Author Archives: Cindy

ok, moving on

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Hey, does anyone want to lighten the mood with a chorus of “Row Row Row Your Boat”? Yes? I thought so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCGxM2TrTvw

Apologies for my singing.

She kind of spaced out near the end because she saw the kids next door playing outside and she wanted to go join them. Still, I love when she throws in her own little “row row row”s. She did it for my parents on the phone last night and cracked them up. I’m starting to really enjoy this age.

(Btw, anyone else’s kids want to wear their coats ALL the time, even when inside? Just mine? I don’t get it, she isn’t cold, I think she just likes the color and the way it feels.)

why does this bug me so very much?

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Occasionally I go check out blogs that show up in my Blogher ad links over there on the right. I’ve found a few blogs that way that I really like and continue to read all the time, and then a few that are just sort of eh, whatever, move on. Probably the way a lot of people feel about me when they stumble upon my site – some like, some don’t like. No big thing, right?

I recently came upon a post over at Made2Mama, who I’ve been reading occasionally because she has a really adorable little girl, and well, I have a weakness for blonde toddlers (exhibit A: mine). And in this particular post, she mentioned her views on the election, and it’s clear that she’s obviously way in the other direction of my own viewpoint. And you know, that’s fine, nothing in how she said it was offensive. I was a little wigged out by the fact that she quoted James Dobson, who I generally think of as being one of the hate-mongering Christians that give us other relaxed and groovy Christians a bad name, but you know, benefit of the doubt, right? Maybe she just doesn’t know that he calls homosexuals an abomination and thinks that they can be “cured”? I hope?

Really, I should know better. I left a comment, not trying to be rude but more of a “this is the way I look at that particular issue” (in this case, the issue was abortion), and the replies from various “anonymous’s” on that site has me feeling a little bit stabby. And I don’t want to totally hijack someone else’s comments section (or worse, to be thought of as a blog troll), so I think I’ll just share a few choice bits with y’all over here on my own little site so I can vent explain my beliefs more clearly:

Fact, McCain is Pro-Life.Fact, Obama is Pro-Abortion.It’s not my strong opinion here that Life begins at conception,this is fact.

First, people who refer to pro-choice as “pro-abortion” drive me bonkers. No one in their right mind is “pro-abortion.” It’s a horrible thing, I don’t think there’s a woman alive who’s all, “woo-hoo, I’m going to go have irresponsible unprotected sex so I can have an abortion later! Oh happy day! Good times!” Yeah, sorry. That term just doesn’t wash.

Second, this person seems to be playing it fast and loose with what they consider “facts.” In my mind, no one except God can answer exactly when life begins. It’s fine if you want to believe that life begins at conception, but it can’t be proven. Back in the 1200’s, St. Thomas Aquinas said that life began at quickening (when you can feel the baby move), which is somewhere around the 16-20 week point of pregnancy. I’m not saying I agree with him – obviously that was a long time before we had ultrasound machines and all kinds of other medical advancements – but as far as when exactly it goes from a tiny cluster of cells to a living being with a conscious soul? There isn’t a scientist or theologian out there who can answer that question.

On the subject of abortion, this was one of the things that I had said:

The thing about Roe versus Wade is that it wasn’t so much about the right to have an abortion, it was more a question of, does the Constitution guarantee us a right to privacy? And the Supreme Court decided that yes, it does. So I hope that Roe v. Wade stands, because if we lose that right to privacy, and we only elect politicians that legislate their Christian beliefs… well, then we’re really no different from Iran. We’ll just have a Christian theocracy for a government instead of an Islamic theocracy.

I thought that was a valid point. One of the commenters quoted it back to me and then said:

There IS a difference, very basic, between Christianity and Paganism.

That’s where my head exploded. Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t paganism imply that one doesn’t believe in God? Because I’m pretty close to 100% certain that Muslims do believe in God, they just call Him by a different name, Allah. That statement alone, referring to Muslim people as pagans, makes this commenter one of the types of “Christians” (air-quotes on purpose) that I do not want myself to be associated with. There are more Muslims in the world than there are Christians, and the fact that this person can show such blatant disrespect for the religious beliefs of literally millions of people makes me shudder at the thought that someone might mistakenly categorize me alongside such incredibly close-minded, judgmental people. It’s even more unbelievable that he/she had quoted the Golden Rule earlier (you know, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”), and then has the gall to dismiss an entire religion as pagan. What-what-WHAT?!?!!

Oh, and I mentioned something about how the founding fathers were Christian and Jewish – I said it poorly, I meant that our country was set up with a Judeo-Christian ethic in mind. I know there’s some history buffs out there, can y’all help me with this? Am I right? I know there was a Jewish colony, I thought it was in Maryland, but I can’t remember if any Jewish people were part of the group that’s considered to be “founding fathers”? Help? Anyway, this was the response:

And…the Jews were not a part of our Founding Fathers. It was not they who were being persecuted in England. However, if we have learned anything from history (and this is doubtful) they would have shouted out the usual cry, “You’re trying to push Jesus on us!” : ) But that leads me to a completely different topic.

Again with the unbelievable complete and total lack of respect for other people’s religions. Seriously, it just boggles my mind. And even with a smiley face? WTF?

Ok, last thing:

I am not here to be inflammatory. As I said, I have my opinion, but let’s be real here. There is room for opinion, but right and wrong are very clear. It is a fallacy in this day and age that the world is full of gray. A desire to live in the gray does not eliminate black and white. A lie is still a lie, even when everyone believes it.

No gray at all, just black & white? Wow. I happen to think that some things are open to interpretation – like the Bible, which is why we have so many Biblical scholars in the world. A hundred people can read the same Bible verse and come up with a hundred different versions of exactly what it means. So yes, there is a LOT of gray in the world the way that I see it. But it must be nice to so clearly know exactly what’s right and wrong, and to be the authority on who’s good and who’s a sinner. It’s so easy and clear-cut. Sure sounds like the world this person lives in is nice and simple, huh?

Sorry, I’ll stop. I’ll be back to posting cute toddler photos next time, I promise. I just needed to get that off my chest.

molars will be the death of me

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Cate’s decided in the past week or so to go ahead and sprout up those molars that have been threatening to appear for the past several months. She now has three (3!!) molars that have made an appearance of some sort. But that’s the thing, we have just one or two corners of the tooth that’s popped up, while the rest of the tooth is still working its way up through her gums. It hurts me just to look at her mouth, I cannot imagine the discomfort she’s in right now.

I’m guessing it’s mostly due to the teeth, but her sleeping patterns have gone wonky in a totally different direction now. She’s had several days where she’s taken almost no nap at all – maybe 15-20 minutes in the car, but that’s all – and she’s crashed out for the night by 7 p.m. The problem with that is that she typically will wake up once in the middle of the night, but after a diaper change and a cup of milk, she’ll go back to bed pretty quickly and sleep until 8 in the morning or so.

So… I don’t really know what’s going on with her, but I’m trying to just roll with it and help her to stay as comfortable as possible. Baby Motrin, letting her chew on my car keys, whatever. But it’s definitely wearing me out.

On the up side, she’s recently decided that playing with the neighborhood kids is like the greatest thing ever. Yesterday we spent over two hours outside, while she ran around and tried to keep up with the “big kids” (who are all very sweet about involving her, so it’s fine). She’ll run right into the middle of the boys’ soccer game, which makes me panic because I worry that she’s going to get a ball to the face, but they’re very considerate about watching out for her. One boy (who is the first boy that Cate has noticed and genuinely seems to like) will stop occasionally and offer her the ball to let her throw it. It’s so sweet.

Yesterday there were about four 7 year-old girls next door, and they decided to make “magic soup,” which was essentially a bucket full of water with some leaves, flower petals, pine straw and other random stuff thrown in there. The girls all ran around grabbing things to throw in the bucket, and there was Cate with a giant stick, helping them stir their magic soup. I wish I had taken a picture.

Meredith (the mom next door) and I were chatting while this was going on, and we noticed that the girls looked like witches around a cauldron. Meredith said, “yeah, with a little witch-in-training,” pointing at Cate. That sounds about right.

Signing Time!

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We’ve had a really fun weekend. Yesterday, Cate and I met up with Cat, Tony and e-baby for the Raleigh airport’s “open house” for their new terminal. I know, it’s kind of weird to go to the airport just for fun, but there was free food! And a guy wearing a Curious George costume! And… uh, I don’t remember what else, but the girls had lots of fun running around.

That afternoon, I chatted with my next-door neighbor while Cate played with some of the neighborhood kids. The older kids asked if they could rake the leaves in my yard. Um, YEAH! They only wanted to do it so they could jump in the leaf pile, but hey whatever, free labor, right? Cate kind of stayed out of their way to avoid getting trampled during all of the action, but after they were done, they raked the leaves out to the street for me, which was nice. And as soon as they all left to go home for dinner, Cate plopped herself down in the pile of leaves and then pulled them onto her lap in order to thoroughly bury herself.

Cate in the leaf pile

She had a great time and threw a huge fit when I dragged her inside twenty minutes later. (It was getting dark!)

Oh also, my next-door neighbor loaned me a couple of Halloween costumes that her kids have worn in the past, so I wouldn’t have to go buy Cate one. It was really sweet of her. I love this “101 Dalmatians” costume, but Cate seems to feel otherwise about it.

unhappy puppy

Luckily the other costume is totally adorable and she doesn’t seem to mind it, so I think that’s the one we’re going with. And I’m not telling you what it is or taking pictures yet, you’ll just have to wait and see.

Then the absolute best, best, BEST part of this weekend: today we went to our local Down’s Syndrome Association’s “Buddy Walk” fundraiser, and we got to meet Rachel, Alex and Leah from Signing Time!

OMG it's the Signing Time people!!

I don’t think Cate recognized them from the DVD’s at all. At the next booth over, she saw the Signing Time DVD’s on display and she got all excited, saying “sign, sign.” I said, I know, see? I pointed back over to the actual Signing Time people (who were taking pics with other people and totally ignoring us) and I sang the theme song from the DVD to try to get her to put the two together. She looked sort of confused, I honestly don’t know if she got it or not.

Anyway, Rachel was super-nice, and I told her she’s basically the Mick Jagger of our house, like the ultimate rock star. She clapped and said, “woo! I love it!” It was pretty awesome, my hands even shook because I was so excited to meet her. I know, I am a total geek. But it was a great day.

licensed to drive (barely)

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I got a North Carolina driver’s license yesterday, and oh lord, it was awful. I now have to give it up for Washington’s DMV, because I never knew just how good I had it before. Washington’s DMV has a website where you can look up your branch and see how long the wait time is, so you know whether or not it’s a good idea to head over. And it’s one of those “take a number and sit down” environments. I’ve never, ever waited more than 20 minutes at the DMV in Washington.

And yesterday? Oy. There is no place to sit, so I had to stand in line. For an hour and a half. It felt like it was about 90 degrees in there with everybody packed in like sardines. (Get all nice & sweaty for your photo – cute!) Then about halfway through it, I found out that you must have either cash or an in-state check. No plastic, and of course, my checks still have my old Washington address on them. So I asked the girl behind me to hold my place in line (she did, God bless her) while I literally ran across the street to the ATM. Oh! And I had to take a written driving test, which I wasn’t expecting at all. I barely passed, I made a couple of lucky guesses, and that’s the only way I got through it. And it turned out that this place was for driver’s licenses only, so I couldn’t even get our license plates while I was at it. I have to go to a different DMV location and stand in line all over again for that. So yeah. Annoying.

The one perk of all this is that I left Cate with Dave while I went to the DMV, and the whole thing screwed up her routine so much that she took a very shortened nap, only about an hour. So she went to bed last night at 11:00 instead of midnight, and I figured that hey, at least we’re moving in the right direction, yes?

She woke up at 8:30 this morning; usually it’s 9 or 9:30, so again, going in the right direction. After breakfast, she and I headed over to the gym. It was normally at the time of day when they’d have the toddlers outside on the playground, but it was raining, so instead they had part of the gym sectioned off for the kids. I walked/jogged on the track above the gym and kept an eye on Cate while I was working out. She didn’t really engage with the other kids at all. She found a little ride-on car, climbed on it, and then just sat there, looking down and kind of watching the other kids out of her peripheral vision. I was getting annoyed that none of the daycare teachers did anything to involve her, but I know they were busy keeping the other kids from killing each other. Finally Cate started to cry, and one of the ladies walked over and picked her up. It was kind of upsetting to watch it all from a distance. I wanted to go comfort her, but I know that this is just an adjustment and she needs to get used to it.

At noon, the toddlers went from the gym back into the nursery, and I went to do some crunches and lift some weights. (And incidentally? OUCH. I am so, so sore.) I finished my workout about 20 minutes later, and by the time I got to the nursery, she had fallen asleep in one of the ladies’ laps. She woke up when I picked her up, and because she got a 15-minute power nap, she’s all refreshed and perky now. It’s after 3:00 and she’s showing no signs of slowing down. I have a feeling she’s going to fall asleep on the living room floor around 5:00 this evening. Sigh.

running to grab the camera from me

She’s really lucky that she’s so darn cute.

random toddler anecdotes

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1. I decided to attempt taking Cate to the gym with me again, since she’s relaxing on a lot of her super-mommy-centric stuff. And she did really well! She cried for a minute or two after I left, but the ladies in charge of the gym’s daycare said that overall she did great. So I got a full workout, and she got to play with some other kids in her age range. Hooray! I’m going to try to make this a habit now. I’m so out of shape, I get winded walking up the stairs of our house. Although I’m usually hauling Cate with me, which adds an extra 28 pounds to the load – I guess that makes it slightly more excusable?

2. Everytime Cate falls down, the first thing she says is, “you ok?” I realize that this is all my fault, because that’s what I say when she falls down, so she’s just repeating it back without any concept of really understanding what it means.

Last night, her socks caused her to slide on the hardwood floor and she landed flat on her butt with a pretty sudden thud. I think it scared her more than it hurt. Her face crumpled and she said, “you okaaaaaaay?!?!!” as she started to sob. Kind of broke my heart and made me laugh at the same time.

3. While Dave and I ate dinner, Cate played with her stuffed bunny rabbit (the one the paramedics gave her) near the fireplace. She laid the bunny rabbit down on the brick hearth, and said, “Night-night, bun.” Then she bent over and kissed it goodnight. Dave and I almost choked from laughing so hard.

4. If anyone has some good ideas for trying to wear out a 20 month-old so that she takes her nap earlier in the afternoon, please let me know. I’ve been taking her to our neighborhood playground, chasing her around the yard, everything I can think of. But I can’t seem to get her to chill out and go down for a nap before 3 p.m. Which means I have to go wake her up at 5:00 so she doesn’t sleep too late, but even then, she’ll be awake until almost midnight. Help?

learning our body parts

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I haven’t posted a new video in ages – actually, I haven’t filmed one in ages, either. My mom pointed this out to me a few days ago and demanded some new YouTube material, so I hope this makes her happy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUX_0yrtv7E

This is Cate’s latest trick. I say “where’s your tummy?” and she pulls up her shirt to show her belly. It’s seriously adorable. Sometimes she goes crazy with it and pulls her shirt ALL the way up. Which just reminds me that I really do want to take her to Mardi Gras in New Orleans at some point. (Just to the family-friendly daytime parades, I promise.)