The Life and Times

Happy Halloween!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:06:00 +0000

My camera-shy garden gnome.

What's a Halloween party without a little after-dinner music, particularly the kind where you play sans costume in your underwear?

My Photogenic Sweetheart

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:48:00 +0000

I know, it's been nearly two months to the day since I posted anything. The first trimester of pregnancy number two was a little rough. Nausea settled in around 11 AM and lasted until about 10 PM, and I was so tired I was in bed about as soon as I could be after getting Harper down. Work also got really busy and sapped any extra energy I had, so pretty much all non-essential activities (like blogging, returning emails to friends, exercising, unpacking the remaining boxes from our remodel) came to a standstill in the last few months.

But I hit the magic second trimester (well, plus a few weeks) and I'm finally feeling good again. I even went on my first vacation without Harper a week ago (went to New England for five days with friends), and yesterday I made it to a yoga class. I'm definitely glad to be back in the world of the living.

To celebrate my return to the blog, here are a few pictures of my oh-so-photogenic toddler. She's one cute kid, but man, she takes terrible pictures. Most of the time she won't hold still long enough to get a photo, and she never smiles. This time she did stand still, but she just stood in the middle of the room with her eyes closed. Then she needed to see what was happening behind the camera so my opportunity for a still shot was gone, which is when I got the third "I'm coming to get you" photo. At least she has cute clothes.

By the way, as you can tell from the bear in the pictures, Harper has finally decided stuffed animals are fun, rather than something to stick in your mouth once and then chuck on the floor in disgust. In the last two weeks she's suddenly very interested in playing with her baby doll, and she's taken this purple bear with her everywhere the last two mornings. I had to pry it out of her hands so she could eat breakfast.

Parenting Lesson #101

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 15:54:00 +0000

When your toddler poops in the bathtub, you should let her finish. If you whisk her out of the bathtub after the first round is launched, you will only scare her into disrupting the procedure and she will have to finish when she finally relaxes again: like when you've put her back in the now-clean tub.

Secret Keeping

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 03:26:00 +0000

Monday and Tuesday afternoons this week I heard a great series on NPR about day care. Michele Norris hosted a round table discussion with several parents from the D.C. area, all talking about day care and its costs, the guilt you feel dropping your kids off, how important it is to find a great center or nanny to care for your kids, and the challenges of parenting away from your own parents or siblings.

I heard these discussions as I was driving to pick up Harper from day care, and since I missed a little bit of each one, Tuesday night I logged onto my computer, looked them up on NPR's website and listened to the whole series, something I've often meant to do but never have. When I was done I was thinking, "That was really interesting," and then I saw the button that said Contact Us. "Okay," I thought, "since I'm here at my computer, I will." And I emailed my first comment ever to NPR, telling them how timely I thought the series was--after all, I heard it while driving to pick up my kid from day care--and that I appreciated the discussion.

The next day they read my comment on the air. It was shocking to hear my own name announced on national radio. It was extra shocking because I hadn't really realized what I'd written: that the piece was very timely for me because I found out last week I'm pregnant again.

Yes folks, I'm pregnant with Kiddo 2 and I unwittingly announced it to the entire country yesterday. We were planning to keep it a secret for a few more weeks--since I'm only five weeks along--but then I went and told a national news organization about it. Brilliant. Within 30 seconds of it airing on NPR my phone and inbox were flooded with friends and family contacting me saying, "Hey, I just heard on NPR that your pregnant!" This morning my neighbor came over and said, "Um, my husband was in San Diego yesterday and said he heard Harper was going to have a sibling. Is that true?" Even my GC knew.

If you missed the grand reveal, you can listen to it here. Hey, if you're going to tell a secret, might as well do it with style, right?

And for those of you who need the facts: I'm due April 10 and so far am feeling pretty good. The nausea has been limited to just the afternoon, which is an improvement over last time. Of course, I've only known I'm pregnant for about a week, so we'll give it a little time before doing too much comparison.

The Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 02:59:00 +0000

We spent most of the weekend outdoors, as we have for the past month during our remodeling project. Joe and I had Friday off but we sent Harper to day care since the painting crew was going to be here most of the day finishing up our interior. We went for a hike and had lunch in the sun on the mountain while Harper ate real food and napped in the air conditioning. Who had the better deal?

The painters finished around 3 on Friday (a crew that finishes early, what a wonder!) and after 24 hours of panic due to poor paint selection on my part (surprise, surprise--more on this later) the inside of our house looks great. It will look especially great when we have furniture and pictures again to help fill the space. Until then we have an awful lot of grey wall to look at... After my phone call to our GC last week there was a flurry of activity in our house this past week, and the project will be done when we get back from our vacation next week. This probably means there won't be much happening this coming week since our vacation bought them a week, but when I walk in my front door after vacation I've promised it will be finished and cleaned and beautiful. I really really hope that's true.

Anyway, we did a little cleaning this weekend in our multipurpose room upstairs and used our new cooktop (no electric starter but a match works) to cook eggs for dinner tonight. Let me tell you, food that didn't come out the microwave tasted fantastic.

This afternoon we met a friend at Golden's Splash park. Both of the little girls loved the water park, though they didn't do much playing together (I shared fragments of a conversation with my friend as the girls passed eachother). Here's a picture of Harper enjoying the pool. She found the place where the warm water bubbled into the shallow end and parked her butt on it for about 20 minutes. Smart girl. Click here to view more pictures.

Harper likes utensils

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 14:49:00 +0000

Game Changer

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 01:48:00 +0000

For a year now, Harper has been going to sleep like an angel. She'd be so sleepy she'd almost collapse in her high chair at 5:30. We'd keep her awake for a bath when we could, I'd read a few books to her, plop her in her crib and she was usually out by 6 PM, not to wake up until 6 AM. And then last week happened.

Suddenly Harper has decided she is not tired at 6. She's also not tired at 6:30. By 7 she might be tired for a few seconds at a time--long enough to need to rest her head on the chair or the floor--but she is certainly not tired enough for bed. If you try to put her in a horizontal position she will let you know just how much she does not want to go to bed by squirming and screaming. I swear she grows three extra limbs at this stage because her squirming is so effective it's impossible to keep all her limbs contained, avoid a kick in the face and not drop her all at the same time.

She also has realized that the books we always read to put her to sleep, well, they put her sleep. Now when I pull out Ten, Nine, Eight she pushes it away, grunting and using all the communication methods in her power to tell me very firmly that she DOES NOT want to read that book. If I insist and open it up, she'll turn her head and look the other way. "You can't make me!" she's saying. Same goes for the other three old standbys for bedtime books. So now I have to try to read Hop on Pop or some other boisterous Dr. Seuss rhyme in a soothing bedtime tone.

And finally, after making "Mr. Brown is a wonder. Dibble dibble dop dibble dibble dop dop dop" as boring as I can, I attempt to hold my flailing octopus and hum a lullaby over her screaming. Sometimes it works, sometimes I just put her in her crib anyway because I'm ready to scream myself, and sometimes she's quiet for about 15 minutes--just long enough for you to relax and think, "Thank God!"--and then she'll start crying again. We still haven't figured out the rules to this new game. For awhile I didn't want to acknowledge the game had changed because it seemed so unfair after a year of easy bedtimes, but apparently no one told Harper she had to play by the same rules year after year. Let's hope that once I figure out this new game, it lasts for at least a couple of months before changing again.

Cabinets!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 02:29:00 +0000

The cabinets have been in for a week now. They had doors for about two days. Then the worker dudes realized some measurement had been off and the fridge wouldn't fit in the space, so they had to move all the upper cabinets up a half inch. So the doors came off, the shelves came out, and that's how they still are. Then the countertop people came and said it would take 10 days instead of three to get our granite. Then the electrician installed the electrical boxes for the pendants over the island six inches too far to the south, so he had to come cut new holes in the ceiling. Then the painters couldn't come this week because the drywall dude had to come fix the holes in the ceiling and the texture had to dry. So basically no one has been working on our house for about four days and our general contractor got an earful about what I thought of that this afternoon.

But the cabinets are beautiful and some day, God willing, our kitchen will be beautiful too.

Harper has pigtails

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:50:00 +0000

Nothing new to report on the kitchen--after rapid progress in the demo phase, the mudding, taping and texturing phase has taken ages. Plus it doesn't make for very exciting photos.

Harper does make for cute photos, however. Last Thursday the ladies at day care put her hair in pigtails. Darn cute. I did my best to capture them in either a picture or a video, but she doesn't cooperate very well once the camera is out, as you can see in this video.

The only way to get her to sit still was to allow her to destroy a box of plastic bags, which she has been wanting to play with for days, ever since we moved her play room and the kitchen both into the spare bedroom.

The Kitchen Remodel

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 22:22:00 +0000

We're starting week three of our kitchen remodel. Supposedly we have just a week to go before we'll have a functioning kitchen again. We've been confined to our second floor while the first floor gets a total makeover, using a makeshift kitchen in our upstairs guest bedroom and turning our hallway into Harper's main play area. We'll be very happy to reclaim the kitchen and the rest of the first floor when this is over.

Here are some photos of the progress so far!

The Actual Kitchen Area

The kitchen before

The kitchen after Day 1 of demo


Day 2--Lots of progress in one day!

Day 8: Wood floors are in, sheetrock is up, HVAC and plumbing read to go and passed inspection

The Dining Room/Living Room Area

Because one project leads to another, which leads to another, which leads to an empty savings account.

Dining room before

Day 2: The wall is gone!

Day 8: Wood floors are in and the mini wall to hide the side of the fridge is framed

The Pantry Area

The original pantry door, with the rather useless desk on the south side facing the family room

Day 6: The new pantry, version 2. Version 1 didn't cut the angle enough so the island that's going to go where the shop vac is sitting in this picture was less than 30 inches from the pantry door. After much discussion and grumbling, Version 1 was torn down and Version 2 was completed.

Day 8: The pantry area looking into the family room, which has a new wood floor. That's our old fridge hanging out in the middle of the work zone. It's currently accompanied by our piano, which keeps getting shuffled around depending on where they are working.

The Desk/Bar Area

Transforming working space into drinking space.

The original desk-soon-to-be-bar area

Day7

Day 9: Half wall is framed, sheetrocked and mudded. The kegerator will go next to the wall, with two taps for Joe's homebrew. There will also be cabinets and a granite countertop, all matching the kitchen.

Stuff we've been doing

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:28:00 +0000

Yes, I'm still alive. No, we weren't on an awesome vacation that kept me away from the computer for two weeks. We did head back to Minnesota for a long weekend over the 4th, but mostly I've just been working long hours on a project for work. Add to that a trip to the ER at 2 AM for a fever related to a double ear infection (Harper's, not mine, and she's fine now), the beginning of a remodel on our entire first floor, and solo parenting for two weeks while Joe's been gone for work, and there just wasn't any extra time for blogging. But I sent off the final deliverable for work all of three minutes ago, so here I am catching up with the blog with some pictures from the last few weeks.

The ladies at day care gave Harper her first ponytail. It was very cute, but not very fun to take out. We haven't tried it again.

Harper swimming with Dad in Grandma and Grandpa's pool in Minnesota. She wasn't a huge fan of the floating bug thingy.

She WAS a huge fan of the tiny tot pool Grandma bought for her. Yes, the bucket is larger than the pool.

Though she liked the tiny pool, she also really liked the steps of the big pool. She'd go running right off the side, apparently thinking she could jump in all by herself.

Swimming with Grandpa

What's a fourth of July without a baseball game? We went to a Twins game and enjoyed the new stadium.

This is how one relaxes and enjoys the game. It was Harper's nap time, so she was very chill until the 7th inning. Then suddenly she decided she'd had enough relaxing and was ready to rip. We tried letting her run around on the concourse but the only thing that made her happy was running against the flow of people, making them dodge out of the way at the last minute. That did not make the other people happy, so we left after a half hour.

Harper burns some energy at Dairy Queen. The steps were more exciting than the ice cream.

Ciao bella!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 02:02:00 +0000

Happy Father's Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 03:15:00 +0000

Today I learned that babies are surprisingly buoyant. We had Harper in the pool at the rec center and her butt floated like she was wearing a cork diaper. It floated so high it pushed her face in the water, so rather than holding her up we were trying to keep her butt down. Crazy. Harper was not particularly interested or bothered by this scientific marvel, but she did find the other kids in the pool very fascinating. She even decided she wanted to try the water slide after watching an older girl go down it several times. We opted for the tiny baby slide and it was a hit.

"Hey, what are those kids over there doing?"


The frog in the background is the baby water slide. We had to drag her away kicking and screaming. Literally.

Artwork Philosophy

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 01:43:00 +0000

Harper wraps up her second week in the toddler room tomorrow. The first day last Monday was a bit rough: she cried when I dropped her off for the first time ever, so of course I did too. It wasn't my first time crying at the guilt of leaving her at day care, but it was the first time I didn't make it to the car before the tears started.

This time I started crying right in the classroom, which was really not helpful for anyone. The more I tried to clamp down on the tears the worse it got. I didn't even cry in the room on the very first day (just for hours afterward). Anyway, though she still seems pretty overwhelmed in the mornings and is completely exhausted in the evenings, the drop-off process has improved and no one has shed any more tears in the classroom. It helps that I drop her off right when breakfast is delivered--food trumps just about anything.

Harper now has art sessions twice a day as part of her new adventures in the toddler room. This means that when I go to pick her up there are two pieces of "art" waiting for me in addition to a very cranky toddler. The first day I brought this art home I told Joe, "We're going to have to establish a philosophy on Harper's art."

There was a long pause while he cocked an eyebrow and looked at me like I'd said, "Hey, I brought home a Martian."

"What, like an artist's statement?" he said. It was my turn to cock an eyebrow. We have a couple of family and friends who are artists that have had to tackle the daunting task of writing artist statements that somehow ring true as unique and personal yet avoid the ring of crazy or hokey. Apparently Joe thought the day care was requesting something similar from us as the parents of Harper, the artist.

"Ah, no," I said. "I think her statement would be, 'Is this edible?' I meant, are we going to keep all these things?" I held up the latest item, titled "Shapes Collage," made of purple construction paper, drizzles of corn syrup (turns out it is edible) and three tissue paper shapes.

Before you think I'm a terribly insensitive mother who is willing to pitch her kid's art before it even dries, let me first tell you we have a stainless steel fridge that won't hold a magnet, and second, I'm a purger. Some people hoard, some people purge. I'm the generally latter.

What I was looking for was some kind approval for a plan of limited display and then toss, some validation that it's ok that I don't want to start a storage unit for the two pieces of art she'll be bringing home between now and high school. Instead I got questions about establishing our toddler's artistic philosophy. Maybe Joe will have to be in charge of the storage unit.

Etymology of a Name

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 02:05:00 +0000

I've always been fascinated by nicknames. Last names, shortened first names, titles, names that have something to do with a person's history, names that seem to have nothing to do with anything...I'm always interested to know the history behind nicknames.

What I find really interesting, though, is which people choose to call you by a nickname and in what situations. Guys and sports teams are a great example. Dudes always have great nicknames for other dudes. Like one I heard this weekend: Sudsy. Who wouldn't want to know the story behind a dude named Sudsy?

But even rather bland nicknames change with people and circumstances. I always introduce myself as Jenny, but some people just seem compelled to call me either Jen or Jennifer. I was in a meeting today and within 30 seconds of introducing myself as Jenny the guy sitting next to me called me Jen. He then continued to call me Jen for the next 1.5 hours, even though everyone else in the room called me Jenny.

On the other hand, we're working with a contractor that keeps calling me Jennifer even though every time I answer the phone I say, "Hello, this is Jenny." I don't really mind the difference, I just think it's really interesting that some people opt for the more familiar or more formal over what was initially given.

Since I always introduce myself the same way, it would seem that the version people choose to use says more about them than me. Now I know Jenny vs. Jen isn't exactly exciting, but what does that say about a name like Sudsy? As any dork in any teen movie knows, you can't give yourself a cool nickname. Nicknames that stick seem to embody a person's personality, but someone else gave it to them. So does the personality come first or the nickname?

Other than the occasional "Jen" I don't have any cool nicknames, which is maybe why I find this so interesting. I have never bestowed a great, creative nickname either. Which leads me to the crux of this post: what nickname do we give Harper? I feel like this is as important a decision as choosing the name in the first place (and my only hesitation with Harper was, "What will her nickname be?").

So far we haven't come up with anything that's stuck. Joe experiments with options sometimes ("Let's go for a walk, H" or "Do you want a snack, Harps?") but for the most part it's the whole name or something she definitely won't want for the rest of her life, like The Girl, Baby, or Peewee. Maybe she doesn't need a nickname since Harper isn't that long, or maybe we just hope that the first time she joins a sports team there's someone with a creative, kind mind who comes up with a great nickname her lame parents can use, too.

Then again, with a last name like Beer, maybe she's good to go.

Catching Up

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 03:22:00 +0000

We've had a busy few weeks of visitors and birthday parties for Harper. Here's what's happened:

Harper said her first real word: "uh-oh". I guess we must say that a lot when she's around. She's sort of been saying ma-ma-ma-ma and da-da-da-da for a while, but it doesn't always seem to be in context. There's no doubt, however, when she drops her cup, looks down on it from her high chair and says, "Uh-oh!"
Harper now loves to be outside. She's still not sure about grass, but she loves to wander around on the deck and sidewalk.
Harper is moving up to the toddler room at day care on Monday. To celebrate, she threw her first toddler tantrum this evening, complete with kicking and rolling on the floor. For a girl who has cried about ten times in her first year, she sure caught on to the screaming and wailing thing pretty quickly.
Harper tried swinging for the first time. It appeared to be both exciting and terrifying. She also tried the slide with the same effect.
My mom and dad helped me replant our front flower beds. I know this is not universally exciting and doesn't have anything to do with Harper, but I was very pleased with the result and am happy we are no longer "that" house in the neighborhood with the weird flower beds.

And here are the latest photos...

Look at all the people at my party, Mom!

My food is on fire and it's freaking me out.

What am I supposed to do with this giant piece of food?!

Wait, this food tastes pretty good...

Actually, this frosting is really good...

Now that I've licked all the frosting off I guess I'll just shove this in my mouth.

Mmm, banana bread cupcake!

Can you believe I'll be asleep within twenty minutes of eating this whole thing?

I'm playing with my friend Audry! Only she moves a lot faster than me so I kind of got stuck in this corner...

I'm in the grass! It's ok as long as I don't think about how it's touching my foot.

Thanks for the watering can, Auntie Melissa!

Grandma bought me this awesome ribbon!

In addition to the ribbon I also got this gumball machine!

Grandpa is so silly!

Birthday Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Thu, 19 May 2011 21:09:00 +0000

We're having a party for Harper on Saturday, but here are some pictures of her in her birthday outfit (not birthday suit!) yesterday.

This is Harper's new favorite move. She did it once on accident and happened to see Joe sitting on the floor behind her and thought it was the funniest thing ever. Now she does it all the time, hoping to catch someone back there. It had the ladies at day care very confused until I explained the move's provenance.

New favorite toy: instructions for the TV mount Dad discarded before reading. At least someone is using them.

For some reason this toy is much more fun when you sit on it backwards. Maybe because then you randomly push many buttons with your butt which plays many sounds all at once. I haven't tried it so I can't say for sure.

Harper's First Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Wed, 18 May 2011 12:16:00 +0000

Harper is one year old! To celebrate, here are a bunch of photos and a few videos.

First Steps
Harper took her first steps a few weeks ago and now is cruising pretty well! We've been trying to capture her walking on video for weeks, but she refuses to perform on command. She still crawls about half the time because it's faster, but she is obviously very proud of her walking ability and chooses walking over crawling whenever she has a toy in her hand that she wants to carry somewhere.

Harbinger of Destruction
Oh the chaos that a one-year-old can create. Here are some photos of our house after two hours of play time this weekend. Yes, that's a shoe resting in our frying pan. Our cupboards and drawers are full of random objects these days.

Hello, Toddler
Harper has been revealing glimpses of the not-so-happy-go-lucky toddler personality we can look forward to in the next year. Whenever you take something away, try to get her to stand when she doesn't want to or generally get in the way of her play time she lets you know that your actions are NOT appreciated by squirming, flailing her legs and whining.

Master of Technology
We finally gave up trying to rescue our remote controls from Harper's drooly mouth and tried a different tactic: bait and switch. Joe found two old remotes in our basement, took out the batteries, and voila! Best. Toys. Ever.

Five O'Clock Shadow
Harper enjoyed some black beans for dinner the other night, and we enjoyed the goatee she got from their sauce.

The Kitchen is My Playground
If only Mom and Dad would let me climb on this jungle gym like I want to...

Scene at the Gym

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Tue, 10 May 2011 03:19:00 +0000

I think I'm going to attempt to start a regular feature on this blog: odd things people are wearing at the gym. With the return of warm weather there's guaranteed to be some inappropriate swimsuit sightings at the very least. These are the perks of working out at a community center with a pool, and working out during the day when all the normal people my age are working.

Scene #1: Just Swimming...and Working Out...and Lounging
Golden High School must have been closed today, or else kids were skipping school en masse. My first swimsuit sighting of the year was a 15-year-old girl wearing a brown halter top bikini covered by a black tube top and a very small, very flouncy black skirt. While I don't think I will ever work out in a halter top or a tube top (much less both at once), what was really strange is that she was wearing brown fuzzy leather slippers without socks while riding the bike. My feet were sweating just looking at her.

Person #2: Scary Midriff Woman
Directly behind Slippered Swimsuit Girl was a 50+ woman working very hard on the elliptical machine. She was wearing the ubiquitous tight black exercise pants but she'd somehow managed to find the mom-jeans version because they went all the way up to her belly button. How do I know this? Because apparently she was working so hard she needed to let off some extra steam and decided the best way to do that was to twist the sides of her shirt and tuck them into her bra so that two inches of belly showed between the top of her pants and the bottom of her shirt. Let me tell you, something that would be a muffin top is not improved by extending the muffin cup to a higher point: the top just gets larger.

Person #3: The Larry King Look-Alike
This guy was leaving the gym area right as I walked in so I only got a fleeting glance, but he left a smile on my face for a good ten minutes afterward. He had to have been in his eighties, was skinny as a rail and had thick dark glasses. And of course, suspenders. But the best part was what went with the suspenders. Under his black suspenders he had a steel grey collared dress shirt buttoned to the top button and tucked into heather grey cotton sweatpants. The sweatpants weren't cuffed, though, and were at least two inches too short, leaving them to flap vigorously above his ankles when he walked, exposing a good expanse of white sock above his black dress shoes. And the best part of the whole outfit: black weightlifting gloves. Because clearly he was in for a serious workout. Or at least his pants and gloves were. The rest thought they were going to a business lunch.

I love my gym.

The Run, 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Sun, 08 May 2011 02:24:00 +0000

I went for a run on Thursday. Yesterday I powered through sore muscles and hiked the mesa behind our house. Today I can't move. When I did I get this old?

For those of you who read "I went for a run" and started wondering who the heck is writing this, let me be clear: I went for a run/walk because it was beautiful outside and I didn't have time to make it to the gym. And to really prove that it's me, I'll tell you that it sucked.

The first 90 seconds of my run were glorious. Then my lungs hurt, followed quickly by a stitch in my side, rapidly compounded by aching knees. And this was all before I made it to the end of our block. As I contemplated taking a break to catch my breath I thought, "Good God, all I've done is run downhill!" From our house the only way to go is down, which means the only way home is up.

I switched to walking to keep my heart from exploding and when the stitch in my side had abated to a tolerable level I ran again--briefly. Then I switched to walking, thought about running, thought twice, and then walked the long uphill climb home. In all I probably ran a mile and walked another.

I have no clue how people can run for miles and miles. My walk was a brisk one, and between my music and the sunshine I was home before I knew it, but I was aware of every dragging second while I was running. I'm sure it gets better if you do it more often than once every six years, but I'm just not sure I'm that much of a glutton for punishment.

However, when I was about a block from home this little SAHM who's at least 10 years older than me jogged past me on the path, wearing a sassy little black and pink outfit that left no doubt about her fitness. Her ease of motion clearly indicated she runs often, and as we passed and smiled at each other (me with loathing in my heart for all her non-jiggly body parts) I noticed she didn't even have earphones. Happily running without any distraction? That's when you'll know my body has been taken over by aliens.

Odyssey and Me

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Wed, 04 May 2011 02:18:00 +0000

Source: www.scientificamerican.com

A contractor came to our house today to give us an estimate on refinishing our wood floors. During the post-measurement chit-chat he asked about our kid--well, first he asked whether we had a dog or a kid, because he knew we had at least one of those from the gate across our stairs. When I verified that it was a kid, he asked the typical questions: boy or girl, how old, siblings or no, walking yet, etc. When I told him how old Harper was, he said, "Oh, so you're not having to decide on schools yet." I thought it was funny given how many times school selection has come up in the past few weeks, but then I realized he was talking about college. My god, I thought. How about we figure out elementary school first?!

All this talk of schools had me thinking over the past week about my own experience. As far as I know, my town didn't have a gifted and talented program. Or at least, I wasn't invited to join it, which maybe shouldn't be used as criteria for its existence. At any rate, I never knew about one. You were assigned to a classroom in elementary school and that's where you stayed. Eventually we switched teachers for math, but that was it. When I was in 5th grade, however, someone told me (or my parents) that I should consider joining Odyssey of the Mind, which I somehow equated with the closest thing we had to a gifted and talented program. I didn't really know what Odyssey of the Mind was, and as the following story will illustrate, I still don't.

I think there was an informational meeting first, and then about 10 kids were invited back for a tryout. We were told there were only a few spots open on the team, and the teacher/leader lady would select the kids based on this meeting. "So show your best creativity," she said. Even at that age I struggled with the "Be creative!" command. At least for me, time and a clear need are required for creative problem solving. Demand immediate creativity and you're pretty much guaranteed to get boring and lame.

I remember feeling nervous and slightly confused throughout the meeting. Nervous because I wanted to be selected because whatever this was I wanted to "win," but also confused because I didn't really get what I would be winning, and I thought the questions the lady was asking were really weird. The one I remember clearly was, "Tell me some different ways you could make peanut butter."

I wasn't really sure where peanut butter came from in the first place, much less how to "creatively" make peanut butter. Did the peanuts have to be cooked somehow? Was there actually butter in it? Immediately after the lady asked the question we had to go around the circle and tell her our ideas. I was one of the first kids and I said something about combining peanuts and butter (I told you, boring and lame). Then a kid opposite me in the circle said something about crushing peanuts, and from then on everyone in the circle just made up a way to crush peanuts.

"Rollerskate over them!" I remember saying.

"Make an elephant walk on them!" someone else said.

"Jumprope over them!" I said (you can see where my interests lay at the time).

Around and around the circle we went, and while I was playing along I remember thinking, "How much longer are we going to have to come up with ways to crush peanuts? Doesn't the lady see we're just ripping off that kid's idea? And doesn't she know that stomping on a peanut will just give you a broken peanut?

Wait, should I be trying to come up with a completely different method?" I wondered. At this point I think I interjected something about combining butter and peanuts again ("Use a cement truck to mix butter and peanuts!"), but the rest of the circle continued with the peanut-crushing theme so the next time I did too. The obvious things like elephants, cars, trucks and stomping had all been said, so since I had dance class after this meeting I halfheartedly offered "Crush a peanut with a toe-shoe while doing a spin on top of it."

When the suggestions got so outlandish that people started offering them as questions ("Put a peanut under a skyscaper?") the lady finally moved on to a new topic. When we left the meeting I kept wondering if anyone else thought this had been a strange experience, and whether seeing the futility of our peanut crushing efforts meant that I had passed or failed. Twenty years later I'm still not sure.

I must have said something right, because the next week my parents were notified that I had been selected to be on the team. However, the team met on Thursdays, which happened to be the night of my dance class. I was an awkward, graceless and slightly overweight smart kid, so I'm not sure why I thought dance class would be a better use of my time than Odyssey of the Mind, but that's what I chose to do with my Thursday nights and my parents went with it.

Later in the year the Odyssey team put on their production for the school as practice for their competition and I found it utterly confusing. My biggest takeaway from the production was that the central actor had a large fake nose that was supposed to grow a big fake zit but instead just kept falling off during the performance. Though I'd later rue the lineup of dance photos of me in too-tight leotards and sparkly tutus, maybe I was right to choose dance after all. At least I knew what was going on, even if I wasn't any good at it.

Choosing Schools

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:34:00 +0000

I picked up a magazine at the gym yesterday (the motivational power of the music I purchased last month has long since worn off and I desperately needed a new distraction) and came across this article in Parents magazine: "Is Your Child a Genius?" This was at least the fifth time I've come across this topic in the last few weeks.

I don't read too many parenting books or magazines because they generally make me feel stressed about all the things I should be doing/planning/creating/buying for my child. Lately the topic of schools and what constitutes a good education has been at the forefront of the things I haven't really been actively planning for but apparently should be.

Part of the reason we moved before Harper was born was because the schools in our old neighborhood were low-performing schools. I checked out the report card for the public school in the new neighborhood before we moved and it got good marks compared to most other public elementary schools in the area, and certainly was a lot better than the old neighborhood. So, done deal, I thought. But for a lot of people that would have been only the beginning, as there are lots of private, charter and open enrollment options I didn't look in to.

Joe and I both grew up in small towns where you didn't have a choice about what school you went to--you just went to school. I suppose options are a good thing, but I also think that too many options lead to over analyzing the schools and kids' abilities/shortcomings. Like finding an article about child geniuses in every parenting publication, particularly when the publication is geared toward parents of kids under 1year old.

I'm not saying that kids who are smarter than their peers don't deserve and need some extra stimulation. I'm just not sure that planning to give my kid that extra stimulation before she's out of diapers makes a whole lot of sense, or that when the time comes that extra intellectual outlet can't be built around the education she can get at the local public school. After all, smart kids don't just come from urban areas where there are lots of schooling options and gifted and talented programs. But would those rural smart kids have gotten even further if they had had options and special programs? I guess that's what I get to ponder at my next trip to the gym. That and how to get Harper to stop eating her shoes.

Happy Easter!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 02:02:00 +0000

Grandma gave me these shoes but I like them best when they're not on my feet.

Please Mom, I want to see the camera!

This shoe-snack sure tastes funny.


I don't want to look at you Mom--can't you see I'm busy!

What the &*@% is this thing on my head?!

Taters!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 02:32:00 +0000

Harper has started eating from the meal plan at day care, which means that she's realized that food can be yummier than plain mashed potatoes. Clearly these were not up to par after the bean burritos at day care today.

Smallest Bill Ever

noreply@blogger.com (Jenny) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 15:53:00 +0000

Yesterday I charged $0.03 on my credit card for a pepper at the grocery store.

Every week I spend Sunday afternoons selecting recipes, making a list, and doing the grocery shopping. If I don't do this we spend the next week eating random boxed foods and/or various hunks of meat Joe pulls out of the freezer. I'd already done the grocery shopping for the week, but they didn't have any of the peppers I needed when I was there. So I stopped by yesterday afternoon to grab the one thing I needed for the evening meal (Vietnamese pork): a single, two-inch Serrano pepper.

I put it on the weight sensor at the self-checkout, typed in the product number and got my total bill. Out of habit I already had my credit card out and was halfway through swiping it when I realized that I was charging $0.03 and though I hardly ever have cash in my wallet I probably had three pennies I could have used. Since I use my credit card for just about every purchase (and then pay my entire bill each month--don't worry, Mom) I've charged some small amounts before--a pack of gum, a tube of Chapstick, a bottle of water--but I think this transaction definitely wins the award for my smallest charge ever.