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Okay, fine, I'll admit it. I have a low tolerance for children's television. If it's not Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Firefly, I'm not all that interested. My kids don't get to watch too much television. Sadly, that's mostly because it makes me want to pierce my own eardrums rather than from any highfalutin' ideals about how much television children should watch.
But once in a while, we certainly do turn it on. I really like Super Why on PBS. Of course, B-Man has now decided he's scared of that show. Of course. So, it's mostly Curious George or Clifford that we watch.
I'd heard a lot about Dora from the boys' cousins, and the concept sounds wonderful: a girl who likes to explore (hey, I like to explore!) and she speaks Spanish sometimes (hey, I'd like my boys to know some Spanish). Sounds like a perfect show! It's not on PBS, though, so I'd never seen it. But while we were home for Christmas, my sister-in-law handed me a few videos she had in her car that their older daughter doesn't watch any more. Imagine how excited I was that one was Dora!
On the drive home, we put one of the DVDs in. There's a problem with in-car DVD players: the parents are forced to listen to whatever the kids are watching, at least until our kids are old enough to use headphones. About five minutes into the show, TK and I are giving each other looks. Ten minutes into the show, and I'm not sure I'm going to makes it. But we're in a car...there's no escape!
Here's the problem with Dora: she YELLS. Everything. Here, for example, is a transcript from one of the episodes:
Dora: HI, I'M DORA. DO YOU THINK I'M ANNOYING? [loooong pause] IF YOU THINK I'M ANNOYING, SAY "DORA'S ANNOYING!" [looooong pause] VERY GOOD!
Okay, fine, I may have paraphrased.
Needless to say, we haven't watched this video since. But I'm scared. It's nearly a month later, and the boys are still asking about it. *This* is their favorite TV show? Really?
On the plus side, B-man has started saying "Oh maaaaan" just like Swiper. It's really adorable. I guess I need a show starring Swiper, where we can say things like "When you see Dora, say 'Dora, no yelling'. Do you see Dora? Everyone say 'Dora, no yelling'".
Oh man.
Random unrelated thought: We started trying to eat local, at least on a small scale, and figured I'd post a few recipes. Had a great all-local side dish. Chopped and steamed some carrots, added some butter and a touch of maple syrup. Delightful. Okay, technically it wasn't all local since I used Land O' Lakes butter, but it could have been. I'm not about to throw out perfectly good butter, though, so I'll finish this box and then try to buy local butter.
Another great side dish for this time of year was a homemade cranberry-blueberry sauce. Cranberries from Cape Cod, frozen blueberries from Maine. Yum! Link above to the recipe on Allrecipes, where I post as Cardamum.
I've had two interrelated ideas running around in my head recently. Both would be potentially huge lifestyle changes, and for both, I'm not totally sure just how committed I would be.
The first is that I've been considering a complete reevaluation of the way we eat. I'm very interested in the "eat local" movement, or even just being more conscious of what we eat. You know, less prepared convenience food. I think we do a reasonable job of eating healthy, although there's still a lot of room for improvement.
I'm running into a few problems, though. First, I don't know anyone eating local, so I have no one to help me out with tips on how to do it. I'm searching the web, but it seems to be a big job.
Second problem: one of my sons has a peanut and tree nut allergy. I know, that doesn't seem to be related, but I've found that it is a problem. As I try to make healthier or more environmentally conscious choices, I've found that far more of those choices are not nut-safe. My theory is because many of these foods are from smaller vendors, who probably don't have the space to have nut-free facilities, so all their products end up potentially contaminated with nuts. This just further limits the already small number of choices available.
Third problem: cost. It's not bad in the summer to eat local vegetables, and they taste so much better that even if they do cost slightly more, it's well worth it. And often they cost less, so that's not a problem. But off-season, there aren't many choices, and non-vegetable choices do tend to be more expensive than their conventionally grown options. For example, this past Thanksgiving we had local turkey: $80 for one turkey! Yeah, that's not going to fit into our budget on a regular basis.
So, I think what we'll try to do is make better choice. I'm not going to set an eat local goal, like 50% or anything. What I'm going to try to do is to be informed about my choices, and chose to eat local when possible. I think I'll try to do one 100% (or as close as I can get) local dinner per month, just to start getting my feet wet looking for options in the area.
My other issue that I've been thinking a lot about recently is living simply, trying to reduce consumerism in our lives. Celebrating Hanukkah and Christmas, the time period from Thanksgiving to New Year quickly devolved into one big consumer driven fog. Too much stuff! So, I'm trying to be more cognizant of purchasing what we NEED, not just what we want. Thinking about purchases instead of just impulse buying. I'm sure I'll be blogging more about this in the future.
But, my concerns in general are that I'll become really flaky. I feel like people who move far from the norm of standard accepted behavior sometimes become really judgmental about it. And I hate that. I don't want it to be a competition, or to be judged because sometimes I just want a cup of Starbucks coffee or a banana. I don't mind if people think I'm weird, but I don't want them to think I think I'm better than them. Oh well, I'll just keep telling myself I can't control what other people think, just what I do.
Easier said than done, right?
Random unrelated thought: When I asked B-man who he loves, he answered, "Mommy, Daddy, [N-man], and (pause....) ME!" Then he cracked up. He has such a weird and wonderful sense of humor. I love how he's always trying to say something funny. N-man is more of a straight-man, but is still willing to find the humor in the situation and greets the world with such enthusiasm. He peed on the potty the other day, and danced around for about half an hour saying "Yay, me! My pee-peed on the potty!"
Today is an exciting day. One of my friends is finalizing the adoption of her three year old son today.
I met J. over three years ago through a group of women who were all trying to get pregnant. The first time we met for lunch was only a few weeks before I found out I was pregnant with my twins. I've been lucky to get to experience many moments of celebration with this great group of women. Pregnancies, births, adoptions...thankfully the good tends to overshadow the bad. J. decided to go the foster-adopt route, and has been blessed with a wonderful and adorable little boy who has been with her and her husband since he was little. We've all been waiting with baited breath, hoping and waiting for this day to come.
Today is J.'s day, and this blog entry is to celebrate with her. Sometimes I wish I was a good fairy and could grant a wish for a perfect life, but instead, I'll recognize what you already have: all the ups and downs that come with parenting, a wonderful family, and the official recognition of what you already are...Mom.
Congratulations, J! I'm thinking of you all day and will be blowing bubbles at 12:30, sending them off full of happy thoughts to travel your way!
At book group last night, the host showed us something that was absolutely hilarious and incredibly disturbing at the same time: a Barbie her daughter had received for Christmas. Barbie Loves TMX Elmo to be precise. I would consider myself to be a feminist, but I don't go too overboard. I mean, I'm not exactly opposed to Barbie even if she isn't my favorite toy on earth. But this Barbie was just too hilarious.
Just take a look at that Barbie. Soak her in, in all her glory.
First and most glaring issue: Why is Elmo-lovin' Barbie wearing knee-high black f***-me boots? I mean, is that appropriate attire for someone who loves Elmo? What kind of love are we talking about here? Do the Elmo knee socks sticking out of the top of the boots somehow make it less disturbing? Or does that make it more disturbing?
Second issue: Why is Barbie wearing a micro-mini? Is it more fun to play with Elmo if your derrière is hanging in the breeze? Which brings us right into issue three...
Why doesn't TMX Barbie have any panties on? You'll have to take my word for it, but this Barbie is going commando. That's not lady-like. And with a skirt so short, you know she had to have planned to be showing off her goodies. This can't have been a mistake.
Fourth issue: Her belt buckle is hilarious. It's Elmo's eyes, staring out of her. That's freaky and ridiculous and creepy.
Fifth issue: Maybe I'm just remembering incorrectly, but does Barbie normally have freckles? This Barbie does...a spattering across her nose and cheeks. Oh, I see. She has freckles. She must be innocent, then, and not at all disturbingly dressed.
Now look back again at the picture. Take a good look at Elmo this time. What does it look like he's thinking?
I tease because I love it. If I ever see this Barbie on clearance, you know I'd snatch one right up (hee, I said 'snatch'), and take it out whenever I needed a good laugh.
Random unrelated thought: I went to the zoo today with my boys. Hey, the temperature goes above freezing and we're getting outside! We had a great time, and I think it must have been an unofficial bring-your-twins-to-the-zoo-day. I ran into a woman I know through the Mother of Twins club, who was there with her three kids. That was great! Then, I ran into another mom of twins, this one I didn't know, but chatted with her for a while anyway. And as we were leaving, another family with twins was just going in to the zoo. I guess I wasn't the only one home with two energetic toddlers who felt like 39 degrees was certainly warm enough to go play outside for a while!
I think the universe is trying to teach me about the importance of looking to the future rather than the past.
Let me go back a bit. I know, looking to the past, but forgive me for a moment as I explain the back-story. See, our garage is narrow. I mean, just-inches-wider-than-the-car narrow. It takes a great driver (unfortunately, a better driver than me) to make it through without regularly dinging the bumper or catching just the very edge of the garage. Oh well, I can live with that. Our cars have a few paint streaks, our garage has a few dents. Nothing major.
Well, a few months ago my husband was backing out, and somehow managed to be so incredibly misaligned that he pulled his driver's side mirror right off. I didn't say a word, because I understand. Good thing! Because I was just pulling his car out of the garage, and guess what? Yep, smash. Although, this time it wasn't the edge of the garage. I actually knew the car was in kind of screwy so was being incredibly careful not to hit the side of the door. What I didn't realize is that I was aimed right at the snowblower. The handle impaled the driver's side window, popping it entirely out of its frame.
So, from this I conclude not that we're especially accident prone, or that our garage is too darn narrow, but instead that I'm pretty sure the universe is sending us a message to look to the future. Hey, Universe, I hear ya! You don't need to ruin anymore of our rear view mirrors, okay?
Speaking of rear views, Orlando Bloom's been staring at my butt. We've been nursing colds in the house, and of course with colds comes the requisite ran-out-of-tissues. So, TK was wonderful enough to run out to the store to buy some necessities, including tissues. He was even smart enough to realize that it would be a good idea to buy a three-pack. But, unfortunately, he didn't look closely enough to realize that one of the boxes in the three-pack is covered with Pirates of the Caribbean advertising. That box of tissues is sitting on the back of our toilet, and now every time I go to the bathroom, I have to face Orlando Bloom getting a good view of *my* pirate's booty. I guess it could be worse. It could have been Johnny Depp...
Unrelated thought of the day: Tomorrow my book group meets, and it's my turn to provide choices for next month's book. I always find it so hard to narrow my choice. I want to pick something interesting and different, but it's also tempting to pick something safe that people will probably enjoy. Well, I get three picks, and then the rest of the group narrows it down to just one, so maybe I'll pick two risky choices and one safe and let the rest make the call.
Good thing procrastination isn't on my list of things to attack this year. Well, better late than never. Here, in all its glory, preserved so I can't forget it, my goals for this year:- Write at least 160,000 words. That's 10,000 per month, except 50,000 in November. This means I also have to keep track of my writing, so I'll start an excel spreadsheet to track my word counts.
- As a subgoal of that, I want to win NaNoWriMo 2008.
- Take one photograph a day that somehow represents the day for me. I know some people do 1 picture a day of themselves, or of something arty. Well, I'm not all that arty, I'm more looking to have a photo-journal of 2008.
- Pictures of my kids don't count, because I'm going to post the pictures online but I don't like to post pictures of my boys online. Heck, if pics of them counted, I've already taken a picture a day (or more like 20 pictures a day) since they were born two and a half years ago!
- It's January 2nd, and I have two pictures already (not downloaded yet, but Jan 1 is a couple of ornaments lying on the ground as we un-decorated the tree, and Jan 2 is tissues, a thermometer, and medicine since my son and I are sick).
- Post a minimum of 120 blog entries in 2008. It's kind of fun...a neat way to get some ideas out of my head, or just to have a place to let my random ideas flow. Good escapism, and another good way to keep track of memories.
- This doesn't count toward my 160k word year goal above!
- Dare I say, I'm considering NaBloPoMo next November on top of NaNoWriMo? If anyone doesn't know, it's like NaNoWriMo, except you commit to writing 1 blog entry a day during November (so, it's far, far easier than NaNoWriMo :)
- Start planning our great cross-country adventure. In 2010 or 2011, we're planning to spend a month or two driving across the country, seeing all the sites that strike our fancy.
- Start a savings account!
- Start a file of places we may like to visit, and research some of those areas.
- Learn about camping...and try to decide if that's something we want to do on our trip. Try to find some outdoorsy people to befriend who can teach us all about camping.
- Live healthier!
- Join the Y and take a class. Go to family swim times.
- Join a CSA or otherwise plan to go to a lot of farms this summer to pick fresh veggies.
- Stock healthy snacks in the house instead of chips and chocolate.
Random unrelated thought, What I'm Reading edition: I'm currently reading Moth Smoke for book group on Wednesday. I'm really enjoying it so far. My book group is really on a winning streak recently. We've read a ton of books I've been pleased to have had a chance to read.
January 1. The first day of the year. What does the little N-man do? Decides to climb out of his crib for the first time.Yep. I know, they're almost two and a half; we got lucky to make it this long without any crib escapees.And, as if that wasn't enough, he asked to pee on the potty, too. Totally unprompted.It's like he looked at a calendar and said, "Well, it's 2008, I guess I'm ready to move to the next stage now."N-Man also cracked us up today by insulting my cookies. I guess I should start by admitting that my mom makes the best Christmas cookies ever. And my boys ate about a zillion of them while we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas.So, for New Year's Eve, I made some chocolate chip cookies. I make great chocolate chip cookies. I swear! Well, I offered N-man one of them today, and he said, "where's Grandma's cookies?" Tough noogies, kid, you're stuck with Mommy's cookies! I also asked him if my cookies were as good as Grandma's, and he vehemently said NO while shaking his head for extra emphasis of how inferior my baking is.Unrelated thought: I'm not big on resolutions, but I think my next blog entry will be goals I'd like to pursue in 2008. Get them in writing, make them concrete and measurable. Or maybe not. If I made resolutions, perhaps my first would be to write down my resolutions.
