Sunday, May 27, 2007

First Haircut!

BeforeAfter
He likes it!

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Butters is TWO!

The boy turned two on Sunday, we had a party here with a bunch of his friends. None of his guy friends could make it, so it was all girls! He's popular with the ladies.
Here are some quick photos. Grandma came to town for the big party, we're having sunny weather and a great visit!



Monday, May 21, 2007

Ultrasound Results

I'm twenty weeks now and officially half way! The halfway point was always such an important milestone for rowing crew, and since I got sick this morning, it still is!

We had the ultrasound tonight and 3 of the 4 grandparents were in attendance, along with Butters and T. I had to be there. They did all the import measurements and the baby looks healthy.

Then, we saw a little cell phone and credit card and a sign that said, "Elect a Woman President: Me," and now we know it's a...

GIRL!

Sunday, May 13, 2007

What Mothers Day is All About

This is an excerpt taken from this site about the origin of Mother's Day. It's not all about cards and getting away from your kids! I encourage you to read the whole story on the site.

"Julia Ward Howe, writer of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, was moved to call upon the dignity of women everywhere to protest the “cruelties of war” and to unite together in a call for peace. “Why do not the mothers of mankind interfere in these matters,” she said, “ to prevent the waste of that human life of which they alone bear and know the cost?”

She proposed a Mothers’ Day for Peace in 1872, to be held every June 2 in protest of war. In her proclamation she called on women and mothers to “Arise, then women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts… Say firmly: ‘Our husbands shall not come to us to reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Ours sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy, and patience… Let them (women) then solemnly take counsel with each other as the means whereby the great human family can live in peace.”

Howe’s Mothers’ Day for Peace was celebrated until the century’s end throughout Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and other states.

Designed as organizations for social and political activities, these celebrations bore little resemblance to modern Mother’s Day celebrations. Their purpose originally focused on the collective efforts of women toward improving and organizing their communities and on women’s suffrage. The emphasis was on Mothers’ Day rather than Mother’s Day.

After Jarvis’s death in on May 9, 1905, her daughter Anna set about to have Mother’s Day established as a national holiday. Along with many supporters, she began a letter writing campaign to convince clergymen, politicians and business leaders to help establish the observance. The first formal Mother’s Day was held in Grafton, West Virginia and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the second Sunday in May, 1908, to commemorate the date of Ann Reeves Jarvis's death. By the following year, a majority of states had established a Mother’s Day holiday, and finally, in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson officially proclaimed the second Sunday in May as a national holiday."

Happy Mothers' Day, everyone!

Friday, May 11, 2007

Finally, A New Post!

The beloved P. Mookie has suggested it's time for me to write again. I've been busy, husband was out of town for 8 days! My sister Mer came to town (I'll do an update on that trip when she sends photos).

I don't know where to start, so I'll tell you about our morning. A typical day and our first little tantrum. I drink tea in the mornings and Butters gets his own mug with blueberry tea. Today he wanted to try mine. I told him no. It was hot and it's Earl Grey with a bit of sugar and milk, he'll like it too much and I'll never get to drink in peace again! We make some play-dough snakes and I try to write this. Butters comes back for tea. He sees my spoon and asks to "Dip it?" Okay, I relent. I let him do it a few times. "That's enough," I say.

Dip it.
Dip it.
DipitDipitDipit.

Tears start streaming down his face. I can't reward him now, what if he thinks this technique will work in the future? So, I try to distract him, "Let's go make breakfast, what should we make?" "Cookies." "Maybe we can have cookies later today, but not for breakfast."


Cookies.
Cookies.
Coooooookies.

More tears. Okay, I'll let him get this out and I give him a big hug. We're in the kitchen; he spots my lunch box collection above the shelves. "Piggies. Play with." Up until this point, I've never let him play with the lunchboxes, T thinks I'm mean, but that could be his college fund some day! Great, he's calming down, we can play with the Pigs in Space lunchbox. It's full of old corks for a craft project I'll probably never do. He points to the Return of the Jedi, I hand him that one. He's happy moving corks from one to the other and counting them. "One, two, three, two, five, six, seven, nine, ten." I work on breakfast and turn on some Liz Phair to continue his feminist music tutelage. (He heard Ani Difranco at the Warfield in SF when I was 8 months pregnant, thanks Gillian!)

Bang. Bang. BANG. He's banging on Pigs in the Space with the tea spoon. "Oohhh, hey buddy, let's play with this Holly Hobbie instead, it has a lower resale value. Isn't it fun."

Now, we are finishing breakfast and trying to decide what to do today. It's going to be around 65 and sunny. It's about 70 in the house as we can't open the large windows in the front two rooms, but I don't mind because it's making the dog nice and tired!