Friday, January 30, 2009
tonight tonight
We are taking a leap of faith and attempting our first sleep over tonight. Our cousin Krista invited us all to stay at their place, and her daughter Freya is very excited for Nate to sleep in her room. I'm guessing we won't actually be doing much sleeping, but I'll keep my fingers crossed anyway!
Monday, January 26, 2009
moles eat snakes
Nate's language has been improving a lot recently. He can even carry on a conversation when he's paying attention. It's great to hear him learning, and I love his mistakes. The most recent one, which has stuck around over a week and we hear at least twenty times a day, is "where do you are?" So anytime we're not in the same room, he asks, "Mommy, where do you are?!"
Also, Nate is making jokes! They're not particularly funny to anyone other than Nate, but they are jokes nonetheless. His favorite (and I'm not kidding) is to tell us lots of things that moles eat. For instance, he'll say, "moles eat snakes!" and then he'll fall over in giggles. "Moles eat doors!" More laughter. "Moles eat cows!" Hysterics. Today he spent a lot of time pointing at pictures of various animals and saying they were all "sal-a-may-an-ders!" What a knee slapper!
Also, Nate is making jokes! They're not particularly funny to anyone other than Nate, but they are jokes nonetheless. His favorite (and I'm not kidding) is to tell us lots of things that moles eat. For instance, he'll say, "moles eat snakes!" and then he'll fall over in giggles. "Moles eat doors!" More laughter. "Moles eat cows!" Hysterics. Today he spent a lot of time pointing at pictures of various animals and saying they were all "sal-a-may-an-ders!" What a knee slapper!
Sunday, January 25, 2009
2009 in pictures
Here's a smattering of random pictures that are not new, but that I just downloaded off my camera. As you can see, we haven't been doing much of interest lately!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
a great day
My grandparents were born before women had the right to vote. My parents went to schools with separate entrances for boys and girls. They remember a time when people were denied rights because of the color of their skin or because of their gender - a time of marches and assassinations. My parents bought their house for a song because people were leaving Boston because the schools were being desegregated.
I was born into a liberal family in a liberal state and I had lots of liberal friends. Compared with my parents' and grandparents' generations, I didn't really experience much of the discrimination and inequality that has taken place in our country. And as ignorant as it sounds, the enormity of Obama's victory didn't hit me until the day after the election. Quite frankly, I liked his message and his race didn't have any impact on me or my vote. I certainly understood that having a minority president would be a big step forward, I just didn't realize quite how big of a deal it truely is.
I am thrilled, and quite emotional, that Nate will grow up believing that anyone can be president. Like my experiences with integration, he won't remember a time when someone couldn't lead our country because of the color of his/her skin. Barack Obama's election is a gigantic step forward for our country, regardless of your political party of views. And I'm proud of be a part of this moment.
I was born into a liberal family in a liberal state and I had lots of liberal friends. Compared with my parents' and grandparents' generations, I didn't really experience much of the discrimination and inequality that has taken place in our country. And as ignorant as it sounds, the enormity of Obama's victory didn't hit me until the day after the election. Quite frankly, I liked his message and his race didn't have any impact on me or my vote. I certainly understood that having a minority president would be a big step forward, I just didn't realize quite how big of a deal it truely is.
I am thrilled, and quite emotional, that Nate will grow up believing that anyone can be president. Like my experiences with integration, he won't remember a time when someone couldn't lead our country because of the color of his/her skin. Barack Obama's election is a gigantic step forward for our country, regardless of your political party of views. And I'm proud of be a part of this moment.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
bon voyage!
It seems like everyone's traveling to warmer places these days. Sol's off to San Diego for his residency, and Laura and Steve are headed to Colombia to adopt their daughter, Carmen Elizabeth! We, on the other hand, will be layering our Icelandic sweaters here in balmy Boston. In fact, in a few weeks we're planning on going to Vermont where it's even colder. I like cold, but I'm not all that excited about frigid.
Nate will not wear mittens. We have two pairs: a puffy, hard-core, LL Bean pair, which he wants nothing to do with; and a knitted pair from Great Aunt Linda that he is content to have in the same room but still doesn't want on his hands. He throws a fit if we even suggest putting them on, and then complains about having cold hands when we go outside. I have pointed out that mittens would solve the cold hand issue, but then he's really mad because his hands are cold and I again suggested torturing him with mittens. I'm kind of baffled about how to handle that one.
Nate will not wear mittens. We have two pairs: a puffy, hard-core, LL Bean pair, which he wants nothing to do with; and a knitted pair from Great Aunt Linda that he is content to have in the same room but still doesn't want on his hands. He throws a fit if we even suggest putting them on, and then complains about having cold hands when we go outside. I have pointed out that mittens would solve the cold hand issue, but then he's really mad because his hands are cold and I again suggested torturing him with mittens. I'm kind of baffled about how to handle that one.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
d-d-d-d-d-dora!
!Soy Neva!
We're going on day four of Nate not feeling well, and we've been stuck inside the house for most of it. That's mostly self-imposed, because this bug seems to be pretty contagious (based on how many Carlson's have been struck down. If my calculations are correct, the head count is seven so far.) We haven't been doing much of interest because Nate's been pretty cranky, so we've broken our typical virtually-no-television rule. And we did it in style. Much like when my sister stopped being a vegetarian - when she cracked, the next day she ate so much bacon that she got cut off at her college's all-you-can-eat cafeteria (and made her friends go get more for her) - we have watched way more tv in the past few days than any normal human should.
And I'm starting to go batty... doing the batty bat! Now count!
Having not watched much recent kids' tv, I'm now being schooled on all the current programs (at least the ones available through "on demand") and I must say, I don't get the allure of some of them. What's the deal with Thomas the Train? Wasn't there a version with live actors too? Is that still on or is it now just the weird animated ones with George Carlin narrating? Why is that fun? And Dora? Man, could that girl be any more excited?! I think her head might explode. And what is she exploring, really? In one episode she found the seasons (which looked like islands at the beginning but turned into one large connected land mass. Nice going, Map.) And in the next episode she found her own house. Brilliant!
Nate has really latched on to Little Bear, and we've watched the same episode at least ten times now, which is really awesome. He also likes Curious George, which is not currently on On Demand, causing great confusion to Nate who doesn't understand why we can watch some things but not others. George, I have learned, is not only curious but scientific. In one episode we learned about fulcrums. I'd love to see Nate out somewhere pointing out various fulcrums around town - that'd be amusing!
It's finally naptime, so I'm off to whack my head against the wall until Dora's theme song is banished. This post was brought to you by the number 6.
We're going on day four of Nate not feeling well, and we've been stuck inside the house for most of it. That's mostly self-imposed, because this bug seems to be pretty contagious (based on how many Carlson's have been struck down. If my calculations are correct, the head count is seven so far.) We haven't been doing much of interest because Nate's been pretty cranky, so we've broken our typical virtually-no-television rule. And we did it in style. Much like when my sister stopped being a vegetarian - when she cracked, the next day she ate so much bacon that she got cut off at her college's all-you-can-eat cafeteria (and made her friends go get more for her) - we have watched way more tv in the past few days than any normal human should.
And I'm starting to go batty... doing the batty bat! Now count!
Having not watched much recent kids' tv, I'm now being schooled on all the current programs (at least the ones available through "on demand") and I must say, I don't get the allure of some of them. What's the deal with Thomas the Train? Wasn't there a version with live actors too? Is that still on or is it now just the weird animated ones with George Carlin narrating? Why is that fun? And Dora? Man, could that girl be any more excited?! I think her head might explode. And what is she exploring, really? In one episode she found the seasons (which looked like islands at the beginning but turned into one large connected land mass. Nice going, Map.) And in the next episode she found her own house. Brilliant!
Nate has really latched on to Little Bear, and we've watched the same episode at least ten times now, which is really awesome. He also likes Curious George, which is not currently on On Demand, causing great confusion to Nate who doesn't understand why we can watch some things but not others. George, I have learned, is not only curious but scientific. In one episode we learned about fulcrums. I'd love to see Nate out somewhere pointing out various fulcrums around town - that'd be amusing!
It's finally naptime, so I'm off to whack my head against the wall until Dora's theme song is banished. This post was brought to you by the number 6.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
back in quarantine
Ugh... 2009 is starting with a bang! Nate and Thad are both sick, and I'm stuck in the house of germs with my petri dish of a son. I can only assume that I'll be sick shortly, but in the off chance that I can avoid it I've been obsessively washing my hands. Oh, the joys of parenthood!
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