some February pictures

Kevin's new car seat came in this big box and he has had so much fun playing in the box for a couple of weeks. I'm keeping the box until it falls apart.

Shorts on his head, shirt as pants. Note the ponytail on his wrist.

Kevin has discovered the wonders of pockets.

Plugging his ears.

do as I'm doing

I've been noticing pretty often lately how much Kevin enjoys copying us. Here are some of the things he likes to do because we do them:

He likes to wear ponytails on his wrist, and he will sometimes put his hands behind his head like I do when I'm putting a ponytail in my hair.

If he can get a hold of my hair straightener he tries to put it up to his head and open and close it like he's fixing his hair.

When I am putting in my contact lenses, he will put his finger in the saline solution and then poke his eye.

I've caught him with my eye shadow trying to poke his eye with the eyeshadow brush--now I keep my makeup higher up where he can't reach.

Once I was furrowing my eyebrows because I was feeling concerned about something, and RT reached over and massaged my forehead to bring that fact to my attention. Then Kevin came over and squeezed RT's forehead the same way!

He likes to draw with a pen (and prefers to use the same piece of paper we are trying to use).

He pushes the elevator buttons and tries to unlock our front door with my keys.

He climbs onto the toilet and puts on the "diaper-flushing" gloves (ick!). He also enjoys flushing the toilet.

He asks for my lotion and rubs it on his hands like I do.

He enjoys washing surfaces with washcloths.

He likes to wear my shoes.

He likes to use a fork or spoon, and he often wants to cut his own slices of bread (which we don't let him do).

He likes to pretend to drive the car.

He waves his arms as if he's directing a choir. Often he will pull out my piano music and prop it on the couch so he can direct the singing, and at church or during Family Home Evening he will lead when we sing.

If we are having a long conversation he will start trying to include himself by waving his arms wildly and talking rapidly.

He copies both the good and bad we do. For example, he has adopted my frustrated sighs and growls. Or maybe he's just doing it when he spills and throws and breaks things so that he can save me the effort. He often copies us if we make interesting sounds.

He points at spills or messes he has made and says "No! No! No!" We've also started to notice him feeling tempted to do something and then he folds his arms and says "No! No!" to himself very sternly. I'm glad he's starting to develop some self-restraint. : )

He enjoys learning new signs by copying my hand motions. He's always pretty excited to sign "sit" when he's climbing onto the table and I tell him not to. Another new sign is rubbing his hands together when he wants to get washed after a meal. (I'm not sure if this is the real sign for this, but it seemed like a good way to sign it so that's what I taught him to do.) Lately he's become a lot more aware of his hands being sticky.

He knows how I make popcorn! Yesterday he saw the big red bowl in the cupboard and asked me to give it to him, and then he pointed up at the cupboard where I keep the popcorn popper. (And he was quite upset with me when I refused to make popcorn because we were making dinner.)

He likes to use open cups like Mom and Dad.

He helps put away the silverware from the dishwasher by throwing it into the drawer (not so exciting when the dishes in the dishwasher are still dirty, but still very kind of him, of course). He also gets out the dishwasher soap for us.

He puts on oven mitts and tries to put pots and pans on top of the stove.

He takes clothes out of the hamper and throws them on the floor in different piles like he's sorting the clothes.

He tries to plug things into the walls (and then loses his power cord privileges for a while). I'm glad most of our plugs have covers.

Anyway, he's a funny kid and I really enjoy his copying. It keeps me on my toes.

Things I've learned about parenting: three warnings and time

We had another Parenting Discussion Night a couple of weeks ago for a Relief Society activity. The teacher/leader told us about the steps towards time out. She said if a child is doing something wrong, you give them a warning (with a calm and neutral voice), wait ten seconds, then a second warning (still with a calm and neutral voice), wait ten seconds, then a third warning (still with a calm and neutral voice), then wait ten seconds. If they don't choose to be obedient after that, then you put them in time out. She pointed out that children's brains don't work as fast as adult brains do, so it's important to give them the ten seconds to process the warning so they can get the time to think about what the warning means and what their decision will be. Kevin isn't really old enough for time out to be effective, but I thought the three warnings and waiting ten seconds part was something to keep in mind with Kevin, so I've been trying to use that when I can. Sometimes I have to stop him right away, but usually there's enough time that I can wait and give him a chance to decide. I always make sure to be counting in the "One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand . . . " style to be sure that I'm actually giving him his ten seconds. He doesn't always choose to do what I tell him to or even to acknowledge that I said anything, but I've actually been surprised at how often he actually does end up doing what I ask if I give him the three chances with time for his brain to process what I'm saying. I try to always praise him for doing what I asked him to do or for stopping a bad behavior when I told him to. It helped me to realize that I was being a little too hasty and that I wasn't even giving him a chance to fully comprehend what I was saying to him. Doing this has also helped me to be a little more patient because I'm willing to give him time before jumping in, and it's helped me to remember not to yell.

my progress towards being a geologist

I own a hand lens now, which of course makes me very nerdy and means that I can take it wherever I go so I can look at rocks, or analyze your granite countertops.

And yes, I might try to analyze your countertops to figure out what kind of rock it is. We have been learning about one method for classifying rocks where you identify all the minerals in the rock and figure out how much there is of each mineral, and then you normalize the percentages of three of the minerals and use those percents to plot the rock on a triangular diagram and figure out what the rock is.

We have also been talking about basalts--specifically, basalts formed at mid-ocean ridges, ocean islands, and on continents. They can actually be quite different.

My teacher decided that we should have a debate in class about whether Hawaii is being formed by a mantle plume (hot spot). That has been the generally accepted theory for a long time, and it's what you'll see in textbooks, but it turns out that it's actually a pretty controversial topic and that there are actually some problems with the theory. One website that I've been browsing is mantleplumes.org. I'm on the "anti-mantle plume" side of the debate in the class (although I guess in real life I would say I'm an agnostic about the topic--it seems like mantle plumes might be the answer but it also sounds like there are a lot of other very plausible theories that are being ignored). It's been interesting to learn more about it because I've always been interested in hot spots, but at the same time I've been frustrated because there is so much information out there and I feel like we're being asked to do a senior thesis in a week. Some of the topics we need to address are the physical characteristics of mantle plumes, alternate theories, and the major element and rare earth element chemistry of Hawaii's ocean island basalts.

I also enrolled in one "research credit" for this semester. A professor here is letting me start doing research with her. She's having a baby pretty soon, so I'm not doing too much at first, but she's helping me get started with learning some of the background information about what she studies. She is looking at the barrier reefs on the east coast and studying how they're changing and how that will affect the area. I think it will be very interesting, and I feel good about doing some work with her. Since we'll be here for a couple more years, I think I'll be able to get a lot of research experience in before graduating.

As fun as all this is, I must admit that it's also been pretty frustrating. It's getting harder to find time to study and complete my assignments as Kevin gets older and more active and agile and demanding. It's amazing how just the basic things he needs, like food, diaper changes, and attention, can take up so much time. It takes all morning just to eat breakfast and get ready for the day, and then it's time for lunch. I'm also tired because my body wants rest so it can focus on making a baby. The teachers for both of my classes are also teaching the classes for the first time, and that's frustrating because they haven't figured out how to teach the class effectively yet and things seem a little disorganized. I keep feeling like having a baby this summer will seem like a welcome break after all the stuff I have to do right now--although I'm prepared to be proven wrong.

How do you name a girl?

http://www.babynamewizard.com/

I'm so glad I found this website again! I stumbled upon it several months ago and wanted to remember it, but for some reason I never bookmarked it. The tool I like on this website is the one that tracks the popularity of names for each year. I wanted to remember this website so I could have this tool and make sure my kids don't have five other kids in their class with the same name.

We were looking at names the other day, and the comment we kept making was that there were a lot of names that would be fine, but nothing was jumping out as the name.

If you're interested, these are my criteria for names for my children:

It must be a name that people recognize. Explanation: I love my name. It's a beautiful name and I think it suits me. But it does usually present a challenge to people who are trying to learn my name. It was always fun growing up to watch the teacher's face as they called the roll on the first day of class. Interestingly, the good teachers didn't tend to have a problem with my name--for the others, I would watch them squirm for a second and then raise my hand and say, "It's Marcelaine." "Wait, say that again?" "Mar-suh-layne." "Mar-suh-leen?" "No, Mar-suh-layne." "Oh, okay. Marcelaina." "No, Marcelaine." "Do you ever go by Marci?" Sigh. "Yes, that's fine." I think I always kind of resented that some people were so quick to resort to a nickname rather than being willing to put a little effort into learning how to say my name. By tenth grade I really wanted to be called Marcelaine, but I had been in the same school since kindergarten and everyone had been calling me Marci my entire life, so that was hard to overcome, and I just always assumed that Marcelaine was too hard for people. Interestingly, when I went to college I just told people my name was Marcelaine and I didn't have a nickname, and I never met someone who couldn't learn my name. Even my nieces and nephews who could barely talk learned to say my name. Now I usually forget to respond if someone calls me Marci (although I don't hate anyone who calls me that--after all, most people called me Marci until I was 18). Anyway, the point is, unique names are fun and pretty. But they also have their challenges, and that's why I think I prefer names that people recognize. (And then all of our kids will probably give their own children unique names because they're traumatized by having such boring names.)

This probably will sound like it contradicts the previous requirement, but the name can't be common. This isn't so much of an issue with me for boy names, but for girl names it's pretty important to me. I don't like the trendy names and I don't like the names that are very obviously a Utah name. I also don't want to name Baby Girl something like Ashley or Sarah because she'll be Ashley T. her entire life (well, until she gets married) to distinguish her from all the other Ashleys. Which is why I like the link above--because I can make sure any name we choose isn't too trendy right now. I'm not sure how to explain how you can have a name that people recognize but that isn't common, but there are lots of names that fit that criteria for me. There are a lot of older names that work, for example.

It must be spelled the conventional way. I know what it's like to have to make sure people spell your name the right way. Marcelaine is, of course, kind of hard to spell, but even Marci is not as common as Marcie or Marcy. I have seen Olivia spelled Aliviyah, and I must say, I feel really sorry for Aliviyah because everyone she ever meets is going to want to spell her name Olivia, and she's going to have to deal with all the lovely frustrations that go along with that.

Names like Bertha, Hildegarde, Helga, etc. are not an option. If the name makes me think of helmets with horns, I refuse to inflict that name on my child.

I do like names that have a story or that are part of our family history. I keep feeling like there needs to be a reason why we choose a name.

Just to clarify, Baby Girl's name will probably be a secret until she is born. With Kevin we had two names that we liked, and I always felt like people were judging the names if I told them what they were, and I didn't want to be too biased towards one or the other because we weren't sure which one was right for him. I figure that if she's already got the name and the birth certificate is ordered, it's too late for people to make a judgment on it.

I like my midwives.

I just got back from an appointment with one of my midwives. (Baby Girl is doing great.) On Monday I remembered that I was supposed to bring a 3-day nutrition diary to my appointment, so I started keeping one. And today I got a lecture (not mean). It's not that I'm living on chips and cake, it's just that for some reason I tend to neglect eating vegetables. Driving home, I was thinking about it, and I realized that nobody ever asked me about my diet when I was pregnant with Kevin, except maybe once or twice I might have been casually asked if I try to eat from all the food groups and drink plenty of water. So I appreciated that this midwife actually cared to take the time to talk to me about what I eat and help me eat a healthier diet, instead of just saying in passing that it's a good idea. It's so much better to take care of myself now and avoid problems like preeclamsia and hypertension, rather than dealing with them if they show up, and I think it makes a lot more sense for healthcare to be focused on healthy lifestyle rather than waiting until people are actually sick. That is why I like my midwives, because they are willing to take the time to help me have a healthy pregnancy.

looking outward

When I go through the Sunday paper for the coupon inserts, I generally go through the Parade magazine, not to read it, but because sometimes there are coupons in it. Today a story in the magazine caught my eye and I decided to read it, which is always a mistake because they don't generally write anything worthwhile in there.

The article listed several ways that people can be more courteous to each other on airplanes. Many of the suggestions were reasonable, like don't take your shoes off (smelly feet), don't talk loudly, be considerate if you are relining your seat, and so on. But I felt like literally half the article was about the things you shouldn't let your kids do on airplanes--kick the seats, cry, sing annoying songs, etc. Believe me, most parents are well aware of how annoying and distracting their children are being on the plane, and are exhausting their energy to keep them in some semblance of control. It's asking a lot to expect a small child to be quiet and good in a confined airplane seat for several hours, and having another passenger make comments about how rude it is to let their children behave so badly is only going to hurt feelings. I'm pretty sure that if the author had children, he would not have written those things, at least not so insensitively. Kevin would likely see his grandparents more often if we weren't scared of him doing these exact things.

When I mentioned this to RT, he said it reminded him of a story. I found it here, and it is quoted below.

“A young mother on an overnight flight with a two-year-old daughter was stranded by bad weather in [the] Chicago airport without food or clean clothing for the child and without money. She was two months pregnant and threatened with miscarriage, so she was under doctor’s instructions not to carry the child unless it was essential. Hour after hour she stood in one line after another, trying to get a flight to Michigan. The terminal was noisy, full of tired, frustrated, grumpy passengers, and she heard critical references to her crying child and to her sliding her child along the floor with her foot as the line moved forward. No one offered to help with the soaked, hungry, exhausted child. Then, the woman later reported, ‘Someone came towards us and with a kindly smile said, “Is there something I could do to help you?” With a grateful sigh I accepted his offer. He lifted my sobbing little daughter from the cold floor and lovingly held her to him while he patted her gently on the back. He asked if she could chew a piece of gum. When she was settled down, he carried her with him and said something kindly to the others in the line ahead of me, about how I needed their help. They seemed to agree and then he went up to the ticket counter [at the front of the line] and made arrangements with the clerk for me to be put on a flight leaving shortly. He walked with us to a bench, where we chatted a moment, until he was assured that I would be fine. He went on his way. About a week later I saw a picture of Apostle Spencer W. Kimball and recognized him as the stranger in the airport’ ” (Edward L. Kimball and Andrew E. Kimball, Jr., Spencer W. Kimball [1977], 334).

Many years later, President Kimball received a letter:

“I am a student at Brigham Young University. I have just returned from my mission in Munich West Germany. I had a lovely mission and learned much.

“I was sitting in priesthood meeting last week, when a story was told of a loving service which you performed some 21 years ago in the Chicago airport. The story told of how you met a young pregnant mother with a young screaming child in … a [condition of] distress waiting in a long line for her tickets. She was threatening miscarriage and therefore couldn’t lift her child to comfort her. She had experienced four previous miscarriages which gave added reason for the doctor’s orders not to bend or lift.

“… You comforted the crying child, and explained the dilemma to the other passengers in line. This act of love took the strain and tension off of my mother. I was born a few months later in Flint, Michigan.

“I just want to thank you for your love. Thank you for your example!” (quoted by Gordon B. Hinckley, in Christmas Devotional address, 18 Dec. 1983).

I thought there was such a stark contrast between what the Parade magazine said and what Spencer W. Kimball did. I realize that it's frustrating to have to hear annoying children or deal with other irritating things that people around us may do, but what if instead of looking inward and complaining that we are being inconvenienced, we were to look outward. What if instead of groaning about hearing Old MacDonald for the 500th time in a row, we were to look at the exhausted mother who hauled three small children, two car seats, and a carry-on bag or two to the airplane by herself, and think, "Gee, she looks like she could use a break. I think I'll offer to help." What if instead of getting annoyed about the huge moving truck and all the ugly boxes and furniture all over the sidewalk, and the family that is hogging the elevator with all the things they're bringing up and down, we were to offer to carry a few boxes or bring down some sandwiches and ice water? Even if on the surface it looks like someone is being inconsiderate or strange or wrong, it's so important to remember that we don't know their entire story, that, as the hymn says, "In the quiet heart is hidden / Sorrow that the eye can't see." (Lord, I Would Follow Thee, LDS hymn #220) I believe that this is how the Savior would think. When lepers came to him begging to be healed, he didn't turn them away in scorn because he could get infected if they came too close. He invited them to come to him, and he healed them and helped them.

On a similar vein, below is a Mormon Message that Kevin and I watched today. It is one of my favorite stories. It has a similar message about how we should look outward and think of ways to help other people and make their lives happier. I love the ending when the older boy says, "Now, really, don't you have a good feeling?"

Today I am staying home from church. I promise I'd rather be there! Yesterday I woke up coughing and literally didn't stop for at least a half hour. I got in the bathroom and turned on the hot water and sat there coughing on the floor by the tub. It was kind of scary for me, even though it seemed like it was a productive cough. I can't remember ever coughing like that. The rest of the morning was better as long as I concentrated very hard on my breathing. If I breathed too shallowly it would irritate my throat again and I would cough. By the end of the day I was breathing a lot better and not coughing as much. I turned on the humidifier before going to bed, scared I would wake up coughing uncontrollably again, but I felt better when I woke up. I'm not coughing as much and I've kind of lost my voice. But I knew I would not be coming to church because I definitely would not want to share whatever I've got, even if I did feel up to going. K has a runny nose and a little cough too, so one of us would have ended up staying home with him anyway.

I'm grateful to be feeling better. I said many prayers yesterday expressing my faith that God could heal me, and I feel that he did heal me.

It's kind of scary to get so sick when my body is also trying to nourish a growing baby. I think there are a lot of mechanisms in place to protect the baby, but I also know that sometimes things can get through to the baby. My thoughts were turned to Baby Girl, but she has been very active, as if to reassure me, "Don't worry about me! I'm doing great!" She seems like she has a very happy spirit. I think of her often and feel so eager to meet her (although I'm happy to wait until she's developed enough to breathe properly!).

So K and I will have to come up with some ways to honor the sabbath even if we can't go to church. We're lucky to have access to so many great resources about the church. I think we'll be looking up some Mormon Messages, listening to some talks and church music, and reading more from The Miracle of Forgiveness (if Kevin will let me). I'll have to let you know what we learned about the gospel today.

interesting quotes

From Principles of Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology, by John D. Winter:
"To accomplish this, it [the CIPW norm] combines the thrilling processes of mineral stoichiometry and business accounting." Business accounting is thrilling?

From one of Kevin's books:
"Doesn't it tickle?" Referring to touching a tiger's scratchy tongue.
"Knock your knuckles on the rhino's horn."
Does it seem odd to anybody else to suggest touching a mother tiger's tongue and knocking on a rhino's horn?

While researching car seats I found a review with this title: "No dollar sign on a piece of mind." My thought was, I think you actually can sell a piece of mind if it's interesting enough.

We found a bag of old girl clothes that included this gem:

Rough transcription:

Awngerhao

New Produst

Very welcome!

Scorching summer we well release more new products.

Hoping enerybody like our new produst will walk into

This friendly message was printed on both pockets of a pair of pants. We decided Baby Girl probably wouldn't like them.

Tonight we had one of those dinners. RT was already gone for cub scouts, so it was just Kevin and me. I don't understand where Kevin got it from, but he was throwing food the entire time. I mean, this used to be a huge problem, but a couple of months ago we started being a lot more strict and monitoring him very closely, and he has been very good. We can usually catch him and take the food away before he spills anything. Usually I can recognize the "look"--you know, the one where you can tell he's going to do something he knows is naughty and you have a split second to catch him and stop it. But tonight he just kept tricking me! He would be behaving so nicely and then suddenly throw his plate on the floor, or he would get upset and make me think he wanted me to hand him something and then throw that on the floor. And he was crying an incredibly heart-wrenching cry, with tears and all. It was getting pretty ridiculous. He hasn't thrown food like that for a few months (he still does it, just not constantly like he did tonight). At one point I went into the kitchen to get a glass of milk for myself, and when I came back he was begging for it. So I thought, "Oh, all this time he just wanted me to give him a drink in an open cup." Kevin is pretty good with a regular cup. I don't let him run around the house with one, of course, but if I stay with him and make sure he holds still, then he does pretty well and actually doesn't spill very much. So I don't generally mind letting him use an open cup because he thinks it's fun. So I thought that Kevin had just been frustrated for the entire meal because he wanted a regular cup but couldn't tell me that, and I got him some milk and put it in a cup for him. He calmed down and was pretty happy and behaved very well for a few minutes. I was feeling pretty happy that I had figured out what his problem was. Then all of a sudden he turned and threw the entire cup on the [carpet] floor, on purpose. I was so mad! He had that look on his face that said quite plainly that he knew perfectly well that was naughty and he had done it to get attention. So I put him in his crib, thinking that being alone and bored would make him sad and be an effective punishment. Nope! He settled right down and sucked his thumb. So I cleaned up the milk and then took him out and held him tightly on my lap so that he couldn't move, which is also sometimes effective with Kevin. Nope! He sat there contentedly and babbled to me while I tried to ignore him. Well, I decided it was time for bed, so I took him out to the living room to get his scripture stories book and the primary songbook, which are part of our bedtime routine. And he pointed at the spot where he had spilled the milk, and in the sweetest voice said, "No!" Now, how am I supposed to be upset with him when he says "No!" so sweetly? It's so disarming. It made me want to snuggle on the couch with him and read stories for an hour. (Don't worry. I was strong and put him to bed anyway.)

The moral of the story is that Kevin has all sorts of weapons to use against me, and the few I have to defend myself are completely ineffective.

pregnancy thoughts

We aren't technically in a student ward, but our ward is still largely composed of married students and their children, which means that we have several nurseries, a very large sunbeam class, and lots of babies and pregnant women. During our first winter, the birth of a new baby was announced almost every Sunday--and the bishopric members felt weird if they didn't have one to announce.

I remember being really confused as I got to know women and hear them talk about the woes of pregnancy. I remember my mom's pregnancies pretty well, and although I knew she was uncomfortable at the end, I wasn't really aware of most of the complaints my friends had. I had never even heard of morning sickness (which apparently my mom didn't have much of a problem with). I sure appreciate my mom passing on some good genes for pregnancy, because several of my aunts have very difficult pregnancies.

The complaint that surprised me the most was about being so huge. I thought all of these women were so beautiful, and pretty much everyone seemed to resent being so huge. I had always admired my mother when she was pregnant. I remember a particular time when she came to volunteer at my school, and she was probably 8 1/2 months pregnant, and I thought she was so beautiful and I wanted everyone to know that she was my mom because I had the special mom who was going to have a baby. My entire life, I grew up looking forward to being pregnant because I was so excited to get to look like that. It wasn't just the cute pregnant look--it was also the special look pregnant women had because they were helping God in creating life. So at first it kind of surprised me when many of my pregnant friends lamented how huge they were getting. Wasn't it fun to look pregnant and to be getting so big because there was a baby growing inside of them?

Now I understand the hugeness complaint better. I remember the last few months of pregnancy when rolling over was more like launching a rocket. I remember the last few weeks when I was outgrowing my maternity clothes and shaving my legs made me feel like I had become a contortionist. I remember going to my midwife appointments twice a week, and learning at every appointment that I had somehow gained two pounds in three days. Besides that, I saw my body every day and had plenty of time to note the stretch marks and the funny lumps and the way my belly looked from my perspective. Honestly, I was a pretty average-sized pregnant woman, but just like everyone else, I was pretty aware of my size. A friend of mine told me that she has concluded that we all compare the way we feel to how all the other pregnant women look, which of course is not a fair comparison.

I know I complained about my size sometimes when I was pregnant with Kevin. I remember in particular that I wrote in a blog post that I didn't want to take any more belly pictures because I didn't like the way they looked, and my sister told me that it would be a shame if I didn't take any more pictures. But right now I'm not huge. I'm just starting to show, and I am enjoying it. For one thing, I get to change my wardrobe. And I don't have to worry about sucking in my not-so-flat tummy, because right now it's supposed to stick out. I feel really healthy and happy, and I am enjoying the miracle of pregnancy. I want to enjoy that more this time, to realize a little better what a privilege it is to play this special part in God's plan, to nurture a new life. To me, that is why pregnancy is such a beautiful thing. I often try to imagine Baby Girl spending her last months with Heavenly Father, learning the last few things from him before being entrusted to my care. I feel that she is very excited to finally begin her life, after preparing for a really long time.

What sparked these thoughts was a blog post about breastfeeding that I read recently. If you're interested, it is here. I will warn you, at the top of the post there is a picture of a woman breastfeeding a baby, and she isn't using any cover, so if that kind of picture is offensive to you or makes you uncomfortable, I would skip this link. I don't see these pictures as sexual, so they are not offensive to me, but I realize that other people may be uncomfortable about that and I don't want to direct you there without a warning. The main point of the article is that the author realized that nursing her children was one way that she could help her daughters develop a healthy image of what women's bodies are supposed to be like. She grew up with the insecurities that result from the pressure we get from the media to want to look like Barbie or Britney Spears, and she wanted to help her daughters not have that problem as much. She realized that having children and breastfeeding them would be a good way to initiate conversations where she could help her daughters see our bodies as a gift. Her daughters were very impressed and amazed when she explained to them that there was a baby growing inside her and that she would be able to make food for the baby to eat. I appreciated the author's thoughts because it changed my perspective about my body and reminded me that my body was created by God and is capable of amazing things. I'm not skinny like the celebrities (and don't care to look like that--partly because I realize that a lot of the time their pictures are photoshopped and therefore trying to look like that is a hopeless ideal), but I know that I have a beautiful body created in the image of God. I was made to be able to carry children and to produce all the food they will need for the first several months of their lives. That is a wonderful gift and blessing, and I hope that I can help my own children understand that concept too.

Yesterday Kevin was snuggling with me on the couch (which doesn't happen too often), and he was very insistent on sucking his left thumb (the only one that is suckable, of course) and putting his other hand on my tummy. It was such a sweet gesture, and it got me wondering if he understands better than I thought he did that Baby Sister is there. I often wonder how he will react when she arrives.

For some reason one of my biggest worries is that I will have to be induced again. I really want the birth to be more intervention-free this time. But since my only experience with labor is with pitocin, it's hard to imagine what it will be like to go into labor naturally and not be tangled up in tubes and monitors while trying to cope. There were so many coping techniques that weren't an option because the needle in my hand got in the way so I couldn't lean on my hand at all. It's hard to imagine spending early labor at home when I was in the hospital for a day and a half before I was even having contractions. I'm trying not to let myself be convinced that my body just doesn't know how to go into labor and that it will never happen without intervention, although I know that chances are pretty good that I would have gone into labor if I had not needed to be induced for low amniotic fluid. I'm hoping that things will go a little more like I'm hoping for this time and that my faith in my body's capabilities will increase. This evening I was able to spend some time talking with a friend who is having a baby in a few weeks. She also had Pitocin with her first baby and is also struggling to conjure up positive images after the difficult experience she had last time, and it was very helpful and comforting for me to talk with her about it because we share many of the same fears about what our next birth experiences will be like.

Keviny stuff

Kevin has learned the word, "Yuck." It's very fun to hear him say, "Kkkkkkh" when he tastes something he doesn't like or when we catch him trying to touch or eat something he shouldn't.

I think I've mentioned before that Kevin has picked up the word no. He has drawn on various places in our apartment, and now he will point at his creations and say, "No! No!" like we said when we scolded him for it. This includes the couch, which he has somehow managed to draw on with pen three times. I really do try to keep the pens away from him. Fortunately, hairspray gets ink out. I was convinced that my fabulous couch was ruined, but I thought I'd try hairspray, and you seriously can't tell there was pen ink on it. Anyway, I find myself saying, "No, no, no, no, no" to stop him when he's about to do something wrong, and the frustrating thing is that he will repeat it back, except it's in such a sweet voice that I find myself wondering how I can be upset with him. It doesn't seem quite fair.

I can't believe his obsession with the four or five books that are his favorites. He can instantly recognize them among all his other books, knows how to find his favorite pages, and gets upset if I try to put them away. He has very little interest in having any other books read to him, and we read these books to him several times in a row. My impression is that this is a pretty common characteristic of kids his age. Lately he has started to ask for different books, though.

Kevin sure knows how to get attention! If either of us is using the computer, Kevin is instantly at our side, either pulling markers and pens out of the desk drawer or trying to turn off the computer. If we are sitting on the couch, Kevin will climb all over us, mimicking the way we groan and say "ow!"

Kevin has been really interested in helping me in the kitchen lately. He likes to help make smoothies and stir things, sweep, or just see what's going on.  He likes to pull out the oven mitts and put them on his hands and pretend he's taking things out of the oven. He also likes to get into the fridge and choose things to eat, which is a game I'm not terribly fond of. He knows that if something spills you wipe it up with a towel, and will find a towel himself if he spills something. I really like having a gate for the kitchen so that if he's getting in the way or if I don't want him near the hot oven, I can send him out, but if he's having a good time and being good then I can let him in.

One of the things I wanted to buy at a recent consignment sale was an umbrella stroller, and I found a good one for $5. It is one of my favorite things I've ever bought. We already had one of the bigger strollers that has a basket and a cupholder and can have the carseat attach to it, and that was nice, but the compactness and lightness of the umbrella stroller has been so convenient. I've been using it several times a week, and it comes in so handy. It's great to be able to easily carry the stroller onto the bus and push Kevin all over campus in it instead of having to carry him (he's heavy and wiggly!). We'll continue to use the bigger stroller for walks and more difficult terrain (oh, and it also makes an excellent shopping cart for bringing in groceries!), but for short trips where compactness is more important, the umbrella stroller is great.

Recently it's starting to sink in that I'm basically going to be changing diapers for a really long time. And the other thing I'm realizing is that potty training doesn't really make it easier. You still have to help, and you still have to wipe. Not that potty training is happening anytime soon in our house, although if anyone has suggestions or books about potty training little boys, I'm all ears. I do want to start learning about it, even though I don't see Kevin being toilet trained before the baby comes.