“Gee, one of our biggest demographics is really into this book series about vampires and werewolves that live in the woods. The first film made $70 million in 3 days and the second movie is due out next month. Hmmm… I bet if we put our heads together, we can figure out a way to cash in on this franchise.”
So, Koren is teething. Apparently, teething to my son is like a full moon to Remus Lupin.
I think Genesis 3:16 has been mistranslated. I think it probably should read:
To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pains in childrearing; with pain and wailing your son will bring forth teeth. Your desire will be for sleep and quiet, but his never-ceasing screaming will rule over you.”
Oh Orajel/teething tablets/teething ring/popsicle/wet washcloths/Tylenol/frozen fruit – why must you mock me with unfulfilled promises?
I find that my capacity for sympathy is inversely proportionate to the amount of energy my son drains from me throughout the day.
Today was a beating.
He’s teething and he’s got to be one of the worst teethers I’ve ever met. He cried ALL. DAY. He wanted to be held the entire day so that he could wail without ceasing DIRECTLY INTO MY EAR CANAL. Nothing I did pacified him for more than 5 minutes. He’s hungry, but apparently it hurts to eat because every time I give him something he refuses it and starts crying again. I’ve given up on Baby Orajel because he’s not a fan of having his mouth numbed and it just makes him cry more. I am officially WORN DOWN.
Consequently, I’m taking him to Mother’s Day Out tomorrow and letting his teachers deal with him until they call me to come pick him up because I NEED A BREAK, even if it’s only for an hour.
Jens appears to have developed an infection in his broken hand. This was not a good evening for him to be running around filling prescriptions for antibiotics when the single thing that got me through the day was knowing that he could take Koren off my hands when he got off work. So while I had enough self restraint and sense not to bitch about it, the level of fussing and pampering he received from me over his pain and injury was pretty low.
Koren has already woken up several times. I can tell it’s going to be a tough night. For him. I’m turning off the baby monitor tonight.
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This weekend we were blessed by a visit from our friends Tatiana and Michael, who run a ministry for orphans in Russia. While making their way through the US to raise awareness, volunteers and funds for Sunegos International, they had the chance to pay us a visit for a couple of days.
We went to school with Tatiana and were delighted to have the opportunity to meet her husband and 17-month old daughter, Liana.
Liana enjoyed the toys in our sun room, particularly the slide.
Kaelin was thrilled to have company and enjoyed playing with Liana, even though it took her an entire day to learn how to say her name. Poor Liana – she got called everything from Leah to Maryanna, and then when Kaelin finally learned how to pronounce it correctly she couldn’t stop saying it. “Liana! Liana! Liana!”
Fortunately, Liana is pretty laid back and didn’t seem to mind.
Since Liana and Koren are so close in age, they enjoyed playing together. Koren was quite taken with Liana and tended to follow her around.
We got to take our guests to On the Border for some good Tex-Mex food, as well as Yogurtville – because you can’t come to Dallas and not go to Yogurtville.
Tatiana and Michael, thanks for stopping by! We hope to see you again some day on the other side of the world!
a.k.a. “Kaelin DJ’s Her Own Wedding”
a.k.a. “Kaelin Lays Down the Wedding Rules”
a.k.a. “Koren Gets Down”
This is an excellent article, relating the current health care debate issue to the current American food supply and farm policies.
For instance, the government currently subsidizes the corn industry (at the tune of $37.3 billion between 1995 and 2003). In fact, because of said subsidies, it’s so profitable to be a corn farmer that many farmers have forsaken all other grains and vegetables to jump into the corn industry. This causes a surplus in the amount of corn produced in this country.
Rather than cutting back to balance the economics of it, the corn industry is continually coming up with new ways that people can consume more corn. So now while we sit on the couch listening to pipe dream reports about replacing gasoline with ethanol (made from corn), we can drink our sodas and eat our snack foods that are heavily laden with high-fructose corn syrup.
There’s a similar problem with the dairy industry, ever since the advent of pumping cows full of hormones to make them produce twice as much milk. They need to sell all that extra milk so they can pay to replace their hormone-loaded cows, who have this annoying habit of dying every 5 years (a cow’s normal lifespan is 20-25 years). So how do you sell the public more milk than they need? Convince them that they need more milk. Hence the $23 million per year spent on the “Got Milk?” campaign.
The point I’m trying to make, and which the article addresses, is that the cost of health care in America is a result of Americans’ bad health. Our bad health and plagues of preventable diseases are largely the result of the way we eat – the “American diet.” And the American diet can be directly linked to the economics and structure of our food supply.
Do not even get me started on school lunches.
Just read the article.
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Dear Little Mr.,
At 15 months, you are busy, adorable, impish, fun-loving, loud, curious, frustrating, insatiable, determined, affectionate, irresistible, messy, relentless, hungry, mischievous, and exhausting.
While I wouldn’t go so far as to say you’re “talking” yet, you do have a few words in your vocabulary (in no particular order of importance to you): Mama, Dada, Doggy, Kitty, Thank You, Baby, Turkey and Bacon.
Speaking of bacon, you’ve found your latest love in life. You will drop any and all activity or forsake any mission at the mere mention of “bacon.”
Obviously, you are your father’s son.
Short of bacon, there is pretty much nothing that can deter you once you’ve set your sights on something. Distraction is a futile effort. Scolding just makes you laugh and then it becomes a game to see how quickly you can disobey and then hold out your hand to me for a “swat,” open-mouthed grin in place.
You are a poo.
Especially since you have the most contagious laugh known to man. You’re lucky that you’re so cute – it has saved your life on several occasions.
You are getting better at following directions. Since you’re not really talking yet, it’s more difficult for me to know exactly how much of what I’m saying is actually connecting in your head. But now you can get in or out of your car seat on command (minus the buckling, of course), as well as “go find” things like your sippy or paci. You are also quite familiar with the directions, “Stop turning on the TV,” “Put the dog food back,” and “GET OUT OF THE DISHWASHER.” But your favorite direction is when we ask you to give someone a hug. You have always been an excellent hugger and it’s one of my favorite things about you.
Today I asked you why you were holding a piece of fuzz. You looked at your hand with an expression that seemed to say, “Why AM I holding a piece of fuzz?” – and then you dropped it.
You are becoming very aware that certain things have certain places, and you like to put them there. Sippy cups go in the dishwasher or the cup holder. Dog food goes in the dog bowl, even if you’re the reason it’s currently on the floor. Lincoln Logs go in the can. Your baby monitor goes in its cradle on my night stand (after you have removed it and played with it for a while).
There are a few place associations we need to work on, however… Remote controls go on the table, not in your mouth. Your shoes go in the closet, not in the bath tub. Tissues remain in the box on the table, not scattered around the floor. My oven mitt goes in the kitchen, not in the dining room window.
You still love getting caught. If no one witnessed your moves, you run gleefully into the room, holding the evidence of your heist over your head in victory. You wait until you’re sure we’ve noticed your stealthy accomplishment, then run away to evade capture.
A few weeks ago, we watched Marry Poppins. You fell in love with the scene of the chimney sweepers dancing on the roof tops, and started trying to mimic their moves. You now “dance” to music or when you’re particularly happy about something. Like Bacon.
You’re in the Mother’s Day Out program at church and even though I think you end up having fun throughout the day, you’ve started crying when I drop you off. It makes me sad because you never did this last year, but I think it has more to do with your age than the circumstances. I’m hopeful that once you get used to the routine and teachers that we’ll see less tears.
You’re finally down to one nap per day, a schedule that is much easier to plan around. While making this transition, there were a few weeks when you would sleep from 8pm to 6am, and then only nap for 1 hour and 15 minutes during the day. This was obviously not enough sleep for you, because you would wake up grumpier than a pit bull with an ulcer. During this time, I thought I might just lose my mind. Lately, however, you’ve been sleeping until almost 7am and if I fill your morning with activities, you’ll sleep about 2 hours in the afternoon.
Little Man, you’re tackling life with a degree of gusto that makes us all stand in awe of your energy. Staying one step ahead of you is becoming increasingly challenging. But I can’t help looking forward to my next drive-by hug.
Love,
Mama
Here are a few of Kaelin’s latest gems. I swear, she’s 3 going on 13.
“No, you’re not understanding what I’m saying. Try to keep up here.”
* * *
“Mama, you’re not telling the truth about me. I can do anything.”
* * *
(lamenting her swollen lip after a freak collision with the tile floor)
“I don’t want to live like this!”
* * *
“Daddo, we’ve been over this already.”
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Jens was in the kitchen the other day when Kaelin departed from watching her movie in the living room to tell him a very important message…
Kaelin: Um, Daddo.
Jens: Yes, Kaelin?
Kaelin: Daddo, I’m sorry to tell you this. But you smell.
Jens: I do?
Kaelin: (holding her nose and making a dreadful face) Yes. You smell like dirty diapers.
Jens: I do? Um…sorry?
Jens spent some time pondering the logistics of an odor that a) was unbeknownst to him, and b) had apparently traversed two rooms with enough strength to disturb her movie-watching pleasure. He soon remembered that he had walked behind Kaelin a few minutes ago, while taking a large bag of trash (including a good supply of dirty diapers) outside to the trash bin. Since she wasn’t watching him, she didn’t see the trash bag, and thought he personally was the one responsible for the aromatic breeze she experienced.
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On our second day, we did the Tree Top Walk. We walked through a nature preserve to get there, which had a remarkable number of loud insects but no birds. This little guy darted across my path and just about scared me to death:
Here are Rich and Jens on the trail that leads up to the bridge:
It was a long walk, but the view from the top was worth it.
Can you see the monkey in the tree top? We had fun watching them jump from tree to tree below us.
The way down was just as long:
But we got to see some monkeys up close:
They look all cute and friendly, don’t they? Watch out – if they think you have food they’ll attack you.
Singapore also has some monster ants. It’s sort of distrubing to see an ant that’s easily an inch long. I didn’t get any pictures of those, but if you Google “Camponotus gigas” you’ll see what I’m talking about.
And here’s us at the clubhouse, where we parked to visit the Tree Top Walk.
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Hi. I'm Amy. I started this website in 2005 as a place to deposit my journal and photos. It has gone through a few incarnations and masquerades as a family site, but since I'm the only one who contributes to it, it's really all about ME, ME, ME.
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