Happy Birthday, Mom!

You have been an amazing mother over the years, a true example of what sacrifice and dedication for children means. And being a mother myself now, though not for many months, it's easier to understand what the monumental task of being a mother is like- how difficult it is to discipline someone who shoots a big grin back at you or knowing how to balance life with raising children. But you seemed to do it all with ease, and I am so thankful that I had someone who holds such respectable values to learn from.

Thank you for showing us God's love, for never giving in to us even when that may have been the easiest thing at the time and for nagging us to enrich our lives- like entering art contests that you knew we could win if we only tried. You taught us that a mother's job is not always one of popularity, but it is a noble one- that it's not a mother's job to necessarily be a friend, but you sure are one of the best friends I have now. And you've always shown me that it pays off to take action for what you believe is right, whether that means writing a letter to the right person or being brutally honest bold with someone when it's difficult. Thank you for all of your support, your encouragement, your gentle spirit and for passing on all of your motherly wisdom on life. I hope you have a wonderful birthday!

I love you.

Our Thanksgiving

Looking back on the past year, we have so much to be thankful for, and spending Thanksgiving with family is one of those blessings. We spent a relaxing few days at my parents' and grandparents' house in Maryland. The weather was beautiful, and we got to do our annual pre-meal turkey trot run/jog/walk/bike ride- until the sun turned to threatening clouds, and a couple of us were caught in a torrential downpour (not Jack).

Jack enjoyed a little bit of everything from the table- sauerkraut, peas, cranberry salad, turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing- and when he had eaten all that, he finished a tub of baby food squash.

Look for more pictures from our trip on the photo link on the right.

A new milestone

This afternoon, after we returned from our trip to Maryland, I tried putting Jack down for a nap. But he had slept a lot in the car, so I wasn't sure if this would actually happen. After a while of letting him whine in his crib, I went to check on him. There he was, standing in the corner of his crib. I screamed, "Oh my gosh!" which scared the daylights out of the little guy and summoned Mike to see the spectacle. This just wasn't something we had seen before, and at first sight, it kind of scared me. Needless to say, we lowered the mattress.

8 months!

At eight months old now, Jack is very mobile and a lot more purposeful in his actions and movements. We've had to start being stern with him when he spits his food out, thinking he's funny. He has just started to pull himself up on furniture more- and getting up on all fours, but he's still perfecting the army crawl. And his sound vocabulary is ever increasing, but with no real intentional words yet. He weighs about 23 lbs now, on our unofficial scale, but by the signs of my difficulty lifting him out of his crib, he's definitely growing.

Light-up Night

We took the 'T' downtown to catch a little bit of the festivities of Light-up Night. Jack got to ride in his Baby Bjorn inside Dad's jacket like a baby marsupial. He just looked around, very bright-eyed, at all of the lights and swarms of people around us. It was freezing, so he was snuggly bundled in many layers-- I bed it was warm inside that coat. All in all, he seemed to enjoy the outing.

I'm glad we didn't have to wait in the horrendous line to see Santa in his workshop-- only in a short one for one of those deep-fried wonders we enjoy once in a blue moon- a funnel cake.
It was crazy to hear Christmas songs, let alone see about half a dozen huge lit Christmas trees, or more, on only the 16th of November. But that's what we expected at Light-up night. The festivities of Christmas sneak up earlier and earlier every year, it seems. What happened to Advent?

"Mother and Son"

Here is the piece, "Mother and Son," that my friend Jen, who is currently living in Qatar with her husband, painted of Jack and me.

I love how you captured us, Jen- the light, emotion and atmosphere-- and everything about it. It's fabulous! I love it!

Raising children for suckers?

I just read this disturbing article-- "Is raising kids a fool's game?"


The general idea of the article is that kids cost too much and aren't worth the time to raise. And to say that "raising a child through age 17 could cost $1 million or more"-- what are these parents buying for their children? I realize that commodities like XBoxes, cellphones, personal televisions, cars, and childcare- only the best, of course- are added up in the expenses, but are any of these things necessary- or even generally good?


It is heart-sickening to see what the view of children has become, that we are so self-absorbed that "Child rearing is fast becoming a sucker's game."


Here are some excerpts from the article:

"In her 1994 book Pricing the Priceless Child (Princeton University Press), Princeton University sociology professor Viviana Zelizer describes how in the 19th century, children were "economic assets" that contributed to farm work and other important tasks. Then, during the early 20th century, the U.S. established laws removing many children from hard labor, sparking the "rise of the economically useless and emotionally priceless child," Zelizer says.


"As children have become less of an economic issue and people have fewer children and wait longer to have them, children have become precious, not in a economic sense but in an emotional sense," says Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families & Work Institute, a nonprofit research organization in New York and author of Ask the Children (William Morrow, 1999). "Having children is a meaningful thing to do in life—it's not just passing on a legacy."

"As more young folks like Zaker delay or don't have children, birth rates in Japan, Russia, South Korea, all of Europe, and parts of Asia have fallen below the 2.1 children per woman needed for population growth. Many industrialized countries such as France have introduced or increased economic incentives such as tax breaks, longer maternity leaves, and cash bonuses to get women to have children.


These programs have had mixed results. One reason they may not work comes from Phillip Longman in his book The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity and What to Do About It (Perseus Books Group, 2004). Now that "children no longer provide any economic benefit to their parents, but are rather costly impediments to material success, people well adapted to this new environment will tend not to reproduce," Longman writes. "And many others who are not so successful will imitate them, and for good reason." Families might choose to have only one child so they can afford to splurge on one while maintaining their own comforts of living (um, that would be me)."

It finally happened: We reached the pinnacle of coolness

We own a mini-van.
We love it though. It's a roomy Mercury Villager that was previously owned by an old man who drove it minimally and took excellent care of it. The interior looks untouched, and there are a lot of perks like rear-vent controls and lights, removable and fold-down seats, and a stereo and clock that actually work. And-- we got it for less than half of the fair-market value for no reason other than the owner thought that was a fair price. No more cramming in the back seat with Jack when he wants company or being cramped on trips.

Fun fun packaging

The baby gate that came today was a big hit with Jack-- besides the fun games you can play with a person on each side, the packaging provided serious entertainment. He's been moving around at quite an incredible rate. Let the baby-proofing begin.

Car issues

It amazes me that, after we took our working-just-fine car to get inspected on Thursday and spent $550 on some minor repairs, it came home in much worse shape-- which happens to currently be: totally dead.


On Friday morning, Jack and I took the car back to the car place because one of the rear wheels was making a loud bumping noise with every rotation-- their mistake, and they fixed it no charge. Later that day, something in the hood started making a terrible, loud rattling noise, so I took it back, where they told me our engine was damaged and we would eventually need a new one. Never good.


Sunday morning, it wouldn't start before church. Fortunately, my brother took us all in his. When we got home, Mike and Tay tried jumpering it for a long time, but to no avail. They tried again later, and it still wouldn't give. What happened to our car? It's only a 2001 with $77,000 miles. It's not supposed to give up yet. And it just passed inspection!


Fortunately for Mike, there's a bus stop right by our house, so he doesn't have to walk far to get a ride to work until he is able to drive again. Hopefully it won't take much to revive the car, but we are looking for a cheap back-up car in the meantime. Even if this one turns out to be easily fixable, it would be nice to have a second vehicle. Any suggestions? We've been looking on Craig's List.

Halloween

We just manned the front porch for a couple of hours yesterday evening, refilling our candy bowl a couple of times as dozens of trick or treaters filed in and out- I was surprised by how many we got! Jack enjoyed seeing all of the costumes.