After I dropped Emmett off at daycare today, I spent most of the drive to work thinking about what I wanted him to wear on Wednesday of this week, which is picture day. I feel like the boy should definitely wear something on the nicer end of his clothing spectrum, but I don't feel the need to go too crazy about it. After all, the odds are good that the outfit will have spitup on it before any actual photography takes place. So, I'm driving along thinking of all of this, and suddenly there's a song on the kids' CD I'm listening to called "Picture Day."
The CD, by the way, was by Justin Roberts, one of my new favorite kids' performers. He's going to be doing a concert at the Arts Center in Carrboro in May and I'm very excited about it.
I've started listening to quite a bit of new-to-me children's music recently and it sometimes seems like every conceivable song topic has been covered in some way. For instance, Roger Day has a song about "Brain Freeze." Recess Monkey has a song about losing stuff in "A Black Hole In My Room." Lunch Money has a song about spinning around until you get dizzy. And Jeanie B. even has a song called "Mommy's In Menopause."
I find it a bit frustrating that there are all of these really excellent children's songwriters out there, and yet I could go into a baby store with 3 zillion varieties of pacifiers and not be able to find any music other than stuff like Disney and the Wiggles. What is the deal? The thing about kids' music is that the stuff that is bad is SO BAD that it could make you want to avoid the whole genre, but now I'm finding that there's much more good stuff out there than I ever realized.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Eight Months Old!
As of Sunday, March 27, Emmett is now eight months old. When I started this blog, I imagined that I would post something every time that he hit a big milestone, but the milestones themselves are keeping me busy and I haven't been doing nearly as much updating as I would like.
The funny thing about milestones is how quickly you can go from "Awesome! How adorable!" to "Oh, crap!" For example, the first time that Emmett pulled himself up into a sitting position in his crib (on March 12, for the record), I took tons of pictures, emailed them to family, etc. etc. However, this behavior seemed a lot less cute at 3 in the morning when I wanted him to JUST sleep.
Around two or three weeks ago, he started crawling. Life will never be boring ever again, I guess. Even before he crawled, he would manage to move himself around, through a combination of rolling and scooting, then through floor swimming (sort of a flattened crawl). He really enjoys crawling in the direction of computer charging cables. These are apparently delicious.
He's had about 800 viruses in these eight months, though luckily most of them have just been the daycare equivalent of kennel cough. Sometimes we get sick along with him, like now. Cough. Sniffle. I spend a lot of time consulting lists like this one about how to tell if your child is too sick to attend daycare. Even with these lists, it's still hard to make the decision some days. I'm just glad I still have some leave time left after maternity leave.
The big thing, though, is that the older Emmett gets, the more ways we all can have fun together. He's gotten compliments at daycare on his dance moves and music appreciation, and he laughs out loud at various things now.
The funny thing about milestones is how quickly you can go from "Awesome! How adorable!" to "Oh, crap!" For example, the first time that Emmett pulled himself up into a sitting position in his crib (on March 12, for the record), I took tons of pictures, emailed them to family, etc. etc. However, this behavior seemed a lot less cute at 3 in the morning when I wanted him to JUST sleep.
Around two or three weeks ago, he started crawling. Life will never be boring ever again, I guess. Even before he crawled, he would manage to move himself around, through a combination of rolling and scooting, then through floor swimming (sort of a flattened crawl). He really enjoys crawling in the direction of computer charging cables. These are apparently delicious.
He's had about 800 viruses in these eight months, though luckily most of them have just been the daycare equivalent of kennel cough. Sometimes we get sick along with him, like now. Cough. Sniffle. I spend a lot of time consulting lists like this one about how to tell if your child is too sick to attend daycare. Even with these lists, it's still hard to make the decision some days. I'm just glad I still have some leave time left after maternity leave.
The big thing, though, is that the older Emmett gets, the more ways we all can have fun together. He's gotten compliments at daycare on his dance moves and music appreciation, and he laughs out loud at various things now.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Sleep Superstitions
Note to self: even if you immediately knock on wood after saying it, on the same day that you tell someone something positive about sleep, a curse will descend upon your household. It's best just to avoid the topic altogether.
It happened again on Sunday night. My parents asked me how Emmett was sleeping these days, and I told them that he was still waking up in the night, but that "at least it's only once." As I was saying the words, I felt myself regretting it and I immediately called "Knock on Wood" and punched the nearest piece of wooden furniture, but forget it. While it could have been worse, that was the first night in a while that he'd woken up twice.
I try to make the most these sleep disruptions. I often catch up on some reading and/or do some bonding with the boy. Hey, at 4 a.m. on Monday morning, I noticed the beginnings of the emergence of Emmett's first tooth! Oh wait, that might explain a thing or two about the sleep...
It happened again on Sunday night. My parents asked me how Emmett was sleeping these days, and I told them that he was still waking up in the night, but that "at least it's only once." As I was saying the words, I felt myself regretting it and I immediately called "Knock on Wood" and punched the nearest piece of wooden furniture, but forget it. While it could have been worse, that was the first night in a while that he'd woken up twice.
I try to make the most these sleep disruptions. I often catch up on some reading and/or do some bonding with the boy. Hey, at 4 a.m. on Monday morning, I noticed the beginnings of the emergence of Emmett's first tooth! Oh wait, that might explain a thing or two about the sleep...
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Dada!
Emmett's been doing the repeated syllable babbling thing a lot lately, going "bababababa" or "dadadada" regularly. There have been a few times when we've gone, "Hey, wait, did he just call Adam 'Da-da,' or is he just expressing an interest in dadaism?"
However, yesterday it was pretty unmistakable. He was sitting in his high chair. I had just fed him some mushed-up peas, and Adam was about to feed him some rice cereal. As Adam sat in front of him, Emmett looked right at him and said "Da da!" with a big smile on his face.
"I think that counts!"
"Aw, that made my day."
Adam quickly started hinting to Emmett that he should start working on making mama-like sounds, which was sweet. I was warned by other moms that babies often say words like "dada" before "mama." This is apparently partly because the "m" sound is harder to make, but also because babies don't always think of mama as a separate entity at first. In addition, Emmett just has a special bond with his daddy, and I'm glad that he does.
However, yesterday it was pretty unmistakable. He was sitting in his high chair. I had just fed him some mushed-up peas, and Adam was about to feed him some rice cereal. As Adam sat in front of him, Emmett looked right at him and said "Da da!" with a big smile on his face.
"I think that counts!"
"Aw, that made my day."
Adam quickly started hinting to Emmett that he should start working on making mama-like sounds, which was sweet. I was warned by other moms that babies often say words like "dada" before "mama." This is apparently partly because the "m" sound is harder to make, but also because babies don't always think of mama as a separate entity at first. In addition, Emmett just has a special bond with his daddy, and I'm glad that he does.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
All this controversy over...eating?
Earlier this week, I got fascinated in a not-so-good way with the comments on this blog post about kids in restaurants. I actually hadn't taken Emmett to a restaurant since Christmas break (when we had family in town who wanted to visit some favorite local eateries) and the indignant responses of people who thought kids should only be in restaurants with a kids' menu made me really want to eat in restaurants more, in a "So there!" kind of way. I certainly have been wary of being That Parent With The Screaming Child, and most nights, I'd still just prefer to eat takeout at home than go out to eat--it's just easier. But somehow the idea that I should stay out of restaurants because I have my kid with me? Lame. Most of the times we've had Emmett with us, it's seemed like the restaurants needed our business more than they needed a kid-free environment. I'll be kind of ticked off if I avoid going places I really like during my kid's unpredictable years and then find that these places become more casualties of the crap economy.
Then there's the objection by certain members of a political movement that making breast pumps a deductible expense is making the US into a nanny state. I so don't get it. What I like about this potential deduction is that I remember spending lots of time at Babies R Us and Target trying to figure out if it was worth it to spend extra money on one of the nicer pumps (you know, the kind that actually work?). Anyone who has pumped for more than five minutes will attest that the better pumps are pretty worth it. If I'd gone into that situation knowing that certain expenses were deductible, the decisions would be easier to decide to buy a better pump at the outset.
For some reason, I thought that once I introduced Emmett to solid food, I'd be able to take some pressure off myself about All of That Pumping, but now I realize that I still am doing as much pumping as ever. I also now have a vague sense of...guilt? inadequacy? about the fact that No, I am not making all of Emmett's solid food by hand. We barely manage to feed ourselves most weeknights, so adding in the time to cook and pulverize fresh organic fruits and vegetables for the boy is just not likely to happen any time soon. When his diet is varied enough that he really can eat what we eat, perhaps it'll be easier to just mush some of the current meal up for him, but for now...no can do.
The first time that I fed him sweet potatoes was right around the same time that he learned to make "raspberries" with his mouth, and I was concerned that the entire kitchen would soon resemble a painting by Jackson Pollock. Luckily, he's gotten better about getting the actual food into his mouth.
Then there's the objection by certain members of a political movement that making breast pumps a deductible expense is making the US into a nanny state. I so don't get it. What I like about this potential deduction is that I remember spending lots of time at Babies R Us and Target trying to figure out if it was worth it to spend extra money on one of the nicer pumps (you know, the kind that actually work?). Anyone who has pumped for more than five minutes will attest that the better pumps are pretty worth it. If I'd gone into that situation knowing that certain expenses were deductible, the decisions would be easier to decide to buy a better pump at the outset.
For some reason, I thought that once I introduced Emmett to solid food, I'd be able to take some pressure off myself about All of That Pumping, but now I realize that I still am doing as much pumping as ever. I also now have a vague sense of...guilt? inadequacy? about the fact that No, I am not making all of Emmett's solid food by hand. We barely manage to feed ourselves most weeknights, so adding in the time to cook and pulverize fresh organic fruits and vegetables for the boy is just not likely to happen any time soon. When his diet is varied enough that he really can eat what we eat, perhaps it'll be easier to just mush some of the current meal up for him, but for now...no can do.
The first time that I fed him sweet potatoes was right around the same time that he learned to make "raspberries" with his mouth, and I was concerned that the entire kitchen would soon resemble a painting by Jackson Pollock. Luckily, he's gotten better about getting the actual food into his mouth.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Only Wanting To Mommy The Actual Baby
Wow, it looks like I just used "mommy" as a verb. Does that mean that I need some sort of intervention?
I am scheduled to go to a work-related leadership training event at the end of March. I had some reluctance to go at first, since it means two nights away from home and I tend to miss Emmett whenever he's not physically attached to me. At the same time, I've been waiting something like ten years for a chance to do some actual training of this sort, so I'm going. I feel like I've just muddled through management up until now, just trying to avoid really noticeable mistakes. That actually sounds a lot like parenting, but there's probably more available in the way of advice out there about being a parent (not that it's all good advice). I know, bookstores have whole sections devoted to leadership crap, but a leadership in education is its own complicated area.
Lately I feel conflicted about some of the roles available as a woman in leadership at work. As I see it, there are a couple of easy paths to take. One path is to just be a total bitch, and the appealing part is that it's probably pretty efficient to operate this way. I've attempted the "nice bitch" approach, hoping to be as lovely and likable as Glenda the Good Witch, and sometimes it's worked out OK, but I'd rather have the bitchiness be a tool that I pull out on occasion than my main style.
The other role that I see women with power at work falling into is Mommy. I didn't really mind being mommy at work before I had Emmett. In limited doses, being mommy at work can be satisfying, and a certain type of employee thrives in situations where there's someone playing that role for them. I can practically hear myself going, "It's OK, I'll take care of everything!" and really meaning the "everything" part. Shortly after Emmett was born, I realized that while I had more patience with him than I'd expected, I had very little patience with adults who couldn't/wouldn't just do things for themselves. In fact, I think that I can be a better mommy to Emmett if I don't have to spend the workday doing the equivalent of wiping people's butts for them.
So, I've been trying to figure out what my leadership style really is/should be, and it bugs me that it's not something that I can put into words. A few years back, I joked that I wanted my title to be "Queen of ESL." While parts of that appeal to me (heaps of power, looking awesome, and being sucked up to regularly), on the whole that doesn't fit, either. Perhaps during this training, some lightbulb will go off in my head and I'll get closer to figuring some part of this out.
I am scheduled to go to a work-related leadership training event at the end of March. I had some reluctance to go at first, since it means two nights away from home and I tend to miss Emmett whenever he's not physically attached to me. At the same time, I've been waiting something like ten years for a chance to do some actual training of this sort, so I'm going. I feel like I've just muddled through management up until now, just trying to avoid really noticeable mistakes. That actually sounds a lot like parenting, but there's probably more available in the way of advice out there about being a parent (not that it's all good advice). I know, bookstores have whole sections devoted to leadership crap, but a leadership in education is its own complicated area.
Lately I feel conflicted about some of the roles available as a woman in leadership at work. As I see it, there are a couple of easy paths to take. One path is to just be a total bitch, and the appealing part is that it's probably pretty efficient to operate this way. I've attempted the "nice bitch" approach, hoping to be as lovely and likable as Glenda the Good Witch, and sometimes it's worked out OK, but I'd rather have the bitchiness be a tool that I pull out on occasion than my main style.
The other role that I see women with power at work falling into is Mommy. I didn't really mind being mommy at work before I had Emmett. In limited doses, being mommy at work can be satisfying, and a certain type of employee thrives in situations where there's someone playing that role for them. I can practically hear myself going, "It's OK, I'll take care of everything!" and really meaning the "everything" part. Shortly after Emmett was born, I realized that while I had more patience with him than I'd expected, I had very little patience with adults who couldn't/wouldn't just do things for themselves. In fact, I think that I can be a better mommy to Emmett if I don't have to spend the workday doing the equivalent of wiping people's butts for them.
So, I've been trying to figure out what my leadership style really is/should be, and it bugs me that it's not something that I can put into words. A few years back, I joked that I wanted my title to be "Queen of ESL." While parts of that appeal to me (heaps of power, looking awesome, and being sucked up to regularly), on the whole that doesn't fit, either. Perhaps during this training, some lightbulb will go off in my head and I'll get closer to figuring some part of this out.
Monday, February 7, 2011
The Year of the Rabbit Reading List
It's now the Year of the Rabbit, and one of my projects has been a reading list of books about bunny rabbits. Once I started thinking about it, I realized that I already had quite a few bunny books in my possession: Goodnight Moon, The Runaway Bunny, Little Bunny Follows His Nose, Guess How Much I Love You, Rabbit's Good News, Pat the Bunny, and What Do Bunnies Do All Day.We read most of these titles together during the first few days of Chinese New Year, then picked up a few others that friends had suggested from the library (notably, Knuffle Bunny, Not A Box and Bunny's Noisy Book), and then my parents and sister also sent along more bunny books, including Peter Rabbit. The collection didn't seem quite complete until I had a copy of I Am A Bunny, a personal favorite from childhood. For some reason, neither library I go to had that one (though there were countless other rabbit-related books available besides the ones I've mentioned).
We're going to skip Rabbit, Run and the other rabbit books by John Updike, though.
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