Awesome

Reflections on Mother's Day, from a mother to those she's raising. So much loving, so much letting go...

(via Free Range Kids)

To Speck at 38 months

Wow, hard to believe that 6 months have sneaked by, but I seem to have the list of new developments to support it. Most obvious to the casual observer is that you've become a creator of games -- crawling or slithering across the floor, jumping down the stairs ("don't touch!"), making up rules for kicking and chasing a ball outdoors (even if not always followable by mortal parents), and inventing other silliness on the fly. You love to pop any bubblewrap that crosses your path (initially it took great zen-like concentration, but recently you discovered the destructive power of dancing across a sheet of the stuff on your heels!). And you craftily substitute a triumphant raspberry for the occasional good-night kiss, much to your own amusement.

Language continues to be your unparalleled forte, wowing your teachers with your fluency and continually surprising us with your dexterity and variety of words. There are still plenty of signs of Work in Progress -- most notable is that as you began to give some common words their full three syllables, they didn't always end up in the right place ("beanna," "amitals," and "elphantant" are the most notable). But you've picked up on the family game of substituting topical lyrics into familiar songs (especially anything that can be sung to the theme of "Maisy"), and you like to make up your own words for things (like "cun") and ask for them to be worked into books that are read to you (a challenge to tired parents!). Further, there are *many* signs that you are hungry to be able to read: you want to take your turn at "reading" favorite books aloud, sometimes riffing on the images and other times working in turns of phrase from the original text; you recognize all the names in Winnie the Pooh, and can integrate them smoothly into your concoctions when you read those tales to us; and you are picking out more and more individual words (apparently deciding for yourself the controversy between word-recognition and phonetics modes of learning).

There are things we have enjoyed less: a period when you wanted us to read you one book while you flipped through another; the congealing of the frog nap game into a sort of running discipline proxy battle; a rise in violent rhetoric, including threats to "chop you up to bits" (or "make a mama-loaf") or "throw you out of the house"; elaborate rituals of reverse psychology, as when every peanut-butter sandwich had to be accompanied by great shows of longing from Mom, combined with "you missed your chance" taunts; and a return of biting, most dismaying at times when it arose in a context of snuggling and affection. I guess we're getting resigned to the idea that such things are never a phase that is truly past, just a cycle that comes and goes, and to trying to find the connection even amidst the exhaustion and conflict.

Meantime, you've learned to use scissors with amazing success, took a few months of swimming instruction that got you from terrified clinger to confident and cheerful kicker, learned to carry on a nearly functional phone conversation (and became obsessed with same), and decided that 45 is your favorite number (45 minutes also acts as your definition of Nearly Forever). And you expressed your first bit of night fear, talking about "blue dots" that could only be kept at bay by a nightlight.



You like to laugh at the idea that Mom had your bear Tsah (a little battered these days) on a shelf for many years without realizing how special she was. Have no worries for yourself on that front; whatever the challenges, your parents are completely enchanted with you, your explorations, and your crazed giggles. Looking forward to more!

Krugman and what it means to be liberal

I greatly enjoyed this New York Magazine piece on Paul Krugman and his policy critiques of the current and previous administrations. I have much admired Krugman's work at the Times and online, and tend to agree with the way that he would like to see things pushed, so it was nice to see how he arrived at some of his arguments, and some push-back from those who disagree. Am amused by the description of Krugman as the "leading exponent of a kind of liberal purism against which the compromises of the White House might be judged," but we have so few audible voices on the actual left that he indeed has come to fill that role.

If you arranged members of Congress from left to right based on how they voted on welfare-state issues—Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance—it turned out that this left-to-right axis could predict every other vote: On Iraq expenditures, on abortion, whatever. “When you realize the fundamental divide in U.S. politics is just this one-­dimensional thing, and that is how you feel about the welfare state,” Krugman says, “that changes things.”

We have so little basis anymore for discussion of class issues or the value of the welfare state that we seem to be pulled hither and thither by the proposals of conservatives, unable to rally the public to a wider defense on the basis of values arguments. Perhaps we can find our way back, and along the way help Krugman feel less alone...

Before and After

Yeah, 9/11 was ten years ago, blah blah, but still this blows me away. It's just hard to imagine that kids could be so inculcated with the mystique of 9/11 without knowing anything about Bin Laden and Al Quaeda...

Cranky instincts of millions of parents confirmed

Lack of Sleep May Lead to Brain Aging

(via Follow Me Here)

Quote/poem of the day

To This May

They know so much more now about
the heart we are told but the world
still seems to come one at a time
one day one year one season and here
it is spring once more with its birds
nesting in the holes in the walls
its morning finding the first time
its light pretending not to move
always beginning as it goes

- W. S. Merwin

(via whiskey river)

Some subset of missions accomplished, anyway

I will admit I never really expected to see this headline, let alone in Obama's first term. After ten years, it almost feels more like an anticlimax than a victory. (At least to me; the surreal crowds in D.C. and NYC apparently think otherwise.) Ok, then, let's bring home all those troops wasting time in Afghanistan and Iraq, 'kay?

(It's also worth noting that this was a victory for old-fashioned intelligence and human ops, none of this data-sifting and drones. Imagine!)

Friday baby-blogging

Some long overdue kid pictures from the last month or so. I tend to get way behind in processing photos, but a few real winners is a good motivation!


Obligatory pic in Easter finery, although I missed the cute egg-hunting action shots...


Not an Easter egg, but a giant "dinosaur egg" at the zoo playhouse.


Apparently a froggy gullet is an ok place to be...

Poor widdle corporations

Thank goodness our current Supreme Court is there to protect them from any disturbance or unhappiness! Wouldn't want them to have to watch where they're putting their feet down all the time... [head-desk]

(via digby)

A playground for grown-ups!

At least, that's what this parkour practice city feels like to me. Man, those people are athletic, and this stuff just looks like a whole lotta fun!

(via kottke)

Link dump: parenting-related

Arranged loosely by age of child...

• Enough With the Breast-feeding Wars!

  It's a measure of how crazed we have become on this topic that just saying, "It's not such a big deal!" is a big deal. Our culture is hung up on mama's milk, and the undercurrent is: Why should anyone consider what is best for the mom when the baby's whole future is at stake?

  If only sanity had a chance!
  
  
• Why Preschool Shouldn't Be Like School -- figuring things out trumps having it explained every time. More in a similar vein: Let Preschoolers Play!
  
  
• Stealing from Kids, Part II -- we can't forget to teach minimal self-sufficiency.
  
  
• A mom comes up with a project in which her kids can earn badges for mastering skills around the house, from pumping up a tire to sewing to reading a map. Fun and empowering!!
  
  
• Mother of all recessions -- finances are forcing some women off the "mommy track" and back into the workforce, which may be just as well... (a friend of mine is quoted here! :)
  
  
• Outrage of the Week: Mandatory Fingerprinting for Little League Vols
  
  
• Slut-Shaming on the Playground -- it's never too early to counter antifeminist memes
  
  
• TEDxObserver talk on kids and privacy -- Cory Doctorow reassures and challenges parents whose kids are online.
  
  
• Suicide-Proof Your Teen (as Much as You Can)
  

Not what you'd like to see reported

...about police anywhere, let alone many places!

Police in the US now rival criminals, and exceed terrorists as the greatest threat to the American public.

When civil liberties extend only up to the point where you get arrested (rightly or wrongly), you're not living in a civilized nation. These guys in New Orleans make the 1980s LAPD look sort of mannered!

Friday giggles

This tot has a seriously delirious giggle. Apparently he loves bubbles and his dog does too. Hard to beat a good time for all!

Putting kids in perspective

Just love this piece on the myriad responsibilities that a 9-year-old can take in stride, loving the tasks and the importance of helping out (and keeping her family's farm running).

Because they can, if you just let them. Because sometimes a job well done is a reward unto itself. Because it feels good to be a family member, instead of just a dependent. Because everyone wants to walk strong and smart and confident in this world.

Kids need to play, but they need to feel that they're doing things that matter too. We need to remember that they can manage a lot more than we sometimes think...

Quote of the day

Now winter, the winter I am writing about, begins to ease. And what, if anything, has been determined, selected, nailed down? This is the lesson of age – events pass, things change, trauma fades, good fortune rises, fades, rises again but different. Whereas what happens when one is twenty, as I remember it, happens forever. I have not been twenty for a long time! The sun rolls toward the north and I feel, gratefully, its brightness flaming up once more. Somewhere in the world the misery we can do nothing about yet goes on.

- Mary Oliver

(via whiskey river)

Keep saying it until we no longer have to

Adobe's entry in the It Gets Better movement. Man, so much experience of "if I could just get through this part..." -- we need it to get better today so everybody can "give future you a chance"!

(via NowThis)

Why I love the Internet

There are, of course, many reasons, but the fact that there's a wide outlet for specific kinds of inspired ridiculousness is definitely among the top arguments. Ah, happy Friday!

(via kottke)

A smaller heap of links, of the cheery and interesting variety

Because apparently I barely remember how to blog anymore. Sigh.

• New poll: The public trusts EPA, loves the Clean Air Act, and wants Congress to butt out Please make air standards stricter!
  
  
• Anthony Weiner Sarcastically Mocks GOP NPR Defunding Bill because surely there's nothing bigger to worry about!
  
  
• Illinois abolishes death penalty (calls the system broken)
  
  
• SXSW 2011: The internet is over -- technology moves out into real life
  
  
• Awesome Augmented Reality App Could Save Librarians Hours -- can analyze a bookshelf photo to find books that are out of place
  
  
• A little video on how to iron a shirt efficiently and effectively.
  
  
• Some crazy concepty art/shoe designs that I'd never want to wear but couldn't stop paging through.
  
  
• Toilet paper tubes repurposed as works of art (not unlike diorama Easter eggs).
  
  
• A flowchart to help you determine if you’re having a rational discussion (in case you need moral support for walking away)
  
  
• A photo that asks the impoderable questions... or something.
  
  
• Along semi-similar lines, a touching regret letter from spoon to fork.

Is it Friday yet??

Quote of the day

The truths we have come to understand need to find their visible expression in our lives. It is not enough to be a possessor of wisdom. To believe ourselves to be custodians of truth is to become its opposite, is a direct path to becoming stale, self-righteous, or rigid. Ideas and memories do not hold liberating or healing power. There is no such state as enlightened retirement, where we can live on the bounty of past attainments. Wisdom is alive only as long as it is lived, understanding is liberating only as long as it is applied. A bulging portfolio of spiritual experiences matters little if it does not have the power to sustain us through the inevitable moments of grief, loss, and change. Knowledge and achievements matter little if we do not yet know how to touch the heart of another and be touched.

- Jack Kornfield

(via whiskey river)

What's wrong with this headline?

Budget talks come down to abortion