Brain Fart

Warning: Rant.

As part of their 9/11 remembrance NPR did a series on Muslim Americans. It gave us a chance to hear about life from normal Americans who are Muslim. Today is Thursday, the day they read to us from our letters. Several listeners wrote in with scathing comments about how horrible NPR was to do this series around the anniversary of the attacks, complaining that the attacks were carried out by Muslims and it was just in poor taste to give those people air time when the rest of us (the real Americans, I guess) are still grieving.

It's not just that those listeners missed the point of the series -that the attacks were carried out by terrorists who claimed to be Muslim, not all Muslims, just like abortion clinic bombings are perpetrated by terrorists who claim to be Christian. What really bugs me is that those listeners missed the point because they are either incapable of or too lazy for critical thought. They're intolerant because they haven't bothered to do a couple simple syllogisms.

I am of the opinion that a major part of my job as a mom is to teach my daughters how to think (not what to think, which will be tricky because I'm awfully opinionated). If either of my kids ever pens such an ignorant, hateful letter I will consider myself a failure as a parent.

Updates

It's been a few days, so I thought I'd post an update on each kid.

This weekend Kate received a Kate-sized shopping cart from Uncle Kevin and Aunt Jude. She adores it. In fact, I've already come to dread having to leave the house with her if she's playing with it. One of us generally has to manhandle her away from the cart...hilarity ensues. In other events this weekend we enjoyed a cook-out at Rusty & Jennifer's. Kate played croquet. OK, she didn't really play croquet, but she did rearrange some of the balls for us, which kept the game nearly as interesting as when Alice played it with hedgehogs and flamingos. I mean, sure we had no wildlife, beheadings or tarts, but we had beer.

Friday was my last day at home with Sarah. I tried to drag it out as much as possible but it went by at lightning speed. It was a bath day. I love water - drinking it, taking luxurious baths in it, swimming in it...but now that I have kids whenever they get within a few feet of it I envision their untimely demise by drowning. So bath time is made extra exciting by the peril! Don't laugh, mom always told us you can drown in a cup of coffee. Of course, lately while trying to remain awake after evenings of very little sleep...I've wondered if mom didn't mean that metaphorically. Because, lord knows I've tried to drown myself in coffee. Anyway, here's Sarah, fresh from her bath, having lived to tell about it.

Limits

I'm slowly getting back in shape. I can walk to Kate's daycare to pick her up. I can walk home pushing her in the stroller and carrying Sarah on my chest. I can do that up steep hills. I cannot do that up a steep hill and sing Baa Baa Black Sheep. Guess that's what they mean by 'baby steps'.

Cheese

Kate likes dairy products. She eats yogurt, cheeses of all kinds, milk and more yogurt. Gone are the days I could plop anything down in front of her and she'd eat it. I knew that time to be fleeting but I long for it. They include something leafy and/or green with her meals at daycare, but it came to my attention the other day she was avoiding those bits of her meals and going for the pale yellow to white foods. Desperate, I got artistic on her last night. I was impressed with my work. Here it is to the right, nice, no?

The sun is, of course, cheese. The grass is spinach sauteed in garlic and olive oil (and old favorite of hers), the tree trunk is turkey kielbasa and the leaves are broccoli. Naturally, she went immediately for the sun. But I'm pleased to say she ate nearly all of it. To my chagrin, it was not my artistry that convinced her to eat it, but the fact that I sat on the floor in the TV room with her while she watched the Muppets and fed it to her bite by bite. My desire for her to eat something green outweighed my desire to teach her that we eat at the dining room table.

Later that evening she surprised Jeremiah and me by saying with perfect clarity "I could go for a smoothie". For those of you without 2-year-olds, I can see how you might not find that impressive, but really, it's like having your cat suddenly start talking to you. It was a stall tactic, it was bedtime, so no smoothie followed. Still, that was something.

In completely unrelated news, here's a shot of the girls together. Oh, and my arm.

Bedtime

Last night I was tucking Kate into bed (snug as a bug in a rug). I was singing her "Goodnight My Someone" from The Music Man (you shut-up, I like that play!) and she was touching my face and hair like she always does when I sing her a song. Right in the middle of her goodnight song she interrupted me and said "I love you mommy". Walking down the stairs after that, grinning ear to ear, all I could think was - where will we put the pony?

Crazy Talk

Living with a 2-year-old is like living with a crazy person. Or maybe a stroke victim. First of all, she dresses like she's wearing the only items she could dig up from various locales. (See photo, above). Next, she frequently inexplicably runs in circles around the house, barking like a dog. Often during these jogs she will bump into a piece of furniture then hit the furniture saying "NO! [furniture item name]! Go on!" But my favorite is the crazy talk. For example, this morning when she woke up she did say 'good morning', lulling me into a false sense of normalness. But the changing table talk went like this: "Shoes! Shoes! Shoooooooooooooes! Shew-e-ew-e-ew-e-ew-oooos! No shirt! [maniacal laughter] Shoes! [insert song here]" This was followed by a rousing bout of Mimic Everything Mommy Says and more barking. Sometimes she just makes noises and dances to them. We just smile and nod a lot, it seems to work.

Despite the insanity, she is an attentive and loving big sister. When Sarah cries, Kate tells us "baby's crying" and will pat her on the back or the head and offer her a pacifier. The other day, she spontaneously began attempting to feed Sarah when she got fussy in her bouncy seat. I suspect it was that feeding that led to the gassy fits of screaming shortly there-after, but it was awfully cute.

To Sleep Perchance to Dream

Big night last night - Sarah slept from 9:30pm until 5:00am! There was some snuffling and cooing around 3:00, but she went right back to sleep. She's even napping on our bed right now, after a nice, warm bottle. I feel like I should go nap with her, but...but I'm not tired! I have just prepared a bagel with peanut butter and cup of coffee, which I am now actually eating - with the help of both my hands. Truly, it's a bright new day. Do I dare hope she'll sleep again tonight? No, it's too much. I will just revel in happiness only a night of solid, peaceful sleep can bring.