Behold, our new kid:
We try to teach Summer that her good qualities are usually the result of something she has worked for and can control. For example, she's not just good (as in born good) at making things with play dough, she's good because she practices and works hard at making things with play dough. But I'm not sure how this video fits in. Is she telling us that she was born good at jumping off chairs because she was born with strong muscles (all over the place), or does she really mean that she's good because she's strong and she's only strong because she practices? As I'm writing this I am realizing that I'm trying way too hard to think of a clever intro to this video--I don't even care what she's saying, it's just a fun video.
On Thursday, I went a bit crazy. This isn't too unusual for me. It typically happens when, for whatever reason (like maybe being 7 months pregnant?), I get really tired, and Summer doesn't take a nap. So Friday morning, my wonderful mother-in-law took Summer away and Nathaniel and I got an entire day child-free! It was glorious, I tell you. I took a shower, without interruption. I took a nap. I read a book. I wrote some stuff. Seriously, it was the best day in a long time.
Then, the day got better. Nathaniel and I went out on a date. I can't remember the last time we did that. We went to Pizzeria 712. Here is a picture commemorating the event:
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| Surely this counts as fair use...plus it in French. |
Have you read this article from the New York Times? It's about how Target can know, based on the information the store collects and buys, that a woman is pregnant, long before she announces the pregnancy. What Target has learned is that 45% of an individual's activities during a given day are dictated by habit. Target wants to change your shopping habits and has invested millions of dollars into figuring out how to get you to do that (apparently the birth of a child is a time when many people actually change their habits).
Lots of things are remarkable about this article, but the most interesting thing to me is that Target has an army of employees figuring out how to change my habits. Me, not so much. Sometimes I think about changing my bad habits, and sometimes I actually try to do something about them. But for the most part, I feel too tired, too lazy, too unmotivated to do anything about them. I suppose I let advertisers do that for me.
I wasn't always this way. In my late teens and early twenties, all I could think about (besides boys, school, food, clothes, and politics) was how to improve myself. I needed to work hard to get to the "acceptable" range on some invisible human worth scale. I eventually realized that this was an unhealthy motivator, so I figured other ways to change my habits and improve.
Now? All I want to do is take a nap. So what if I only brush my teeth for thirty seconds on nights when I'm really tired? I know I'm still a good person if I waste time reading people.com instead of emptying the dishwasher. And I will not be guilted into thinking that I'll make my child in utero fat by helping myself to that extra lemon bar. I love myself just the way I am, and I see no reason to change.
Except, that's not totally true. I don't want to always be like I am now. When I picture what my life is like at sixty, I live in a beautiful (although small, if you're looking for details) home, where sparkling clean is the norm. I still have a full set of teeth and I am not, in fact, obese. I pick up on literary allusions in the books I read and since the kids have been out of the house for a while, I am enjoying a great career. I'm kinder than I am now. I'm more at peace than I am now. I'm wiser than I am now.
Yikes. If only I had the energy, drive, and focus that those Target employees have to change my habits. I guess I better figure something out soon. After my nap.
Here are a few things you might not know about my super duper awesome husband:
1. He had a beard. It was our last Christmas break with Nathaniel in school (and therefore our last real Christmas break). Yes, technically the honor code forbids men to go even a day without shaving, Christmas break included. But I liked it, and I miss it. And then there is this quote from Hugh Nibley:
"The worst sinners, according to Jesus, are not the harlots and publicans, but the religious leaders with their insistence on proper dress and grooming, their careful observance of all the rules, their precious concern for status symbols, their strict legality, their pious patriotism... the haircut becomes the test of virtue in a world where Satan deceives and rules by appearances."
2. He will throw your stuff away if you're not looking. Sometimes living with Nathaniel reminds me of living with one of my nannies. I totally had to watch my stuff, and if anything went missing, there was a good chance it was in the trash. Nathaniel isn't that bad, but he really loves throwing stuff away. If I can't make a good case for keeping it, it's gone. Good thing I'm not a pack rat.
3. He has a moral opposition to excessive sweets. Nathaniel is not a sweet hater. He likes specific, high-quality sweets with long intervals in between. Popcorn balls do not make the cut (madness, I know). He highly disapproves of eating cookie dough as well. Good chocolates do make the cut, but as evidenced by the fact that his Christmas chocolates are sitting in a closet untouched, he keeps sugar comsumption at bay until he really wants it. I am simetaneously in awe and totally annoyed at this fact.
4. He bought an Eminem album and listens to it regularly. We heard an interview on NPR and he's been a fan ever since.
5. He loves Mormon Stories podcasts. His favorites are Richard Bushman and Terryl Givens.
6. He was made to be a dad. Seriously, he is amazing. He is always thinking of little tricks and games to keep Summer entertained, and she loves him for it so much. He is also more than willing to change bums, clean up her room, teach her to do chores for herself, etc. It's just the best.
7. He hates it when people don't listen. If you want to get on Nathaniel's good side, listen to what he says. He usually doesn't make people listen to things he doesn't think they'd want to listen to, but of course family is an exception. Lucky for me I really do want to know his thoughts on everything, including his thoughts on running races, law school scheduling, and dreams, becuase really he has some awesome thoughts.
8. He loves minimalist, modern decor. I didn't think he cared, but I was tickled when he liked the couch I picked out that wouldn't look out of place on the set of Mad Men and the (arguably not the greatest) Tulip table knock-off we have. I like lots of different styles, but I would have been sorta sad if he was all about ugly stuff.
9. He is sort of obsessed with technology. I'm hesitant to use the word "obsessed" to describe Nathaniel, because he does an exceptional job compartmentalizing his life, never letting one area go neglected. HOWEVER, if Nathaniel is wasting time on the internet, there is a good chance he's looking for information about iPhone 5 rumors.
10. He does not like too much attention. There are a thousand reasons I am crazy in love with him, but he would never let me blog about them. I admit, this makes sense. But this is my way of getting around it. Ba ha ha.
Summer left me a cute voicemail and I thought I would share it. Not much happens after the first 30 seconds so don't keep listening in the hopes that something interesting happens at the end.
Transcription:
Summer: Daddy . . . Daddy . . . . Daddy . . . Can you not hear me?
Dorothy: He can't hear you.
Summer: Um, what's that?
Dorothy: Nothing.
Summer: Is it an Oreo?
Dorothy: No.
Summer: What is it? Could I see?
unintelligible
Summer: What does it say?
Dorothy: T E R R Y S, Terry's
Summer: Oh.
I don't know what Terry's is or how Dorothy managed to distract Summer from the Oreo.
Except that it's probably not an announcement. Most people know that I'm pregnant anyway. So maybe this can be a blog post about another sort of announcement.
Announcement: I just puked and the first part of pregnancy really sucks and blogging while pregnant is no fun so here are a bunch of pictures from the past couple months:
These are all out of order so lo siento for that. We had a bit of a snow and Summer tried to make a snowman. No, you can't really see the snowman:
You guys, my computer is broken. Not very broken, since I'm typing this on it right now. But I dropped it - well, I actually unintentionally threw it off the counter - and now the most important 20% of the screen is black. It's pretty creepy.
I always thought it was lame to write a blog post about not blogging, but here we are. Actually, I think I've done it before. anyway, yeah, writing a blog post on this computer is so annoying I won't be doing much unless I really have something to say.
But since I'm here, might as well give you an update.
Nah, there's not enough going on for that. Nathaniel does school, I read books from the library and play with Summer, and Summer alternates between driving us crazy when we forget to feed her to being a sweet little princess. Speaking of Summer, do any of you know how she learned the phrase, "Oh my gosh?" I'm so curious...
Full disclosure: I almost never read blog posts that have "recap" in the title, especially when the subject matter is an event that happened a while ago. And that's exactly what this blog post will be. So if you don't want to read it, I completely understand. I usually don't believe in catching up, in a journal or a blog, but DC was so special that I have to record some thoughts about our time there.
Also: overenthusiastic blog post alert. You've been warned.
Okay. Here we go.
I've heard stories, and I bet you have too, of Provo moms who tag along with their husbands to an East Coast city and complain the whole time. No family. No friends. No Cafe Rio.
I don't fault these women for feeling this way (except the Cafe Rio part), but I didn't want to be one of them. I knew this would be my only time in DC with no obligations except taking care of one easy-going two year old, so I made a goal to have one outing a day in DC. I made a list on the sidebar of this blog of the places I wanted to visit and if I ever wondered what to do for a day, I just checked it out and we went somewhere on the list. Well, we didn't do something touristy every day. Some days, the outing was Costco or something equally pedestrian. But we did some awesome things.
And I hardly took any pictures. Goodness, I'm lame.
Anyway, we hit all the big museums. Summer's favorite, by far, was the Museum of American History. The "Invention at Play" exhibit was there and my little girl and I got to play with fans, balls, magnets, laser-type thingies that change depending on the pitch in your voice, etc. The museum also has a rad exhibit featuring transportation throughout the ages. We saw cool, old, trains! And metros! And cars! It's amazing to me that places equally as enchanting to a 28-year old and a 2-year old actually exist. We had a blast.
My favorite museum was the National Gallery of Art. Not because I'm an art buff - I wish I was. What was so special about this place was the building itself. Walking through the museum, I felt like I was transported into another place, a place far more beautiful (and blissfully air conditioned) than anywhere I'd visited in a long time.
You guys, we don't have internet at home. I'm typing this at the law library at BYU. I'm sure that when the powers that control the purse strings decided they needed computers that the public could access, they totally had little bloggers like me in mind. So here we are. Wanna know what our little family has been up to lately? Good.
Right now, Summer is supposed to be asleep. But she's not. She's in our bedroom, in her pack and play, sort of crying, sort of shouting, sort of playing with her stuffed animals. "No thank you, Mommy," she just cried out. "I'm a busy little girl." I have no idea.
