My dad was gay, so this is very personal for me. He and a lot of other people I knew boycotted
Cracker Barrel when it became known that the restaurant chain fired any
employee it found to be gay. (Cracker
Barrel reversed its policy several years later and now explicitly forbids
discrimination against gays and lesbians in its restaurants.) He also told me about visiting San Francisco
and not being able to order Coors in any bar because of the company’s anti-gay
policies and contributions. And while I
agree that a company has a right to contribute money to whichever organizations
they want to support, and even that the COO of a company has the right to say
crazy things, I also have the right not to give them any of my money to use in support of their beliefs.
About a month into my boycott, I found myself hungry,
driving past Chick-Fil-A, and I turned into the parking lot thinking, “Well,
maybe I can just get a sandwich anyway.”
But then I thought about my dad.
And I realized that I couldn’t stomach the idea of even one penny of my
money funding a hate group that saw my dad as less deserving of rights because
he wasn’t heterosexual. It was pretty
easy to turn back around and keep driving at that point.
Kent loved Chick-Fil-A, too, and he definitely noticed
that we weren’t going there anymore. But
he was four, and I had no idea how to explain it to him. The issue is just so big, and simultaneously so
personal, that I was afraid I was just going to start spewing vitriol about the
whole corporation if I got started, and I didn’t want it to be like that. So I skirted the issue each time he asked if
we could go there. I’m not so proud of
that. But I was kind of stuck mentally, turning it over in my head and trying to figure out what level he'd be capable of understanding.
The conversation finally began yesterday. I was talking to a friend about how her son Emerson has decided with Kent that they want to live together when they’re older. Emerson and Kent don’t want to get married necessarily,
just live together and possibly marry other people. (I told my friend that this was a relief to
me, since Kent had previously told us he wants to live with us forever and have
Dean move out. She said jokingly that
maybe Emerson was just planning to move in with *us*. Uh. We’ll hammer out the details later.)
In the same conversation, she mentioned that when
marrying someone of the same gender has come up with her kids, she’s explained
that some states just have “bad rules”, so they’d have to go to a different
state if they want to marry someone of their own gender. Bad rules.
Yes. Brilliant. I had my inspiration.
In the car on the way home from school, I begin. First I talk to him about how most men want
to marry women, but some men want to marry men because that’s who they
love. This makes sense to him (because
seriously, why shouldn’t it just MAKE SENSE??).
I say the same is true for women.
Then I say that unfortunately, not everybody believes that men ought to
be able to marry other men, even if that’s who they love, because they think
that if *most* people are a certain way, they think everyone ought to be that
way. I mention that in Virginia, men can’t
marry other men, but I use the word “yet” and convey to him that I think it’ll
eventually be okay in every state. He
asks about Louisiana, and I say no, it’s not okay in Louisiana either. Yet. Kent
seems to think it’s wildly unfair that men can’t marry men if they want to, if
that’s who they love, and I tell him that of course I agree with him. I tell him I think that by the time he’s a
grown-up, it’ll probably be okay everywhere, but it takes a long time for
people to change their minds. Then I
tell him I would be so sad if I was told that I couldn’t marry the person I
love, and then I ask him what if he had to feel that way, or Dean, or one of
their friends or their cousins? He’s
still worked up about it and can’t understand why anyone would want to prevent
marriage between two people who love each other and want to spend their lives
together.
Yes. Exactly.
We’ve been having another interesting issue in our house
lately surrounding the presidential campaign; namely, Kent supports Mitt
Romney. It literally started with me
talking about how I want President Obama to win the election, him asking,
“Who’s the other guy?”, me answering, “Mitt Romney,” and him saying, “Oh, I
like him better.” I have no doubts that
he supports Romney in an attempt to distance himself ideologically from us,
which is okay, but it makes for interesting conversations. Like what kind of yard signs we’re putting
up. And when I got my Obama sticker in
the mail, he asked when he could get a Romney sticker. Hmm. I
don’t want to quash his interest in politics by totally dismissing his
perspective, but I do feel a bit like an old codger, rolling my eyes and
saying, “You know, these kids today are just totally uninformed when it comes
to politics…”
Anyway, back to our conversation about gay marriage: sensing
an opportunity that I don’t want to let pass, I then mention that one of the
reasons I like President Obama so much is that he believes men ought to be able
to marry men if that’s who they love.
Kent asks, “What about Mitt Romney?”
I tell him Romney doesn’t believe men should be able to do that. Kent asks why. I reiterate how some people think everyone
should be the same, even if that’s not the way they feel or who they are
inside. Kent thinks for a minute, then
says, “Then I agree with Obama.”
MAJOR VICTORY AND DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONE ALL IN ONE!
I tell him it’s okay to like a candidate and not agree
with everything he says, so it’s okay if he still likes Mitt Romney, but I’ll
be interested to see where this leads, whether we’ll have more substantive
conversations about policy and politics in the coming weeks. That would be very exciting.
I also mention that there are different kinds of love,
love you have for your friends, and love you feel for a person you want to
marry, and that he might not feel the second kind until he’s a lot older. But I’m pretty sure he didn’t understand that
part at all. Because at the end of the
conversation, he exclaimed, “I’d better hurry up and marry Emerson while Obama
is still the president!”
We haven’t talked about Chick-Fil-A yet. He hardly ever asks anymore anyway, but I
figure if Chick-Fil-A comes up, he’ll already have a framework for understanding
why I won’t eat there anymore. And hey,
maybe Chick-Fil-A will make some progress, not just the hemming and hawing they’re
doing right now, and we might actually eat there again. I did like their salads. I would happily reward them for changing
their minds, because, as is becoming increasingly clear in our national conversation,
it *is* possible to be Christian and pro-gay marriage. I shied away from calling myself a Christian
in high school and college, because I felt like the Religious Right had a
stranglehold on Jesus and there wasn’t any room for me.
Thank God, literally, that that isn’t the case.
Labels: being political, church, Kent, my dad, observations, tying the knot
- posted by erica 9/28/2012 05:46:00 PM
- 7 comments
8.11.2010
Hello, stranger.
Kent is away. He's on a road trip with Jack's mom to Oklahoma for a family reunion, and Jack, Dean and I are going to fly up in two days to join them. Except for our hospital stay when Dean was born, this is Kent's first real time away from us. I know he's going to have a blast. I also know that, as much as I've been craving some time away from him and a chance for him to bond with a grandparent, I already miss him. He's so big, going on a road trip without me.
As soon as Dean and I came home from lunch, I got started on clearing off our monstrously messy computer desk. I sifted through a few papers and started organizing Kent's art supplies, and then I came across a folder from the first church women's retreat I attended a few years ago. They had given us notebook paper to jot down thoughts over the weekend, and I found a little mini-essay I had scrawled. I had completely forgotten about it, but as soon as I started reading, I remembered exactly what it felt like to visit Feliciana for the first time on that spring weekend, to sit outside on a bench overlooking the slope of pine trees and the glassy lake in the distance. It's a beautifully still space, a magical escape. What I saw was this:
"As I sat outside, I scanned the grounds and admired the slender long-leaf pines. The tallest and straightest caught my eye first, but then I noticed that not every tree had such a clear and unembellished way about it. Some forked early, with mighty branches reaching out in all directions. Others were smaller, younger. Before I knew it, I found myself searching for the most crooked that might stand in opposition to the straightness of the others. Suddenly, the trees became to me a community of individuals, each with its own separate path to the sky. Because, in spite of the twists, forks, and sideways growth, they were, all of them, stretching ultimately upward to be guided by the sun. They were all sisters and brothers, parents and children in a glorious lineage of greenness and vitality. How could I not look for that crooked pine? It was the one capable of reminding me that, though I have surface incongruities, I have a family. I also have something that is all my own — the spontaneous perfection of individualism that is treasured by God."
Keep in mind that I wrote this before children, before abandoning a PhD, before I took a hard look at my life and realized academia for its own sake was not my calling. And yet, I still knew that I was a crooked pine. I was grappling with my place in the world, and as usual, was crafting an elaborate analogy to explain it all.
I love being a mother. LOVE. My choices have led me right to this spot in life, this frustrating, exhausting, beautiful spot. I couldn't be luckier. But man, it's nice to have some time to be inside my own head again.
As soon as Dean and I came home from lunch, I got started on clearing off our monstrously messy computer desk. I sifted through a few papers and started organizing Kent's art supplies, and then I came across a folder from the first church women's retreat I attended a few years ago. They had given us notebook paper to jot down thoughts over the weekend, and I found a little mini-essay I had scrawled. I had completely forgotten about it, but as soon as I started reading, I remembered exactly what it felt like to visit Feliciana for the first time on that spring weekend, to sit outside on a bench overlooking the slope of pine trees and the glassy lake in the distance. It's a beautifully still space, a magical escape. What I saw was this:
"As I sat outside, I scanned the grounds and admired the slender long-leaf pines. The tallest and straightest caught my eye first, but then I noticed that not every tree had such a clear and unembellished way about it. Some forked early, with mighty branches reaching out in all directions. Others were smaller, younger. Before I knew it, I found myself searching for the most crooked that might stand in opposition to the straightness of the others. Suddenly, the trees became to me a community of individuals, each with its own separate path to the sky. Because, in spite of the twists, forks, and sideways growth, they were, all of them, stretching ultimately upward to be guided by the sun. They were all sisters and brothers, parents and children in a glorious lineage of greenness and vitality. How could I not look for that crooked pine? It was the one capable of reminding me that, though I have surface incongruities, I have a family. I also have something that is all my own — the spontaneous perfection of individualism that is treasured by God."
Keep in mind that I wrote this before children, before abandoning a PhD, before I took a hard look at my life and realized academia for its own sake was not my calling. And yet, I still knew that I was a crooked pine. I was grappling with my place in the world, and as usual, was crafting an elaborate analogy to explain it all.
I love being a mother. LOVE. My choices have led me right to this spot in life, this frustrating, exhausting, beautiful spot. I couldn't be luckier. But man, it's nice to have some time to be inside my own head again.
Labels: church, flora, Freude, observations, SAHM
- posted by erica 8/11/2010 02:13:00 PM
- 2 comments
12.21.2009
December 21
After two or three years of sitting on this idea and a bag full of holiday fabric from Ann, I finally got around to starting our family's reusable holiday gift bags. This represents an attempt to reduce the amount of wrapping paper we use for the gifts we give to each other, at least within our own household. I'm making various sizes, and they'll all have drawstring handles, like garbage bags, where you pull the loops and then tie them at the top. Again tonight, I found myself wanting to curse at my buttonholer (why can't I EVER get a buttonhole right the first time?!), but then I figured out what I was doing wrong and went on about my task. I finished this first bag, and as I was tying the bow at the top, feeling very proud of myself, I suddenly realized the flaw in my plan. Children of a certain age can untie bows, look inside bags, and tie them back again. Must think on this. Maybe the presents won't be going out until Christmas Eve. A friend of mine, whom I was telling about my conundrum, said she was getting a mental picture of a bunch of bags under our tree with combination locks on them.The bag has this much desired present inside it, a set of cookware for Kent's play kitchen. Note: this *is* what he wants for Christmas. A couple of months ago, he was "cooking" for me, and he was suddenly very dismayed that he didn't have a pan to cook pancakes in. It was the perfect opportunity to talk with him about Christmas gifts, so "a pan for making pancakes" has been what he's been focused on anytime someone asks him what he wants for Christmas, including Santa.
I finally put out the holiday table today. I've been changing our table seasonally for the past year or so, and it took me a while this year to get the pumpkins and fall leaves off the table and get the Christmas stuff on it. But here it is, in all its non-specific religiosity: the Nativity set, the glitter pine cone, the cinnamon Christmas tree ornament, and not pictured are the red candle and the snowman music globe. It reminds me a little of a holiday episode of Frasier in which Niles was describing the pluralistic holiday play he was participating in; the big finale was Santa and the Three Wise Men linking arms and singing "Frosty the Snowman".Kent is really precious when he's learning about Baby Jesus, his mommy and daddy, and the Wise Mens, as he calls them. (Unfortunately, our nativity set doesn't have any shepherds, but we'll get around to them, too.) I've been teaching him a few Christmas carols, starting with "Jingle Bells" — his favorite, because he gets to yell "HEY!" — and moving into the ones we'll probably sing at church on Christmas Eve. Gotta keep a 2.5-year-old interested somehow, though to his credit, he generally does a wonderful job of sitting quietly through most/all of our Sunday church service. I think he'll enjoy Lessons and Carols even more if he actually knows the carols. Since the lyrics of some of the songs are pretty difficult for him to grasp, I was telling him that "O Come, All Ye Faithful" is about Baby Jesus being born and everyone being so excited to come visit the new baby, so he now refers to it as "The Baby Song". Chuckle. There are a lot of baby songs.
Also, since he keeps singing "Happy Birthday" to one or both of his amused parents when we light the candle on our table, I told him that he could sing "Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus" instead, and that's some funny stuff.
Labels: church, craftiness, holidays, Kent, photography
- posted by erica 12/21/2009 08:54:00 PM
- 3 comments
6.14.2009
A little something to say...
We're having another baby!
The baby is due around February 6, and we'll be finding out the sex again, probably around September unless our midwife decides to do it earlier. Yep, that's right, midwife. I didn't have a bad experience with my OB, but I do think that a lot of doctors (mine included) tend to look at pregnancy and childbirth as something that's automatically dangerous and that should be scheduled/intervened if possible, rather than celebrating the birth of a child and facilitating what our bodies are meant to do. We have our first appointment with her on Thursday; I've heard such good things about this midwife and the others in her group that I made an appointment with her without even having met her. We'll still be birthing at a hospital, since the nearest birthing center is over an hour away in Lafayette, but I'm optimistic, especially since I had a low-intervention birth (i.e., no pain killers) with Kent at another hospital and know even more about what to expect from my body this time. This hospital, unlike the one where Kent was born, even has tubs for the mommies to use during labor. Woohoo!
So how am I feeling? Excited, but simultaneously rotten because I am in the First Trimester Land of Blah. The first week or so, I was mostly just tired, but then the slight nausea and general apathy toward food began, just as it had with my first pregnancy. What a great time to be getting baskets of produce from our CSA every week, when I barely feel like cooking most of the time! Our CSA season will end at the end of July, right around the time I start to feel better. Ironic, eh?
I've been jotting down a few thoughts in my journal and have been amazed at how differently I'm thinking about pregnancy now that I know how it ends and what's in store when we meet our little baby next winter. For example, instead of taking the pregnancy test at home, first thing in the morning, with Jack waiting dutifully out in the living room, I peed on a stick in the handicapped stall of Target with Kent standing right there. I had bought the test while I was doing some shopping and letting Jack get work done in their coffeeshop, and I thought, "You know, I really don't need to wait until I get home!" So I didn't. After I read the result, then was nearly the victim of a serious prank as Kent tried to open the stall door before my pants were zipped, I walked over to where Jack was sitting and plopped the test down in front of his laptop to tell him the news. There's not quite as much magic the second time, but it's still incredibly special in a different, more comfortable way.
There's such a small "unknown" factor this time, whereas when I was pregnant the first time, everything was new and weird. I'm able to reflect in a much more seasoned way this time, a bit like rereading a good novel. Here are some of my thoughts from today:
I think the Very Hungry Caterpillar would understand what it's like to be pregnant. He's constantly hungry, so he eats a lot of fruit, and then when he's still hungry, he eats a whole bunch of crap until he feels sick, and then finally he transforms into a new creation and will never go back to what he was. Motherhood is like that.
***
You realize that pregnancy is like no other time in your life when you find yourself craving ginger ale, so your husband suddenly pulls over so that you can go into a convenience store to get some, and then when you can't find ginger ale, you walk out holding an ice cream sandwich instead. And you haven't eaten or even wanted an ice cream sandwich in about four years.
***
Our church's choir director, Lois, another woman from the choir named Leslie, and their two beautiful daughters sang today's anthem, which was a lovely harmonized arrangement of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." Jack and I sat in the choir loft because there was no space in the sanctuary by the time we arrived, so we got to watch them instead of just hearing them as we usually would. Leslie and her daughter Rosa stood next to each other, Leslie with her hand on Rosa's back, and Lois and her daughter Johanna did virtually the same thing, being physically close and affectionate and then blending all of their voices together. It was a beautiful testament to mothers and daughters, and I looked at them and thought, "That's why I want a daughter." I'm letting myself want a girl this time. Before I knew that Kent was a boy, I knew I would love to have a daughter, but I was so burned by my recent miscarriage that I feared wanting anything other than a healthy full-term baby. I feel so blessed to have him that I no longer worry what I would do with a son. I know what I'd do — I would have two brothers who love each other and who bring me immense joy. But I'm letting myself want a daughter anyway, and if our new baby is a boy, it's a boy. The miracle of children is that we expand our hearts to love them in whatever form they join us, whether by birth or adoption, whether boy or girl, healthy or sick, whether they're what we expected or wildly different from any mental image we ever had.
I can't wait to see Kent as a big brother. He seems to understand that there's a baby in my belly, though I doubt any almost-2-year-old *really* understands what that means. He'll point to my belly and say, "Baby come OUT!" at which point I generally remind him that the baby has to grow and that he'll get to meet his little brother or sister soon enough. As the time gets closer, we plan to do a lot more to ease his transition into big brotherhood, but right now, it's still fairly abstract for all of us. Incidentally, if any of you has a suggestion for books/websites geared toward non-first-time parents, with info about introducing siblings or even "refresher" info about what to expect during your second pregnancy when it's not so much of a mystery, I'd really appreciate it.
Since Kent's pseudonym was "X" before we found out he was a boy, we had to pick another pseudonym for this baby. Jack suggested "Beta," and I found it appropriately nerdy. So s/he will be referred to as Beta until we know more about the identity of our tiny babe.
Baby. Again. Happy.
The baby is due around February 6, and we'll be finding out the sex again, probably around September unless our midwife decides to do it earlier. Yep, that's right, midwife. I didn't have a bad experience with my OB, but I do think that a lot of doctors (mine included) tend to look at pregnancy and childbirth as something that's automatically dangerous and that should be scheduled/intervened if possible, rather than celebrating the birth of a child and facilitating what our bodies are meant to do. We have our first appointment with her on Thursday; I've heard such good things about this midwife and the others in her group that I made an appointment with her without even having met her. We'll still be birthing at a hospital, since the nearest birthing center is over an hour away in Lafayette, but I'm optimistic, especially since I had a low-intervention birth (i.e., no pain killers) with Kent at another hospital and know even more about what to expect from my body this time. This hospital, unlike the one where Kent was born, even has tubs for the mommies to use during labor. Woohoo!
So how am I feeling? Excited, but simultaneously rotten because I am in the First Trimester Land of Blah. The first week or so, I was mostly just tired, but then the slight nausea and general apathy toward food began, just as it had with my first pregnancy. What a great time to be getting baskets of produce from our CSA every week, when I barely feel like cooking most of the time! Our CSA season will end at the end of July, right around the time I start to feel better. Ironic, eh?
I've been jotting down a few thoughts in my journal and have been amazed at how differently I'm thinking about pregnancy now that I know how it ends and what's in store when we meet our little baby next winter. For example, instead of taking the pregnancy test at home, first thing in the morning, with Jack waiting dutifully out in the living room, I peed on a stick in the handicapped stall of Target with Kent standing right there. I had bought the test while I was doing some shopping and letting Jack get work done in their coffeeshop, and I thought, "You know, I really don't need to wait until I get home!" So I didn't. After I read the result, then was nearly the victim of a serious prank as Kent tried to open the stall door before my pants were zipped, I walked over to where Jack was sitting and plopped the test down in front of his laptop to tell him the news. There's not quite as much magic the second time, but it's still incredibly special in a different, more comfortable way.
There's such a small "unknown" factor this time, whereas when I was pregnant the first time, everything was new and weird. I'm able to reflect in a much more seasoned way this time, a bit like rereading a good novel. Here are some of my thoughts from today:
I think the Very Hungry Caterpillar would understand what it's like to be pregnant. He's constantly hungry, so he eats a lot of fruit, and then when he's still hungry, he eats a whole bunch of crap until he feels sick, and then finally he transforms into a new creation and will never go back to what he was. Motherhood is like that.
***
You realize that pregnancy is like no other time in your life when you find yourself craving ginger ale, so your husband suddenly pulls over so that you can go into a convenience store to get some, and then when you can't find ginger ale, you walk out holding an ice cream sandwich instead. And you haven't eaten or even wanted an ice cream sandwich in about four years.
***
Our church's choir director, Lois, another woman from the choir named Leslie, and their two beautiful daughters sang today's anthem, which was a lovely harmonized arrangement of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." Jack and I sat in the choir loft because there was no space in the sanctuary by the time we arrived, so we got to watch them instead of just hearing them as we usually would. Leslie and her daughter Rosa stood next to each other, Leslie with her hand on Rosa's back, and Lois and her daughter Johanna did virtually the same thing, being physically close and affectionate and then blending all of their voices together. It was a beautiful testament to mothers and daughters, and I looked at them and thought, "That's why I want a daughter." I'm letting myself want a girl this time. Before I knew that Kent was a boy, I knew I would love to have a daughter, but I was so burned by my recent miscarriage that I feared wanting anything other than a healthy full-term baby. I feel so blessed to have him that I no longer worry what I would do with a son. I know what I'd do — I would have two brothers who love each other and who bring me immense joy. But I'm letting myself want a daughter anyway, and if our new baby is a boy, it's a boy. The miracle of children is that we expand our hearts to love them in whatever form they join us, whether by birth or adoption, whether boy or girl, healthy or sick, whether they're what we expected or wildly different from any mental image we ever had.
I can't wait to see Kent as a big brother. He seems to understand that there's a baby in my belly, though I doubt any almost-2-year-old *really* understands what that means. He'll point to my belly and say, "Baby come OUT!" at which point I generally remind him that the baby has to grow and that he'll get to meet his little brother or sister soon enough. As the time gets closer, we plan to do a lot more to ease his transition into big brotherhood, but right now, it's still fairly abstract for all of us. Incidentally, if any of you has a suggestion for books/websites geared toward non-first-time parents, with info about introducing siblings or even "refresher" info about what to expect during your second pregnancy when it's not so much of a mystery, I'd really appreciate it.
Since Kent's pseudonym was "X" before we found out he was a boy, we had to pick another pseudonym for this baby. Jack suggested "Beta," and I found it appropriately nerdy. So s/he will be referred to as Beta until we know more about the identity of our tiny babe.
Baby. Again. Happy.
Labels: belly, Beta, church, Dean, Freude, Kent
- posted by erica 6/14/2009 09:26:00 PM
- 11 comments
5.20.2009
Respite
Kent has gone to bed, and Jack is using his time wisely by cleaning the area around Kent's high chair and sweeping crumbs off the floor. He made a comment just now that it was nice to sweep without a meltdown (since Kent really wants to hold the broom when we sweep, and he gets pretty upset if we just want to finish quickly without his help). Sensing that Jack was missing his son, I offered to yell, "E sweep!" and try to grab the broom from him, then pick up the dustpan and carry it into another room, pull the cat's tail while he wasn't looking, pull something down off the counter, and then bring him a book that I wanted to read right at that moment. Jack said, "Um, I think I'll just sweep. Thanks."
It's funny because it's true. This could all happen in the span of about two minutes, if he were awake. We love our little boy more than I can express, but we like it when he goes to sleep.
Kent does manage to find moments of calm, though, like today, when I gave him a bowl of dry rigatoni noodles, two straws, and two chopsticks, and let him go to town. This was an offshoot of a suggestion in MaryAnn F. Kohl's First Art, which I've checked out from the library and think I need to own because of its awesome ideas and tips on letting toddlers explore with their hands. He entertained himself silently for about 20 minutes, just stringing the noodles onto said objects, pulling them off, dumping out the bowl of noodles, putting them all back, and doing it all over again. I actually had a chance to do some dishes and start a loaf of bread without stopping every couple of minutes to heal the emotional hurts that are a regular part of his day as a Busy, Inquisitive Toddler. The quiet time was nice, but it was also cool because I know he's working on his coordination and concentration with little tasks like noodle stringing.
In non-Kent news, we have an exciting event coming up this Sunday: our church's annual Ice Cream Social. Last year, I entered an ice cream that I envisioned as Dreamsicle flavor, vanilla with some orange soda-y flavor. I liked it and got several compliments, but the judges, two college students, picked a plain vanilla ice cream as the winner. I decided they had immature palates. This year, I'm trying another crazy flavor, secretly hoping that the judges will reward me but being okay with it if they don't. I've already tested this flavor out on Jack and his parents, and it received the go-ahead. So look out, UPC, Coconut Cashew Chai is coming at ya.
It's funny because it's true. This could all happen in the span of about two minutes, if he were awake. We love our little boy more than I can express, but we like it when he goes to sleep.
Kent does manage to find moments of calm, though, like today, when I gave him a bowl of dry rigatoni noodles, two straws, and two chopsticks, and let him go to town. This was an offshoot of a suggestion in MaryAnn F. Kohl's First Art, which I've checked out from the library and think I need to own because of its awesome ideas and tips on letting toddlers explore with their hands. He entertained himself silently for about 20 minutes, just stringing the noodles onto said objects, pulling them off, dumping out the bowl of noodles, putting them all back, and doing it all over again. I actually had a chance to do some dishes and start a loaf of bread without stopping every couple of minutes to heal the emotional hurts that are a regular part of his day as a Busy, Inquisitive Toddler. The quiet time was nice, but it was also cool because I know he's working on his coordination and concentration with little tasks like noodle stringing.
In non-Kent news, we have an exciting event coming up this Sunday: our church's annual Ice Cream Social. Last year, I entered an ice cream that I envisioned as Dreamsicle flavor, vanilla with some orange soda-y flavor. I liked it and got several compliments, but the judges, two college students, picked a plain vanilla ice cream as the winner. I decided they had immature palates. This year, I'm trying another crazy flavor, secretly hoping that the judges will reward me but being okay with it if they don't. I've already tested this flavor out on Jack and his parents, and it received the go-ahead. So look out, UPC, Coconut Cashew Chai is coming at ya.
Labels: church, husband things, Kent, kitchen adventures, what to read
- posted by erica 5/20/2009 10:26:00 PM
- 3 comments
4.15.2009
Things Easter
Easter was lovely with Jack's parents in town. Kent got his basket after Grandma and Grandpa were both awake to watch, and he delighted in opening up all his eggs filled with colored goldfish, granola bites, and yes, two eggs full of M&Ms. I decided the kid needed a little bit of candy, and with all the egg hunts he's attended this year, he's learned all about pulling the eggs apart to get to the good stuff inside. I also got several fun little toys for his basket, including a turtle rubber stamp (he's very into stamping right now), some Elmo baseball socks, a little rolling pin for his play kitchen, and a cute lion soap.We went to church, which included a potluck brunch and egg hunt for the kiddos. Kent found several eggs in the sanctuary, then got too excited about the ones in his basket to keep looking. I'm sure he'll learn in time to be one of the manic kids who run around snatching up eggs left and right, so I'm enjoying this calm stage. It's like at Christmas, when he was perfectly content with the few presents he had opened at first and didn't seem to feel the need to have more stuff. If only we could all hold onto that "I have enough" mentality, I think we'd all be in better shape.
Kent zonked out on the way home from church, so I put him down for a nice long nap, and then we all headed to the home of some church friends for a potluck lunch. Yes, two potlucks in one day, with a lot of the same people. Louisiana is a fun place to live.
We never got around to dyeing eggs on Easter, mostly because Kent had already painted so many papier maché eggs and they were all the decoration we needed. I hard boiled two eggs, though, and we ended up dyeing them on Wednesday, because I thought it might be interesting to see how Kent did with it. I let him pick the colors, mostly; he chose blue and yellow, but I decided that the yellow needed a couple of drops of green, so it became this really excellent springy light green color. Egg dyeing will be a bigger event in the future, but I wanted to take things slowly with the combo of toddler, breakable eggs, and cups of colored water. Go figure.When I was a kid, my mom kept a great bin of eggs of all different sizes — some regular sized Easter eggs, some tiny eggs, and some big eggs that she got back when pantyhose used to come in eggs. We pulled them out all the time and hid them in the yard or in the house. My favorite hiding spots were the azalea bush (where the purple eggs matched the purple flowers exactly) and the plastic tubing for drainage that ran under our house and out into the yard... but I think we sometimes pushed eggs too far into the tubing and didn't see them after that. We also lost several eggs in the woods behind our house over the years. It was good fun that didn't need a season. Maybe I can encourage my family to carry on this tradition. I just need to find some huge pantyhose eggs.
Labels: church, family, holidays, Kent, photography
- posted by erica 4/15/2009 09:18:00 PM
- 1 comments
2.15.2009
A very long attempt at catching up
I have the hiccups. I hate hiccups. They usually hurt, and I hate feeling like I'm not in control of some part of my body. This is why I also hate being tickled.
Anyway, I've been thinking in odd moments today about how I've sorely neglected my blog since I joined Facebook. So ha, those of you who kept bugging me about joining... you get to read random status updates and have me send you a hundred thousand Lil Green Patch plants, but you don't get blog updates nearly as often. And to those of you who aren't on Facebook: (1) Good for you. Resist! and (2) I'm really sorry I've been so absent here.
So here's a quick catch-up on the last few days. Jack's birthday was great. If you read Jack's post, you already know that Kent painted Jack's wrapping paper for all of his presents. I did a photo shoot on Wednesday with Kent dressed in some of Jack's work clothes, so Jack got an email with a link to this album on the morning of his birthday to cheer him up at work. Kent and I were very creative and conspiratorial. It was great.
The Queen of Sheba cake was a big hit (and I highly recommend this recipe, which I ended up baking in two small oval-shaped casseroles because she scared me away from using my apparently-inferior 9" cake pan). The frosting was much better than most, because it uses semi-sweet chocolate and butter instead of a bunch of powdered sugar, and I loved the chopped almonds inside the cake. It's a rich cake, not too sweet but with a pronounced chocolatey-ness (yum), so it was nice to have something to break up all of that. The cardamom-honey strawberries on top just made it even better.
Moving on... Kent was awake for over 3 hours in the night on Friday night, so Valentine's Day had a decidedly different feel to it than usual. We were all dead tired. I had bought Jack some fancy chocolate bars for him to open that morning, but he wanted to take me to Whole Foods to pick mine out because he's afraid of my choosiness. We hit the farmer's market first thing in the morning, where Jack bought me some red and pink dianthus plants to put in pots (much more sustainable than cut flowers) and we got a few veggies, including green tomatoes that I'll soon be frying to serve alongside red beans. Whole Foods was our next stop, and the good people at Dagoba tempted me with their Roseberry and Lavender & Blueberry flavors, so I got two delicious chocolate bars to enjoy. After lunch, Jack, Kent, and I all ate bites of all four of the chocolate bars, and since these chocolates are so rich and full-flavored, there's almost no way to overindulge, because a few small pieces are enough. I've virtually eliminated Hershey's, Dove, Cadbury, etc., from our house, replacing them with a few bars of the real, dark stuff.
On Saturday evening, we went over to a church friend's house for a Mardi Gras get together with jambalaya and vegetarian chili, then headed downtown for the Krewe of Orion parade just after dark. It was raining slightly, so we got a little bit wet, but it was a fun, short parade with impressive floats, and we caught some HUGE beads (I think they're getting bigger each year) and an all-important plastic cup commemorating the parade. Some of the more enterprising kids stand really close to the floats and end up catching stuffed animals, balls, glow sticks, and the like, but we didn't get that close with Kent, and those things wouldn't have meant that much to him this year, anyway. He was most excited about the floats and the beads he got to wear, and he also started dancing and bobbing each time a band marched by. I think about half the bands were playing the Hey Song, which I remember well from high school band and had a lot of fun listening to again. And again and again.
Kent's two new words yesterday were "float" and "beads", and he kept requesting more of each after we left. That's his big thing, saying the name of something over and over, then saying "moh" and signing it until we calmly or impatiently tell him that there aren't any more right now. He's actually just started putting two words together, usually in the form of "more [insert current fascination here]", like "more raisins" or "more floats". We did tell him that there will be more parades this coming weekend, not that the concept of "this weekend" means anything to him right now. It's still such fun to share Mardi Gras with him and let him experience all the non-drunken revelry and excitement.
Sunday was a good day, too. We caught up on sleep on Saturday night, and then after church, we had the return of the Soup & Pie Luncheon. Five amazing soups (including duck & deer sausage gumbo, lentil soup, and black bean soup with avocado/tomato salsa on top) and homemade bread would have been enough of a draw, but then there was the annual pie contest to really get things going. I'm the chair of the Fellowship Committee this year, so it fell to me to help plan the event and award the prize necklaces (pie tins on a strand of Mardi Gras beads, which I constructed) after our judges chose the winners. We had discussed in our meetings ways of making sure that everyone got to sample the pies, since in previous years, the 13-and-under crowd tends to descend on the pies before others get a chance, so we ended up slicing them into tiny slivers, providing only knives and forks for people to serve themselves instead of wide pie servers (just TRY and get a big piece that way, HA!), and putting out little plates. This worked pretty well, but it didn't deter me when I went through the line from trying to get small pieces of as many types of pie as I could. I managed to fit 7 different kinds of pie on this one tiny plate, enough for Jack, Kent, and me each to have a few bites of each variety on the plate. Kent is a pecan pie guy, so he turned down the key lime, blueberry, etc., and we ended up bringing home a few slices of leftover pecan pie to ration out to him over the course of the next couple of weeks.
Also, I'm having some moms and kids over for a painting playdate on Thursday, and we're going to see how the kids do at painting their own Mardi Gras masks. I just love the combo of toddlers and paint. It's such a surprise to see what they come up with. Wish me luck, and wish us good weather so that we can paint outside instead of trying to corral a bunch of small people with fast legs in our not-very-big kitchen.
I've already spent an hour writing this post, so I think I'm going to hit "publish" and call it a night. Mardi Gras pictures will be forthcoming, perhaps after all the madness has concluded and we're in the somber period of atonement afterward — I'll definitely make a Picasa album to share all our parade pictures so that you can see everything through Kent's eyes.
Anyway, I've been thinking in odd moments today about how I've sorely neglected my blog since I joined Facebook. So ha, those of you who kept bugging me about joining... you get to read random status updates and have me send you a hundred thousand Lil Green Patch plants, but you don't get blog updates nearly as often. And to those of you who aren't on Facebook: (1) Good for you. Resist! and (2) I'm really sorry I've been so absent here.
So here's a quick catch-up on the last few days. Jack's birthday was great. If you read Jack's post, you already know that Kent painted Jack's wrapping paper for all of his presents. I did a photo shoot on Wednesday with Kent dressed in some of Jack's work clothes, so Jack got an email with a link to this album on the morning of his birthday to cheer him up at work. Kent and I were very creative and conspiratorial. It was great.
The Queen of Sheba cake was a big hit (and I highly recommend this recipe, which I ended up baking in two small oval-shaped casseroles because she scared me away from using my apparently-inferior 9" cake pan). The frosting was much better than most, because it uses semi-sweet chocolate and butter instead of a bunch of powdered sugar, and I loved the chopped almonds inside the cake. It's a rich cake, not too sweet but with a pronounced chocolatey-ness (yum), so it was nice to have something to break up all of that. The cardamom-honey strawberries on top just made it even better.
Moving on... Kent was awake for over 3 hours in the night on Friday night, so Valentine's Day had a decidedly different feel to it than usual. We were all dead tired. I had bought Jack some fancy chocolate bars for him to open that morning, but he wanted to take me to Whole Foods to pick mine out because he's afraid of my choosiness. We hit the farmer's market first thing in the morning, where Jack bought me some red and pink dianthus plants to put in pots (much more sustainable than cut flowers) and we got a few veggies, including green tomatoes that I'll soon be frying to serve alongside red beans. Whole Foods was our next stop, and the good people at Dagoba tempted me with their Roseberry and Lavender & Blueberry flavors, so I got two delicious chocolate bars to enjoy. After lunch, Jack, Kent, and I all ate bites of all four of the chocolate bars, and since these chocolates are so rich and full-flavored, there's almost no way to overindulge, because a few small pieces are enough. I've virtually eliminated Hershey's, Dove, Cadbury, etc., from our house, replacing them with a few bars of the real, dark stuff.
On Saturday evening, we went over to a church friend's house for a Mardi Gras get together with jambalaya and vegetarian chili, then headed downtown for the Krewe of Orion parade just after dark. It was raining slightly, so we got a little bit wet, but it was a fun, short parade with impressive floats, and we caught some HUGE beads (I think they're getting bigger each year) and an all-important plastic cup commemorating the parade. Some of the more enterprising kids stand really close to the floats and end up catching stuffed animals, balls, glow sticks, and the like, but we didn't get that close with Kent, and those things wouldn't have meant that much to him this year, anyway. He was most excited about the floats and the beads he got to wear, and he also started dancing and bobbing each time a band marched by. I think about half the bands were playing the Hey Song, which I remember well from high school band and had a lot of fun listening to again. And again and again.
Kent's two new words yesterday were "float" and "beads", and he kept requesting more of each after we left. That's his big thing, saying the name of something over and over, then saying "moh" and signing it until we calmly or impatiently tell him that there aren't any more right now. He's actually just started putting two words together, usually in the form of "more [insert current fascination here]", like "more raisins" or "more floats". We did tell him that there will be more parades this coming weekend, not that the concept of "this weekend" means anything to him right now. It's still such fun to share Mardi Gras with him and let him experience all the non-drunken revelry and excitement.
Sunday was a good day, too. We caught up on sleep on Saturday night, and then after church, we had the return of the Soup & Pie Luncheon. Five amazing soups (including duck & deer sausage gumbo, lentil soup, and black bean soup with avocado/tomato salsa on top) and homemade bread would have been enough of a draw, but then there was the annual pie contest to really get things going. I'm the chair of the Fellowship Committee this year, so it fell to me to help plan the event and award the prize necklaces (pie tins on a strand of Mardi Gras beads, which I constructed) after our judges chose the winners. We had discussed in our meetings ways of making sure that everyone got to sample the pies, since in previous years, the 13-and-under crowd tends to descend on the pies before others get a chance, so we ended up slicing them into tiny slivers, providing only knives and forks for people to serve themselves instead of wide pie servers (just TRY and get a big piece that way, HA!), and putting out little plates. This worked pretty well, but it didn't deter me when I went through the line from trying to get small pieces of as many types of pie as I could. I managed to fit 7 different kinds of pie on this one tiny plate, enough for Jack, Kent, and me each to have a few bites of each variety on the plate. Kent is a pecan pie guy, so he turned down the key lime, blueberry, etc., and we ended up bringing home a few slices of leftover pecan pie to ration out to him over the course of the next couple of weeks.
Also, I'm having some moms and kids over for a painting playdate on Thursday, and we're going to see how the kids do at painting their own Mardi Gras masks. I just love the combo of toddlers and paint. It's such a surprise to see what they come up with. Wish me luck, and wish us good weather so that we can paint outside instead of trying to corral a bunch of small people with fast legs in our not-very-big kitchen.
I've already spent an hour writing this post, so I think I'm going to hit "publish" and call it a night. Mardi Gras pictures will be forthcoming, perhaps after all the madness has concluded and we're in the somber period of atonement afterward — I'll definitely make a Picasa album to share all our parade pictures so that you can see everything through Kent's eyes.
Labels: church, greening, holidays, husband things, Kent, kitchen adventures, Louisiana
- posted by erica 2/15/2009 10:09:00 PM
- 1 comments
12.24.2008
December Photo Project: Day 24
Kent got a very special job at the Christmas Eve service at our church. During the reading of the nativity story, he got to bring Baby Jesus up to the front and place him in the manger. It was just SO very sweet, my isn't-he-still-sort-of-a-baby big boy, putting Baby Jesus in the nativity scene.
It's been raining off and on throughout the day, so my runner-up photos include one today of Kent playing in the rain. He had a grand time, then cried when I brought him back inside and peeled off his soaked clothes. The rest of the day was quite nice, though, and then our church service was just perfect. Lessons and carols, kids doing the nativity scene (including one boy we just love, who sprinted up the aisle clutching the three shepherds), communion with our church family, and candlelight to finish the service.
Kent got a Christmas Eve book to open, which we all read together while enjoying some cookies and milk. We put Kent to bed, then Jack and I began our new Christmas Eve tradition of opening a bottle of red wine and enjoying a glass together while we put together Kent's present (the red kid table that goes with the chairs I posted about the other day). I can't wait for the year he gets a swing set. We'll need a big bottle of wine that year.
Addendum: after putting together the table, then downing a glass and a half of wine each, we realized that we also needed to put together a rocking chair that Jack's uncle Bill built for Kent. They mailed it in parts, and I just happened to see the box where we had stashed it. Luckily for us, it only required eight screws, because we're both lightweights these days and feel preeeettttttty tipsy. New party game: Drunken Furniture Assembly.
Tomorrow morning, we'll be up early as usual, though this time, we have present opening to attend to, peppermint mochas to drink (which ROCK, by the way), and upside-down apple French toast to put into the oven (it's soaking overnight in the fridge). Yum. Being in our home for Christmas is so different, but I think I'm going to like this a lot.
Sleep well, and treasure your Christmas, however you're spending it. It's magic.
Labels: church, holidays, Kent, kitchen adventures, photography
- posted by erica 12/24/2008 09:38:00 PM
- 2 comments
12.20.2008
December Photo Project: Day 20
café au lait and powdered sugar at a local beignet joint (my advisor's choice of meeting place today)
Also, we wrapped a bunch of presents today, and we've received a few in the mail, so our tree area is starting to look even more festive. It feels strange to be preparing for a Christmas at our house instead of preparing to travel, but it's much lower stress, because everything has already gone in the mail and we don't have to pack anything. It's hard to convince ourselves that Christmas is coming in a few days, since the weather outside has been near 80 for several days in a row. I think it's still coming, though. I'll know for sure on Christmas Eve, when we get to go to Lessons & Carols at our church for the very first time. That'll be excellent.
Labels: church, coffee, holidays, photography
- posted by erica 12/20/2008 08:21:00 PM
- 0 comments
12.07.2008
December Photo Project: Day 7
Our church looks absolutely beautiful for Christmas, and today was our first time seeing it, since we were on the road last Sunday and missed the beginning of Advent. I needed this. I had a rough morning, feeling zapped by motherhood and wanting to sleep, but not being able to and then taking it out on everyone else and feeling like a bad mom, yahda yah... those mornings are few and far between now, unlike a year ago, but they're still just awful. Absorbing some holiday spirit, the really good kind of holiday spirit (i.e., the Jesus kind), was good.
We got Kent a potty chair this afternoon, and he's been obsessed with Once Upon a Potty ever since we brought it home from the library yesterday. Tonight, he sat on the potty for a few minutes before his bath, and after straining for a minute, he had some gas. That proves that he was at least trying the right thing, which I found pretty impressive for his first naked potty sitting. I was so proud.
More on this as it develops... we're not going hard-core with training yet, because he's still pretty young, but we're reading, he's reading, and we're letting him play with and sit on the potty as much as he wants. So far, it's fun. Remind me I said it was fun in a few months, okay?
Labels: church, holidays, Kent, photography, SAHM
- posted by erica 12/07/2008 10:35:00 PM
- 1 comments
8.31.2008
Sticking at home
We're staying at home for Gustav. I had thought seriously about taking Kent and going somewhere inland, leaving Jack at home with the cats, but the closest place I could get a hotel reservation is a town in Alabama, six hours' drive away on a good day, meaning it would probably take at least twice that long, given how congested the highways in Louisiana and Mississippi are. CNN said an estimated 1 million people fled the Gulf Coast yesterday. Nuts. We think that the worst thing we'll have to deal with is a power loss, and even though it gets hot very quickly, I'd rather we all stay together, and I think we'll deal with it.
Our internet has been spotty all week. We haven't figured out yet whether it's our connection or our cable modem, but we've barely been able to connect long enough to check email, and even then it only works once a day or so out of MANY times that we try. It's pretty frustrating. I'll try to keep everyone posted, whether we're posting from home or from someplace around town with wifi, and hopefully there won't be any major trouble.
For now, though, I'm off to make pancakes, and then Jack and I are beginning our first day as Sunday school teachers for the toddler music class. We don't quite know what to expect, and Kent may be the only kid there sometimes, but we're really looking forward to singing and banging things with all the other kids and parents. Woot!
Our internet has been spotty all week. We haven't figured out yet whether it's our connection or our cable modem, but we've barely been able to connect long enough to check email, and even then it only works once a day or so out of MANY times that we try. It's pretty frustrating. I'll try to keep everyone posted, whether we're posting from home or from someplace around town with wifi, and hopefully there won't be any major trouble.
For now, though, I'm off to make pancakes, and then Jack and I are beginning our first day as Sunday school teachers for the toddler music class. We don't quite know what to expect, and Kent may be the only kid there sometimes, but we're really looking forward to singing and banging things with all the other kids and parents. Woot!
Labels: church, hurricanes, Louisiana
- posted by erica 8/31/2008 08:11:00 AM
- 2 comments
8.08.2008
NH Day 3: UUs, Cheap Books, and More Family
On Sunday, we opened the day with raspberry picking, having found some little raspberry bushes down by the road. The berries are tiny, and much less tart than raspberries in the store. Kent loved these so much that when Jack found one and was going to bring it to me, Kent grabbed it and ate it before he had a chance. So it goes. There were plenty more.We had plans to attend church and then spend some time lunching and shopping. Most of us were going to go to an Episcopal church, while Chris and Cat were interested in finding a Unitarian Universalist Fellowship to visit. During talk of who'd be going where and in what cars, I started thinking about how much I had enjoyed Chris and Cat's wedding at the UU church in Greensboro and realized I was more interested in sharing a new experience with them than I was in going to an Episcopal service. I've started feeling lately that I'm getting less and less out of the Episcopal experience each time I go back, preferring a more spontaneous or at least less rigid service, in contrast to one where everything seems to be done by rote and loses its meaning to me over time. I piped up about wanting to go to the UU church instead, and then everyone decided it would be simpler if we all went there, so that's what we did.
It was a small group, maybe 30 or so people gathered in what reminded me of a tiny independent bookstore, or maybe a reading room in a tiny independent bookstore. The nine of us, trying to sneak in after everyone was already seated, made an impact. They welcomed us with open arms and invited us to introduce ourselves, and then we proceeded through a service that revolved around what's gained and lost in interpersonal relationships/communication in a digital age. The talk (a mix of sermon and seminar) was given by a guy about my age who had grown up in the church, and he solicited ideas from all of us about how digital communication was making an impact on our lives and on how we treated others. He talked about Facebook a bit, and I got so much out of everything he discussed and my subsequent reactions to it that I momentarily wanted to join Facebook just so I could keep in touch with him. There was no mention of God in the service, but I don't think it's a godless place. I just had to work a little harder mentally to locate the spirituality than I would in Christian worship, though I believe strongly that human relationships can be indicative of our relationship with God, so frank discussion about the changing nature of our relationships with each other was not at all far removed from how we can explore our relationship with God. I also believe that my own self-awareness is at the heart of understanding the One who created me, and the process of self-discovery can only bring us closer to that understanding.
Now, onto less spiritual matters...
After church, Bill took us to the King Arthur Baker's Store, home of King Arthur flour, which is the only type of flour that my grandmother likes to use. She used to order it from their catalog and may still do that, though I'm not sure, since I'm woefully out of touch with all her grocery shopping habits. It was a brief stop, but a fun chance to play with some kitchen tools and see their big displays of flour, baking mixes, and the like. I bought a pair of very simple but very useful kitchen toys, one for me and one for my grandmother, which I'll wait to reveal until after I've mailed hers to her. We'll be twins when we bake.Rumbling stomachs then led all of us to lunch at Lui Lui in West Lebanon, where I somewhat reluctantly opted not to get a wood-fired pizza, being drawn instead to the lobster ravioli. I think I made a good decision. It was so yummy that I wolfed it down, then said out loud after I finished, "Dang. I should have taken a picture of that!" They served us bread with a delicious dipping oil, and when I could only identify parsley and something salty in the oil and was curious what was in it, I asked our waiter. Anchovies, he said. That's what they put in the bottle of oil that had a label for their restaurant, but no ingredients list. Guess who had been eating it already? All of us. Including the vegetarian. I looked ruefully at Jack immediately after the waiter revealed the secret ingredient and asked him if he needed to go purge, but he seemed okay and just kept the oil beyond arm's length for the rest of the meal. Despite their subterfuge, it was still a delicious lunch that everyone seemed to enjoy.
After lunch, we headed down the street to Encore Books, a store I had found online that sells used books and also remainders and other reduced-price books directly from publishers. If a page is printed wrong, or something else about the book is defective in some way, it can't be sold for full price, and places like Encore are happy to sell them at a discount. We were happy to buy them at a discount. We spent a lot of time perusing their kids' books, and I didn't even make it to the big-people books because I was so engrossed in new stuff for Kent. Jack's and my favorite of the five books we bought is Nobody's Nosier Than a Cat, which has whimsical illustrations and features everything strange/beautiful/hilarious about cats. There were many excellent finds at that store.
One extended car trip later (including a return to the restaurant, where we had left Kent's water bottle), we were all back at the house and getting ready for a dinner of chicken, burgers, and hot dogs on the grill. Bill's nephew Jamie and his family came over, along with Sue and Tony again (Jamie's parents), so it was a rather crowded but very fun meal. Jamie and Melissa's daughter Larkin is three and a half, and she has a new baby brother named Silas, so she's been doing a lot of reverting to babyhood lately, wanting to sit in a high chair and drink from a sippy cup, and even asking if she could nurse on her mom after she saw me nursing Kent. Upheaval of adding a new sibling to the family has got to be hardest on a little kid who's used to being the only kid. Despite that, though, Larkin was delightful, always asking very politely ("'Suse me...") if we'd read her some books, hold her in our laps, let her watch while Kent took a bath, etc. Funny girl.
We snapped a few photos of Kent and his newly discovered cousin riding a rocking horse together, though it was not designed for two kids and was kind of off balance. Larkin kept slipping off the back, then asking whether Kent could ride in the back instead. I don't think she understood that he wouldn't know to hold onto her and would probably break his butt or worse if we let them ride that way. Still, they were cute together. Whenever we go back and Kent and Silas are a little older, the three of them can wreak some havoc together, and hopefully Nicholas and Travis can get in on the action as well.More pictures from the day (and a few from the rest of the trip) include the following:
Kent's obsession with the Heineken box
Carlos in Morgan's lap at breakfast. He sat in her lap for just about every meal. Such a sweet, funny dog. Kent thought he was hilarious.
Morgan said something about Carlos not being photogenic, so I was determined to get a good shot of him.
Morgan and Brian on the sofa in the evening. I hate using flash on people, but there wasn't really enough light, hence the dark faces. Incidentally, notice how they're wearing the same shirt? That happened more than once. Morgan did all the packing.
Jack studied much corporate finance while we were on the trip. Here he is having a bright idea.
Kent rode the rocking horse a lot. He got the hang of it pretty easily, but I still spotted him when he started standing up to do his trick rider moves.
Next up: Monday, wherein there were many crafted things of all shapes and sizes.
Labels: church, eating out, family, photography, travel, what to read
- posted by erica 8/08/2008 07:54:00 AM
- 3 comments
6.21.2008
Long Saturday
Bed soon.
We went to the farmer's market downtown this morning. It's always a fun time, especially with fruits and vegetables of every color surrounding us in the summertime. We decided on blueberries, okra, and tomatoes, and reluctantly passed up peaches and eggplant (Indian, Japanese, OR regular ol' American) because we hadn't brought enough cash. Silly us. We ran into the family of one of the little boys in Kent's class, which was kind of funny because I only recognized the kid, not his parents or older brother, and I just walked up to him in his stroller and said, "Hi, Finley!" We talked to his parents for a couple of minutes and then headed out, since we were done shopping and wanted to get Kent home for his morning nap.
There was napping by Kent and mowing of the yard by Jack, and then we went out to lunch at an awesome restaurant that used to be right next to campus until they had to move to make way for new condos. We hadn't been to their new location yet, but on a whim decided to check it out, and we left with happily full bellies a little while later. Any meal that starts with fried green tomatoes and ends with chocolate pecan cheesecake can't be that bad... and the stuff in the middle was pretty good, too. Jack had an open-faced roasted veggie sandwich, and I had some tomato basil pasta with shrimp. Kent mainly ate applesauce but also tried his first shrimp, cut into little pieces, and he kept wanting more, so we'll call that a success. Shellfish: check.
We swung by the library after lunch so that I could look for a couple of books on Montessori, an educational philosophy I'm interested in knowing more about, at least to help give our days at home some structure. Montessori, Reggio, and Waldorf are all these sort of mysterious, magical philosophies (to me, at this point) that I've decided to research further... not that I'm planning to homeschool Kent, because I don't think that would work for us, but just to understand better what's out there as an alternative to more common educational approaches.
I also picked up Pantley's No-Cry Potty Training Solution to do some pre-reading about potty training. I figure it can't hurt us to be laying the foundation for that now, in case it makes things easier/quicker/less traumatic down the road. As stubborn as he can be about change, though, I'm not holding out a lot of hope. Like I said, pre-reading.
The rest of my day was spent making tacos for dinner and then eating them, in between rounds of cutting and applying fusible web to a bunch of green fabrics for a couple of banners we're making at our church this week. Everyone in the congregation is picking a word that they think describes their experience at our church, or just what they love about it, and all the words are going onto these banners that will hang in the front of the church during part of the year. A lot of the green fabrics I'm bringing are from my grandmother's and great aunt Irene's quilting stashes, and I recognize many of them from quilts, clothing, etc. that the two of them made over the decades. It's a fantastic cycle, this passing on of fabrics that already have a history, going to some other project and helping to tell someone else's story. (And hey, did you know that you can buy fusible web BY THE YARD instead of in those expensive little packages? Rock!)
Kent was having a particularly rough time during dinner, not at all interested in the avocado mixture we tried to feed him and preferring instead to spit it out, complain, and turn his face different shades of red. It started to rain as we were finishing our meal, and it seemed like the kind of evening when we just all needed to play in the rain before bathtime, so we did. Jack and I took turns holding Kent out in the rain while the other ran up and down the driveway and did silly things, and then we held him up to our Japanese magnolia tree so that he could touch the wet leaves. He really liked that part and kept grabbing at them, then laughing as water droplets bounced off his face. After his bath and some quick stories, he went to bed more easily than he has all week.
And thus our long Saturday is concluded. Jack is still at our other computer, giggling about web comics. I think we just need sleep.
We went to the farmer's market downtown this morning. It's always a fun time, especially with fruits and vegetables of every color surrounding us in the summertime. We decided on blueberries, okra, and tomatoes, and reluctantly passed up peaches and eggplant (Indian, Japanese, OR regular ol' American) because we hadn't brought enough cash. Silly us. We ran into the family of one of the little boys in Kent's class, which was kind of funny because I only recognized the kid, not his parents or older brother, and I just walked up to him in his stroller and said, "Hi, Finley!" We talked to his parents for a couple of minutes and then headed out, since we were done shopping and wanted to get Kent home for his morning nap.
There was napping by Kent and mowing of the yard by Jack, and then we went out to lunch at an awesome restaurant that used to be right next to campus until they had to move to make way for new condos. We hadn't been to their new location yet, but on a whim decided to check it out, and we left with happily full bellies a little while later. Any meal that starts with fried green tomatoes and ends with chocolate pecan cheesecake can't be that bad... and the stuff in the middle was pretty good, too. Jack had an open-faced roasted veggie sandwich, and I had some tomato basil pasta with shrimp. Kent mainly ate applesauce but also tried his first shrimp, cut into little pieces, and he kept wanting more, so we'll call that a success. Shellfish: check.
We swung by the library after lunch so that I could look for a couple of books on Montessori, an educational philosophy I'm interested in knowing more about, at least to help give our days at home some structure. Montessori, Reggio, and Waldorf are all these sort of mysterious, magical philosophies (to me, at this point) that I've decided to research further... not that I'm planning to homeschool Kent, because I don't think that would work for us, but just to understand better what's out there as an alternative to more common educational approaches.
I also picked up Pantley's No-Cry Potty Training Solution to do some pre-reading about potty training. I figure it can't hurt us to be laying the foundation for that now, in case it makes things easier/quicker/less traumatic down the road. As stubborn as he can be about change, though, I'm not holding out a lot of hope. Like I said, pre-reading.
The rest of my day was spent making tacos for dinner and then eating them, in between rounds of cutting and applying fusible web to a bunch of green fabrics for a couple of banners we're making at our church this week. Everyone in the congregation is picking a word that they think describes their experience at our church, or just what they love about it, and all the words are going onto these banners that will hang in the front of the church during part of the year. A lot of the green fabrics I'm bringing are from my grandmother's and great aunt Irene's quilting stashes, and I recognize many of them from quilts, clothing, etc. that the two of them made over the decades. It's a fantastic cycle, this passing on of fabrics that already have a history, going to some other project and helping to tell someone else's story. (And hey, did you know that you can buy fusible web BY THE YARD instead of in those expensive little packages? Rock!)
Kent was having a particularly rough time during dinner, not at all interested in the avocado mixture we tried to feed him and preferring instead to spit it out, complain, and turn his face different shades of red. It started to rain as we were finishing our meal, and it seemed like the kind of evening when we just all needed to play in the rain before bathtime, so we did. Jack and I took turns holding Kent out in the rain while the other ran up and down the driveway and did silly things, and then we held him up to our Japanese magnolia tree so that he could touch the wet leaves. He really liked that part and kept grabbing at them, then laughing as water droplets bounced off his face. After his bath and some quick stories, he went to bed more easily than he has all week.
And thus our long Saturday is concluded. Jack is still at our other computer, giggling about web comics. I think we just need sleep.
Labels: church, craftiness, eating out, Kent, what to read
- posted by erica 6/21/2008 09:58:00 PM
- 3 comments
1.27.2008
And there was pie...
And the people did enjoy it.
Our Soup & Pie luncheon at church was awesome. There were about 10 different soups, my favorites of which were a duck and andouille gumbo, a 16 bean soup with sausage and ham, and a lentil and split pea soup. The lentil soup was vegan, and there was a ton of it, so Jack and I brought some home and will be enjoying it throughout the week. Also, I and five other people baked bread, which was fun and added a nice touch.
And then there was pie.
About seven of us judged the pies, which were identifiable only by number so as to keep corruption out of the judging experience. There were 15 pies to taste, and I tasted all of them. I had two little plates, and I scooped out a little of each pie in order around the plates so that I'd be able to keep them straight. Some of the judges were just tasting as they went, going back to the ones they liked to make really sure that those were the ones they liked. It was the Second Most Transcendent Dessert Experience I've ever had, next to the midnight chocolate buffet on our cruise two years ago.
The pies I voted for were the three that won. Third place was a really delicious apple pie with a crumb topping, basic but done very well. Second place was a chocolate parfait pie baked by the wife of our assistant pastor. And first place — are you ready for this? — was a pecan pie on top of a ginger cheesecake. I kid you not. The guy who baked that one is an amazing cook who always brings tender brisket or something equally delicious to our potluck dinners, and he got second place last year, so I think he had something to prove. =) After we judged everything and the winners were announced, there was a run on the winning pies, so I was glad that I had saved my plates so that Jack could help sample the best ones.
This is an annual tradition at our church, but somehow, this is the first year we managed to attend. I'm not missing it ever again. I can still feel all the sugary goodness coursing through my veins.
Our Soup & Pie luncheon at church was awesome. There were about 10 different soups, my favorites of which were a duck and andouille gumbo, a 16 bean soup with sausage and ham, and a lentil and split pea soup. The lentil soup was vegan, and there was a ton of it, so Jack and I brought some home and will be enjoying it throughout the week. Also, I and five other people baked bread, which was fun and added a nice touch.
And then there was pie.
About seven of us judged the pies, which were identifiable only by number so as to keep corruption out of the judging experience. There were 15 pies to taste, and I tasted all of them. I had two little plates, and I scooped out a little of each pie in order around the plates so that I'd be able to keep them straight. Some of the judges were just tasting as they went, going back to the ones they liked to make really sure that those were the ones they liked. It was the Second Most Transcendent Dessert Experience I've ever had, next to the midnight chocolate buffet on our cruise two years ago.
The pies I voted for were the three that won. Third place was a really delicious apple pie with a crumb topping, basic but done very well. Second place was a chocolate parfait pie baked by the wife of our assistant pastor. And first place — are you ready for this? — was a pecan pie on top of a ginger cheesecake. I kid you not. The guy who baked that one is an amazing cook who always brings tender brisket or something equally delicious to our potluck dinners, and he got second place last year, so I think he had something to prove. =) After we judged everything and the winners were announced, there was a run on the winning pies, so I was glad that I had saved my plates so that Jack could help sample the best ones.
This is an annual tradition at our church, but somehow, this is the first year we managed to attend. I'm not missing it ever again. I can still feel all the sugary goodness coursing through my veins.
Labels: church, kitchen adventures
- posted by erica 1/27/2008 03:57:00 PM
- 0 comments
1.16.2008
Time Away and Together
We've decided that, starting June 2, Kent will be going to our church's day school two days a week for a Mother's Day Out. I'll be dropping him off at 9 a.m. and picking him up by 3 p.m., between which hours I'll be shopping, having my nails done, doing lunch with the wealthy and fabulous... or maybe just working on my diss.
I was talking to our pastor about this today, and I feel a great sense of conflict about it, as she assured me most parents do. I want to be with Kent — to raise him, to nurture him, to fill every moment of his with love, compassion, and learning — but I also live in the real world, where 7-year deadlines threaten to derail me completely from my career path if I don't get a freakin' move on with my research and writing. I also feel slightly insane (seriously) at the end of many days, like part of my mind is fragmented and I'm not sure who I am or when I'm ever going to sleep or be not frustrated again. So Patti (pastor, not cat) and I both agreed on what Jack and I had already pretty much decided; I need some time away from Kent.
Before June, I'm not sure exactly how this will be accomplished, since his earlier bedtime has eliminated my Solo Coffeehouse Nights. There's still room for Solo Coffeehouse Weekend Afternoons, which don't have quite the same ring, but which will likely be part of our future. Without very many friends in town with babies, though, I've struggled with finding a support system while Jack is at work — our friends from grad school are wonderful people who think Kent is awesome, but they're not at a place in their lives where babysitting someone else's infant can be part of their regular routine. And they don't need to be. Jack and I are sort of the pioneers here, and part of what I've been discovering lately is that I just need to meet new people who are parents to help fill that void.
Enter Meetup.com. I've found solace in this site, where users sign up to join a specific group with a specific interest or theme and then plan get-togethers with each other. There are a few different groups of moms in our area that have had playgroups and other kinds of meetups, and Kent and I have both had a great time at the two meetups we've been to so far. It's felt like such a relief to be face-to-face with other moms who live here, who have kids that Kent can play with (especially as he gets older) and who are going through the same things I'm going through right now. Many of the moms are new to the area and/or don't have family in town, so they're seeking a support system just like I am. It's quite cool, actually. There are a few things we're planning to attend in the next few weeks, and I'm looking forward to getting to know people better (including a few moms I already know from LLL) and finding new things for Kent and me to do that don't just involve staring at each other all the time. One group I'm particularly excited about, which unfortunately doesn't meet in Baton Rouge, has Attachment Parenting as their theme, but I'm willing to drive to Metairie/New Orleans to find out what they're about, since AP is definitely in sync with my child-rearing philosophy. And hey, the first meetup of theirs that I can attend is a playdate at someone's house, where we're promised there will be warm apple pie. Mmmm... pie.
And bringing it back around to church, where I started this post, we're having a Soup & Pie Luncheon in a couple of weeks, and I get to be one of the pie judges. This means that I have the enviable task of actually having to sample each pie to help determine a winner. Serious bragging rights are at stake here. I may have to practice eating pie now, just so I know I'll be ready for judgment.
I was talking to our pastor about this today, and I feel a great sense of conflict about it, as she assured me most parents do. I want to be with Kent — to raise him, to nurture him, to fill every moment of his with love, compassion, and learning — but I also live in the real world, where 7-year deadlines threaten to derail me completely from my career path if I don't get a freakin' move on with my research and writing. I also feel slightly insane (seriously) at the end of many days, like part of my mind is fragmented and I'm not sure who I am or when I'm ever going to sleep or be not frustrated again. So Patti (pastor, not cat) and I both agreed on what Jack and I had already pretty much decided; I need some time away from Kent.
Before June, I'm not sure exactly how this will be accomplished, since his earlier bedtime has eliminated my Solo Coffeehouse Nights. There's still room for Solo Coffeehouse Weekend Afternoons, which don't have quite the same ring, but which will likely be part of our future. Without very many friends in town with babies, though, I've struggled with finding a support system while Jack is at work — our friends from grad school are wonderful people who think Kent is awesome, but they're not at a place in their lives where babysitting someone else's infant can be part of their regular routine. And they don't need to be. Jack and I are sort of the pioneers here, and part of what I've been discovering lately is that I just need to meet new people who are parents to help fill that void.
Enter Meetup.com. I've found solace in this site, where users sign up to join a specific group with a specific interest or theme and then plan get-togethers with each other. There are a few different groups of moms in our area that have had playgroups and other kinds of meetups, and Kent and I have both had a great time at the two meetups we've been to so far. It's felt like such a relief to be face-to-face with other moms who live here, who have kids that Kent can play with (especially as he gets older) and who are going through the same things I'm going through right now. Many of the moms are new to the area and/or don't have family in town, so they're seeking a support system just like I am. It's quite cool, actually. There are a few things we're planning to attend in the next few weeks, and I'm looking forward to getting to know people better (including a few moms I already know from LLL) and finding new things for Kent and me to do that don't just involve staring at each other all the time. One group I'm particularly excited about, which unfortunately doesn't meet in Baton Rouge, has Attachment Parenting as their theme, but I'm willing to drive to Metairie/New Orleans to find out what they're about, since AP is definitely in sync with my child-rearing philosophy. And hey, the first meetup of theirs that I can attend is a playdate at someone's house, where we're promised there will be warm apple pie. Mmmm... pie.
And bringing it back around to church, where I started this post, we're having a Soup & Pie Luncheon in a couple of weeks, and I get to be one of the pie judges. This means that I have the enviable task of actually having to sample each pie to help determine a winner. Serious bragging rights are at stake here. I may have to practice eating pie now, just so I know I'll be ready for judgment.
- posted by erica 1/16/2008 09:22:00 PM
- 4 comments
10.28.2007
Day trippers
We had a relaxing day trip yesterday up to Feliciana Retreat Center for our church's family retreat. Most people stayed Friday and Saturday nights, but we decided just to drive up for the day, since it's only about an hour from Baton Rouge. It was a nice, small group and such a mellow day. We took walks under the giant pine trees, closing our eyes and gritting our teeth when we walked under the high spider webs made by larger spiders than I care to think about. We moseyed down to the lake with a few families, and they babysat Kent collectively while Jack and I went out in a canoe for about fifteen minutes. I absolutely love canoeing, especially in the sun on a calm lake in the afternoon. They all passed around Kent and took turns making him laugh. Apparently, while we were out, one of the boys who's about ten years old, who keeps reminding us that he's very interested in babysitting at some point, was holding Kent above his head when Kent giggled and then spit up all over him. I hope he thought it was funny. We always think it is, but we're his parents.
After canoeing, we sat around the dying campfire that ironically kept being stoked and resuscitated by the kids. Kent ate for about 45 minutes, because he had been too distracted by all the fun earlier in the day to eat for very long. We then put him on a blanket and tickled him for a while, visiting with the other adults who were mostly reading or napping while the kids ran amok. Since our church friends know each other so well, there's always someone looking after the kids — it's such an intimate group of people, and we just love them.
The best part, to me, was that Kent got to be outside all day long, breathing the fresh air and hearing the sounds of the trees rustling and the birds singing. There hasn't been much of that so far in his short life, and he ate it up. We weren't adventurous enough to plan to stay the night in a cabin, but we'll have to take him camping at some point. It was too fun.
After canoeing, we sat around the dying campfire that ironically kept being stoked and resuscitated by the kids. Kent ate for about 45 minutes, because he had been too distracted by all the fun earlier in the day to eat for very long. We then put him on a blanket and tickled him for a while, visiting with the other adults who were mostly reading or napping while the kids ran amok. Since our church friends know each other so well, there's always someone looking after the kids — it's such an intimate group of people, and we just love them.
The best part, to me, was that Kent got to be outside all day long, breathing the fresh air and hearing the sounds of the trees rustling and the birds singing. There hasn't been much of that so far in his short life, and he ate it up. We weren't adventurous enough to plan to stay the night in a cabin, but we'll have to take him camping at some point. It was too fun.
Labels: church, husband things, Kent
- posted by erica 10/28/2007 08:20:00 PM
- 0 comments
8.07.2007
I've been ousted
We got our monthly church newsletter in the mail today, and it's addressed to "Jack & Kent" (plus our last name).
Nice, huh? Makes it look like we have a homosexual couple living here. =) The church secretary and assistant pastor never seem to remember whether I'm Erica or Erika, so maybe this is the way they decided to avoid making a final decision. I'm assuming something went awry when they updated our database entry to reflect the birth of our son, but in any case, I think it's hilarious. It's like when my friend Lauren's dad, whose first and middle names are Harold Earl, randomly got listed as Harold & Earl in the phone book one year.
Nice, huh? Makes it look like we have a homosexual couple living here. =) The church secretary and assistant pastor never seem to remember whether I'm Erica or Erika, so maybe this is the way they decided to avoid making a final decision. I'm assuming something went awry when they updated our database entry to reflect the birth of our son, but in any case, I think it's hilarious. It's like when my friend Lauren's dad, whose first and middle names are Harold Earl, randomly got listed as Harold & Earl in the phone book one year.
Labels: church, Kent, observations
- posted by erica 8/07/2007 08:02:00 PM
- 2 comments
5.29.2007
Baby shower
Everybody left, and now I'm a little sad. But it was an awesome weekend. I'll post more about the whole visit later, but the baby shower is foremost in my mind at the moment, so I'll blog on that first.
The shower was such fun, and Jack and I got a bunch of great things we really need! We didn't take pictures with our camera, though several other people did, but we got a friend to tape some of the gift opening and gaming with our digital video camera, so in a little while, as we learn to get the video onto our computer and edit it, there will be actual footage somewhere on the internet (probably Google video). More on that story as it develops.
Our moms put together little photo collages of Jack's and my baby pictures, so everyone got to see Jack's wild, curly platinum blond hair that mysteriously transformed into straight, brown hair at some point. He was such a cute little boy, though I think he's even cuter now.
People wrote down advice for us on little notecards, and my mom even got contributions from some out-of-town friends and family. Those were neat to read, and some of them were pretty hilarious, like a friend of ours from church (whose son is grown) who wrote that her advice was never to invite the whole third grade to a pool party, because inevitably it will rain, and then we'll be stuck with 20-some third graders running amok throughout our house. We'll have to keep that in mind.
We also played a game with nursery rhymes in which each person was supposed to try to write down the word(s) that would answer a particular question, such as "What did Little Jack Horner eat?" or "Whom did Simple Simon meet on his way to the fair?" I knew a lot of them, but Jack didn't, and since we were sitting next to each other and tend to be giggly and conspiratorial during games, we started using the word "carrots" as a default answer for the ones we didn't know. So the answer to "What did Mrs. Hubbard get from the cupboard?" was, of course, "carrots." What did the three little kittens lose? Carrots. You get the idea. It kept being funnier as the game went on, and my favorite answer that arose from the whole thing was "Tuesday's child is full of carrots." I actually knew the real answer to that one ("grace"), but it was so funny with "carrots" thrown in there that Jack and I are still laughing about it. I'm not sure anyone else was quite as amused as we were, but it was a really fun game, and all the older folks at the shower, mostly people from our church, kicked the younger folks' butts (and my mom's fiancé got every single one right!).
Lauren, Jennifer, my mom, and their significant others put together a really fun party with great food and just the right balance of activities and chatting time.
We sorted through all of our loot yesterday afternoon, and, after the clothes and blankets and things are washed, I will endeavor to find a place for everything in the nursery. My clothes system may need to be reevaluated somewhat, but I think it'll work. While sorting through all of our amazing gifts, I hit upon the idea to put a hooded towel on my head. Don't look for a logical explanation here — I think I just like putting things on my head. Anyway, Lauren, who had given us the hooded towels, decided to join in the fun, and we picked up a couple of the fun toys to hold in the picture. I'm holding a stuffed lion that doubles as a teether toy, and Lauren is holding this hilarious banana from Pier 1 that has four little stuffed monkeys hiding inside it. Now there's yet another silly picture of his mom for Kent to roll his eyes at when he's older. I can't wait!
The shower was such fun, and Jack and I got a bunch of great things we really need! We didn't take pictures with our camera, though several other people did, but we got a friend to tape some of the gift opening and gaming with our digital video camera, so in a little while, as we learn to get the video onto our computer and edit it, there will be actual footage somewhere on the internet (probably Google video). More on that story as it develops.
Our moms put together little photo collages of Jack's and my baby pictures, so everyone got to see Jack's wild, curly platinum blond hair that mysteriously transformed into straight, brown hair at some point. He was such a cute little boy, though I think he's even cuter now.
People wrote down advice for us on little notecards, and my mom even got contributions from some out-of-town friends and family. Those were neat to read, and some of them were pretty hilarious, like a friend of ours from church (whose son is grown) who wrote that her advice was never to invite the whole third grade to a pool party, because inevitably it will rain, and then we'll be stuck with 20-some third graders running amok throughout our house. We'll have to keep that in mind.
We also played a game with nursery rhymes in which each person was supposed to try to write down the word(s) that would answer a particular question, such as "What did Little Jack Horner eat?" or "Whom did Simple Simon meet on his way to the fair?" I knew a lot of them, but Jack didn't, and since we were sitting next to each other and tend to be giggly and conspiratorial during games, we started using the word "carrots" as a default answer for the ones we didn't know. So the answer to "What did Mrs. Hubbard get from the cupboard?" was, of course, "carrots." What did the three little kittens lose? Carrots. You get the idea. It kept being funnier as the game went on, and my favorite answer that arose from the whole thing was "Tuesday's child is full of carrots." I actually knew the real answer to that one ("grace"), but it was so funny with "carrots" thrown in there that Jack and I are still laughing about it. I'm not sure anyone else was quite as amused as we were, but it was a really fun game, and all the older folks at the shower, mostly people from our church, kicked the younger folks' butts (and my mom's fiancé got every single one right!).
Lauren, Jennifer, my mom, and their significant others put together a really fun party with great food and just the right balance of activities and chatting time.
We sorted through all of our loot yesterday afternoon, and, after the clothes and blankets and things are washed, I will endeavor to find a place for everything in the nursery. My clothes system may need to be reevaluated somewhat, but I think it'll work. While sorting through all of our amazing gifts, I hit upon the idea to put a hooded towel on my head. Don't look for a logical explanation here — I think I just like putting things on my head. Anyway, Lauren, who had given us the hooded towels, decided to join in the fun, and we picked up a couple of the fun toys to hold in the picture. I'm holding a stuffed lion that doubles as a teether toy, and Lauren is holding this hilarious banana from Pier 1 that has four little stuffed monkeys hiding inside it. Now there's yet another silly picture of his mom for Kent to roll his eyes at when he's older. I can't wait!Labels: church, family, friends, husband things, Kent, nesting
- posted by erica 5/29/2007 11:29:00 AM
- 2 comments
5.06.2007
Good Sunday
I am SO full. We just finished a really good dinner of edamame (seriously, my new favorite veggie) and Asian stir-fry noodle stuff. I always concoct my own sauce out of various ingredients I have on hand, like sesame oil, soy sauce, teriyaki, honey, etc., and today I threw in some red chili paste with a little too much gusto. It was CRAZY spicy. I think I drank four glasses of water during dinner, which has obviously added to my feeling of fullness. But it was really good anyway. Jack's a big fan of peanut sauce, so I think next time I might try throwing some peanut butter into the mix and seeing how it turns out (that's what Bobby Flay and the other Food Network foodies do, so I'm thinking it'll work).
We went out to lunch and then to a play with a small group of people from church today, and it was a nice afternoon. At lunch, all the women were telling us about their birthing experiences in BR (mostly negative experiences, but ten to fifteen years ago and thankfully not at our hospital), and we were telling them about our Lamaze class and how things had been going so far. One of the women in particular has been really supportive and sweet, always asking me how things are going, etc., and she's coming to my baby shower in a few weeks. It's been neat to get to know the moms at church even better since I've gotten pregnant, not only drawing on their collective wisdom but also hearing some really funny stories about their kids. I absolutely love our church.
The play we saw, called Cocktail, was engrossing and inspiring, and I'm so glad that we went. It's about Dr. Krisana Kraisintu, a Thai scientist who was responsible for manufacturing a generic HIV drug cocktail in Thailand despite her country's intellectual-property agreements with the U.S., which almost prevented her success. Before she took on the mammoth task of manufacturing this cocktail, the only option was AZT, which almost no one in Thailand could afford. After she worked tirelessly in Thailand and had perfected her drug cocktail, then saw to its distribution at the hands of Doctors Without Borders and other groups, she went to the DRC to do the same thing (and might still be there, actually — the timeline of this play only went through 2005, so I'm not sure). The production was fantastic, portraying the chilling rise of the AIDS epidemic in Thailand in the 80s and early 90s with a really cool montage, politicians' reluctance to get involved, and Kraisintu's eventual triumph in being able to help thousands of Thai and then thousands of Africans. It was an incredible play.
Now, I'm grading and preparing for finals week, since I'm giving exams tomorrow, Tuesday, and Thursday, and I foolishly hope to have all (most?) of the students' end-of-semester work back to them by the time they take their exams. Yeah, we'll see.
We went out to lunch and then to a play with a small group of people from church today, and it was a nice afternoon. At lunch, all the women were telling us about their birthing experiences in BR (mostly negative experiences, but ten to fifteen years ago and thankfully not at our hospital), and we were telling them about our Lamaze class and how things had been going so far. One of the women in particular has been really supportive and sweet, always asking me how things are going, etc., and she's coming to my baby shower in a few weeks. It's been neat to get to know the moms at church even better since I've gotten pregnant, not only drawing on their collective wisdom but also hearing some really funny stories about their kids. I absolutely love our church.
The play we saw, called Cocktail, was engrossing and inspiring, and I'm so glad that we went. It's about Dr. Krisana Kraisintu, a Thai scientist who was responsible for manufacturing a generic HIV drug cocktail in Thailand despite her country's intellectual-property agreements with the U.S., which almost prevented her success. Before she took on the mammoth task of manufacturing this cocktail, the only option was AZT, which almost no one in Thailand could afford. After she worked tirelessly in Thailand and had perfected her drug cocktail, then saw to its distribution at the hands of Doctors Without Borders and other groups, she went to the DRC to do the same thing (and might still be there, actually — the timeline of this play only went through 2005, so I'm not sure). The production was fantastic, portraying the chilling rise of the AIDS epidemic in Thailand in the 80s and early 90s with a really cool montage, politicians' reluctance to get involved, and Kraisintu's eventual triumph in being able to help thousands of Thai and then thousands of Africans. It was an incredible play.
Now, I'm grading and preparing for finals week, since I'm giving exams tomorrow, Tuesday, and Thursday, and I foolishly hope to have all (most?) of the students' end-of-semester work back to them by the time they take their exams. Yeah, we'll see.
Labels: belly, church, friends, kitchen adventures, school
- posted by erica 5/06/2007 09:41:00 PM
- 3 comments
