Christmas Pictures 2007

More user friendly!

We decided to make our blog more user friendly by changing one or two color elements. We hope that this increases your reading enjoyment. I must say that I still probably like the old version better from a design standpoint, but there must be a balance between style and utility. Hopefully this an appropriate balance.

By the way, if any of you are using standard blogging templates and are possibly interested in changing yours, I have a word document that I can send you to teach you how to do it. This is not a suggestion that yours is not good enough, only a resource for you if you already had aspirations for a change.

Happy reading!

A long road ahead...

Okay, so today it began: the blaming of the dirty deed on the younger sibling, when the younger sibling is, in fact, much to young to have done that deed himself.

This morning I asked Austin if he could help me find the light bulb that he had unscrewed from a nativity scene in the window yesterday. I wasn’t even upset! I just wanted to find it. It went something like this:

Me: “Austin, can you help me find the other light bulb that goes in there?”

Austin: (with finality) “No. Man-yew took out the light.”

~sigh!~

It will just get a little tougher when Matthew actually is old enough to take out the light bulb…

One of those moments...

Sometimes, as a mother, I get caught up in "putting out fires" all day long - even sometimes making sure that Austin isn't stepping on Matthew or pushing him over. Austin is generally great with Matthew, but on occasion feels it necessary to shout things like, "Don't touch, Man-yew!" or, "Go away, Man-yew!"

However, the other day I happened upon this adorable moment of Austin "reading" to Matthew in the library:


It is these moments that you love as a mother that make it all so wonderful and worth it! I thought I would also include a few other cute pictures of the two together from the last several months.

Google Reader

I have found a wonderful new tool on the internet (thanks to a friend of mine) that I thought might be helpful for others. It is Google Reader. It is a wonderful site that finds the updates for you on any websites you want (at least that's what it says... I have, however, only used it for blogging sites and it has worked fabulously) so that you don't have to check your favorite sites all the time. You can even put it on your Google homepage!

One of the things that I have struggled with while blogging is remembering to check everyone's blog frequently enough to catch the updates. Google Reader does it for you. You can even read all the entries of a blog from Google Reader and don't ever have to go to all the different sites to read them (although I still like to go to the actual site once in awhile). Anyway, if you know anyone who could use this information (since most people reading this probably check their blogs and websites frequently enough that they may not need Google Reader), pass it on. In my experience, parents like it for checking up on their children's websites since they don't have to remember to check each blog themselves - Google Reader does it for them.

This may sound like a commercial, but don't you worry, I am not getting paid for this endorsement...

Voting

For those of you who live in Utah, I would just like to make a quick note of the voting coming up on November 6. We will be voting on Referendum 1 - essentially for or against vouchers. I am not going to make a political statement here, but I would encourage you to get the facts about the issue, and not rely on the emotional and non-factual information both sides are trying to push on us. The only place I have been able to find actual information about what the referendum entails is in the Voter Information Pamphlet (the link to the pamphlet is located in the lower left hand side of the website). Although the arguments for and against vouchers, as stated in the pamphlet, are still largely preying on emotion, I found the introduction about where it talks about the legislation and the money involved to be the most informative of all my searches for the truth about what this is all about.

Which ever side you are on, please vote and make your voice heard!

"His name is Matthew."

So, there is a social dilemma that I have yet to find a satisfactory solution to - and it is one that I encounter quite frequently. It has happened with both of my children but probably happens more with Matthew than it did with Austin.


The social dilemma is this: strangers will see my little Matthew and make all sorts of comments referring to him as a little girl. For example:

"She is so beautiful!"
"She has such long lashes!"
"Oh, what big, beautiful blue eyes she has!"
"Her hair is so cute!"


These comments are inevitably followed by the following questions:


"How old is she?"
"What is her name?"

Now, this is the manner in which I have chosen to deal with this awkward dilemma. If the adoring stranger stops after any number of the first kinds of compliments, I just smile and thank them graciously. I have decided that correcting them when they have given him (and me, in a round-about way) a compliment, and thus making them potentially feel embarrassed, seems rather rude when they are doing something so kind. However, the real problem comes when I don't correct them initially and then they follow up with one of the questions from the second set above. At that point I refuse to continue living the lie that my Matthew is a little girl. For one, if they ask what "her" name is and I wanted to continue the charade, I would have to make up another name to tell them and I don't think I could ever bring myself to call him by a girl's name myself. Second of all, it is their mistake and not mine, so I should not have to cover for them - although I do think that on occasion it is less important to be right than it is to help someone else from feeling embarrassed. Thus what I usually say is, "He is 9 months old," or else, "His name is Matthew." They are usually fairly embarrassed at this point and I do my best to put them at ease, but I feel it necessary to set the record straight at this point.

Now, here is the thing that baffles me. Why would you ever make an assumption in the first place about what gender a little baby is unless they are dressed in pink from head to toe or have one of those huge headbands with a silk flower attached to it or something of a similar nature? You are also usually pretty safe to make a judgment if the baby is in blue from head to toe or has any sports accessory appliquéd to their clothing, although even this is less safe than the feminine motif - let's be honest, most parents do not put their little boys in pink and purple, but blue things or sports are not nearly as taboo for a little girl to wear. This being said, even if I did not make the judgment call aloud, I would gather from the evidence that a blue and sports clad baby is presumably a boy. Whenever I encounter a baby, even if I am thoroughly convinced of the gender, unless it is the feminine motif mentioned above, I always say things like, "How old is your baby?" or, "What is your baby's name?" Notice the neutrality in those statements. Then I can follow the cue of the parent when they respond with, "She is 6 months old, " or, "His name is Taylor." Particularly in the second response given in the previous sentence, it is very important to listen to the "his" or "her" part, since it is a name used for children of both genders. After thus hearing out of the mouth of the parent what the gender of the child actually is, then I can follow with a compliment (if there is one that I can give honestly) using the correct grammar usage appropriate for the sex of the baby.

Given my own personal awareness of the situation, I am always surprised when, Matthew being clothed in blue and green entirely (alright, so these pictures aren't exactly good examples of this), and clutching his green blankie, so many (almost all the strangers that talk to us, actually) guess that he is a girl. It could be his beautiful blue eyes, his long and luscious lashes, his dimple when he smiles, or his hair that has so much volume that many women would kill for it - but since when have women had a monopoly on beauty? I am never offended when people think he is a girl because it usually means that they think he is beautiful, and no one should ever be offended when someone thinks their baby is beautiful. I really only struggle with this dilemma because of my hesitancy to knowingly embarrass another by correcting them.

However, not to beat a dead horse, but even if they think he may be a girl, if it is not absolutely clear, why not be safe? It is for this last reason, largely, that I feel alright about revealing a stranger's mistake if they ask me how old "she" is... Maybe next time they will be more careful in their absolute certainty of declaring the gender of someone else's baby.