It’s important to be warm

When Benjamin woke from his nap yesterday, he was in a lovely mood. I offered him a visit with his potty and while he sat there doing not much more than pondering his toes, I asked him if he had a good nap with dreams. He told me there was a farm, with a cow who said moo, and a cat, and a dog.

Last night quite late, over the baby monitor we heard Benjamin murmering “Agin, agin” (again) so hopefully more good dreams were upon him.

What incredible things are going on in the minds of the little ones.

Filed by joy at 8:02 am under baby, dreams
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Great screenshots!

Filed by joy at 7:39 am under politics
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Some of you may be familiar with our wonderful daycare for Benjamin at Carlow University, which we’d planned to have him in until he was old enough for school. Earlier this month, we learned that Benjamin’s Early Learning Center plans to close the preschool half of the program in less than two months. Benjamin is not nearly as affected as some of his classmates by this–several have older siblings in the preschool. We parents (as well as the laid-off staff) have very little time to now find new quality programs in a city where nearly every program has a wait-list of at least four months (and some over two years). They are doing this for the measly addition of 10-12 dorm rooms, when clearly they simply need to build a new dorm for the University students they claim are begging for more on-campus housing.

As parents, we’re continually impressed with what the ELC have done both in their amazing projects with our children and the way their care freed us up to accomplish our daily tasks and our long-range dreams. We are pushing, quite hard, for them to reconsider. We have created an online petition to submit to those in positions of authority at Carlow as well as to the media. Please follow this link http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Save-Carlow-ELC-Preschool The link has both our letter and statement, and we invite you to read both and consider signing as supporters. Feel free to forward the petition link to anyone you think would like to support this cause.

Filed by joy at 9:07 pm under life, politics
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Benjamin, H&R and I were in a local restaurant. The guy at the back was prepping. He happened to be one of those men who clearly balded young, and in an effort to retain dignity, shaved the remainder. He had a slight shadow, but was otherwise clean and shiny-topped. From our table, Benjamin pointed and proclaimed “BABY!” as most babies he knows are, well, rather less hairy than most kids, let’s just say.

We three adults did manage to control ourselves in the laughter department. Happily, prep-guy noticed none of this.

Filed by joy at 9:02 pm under baby, life
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For months now I’ve wanted to restart this bloggythingy. Seems as good a time as any. Work has slowed down, Benjamin is sleeping better, we’re home and safe and mostly fairly happy. I have thousands (no lie) of photos to sort and post as well as various stories. I’ve been meaning to post all of Benjamin’s words, and at this point, it’s too long a list. He was this pivotal edge of nearly speaking, with daily additions to his vocabulary as well as his always-impressive understanding of the world around him. Now he’s a babble-mouse, nouns and verbs and lots inbetween. Yet, as his teacher said nearly a year ago, “Benjamin rarely fails to get his point across.” Also, he adores tractors.

I will backdate a few things just to keep some sense of coherency, mostly for my future self and my losing battle with age and parenthood in the memory department.

Filed by joy at 8:58 pm under life
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last quote I have saved up, quoted by another mama to our online group:

Three Wise Women

would have…

Asked directions,
Arrived on time,
Helped deliver the baby,
Cleaned the stable,
Made casserole,
Brought practical gifts, and
There would be peace on Earth.

Filed by joy at 8:59 pm under random
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Another quote I found:
Be like the moon, it is always giving never a cause of complaint, always brings happiness

from http://alongwaygone.com/

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“What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.”
(Chesterton, The Red Angel)

Which is ofted quoted as: “Fairy tales do not teach children that dragons exist. Children already know dragons exist. Fairy tales teach children that dragons can be killed.”

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It seems nearly impossible to speak of being proud of anything regarding one’s child without the implication of competition, of judging, of partaking in the horrible game of it. I feel geniunely pleased that Benjamin will only eat the veggies that Ian makes for him. The jarred stuff gets a turned nose, a flailed arm smaking hte spoon away. Being heavily proactive in what our son eats is our choice, one we celebrate because food is so vital to us, and of course, food is love. Not dissimilarly, we’re still nursing. Not because of some deep belief about what’s best, etc. etc. We’re long past that; that choice was made early on, enforced by a baby who wouldn’t take the bottle anyway. Now it’s just how it is, a fact not unlike how we’re vegetarian. It’s not as if that’s an everyday choice we consider and make. It just is. With food, the deeply personal is the deeply political no matter how casual you make it. Anything can be overthought and overwrought and culturally, we’re up shit creek in any attempt to be casual about such things.

Filed by joy at 8:59 pm under baby, life
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Been working onsite at a wonderful design firm. The following sums up in many ways why I’ve enjoyed it so much.

Lead Designer is excited to be driving to Cleveland to see the documentary Helvetica.

Intern is going to a different screening later and tells Lead Designer “Don’t tell me about it. Don’t ruin the ending.”

Lead Designer: “It’s a big surprise, in the end, Arial wins.”

Filed by joy at 7:56 am under random, ubergeek
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