The internet, glorious and life-sucking internet. I saw this and it made me realise I had to come to my senses.
The internet's always on my side.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
First thing's first
Okay, I'm going to admit straight out that i've been censoring myself on this blog for a while now. Some kind of fear came over me that someone who shouldn't be reading this would be reading it and then all hell would break loose. Tomorrow is a new day, and I will say a few things I've been holding back (i'm waiting until tomorrow because it's late and I have an 8am appointment in the morning).
The internet, glorious and life-sucking internet. I saw this and it made me realise I had to come to my senses.
The internet's always on my side.
The internet, glorious and life-sucking internet. I saw this and it made me realise I had to come to my senses.
The internet's always on my side.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Southern Love
The trip to South Carolina was amazing. It was cool to make so many memories in such a short amount of time: loudly whistling with P to songs I had never heard before by Gilbert Bécaud (L'important c'est la rose)in the back of the car at 11 pm, getting lost on a boat with 5 kids under 9 years old in a place called 'Alligator Alley', being ridden around on a sea-doo and giving new meaning to 'hold tight', visiting the a plantation, bouncing in really strong waves with butt scratches to prove it, sweating like i've never sweated before, and spending a 5 hour delay at the Minneapolis airport happy as clams.
This week has been the longest time P and I have ever spent together consecutively. It was great! We are great travelling partners. It was interesting travelling with his family (Mom, Dad and younger sister) in a car, together, crammed, for 20 hours. There isn't too much to say except, their personalities came out pretty vividly. I've always imagined them as a perfect family. Cool-calm-collected at all times. But in this particular case of 6-days together 24/7, I saw some tensions rise and some tempers flare. This was reassuring to me because it made them all a little more human. The examples are too minute to elaborate, but all in all it was an interesting experience of a real family.
I've (almost) never been on road trips with my family, and never for more than couple of hours in the car until our destination. I'm beginning to think that the success of a family depends more on the idea of 'your' family as a whole, rather than the individual parts. That family is more an idea than anything else. Someone in the parenting article I read the other week said something to that effect.
The whole experience of the vacation (seeing P with his family, seeing him interact with little kids) solidified something in me. It didn't evoke specific images of a family with him, but it reaffirmed the presence of a future together. It feels vague, but I know it's there. That's a nice feeling.
A few favourites:
This week has been the longest time P and I have ever spent together consecutively. It was great! We are great travelling partners. It was interesting travelling with his family (Mom, Dad and younger sister) in a car, together, crammed, for 20 hours. There isn't too much to say except, their personalities came out pretty vividly. I've always imagined them as a perfect family. Cool-calm-collected at all times. But in this particular case of 6-days together 24/7, I saw some tensions rise and some tempers flare. This was reassuring to me because it made them all a little more human. The examples are too minute to elaborate, but all in all it was an interesting experience of a real family.
I've (almost) never been on road trips with my family, and never for more than couple of hours in the car until our destination. I'm beginning to think that the success of a family depends more on the idea of 'your' family as a whole, rather than the individual parts. That family is more an idea than anything else. Someone in the parenting article I read the other week said something to that effect.
The whole experience of the vacation (seeing P with his family, seeing him interact with little kids) solidified something in me. It didn't evoke specific images of a family with him, but it reaffirmed the presence of a future together. It feels vague, but I know it's there. That's a nice feeling.
A few favourites:
Monday, July 12, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
Expectations 2.0
I'm not much of a purse gal, but this one is beautiful!
I've been wanting to craft a lot lately. Wanting to make posters, paint, and reorganize our apartment (we found an old-new couch on the street the other day, and now our living room finally makes sense!). I'm also mildly obsessed with the idea of having a family. Or more precisely, of being young while starting a family. I guess young doesn't mean the same thing it did a couple decades ago.. but I always keep thinking 'before thirty'. I'd like to have my life on track.
As I typed this post I received an email about yesterday's post (see comments) with the link to an NYMag article. As I began reading it I wondered about the situation of parents today. So many of us are used to getting things done fast and conveniently and went it comes to child rearing that leaves us with buying formula, pre-made purées, using disposable diapers, buying toys (or worse, tv shows) to entertain them at an extremely young age, sending them to daycare. Of course I'm being extreme here, but I think there is something to be said for the culture we're growing up in and how it affects our choices vis-a-vis building our family and raising our children.
What if we stopped and lowered our expectations? What if we let go of our egos and tried connecting with our partners and children? instead of plugging them (or ourselves) to the latest gadget? What if we spent time connecting with them quietly (not with the tv on in the background)? What if we spent time with the baking in the kitchen when they're older? What if we gave them more imagination time? What if we weren't afraid of letting them play alone?
Recently I've been interested in what they call elimination communication, which you could think of as an early potty-training where the parent cues into the babies needs to know when they need to pee or poo and can do so in a potty instead of a diaper. This leads to being potty trained earlier, using less diapers, less resources, etc. The main idea is to be so tuned into your baby that you can almost anticipate their needs. This is interesting too, because i'm not sure how much i've been taught (not having been around baby's that much, save my younger brother) to actually listen to the baby's needs and respond to them accordingly. I was raised on the 'let them cry it out' school of thought. But what if we tuned into the fact that parenting is incredibly hard, instead of thinking 'my kids won't be like that', and what if we realize keeping a family together can also be incredibly challenging?
I wonder if we aren't programmed with exceedingly high expectations about these two facets of life.. or if we're programmed to overestimate our abilities to deal with them?
I've been wanting to craft a lot lately. Wanting to make posters, paint, and reorganize our apartment (we found an old-new couch on the street the other day, and now our living room finally makes sense!). I'm also mildly obsessed with the idea of having a family. Or more precisely, of being young while starting a family. I guess young doesn't mean the same thing it did a couple decades ago.. but I always keep thinking 'before thirty'. I'd like to have my life on track.
As I typed this post I received an email about yesterday's post (see comments) with the link to an NYMag article. As I began reading it I wondered about the situation of parents today. So many of us are used to getting things done fast and conveniently and went it comes to child rearing that leaves us with buying formula, pre-made purées, using disposable diapers, buying toys (or worse, tv shows) to entertain them at an extremely young age, sending them to daycare. Of course I'm being extreme here, but I think there is something to be said for the culture we're growing up in and how it affects our choices vis-a-vis building our family and raising our children.
What if we stopped and lowered our expectations? What if we let go of our egos and tried connecting with our partners and children? instead of plugging them (or ourselves) to the latest gadget? What if we spent time connecting with them quietly (not with the tv on in the background)? What if we spent time with the baking in the kitchen when they're older? What if we gave them more imagination time? What if we weren't afraid of letting them play alone?
Recently I've been interested in what they call elimination communication, which you could think of as an early potty-training where the parent cues into the babies needs to know when they need to pee or poo and can do so in a potty instead of a diaper. This leads to being potty trained earlier, using less diapers, less resources, etc. The main idea is to be so tuned into your baby that you can almost anticipate their needs. This is interesting too, because i'm not sure how much i've been taught (not having been around baby's that much, save my younger brother) to actually listen to the baby's needs and respond to them accordingly. I was raised on the 'let them cry it out' school of thought. But what if we tuned into the fact that parenting is incredibly hard, instead of thinking 'my kids won't be like that', and what if we realize keeping a family together can also be incredibly challenging?
I wonder if we aren't programmed with exceedingly high expectations about these two facets of life.. or if we're programmed to overestimate our abilities to deal with them?
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Death by Blogs
Mama-baby blogs are the death of me. They're so dangerous! It makes me all excited about having babies, because there are all kinds of new things (and old-new things) that are so darn cute! and make having babies look fun!
For example, this blog.
I'm going to sign up for yoga classes!
For example, this blog.
I'm going to sign up for yoga classes!
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