It's never what you expect...

In an effort to embrace my Grandma's "dirt makes fat" philosophy... (it sounds much more exotic in German)... I try not to be a "hovermom" at least around our house. One of Grandma's last little nuggets of wisdom, I was fretting over Daniel's trying to eat something he shouldn't when she rattled off a German phrase. "It means 'dirt makes fat'," she smiled. Sort of a German version of "eating a little dirt never hurt anybody" - and not to worry because kids get into everything.

Anyway, our place is mostly babyproof... and I can usually tell what Daniel might be into just by listening. I was getting ready to go out with him the other day, when things got awfully quiet. I poked my head into the other bedroom, to find Daniel wiggling his tongue. He reached into his mouth, and calmly handed me... a live ladybug.

It's never what you expect...

Friday's Feast

A nifty little website to help spark your imagination/blog entries.

Appetizer: Have you ever changed a flat tire by yourself?

I wouldn't even know how.

Soup: Do you have an "innie" or an "outie" belly button?

An innie now. It was doing it's best imitation of an outie while I was pregnant!

Salad: Name a new paint color and describe it.

The first thing that comes to mind is Fluff. I grew up with a wonderful cat named Nick (for St. Nicholas as we got him around Christmastime.). Sort of a Sylvester-looking black and white cat. He had the best fluffy fur... if you ran your fingers through the layers you would often find black on the outside, shifting to grey tones around the middle layer and sometimes even white underneath. It was like he had many coats...

Main Course: What is your favorite holiday tradition?

Impossible to pick just one. Christmas music, turkey on the table (my cousins and I raiding the pickle/olive/relish plate), driving or flying to see family, the traditional stop at Schultz's for the best steak sandwiches (all the while hoping that they haven't closed for deer season)... it's been a long time, but sledding, ice skating and cross country skiing. Must revive at least the sledding for Daniel...

Dessert: If you were a cookie, what kind of cookie would you be, and why?

A chocolate-covered oreo. Many layers to my chocolatey goodness!

Storytime

Reading and books have always had a big place in my life. From a pretty young age I devoured everything I could get my hands on. I remember that in first grade they started sending me up to second grade for reading because I had already done everything they were working on. This wasn't without difficulties... I had many a bleary-eyed morning after I had spent the evening reading in bed (just one more chapter!) and found myself still awake at one am. And despite my love of books it was difficult to get them for me as presents because even if I didn't own something I had invariably checked it out of the library and read it already.

A childhood favorite of mine is The Dark is Rising series of books by Susan Cooper. I checked each book in the series out of the library many times over... They were a fascinating blend of (then) present-day England and Wales and English/Welsh mythology (and Arthurian legend). I won't go into great detail here except to say that these were my "Harry Potter." And to highly recommend them still. This person here at The Lost Land has done a pretty extensive examination of the series and of Susan Cooper's other works as well. And I also will say that these books are responsible for my wish to see Wales (and I will get there someday!).

I hope to instill a love of reading in Daniel, but we have yet to move out of the "book destruction phase." Meaning books are good for bashing, throwing about, ripping and pretty much chewing on until they are very soggy with bits falling off of them. I will keep trying!

I Love to Count!

Children's programming. Having a kid gets you quite an education in what's out there for kids entertainment. (And no, I'm not even going to veer into "no TV under 2 years old" territory. I don't need the guilt.) Personally, I grew up with TV and I like sticking with tried and true favorites like Sesame Street.

Recently I had to wonder how much of children's programming is a nod and a wink to the parents... I caught the last half of a totally new (to me) Sesame Street sketch. Count von Count was settling into bed to watch his favorite program... 24 (Seconds). He proceeded to count down 24 seconds, utilizing the split screen technique favored by the actual show 24... and the last thing you see is a rather blond, spiky-haired muppet striding off the screen a la Jack Bauer. I cracked up!

Did I mention that my mousepad has the Conjunction Junction (Schoolhouse Rock) engineer?

Blankie

I'm trying to remember if I ever had what the baby books would term a "lovey"... a toy or something that goes everywhere, and gets lotsa lovin' a la Linus and his blanket. Maybe Baby Beans, which Mom and Dad sent to me a few years ago... she's a pink-suited doll, with a bean bag body. I can remember being quite put out at one point when I was supposed to share her with my little brother...

We have a Linus in our house. Daniel LOVES the blankie my Aunt Anne made for him. It's fleece, and she crocheted the fringe which is perfect for poking fingers through, or dragging through baby teeth, or just rubbing between cute baby fingers. Blankie doesn't quite go everywhere... it usually doesn't make it out of the house except for special occasions. But I believe it is a big reason that we have him sleeping in his own room now. How about you? Did you have a special toy?

The best little SciFi Show you’ve never seen...

(Just a side note: I have had this post in the queue, and for some unknown reason blogger has refused to add any of the pictures that I want to put with it... in the interest of getting it out there, and off my mind, here 'tis! Hopefully edited later to add a neat photo...)

I have a love/hate relationship with the "SciFi" Channel. It may be surprising, since most people know that I love, love, LOVE all things science fiction (and by association fantasy, even some horror, etc.). (The discussion about just what constitutes science fiction is fodder for another entry...).

In any case, the SciFi Channel, along with airing "genre" programming is quite capable of creating wonderful shows. Tops on my list of must-see TV is their re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica, easily one of the best shows on television. And they have done wonderful miniseries of Dune, Children of Dune and even presented Sam Neil as the magician himself in Merlin. That said, SciFi is also capable of programming some of the worst dreck around... one need look no further than the title of Mansquito... Don’t get me wrong... I am a great fan of "B" movies... Perhaps just what constitutes a good "B" movie is also a topic for another entry...

From 2000 to 2002, they ran one of my favorite genre shows... their take on The Invisible Man. Darien Fawkes (Vincent Ventresca), is a small-time thief about to go down for the count on California’s "Third Strike" rule. He agrees to experimental surgery to have a gland implanted in his head that secretes a substance termed "quicksilver" which has the ability to bend light. Mastery of this allows him to render himself "invisible". Much action ensues, the scientists are killed and Darien is stuck with the gland in his head. Also with the unfortunate side-effect that the quicksilver building up in his system has the ability to drive him insane, requiring timely shots of a "counter-agent" to shake off the effects. His dependence on the counter-agent ties him to the "agency", helping them solve cases while they look for a cure.

This show had it all! Stellar cast, humor, danger, action, a touch of romance, cool special effects, snappy writing (Darien is paired with another agent for a partner - Bobby Hobbes - who has been bounced from other agencies for his paranoia problems. Imagine pairing someone who is paranoid with someone who can turn invisible at will...!). The show was unceremoniously canceled. And SciFi, who will produce and / or repeat just about anything (Sasquatch Mountain? Buck Rogers in the 25th Century?) steadfastly refuses to re-air or release the show on DVD. So, while I can’t recommend the show enough... I guess we will all be twiddling our thumbs until SciFi gets its’ act together.

On the run...

Daniel turned 13 months, and decided that it was time to start walking unassisted. He has been steadily increasing his number of steps each day, and there seems to be a direct (and opposite) correlation to the decrease in frequency and duration of naps he is taking. Thank goodness this means that he is pretty wiped by the end of the day, and the struggle to get him to sleep has lessened to a degree. Once he's down, he sleeps well through the night... it's just getting him there that has been the challenge!

This also means that in the last three days he has done the following:

Thursday: fallen and bashed his eye on the wooden Deacon's bench in the living room. This one resulted in a trip to the pediatrician for a look-see, as I was nervous because it was his eye. Of course by the time we got there, the swelling had gone down considerably.

Friday: pulled a picture frame off a table, falling on it resulting in a purple welt on one temple with a cut, and a cut across the cheek on the same side.

Saturday: giggling and zipping around the house away from Mommy on his "sea-legs". I have no idea what he fell on, as this time around he didn't even cry. But there is a purple bruise blossoming on the opposite temple from Friday's welt/cut.

Yeesh.

Monumental

My fascination with cemetaries has been long-standing. There is a family story of my disappearing from the backyard of the house when I was small, only to be discovered in the cemetary that backed up to the property.

Imagine my delight years later, when I discovered that the tiny little sublet apartment that I was living in in Paris was in the 20th Arondissement, very close to Pere Lachaise Cemetary... yes, final resting place of Jim Morrison among many others. (I will find those French accents on this keyboard one of these days...) Pere Lachaise is truly a city all its own, and is beautiful. Try the following link for a "virtual tour." www.pere-lachaise.com

New England cemetaries hold a similar allure. Slate stones arrayed at odd angles, large and small "headboards" and "footboards." Some are so old that time is gently wearing away the information, and certain details are being lost. There are graveyards that hold the famous like Thoreau and Emerson, or Louisa May Alcott. But it is the "everyday" stones that hold some of the most poignant tales... Like the extra-wide piece of slate that contains names and ages sadly young, and death dates all within weeks or months of each other.... leaving me to wonder at the epidemic that must have swept the area at that time, taking away an entire family.

H and I share this interest... for him it was probably picked up from his younger days trailing his genealogist mother on her various hunting expeditions. A cemetary in Nova Scotia made us smile when we discovered the last name "Mailman" on a headstone. And also the name "Whynot" and it's variation "Wynacht". And we felt the icy chill of history when in the same graveyard we came upon rows of headstones that marked the final resting places of some of the victims of the Titanic.

Fall presents a wonderful graveyard-trailing time. There's the smell of woodsmoke in the air, and the trees in our local cemetary turn a blazing orange. I'll see if I can post some pictures as it happens, it is truly spectacular. Daniel has some bundled-up walks in store for him this season!

In Random News...

Someone seems to have stolen my baby and replaced him with a small boy. When did this happen?



I like this photo because it makes me think of summer, even though there is now a fall tinge to the air in the evenings. And it is also one of the few times the kid left the sunglasses on his face rather than in his mouth!

Etcetera...

Pamela and I caught up recently for a dinner without the kidlets and some shopping therapy. She also introduced me to the upcoming Battlestar Galactica comic series... I may actually wind up picking these up as some serious withdrawal has been going on lately. Alias is no more. Battlestar Galactica and Lost are between seasons. And The Dead Zone is swinging into it's season finale, but seems to have lost it's spark this year. I mean we still have Anthony Michael Hall looking all hunky... (Seriously, who would have thought the nerdy kid from 16 Candles and The Breakfast Club would look like that???). But story is everything, and a show that started out very strong has been struggling in it's storylines this year.

Watching: The previously mentioned The Dead Zone. Also still feeding the 24 addiction by renting Season 2 from the library. H and I are on the hunt for Season 3, but we aren't the only ones...

Reading: The Battlestar Galactica comic seems to only have "Issue 0" out so far. Pretty much a teaser to get us fans to buy the rest. Mom loaned me The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. A fun easy read. I may have to try out the movie to see if it lives up to the book.

Favorite Web Site of the Week: I am into the Mommyblogs myself. Been a frequent visitor to All & Sundry lately. Maybe because Linda's son Riley was born in August 05, just like Daniel.

Enjoying: I was always on the lookout for the dark chocolate M&Ms. They have finally surfaced in my local Stop & Shop. Yummy! Must get my antioxidants, right?

The Banana Peel Incident

Do you ever lose the wish to just wrap your kid in bubble wrap and protect him from all the hurts of the world? Daniel took the biggest pratfall I have ever seen today... if he had been auditioning for a Marx Brothers movie he couldn't have done it better. Thank goodness he was on the carpet, and somehow managed to miss all the table and chair legs. This joins the ranks of all the usual bumps and bruises an 11-month-old can accumulate. As well as the odd assortment of things that Mommy or Daddy can perpetrate... although I am told that making them bleed the first time you try to cut their fingernails is pretty standard fare. We still can't trim his nails unless he is pretty soundly asleep. Sigh. I think I better get used to this.

The cuteness factor jumped to a Plus-Ten later today at CVS, however. Daniel has picked up something that sounds remarkably like hello ("Hew-oh"). So much so, that as I was paying at the register he looked up at the clerk, said hello, and she smiled and said hello right back to him. And I heard all the Pharmacy techs in the back chuckling and saying "how cute." I may have an 11-month-old flirt on my hands...

Nuff Said...

So, I have discovered that as the Mom of an 11-month-old it looks as though it may be years before I get to go to the bathroom alone again.

Did I mention that the baby has discovered the toilet paper???

I Love a Parade

Despite being rained on, the baby got treated to his first Fourth of July parade this year. He did beautifully... I personally could have done without the "Get out of Iraq" protesters or even the elected representatives who rolled by with big signs on their cars and shaking hands with the crowd.

But there were fire engines, and a horse drawn stagecoach and tractors from the local farm stands. The area chinese restaurant had one of those dragons that take sixty-eleven people to hold up on poles and they ran by swishing it about and throwing fortune cookies to the crowd. The Highland band with the bagpipes spiced up the assortment of marching bands as well. It was hard to get the baby to even crack a smile because he was so mesmerized by all the strange goings on. All in all a fun start to the Fourth! At this time last year, I was hugely pregnant and not doing a whole lot of anything. Now there is a nearly 11-month-old running around the place, soaking it all in. How a little bit of time can change things, eh?

Heaven, I'm in Heaven...

Good Monday Morning to all!

Watching: Season 1 of 24 on DVD, a b-day present from H. One benefit to missing a show for awhile: one episode a night vs. having to wait for a specific day, once a week, all season. Go Jack Bauer!

Actual in-theater movies have gone out the window since the birth of the little guy. Go figure!

Reading: Currently between books, but recently finished The Ivy Chronicles by Karen Quinn. Anxiously awaiting the next book in the Weather Warden series by Rachel Caine.

Favorite Web Site of the Week: Andrea Scher's Superhero Designs. I have bought her jewelry and t-shirts, and have enjoyed her journnal/blog immensely, having lurked there for years. Andrea has written quite poignantly about her struggles with infertility, and has recently shared exciting news with her readers. (She also takes wonderful photos!)

Enjoying: Found while making a quick dash through CVS this weekend... dark chocolate miniature Reese's. Yummy!

New Name

So, the new name of this blog comes courtesy of my 80+ years old Grandma Marguerite. We visited family in Wisconsin at the end of April/early May, and got to introduce the baby to his Great Grandma. I was fussing over something or other that he was trying to put into his mouth, when Grandma rolled a German phrase off her tongue... something I can't really remember hearing in all these years. "It means 'dirt makes fat'," she smiled. Sort of the German version of eating a little dirt never hurt anybody... Something I'm trying to remember as I roll with this new stay-at-home-motherhood. Less fussing, more fun!

I'm going to have to ask her again about the origin of the phrase: "That's where the bear went in the buckwheat..."

Building me an Ark

I will have to hunt down the actual rainfall count, but yes it is raining again here in New England... The ground is saturated, and baby and I are starting to climb the walls as badly as when it was 16 degrees outside. On the bright side, it is supposed to clear tomorrow. Maybe.

In the land of raspberries...

Is it a "boy" thing? This kid can nail you from across the room with his raspberries... H and I have taken to calling him "The Testosterone Kid."

Flying Solo

H is out of town, so it is just baby-n-me. Didn't realize how much I really liked those hours when he swooped in from work and took over some Danny duties. Ah well, just a few days to go. Working on adding pictures to this blog, but can't seem to get them to work yet. More to come!