Oh my gosh. I just had the best time ever. Some gals in my ward wanted a girl's night out, so we got together. I'm so glad they invited me over email otherwise I probably wouldn't have known about it, since I'm a new stay home mom and relatively new in our ward. I almost didn't go, but then Danny really, really wanted me to. We ate dinner and just sat around and talked. My butt is sore from sitting, and my face is sore from smiling.
I can't believe how incredible, interesting, intelligent, and awesome these women are. It's impossible to really convey in a blog post. But maybe if I just wrote a list of some of the things we talked about, then you'd get the gist.
So here goes:
How to prepare for a funeral
Being in the Presidency of an organization in the church and how that will lead to some people hating you, inevitably
An inactive member calling up and demanding an LDS Relief Society to throw a funeral for her non-member dad (food included! Sheesh!)
How hard it is to be called to the Elder's Quorum President, organizing moves
Some place where they had to impose a rule that "you have to go to church for at least 2 months if we are going to help with your move"
Some non-member asking her member friend about the church's "moving company" hahhahahahahaha
Pregnancy hormones, aches, pains
How it just gets worse with each additional child
How pain pills can be horribly addictive, but wonderfully effective
How great yet impersonal the internet is
Facebook woes
How I accidentally deleted all of Danny's friend requests because I thought it was ME logged in, and I had no clue who those people were. Whoooops!
Modern day polygamists in southern Utah and how something like 90% of the ones that leave actually end up voluntarily going back (!!!)
That story of how I got proposed to in Jordan, and how I diplomatically said no
The LDS missionaries whose premature death in the 1800's was the sole reason the Jerusalem Center was able to come to be
How much our ward is an internet-email-facebook-y ward
Baking whole wheat bread and how it changes your ability to eat enriched white bread (yuck!)
Diets and which ones work, and why
Danny's Diet
What in the heck is Jersey Shore and why do people find it entertaining
The ridiculousness of a "regular day" for Gwyneth Paltrow
How sad it is that all female stars turn into sluts (Brittney Spears, Miley Sirus)
...except there are some exceptions, like Taylor Swift, and possibly Hilary Duff
The awesomeness of Taylor Swift
Kids and how they never do what you say
Kids and how they say, "Okay mom" but then don't do what you say
Kids and how the third and fourth one, there's really no good way to keep them quiet during Sacrament Meeting
Kids and how the third and fourth one are defiant
Agatha Christie's Nanny/Housekeeper
The Bookkeeper of Kabul and why it is a depressing book, and why you should read Three Cups of Tea afterward to keep from getting too depressed
The PBS TV show where people try to live like they were in different time periods, like the frontier, or the Pilgrims
How it's pretty great that we don't have to be pioneers, and we're all not really sure what Neal A. Maxwell meant when he said that they would honor our immense sacrifices that we would make in the last days. Like...having to share a husband? Having to give birth in the back of a wagon without any anesthesia? Having to not take a bath for an entire winter because the water was too cold? Hmmm...
Is Israel the Holy Land
How in the heck can missionary work be established in the Middle East
The foundations of the foundations of the foundations of missionary work in the Middle East that Amy and I witnessed over there
How we live in a time when women are expected to do it all, and that it was never like this really before, because in other time periods, women shared labor a lot more
And this is why our houses are messy, and we shouldn't be too upset by it.
How depressing it is to clean a closet and turn around and see the rest of the messy house to clean.
Sister Wives and how they would be great except for the whole sleeping with your husband part
How it would be awesome to have a personal chef, as long as they also did the laundry
...so you could spend time with the kids more! See, everybody wins
How arranged marriages in the Middle East are a lot more similar to Mormon marriages than they are different
and on and on and on...and Danny put a curfew of midnight on me, so this post will have to end.
Thank you so much gals. I needed that so badly. I feel totally refreshed and recharged, and ready for another exciting week of small children. Which, for the record, I DO love, it is just sometimes more difficult than a blog can really express.
1/29/2011
1/27/2011
Lazarus, come forth.
(Thanks, Geertgen tot Sint Jans. You were about my age when you made this insanely awesome painting of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead (early/mid twenties, 1480's). I am the same age, and barely have enough talent to save a picture of it to my desktop and publish it on my blog. Hehe.)Last night, Danny and I took a break from the Book of Mormon, and instead read the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16:20-31).
Me: "Yeah, when I was in Seminary, I thought this was like, the lamest parable ever."
Danny: "Why?"
Me: "I mean, most parables use object lessons, things from every day life. But this one was just about two people who die and what happens to them after. I mean, it's totally different from all the others!"
We decided to read it. I'm a little stumped on how to make this into a Quiet Book page. My dad emailed me about this one, and said it was the only parable that uses someone's first name. If I'm remembering right, not only was Lazarus some kind of cousin to Jesus, but they were also good friends. Lazarus means "helped of God" according to the Bible Dictionary.
Anyway, it was a neat experience to read it, because we actually did learn something fascinating.
Turns out, the parable is not just about Lazarus and the Rich Man, and it actually is an object lesson. A freaking amazing one.
What happens in the parable is there is this beggar named Lazarus who wants to eat the crumbs from the Rich Man's table, but instead the Rich Man's dogs come and lick him. Then they both die, and Lazarus goes to heaven with Father Abraham, and the Rich Man is in rags and is tormented by the flames of hell (a.k.a. spirit prison).
The Rich Man calls out to Abraham and is like, "Hey! Can you please send Lazarus over here to dip his finger in some water and cool my burning tongue!" Abraham is like, "Hey, you had your reward while you were alive, and Lazarus' life sucked, but now Lazarus is getting his reward, and you're tormented. Anyway, there's a huge gulf between us, and there's no way he could go over there anyway, and no way you can get here."
Then the Rich Man is like, "Please, please, can you send Lazarus down to visit the people in my father's house? I really don't want my five brothers to suffer my same fate."
Abraham says, "They have Moses and the prophets, they should be good enough."
The Rich Man says, "But if someone came back from the dead, THEN they would for sure repent!"
This next part is powerful, so I'm going to quote it for real. Abraham says, "If they ahear not Moses and the bprophets, neither will they be cpersuaded, though one rose from the dead."
Danny suddenly said, "Hey, I never got that before. Lazarus DID rise from the dead."
We were then intrigued about whether it was before or after Jesus told this parable. We looked it up in the Harmony of the Gospels in the BD, and we found out that first Jesus told the parable, and then a little later Lazarus was raised from the dead, after four days of being in the tomb. He was dead dead, totally dead according to Jewish law.
And Abraham was totally right. Even though Lazarus rose from the dead, it didn't persuade people to follow Christ. In fact, that was one of the last miracles Christ performed before his crucifixion. Danny said that it actually contributed to his death; it was an act that was too big to be ignored.
What I mainly learned from this was that the parable actually is an object lesson from real life. To me, that makes the story much more powerful. It's not just a, "how could anyone even know that," type thing. In fact, the main point of the story doesn't actually have that much to do with Lazarus. It's to teach us that miracles cannot be a basis for our faith, because guess what, they obviously weren't! Jesus must have known that he would raise Lazarus from the dead before he told this parable. He knew it would be a real-life object lesson.
On a different note: does anybody else find it super weird that Lazarus being raised from the dead is only found in John? Why didn't the other gospels include that huge, huge story?
I remember being in Lazarus' tomb in the West Bank. I was skeptical, since you know, there are probably dozens of caves called "Lazarus' Tomb." I remember it was kinda spooky. Even if it wasn't the exact place, it was still chilling to think about. One of the more interesting places I've been.
PS
Danny's idea for a quiet book page has to do with moving felt doggies over to "lick" Lazarus. I think that's hilarious. What would YOU do to illustrate this story?
1/25/2011
LDS Quiet Book: Parables of Jesus
My sister is visiting from Utah and we have decided to make some Quiet Books together. I'm super excited because I had started brainstorming ideas for this a LONG time ago.
A Quiet Book is a cloth book with interesting (and quiet!) things to "do" on each page - snaps, velcro, buttons, spinny things - whatever.
Growing up, we had an awesome Quiet Book that was church themed and well-used during Sacrament Meeting. My mom made it. I'm sure most of the pages were from some LDS pattern source, because Sarah brought her mother in law's Quiet Book for her kids, and it had some of the same pages! "Help Suzy say her prayers," and the one where you help Lehi's boat sail across the page from Jerusalem to America. So cool.
Anyway, there are so many possibilities for Quiet Books, and between Sarah and me, it's like we could probably start a business or something. I would never want to do that, but we just keep brainstorming idea after idea for themes and pages, and how you would make each page interesting. A fairy tale themed book. One of all the Latter-day prophets. Women in the Scriptures. Articles of Faith. Etc, etc.
The one I want to make is a Parables of Jesus Quiet Book. I went through the Bible Dictionary and made a list of all the "official" parables under "Gospels - Harmony of." There's a lot, and some will be really tricky. But wouldn't it be cool to have a page for every parable!?
It was so much fun to talk about this with Danny. Not only did he remember the obscure and totally hard-to-understand parables, but he also came up with lots of great ideas for a quiet book pages. Even if you aren't crafty, this would be a fun and new way to study the scriptures: figuring out how to make the story you're reading into a child's Quiet Book page. Sounds like a fun activity my mom would have had us do in Seminary.
Here is a list of the parables I will use, and the ideas we've had so far.
I'll keep updating this post as people share their ideas :)
Oh yeah, and feel free to use any of these ideas if they are interesting! LDS Quiet Books...yeah, they are pretty useful during those long Sacrament Meetings!
A Quiet Book is a cloth book with interesting (and quiet!) things to "do" on each page - snaps, velcro, buttons, spinny things - whatever.
Growing up, we had an awesome Quiet Book that was church themed and well-used during Sacrament Meeting. My mom made it. I'm sure most of the pages were from some LDS pattern source, because Sarah brought her mother in law's Quiet Book for her kids, and it had some of the same pages! "Help Suzy say her prayers," and the one where you help Lehi's boat sail across the page from Jerusalem to America. So cool.
Anyway, there are so many possibilities for Quiet Books, and between Sarah and me, it's like we could probably start a business or something. I would never want to do that, but we just keep brainstorming idea after idea for themes and pages, and how you would make each page interesting. A fairy tale themed book. One of all the Latter-day prophets. Women in the Scriptures. Articles of Faith. Etc, etc.
The one I want to make is a Parables of Jesus Quiet Book. I went through the Bible Dictionary and made a list of all the "official" parables under "Gospels - Harmony of." There's a lot, and some will be really tricky. But wouldn't it be cool to have a page for every parable!?
It was so much fun to talk about this with Danny. Not only did he remember the obscure and totally hard-to-understand parables, but he also came up with lots of great ideas for a quiet book pages. Even if you aren't crafty, this would be a fun and new way to study the scriptures: figuring out how to make the story you're reading into a child's Quiet Book page. Sounds like a fun activity my mom would have had us do in Seminary.
Here is a list of the parables I will use, and the ideas we've had so far.
- the Sower - In this parable, the seeds get cast into different environments, where they either grow or don't. There could be a bag of buttons (or snaps) that you can move around to the rocky soil, thorny soil, wayside soil with the birds, and the good soil.
- the Candles - I think this is the one about not hiding your candle under a bushel, but putting it on a candlestick so it can give light to all in the house. So, the idea is to have a felt candlestick and flame that you can move from under the bushel to a candlestick holder.
- the Tares - This is where the reaper separates the wheat from the tares, or the faithful from the unfaithful in the last day. So a giant plastic sack thing with some green leafy stalk things and some yellow leafy stalk things, maybe short pieces of that fuzzy wire stuff I forget what it's called. You have two sacks, a happy one and a sad one, and you have to separate the green ones from the yellow ones and put them in the right sack.
- the Mustard Seed - This is the one where a huge plant grows from a tiny seed, just like how a strong testimony can grow from a tiny amount of faith. This would be fun to have a folding tree that just gets bigger. It would be cool to somehow incorporate a real mustard seed hot glued on the page.
- the Leaven - This is the one where a person makes a loaf of bread and it rises a lot even though there's only a little bit of leaven. It's supposed to have something to do with the church's growth in the latter days, according to Joseph Smith. I think this one would work to have an outline of a piece of bread that you can snap up to "inflate".
- the Treasure in a Field - In this parable, somebody finds a coin in a field and uses it to buy the field. It would be cool to have a field and a zipper pocket with a hidden coin.
- the Pearl of Great Price - In this one, the man finds a pearl and sells everything he owns to buy it. I think it would work to just have a "pearl" bead on a fancy pillow cushion with tassels. Kinda boring, but kinda cool.
- the Net - In this one, there is a net with lots of different fish which, in the end, get sorted into piles of good and bad fish. So, I could have a net with fish inside it with snaps on them, and the happy ones go in one pile and the sad ones in another.
- the Householder - This is a tricky one. Danny and I talked about it for about an hour. We think the point of it is that Christ was saying, "You think you get the parables I've just told you; why don't you keep thinking about them, and the more you do, the more you will learn new truths to go along with the old ones that you think you know." But that was just our interpretation, and it may be wrong. How to do it? A treasure chest with some old coins and some new coins that you can take out and look at.
- the Lost Sheep - This is the one where the shepherd leaves the 99 sheep to find the lost one in the mountains. Easy enough, have felt mountains and a velcro "trail" for the shepherd to follow to get to the baby sheep at the top.
- the Coin - find the piece of silver hidden in the house.
- the Prodigal Son - This is the one where the son returns to his family and repents after he has spent his inheritance in wicked ways, and the father welcomes him and gives him all these wonderful gifts. The end of the story is often overlooked, so we decided it would be interesting for a quiet book page to have three guys: the dad, a happy man in ragged clothes (the prodigal son), and a pissed man in nice clothes (the brother). Then, there would be a table with three fold-ups. One would have a fancy ring, one would have a fancy coat, and one would have a side of roast beef (the fatted calf).
- the Unmerciful Servant - This is the one where there is the master and two servants. The first servant owes the master millions of dollars, and the master forgives him of his debt. But then, a different servant owes the first servant like, a dollar, and the first servant doesn't forgive the debt. So the master throws the first servant in jail. This was also a cause for great discussion on how to incorporate it into a quiet book page. I think there could be three heads with three wallets. The master's wallet has a heart in it, one servant has an "I owe U" with a cents sign, and the other an "I owe U" with a dollar sign. And there could be arrows pointing to which one they owe money to. But it's kind of a boring page. And really hard to convey the idea of "debt" across with felt. Sigh.
- the Good Samaritan - In this one, a man is mugged and injured and is on the side of the road. Some people pass him by (Jews I think), but then a Samaritan (an unlikely helper) stops and helps him. Dresses his wounds and gives him clothes and money. This one is really long, but Danny came up with a great idea. A man with a sack and a man in his underwear. In the sack, there are things like bandaids, clothes, and coins that you can give to the one in his underwear.
- the Unjust Steward - I don't understand this parable at all. It's about a steward who is about to get fired, but then he goes and settles his master's debts and the master praises him for it. I think it's supposed to have something to do with how if even an unjust steward thinks about the future, how much more should we think about the future. But I don't really get it more than that. What do you think it means? Any ideas for this one?
- Lazarus and the Rich Man - I always thought this parable was somewhat lame, growing up, because it's about the after life more than it is about this life. It didn't seem anything like the others. There's a beggar named Lazarus and a Rich Man. Lazarus begs the Rich Man, who ignores him. But then they both die, and Lazarus becomes a rich man, while the Rich Man becomes a beggar. He is reminded that he's just getting his due. He begs them to send Lazarus back from the dead to teach his family, claiming that they will listen to a dead man. But he's reminded that if his family members won't listen to the prophets, they won't listen to a dead man. I think this one would work to have two men, one Lazarus, one the rich man, and have them be able to switch clothes. Rags to a purple cape and outfit, and a crown. Either that, or I will just use Danny's idea of the dogs licking Lazarus. Seriously, a little kid would LOVE that.
- the Unjust Judge - This is the one where the woman pesters the wicked judge so much that he finally hears out her case and rules justly. The point of this one is that if even a wicked judge would finally rule fairly, then how much more fairly will a completely just judge (Christ) be. Maybe just a judge's gavel?
- the Good Shepherd - Christ, a gate, some sheep, and a wolf. Maybe some finger puppets.
- the Laborers in Vineyard - A spinny clock with some people on it, and a purse full of coins to give to each one.
- the Pounds - Or this one. A coin in a napkin that you have to unwrap.
- the Two Sons - Two little dice thingies labeled "Do" and "Say", that you can switch from "yes" to "no".
- the Wicked Husbandmen - I vaguely remember this one as the one where there are some people in charge of a field who kill everybody who the master sends to them, symbolic of Christ. But I will need to reread it. I think I will just use the second part of this, with the stones. I will have there be a wall of stones, and you have to put the main piece back together. It is stored in a trash can because at first it is rejected?
- the Wedding of a King's Son - This is the one where the King's son is getting married and he invites a lot of guests. They don't come. He invites them again, they don't come. So he goes to the side of the road and invites whoever. They are all feasting, but then there is one who isn't wearing proper wedding attire, and he gets kicked out. The point of it is how the gospel was offered first to the Jews (the original guests) but they refused to accept it, then to the Gentiles (whoever by the side of the road). The person who isn't ready for the feast represents the unfaithful members of the church, I think. Danny's idea for this one was cool: have a wedding feast with a bride and a groom, but one person in their underwear, and you have to go through a bag of clothes to find the right ones for the wedding.
- the Ten Virgins - This is the one where there are ten virgins going to a wedding party, but only five of them brought enough oil to keep their lamps lit; only those five are let in to the party. Basically it is a symbol of how you are supposed to prepare yourself now for the next life. This would be easy - have ten girls with lamps, only five of which fold up to reveal small flames. Those five are happy, the ones without the flames are sad.
- the Talents - In this parable, one man gets five coins, one gets two, and the last gets only one. The one with five works hard and doubles his coins, so in the end he has ten. The same with the second one, who ends up with four. But the last one is embarrassed by his one coin and so he just buries it in the ground, and in the end only has one. This parable is about how you're supposed to do the best with what God gives you, and not compare your blessings/gifts/talents (though the talents of the parable are totally not modern day "talents") with others. In this one, I could have three flip books. The first has five coins, then a picture of someone working, then ten. You get the idea for the second one, and the last one would have a picture of a buried coin instead of someone working.
- the Sheep and the Goats - In this parable, the sheep get sorted from the goats, and the sheep end up on the right hand, while the goats end up on the left. It's symbolic of how in the end, we will be judged by our deeds, and if we are righteous we will get to be at the right hand of God. If we are not, we will not. This one seems very similar to the one with the wheat and the tares, and the good and bad fishes. Maybe instead, there can be two strings and you have to move the sheep to the right, and the goats to the left.
I'll keep updating this post as people share their ideas :)
Oh yeah, and feel free to use any of these ideas if they are interesting! LDS Quiet Books...yeah, they are pretty useful during those long Sacrament Meetings!
1/21/2011
Chronicles of Sickia
At the end of the most perfect MLK's day (spent mostly at the zoo with the kids), we celebrated by going to our favorite Mexican restaurant. Danny got fish tacos, and I got pulled pork tacos. We switched, since neither of us was very happy with what we got. That should have been the first sign; the restaurant had never been known to fail previously.
On the way home, I was like, "I really want to stop by and see my friend's newborn!" She had just had a baby a few days earlier. So we did, and the baby was insanely cute.
We got home, and to my surprise, instead of wanting to watch a movie, all I wanted to do was lay down in bed, or make myself throw up. My stomach was in agony. Danny didn't want me to induce vomiting (the whole idea to him is strange - I guess I'm a weirdo in that I can make myself throw up at will without inserting long things down my throat), so I didn't. After several hours, I did start throwing up. And continued to every hour. For the next six or seven hours. It was terrible. Oh yeah, and I had a fever.
I thought it was because of the fish tacos. Food poisoning.
The next day, Danny stayed home and took care of me. He went out and got me some 7 up. He watched the kids so I could just sleep, facebook, and watch movies. I was able to eat about a spoonful of rice and a cracker in addition to several cups of 7 up, but that's it for the whole day.
So on Wednesday, Danny went to work. I stayed home with our kids and everything seemed to be fine, except I was dying for a nap. Jane, who was her normal, active, into-everything toddler self, would not have any of that. So I called my neighbor and asked her to watch Jane for about an hour so I could nap. I went over to pick her up, and we got into an interesting conversation.
In the middle of which, my 5 month old baby starts projectile vomiting all over the place.
When I got home, I called the doctor and they were worried he would get dehydrated. So they said to give him 5 mls of pedialyte (basically gatorade for babies) every 10 minutes, and watch him to see if he pees. If after 6 hours he doesn't pee, we needed to take him to the ER.
This was about when I realized it was not a food poisoning issue, but a nasty stomach flu. I called my friend with the newborn to tell her, even though I'm not exactly sure why - was mainly to warn her or to beg her forgiveness for possibly spreading a disease to her sweet, tiny, vulnerable baby? I don't know. In the middle of this phone message, I started to cry. And I couldn't stop. I was so freaked out.
Baby Dan was completely comatose. He was limp. His eyes wouldn't shut or open all the way. He was pale. He kept on puking. It was terrifying. He didn't pee. Danny decided that I should not take him to the ER since I was sick myself, and shouldn't spread the disease (this second day was Montezuma's Revenge aka faucet-butt). But I was terrified and wanted to be with him as long as possible. So after our other neighbor came by and helped give Dan a priesthood blessing, I drove them to the ER.
It took them over an hour to get admitted. Danny called often to let me know what was going on, but I was still a nervous wreck.
Jane went to bed. I was still a nervous wreck.
My friend with the newborn called and basically was a lifesaver. She assured me it was okay, we didn't know I was sick when we came to visit, and if something happened to them, they would just deal with it. She listened to me worry about Dan. She figured out that I needed a breastpump and a priesthood blessing, so she sent her husband over with our other neighbor, the one who came to help Danny give the baby a blessing. She saved the day.
Danny kept giving me updates. He wouldn't take the anti-nausea medicine. He was on an IV. Etc, etc. Danny said to go to bed and try to sleep. It was about 11:00.
I tried, really, but it was impossible. I kept worrying about what would happen in the worst case scenario, which led to me sobbing in hysterics. It was terrible.
I must have dozed off because Danny woke me up when he called to say he was coming home. The other thing our friends did when they came to give me a blessing was offer to drive Danny home from the hospital. It was basically the stupidest thing I ever did, drive them there. We owe our neighbors in a big way. He picked up Danny and Dan at 2 am to bring them home.
Dan was okay, and I fed him about every 2 hours for the rest of the night.
The NEXT day, yesterday, when Jane woke up, I went to go get her and discovered vomit covering her jammies, sheets, blanket, and pillow. It smalled terrible, and had dried. She must have barfed in the middle of the night and gone back to sleep in it. Ughhhh. So I gave her a bath.
Danny started to feel queasy so he stayed home. We watched Cake Boss, Mythbusters, 17 Kids and Counting, and Kipper the Dog literally all day while the kids drank tons of pedialyte. Jane was happy most of the day. She took 2 abnormally long naps, but didn't throw up again.
Keep in mind, this was the first day that I could actually start eating small portions of normal food.
Our awesome RS president called to see what we needed, and got us more pedialyte, sprite, and bread. It was so nice. I eventually went out later to get some ramen noodles and other bland and instant type foods. Oh yeah, and a new crib mattress for Dan, since we stupidly had never bothered putting a plastic cover on his, and while normally we would just air it out, yesterday was freezing cold and rainy. So....
Then Dan started puking again. So we started pumping him with pedialyte again. And he wouldn't pee, again. But this time, he wasn't pale and lethargic, just very diarrhea-ey. But unless he peed by 9:00 pm, we would have to take him to the ER. Again.
It was evening. Danny felt terrible and nauseous. Jane wanted attention. I felt extremely worried about Dan. I was just pumping him full of pedialyte, seemingly nonstop, for three hours. It sucked. Jane went to bed. Danny went to bed, even though he wanted to help; he was feeling awful and couldn't.
Every 15 minutes or so, I would take his diaper off and weigh it on our kitchen scale. It was the only way to see if he had peed. He kept on diarrheaing, puking, spit-uping (which is very hard to tell the difference, by the way), but no pee. I tried having him sit on my lap with no diaper, hoping he would pee on me. I got pooped on instead.
Finally, at 8:55, I weighed his diaper and it was 1 5/8 oz, with no poo!!!! Hooray!!!
Then, the nurse had said I would need to breastfeed him every 30 minutes for the next 4 hours. So I did, which meant getting up every half hour until 1 am, which doesn't seem that bad, except when it's after a day where you are the only one even close to being wholly healthy and you've been working nonstop to help nurse your family back to health, it was a huge challenge.
After that, she said I could nurse him normally. I woke him up at 6 am because "normally" he would have done that. The great news is he is eating fine, is happy, pink, alert, and NOT dehydrated.
Danny, who never asks me to get him anything, asked me to get him some toast in bed. He HATES eating in bed. Uh oh...let's see what happens today...
The main thing I learned from this experience so far was that I was complete idiot for thinking, "It wouldn't suck so bad if you had two children and one of them died as it would if you only had one." That's probably the dumbest thought I've had in my life. Even though we were never even close to losing Dan, I was worried sick about what-if...and I realized the truth is that losing a child would be the worst thing I can imagine happening regardless of how many I have.
On the way home, I was like, "I really want to stop by and see my friend's newborn!" She had just had a baby a few days earlier. So we did, and the baby was insanely cute.
We got home, and to my surprise, instead of wanting to watch a movie, all I wanted to do was lay down in bed, or make myself throw up. My stomach was in agony. Danny didn't want me to induce vomiting (the whole idea to him is strange - I guess I'm a weirdo in that I can make myself throw up at will without inserting long things down my throat), so I didn't. After several hours, I did start throwing up. And continued to every hour. For the next six or seven hours. It was terrible. Oh yeah, and I had a fever.
I thought it was because of the fish tacos. Food poisoning.
The next day, Danny stayed home and took care of me. He went out and got me some 7 up. He watched the kids so I could just sleep, facebook, and watch movies. I was able to eat about a spoonful of rice and a cracker in addition to several cups of 7 up, but that's it for the whole day.
So on Wednesday, Danny went to work. I stayed home with our kids and everything seemed to be fine, except I was dying for a nap. Jane, who was her normal, active, into-everything toddler self, would not have any of that. So I called my neighbor and asked her to watch Jane for about an hour so I could nap. I went over to pick her up, and we got into an interesting conversation.
In the middle of which, my 5 month old baby starts projectile vomiting all over the place.
When I got home, I called the doctor and they were worried he would get dehydrated. So they said to give him 5 mls of pedialyte (basically gatorade for babies) every 10 minutes, and watch him to see if he pees. If after 6 hours he doesn't pee, we needed to take him to the ER.
This was about when I realized it was not a food poisoning issue, but a nasty stomach flu. I called my friend with the newborn to tell her, even though I'm not exactly sure why - was mainly to warn her or to beg her forgiveness for possibly spreading a disease to her sweet, tiny, vulnerable baby? I don't know. In the middle of this phone message, I started to cry. And I couldn't stop. I was so freaked out.
Baby Dan was completely comatose. He was limp. His eyes wouldn't shut or open all the way. He was pale. He kept on puking. It was terrifying. He didn't pee. Danny decided that I should not take him to the ER since I was sick myself, and shouldn't spread the disease (this second day was Montezuma's Revenge aka faucet-butt). But I was terrified and wanted to be with him as long as possible. So after our other neighbor came by and helped give Dan a priesthood blessing, I drove them to the ER.
It took them over an hour to get admitted. Danny called often to let me know what was going on, but I was still a nervous wreck.
Jane went to bed. I was still a nervous wreck.
My friend with the newborn called and basically was a lifesaver. She assured me it was okay, we didn't know I was sick when we came to visit, and if something happened to them, they would just deal with it. She listened to me worry about Dan. She figured out that I needed a breastpump and a priesthood blessing, so she sent her husband over with our other neighbor, the one who came to help Danny give the baby a blessing. She saved the day.
Danny kept giving me updates. He wouldn't take the anti-nausea medicine. He was on an IV. Etc, etc. Danny said to go to bed and try to sleep. It was about 11:00.
I tried, really, but it was impossible. I kept worrying about what would happen in the worst case scenario, which led to me sobbing in hysterics. It was terrible.
I must have dozed off because Danny woke me up when he called to say he was coming home. The other thing our friends did when they came to give me a blessing was offer to drive Danny home from the hospital. It was basically the stupidest thing I ever did, drive them there. We owe our neighbors in a big way. He picked up Danny and Dan at 2 am to bring them home.
Dan was okay, and I fed him about every 2 hours for the rest of the night.
The NEXT day, yesterday, when Jane woke up, I went to go get her and discovered vomit covering her jammies, sheets, blanket, and pillow. It smalled terrible, and had dried. She must have barfed in the middle of the night and gone back to sleep in it. Ughhhh. So I gave her a bath.
Danny started to feel queasy so he stayed home. We watched Cake Boss, Mythbusters, 17 Kids and Counting, and Kipper the Dog literally all day while the kids drank tons of pedialyte. Jane was happy most of the day. She took 2 abnormally long naps, but didn't throw up again.
Keep in mind, this was the first day that I could actually start eating small portions of normal food.
Our awesome RS president called to see what we needed, and got us more pedialyte, sprite, and bread. It was so nice. I eventually went out later to get some ramen noodles and other bland and instant type foods. Oh yeah, and a new crib mattress for Dan, since we stupidly had never bothered putting a plastic cover on his, and while normally we would just air it out, yesterday was freezing cold and rainy. So....
Then Dan started puking again. So we started pumping him with pedialyte again. And he wouldn't pee, again. But this time, he wasn't pale and lethargic, just very diarrhea-ey. But unless he peed by 9:00 pm, we would have to take him to the ER. Again.
It was evening. Danny felt terrible and nauseous. Jane wanted attention. I felt extremely worried about Dan. I was just pumping him full of pedialyte, seemingly nonstop, for three hours. It sucked. Jane went to bed. Danny went to bed, even though he wanted to help; he was feeling awful and couldn't.
Every 15 minutes or so, I would take his diaper off and weigh it on our kitchen scale. It was the only way to see if he had peed. He kept on diarrheaing, puking, spit-uping (which is very hard to tell the difference, by the way), but no pee. I tried having him sit on my lap with no diaper, hoping he would pee on me. I got pooped on instead.
Finally, at 8:55, I weighed his diaper and it was 1 5/8 oz, with no poo!!!! Hooray!!!
Then, the nurse had said I would need to breastfeed him every 30 minutes for the next 4 hours. So I did, which meant getting up every half hour until 1 am, which doesn't seem that bad, except when it's after a day where you are the only one even close to being wholly healthy and you've been working nonstop to help nurse your family back to health, it was a huge challenge.
After that, she said I could nurse him normally. I woke him up at 6 am because "normally" he would have done that. The great news is he is eating fine, is happy, pink, alert, and NOT dehydrated.
Danny, who never asks me to get him anything, asked me to get him some toast in bed. He HATES eating in bed. Uh oh...let's see what happens today...
The main thing I learned from this experience so far was that I was complete idiot for thinking, "It wouldn't suck so bad if you had two children and one of them died as it would if you only had one." That's probably the dumbest thought I've had in my life. Even though we were never even close to losing Dan, I was worried sick about what-if...and I realized the truth is that losing a child would be the worst thing I can imagine happening regardless of how many I have.
1/16/2011
One Mormon Mommy's response to "Why I can't stop reading Mormon housewife blogs" by Emily Matchar
My brother in law sent me a really interesting article about "a young, atheist, feminist" who has a fetish with Mormon housewife blogs, blogs like this one perhaps?
Danny and I spent about an hour reading the article and some of the pages and pages of comments. A lot of the comments are worthless rants, but some had valid points.
I really wanted to read a Mormon mommy blogger's response to the article, but it was so new that I couldn't find anything in "the bloggernacle." Hehe. That, combined with an itching desire to respond to Ms. Emily Matchar (author of the post) are the main reasons I am up at 7:07 am instead of resting in my snuggly, comfy, warm bed, listening to the rain outside.
I'm just going to respond to her stuff paragraph by paragraph, since there's so much to say. I am, after all, one of the people she is talking about in the article.
P1
- I have never met a Mormon Mommy (or anybody for that matter) whose house looks like an anthropologie catalog. (Besides, my sisters in law all agree that anthropologie is so over-the-top that you can really only do one piece from them per outfit/room, or it looks ridiculous. But that's just a style issue.) If you have children, either you constantly battle clutter from the waist down, or they spend their time locked in their room.
- I would not describe my LIFE as "doing fun craft projects," although I DO do them sometimes. I would probably describe my life as a constant stream of picking-up/putting-down/wiping liquid off children, with intermittent intervals of crafty projects, quilting, reading, blogging, etc.
P2
- This paragraph is hilarious, but kind of infers that Mormon mommy bloggers are subtly trying to convert people to the LDS faith. The fact is, there's nothing "subtle" about it. We were asked to use our blogs as a tool for conversation about our faith years ago.
P3
- Even though I happen to fit this category, she easily offends a dozen of my friends by saying that all Mormon mommy bloggers are "young stay-at-home-moms."
P4
- I take issue with the use of the word "overeducated." It's a weird word choice. Education is a good thing, and Mormons (male and female) are encouraged to get as much of it as possible, and to continue being lifelong learners. It's a condescending word, has the undertone of, "I'm in an elite class of people who values education at the expense of happiness, and yes it's silly that it won't bring me a husband, children, house, or necessarily a job, but at least I belong to my special group of snobs, something that Mormon mommies could never enter." First off, who would? Second, riiiight. Because there are no Mormon mommies who get masters/multiple degrees and/or attend Ivy League schools...suuuuuuure...
P5
- Do I have a "shiny, happy domestic" life? Hmm. That's not how I would describe it. Shiny infers perfection somehow, which it's not. Happy? That's a choice. I would say I'm happy most of the time. Domestic? Weirdly, I don't consider myself very "domestic", even though I guess technically most of my daytime activities involve cooking, cleaning, sewing, but mainly childcare. I guess it's because I know myself on a deeper level than my current occupation.
This is the best way that I have to describe my life: Danny and I are filmaholics. We use our Netflix account daily. We watch tons (and tons and tons) of movies, and we've noticed a common theme: happily married couples don't last very long in films. Their marriages either fall apart, or tragedy strikes, or somebody has to die. Because happy, calm, boring-from-the-outside marriages don't have enough conflict to build a story. So Danny and I get our dysfunction fix from watching films (and actually, the ones with really screwy spouses, we choose not to watch), not from real life. My life is exactly like the commenter described in P7: "they have lovely homes, picture-perfect kids [I think Jane and Dan are the cutest people in the world, but I'm biased], loving, super-attentive husbands, and things seem very normal and calm."
P8
- Danny laughed at this, "Ottoman? That's for amateurs. You did an entire chair!"
- There was only one completely out of line comment in the whole piece, and that was "It's not as though we're sniffing around the dark side of the faith, a la "Big Love." Huh? Polygamy "a la Big Love" has nothing to do with modern Mormonism. And she describes herself as "overeducated"? Riiiiight.
P9
- It sounds like Matchar is seeking a Utopian world without any problems. Newsflash lady, that doesn't exist.
- It's not weird, strange, fascinating, or subversive for moms to enjoy being a mom. Sheesh.
P10
- I completely agree with one of the commenters who said that deep down, Matchar probably does want kids because she's a woman.
P11
- Danny and I took issue to describing motherhood as "Easy."
- Does anybody else find it patronizing to say somebody else's life is "adorable and old-fashioned and comforting"?
P12
- 13th Article of Faith
P13
- "I want to arrange flowers all day too!" This comment made me roll my eyes. "Quit our jobs to bake brownies or sew kiddie Halloween costumes," is also such an obnoxious thing to say. I quit my job for much deeper, more meaningful reasons, (like, oh say, so that I could raise my own children?) not to bake fattening treats. Those things are just perks. It's like saying, "I took the office job because I liked how my name looked on their letterhead."
- I guess Mormon mommy blogs can be an "escapist fantasy", even for Mormon mommies themselves. But obviously, a blog does not show the depth and feeling of real life.
P14
My own personal opinion is "feminism" never could have succeeded because the entire movement is a paradox; it says you can do it all, while simultaneously denouncing homemaking. Anyway, you CAN do it all, but not all at the same time. Just because I don't have a money-earning career at the moment does not mean that is how it will always be. Remember, Mormonism views life as longer than just our time here on earth. Heck, we have eternities to explore all the career options, why sacrifice our precious time at home when we can just do all that stuff later? Anyway, working moms do NOT get to experience all the same things as stay-home moms (just an observation, not a judgment). You really can't have it all all at once. Not possible. Not enough hours in the day.
P15
- It's possible to be happy, love your home, and love your husband without having a "picture-perfect catalog" life. I am not perfect. My life is not perfect. My home does not look like a catalog (except maybe one from Ikea...hehe). But I love my home, my husband, my family, and my life.
P16
- Happiness is not something that happens to someone. You have to choose to be happy. That said, choosing to be happy is not the only part of the happiness equation. You have to make right choices. It's kind of like how you show your faith through your works. If you are breaking commandments and making wrong choices, you can't feel happy. But it's not like poof, I keep the commandments, suddenly I'm happy. Just deciding, "Okay, I want to be happy. I have decided to be happy," is still an active choice that has to be made.
P19
- Why not interview one of the zillions of Mormons for this part of the piece? Why go with an ex-Mormon to represent "Mormon mommies"?
P20
- Why does anybody blog? It's not a Mormon phenomenon. Actually, a lot of my family kind of rolls their eyes at blogging.
P21
- Danny thinks that the fact that Utah is "the state with the highest rate of prescription antidepressent use," is a reflection of how most LDS Utah residents do not turn to drugs and alcohol to self-medicate, something Matchar completely fails to see.
P23
- It's sad that this lady thinks that motherhood is by default a "miserable, soul-destroying trap." If I were her spouse, I would be scared for our children.
- Danny and I smirked at her comment about not inviting the missionaries in. We both bet that someday, she probably will.
Danny and I spent about an hour reading the article and some of the pages and pages of comments. A lot of the comments are worthless rants, but some had valid points.
I really wanted to read a Mormon mommy blogger's response to the article, but it was so new that I couldn't find anything in "the bloggernacle." Hehe. That, combined with an itching desire to respond to Ms. Emily Matchar (author of the post) are the main reasons I am up at 7:07 am instead of resting in my snuggly, comfy, warm bed, listening to the rain outside.
I'm just going to respond to her stuff paragraph by paragraph, since there's so much to say. I am, after all, one of the people she is talking about in the article.
P1
- I have never met a Mormon Mommy (or anybody for that matter) whose house looks like an anthropologie catalog. (Besides, my sisters in law all agree that anthropologie is so over-the-top that you can really only do one piece from them per outfit/room, or it looks ridiculous. But that's just a style issue.) If you have children, either you constantly battle clutter from the waist down, or they spend their time locked in their room.
- I would not describe my LIFE as "doing fun craft projects," although I DO do them sometimes. I would probably describe my life as a constant stream of picking-up/putting-down/wiping liquid off children, with intermittent intervals of crafty projects, quilting, reading, blogging, etc.
P2
- This paragraph is hilarious, but kind of infers that Mormon mommy bloggers are subtly trying to convert people to the LDS faith. The fact is, there's nothing "subtle" about it. We were asked to use our blogs as a tool for conversation about our faith years ago.
P3
- Even though I happen to fit this category, she easily offends a dozen of my friends by saying that all Mormon mommy bloggers are "young stay-at-home-moms."
P4
- I take issue with the use of the word "overeducated." It's a weird word choice. Education is a good thing, and Mormons (male and female) are encouraged to get as much of it as possible, and to continue being lifelong learners. It's a condescending word, has the undertone of, "I'm in an elite class of people who values education at the expense of happiness, and yes it's silly that it won't bring me a husband, children, house, or necessarily a job, but at least I belong to my special group of snobs, something that Mormon mommies could never enter." First off, who would? Second, riiiight. Because there are no Mormon mommies who get masters/multiple degrees and/or attend Ivy League schools...suuuuuuure...
P5
- Do I have a "shiny, happy domestic" life? Hmm. That's not how I would describe it. Shiny infers perfection somehow, which it's not. Happy? That's a choice. I would say I'm happy most of the time. Domestic? Weirdly, I don't consider myself very "domestic", even though I guess technically most of my daytime activities involve cooking, cleaning, sewing, but mainly childcare. I guess it's because I know myself on a deeper level than my current occupation.
This is the best way that I have to describe my life: Danny and I are filmaholics. We use our Netflix account daily. We watch tons (and tons and tons) of movies, and we've noticed a common theme: happily married couples don't last very long in films. Their marriages either fall apart, or tragedy strikes, or somebody has to die. Because happy, calm, boring-from-the-outside marriages don't have enough conflict to build a story. So Danny and I get our dysfunction fix from watching films (and actually, the ones with really screwy spouses, we choose not to watch), not from real life. My life is exactly like the commenter described in P7: "they have lovely homes, picture-perfect kids [I think Jane and Dan are the cutest people in the world, but I'm biased], loving, super-attentive husbands, and things seem very normal and calm."
P8
- Danny laughed at this, "Ottoman? That's for amateurs. You did an entire chair!"
- There was only one completely out of line comment in the whole piece, and that was "It's not as though we're sniffing around the dark side of the faith, a la "Big Love." Huh? Polygamy "a la Big Love" has nothing to do with modern Mormonism. And she describes herself as "overeducated"? Riiiiight.
P9
- It sounds like Matchar is seeking a Utopian world without any problems. Newsflash lady, that doesn't exist.
- It's not weird, strange, fascinating, or subversive for moms to enjoy being a mom. Sheesh.
P10
- I completely agree with one of the commenters who said that deep down, Matchar probably does want kids because she's a woman.
P11
- Danny and I took issue to describing motherhood as "Easy."
- Does anybody else find it patronizing to say somebody else's life is "adorable and old-fashioned and comforting"?
P12
- 13th Article of Faith
P13
- "I want to arrange flowers all day too!" This comment made me roll my eyes. "Quit our jobs to bake brownies or sew kiddie Halloween costumes," is also such an obnoxious thing to say. I quit my job for much deeper, more meaningful reasons, (like, oh say, so that I could raise my own children?) not to bake fattening treats. Those things are just perks. It's like saying, "I took the office job because I liked how my name looked on their letterhead."
- I guess Mormon mommy blogs can be an "escapist fantasy", even for Mormon mommies themselves. But obviously, a blog does not show the depth and feeling of real life.
P14
My own personal opinion is "feminism" never could have succeeded because the entire movement is a paradox; it says you can do it all, while simultaneously denouncing homemaking. Anyway, you CAN do it all, but not all at the same time. Just because I don't have a money-earning career at the moment does not mean that is how it will always be. Remember, Mormonism views life as longer than just our time here on earth. Heck, we have eternities to explore all the career options, why sacrifice our precious time at home when we can just do all that stuff later? Anyway, working moms do NOT get to experience all the same things as stay-home moms (just an observation, not a judgment). You really can't have it all all at once. Not possible. Not enough hours in the day.
P15
- It's possible to be happy, love your home, and love your husband without having a "picture-perfect catalog" life. I am not perfect. My life is not perfect. My home does not look like a catalog (except maybe one from Ikea...hehe). But I love my home, my husband, my family, and my life.
P16
- Happiness is not something that happens to someone. You have to choose to be happy. That said, choosing to be happy is not the only part of the happiness equation. You have to make right choices. It's kind of like how you show your faith through your works. If you are breaking commandments and making wrong choices, you can't feel happy. But it's not like poof, I keep the commandments, suddenly I'm happy. Just deciding, "Okay, I want to be happy. I have decided to be happy," is still an active choice that has to be made.
P19
- Why not interview one of the zillions of Mormons for this part of the piece? Why go with an ex-Mormon to represent "Mormon mommies"?
P20
- Why does anybody blog? It's not a Mormon phenomenon. Actually, a lot of my family kind of rolls their eyes at blogging.
P21
- Danny thinks that the fact that Utah is "the state with the highest rate of prescription antidepressent use," is a reflection of how most LDS Utah residents do not turn to drugs and alcohol to self-medicate, something Matchar completely fails to see.
P23
- It's sad that this lady thinks that motherhood is by default a "miserable, soul-destroying trap." If I were her spouse, I would be scared for our children.
- Danny and I smirked at her comment about not inviting the missionaries in. We both bet that someday, she probably will.
1/12/2011
I am not my child's tantrum.
Recently, I was reminded of the fact that even small children have their own free will. It was a normal day, like most others really, EXCEPT it happened to be the day that Jane realized she could open the door to her room. She had been opening all the other doors in the house for a few weeks, and the one in her room was no different. I'm not really sure why she hadn't opened it before, actually.
Her not opening the door had its conveniences, the main one being that she would stay in her room at least (and her bed at most) during nap time.
Obviously she chose to discover her new skill during one such nap time, those sacred precious hours of the day when I can have the freedom to do anything I want so long as it's at home. I put her down, she got up and out of her room. I put her down again, she got up again. I put her down again, she got up again. Over and over, until finally I just realized that either I needed to install a lock on the outside of her door, or put her to bed when she was tired enough to want to sleep.
Fortunately, Jane is child who loves her sleep. I ask her, "Are you tired?" and she will say, "Yah." Those are times when she won't get out of her bed.
But put her down when all she wants is to be anywhere but bed, then you get a Tantrum.
I think she has entered that zone called "the Terrible Twos." She's usually a sweet child, but sometimes things happen that for whatever reason, she can't stand, and then she has a huge melt-down, starts screaming, pounding her head and fists against the floor (or whatever else is around), and is very difficult to console.
Like for example, the other day when we were taking a walk: I am trying to teach her how to walk near me and follow. We do this outside on the sidewalk during the day when there are few cars on the road. On this particular day, she really, really wanted to go to a friend's house. She signed, "Friend! Friend!" over and over. Every house we passed, she tried to go up to the (complete stranger's) door and knock on it. Every house. Finally, she couldn't take one more rejection house, and had a complete and total melt down. A tantrum. Fortunately, nobody was home, and she calmed down a lot once I forced her into the stroller. But it took a lot of work.
My librarian friend was complaining yesterday on facebook about the parents of a kid who was throwing a tantrum in the library. Pretty much all of her facebook friends declared the mom a failure, "neglectful", etc. One person wrote the following:
Yup, that's the Utah mentality. "Whatever I'm doing is way more important than EVERYBODY ELSE here, so they're just going to have to deal with my screaming child/reckless driving/holding up the checkout line while I have the cashier run my ...credit card 37 times, thinking maybe THIS time it won't be declined..."
Most people outside of Utah, aside from all but the most narcissistic, do, in fact, respect the people around them enough to absorb the inconvenience that their children/everyday lives pose, rather than foisting the burden on the general public around them.
There are always situations where there's nothing you can reasonably do (on an airplane with a sick crying child, for example), but 99% of the time, it's just the typical Utah attitude of "I'm much too important to be bothered with common courtesy, so f**k the rest of you. Deal with it."
Reading that made me laugh. Apparently this person has either never been around a 1-3 year old for more than five minutes, or he's never traveled outside of Utah. Newsflash jerkwad: they're like that everywhere. It has nothing to do with Utah. I guess you could make the argument that people in Utah are the only ones who have children nowadays, but obviously that's just me being tongue-in-cheek. Kids are everywhere.
Oh yeah, and it's soooooo selfish and "narcissistic" to shop for groceries to feed your family instead of dropping everything to shut down the tantrum.
Isn't "common courtesy" a two-way street? If the kid is screaming and the grocery line is ten miles long, I've had really awesome, kind people offer for me to go in front of them.
I hope this guy gets a colicky baby. That would serve him right.
My point is, cut the mom some slack. She is not her child's tantrum. Children have their own free will and sometimes it does not coincide with good behavior, and that does not make you a bad parent. I guess you could say that the parents are reflected in the sum total of the kids' melt downs, and how they change through time (hopefully decreasing until the kid is mild mannered and sweet all the time. Yeah right). But one public tantrum does not a bad mom make. Neither do several.
Here was my response to my friend's complaint:
I'm really glad that toddlers are small because that does limit their free will. I wouldn't be able to pick up a fully grown adult Jane and put her in the car when she has her meltdowns and tantrums.
I guess what I'm saying is, please try to be patient with parents with cranky kids. They can't control their child's actions.
Here's a story about my brother: My mom was in sacrament meeting at church with my older brother when he was a few months old. Suddenly, during a silent part of the meeting, my brother fills his diaper with poo in an extremely loud way. This offended a lady who was there. She told my mom that she shouldn't let him do that during sacrament meeting. I guess she didn't understand that she was asking his mom to control somebody else's bowel movements. So weird!
To be sympathetic to those who are not used to being around small children, I will finish with this story. A lady at my quilting group was talking about what her Christmas was like. Her parents or in-laws, I can't remember which, were excited to have all the grandkids over for the holiday. This was something like eight children under the age of eight, four of whom were under the age of three. Needless to say, it was a madhouse! My quilting friend was laughing because the grandparents, who thought they remembered, had actually forgotten what it was like to have that many kids around. She described it as a constant, steady stream of meltdowns. Which is about right.
Her not opening the door had its conveniences, the main one being that she would stay in her room at least (and her bed at most) during nap time.
Obviously she chose to discover her new skill during one such nap time, those sacred precious hours of the day when I can have the freedom to do anything I want so long as it's at home. I put her down, she got up and out of her room. I put her down again, she got up again. I put her down again, she got up again. Over and over, until finally I just realized that either I needed to install a lock on the outside of her door, or put her to bed when she was tired enough to want to sleep.
Fortunately, Jane is child who loves her sleep. I ask her, "Are you tired?" and she will say, "Yah." Those are times when she won't get out of her bed.
But put her down when all she wants is to be anywhere but bed, then you get a Tantrum.
I think she has entered that zone called "the Terrible Twos." She's usually a sweet child, but sometimes things happen that for whatever reason, she can't stand, and then she has a huge melt-down, starts screaming, pounding her head and fists against the floor (or whatever else is around), and is very difficult to console.
Like for example, the other day when we were taking a walk: I am trying to teach her how to walk near me and follow. We do this outside on the sidewalk during the day when there are few cars on the road. On this particular day, she really, really wanted to go to a friend's house. She signed, "Friend! Friend!" over and over. Every house we passed, she tried to go up to the (complete stranger's) door and knock on it. Every house. Finally, she couldn't take one more rejection house, and had a complete and total melt down. A tantrum. Fortunately, nobody was home, and she calmed down a lot once I forced her into the stroller. But it took a lot of work.
My librarian friend was complaining yesterday on facebook about the parents of a kid who was throwing a tantrum in the library. Pretty much all of her facebook friends declared the mom a failure, "neglectful", etc. One person wrote the following:
Yup, that's the Utah mentality. "Whatever I'm doing is way more important than EVERYBODY ELSE here, so they're just going to have to deal with my screaming child/reckless driving/holding up the checkout line while I have the cashier run my ...credit card 37 times, thinking maybe THIS time it won't be declined..."
Most people outside of Utah, aside from all but the most narcissistic, do, in fact, respect the people around them enough to absorb the inconvenience that their children/everyday lives pose, rather than foisting the burden on the general public around them.
There are always situations where there's nothing you can reasonably do (on an airplane with a sick crying child, for example), but 99% of the time, it's just the typical Utah attitude of "I'm much too important to be bothered with common courtesy, so f**k the rest of you. Deal with it."
Reading that made me laugh. Apparently this person has either never been around a 1-3 year old for more than five minutes, or he's never traveled outside of Utah. Newsflash jerkwad: they're like that everywhere. It has nothing to do with Utah. I guess you could make the argument that people in Utah are the only ones who have children nowadays, but obviously that's just me being tongue-in-cheek. Kids are everywhere.
Oh yeah, and it's soooooo selfish and "narcissistic" to shop for groceries to feed your family instead of dropping everything to shut down the tantrum.
Isn't "common courtesy" a two-way street? If the kid is screaming and the grocery line is ten miles long, I've had really awesome, kind people offer for me to go in front of them.
I hope this guy gets a colicky baby. That would serve him right.
My point is, cut the mom some slack. She is not her child's tantrum. Children have their own free will and sometimes it does not coincide with good behavior, and that does not make you a bad parent. I guess you could say that the parents are reflected in the sum total of the kids' melt downs, and how they change through time (hopefully decreasing until the kid is mild mannered and sweet all the time. Yeah right). But one public tantrum does not a bad mom make. Neither do several.
Here was my response to my friend's complaint:
I know you deal with this every day so it's irritating, and none of us probably understands exactly what went on with her, but I think you should cut the mom some slack. Terrible twos/threes suck. Maybe she doesn't have internet at home and... needed to send an important email from a library computer. Maybe she was desperate for some time in the library. Maybe demon child's older sibling had to be at the library at that moment so mom and kid had to wait there. I dunno. Maybe a lot of things.
Parents of small and loud children get the ability to tune out the crying/whining that gets on others' nerves. Sometimes we don't notice it's happening, force of habit. Probably not a good thing.
I guess what I mean is that sure, perfect parents would drop everything and remove a tantrumy child from the situation. Sometimes it's really hard to do that. Like if you were in a grocery store checkout, and the child starts having the same horrible, ear-splitting tantrum. Do you pick up the screaming demon and take him to the car, and screw those groceries you just spent forty five minutes picking up so that your family can eat, or do you endure the hateful glares from every non-mom around you so in 15 minutes it will all be over with?
Anyway, I know it's really hard for you to not be irritated because you deal with similar situations every day. When similar things have happened to me while I'm at my library, trying to check out but Jane is screaming her head off for no apparent reason, our librarian comes over and starts talking to her. Usually that keeps her quiet long enough for me to finish getting my books and get home for her nap time. I dunno, kinda sounds like you couldn't have done that in this situation, though.
Parents of small and loud children get the ability to tune out the crying/whining that gets on others' nerves. Sometimes we don't notice it's happening, force of habit. Probably not a good thing.
I guess what I mean is that sure, perfect parents would drop everything and remove a tantrumy child from the situation. Sometimes it's really hard to do that. Like if you were in a grocery store checkout, and the child starts having the same horrible, ear-splitting tantrum. Do you pick up the screaming demon and take him to the car, and screw those groceries you just spent forty five minutes picking up so that your family can eat, or do you endure the hateful glares from every non-mom around you so in 15 minutes it will all be over with?
Anyway, I know it's really hard for you to not be irritated because you deal with similar situations every day. When similar things have happened to me while I'm at my library, trying to check out but Jane is screaming her head off for no apparent reason, our librarian comes over and starts talking to her. Usually that keeps her quiet long enough for me to finish getting my books and get home for her nap time. I dunno, kinda sounds like you couldn't have done that in this situation, though.
I'm really glad that toddlers are small because that does limit their free will. I wouldn't be able to pick up a fully grown adult Jane and put her in the car when she has her meltdowns and tantrums.
I guess what I'm saying is, please try to be patient with parents with cranky kids. They can't control their child's actions.
Here's a story about my brother: My mom was in sacrament meeting at church with my older brother when he was a few months old. Suddenly, during a silent part of the meeting, my brother fills his diaper with poo in an extremely loud way. This offended a lady who was there. She told my mom that she shouldn't let him do that during sacrament meeting. I guess she didn't understand that she was asking his mom to control somebody else's bowel movements. So weird!
To be sympathetic to those who are not used to being around small children, I will finish with this story. A lady at my quilting group was talking about what her Christmas was like. Her parents or in-laws, I can't remember which, were excited to have all the grandkids over for the holiday. This was something like eight children under the age of eight, four of whom were under the age of three. Needless to say, it was a madhouse! My quilting friend was laughing because the grandparents, who thought they remembered, had actually forgotten what it was like to have that many kids around. She described it as a constant, steady stream of meltdowns. Which is about right.
1/08/2011
Questions I would ask Eve if I could meet her today
"So, what did you learn about the mechanics of pregnancy and childbirth before you left the garden? I mean, how in the heck were you able to have so many babies without the help of anyone except Adam? You must be uncommonly strong, both physically and mentally. And how did it work, when you were a new mom and your first babies were very small? Did Adam go off and slay animals while you sat at home watching the toddlers and infants? Did you stay with Adam while he went "to work"? What was your life like during those first few years? I bet your knowledge of plants and gardening was a huge asset in our world, but how did you learn other things, like cooking? And sewing? Who taught you? Did you feel very lonely? You didn't have other young moms to call up or a facebook or a blog to write on when it got really tedious caring for the little toddlers. How did you do it? And how did you figure out breastfeeding without other people to help you?"
And on and on and on. So many questions.
If there were one dead person who I wish I could meet, it would definitely be her. George Washington would be cool, Joseph Smith, Isaiah, the Virgin Mary...but she would be WAY more interesting to talk to than anybody else I can think of.
And since I speak Arabic, which is apparently the "Adamic Language", we'd be able to communicate just fine. (JUST KIDDING)
And on and on and on. So many questions.
If there were one dead person who I wish I could meet, it would definitely be her. George Washington would be cool, Joseph Smith, Isaiah, the Virgin Mary...but she would be WAY more interesting to talk to than anybody else I can think of.
And since I speak Arabic, which is apparently the "Adamic Language", we'd be able to communicate just fine. (JUST KIDDING)
1/03/2011
Blog Goals 2011
It's that time again. And yes, I know that nobody but me is interested in my blog goals. But it's dang fun to blog about, so here goes.
First, let's see how I did with last year's goals. Here is a link to them.
1. Post Often.
Well, I didn't post every week on every one of my blogs. But I did post much more often on this main blog. I guess I'd say that I accomplished this somewhat, since I posted 113 posts in 2010 vs. 53 posts in 2009.
2. Organize my labels.
Did NOT do.
3. Increase my followers to 25.
Did not do that either. It went from 7 to 12, so that's pretty good.
4. Increase my feed subscribers to 25.
Totally did this. I'm not sure what it used to be, but now I have 57 followers. Wow.
5. Comments: One comment per post.
Didn't exactly do this, but I did way increase my comments. Most posts have at least 1. I'm pretty happy with my comments/post, actually.
6. Post more about my spirituality.
Didn't really do that.
7. Weekly polls.
Ditched this goal.
8. Get 4,000 hits.
I think I said by the summer I should have that many. I'm not sure, but as of this posting I have 6,762 hits. That's great!
9. No complaining posts.
Hmm. Why was this a goal?
10. Monthly funny things
Didn't really do this.
11. Picture and a link with every post
Didn't do this.
12. Sidebar list of all the books read 2010
Working on it, but I decided to make it a post page instead.
13. Sidebar list of all the movies seen 2010
Not a chance.
14. Do not change the template for 6 months.
I think I've actually accomplished this, thanks to blogger's awesome new design software.
Drumroll...
BLOG GOALS 2011
1. POST OFTEN 200 posts in 2011
2. Increase Followers to 25
3. Increase Feed Subscribers to 100
4. Post more about my spirituality, once/week
5. Get 15,000 hits
6. Picture and link with every post
7. Book reviews of all books read 2011
8. Movie reviews of all movies seen 2011
9. What Was For Dinner 2011
A section of my blog is going to be devoted to cooking, specifically what I cooked this year. So don't expect 365 photos, since I'm not going to cook every meal. Imagine how weird it would be to take a picture of my dinner when over at a friend's house. Hmm. Not going to happen. But part of this experiment is Danny's and my goal to make a list of things to cook again.
10. Style Quips 2011
Last December was Style Month. It was great. And you know what? I've finally found an excellent topic for web comic. Keep checking out my blog for more on this.
And, that's it. And in order to keep up with one of my blog goals, here is a picture of Jane.
First, let's see how I did with last year's goals. Here is a link to them.
1. Post Often.
Well, I didn't post every week on every one of my blogs. But I did post much more often on this main blog. I guess I'd say that I accomplished this somewhat, since I posted 113 posts in 2010 vs. 53 posts in 2009.
2. Organize my labels.
Did NOT do.
3. Increase my followers to 25.
Did not do that either. It went from 7 to 12, so that's pretty good.
4. Increase my feed subscribers to 25.
Totally did this. I'm not sure what it used to be, but now I have 57 followers. Wow.
5. Comments: One comment per post.
Didn't exactly do this, but I did way increase my comments. Most posts have at least 1. I'm pretty happy with my comments/post, actually.
6. Post more about my spirituality.
Didn't really do that.
7. Weekly polls.
Ditched this goal.
8. Get 4,000 hits.
I think I said by the summer I should have that many. I'm not sure, but as of this posting I have 6,762 hits. That's great!
9. No complaining posts.
Hmm. Why was this a goal?
10. Monthly funny things
Didn't really do this.
11. Picture and a link with every post
Didn't do this.
12. Sidebar list of all the books read 2010
Working on it, but I decided to make it a post page instead.
13. Sidebar list of all the movies seen 2010
Not a chance.
14. Do not change the template for 6 months.
I think I've actually accomplished this, thanks to blogger's awesome new design software.
Drumroll...
BLOG GOALS 2011
1. POST OFTEN 200 posts in 2011
2. Increase Followers to 25
3. Increase Feed Subscribers to 100
4. Post more about my spirituality, once/week
5. Get 15,000 hits
6. Picture and link with every post
7. Book reviews of all books read 2011
8. Movie reviews of all movies seen 2011
9. What Was For Dinner 2011
A section of my blog is going to be devoted to cooking, specifically what I cooked this year. So don't expect 365 photos, since I'm not going to cook every meal. Imagine how weird it would be to take a picture of my dinner when over at a friend's house. Hmm. Not going to happen. But part of this experiment is Danny's and my goal to make a list of things to cook again.
10. Style Quips 2011
Last December was Style Month. It was great. And you know what? I've finally found an excellent topic for web comic. Keep checking out my blog for more on this.
And, that's it. And in order to keep up with one of my blog goals, here is a picture of Jane.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)