Dad vs Lily

Where are you from?

Fair play

So a certain 5-year-old child we shall not name often gives my niece and nephew a hard time, and my sister has a hard time with this child's mom. The child constatly yanks things out of Jake and Marisa's hands and the mother always replies with, "Let's just let her have it. That's one of her/his favorite toys," instead of doing some gosh darn parenting. When Jake or Marisa ask to play with certain toys, this child generally says no, and the mother doesn't encourage sharing (Some times sharing is a crock and kids should be allowed to say no, but this a pretty extreme case). My sister tries to let the kids battle it out themselves and not to say too much (unless things get physical), espcially because if she says anything, the other mom gets upset that someone has criticized the child.

So after an afternoon of having things taken from their hands and being told they couldn't play with anything, when the kids got in the car and my sister asked if they had fun, they immediately complained about this kid. My nephew Jake told his sister, "You know what we should do, Marisa?! When - comes to our house next time, we should put an electric fence around our toys and each time - goes to grab a toy s/he'll get zapped, and then s/he'll learn not to play with OUR toys!"

What a Jake.

Leslie Feist

For those of you who haven't heard, she's delicious:

Mushaboom music video
May 3, 2007 on NPR
July 25, 2005 on NPR
Wikipedia article

PS - I know I'm years behind.

Lily's first birthday!

It's a bit long at over 5 mins, and I know no one actually cares as much as we do, but here it is, enjoy.

Battles and Breakthroughs

Battle
Angela vs. Webshots
I'm currently trying to post all our good pictures online in big albums so we have a system we can just keep adding to. I've opted for Webshots again because there's better organizatonal tools than Facebook, and it has a function where you can share your Webshots photos on Facebook. BUT now Webshots has decided that about 1 out of every 3 of my photos is "in the wrong format" and I for the life of me, despite hours (Oli can attest) of comparing file types and sizes and orginals to renamed version, cannot figure out why. I am going to email Webshots.

Breakthrough
Esther Greenwood = Holden Caulfield = Huck Finn
I re-read the Bell Jar last week and LOVED it. It had depressed me beyond belief when I read it sophomore or junior year of college, probably because I held so many of the same fears as Esther Greenwood. Now that I realize choosing one life path doesn't necessarily exclude all others, I was able to appreciate how well the book is written and the narrator's voice crafted. I even got dorky and wrote out a character sketch of things Esther would and wouldn't do because I wanted to see how well I understood her just from reading her story. Answer: pretty well. Well done to Sylvia Plath; it's just a shame she can't be here to revel in her genius....

Thinking about Esther got me thinking about Holden Caulfield of Catcher in the Rye and Huckleberry Finn and I am convinced they are very similar:
1. Their personal opinions don't jive with those of the society around them
2. They all act out and go on personal adventures in relation to their rebellion
3. They all think humorous self-depricating thoughts constantly in relation to 1 and 2 to make things not seem so bad

In any case, I'm half way done re-reading Catcher and will move on to Huck next week. My train rides to and from work are pretty fun lately.

Why did you need to know all that? Just because, I suppose.

She's back, for a limited time only.

Remodeling

Check out link changes under "Las fotos y los videos" to the right. Now non-Facebook users can access our photos there through these links :) Adios Webshots.

More to come...

"Tears of pain wash the blood away."

A quote from a pbs documentary narrator. A Japanese fighter pilot fights to regain control of his plane after winning a dogfight against an American fighter over Guadelcanal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saburo_Sakai
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pug_Southerland

Girl Next Door

What do you do when Playboy (yes, Playboy) conducts a film shoot in your neighbours garden?
This:

She's a girl

A new gallery.

bloggidy bloggy blog blog blog

Someone keeps harrassing with me emails and texts telling me to write more blog entries. I am hearby stating to that person that I will not give in, not now, not ever - I shall not write ANY blog entries. Leave me alone. Please.

In other news, Angela and I are going to Summer Camp music festival this Thursday to see Umphrey's McGee, Tea Pot Green and a host of other unmemorable bands. I'll be volunteering at Lollapalooza this year, and you can too, simply by signing up on their website. Ummm what else...considering getting an SLR, not going to Panama can't afford it, might go to California camping in a camper van, there's a hole in the living room floor, getting ready to move to Europe in a few months ...if you need stuff to fill your apartment with, such as a round bed, a butcher block, papa-san chair with stool, TV, N64 with MarioKart and GoldenEye, anything and everything really, put your bids in now, 'cause we got a lot of stuff to be rid of and if you can pick it up it's yours.

Listened to the Wilco and Decemberist and haven't listened to them again since. nuff said.

Facebook Fotos

New photos on my Facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7457&l=7fcf4&id=659342526

Some old BCN and Chicago Christmas things are up.

Oli has most of the Lily pictures on his computer, thus the lack of pictures of my child.

~

Info post

I'm back in my role as warrior against junk mail, particularly credit card applications. Not only is junk mail annoying, but it kills over 100 million trees a year (!).

For Americans to rid themselves of credit card application mail, see:
This link
Then click on the first option:
Unsolicited Mail, Telemarketing and Email: Where to Go to "Just Say No"

Removal from lists will require a phone call or some letters but the link provides the phone number or, if you're in a mail mood, a template for the letters.

To remove yourself from other mail marketing lists:
https://www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailinglist

Save yourself some headaches, and save some trees for Lily and her short friends of the future.

Everyone poops

Especially Lily.

England Part 4

Crazy - The most amazing home videos are here

New vid at last - North Avenue beach

I've just gotten over a long period of dislike for video editing; this is something I rustled up rather quickly to give those back in the UK an idea of how the little one is doing.

Enjoy

Resumes

Oli and I are correcting high school students' resumes. Here are some gems:

As a bullet point describing a recent position held:
- Work together to create globe on how to solve global warming
- Experiences kinds of different evasive species

Under Skills:
- Good communicator skills

Another student's Skills section:
- I communicate pretty well

Under Interests on another:
- Baseball
- Reading manga
- Watching anime
- Computers

Another description of a recent position:
- discussed about the earth
- took "fieldtrips"
- cut down bushes
- cleaned the earth

And on a slightly darker note:
- Education: 2 years of high school - planning on graduating

Ain't nuttin but baby talk up in here

Just some Lily chat and mommy thoughts here.

She still climbs everything and now can mount the futon by lifting up a foot, placing it on the seat and hoisting herself up. Very humorous to see (Eh-hem, Oli.).

Her comprehension of English and Spanish grows by a handful of phrases each week. Tonight I almost scared her with my shouts of joy when we were in the bath and I asked, "Donde esta el pie de Liliana?" and she franticallly searched the water for her foot, finding it and lifting it into the air with her hands.

Overall, we girls had simply the best evening together. A trip to the library to grab some baby books set us up to meet some little Mexican girls who switched from English to Spanish as soon as they realized we understood. They poked Lily, chased her, hugged her and kissed her, and were sad to see us go. It made me hope our life in Spain might be like that...

Lily ate a big dinner and I must say, I do love dinner time sometimes because I take the opportunity while Lily is tied in a chair to entertain her with all my talents. While Lily eats, I generallly do the dishes, then dance and make faces at her, getting her into hysterics by putting my back to her and then looking at her quickly over my shoulder. Somehow she manages to feed herself, and sometimes me, during all this.

Bathtime, another time for us to be silly, was stellar as well. Lately Lily is learning to wash people, including herself. The only danger is the old soap-in-the-eye bit. When that happens, Lily knows water needs to be dumped over her head, which she is rather ok with, so long as it gets the bastard soap out. Similarly, as much as she hates putting on or taking off clothing, she understands how it works and lifts legs, arms, whatever to make the process go faster...that is, when she's not yelling at you to let her go.

All in all, this post is a big Yeah to myself that I feel Lily and I are buddies, that we're communicating, whether it be about getting clothes on, new vocabulary, or blowing bubbles in the bath, and perhaps most importantly, that Lily understands I like and respect her. I sometimes worry that I'll focus way too much on intellectual development and just be a mean mom who's no fun, that I'll explain way to much to her and always try to show her how to do things "right" rather than letting her take the wheel. On the contrary, lately I've really been enjoying being goofy, teaching Lil through goofiness, and generally just letting her know that I think highly of her. I'm really trying hard to teach Lil without stepping on her toes, to let her know she is good, and to just generally respect her so that as she grows she'll be open with me. Our buddiness is the first sign that she's getting the messages I'm trying to send her! So, that's all, just a post to share my worries and a little personal triumph.