Home videos

"Most family home videos are boring.  You film your kid doing something, like tying his shoes for the first time.  It seems really exciting the first time, but years later you’ve seen your kid do that every day for years.  The better videos are of things that are boring now because you currently do them all the time. Someday you will no longer be doing them and the video will bring back memories." - Jeff Ely, Cheap Talk

I keep meaning to capture more of the mundane moments of our family - daily photos, audio, video. It's a dilemma - living fully in the moment or documenting the moment for posterity? Lately, by necessity and by inattention, we have taken fewer pictures and recorded less. I'm okay with this, except when I'm not. MamaCue and I feel like this commercial is a glimpse into our future:

Poopie

Slane is becoming obsessed with the potty. She tells us when she goes poopie (any action in that area is considered poopie), and gets her little toilet seat and insists on sitting there. Saturday she was there for a half hour, just hanging out. She insisted on using mass amounts of toilet paper, so now we tell her that she can only use it if she goes. She did go Saturday while sitting on her little seat, and got upset everytime I tried to take her off. It is super cute, but takes lots of patience, because she wants to sit there all the time.

I guess she is growing into a big girl.

"What does this animal say?" "Baa."

While Slane continues to say that all animals speak sheep, there are signs that her thoughts on the matter are changing. We have a baby animal peek-a-boo book. In that book, the kitten says "Meow" and the penguin chicks go "Peep peep." (What do penguin chicks say, anyway?) Her bear cub growl is both cute and ferocious. But when you ask what the bear says without the book in hand, the bear says "Baa."

All of this reminds me of a very funny song from Sesame Street, "The Question Song." A girl muppet sings to Grover a question. The answer is supposed to begin with the letter Q, but Grover gets stuck on a bovine theme:

Girl (sung):
Now here is a question,
A question for you.
Remember, the answer
Will start with a "Q".
Just think of a duck,
Be it white, brown, or black.
What sound does it make?
Why, a duckie goes...

Grover (spoken):
Mooooooooooo!

At our house, the duckie goes "Baa!"

PS: Sesame Street now has a Tumblr, with video clips!

Video: Slane the climber, the animal talker

Slane likes going for rides. Sometimes she'll just climb into the stroller like this:



She's working on her animal sounds. Usually every animal says "Baa." Not this time.

internet coming soon, and cute things Slane does

We are getting internet next week, and that means pictures! The wait is almost over.

And now, cute things Slane does.

She feeds her stuffed animals bananas and her babies "bottles." She answers questions with yes and no. Last night she pushed me away from her crib because she was ready for bed. Sunday, we were at a picnic, and another small child spilled his plate. Slane picked up a chip from the ground and force-fed it to him. I think she was trying to be helpful. She climbs into her stroller and asks for a ride when she wants to go for a walk. She insisted Grover sit in a booster seat next to her high chair while eating dinner the other night.

Still here

I'm sure you all thought we disappeared. It has been a crazy summer (general consensus all around, I think). We were traveling quite a bit, and now that we are home, we still don't have internet up and running. So my internet access is limited to trips to the library, which only happens on a daycare day. Here is a quick recap of our summer, with real posts and many pics to follow (when we get internet going).

School got out and the college's reunion happened. I enjoyed a week off, then we went on the family vacation to Backbone State Park. The park is beautiful and we explored Dubuque, Strawberry Point, Spook Cave, Effigy Mounds (Mr. Sharar, my junior high science teacher, would be so proud), and Elkader. We planned to hike much more in the park, but it rained every day and the park flooded, so that didn't happen. Next time. We squeezed 6 adults and 2 babies in a small cabin, and that in itself was an adventure.

We got home on a Wednesday, and then I worked at the speedway on Saturday. Sunday we headed to Cleveland for my class at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. The class was amazing and I am going to use everything I learned in one way or another. My students won't know what hit them. We stayed with Q's aunt, and had a great time.

We got home on Sunday, and spent the next three days moving across town to a better neighborhood (and a house!!!). I was home for three days and then Slane and I headed to camp. My cousin, Rachel, came from Michigan to help (thanks Rachel, couldn't have done it without you!). Now I have been home for a while, but of course, there is still unpacking to do, and now we have a lawn to keep mowed, and I have crazy research and planning to do for school. Also, last week my mom was in the hospital in Des Moines, so there were many trips to the city.

That is summer so far. I have to get back to researching so that I can get home and mow the lawn, and other house things.

Oh, and Slane is growing taller, she is talking even more, she refuses to use her high chair any more, and can drink out of a glass like a big girl. She is a big girl!

Mother Goose reading time

I waited 9 months to take Slane to the library for Mother Goose story time. What a let-down. I mean, I see where they are going with it, and why they did the things they did, but I was disappointed.

Now, I also realize that reading or doing anything with 15 toddlers and their mothers can be difficult, but don't try to do something you shouldn't be doing. So, we went into the room. The library is only a few months old, so it is a pretty sweet space, really. There is this paper snowflake type thing on the ceiling, and these great climbable steps in one corner. In fact, that is what Slane spent most of the time exploring. We sat on a colored square (well, I did, Slane was already climbing, then eventually she stole another kids colored square).

Story time started with introductions. I knew a couple of the other moms and their kids, which was nice. They we sang a couple of songs, and then the lady read a story. Then we did a rhyme, sang another song, and heard another story. Then we got to play with instruments while singing another song. Story time was then over, and we got some graham bunnies and little cups of water. The theme was oceans, so everything was about water. Nice, but here is the part where the music teacher in me almost went ballistic...how could they ever expect little ones to sing in keys so low even the alto in me had to stretch and it hurt?

I realize the lady was not a music teacher, but a librarian who is attempting to expose little ones to books and literacy and what-not, but if they were going to do that type of thing, wouldn't they consult a music teacher who is trained to teach and sing those songs?

I, of course, tried to give them the benefit. Maybe the regular person who is better at this is gone, or maybe I'm just too new to the whole taking my child to story time thing that I don't know how it works. Or maybe my training in literacy and music was bogus. Don't know.

I do know that we will probably go to story time again, and I will set low expectations. Slane just went for the climbing anyway. :)