Resurrection Sunday

Holy week is very important to me - at least the parts that have to do with the death and resurrection of Christ.  I've been to Maundy Thursday foot washing services, and 6 a.m. sunrise services.  I've contemplated the despair that Christ must have felt when he was separated from the Father and rejoiced in the triumph of new life - available to all.  Living in the Philippines I got a different view of the holiday - passing out tracts to pilgrims climbing a hill to see a statue of the Virgin Mary that cried real tears, driving through a usually teaming city appeared as empty as, well, a tomb.  A holiday seems more serious when people actually act out the events complete with bleeding backs and nails through their hands (not that I witnessed this personally, but the mood of the season comes across, none-the-less.)

So the Easter "stuff" that comes across so loud here in the United States still seems strange to me.  You'd think it wold have worn off after all this time, but it's more pronounced to me now that we have a small person in our home - who is trying to figure out what all this means.  And for whom I'd like to create meaningful and fun traditions.

Yesterday he played with the kids next door yesterday.  Their dad was hiding toy cars so they could search for them.  It seemed to be in preparation for an Easter Egg hunt.  Today Liam told me, "We didn't get to egg dying.  We had this discussion about the Easter bunny.  I don't think it's real, but he [their oldest who's about a year older than Liam] does."

I wish I could have done more to make the week meaningful this year, but I was feeling horrible.  I don't like to harp on it, but this whole pregnancy thing is not fun for me and doesn't make life as much fun for the rest of the family.  It felt like a pretty big achievement to make it to church.  Liam did get to dye eggs with another little girl at church.  He also learned how to use colored jelly beans to tell the redemption story. 

After church there was the question of lunch.  See, I was really unprepared.  We thought that Wendy's might be the best option, but it was closed.  Liam was devastated.  I ducked into Wally World promising him a treat he couldn't get at a restaurant and came out with rotisserie chicken, salad, etc. and....drum roll please.....egg shaped, decorated doughnuts.  So it was a memorable day after all. 

Not Vegetarian - but Supportive

I believe that eating a plant-based diet is best for the planet and for most people's health.  But when I say plant-based I don't mean meat free.  I just mean that it's possible to get most of the protein our body's need from grains and legumes.  By also adding dairy and eggs it's actually easy to get more than enough protein.  But, for variety and convenience sake we do eat some meat - mostly chicken.  My digestive system is weird and can't handle most beef or pork, but I can eat some sausage, ham and BACON - which I do occasionally, even though it's not the healthiest.  Tastes good!  And that counts for something.

That said, one of my favorite cookbooks is The Vegetarian Gourmet's Easy International Recipes by Bobbie Hinman.  If your interested, follow the link - it leads to a popular online seller which shall remain nameless - they're not giving me any money.  Anyways, I like this book because the recipes are simple, use ingredients I usually have on hand (for the most part) and include lots of veggies.  And flavors of the world, which thankfully our whole family enjoys.

This week I made a dish from her book that was designed to be vegan.  But I don't eat tofu, so I substituted chicken breasts.  I forget what it's called - something about Caribbean pepper tofu with pineapple.  The first time I made this dish Liam was so excited about the combination of pineapple and supper that he said I was the best mommy ever.  This time he was just mad that I hadn't kept any pineapple separate so he could enjoy it on its own.  He got over it by the next day, and ate the leftovers really well.

It looks like a pretty big batch, but this is the kind of food you can eat A LOT of.  We ate it for supper two nights and Liam and I polished off the last little bit for lunch the third day.

Best when eaten with rice! 

Life, the universe and.... so many unanswered questions

I woke up with a headache this morning.  Actually, it was the one I went to bed with, only worse.  Of course it's a beautiful sunny day and the light bores into my eyeballs like an ice pick.  But I can't hide inside with the blinds drawn because we have to take Liam to the health department for vaccines.  This would, of course, be the day that the nurse giving the vaccines chooses to question our decisions about a vaccine schedule and to try to scare me about the terrible illnesses my unborn child could contract because of having a sibling who is not fully vaccinated.  We nodded politely, took the brochure and stuck to our guns.  It was fine. 

But the more I think about it the madder I get.  It's not that I think my position is the most rational one or the only and best.  But it's not based on ignorance and I hope that it's not based on fear.  I like to think that it's based on my understanding of the risks and benefits involved.  I'd appreciate it if other people would give me the benefit of the doubt in this regard.  OK.  I could go on about this for a long time.  It probably wouldn't make me feel any better. 

The point is that we did make it home and after another round of "Where is Liam?" where I actually didn't know where he was and got a little panicky and a little more irritated I did manage to get him some lunch.  While he was (supposedly) eating his lunch he starts asking questions about how the universe/world was made.

It's probably not surprising that he has these questions since our pastor just spent nine months teaching about the "primeval prologue" (the first 11 chapters of Genesis).   Or that fact that Allen teaches a class on cosmology - or how people understand the universe, how it was formed and how it functions.  I am not surprised that he's asking the questions and I want to answer them as accurately and completely as I can.  But I have a headache.  And our view of these things is complicated.

 "Where did the universe come from?"
"God made it."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"You should really ask your dad about this.  Some people say that all the stuff was in one place and it started moving out - expanding.  And then gravity and other stuff made planets and stars and galaxies form."
"And trees, and people."
"Yes."
"Did trees come first or people?  ...... Where did water come from? .....Oh I think it just fell from the sky in places where there is water."  (I did keep responding to his questions.  I'm just trying to give you an idea of how the conversation went.)

So at the risk of starting two completely different debates in one blog post I will say that yes, we believe that God ultimately "made" the universe, and that the Genesis account is accurate, but that it wasn't intended as a scientific manuscript.  We don't feel that our faith is threatened by the scientific evidence and we don't feel that science is threatened by our faith.  It makes as much sense to me, when my child ultimately gets back to the question of "where did all the stuff come from" (which you know he will) to say "God made it" as to say "it was always there" or "we can't know for sure."  Any of those statements involves faith and I'm fine with that. 

If God created the stuff, where did He come from?  I feel that this question is probably lurking in the wings and that the answer that "God has always existed" points to the fact that life will always be full of unanswered questions.  I think that Liam will be fine with this.  He often expresses satisfaction about his ability to "know things" and frustration that others know things that he doesn't.  But I think that if he found out one day that he knew everything there was to know about the whole world he would be completely at a loss.

Spring! Spring!

When we got home from Liam's music class this morning I parked the car in the driveway and just sat in the driver's seat for a few minutes.  This had more to do with my current state of exhaustion than with the fact that the sun is actually shining today and it feels like spring might actually be coming.  Some time. 

When I looked back at Liam he pretended to be asleep.  This happens pretty often actually - a prolonged pause after the car is off prompting Liam to try to initiate some little game.  It's preferable to "Hurry up Mom!  Get out of the car!"  But lots of times I try to ignore it and just get Liam out of the car and into the house.  This time, since it is relatively warm out and the car was in the driveway rather than the garage I just unbuckled Liam's carseat, got out of the car and closed my door.  I headed into the house and started getting his lunch ready.

Pretty soon I heard a car door slam.  Looking out I could see him standing in the snow that is still hiding in the front landscaping, looking down at something.  But when I went outside to tell him it was time to come in and get ready for lunch he was nowhere to be seen. 

I thought he was probably hiding and started calling out to him.  When he didn't answer I got a little mad, especially after I said, "This is not a good time to hide."  That's code at our house for "Come out now or you will be in trouble."

But I thought it was possible that he actually couldn't hear me, so I headed around the garage to the back yard.  There he was, squatting between the big tree and the deck, looking at a stick, or a rock or the dirt - or something.  It's hard to stay mad at a little boy who just wants to get acquainted with his yard.

Later Liam saw that the daffodils are coming up - prompting a discussion of whether they actually come from the bushes they are in front of and what "bulbs" are.  We also noticed that the bushes themselves have some kind of buds on them.  This I really don't have any explanation for since they don't flower and I don't know about their reproductive cycle.  But surely it's a sign that spring will actually come in earnest soon. 

When we were getting in the car to come home from music class Liam commented about how nice it would be to have a time machine because he misses the summer when he was three.  I told him that we would just have to wait and enjoy the summer when he's four, but that was not what he wanted.  Time machine.  Summer when he was three.  I said it probably would nice to have a time machine, but then we would have to decide whether we wanted to go back, or forward - to say the time after the baby comes, or when the weather is nice.  "When the weather is nice" he declared. "Because that's what you want."

What's in a Name

One of the first questions people usually ask now that we know we are having a boy is whether we have picked a name.  We have not.  Picking a name is a huge step for me.  I like to examine all the options - or at least as many as I can stand too.  Names are important. 

This is also one of the first questions people often ask Liam about the baby.  He usually comes up with something like "Poopy-head."  Having been informed that the baby might feel sad about a name like that (after he got old enough to understand what it meant) Liam decided to try for more endearing names like "Lovin' Boy" or "Snuggle Kid."  Or Liam.  That's a good name.  So we discussed the Dr. Seuss story about the woman who had 23 sons and named them all Dave and how much confusion that caused.  Not entirely helpful, though since the list of name options Seuss provided includes at most three that a reasonable person might inflict on another human they actually care about.

So I got a couple of baby name books from the library.  Liam thought that we should read some of them together.  The one we started with included LOTS of names that even he didn't think qualified as actual names.  He was surprised, though, when he heard names like Moses from the Bible.  He said that if we named the baby Moses he would be "true with God" because Moses fits that description. 

When I tried combining one of the names we read with "Rogel" Liam had an epiphany.  The baby should have the last name of Rogel - "like the rest of us."  So that's decided.   I guess I had kind of assumed that Liam understood the way last names work.  After all, since his class at preschool has another "Liam" they call him "Liam R" and the other little boy by the first initial of his last name.  There was lots of discussion at the beginning of the year about how to keep the two straight and what the initials meant.  But that's what we get for assuming, right? 

So just to recap, we have not picked a name for the baby.  But we have narrowed it down a little.  It will not include the words "head, boy," or "kid." 

Thoughts on Parenting

Liam woke me up this morning to tell me that his first baby would be easy because there would be "no arguments on toys."  Later he come into the bedroom to tell me that "Sorry" but he couldn't find his bag of candy, so he went into the pantry and got out "those white things that stick together" - otherwise known as marshmallows instead.  He was pretty upset when I told him that since he broke the rule of not going into the pantry without an adult around he would not be allowed to have candy tomorrow.  He got much MORE upset a little later when I accidentally discovered that he was trying to surprise me by getting dressed on his own.  Really, I have rarely seen him so angry.  When I was buckling him into his car seat to take him to preschool he said, "This morning you were the worst mommy ever, but I think that the rest of the day you won't be." 

So you can see that Liam is thinking about what it takes to be a parent - how his parents are doing and how it will feel to be a parent himself.  When he woke up tonight he didn't hesitate to call out to me - to tell me that he almost threw up, but nothing actually came out of his mouth.  I may not know everything, or always make what he sees as the best decision, but when he needs to discuss late-night vomit, he trusts I'll be there for him.  And I will.  And speaking of late night, it is extremely late, making all my "this morning" and "tonight" statements a little confusing.  Please pretend that I did not get into a heated Facebook debate after 11 pm, but instead wrote this before midnight and went to bed at a reasonable hour.  Thank you.

More Compiled Quotes

Well, we're slowly getting over the stomach bug.  Liam went to preschool today.  He seemed to have done fine.  He had his usual "What are we going to do now?" angst when we got home complete with a meltdown because I told him he couldn't have any lemonade because it wasn't cold and wouldn't taste good.  Anyways, I have been working on compiling some of the quotes I have posted over the years on Facebook.  Partly as a backup, and partly so people who aren't on FB can get a look (if they are looking.)  Anyways, here's another installment.  This is much more complete because I finally figured out how to get to the ones that FB had been hiding from my wall.  I got a little obsessed with the formatting.  I hope it comes through to the blog OK.

• Liam, arranging pieces of a puzzle says that he's carefully "accomplimizing" the pieces. Not a typo. March 14, 2013
• Spoke too soon on the "done throwing up" thing. We now have a washer full of bedding to show for it. Including Blue Bunny AND the Lorax. We managed to find a few other stuffed animals which almost fill the void. But the part I have no idea what to do about is this: Liam says that he has the word "enigma," which he heard on "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown" stuck in his head. His body thinks it means something bad or sad, so it (his body) cries and he throws up. March 13, 2013
• Liam, describing a time when he startled Allen and caused him to yell so loud that Liam was startled said he "exceeded in scaring Daddy." Turns out he meant that he did it more than he intended to. Which is, of course, what it means.... March 12, 2013
• "Your wish is my command." - Liam. Right. March 12, 2013
• Me: What do I look like to you - someone who runs around the house bringing you things?
  Liam: Yeah.
  Now that we're clear...... March 4, 2013
• Liam wants to be "rich, rich, rich. Richety, richety, richety rich." His plan is to find lost change (he's up to 15 cents) and to sell the pictures he colors in his coloring book. We told him that he might have to wait until he's famous before anyone will be willing to pay for them. He's pretty patient. March 3, 1013
• "I assume this goes in a delicates load." - Liam March 3, 1013
• Me: We are not talking about cutting people open right now. We are eating.
  Liam: Just people in our family. February 26, 2013
• "You are trying to function, Dad." - Liam. Happy Monday! February 25, 2013
• Liam waved a magic wand and turned us into "scientifical builders." February 24, 2013
• Liam wants to know what "dawdling" means. So I tell him. He says, "I dawdle a lot. Dawdling is the most fun thing ever. Except when the consequences come." You can't make this stuff up. February 19, 2013
• Liam wanted to know why his reflection self was "rushing" towards his real self. I told him because he was moving towards the thing (glass door) that was making the reflection. He said, "Is that all you know?" February 14, 2013
• After watching "Road Runner" cartoons on youtube Liam says that he "chuckled and giggled." February 14, 2013
• When talking about whether our baby will be a "he" or a "she" Liam says - or both. I say, "I'm only having one baby." He says, "No, I mean a he/she - wears boys clothes and plays with girl toys." Or maybe he said it the other way. I'm pretty sure that's as far as the distinction goes in his mind. February 12, 2013
• On the way home from preschool this afternoon Liam was remembering a visit he had with his Grandpa (Dana McCain) last summer. He talked about how they went to get Grandpa's computer, then "investigated the woods" and "had a conversation about deer." Then they went farther into the woods and found a "bandstand." Liam wondered how it got there and guessed that maybe a city had once been in that location, but most of it had burned down. February 11, 2013
• "Ahhh! This is life. Beautiful...and warm." - Liam, in the bathroom after my shower. February 11, 2013
• Last night when I got Liam up to use the bathroom he woke up enough to tell me that he really didn't want to do it. I asked him, "What if your diaper leaks through." He informed me that experience would be "full of fun and excitement." I told him using the toilet could be full of fun and excitement - as I was putting him down on it. He said, "This is the worst." February 9, 2013
• Me: Liam, what are yo doing? (in the bathroom)
  Liam: .....
  Me: Liam, can you hear my voice?
  Liam: I'm thinking of something. Two plus two equals four, and five, but there's no six. There's only five toys that I'm playing with.
  I'm thinking: For some activities math skills are not the top priority. February 6, 2013
• Liam, singing the letter song they sing at his preschool "D is for darn it...." I'm pretty sure that's not the version they actually sing at preschool. February 5, 2013
• Here's the question Liam asked today that I didn't know the answer to and didn't have the time to look up at that moment: Do flies have hearts? I wonder if he will remember tomorrow. February 5, 2013
• I asked Liam to relay a message to his dad. My boy came running back back into the living room saying, "He said 'Thank you!' I did a good job today!" February 4, 2013
• I finally ran completely out of patience with the constant questioning and told Liam that if he said "why not?" one more time he'd have to go to his room. Three times later I actually enforced it. While he was crying and I was explaining (again) that he doesn't always have to know "why not" and sometimes he just needs to say "OK Mommy" he says, "I like to say 'OK Daddy better.'" February 1, 2013
• When I came into the living room I thought Liam was multi-tasking. He was playing his little piano with a Star Wars Lego book propped in front of it. It turns out that the book was his "book of songs. Like at church." He's playing "new classical music" he says. February 1, 2013
• After listening to "A few of My Favorite Things" Liam has decided he wants to be in a musical. (Color me completely unsurprised.) But he was worried that he would have to do the same show over and over again. I told him that when they all the work to put a musical people usually do more than one performance. He says, "But I can do different shows?" I say, "Yes." He says, "Thank you." January 29, 2013
• "We've got one, two, three, four, five....six, seven, eight. So we need three more to get to eight." - Liam. Can't help bragging on my kid! The amazing part to me is that he does it so casually - just in the middle of what he's doing. January 27, 2013
• "I'll pick this one. It has some light, girl colors in it. I think boys can have girl colors too." - Liam (progress?) January 23, 2013
• One of Liam's favorite phrases right now is "I can't wait!!!!" He says it with the same intensity about the baby being born and getting back to preschool tomorrow. But he does wait, and mostly stays focused on the present in the mean time. For me it's an effort to do that, and not spend most of my time focused on the future. January 21, 2013
• How does anything ever get done around here? We were running late getting lunch wrapped up before preschool so Liam and I had a(n excruciatingly long) discussion about how he could take part of his (by now stone cold) quesadilla with him and eat it in the car. BUT he really needed to eat his last cherry tomato. So he picks it up, but as it's making the journey to his mouth he looks at his arm. "I have little hairs on my arm!" Great. But we are NOT discussing them. EAT the tomato already! January 16, 2016

• Slow day on fb. Busy day in couchland. Liam's take is "Sometimes it's good to help myself." January 18, 2013

• Liam is supposed to be going to sleep, but has somehow conned his dad into talking about pizza toppings. I hear "Mushrooms, cheese, and green beans. 'Cause I think green beans is something you could put on pizza." Liam's idea, not Allen's. January 17

• "When those those old people were around that we talked about at school some very weird things happened. It happened a long time ago. I think before Mommy's Granny and Grandpa were alive." They talked about Rosa Parks and other civil rights events in preparation for MLK Jr. day. January 15
• It's fun and exciting to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time! Especially with big brother listening in. 165 (beats per min) "We'll have to remember that Mommy. You should write it down." We're not buying the "fast and strong heartbeat means a girl" line this time though. That's what they said when we first heard Liam's heart and you can see how that worked out! January 14, 2013
• Liam cracks himself up. He put his pants on his head - pulled them clear down so they covered his face. Then he takes them off and says, "We should put that on an AFV video. Or online. People would laugh and laugh. It would be so funny." I'm laughing on the inside. Not really, at the moment, actually. I've offered to take him to the library. He says he wants to go, but suddenly everything takes three times as long as usual. And for some reason involves dinosaurs. January 10, 2013
  
  

  Liam was pretty traumatize when he pinched his thumb between two wooden rattles at music class and took off a layer of skin on a little spot on the knuckle. But clearly the gears of his little brain are still turning fine. When we got home me told me that he didn't answer one of my questions because his "vibrationer" wasn't working. Then he explained the concept to me in detail (sorry I missed part of it, but it had something to do with being invisible - like God). He told me that he's a science teacher - a "classic" science teacher. "What does classic mean?" he asks. January 9, 2013

• Liam, watching a slow-mo replay on football, "It's staggering. Why is it staggering?" January 6, 2013
• Liam's playing "baloony" football with his imaginary friend "Nobody." During a tackle Nobody got a head injury. January 4, 2013
• It sort of seems wrong to tell a child to stop singing and eat his snack when the words he's singing (at the top of his lungs) are, "Blessed be the name of the Lord! Blessed be the glorious name!" December 30, 2012Liam: I wish big people didn't make mistakes.
  Allen: Sometimes big people wish they didn't make mistakes too.
  Liam: Why? December 29, 2012
• Liam's take on why shows like "Dinosaur Train" (PBS Kids) are so unrealistic: "It's more fun that way. So people will think those videos are more interesting for their kids. And the kids will think so too. So the shows will be more popular." Then he says, "I can think of a lot of things. Because I'm a smart kids. I've learned a lot in preschool." December 29, 2012
• A sign that our son plays too many computer games: Words like "quest" and "boost" are used by him in his "real life" play. December 25, 2012
• Liam says he knows the best recipe ever. It's called "Jumbo cake" and it's made with an elephant. You can find the recipe on "ohnoellie.com". December 24, 2012
• Trying to reconcile the names Santa Clause and St. Nicholas, Liam has come up with a compromise that makes perfect sense to him: Saint Nickel Clause. December 18, 2012
• Liam started the day talking about how he wants to grow up to be a painter. I knew I wouldn't make it through the day without doing some kind of craft with him. It actually went pretty well, but as soon as it was done he said, "Let's do another creation!" So now he's painting with water-colors. I should have known his attention span would outlast mine. December 18, 2012
• Liam, building with blocks, kept using the word "inclusion." When I asked him what it meant he didn't know. He said he must have heard it somewhere, or maybe his brain just thought of it. I suggested the word "enclosure" and after I explained what that meant he started using that word, occasionally asking for clarification on its meaning. December 18, 2012
• We've been avoiding news-heavy NPR and listening to ad-heavy radio stations while in the car instead. This brings out the rebel in Liam. After an ad he says, "We are not doing that!" "What?" "What they said!" December 17, 2012
• I took Liam Christmas shopping with me. As we're getting out of the car at the first store he tells me he's thirsty. I didn't bring a drink. His verdict: "Christmas is a hassle." December 17, 2012
• Liam has classified our house as the "lobby of disaster." When I asked why he said because he's a "bad boy" (I believe that's sort of like a bad guy, only younger). I think most people would agree that our house is a disaster on other terms, though. December 15, 2012
• I would not even have tried to deal with the issue of whether "one hundred two thirty" is a real number if I had not been asked directly. December 14, 2012
• Liam's new word of the day: snugglation. It doesn't mean quite what you might think. It means "Scratching me with your nail while we're snuggling." December 7, 2012
• What made Liam cry today? Seeing pictures of the effects of the storm in the Philippines. (Should have realized that was not a good choice on my part.) Realizing there was an unfamiliar student-teacher in his preschool classroom. A discussion over supper about the possibility that he had used a blow-torch rather than a toaster to warm a bagel at preschool. His dad was just being funny, but somehow the idea that anyone would give preschoolers a stick with fire at one end was not well received. December 6, 2012
• Liam begs and begs me to play Angry Birds. Then, after he's played a while, and watched me play for a while he says, "I'm not going to watch you play now. You can just play a bunch of games. You can just play the levels for helping people learn how to play. You don't have to play the hard levels. Really! Really! Why are you laughing?" December 3, 2012
• Just had to explain to Liam that he can be a Hotwheels car collector when he grows up, but he will probably not get paid to pursue this passion. Had a hard time coming up with a good explanation of why. December 1, 2012
• Also just had to break it to my offspring that I cannot change the laws of physics for his benefit - or anyone's for that matter. December 1, 2012
• Liam was crawling like a snail, but he suddenly saw a "predator." It was a hunter. But it went away because it saw that it was Christmas and Christmas is not a good time to hunt. November 28, 2012
• So I'm mixing up some cinnamon and sugar in an empty spice jar. I put in the sugar, then the cinnamon on top. Before they can be mixed Liam says, "That looks like somebody pooped - on ice." November 27, 2012
• Liam sang the whole time he was getting dressed this morning about how much he loved his "important pants." (He needed to wear important pants to church because church is important.) November 25, 2012
• "Oh no! I found spit [vomit] on my bunny's head. Oh, it's OK. He has an immune system - in his brain." - Liam (after waking up coughing and vomiting.) November 24, 2012
• Liam says that his favorite part of Thanksgiving is traveling to Grammy and Grandpa's house - and his aunt and uncle's house. And now he would like to go back to his cousin Benny's house because that's where the better marble run is. November 22, 2012
• "That man looks old, but he's nice!" - Liam November 18, 2012

• Liam was looking pretty droopy at the grocery store, so the check-out clerk said he might even fall asleep during supper. He said no, he probably wouldn't, but he might need to poop and pee if he doesn't do it before supper. November 16, 2012

• Liam has turned my crochet hooks into a family. The dad's name is "Gup." That's a long word, so the children call him "Daddarena." Because he plays in the "arena." Of course. November 16

• I think I need to start carrying a notebook for all the times Liam says, "Write a note that says...." November 15
• Liam just told me that love is the strongest thing in the whole world. That it never breaks - even if you are far away. That it's stronger even than the tightest hug. Then he tried to give me the tightest hug - he was a little disappointed when I could still breath, but willing to accept that I need to be able to breath. Then he wanted to know why there was water in my eyes. November 10, 2012

Parents don't get sick days

Well my optimism about Liam's recovery on Wednesday was a little premature.  He did start eating again that day, but that didn't prevent him from throwing up several more times - in the middle of the night, after he'd eaten a fairly large supper.  By the end of the day Thursday Allen and I were also both coming down with the bug.

Most of the "cute" things Liam has said in the last couple of days relate to being sick.  "A nice clean spit bucket" for example, or "I made a big display of poop."  (In the toilet, thankfully.)  He's been working an a new batch of home made wrapping paper, which he says we should do so that we don't have to worry about it come Christmas.  He says he's making "progress" - a word he says he decided to use because he's heard me using it so much.

Here's a picture of a batch we made at Christmas.  This one he's doing much more independently.  His cutting skills have improved pretty dramatically.  The gluing part still causes me some stress.  Although I know there are more important goals in life than conserving the world's glue supplies I still feel the need to prevent him from using a full ounce of glue per square inch of paper glued.

Considering how much Liam enjoys social interaction he has put up with several days of two sick parents pretty well.  Maybe it will help him when the baby comes and he doesn't get the attention he's used to. 

Times like this never end up on Hallmark cards or "Instagram" moments.  (I was going to say "Kodak" moments, but didn't want to tax my reader's memory too much.)  The chaos in the kitchen has almost reached that critical mass where the whole things comes to life and starts asking to be taken to our leader.  Allen did finally make it to the grocery store in an attempt to get some food that all our sore tummies will tolerate.  Thankfully we started out with a brand new package of toilet paper.  And I guess that since no one has actually thrown up in the last 18 hours or so we are making "progress."  I'd sure like to call in sick, though.

Cultural Gaps

I guess that there's more than one way to end up with gaps in cultural knowledge.  When I was growing up in the Philippines it was easy to understand how I could lack insight into American culture.  In fact, I knew plenty about it, but when we would come back here I would end up finding out at awkward moments about details that had escaped me.

But it's definitely not a homogenous culture.  I realize that even Liam, who has never, in his four and a half years, been outside U.S borders, has some interesting gaps.  Granted, four and a half years is not a long time to find out about a culture - especially while learning to talk, walk, pee in the potty and sleep through the night.  Still, I think it's kind of funny that he doesn't know who Ronald McDonald is.  When given a bandage with this character after a vaccine (at the county "health" department - why they are advertising this establishment is beyond the scope of this post) he identified him as a "clown." 

Another interesting gap is in the area of soft drinks.  Allen drinks Coke sometimes, but rarely at home and never with meals.  When we were watching a movie the other day Liam asked what the iconic "Coca-Cola" sign in the background said.  Liam sometimes drinks what I drink - "healthy" carbonated beverages with fruit juice (as well as sugar) or "natural" soda made with cane sugar instead of corn syrup.  So today when he was throwing up repeatedly I got out a can of cola.  Liam liked it a lot.  He remembered having shared some of mine when I had some.  After a while he asked for more "cola-coca." 

Thankfully, Liam's digestive system seems to be on the mend.  He's currently eating a jelly sandwich.  Earlier he was coloring, and educating me about colors that girls like and boys don't - mostly pink.  He colored a picture of Jesus pink "because I love Him so much" even though he says that pink is not a color for boys.  When I asked him why not he said "because lots of boys don't like pink."  So I'm guessing that some aspects of culture haven't escaped his attention.

The rest of the story - or at least some more

Well, I've done the big "reveal" on Facebook, but I'll go ahead and put it up here - for posterity.

We are all excited!

Liam says he's glad that the baby is a boy because "boys are better at building things."  I have tried to tell him that girls can learn too, but he isn't sure.  Anyways, now he'll have a little brother to teach about the important things in life like building tracks for Thomas the Tank Engine and making "sculptures" with Legos.

We still need to let a few people in the family know this news.  Basically, people who don't spend much time on the internet.  We're not very good at making phone calls.

Some collected quotes

I've been trying to let some family members who aren't on Facebook, or don't get on much, that I've started the blog up again.  They're one of the reasons I started it to begin with.  It seems like it's easier just to go to a site and read than to deal with all the complexities of social networking.

Anyways, I've also been thinking for a long time that collecting Liam's quotes on FB is not the most secure place.  It's not very easy to print out, for one thing.  So my idea is to start transferring some of the quotes I've collected on FB onto this blog.  That way people who aren't on there can read them and I'll have a better chance of getting a printed copy. 

(Unfortunately there's something I need to figure out about how Facebook stores old posts because I know there are a lot more quotes I put up from Liam, but they seem to condense the updates as time passes.  I think they're still around, but I need to figure out how to find them.)

So I'll start in September 2011.

• We stopped at a coffee shop/used bookstore to use the bathroom. Liam wanted to play with the toys, but I wanted to leave. He said, "I just want to look at the toys." We went over and he immediately started playing. I said, "What happened to just looking?" He said, "I don't know. It disappeared." (September 11, 2011)
• Liam told the pastor at church today that when he "gets big" he's going to play the drums on the worship band. The way he sees it "We'll be really rockin'." December 4, 2011  
•  Liam just told me that love is the strongest thing in the whole world. That it never breaks - even if you are far away. That it's stronger even than the tightest hug. Then he tried to give me the tightest hug - he was a little disappointed when I could still breath, but willing to accept that I need to be able to breath. Then he wanted to know why there was water in my eyes. November 10, 2012
• "I'll pick this one. It has some light, girl colors in it. I think boys can have girl colors too." - Liam (progress?) January, 23, 2013
  
• "We've got one, two, three, four, five....six, seven, eight. So we need three more to get to eight." - Liam. January, 17, 2013
• "We've got one, two, three, four, five....six, seven, eight. So we need three more to get to eight." - Liam.  February 4, 2013
• Liam, singing the letter song they sing at his preschool "D is for darn it...." I'm pretty sure that's not the version they actually sing at preschool. February 5, 2013
• Last night when I got Liam up to use the bathroom he woke up enough to tell me that he really didn't want to do it. I asked him, "What if your diaper leaks through." He informed me that experience would be "full of fun and excitement." I told him using the toilet could be full of fun and excitement - as I was putting him down on it. He said, "This is the worst." February 9, 2013
• "Ahhh! This is life. Beautiful...and warm." - Liam, in the bathroom after my shower. February 11, 2013
• Liam wants to know what "dawdling" means. So I tell him. He says, "I dawdle a lot. Dawdling is the most fun thing ever. Except when the consequences come." You can't make this stuff up. February 19, 2013

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Some news, but not all of it

Well, we had an ultrasound today.  We even got to talk to a doctor right away who told us that everything looks fine with the baby.  I will have to have a follow-up ultrasound in six weeks because the placenta is a little low and they need to be sure it moves up.  When the doctor said that I remembered that last time I didn't have the ultrasound until 26 weeks, which would have been an advantage this time.  But now we know the gender, which is fun and exciting.

I find that I'm not ready to make the big announcement today, though.  For one thing, I'm feeling particularly exhausted and wrung out.  For another I need some time to adjust to the idea before letting the news out.  I have been doing my best to keep an open mind for so many weeks now - thinking about the advantages of either gender.  So now that we have just one option to think about I feel a little sad that we won't have the advantages of the other.  But I those other advantages are still around.  It's all good.

We didn't take Liam along for this one.  He's been to a couple of regular doctor's appointments, but I was concerned that this trip might take a long time.  While we were at the hospital we went up to the delivery ward to take a tour.  We also talked to a nurse about some of my concerns/needs as far as avoiding fragrances and other chemicals.  I'm always a little nervous going into this type of discussion, but the two ladies we talked to really seemed to understand where we were coming from and I think we have the beginnings of a good plan.  I'm still a little sad that we have to go to a different hospital than we did last time.  At this one you change rooms after delivery, which would make creating a "safe" room for me more complicated.  But the nurse suggested that we might be able to stay in the same room the whole time.  This sounds good to me, so I hope it works out that way.

I know that having a sibling will be a big change for Liam, but I think he will be a great big brother. Here's a picture of him with his cousin Ruth when he was a "not quite three-year-old."  By the time this baby comes he will be an almost five-year-old.

Kicking off "Spring" break

Since Liam's preschool is run by the university we get spring break "off."  Right.  Preschoolers do not need breaks from time spent with friends while karate chopping play dough and making boats and planes out of blocks.  They need breaks from tired cranky mommies who just want to lay on the couch and look at pictures on Pinterest.  So getting out of the house at least a few times during the week seems wise.

We were long overdue for a visit to my grandma (aka GG) anyways and since it was sunny today and could be snowy tomorrow I finally got my act together and got us in the car and on the way - by about 2:30 this afternoon.  Or maybe it was closer to three.  Anyways, we got there before 4:00 and had a nice visit.  Liam remembered the blocks and did his best to explain to GG how the structure he made actually held together in spite of the bumpy carpet.  He also enjoyed looking at some of her bird books.  He did NOT enjoy getting to know her cat Sparky who hissed at Liam and made him cry and then did his best to initiate a boy/cat stare-down while Liam cowered on my lap.

We all enjoyed supper at a local restaurant.  Liam got the spaghetti after he figured out that was the option that would allow him to get toast and use those fascinating little packs of jelly left on the table.  I forgot to check and make sure they weren't meaning garlic toast.  Kind of important if you're planning on adding jelly.  This time I wasn't shy about asking them to get the other kind.

I forget to take a picture at GG's house so did my best to get a shot at the restaurant. 

Some Thoughts on Blogging

Since I started this blog (WAY back in 2009) I have learned a lot about blogs.  Thanks to Pinterest mostly I have found beautiful blogs about crochet, cooking, crafting, children and lots of other topics that don't even start with "C."  Thanks also in part to Facebook I have read insightful blogs about faith and annoying (and sometimes inspiring) blogs about politics.  I see that these days blogs are often used to report the news and sometimes end up creating news.  Blogs end up with huge followings and even manage to make money by selling advertising and attracting sponsors in other ways.  Bloggers even review and recommend other blogs.

Just for the record, my goals for this blog do not include most of the above characteristics.  I'd like it to be attractive and interesting.  But I'm not trying to attract a following or even be particularly entertaining.  Mostly, I want to create a record of what's going on in our family.  And I'm happy to be able to share it with family and friends who are spread out over the country and the world.  I have not been particularly careful about protecting our privacy in this blog because it really didn't occur to me that a blog could become a world-wide phenomenon.  In fact, now that I'm aware of how much attention a blog can get I wonder if I shouldn't start a new one with lots less personal information.  But for now I think I will use this one.

So I hope that you enjoy reading this.  And I believe that in the future our family will enjoy our walk down memory lane.  What are we doing on this (gasp!) sunny Sunday afternoon?  Just hanging out in the living room.  Liam would like us to go somewhere fun, but instead he's forced to keep himself "occupied."  Here's a picture of what this involved on another, equally uneventful day.

 This battery-operated electronic drum set can be played with drumsticks. 

  And it plays rhythms on it's own.  Which comes in handy for busting a move.

Where to begin?

 After neglecting my blog for a couple of years it's hard to figure out what to post about to begin with!  I guess a good place is to talk about the baby that's on the way.  I have seen lots of creative ideas about how to make a dramatic announcement that a baby is on the way, but I wasn't sure what we could pull off.  We tried making four snowmen in our yard, but couldn't get a good shot of them afterwards.  It's hard to photograph snow.  Finally I decided to have Liam make little play-dough people with one for each of the family members we will have after the baby comes.  He enjoyed making them and posing for pictures with them.

 But what he really wanted to do was squish them afterwards!  Just so you don't think he has some kind of animosity towards this upcoming baby I have included several shots of the process.  the point was to squish each character, then combine them and squish the whole family.

We are all really excited about the baby.  The due date is the 22nd of July.  Our ultrasound is scheduled for this coming Thursday, and then we will know if Liam will have a brother or sister.