Well behaved women rarely make history...

Eliza's discovery of the week is...

... that sleep goes much better without teething, booster seats are neat-o, colorful fridge magnets are so entertaining that we now have about 10 more minutes to do dishes or cook, and that Aunt Katy is the most awesome babysitter ever!!

I surprised Steve with tickets to the National Opera's performance of Hansel and Gretel this last Saturday for his birthday. So Steve picked me up from work at 4:30, and we headed up to D.C. leaving Eliza with her Aunt Katy! Katy was such an awesome aunt and babysitter-- she had Eliza in bed by 7 and she even did our dishes!!!!!!! THANK YOU, KATY!!!

Eliza's fourth tooth broke through FINALLY early last week and since then she's returned to sleeping from about 8pm to 5 or 6am. WONDERFUL!
I also finally broke down and bought her a booster seat. They're really pretty cheap. I checked all the different store, price options- Target, Walmart, Ebay, etc., and actually found the best option for us at Kmart for only $20. Eliza really likes having her own tray to slap repeatedly and squish food on. I think she looks like such a big girl in it!

My discovery of the week is...

... teething biscuits! Yippee! Eliza loves 'em and although I don't love how they get EVERYWHERE, I love that she loves them, especially in her car seat. It steals us some major minutes of contentment! I also discovered that Eliza is quite the eager "helper" when it comes to wrapping birthday/Christmas presents! Shiny ribbon, crinkly paper, Mommy on the floor, what else would a 7 mnth old want?Another discovery of the week is that if Eliza doesn't want to be left alone on the ground or some other similar situation, she has learned to respond with a very shrill and loud SCREAM which was getting some very quick results for her for a while.

I think it's ironic that the week after I post something on people manipulating to have their needs met, Eliza developed this wonderful manipulation technique. But too bad for her, Steve and I are finally catching on to her little trick. Lucky for her, though, the next few weeks she'll have many willing arms to hold her as much as she wants while we're visiting family.

Isn't this the craziest photo? I think Eliza was startled by Mika or something. Funny girl! I love her shirt, by the way- Mom and Abby found it for me!! Thanks guys!

Most of you know that yesterday was Steve's birthday. We celebrated by inviting a few friends over to make sushi and eat cherry topped cheesecake! We had a blast (even Eliza- she was partying hard, laughing at Katy and babbling long into the night)- thanks to every one who came! Here is some of our pretty sushi that we made:

We made some basic California rolls but also had some excitement with fresh raw tuna, canned octupus, mango, and caviar wasabi spread! YUM YUM!

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

1- I love the way you wake up oh-so early every morning and play with Eliza so I can have another hour or so of sleep.

2- I love the way you always refill the Brita pitcher.

3- I love when after a long day of work as an illustrator, you come home and keep working as a husband and dad.

4- I love that after a long day, even though your back probably aches just as much as mine, you give me a back rub without even being asked.

5- I love that you tell me bed time stories when I can't fall asleep that make me laugh and relax so that I fall asleep before you even finish.

6- I love that you laugh in your sleep.

7- I love that the sun makes you sneeze.

8- I love how you rock our baby to sleep like no one else can.

9- I love how you make me laugh every single day- and not just a chuckle but like a knee-slapping, five minute guffaw.

10- I love the face you make when you can't hear what I just said but you're smiling and agreeing anyways.

11- I love you because you take my crazy, grumpy dog outside every morning before you leave for work.

12- I love that you read poetry.

13- I love that you read like 8 books at once.

14- I love that you create beauty with pen and brush every single day.

15- I love when we stay up late talking about all the plans and dreams we have for our family in the future.

16- I love that you're a boring old man.

17- I love the way you call any dinner that includes squeezing a lemon on top, "Gourmet."

18- I love hearing you sing to Eliza.

19- I love that you plan on living to 100 or older.

20- I love how many stories you tell about Pennsylvania and New Zealand.

21- I love how you say, "Maybe so..." like 30 x's a day.

22- I love how you try to cuddle with your head when you're really just stealing my pillow.

23- I love how you don't get mad at me after I've spilled something else on the couch for the 20 millionth time, just like you thought I would. Sorry!

24- I love that you try to play your violin for Eliza even though she's scared of it.

25- I love that you never ever give up on me, even when I give up on myself.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

-Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Happy Birthday, Steve!

Christmas Tree-ing, Baby Teething

So our "deck the halls" in the apartment has consisted of setting up a $10 fiberglass tree that I got at Wal-Mart along with some lights on our balcony and maybe a cinnamon candle. Officially Festive! But it's brought us some Christmas cheer! And we're not even gonna be here on Christmas, since we're flying out to Utah.

I'm just ecstatic to not be cramming for finals right now for the first time in 4 years! (Good luck, Mom, Davey, and Aaron)


However, Eliza's been feeling a little more like this lately:That is one sad girl! Steve just set her down on the ground to see if she'd smile for a picture... and this was the product. I think she's got the frustrating combination of experiencing some major teething pain and being very ready to MOVE but not quite able to crawl yet! Poor girl...

We're looking forward to her getting back to her normal spunky, happy self:


Eliza's discovery of the week this week is...

... she learned how to arch her back! She actually started doing this a couple weeks ago for no apparent reason. Whether happy or sad she's added this skill to her wiggly repertoire!

We were talking with some friends a while back about what evolutionary purpose this arching skill serves infants. It seems like it just makes a still fairly immobile infant more likely to be dropped and that does not seem to be any sort of aid in their survival to adulthood... especially when done in the bathtub, on top of the changing table, in the car while resisting the car seat buckles, and any other precarious situation Eliza might find herself in. Any ideas in your textbook or pediatric expertise to share, Mom?

Well for better or for worse, the arching is here.



My discovery of the week is...

...Mandt Training! I had the opportunity (err... obligation) to become Mandt certified this week at work. It was a 2 day training that I was dreading on how to deal with aggressive clients. I was not looking forward to the intrusion on my very tentatively held together schedule or being away from Eliza and having Steve have to use 2 of his vacation days and miss work.

But the class actually ended up being really fascinating! It felt like I was back in one of my more useful social work classes! The class outlined many different ways of nonphysical interventions with aggressive clients along with physical restraints to be used in the case of imminent danger.

The restraints were kind of weird especially since we had to practice them on the other class participants. There were only 3 of us in the class. One very petite, former ballerina who worked as a middle school counselor and one VERY large Clinical social worker with long stringy gray hair and lots of Native American jewelry and stories using metaphors with coyotes and hunters who thought he should teach the class.

Two points of interest that I gained from this class, though, besides how to do painful hugging were:

"One of the purposes of manipulative behavior is to gain safety and security or basic human needs, when these are not met." This was very interesting for me to consider. Instead of just condemning manipulative people as unfortunate and needing to be avoided like I think I have the tendency to do, I can consider what of their needs are not being met or have not been met for them to be using this behavior.
This also is a very basic help for me to consider why Eliza might be "manipulating." So this week I've been asking her when she starts fussing, "Which of your needs is not being met, Baby?"

The other point I found very interesting was in dealing with conflict and confrontation. Mandt teaches that "Fear drives most confrontation. We wait until the pain of maintaining the relationships is greater than fear of rejection." After you take a minute to digest that sentence and let it sink in, it's really interesting! Lets us see why conflicts or confrontations should be handled so carefully.

It also taught that we should only talk to the person we're having a conflict with while our motivation is to improve the relationship. And instead of using "You" messages such as "You don't think about anybody but yourself," we need to communicate with "I" messages: "When I see the gas tank's empty..." or "I feel anxious..." Good information for building a marriage relationship, I'd say!
Anywayz, hopefully not too boring. If you've made it this far down the post, Congrats and thanks for reading!

Oh, and by the way, here is my life in one picture: