I don't enjoy following the news. It mostly consists of politics-- which usually gets my blood boiling, either because of what the opposing party is doing, or because of what my own party ISN'T doing-- and really awful things that people do to each other. And natural disasters. It doesn't tend to be very uplifting.
I grew up in a home where my Mom was (and still is) a total news junkie. She subscribed to three or four newspapers (The Seattle Times, The Bainbridge Review, The Bremerton Sun, and my Dad usually brought home The Wallstreet Journal for her from work), a few weekly and monthly magazines (Newsweek, The Limbaugh Letter, the National Review, plus church magazines and probably a few others I've forgotten about), walked around with headphones in her ears (way before every teenager you've ever met did this) listening to talk radio, and she loved to watch TV shows with political debates while she ironed. When I learned that her best friend didn't take a newspaper, I was shocked-- how did she know what was going on in the world? But my Mom simply explained that Janine found it all too depressing and didn't like the clutter of a newspaper.
And now I find myself exactly like Janine.
Which is not to say that I don't know what's going on in the world. I usually pick up on the big events just by being on facebook and reading my blogs. But I certainly don't know all the details. (And every time I see anything about Donald Trump, I'm glad I'm not paying much attention, because I find it all too ridiculous.)
But.
Occasionally something BIG happens and I completely miss it.
I know of at least two times when I totally missed out.
The first was when I had just gone off to BYU. I was busy trying to figure out college life-- making friends in the dorms, using my Dining Plus card, finding all my classes, being afraid of the library... And one of the things I hadn't figured out yet was that the newspaper printed by the University journalism classes was free. Too bad, huh? It led to me having the following conversation with my Mom:
Me: How's Tracy doing in London?
Mom: Great! And from where the London center is, she can see all the flowers, so that's been kind of cool!
Me: Oh, good. Um. What flowers?
Mom: The flowers for Princess Di. They have them all lined up against this wall and she can see them from where she's living.
Me: Oh. And why are there all these flowers for Di? What happened to Princess Di?
Mom: Um, she died...?
Me: WHAT??? WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN???
Oops.
The other thing I missed out was even more tragic (in my opinion): the Amish schoolhouse shooting. I heard references to it a few times (like at General Conference), but never really knew much about it and sort of wondered how I'd missed the whole thing. Recently, I picked up a book from the library about it, One Light Still Shines, and figured out why I didn't hear about it: It happened within a week of Bentley being born!
If there's one time when you are completely unaware of what's going on in the outside world, it's that first week home from the hospital with your brand new baby and you're in the throes of cracked nipples, poopy diapers, and not sleeping. No wonder I didn't know about it.
So those are my stories. When people have those "I remember exactly what I was doing when Kennedy got shot" moments, I don't have them at all. I'm more like, "Eventually I heard about that..."
Let me know who the next president is, will you?
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Solids 101: Pro Tips
After many weeks of dragging my feet, I finally started Camille on solids. And wow, is she loving it. That girl can eat more than my other kids combined. It was pretty awesome, too, because our first round of trying out real food was the worst I've ever seen (and not to brag, but when it comes to babies, I've been around the block a few times now). I honestly don't think she managed to swallow ANY of the oatmeal I shoved into her mouth! It was so bad that it took me two weeks to bother trying again. But I guess something clicked during those two weeks, because our second attempt was a raging success, as has been every feeding since then. Huzzah!
Now, I'm pretty sure that what's really going on here is that Camille is a good eater and was more than ready to begin eating. So I certainly can't take much credit for her here. But. I have figured out a few things that I think help the process along. So I'm going to share these tips here:
1) Give your baby spoons to play with before you start with solids. Let them get used to the taste of metal in their mouth before you try adding oatmeal and swallowing to the mix, too. (Same applies if you're using a rubber tipped spoon or whatever. I prefer to use a regular old metal spoon because they're better for scraping baby's face clean as you go, but other than that I doubt it matters very much what kind of spoon you use.)
2) Ignore that advice about adding breast milk to the rice cereal. It is WAY too much work to pump breast milk and THEN mix it in with cereal and THEN try to get your baby to eat it. If you've got a baby who's nursing and about to be eating solids, you've got enough on your plate already and plain old water will work just fine, thankyouverymuch.
3) Also ignore that advice about making the cereal as watery as possible. That just makes it even harder for baby to keep it in her mouth. They'll be just fine if it's a bit thick. I'm not talking like cement or anything, but if there's a little substance I think it's easier for your baby.
4) When you actually spoon food into your baby's mouth, let the spoon stay there for a bit so your baby has time to gum the cereal off the spoon. I think I used to try and dart the spoon in and out as fast as I could, hoping that then it wouldn't be as messy or something? But that's just stupid. Babies are learning a new skill-- you can't expect them to be fast about it, too!
5) If you see a sneeze coming, WAIT. Don't see that wide open mouth as a great chance to shovel more food in-- it will all end up sprayed all over you. If you've already put food in baby's mouth before you realized a sneeze was imminent, keep the spoon there to lessen the raspberry-blowing effect. The spoon will also act as a (very small) shield. You'll need it.
6) Keep the food on the tip of the spoon, so you're not sticking the entire thing into her mouth. Less chance of gagging that way. Or use those little tiny spoons, but for some reason those never seem to work as well for me...
I think that's about it. Happy feeding time, everyone!
(And much thanks to Kendra for capturing Camille's first feeding on my phone for me! My hands were otherwise occupied...)
 |
| Gumming Gumby! |
Now, I'm pretty sure that what's really going on here is that Camille is a good eater and was more than ready to begin eating. So I certainly can't take much credit for her here. But. I have figured out a few things that I think help the process along. So I'm going to share these tips here:
1) Give your baby spoons to play with before you start with solids. Let them get used to the taste of metal in their mouth before you try adding oatmeal and swallowing to the mix, too. (Same applies if you're using a rubber tipped spoon or whatever. I prefer to use a regular old metal spoon because they're better for scraping baby's face clean as you go, but other than that I doubt it matters very much what kind of spoon you use.)
2) Ignore that advice about adding breast milk to the rice cereal. It is WAY too much work to pump breast milk and THEN mix it in with cereal and THEN try to get your baby to eat it. If you've got a baby who's nursing and about to be eating solids, you've got enough on your plate already and plain old water will work just fine, thankyouverymuch.
3) Also ignore that advice about making the cereal as watery as possible. That just makes it even harder for baby to keep it in her mouth. They'll be just fine if it's a bit thick. I'm not talking like cement or anything, but if there's a little substance I think it's easier for your baby.
4) When you actually spoon food into your baby's mouth, let the spoon stay there for a bit so your baby has time to gum the cereal off the spoon. I think I used to try and dart the spoon in and out as fast as I could, hoping that then it wouldn't be as messy or something? But that's just stupid. Babies are learning a new skill-- you can't expect them to be fast about it, too!
5) If you see a sneeze coming, WAIT. Don't see that wide open mouth as a great chance to shovel more food in-- it will all end up sprayed all over you. If you've already put food in baby's mouth before you realized a sneeze was imminent, keep the spoon there to lessen the raspberry-blowing effect. The spoon will also act as a (very small) shield. You'll need it.
6) Keep the food on the tip of the spoon, so you're not sticking the entire thing into her mouth. Less chance of gagging that way. Or use those little tiny spoons, but for some reason those never seem to work as well for me...
I think that's about it. Happy feeding time, everyone!
(And much thanks to Kendra for capturing Camille's first feeding on my phone for me! My hands were otherwise occupied...)
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Always Learning
Several months ago when my sister Tracy was visiting, she mentioned a beautiful piece of music she'd heard at a concert called "Mostly Mozart." It was the 2nd movement of the 7th symphony, and was used in the movie The King's Speech (which ranks right up there in my book as one of the best movies of all time). It took me several times of playing it on YouTube before I noticed that my search was being autocorrected because it was composed by Beethoven, not Mozart (I guess they were being honest when they called themselves Mostly Mozart). I bet those YouTube people thought I was an idiot!
Anyway, I've been playing it a lot these days. I can't get over how quietly moving and powerful it is (especially when it's not very quiet any more). Let it go on the record that I want this playing when they carry my casket away at my funeral, okay? Here-- you should listen to it:
So that's the first thing.
The second thing is also from months ago when I decided for Mommy School we would talk about Vincent van Gogh. Because who doesn't love a guy who slices off his own ear? (And yes, I did tell the kids that story, although I didn't get too detailed with the whole part about him giving it to a prostitute.) Anyway, while I was reading up on him in wikipedia-- yes, that bastion of knowledge-- I came across this painting:
When I first saw it, I just thought, "Oh, yeah, the picture on David Sedaris' book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames." It was another minute before my brain clicked into working mode and I thought, "Wait-- why is this on the van Gogh page of Wikipedia???" So I had to go poking around to figure out that this was in fact painted by van Gogh. (Duh.) But holy crap, this is not what I think of when I picture his works! I spent a few hours feeling like a failure as a humanities major.
But really, this begs the question: Did David Sedaris explain this in his book? And did I totally forget, only to be surprised when I came across the information four-and-a-half years later? Because if this is the case, then I REALLY need to get my brain functioning again.
Now I'm going to have to go back and read that book again...
But Beethoven's 2nd Movement in his 7th Symphony! Have you been listening to it while you read? Isn't it wonderful??
Anyway, I've been playing it a lot these days. I can't get over how quietly moving and powerful it is (especially when it's not very quiet any more). Let it go on the record that I want this playing when they carry my casket away at my funeral, okay? Here-- you should listen to it:
So that's the first thing.
The second thing is also from months ago when I decided for Mommy School we would talk about Vincent van Gogh. Because who doesn't love a guy who slices off his own ear? (And yes, I did tell the kids that story, although I didn't get too detailed with the whole part about him giving it to a prostitute.) Anyway, while I was reading up on him in wikipedia-- yes, that bastion of knowledge-- I came across this painting:
When I first saw it, I just thought, "Oh, yeah, the picture on David Sedaris' book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames." It was another minute before my brain clicked into working mode and I thought, "Wait-- why is this on the van Gogh page of Wikipedia???" So I had to go poking around to figure out that this was in fact painted by van Gogh. (Duh.) But holy crap, this is not what I think of when I picture his works! I spent a few hours feeling like a failure as a humanities major.
But really, this begs the question: Did David Sedaris explain this in his book? And did I totally forget, only to be surprised when I came across the information four-and-a-half years later? Because if this is the case, then I REALLY need to get my brain functioning again.
Now I'm going to have to go back and read that book again...
But Beethoven's 2nd Movement in his 7th Symphony! Have you been listening to it while you read? Isn't it wonderful??
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Open Letter to Camille
Open Letters seem to be all the rage in passive-aggressiveness these days. I've seen a few that I really liked, but most of them (the ones I don't agree with, I suppose) just kind of annoy me. But who am I to deny this bandwagon when it's so easy to jump on it? So here we go-- my first "open letter"!
Dearest Camille,
You know we love you. We love you so much! Your little smile brings joy to our hearts every day.
But. Now that the school year has begun, we need to get a few things cleared up. Namely, how the morning routine is going to go down. The twenty minutes between 7am and 7:20am is what I think of as "Go Time." It's the time when Bentley and Kendra are frantically scrambling to finally brush their teeth, brush their hair, get their shoes on, say our morning prayers, and GET OUT THE DOOR. If we try to get any of those things done before Go Time, they just get undone and demand even more time and attention, so getting up earlier/being more efficient does no good. Go Time is so specific and frantic, it is nearly a religious experience as Mommy summons every ounce of energy she has to bring order to chaos and try to get little people out the door and onto the bus on time. Everyone is running around trying to remember what it is they're supposed to be doing and mommy has to constantly remind them and check to make sure they actually did it. (You would think that after multiple years of leaving the house, Kendra would know that she needs to brush her hair first, but alas, this is not the case. And I really try my best to not send her to school looking like a complete ragamuffin, so this means reminding and occasionally yelling and threatening to get that hair brushed each morning.) Lunches need to be made and stuffed into backpacks. Water bottles need to be refilled. Sweatshirts and shoes must be found. And we must review just how to tie shoes because this is not second nature just yet. (Why didn't I buy Kendra one more pair of velcro shoes??? What was I thinking???)
Camille, as much as I love you and try my best to see to your every need, you must understand that you are NOT allowed to wake up and demand to be fed during that time. It just does NOT work. You can wake up earlier if you have to (I don't love it, but I will duly climb out of bed and get you some nice warm milk), and certainly as soon as Bentley and Kendra are out the door, I'm happy to do anything and everything for you. But not during those twenty minutes!
Or, if you really are so hungry that you just have to wake up during that time, then goshdarnit, you are going to have to learn to eat without letting every single tiny noise disturb you and cause you to stare at the source of that noise with a very annoyed look on that adorable face of yours. Because despite the fact that EVERY DAY when your siblings come home from school, I ask what papers I need to sign, they still never seem to remember those papers until two minutes before it's time to leave. And the way you eat, I can't sign papers and feed you simultaneously. So the solution is clear: either you need to sleep just a few minutes longer, or you need to figure out how to eat through all the chaos.
Camille, I am here for you through everything. Every smile, every milestone, every new experience. I'm here for you when you're sad. I'm here for you five or six times a day (and sometimes more!) when your diaper needs to be changed. I'm here for every feeding, every change of clothes, every spit up. But please-- those 20 minutes! Let me have those 20 minutes to get the big kids out the door! It's all I ask of you!
Your everloving,
Mommy
Dearest Camille,
You know we love you. We love you so much! Your little smile brings joy to our hearts every day.
But. Now that the school year has begun, we need to get a few things cleared up. Namely, how the morning routine is going to go down. The twenty minutes between 7am and 7:20am is what I think of as "Go Time." It's the time when Bentley and Kendra are frantically scrambling to finally brush their teeth, brush their hair, get their shoes on, say our morning prayers, and GET OUT THE DOOR. If we try to get any of those things done before Go Time, they just get undone and demand even more time and attention, so getting up earlier/being more efficient does no good. Go Time is so specific and frantic, it is nearly a religious experience as Mommy summons every ounce of energy she has to bring order to chaos and try to get little people out the door and onto the bus on time. Everyone is running around trying to remember what it is they're supposed to be doing and mommy has to constantly remind them and check to make sure they actually did it. (You would think that after multiple years of leaving the house, Kendra would know that she needs to brush her hair first, but alas, this is not the case. And I really try my best to not send her to school looking like a complete ragamuffin, so this means reminding and occasionally yelling and threatening to get that hair brushed each morning.) Lunches need to be made and stuffed into backpacks. Water bottles need to be refilled. Sweatshirts and shoes must be found. And we must review just how to tie shoes because this is not second nature just yet. (Why didn't I buy Kendra one more pair of velcro shoes??? What was I thinking???)
Camille, as much as I love you and try my best to see to your every need, you must understand that you are NOT allowed to wake up and demand to be fed during that time. It just does NOT work. You can wake up earlier if you have to (I don't love it, but I will duly climb out of bed and get you some nice warm milk), and certainly as soon as Bentley and Kendra are out the door, I'm happy to do anything and everything for you. But not during those twenty minutes!
Or, if you really are so hungry that you just have to wake up during that time, then goshdarnit, you are going to have to learn to eat without letting every single tiny noise disturb you and cause you to stare at the source of that noise with a very annoyed look on that adorable face of yours. Because despite the fact that EVERY DAY when your siblings come home from school, I ask what papers I need to sign, they still never seem to remember those papers until two minutes before it's time to leave. And the way you eat, I can't sign papers and feed you simultaneously. So the solution is clear: either you need to sleep just a few minutes longer, or you need to figure out how to eat through all the chaos.
Camille, I am here for you through everything. Every smile, every milestone, every new experience. I'm here for you when you're sad. I'm here for you five or six times a day (and sometimes more!) when your diaper needs to be changed. I'm here for every feeding, every change of clothes, every spit up. But please-- those 20 minutes! Let me have those 20 minutes to get the big kids out the door! It's all I ask of you!
Your everloving,
Mommy
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