Since I'm still without access to my files of Mommy quotes from the last year, I thought I'd start a new series: great moments or lessons from homeschool. These aren't necessarily in order, but I'll pick out some of my favorites.
Here is a math problem I wrote for Eric, back in September. It is part of my literary algebra series.
J. Alfred Prufrock is frustrated. He feels a sense of futility about school. In his literature class, his grade is calculated based on the following:
Homework average: 10%
Class participation: 5%
Test 1: 15%
Test 2: 15%
Essay: 20%
Final Exam: 35%
Despite a a reasonable amount of study, J. Alfred Prufrock just doesn't "get" 20th-century British literature. His homework grades are 90%, 100%, 95%, and 85%. His class participation is 100%. His first two tests were 80% and 74%.
His ten-page essay, however, got a D- of 67%. His professor made sarcastic marginal notes about Prufrock's inability to analyze symbolism or irony.
What score does J. Alfred need on the final to get at least a B (85%) for the semester?
[Eric calculated the problem on a separate sheet of paper. He got it right, naturally.]
As you correctly calculated, he needs a 97.86% on the final exam. It seems impossible, but he tries anyway. "I dare disturb the universe!" he proclaims, and begins studying.
Sadly, he only earns a 92%, thus proving the futility of fighting fate.
Depressed, he loses his scholarship, drops out of school, and grows a beard.
After a year, he grows up, goes back to school, and switches majors to civil engineering, where the answers are both quantifiable and ultimately important. (It really does matter whether one calculates the stress on a bridge truss correctly.)
Links:
Full text: http://www.blight.com/~sparkle/poems/pruf.html
Overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Love_Song_of_J._Alfred_Prufrock
Study guide: http://www.gradesaver.com/the-love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock/study-guide/section1/
Friday, January 7, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Ring out the blessings of last year...
...Ring in our family, God, and cheer.
Happy New Year!
At Thanksgiving dinner, I asked the kids to name all the important blessings we'd received in the last year. The exercise grew into two extensive lists. What an abundance!
In 2009:
Amid all the big things, there were several other gifts to us: bowls, pans, books, movies, a marvelous crockpot, tons of great Christmas and birthday presents, tools for Jon, toys and clothes and books for the kids. I know I'm forgetting stuff. My apologies. Feel free to add to the list in the comments section. I will humbly beg your pardon and say only a superabundance of blessings led me to forget your offering momentarily.
But, honestly, it's not about all the stuff. I am gaspingly grateful for the house, cars, books (in a library!), toys, kitchen stuff, computers, etc. etc. Sometimes I feel guilty about our amazing standard of living. Even so, I am even more grateful for family relationships. I frequently tell my kids "people are more important than things." Normally in the context of "turn down the volume while he's talking to you," but it's true in every situation.
Let's hear it for eternal families! (GLORY, GLORY, HALLELUJAH!!!)
Would anyone like to make predictions for the best blessings of 2011?
Here are mine:
#3) Blogspot will finally allow bullets in their formatting. Or we'll get our own website up and running and I'll transfer everything there.
#2) We will rest financially, enjoying all our recent gains but not making any more major purchases. Tyndale (the van) will last another twelve months, valiant vehicle that he is.
And the #1 blessing... *drumroll*
Jon will finally finish school!!!
(I'll let him post the huge Hallelujah for that one.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_Out,_Wild_Bells
Happy New Year!
At Thanksgiving dinner, I asked the kids to name all the important blessings we'd received in the last year. The exercise grew into two extensive lists. What an abundance!
In 2009:
- *Jon started his new job at Intel, having been hired in October of 2008 amid the scariest financial crisis in sixty years. (HALLELUJAH.)
- *The kids and I spent several months in Indiana.
- *We sold our Raleigh house.
- *We were able, miraculously, to purchase the perfect house in Austin. (Hallelujah.)
- *I got pregnant. Miserable at the time, but worth it in the long run.
- *Eric got baptized. A bunch of family came and we had a party. In the perfect new house. Which was large enough to accommodate everyone. (I like my house.) (Thanks, Jon.)
- *We enjoyed a fabulous Christmas at the Berry grandparents'. And the quilts!
- *Sammy was born. (Hallelujah!!!)
- *We celebrated with another party. Once again, my amazing house proved its worth. In a mathematical miracle, sixteen people divided evenly into seven "bedrooms," and everyone had at least minimal privacy. Despite the widely disparate dietary requirements, nobody starved, sickened, or died. Everyone pitched in and helped things run smoothly.
- *The men in the family turned the backyard into an amazing playscape. Special thanks to Grandpas Homer and Berry.
- *We paid off the credit card!!!
- *We acquired a couch!
- *And a second car!!
- *(We had been living without both for over a year.)
- *I promptly got fat. (Ah well, nothing is perfect.)
- *Bastille Day Party! Summer, water balloons, play set, smidge of French history, moderate gore...Wahaha.
- *The kids started Tae Kwon Do.
- *Jon and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. We also celebrated that I can now say the word "anniversary."
- *I began homeschooling Eric. (Way fun!)
- *Jon and I celebrated our dodecaquadratuscourtalunaversary! That's the twelfth anniversary of when we started dating. Back then I was allergic to the word "anniversary," both for skittish "I'm not committed to a serious relationship!" and linguistic "A three-month 'anniversary' is ridiculous" reasons. So we created our own linguistic abomination and everything was fine.
- *Eric started taking a Ritalin derivative. (Hallelujah! Amen, AMEN!)
- *Jon and I got new smartphones. Awesome toys.
- *Sammy and I were able to make it to Utah for Grandpa Haupt's funeral. Through a little work and a lot of divine grace, I managed a creditable performance of one of his favorite songs.
- *The whole family was comforted in the belief that Grandpa is much happier now, and enjoying a second honeymoon with Grandma, whom he hadn't seen in over three decades.Meanwhile, the Berry grandparents babysat Sammy. That was a blessing for everyone. :)
- *I found an awesome lego castle set for $30 off at Target. Bad news: we gave it to Eric. Good news: he agreed to share!
- *Uncle Ronald crafted chainmail! WOW!
Amid all the big things, there were several other gifts to us: bowls, pans, books, movies, a marvelous crockpot, tons of great Christmas and birthday presents, tools for Jon, toys and clothes and books for the kids. I know I'm forgetting stuff. My apologies. Feel free to add to the list in the comments section. I will humbly beg your pardon and say only a superabundance of blessings led me to forget your offering momentarily.
But, honestly, it's not about all the stuff. I am gaspingly grateful for the house, cars, books (in a library!), toys, kitchen stuff, computers, etc. etc. Sometimes I feel guilty about our amazing standard of living. Even so, I am even more grateful for family relationships. I frequently tell my kids "people are more important than things." Normally in the context of "turn down the volume while he's talking to you," but it's true in every situation.
Let's hear it for eternal families! (GLORY, GLORY, HALLELUJAH!!!)
Would anyone like to make predictions for the best blessings of 2011?
Here are mine:
#3) Blogspot will finally allow bullets in their formatting. Or we'll get our own website up and running and I'll transfer everything there.
#2) We will rest financially, enjoying all our recent gains but not making any more major purchases. Tyndale (the van) will last another twelve months, valiant vehicle that he is.
And the #1 blessing... *drumroll*
Jon will finally finish school!!!
(I'll let him post the huge Hallelujah for that one.)
- Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
- The flying cloud, the frosty light;
- The year is dying in the night;
- Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
- Ring out the old, ring in the new,
- Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
- The year is going, let him go;
- Ring out the false, ring in the true.
- Ring in the broadening family tree,
- With larger hearts and kindlier hands;
- Ring out the darkness of all lands,
- Ring in the Christ that is to be.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_Out,_Wild_Bells
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Sammy is talking!
First it was babble. But this last week, a definite correlation seems to be growing by the day. Random "uhdadada"s have turned into panicked "dada!"s when Jon leaves the room. Yesterday he added a distressed "mama!" when I walked out on him. Separation anxiety, combined with traveling to Utah for five days, has apparently unsettled him. He's much more clingy lately. Jon swears that two weeks ago, Sammy deliberately said "dadee baba?" while pointing to Jon's water bottle. My hands-down favorite, though, is how a week ago, Eric was pretending to be a zombie, and all at once we heard Sammy roar "B(r)aaaaaay!!!!" ("Brains!").
Granted "Brains" was more imitative than functional. But in the last week, I have noticed Sammy use the following sounds in appropriate contexts:
1) Dada
2) Mama
3) Hi! (to the lovely ladies on the flight out of Salt Lake City, and also sometimes when I get him up in the morning)
4) Ni-ni. (In protest. I say "Night-night, Sammy" and put him in bed. And he wails "Waaaaa! Ni-ni! Waaaaaaaaah!" Which, being interpreted, means "No! I don't want to go to bed! Nooooo!")
Jon claims that he asked nicely to go ni-ni tonight, though. Jon picked him up and he promptly fell asleep. He woke up during a diaper change and then went right back to sleep when Jon put him in bed.
5) Bubba. This one is amusing. Daniel decided months ago to call Sammy "bubba." I think it's supposed to imitate baby babble and stand for "brother" or "baby." However, since Danny says it to Sammy all the time, Sammy has decided it is actually the name for Danny. After all, I walk up to him all the time and say "I'm Mama. Mama!" If Danny gets in his face and repeats "Bubba!" a lot...well, it makes sense for the baby to name the thing after the sound it makes. "Buh-buh!" Teeheehee. Daniel's brilliant plan has backfired.
6) Baba (bottle) still seems to be emerging.
7) We're not sure, but we think he tried to say "diaper" tonight at dinner. I changed it, just to make sure, and it was soppin' wet. Hmmm.
8) Jon also claims Sammy tried to say "spaghetti" during dinner. I admit I am more dubious and skeptical on this one, since I was sitting there and didn't notice any particular pattern to the babble, but Jon is the soul of veracity and I am inclined to believe his reports that Sammy made a string of sounds that were the same with each repetition.
As I recall, most babies are supposed to have four words by the time they turn one year old. Sammy has more than four words, and he isn't even nine months yet. Even granting all the caveats--sometimes he babbles the word for practice without attaching it to its object, he doesn't always use the word, the correlation is emerging but not yet 100 percent, etc--he is still very advanced.
He is also highly imitative, trying to copy sounds (like "brains") we make, even if he doesn't understand them. This child is trying hard to communicate.
Sadly and alas, I'm still not seeing any ASL action. He seems to understand when I say and sign "diaper change," but he still panics when I sign "more bottle" and then pick it up and leave the room to refill it. Still, most babies sign because they can't talk. If Sammy learns to talk super early, he may not need ASL to fill the frustration gap. At eight months, Danny was consistently signing "milk" when he was hungry. However, Daniel was not mobile at eight months. Sammy crawls over to the empty bottle and points. Or wanders into the kitchen and starts eating the crumbs that fall from the master's table. (Eric's cereal droppings.) (Again, like a dog.) Who needs ASL?
Yes, I am bragging obnoxiously about my kid. That's what this blog is for. If you're reading it, you are presumably interested family or friends.
My crop of cute kid quotes had been drying up slightly, mostly because a nine-year-old discussing philosophy just isn't as amazing as a three-year-old doing the same. Perhaps I should keep having babies for their entertainment value? Heaven knows, at this rate, I'll have tons of fabulous Sammy quotes in no time at all.
Just please, PLEASE, let me have a kid who is amazingly advanced at potty training in addition to his brilliance in other fields. Women don't actually forget the pains of child rearing, they just delude themselves into thinking "This time it will be better..."
Addendum:
Yesterday morning, I got Sammy up and he said "Hi, Mama!" He's a few months early for words, but he's a year early for stringing two words together! I think we have yet another brilliant child on our hands. Of course, if you've met Eric and Daniel, this won't surprise you.
Yesterday afternoon, he got up from a nap with a very poopy diaper. Jon picked him up and said "You need a diaper change," after which Sammy said "diaper" and signed something that Jon thinks was supposed to be "change." It didn't look anything like the sign for "change," but it is consistent, which is the main thing.
After the diaper change, Sam requested "baba." Jon got him a bottle and young master Samuel drained it. Teeheehee.
Last night we went Christmas caroling for a late family home evening. Poor Sammy got sick of the in-out-in-out carseat straps, and he kept trying to say something. We weren't sure what he was trying to say and he got so frustrated, poor little guy. Maybe he does need ASL after all.
When Eric and Daniel were late two/early three, I taught them to say "Beloved and Revered Mommy." I wonder how soon I could get Sammy to do the same...?
Granted "Brains" was more imitative than functional. But in the last week, I have noticed Sammy use the following sounds in appropriate contexts:
1) Dada
2) Mama
3) Hi! (to the lovely ladies on the flight out of Salt Lake City, and also sometimes when I get him up in the morning)
4) Ni-ni. (In protest. I say "Night-night, Sammy" and put him in bed. And he wails "Waaaaa! Ni-ni! Waaaaaaaaah!" Which, being interpreted, means "No! I don't want to go to bed! Nooooo!")
Jon claims that he asked nicely to go ni-ni tonight, though. Jon picked him up and he promptly fell asleep. He woke up during a diaper change and then went right back to sleep when Jon put him in bed.
5) Bubba. This one is amusing. Daniel decided months ago to call Sammy "bubba." I think it's supposed to imitate baby babble and stand for "brother" or "baby." However, since Danny says it to Sammy all the time, Sammy has decided it is actually the name for Danny. After all, I walk up to him all the time and say "I'm Mama. Mama!" If Danny gets in his face and repeats "Bubba!" a lot...well, it makes sense for the baby to name the thing after the sound it makes. "Buh-buh!" Teeheehee. Daniel's brilliant plan has backfired.
6) Baba (bottle) still seems to be emerging.
7) We're not sure, but we think he tried to say "diaper" tonight at dinner. I changed it, just to make sure, and it was soppin' wet. Hmmm.
8) Jon also claims Sammy tried to say "spaghetti" during dinner. I admit I am more dubious and skeptical on this one, since I was sitting there and didn't notice any particular pattern to the babble, but Jon is the soul of veracity and I am inclined to believe his reports that Sammy made a string of sounds that were the same with each repetition.
As I recall, most babies are supposed to have four words by the time they turn one year old. Sammy has more than four words, and he isn't even nine months yet. Even granting all the caveats--sometimes he babbles the word for practice without attaching it to its object, he doesn't always use the word, the correlation is emerging but not yet 100 percent, etc--he is still very advanced.
He is also highly imitative, trying to copy sounds (like "brains") we make, even if he doesn't understand them. This child is trying hard to communicate.
Sadly and alas, I'm still not seeing any ASL action. He seems to understand when I say and sign "diaper change," but he still panics when I sign "more bottle" and then pick it up and leave the room to refill it. Still, most babies sign because they can't talk. If Sammy learns to talk super early, he may not need ASL to fill the frustration gap. At eight months, Danny was consistently signing "milk" when he was hungry. However, Daniel was not mobile at eight months. Sammy crawls over to the empty bottle and points. Or wanders into the kitchen and starts eating the crumbs that fall from the master's table. (Eric's cereal droppings.) (Again, like a dog.) Who needs ASL?
Yes, I am bragging obnoxiously about my kid. That's what this blog is for. If you're reading it, you are presumably interested family or friends.
My crop of cute kid quotes had been drying up slightly, mostly because a nine-year-old discussing philosophy just isn't as amazing as a three-year-old doing the same. Perhaps I should keep having babies for their entertainment value? Heaven knows, at this rate, I'll have tons of fabulous Sammy quotes in no time at all.
Just please, PLEASE, let me have a kid who is amazingly advanced at potty training in addition to his brilliance in other fields. Women don't actually forget the pains of child rearing, they just delude themselves into thinking "This time it will be better..."
Addendum:
Yesterday morning, I got Sammy up and he said "Hi, Mama!" He's a few months early for words, but he's a year early for stringing two words together! I think we have yet another brilliant child on our hands. Of course, if you've met Eric and Daniel, this won't surprise you.
Yesterday afternoon, he got up from a nap with a very poopy diaper. Jon picked him up and said "You need a diaper change," after which Sammy said "diaper" and signed something that Jon thinks was supposed to be "change." It didn't look anything like the sign for "change," but it is consistent, which is the main thing.
After the diaper change, Sam requested "baba." Jon got him a bottle and young master Samuel drained it. Teeheehee.
Last night we went Christmas caroling for a late family home evening. Poor Sammy got sick of the in-out-in-out carseat straps, and he kept trying to say something. We weren't sure what he was trying to say and he got so frustrated, poor little guy. Maybe he does need ASL after all.
When Eric and Daniel were late two/early three, I taught them to say "Beloved and Revered Mommy." I wonder how soon I could get Sammy to do the same...?
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Technical difficulties
Greetings, gentles, all,
Daniel dropped my laptop and destroyed my screen. This was slightly my fault for setting a bad example by leaving the laptop up on the arm of the couch. (Out of the reach of Sammy.) At the moment, I don't have access to any of my files. (Alas and woe!) (Yes, Jon tried to hook up an external monitor, and no, the initial try didn't work, and also, no, Jon can't devote any more time to the problem until the semester is over.)
Anyway, for the next month or so, I won't have access to my saved quotes or pictures. This saddens me, since I'd hoped to slog through some backlog over the holidays.
Nonetheless, I can post contemporary pictures, and I shall.
I am switching over from the old digital camera (purchased when Eric was born) to my new smart phone. (Samsung Vibrant, 3G, Android.) The picture quality if blurry at times; sorry about that, I'll get the hang of it.
Behold, cute kids:
Santa baby...hurry down the chimney tonight... November 27, 2010. It was nap time and Santa was slightly cranky. Ah well, I'd be cranky too if I missed out on sleep, filling stocking after stocking ad infinitum.
We were in Hobby Lobby, buying a new Christmas tree. I found this hat for Sammy and put it on him while we were waiting for the tree to be delivered up front. The lady behind me had been flirting and and offering to take him if I didn't want him (I was in the returns/customer service lane). When I flourished the Santa hat, she cried, "Oh, no, don't put it on him!!!--" I did anyway, and she continued, "Now I won't be able to resist kidnapping him!!" I started singing "Sammy baby..." and she melted. I could have made superlative gravy from her rich drippings.
Left: Sammy's shirt reads "Mom's Knight in Shining Armor," with a picture of a castle and helmet. (Best $5 sale I've ever found at Kohl's.) Right: Wearing the knight shirt, Sammy practices his sword skills. He waved it around by the hilt, grasped it by the blade (without injury!) and worked on his sword swallowing technique. Very impressive. I am confident he'll be able to slay all the wicked imaginary monsters in the house by the time he's three.
Below: Jon, Eric, and Daniel work on building bridges out of toothpicks and marshmallows. A family activity extension of the technology expo we had attended a week prior, where Daniel tied the record for the strongest bridge that day. (His creation, made of triangles, supported nineteen dixie cups before it collapsed. In his defense, the marshmallows were wet. We noted great improved structural stability once the "concrete" had "set."
Daniel dropped my laptop and destroyed my screen. This was slightly my fault for setting a bad example by leaving the laptop up on the arm of the couch. (Out of the reach of Sammy.) At the moment, I don't have access to any of my files. (Alas and woe!) (Yes, Jon tried to hook up an external monitor, and no, the initial try didn't work, and also, no, Jon can't devote any more time to the problem until the semester is over.)
Anyway, for the next month or so, I won't have access to my saved quotes or pictures. This saddens me, since I'd hoped to slog through some backlog over the holidays.
Nonetheless, I can post contemporary pictures, and I shall.
I am switching over from the old digital camera (purchased when Eric was born) to my new smart phone. (Samsung Vibrant, 3G, Android.) The picture quality if blurry at times; sorry about that, I'll get the hang of it.
Behold, cute kids:
Santa baby...hurry down the chimney tonight... November 27, 2010. It was nap time and Santa was slightly cranky. Ah well, I'd be cranky too if I missed out on sleep, filling stocking after stocking ad infinitum.
We were in Hobby Lobby, buying a new Christmas tree. I found this hat for Sammy and put it on him while we were waiting for the tree to be delivered up front. The lady behind me had been flirting and and offering to take him if I didn't want him (I was in the returns/customer service lane). When I flourished the Santa hat, she cried, "Oh, no, don't put it on him!!!--" I did anyway, and she continued, "Now I won't be able to resist kidnapping him!!" I started singing "Sammy baby..." and she melted. I could have made superlative gravy from her rich drippings.
Left: Sammy's shirt reads "Mom's Knight in Shining Armor," with a picture of a castle and helmet. (Best $5 sale I've ever found at Kohl's.) Right: Wearing the knight shirt, Sammy practices his sword skills. He waved it around by the hilt, grasped it by the blade (without injury!) and worked on his sword swallowing technique. Very impressive. I am confident he'll be able to slay all the wicked imaginary monsters in the house by the time he's three.
Below: Jon, Eric, and Daniel work on building bridges out of toothpicks and marshmallows. A family activity extension of the technology expo we had attended a week prior, where Daniel tied the record for the strongest bridge that day. (His creation, made of triangles, supported nineteen dixie cups before it collapsed. In his defense, the marshmallows were wet. We noted great improved structural stability once the "concrete" had "set."
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Photographic Evidence
Columbus and Cake Contests
Once upon a time, Cristopher Columbus set off across the ocean. In a world-changing voyage, he became a pirate, landed on Hispaniola, encountered space aliens, and then discovered the legendary city of El Dorado.
(Well, actually, El Dorado happened on his fourth voyage.)
If this sounds like a slightly inaccurate version of history suitable for a B-grade summer movie, think again. It is, in fact, a highly incorrect revision of the facts, based only loosely upon reality.
We belong to the Society for Creative Re-interpretations and Extremely Erroneous Anachronisms. The acronym, SCREEA! sounds like the truncated screams of tortured historians.
There is a method to my madness. You see, it's actually all about a large, bipedal, swashbuckling talking mouse named Reepicheep.
A few years ago, my sister Cheryl accused this Paragon Paladin of insanity. The relevant messages and ensuing duel-to-the-diabetic-coma may be referenced here:
http://burgunbesiegt.blogspot.com/2008/07/reepicheep.html
For our third annual cake contest, Cheryl suggested a Columbus Day theme. Cheryl showed the first contact:
(Well, actually, El Dorado happened on his fourth voyage.)
If this sounds like a slightly inaccurate version of history suitable for a B-grade summer movie, think again. It is, in fact, a highly incorrect revision of the facts, based only loosely upon reality.
We belong to the Society for Creative Re-interpretations and Extremely Erroneous Anachronisms. The acronym, SCREEA! sounds like the truncated screams of tortured historians.
There is a method to my madness. You see, it's actually all about a large, bipedal, swashbuckling talking mouse named Reepicheep.
A few years ago, my sister Cheryl accused this Paragon Paladin of insanity. The relevant messages and ensuing duel-to-the-diabetic-coma may be referenced here:
http://burgunbesiegt.blogspot.com/2008/07/reepicheep.html
For our third annual cake contest, Cheryl suggested a Columbus Day theme. Cheryl showed the first contact:
(The pirates and creatures I assume to be aliens are the plastic figurines donated by her son)
I had dreams of depicting the natives dying in plagues of smallpox, but eventually gave up on that idea.
In the end, I went with a simple model of a Mayan temple in the legendary city of El Dorado.
Granted, I couldn't find any evidence that Columbus ever even heard the rumors of the place, but it's the sort of thing he totally would have tried to find (and exploit) if he'd known about it.
According to Wikipedia, Spanish stories were circulating about the site as early as 1531, twenty-five years after Columbus died, and the first expeditions began in 1541. Granted most of the expeditions took place on the mainland of northern South America, not the Yucatan Peninsula, but they never found anything, right? Whereas the Mayans did have a lot of gold, right? And any two dots can form a line, so...
My theory is that on his fourth voyage (1502-1504), Columbus discovered El Dorado, tried to seize the central (and most opulent) temple, and was turned back by the lack of access points. (The natives, realizing he was coming, destroyed the staircase to the top in a successful scorched earth policy.)
Columbus was so embarrassed by this, he altered his log to cover up his failure and sailed back home, where he died two years later. This explains the golden Mayan temple cake without the signature central staircase:
(Yes, actually I just got lazy. )
People are welcome to vote for either cake. Mine is very large. It has glittery gold nuggets sprinkled about. Two flavors: butter pecan for the bottom layer and yellow for the top two. (The central temple building at the very top is constructed from stacked cake scraps.) Beyond that, though, I haven't much to say for it.
I think Cheryl's is better. At least it represents more real effort. I interpret the pirate hat on the pilot as a deliberate culinary metaphor. And, as Caitlyn S. used to say, "It's her turn to win."
Cheryl and I may still not agree about Reepicheep, but we both agree we need to pick a different theme next year. Neither of us felt very inspired. Suggestions?
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Precious, Precocious, and Perilously Premature
I know I ought to update December '09 through September '10 before breaking big news, but baby development stops for no mama, especially when it's Sammy, who moves with lightning speed.He displayed remarkable neck musculature in the hospital. He rolled over at two-and-a-half months. He crawled at five months. In the last week, however, he has amazed us. Jon discovered Sammy could hold a standing position if placed in it. (With support, like against the couch). Then, on Thursday, he pulled himself up into a kneeling position and then tried to push up into a standing position. It didn't work, but it was a great try. I have witnesses! (It was at Tae Kwon Do.) On Friday, I told the doctor (at Sammy's six-month checkup) "Developmental delays I can handle. Can you slow this kid down?" And then today, Saturday, I went to get him up from a nap and caught him standing -- standing!!! -- in his crib. The child is not even six-and-a-half months old, for heaven's sake.
I freaked. I shrieked. (Though not as loudly as when I heard President Monson announce the Indianapolis temple last week.) I explained to Sammy that this was outlawed, forbidden, verboten, unsanctioned, and anathema. He smiled at me. "I'm serious!" I scolded, then explained in even more detail how this was not, NOT approved, permitted, or allowed. He flashed a grin and then looked sweet and innocent. Not "Who me?" but playing dumb, as if he had no idea what I was talking about.
I know better. He totally understands me. Jon started making comparisons to Bean. (The tiny, superintelligent major character of Orson Scott Card's novel Ender's Shadow.) I agree.
I should point out that, according to the doctor, as of yesterday Sammy weighed 14 pounds, 6 ounzes, and was in the 5th percentile for weight. Yet he is also well ahead in certain key developmental milestones.
Lest no one misunderstand -- I'm not bragging. (Well, not much.) Instead, I am terrified. We have to hurry up out babyproofing campaign, among other things.
Also, once he officially becomes a toddler, I'm afraid he will no longer attract as m
uch worship and adoration in public. He is the most fun I've ever had with a baby, and I am not ready for him to grow up. Even if he's the tiniest tot ever to toddle at seven months, once he starts walking, he officially becomes a "toddler," not a "baby" in my head.It's too early! Do I hear an "Amen"?
Above: Sammy, age six months and one day, calmly stands and considers his cruising options. Jon assisted him into the position, but you can see how in control he is, and how he's thinking about The Next Step. 9/29/2010
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