Question(s) of the Day

1) Name for me your favorite child-friendly outdoor pesticide. We sprayed the back yard several weeks ago, but due to rain etc., the fleas and ticks may already have come back.

2) How about some easy recipes using ground beef? I'm getting tired of cooking chicken all the time, and nothing in my refrigerator has sounded good to me this week.

Can't You Just Imagine Us, All In Our Formals, Going to County High Prom Together?

Parker and I spent the morning Tuesday with my friend Joy and her son Joshua. As an added bonus, Chris was with us for part of the time. Now, Chris and Joy and I have known each other since Joy and I became friends as sophomores in high school. I've been close friends with Chris since college

There we were, sitting around her parent's kitchen table with our babies, talking about our babies and other parent-like things. Years ago, before any of us were married, you would have found us all sitting right there, talking about Audio Adrenalin. Sort of a strange feeling; it's amazing the way things change even while some things stay exactly the same.

My Visionary Woes

I woke up with pink-eye this morning, which I must have inherited from Parker in reverse. His seems to be much, much better. Mine seems to get worse by the moment. Maybe I need a patch to put over the one eye that is giving me such trouble. Anyway, I asked Michael to take pictures when he took Parker out to play this afternoon.

Parker Plays on the Quad

I simply haven't been in the mood to write lately, which is probably why I am reading a book right now on the value of non-reading. For some reason that seems ironic to me.

Name This Quote

"I was always more interested in what bark was made out of."

It Sounds So Academic and He's Just a Baby

I try to be very careful about the wording I use with Parker. For instance, I try to give him a truthful indication of how long a task is expected to take. "Parker, mommy and daddy are going to leave you here (in the nursery) for a while. It's going to seem like a really long time to you, but it will really only be for three hours, and I promise we will come back and get you. If it is at all in our power we will come back and get you." I don't know how many of these words he understands, but still I try to be as accurate with my language as possible.

However, it is very difficult to break the habit of using "just a minute" to apply to all sorts of possible time frames. "Parker, I am going to take a shower now. You go and play with Daddy and I'll be out in just a minute." That of course is before he starts banging on the door and crying to get it. "Baby, you stay out there. I'll be out in just a minute."

So do you think he's too young to understand that words can have many different meanings? I think he probably is, and that being the case I fear that I have given him a very confusing idea of what a minute entails.

Of course, Parker understands much more of what we say than we necessarily know, and giving him accurate information now can only prepare us and him for understanding complicated abstractions later on.

When Parker was much smaller I would sit out on my front steps and tell him as many multi-syllabic words as I could think of. Then I'd choose a letter and think of words beginning with that letter. It was more an opportunity to let him hear my voice than any sort of learning exercise for him. Funny how I don't do that anymore, although the fact that he no longer sits still on my lap has much to do with it.

Journal Excerpt

Parker and I went outside to play earlier, this morning, and after I finished viewing the latest episode of 30 Rock sitting on the steps leading up to my kitchen while watching Parker at the same time, I pulled my journal out and started writing. It seemed like it might be worth reproducing here, since blog world is "all about me."

Parker and I are playing in the backyard and I know that he is picking up all sorts of creepy-crawlies. We pulled several ticks off ourselves after our most recent expedition. That was for the purpose of destroying new bamboo growth and hurling it into the unknown (minutely glimpsed) territory beyond the back fence. So I wonder if there are ticks on us right now. And what is the likelyhood that we'll contract Lime Disease from one of those in our own backyard? What sort of poisons can be used to rid ourselves of ticks, that at the same moment will not make our home unsafe for Parker?

He, meanwhile, has covered himself with dirt.

Should I begin to mow the lawn myself occasionally, or is that a task better left to Michael and the boy? I liked this line from an episode of Little House on the Prairie we saw a month ago. "It's women's work, but it won't make sissies of them either." That was just before the episode where Charles adopted yet another orphaned son and daughter.

I imagine myself 'trolling around with a weed whacker almost every day during the growing season. What about those summer days later when the heat becomes intense? What will happen if one day I forget I'm wearing sandals and accidentally shave off part of my big toe? Will these bamboo shoots dull the blade on our lawn mower even though technically they still are only grass?

How shall we keep up with caring for this yard, but if we do not, the value of this property, both monetary and personal, is reduced.

I'm happy where I am at this moment in my life though it is so easy to talk oneself into becoming dissatisfied. I'm thirty-one years old--not living in communion with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to the degree that I could wish. I haven't done great things, written great words, developed epic friendships. But I have this really wonderful boy, and his and Michael's lives are automatically better because I am in them. That really is the point of this experience.

This is where my journal leaves off. Parker, still covered in dirt, was ready to retake the house. I cannot convey the weight of his words here, but Larry Crabb writes that we experience a sense of entitlement in our requests to God. He says that prayer is about the relationship first, that our desire for relationship with God should be the first thing in our lives. We get off track when we start thinking that He should do things, or give us things just because we think that is commiserate with His will. If Crabb is correct, and again, I think he is, then it doesn't really matter that I have not achieved excellence in some interesting career, or that I haven't finished graduate school, or written a great book. Here in this place and at this moment, that is a comfort.

One More Photo I Just Can't Resist

...okay, two more photos I can't resist.

Parker Pictures

I thought that I would be able to choose some pictures of Parker to post yesterday, but, obviously by now, it didn't happen. So now here they are. Parker playing all over the place.Parker is looking up at the sky to see the airplane he hears thundering overhead in my parent's back yard.
Beautiful, beautiful boy. Can you believe those eyelashes and those dark eyes?
I've decided to call this Parker's Mark Darcy stride. Or is that his Colin Firth stride? I'm not sure I can tell the difference.
There's that tilting of the chin that I have such trouble capturing on film. I see it every day while Parker is playing, but so often the camera has a slightly different perspective then does my eyes, and I am often disappointed in the results.
Parker loves to play peek-a-boo, especially when there is some large object he can use to hide his eyes. Sometimes he laughs when you yell boo!

How to Choose?

I took almost 300 photos of Parker today alone. Now how the heck am I supposed to figure out which ones to post...especially considering I can only upload five at a time--and computers are NOT my friend?

Anyway, there's at least a small chance photos will be herein posted sometime later this evening.

Bamboo Hurtling is Surprisingly Soothing!

We have been pulling up bamboo shoot after bamboo shoot in our backyard recently. Apparently this will be a favored activity for as many Springs as we own this house. The bright side of this whole things is that young shoots break off quite easily, the thicker the shoot the easier they are to pull. Also, they are the perfect shape and weight for hurtling over the back fence. It's just another reason we are fortunate to have a humongous bamboo grove between us and our neighbors to the rear.

Another Question of the Day

Let's make this question #2 of the day. I found a small hole in the cotton-knit onesie Parker wore yesterday with his shorts. It's a small hole that threatens to get larger, although it survived a delicate cycle and dry on low heat this morning. What can I do to repair this item of clothing? Specifics, please. I am SO not good at asking where things are at the store.

I probably only paid a couple of dollars for it at Little Lambs, but it looks so good on him.

"Nature Abhors a Vacuum."

RG loaned me Larry Crabb's book The PAPA Prayer many months ago, and since he warned me to take it just a chapter at a time, I laid it aside and didn't pick it up again until last night. At one point Crabb says that the Holy Spirit, just like nature, will always fill a vacuum (within the life of a believer), except that usually we're too busy trying to fill that vacuum ourselves that we don't give HS a chance. If Crabb is correct (and I suspect that he is) I want to start embracing the vacuum in my own life--the moments when I am tired, or lonely. Or bored. Or beyond my own capacity to deal.

Speaking of which, it's time to take a vacuum to this floor!

Question of the Day

Which would you say is more fattening (or perhaps I mean less healthy)? Frying chicken, or coating it in mayonnaise before baking? I noticed a recipe for Parmesan crusted chicken, and since I'm absolutely crazy about Parmesan cheese at the moment, I had to try it. It tasted great, and was incredibly tender. Cut it with a fork tender. Yum, yum. I'm also crazy about chicken coated in Italian Seasoned bread crumbs, so this recipe was a winner. But what about the saturated fat and sodium content?

Dance Baby, Dance

Parker Grabbed a Handful of Dirt While I Was Working At the Church This Morning, and Threw It Onto the Floor.

I walked into my kitchen this morning to get a cup of coffee, momentarily reveling in the fact that the room was clean. I wasn't being confronted by dirty dishes, crumbs on the counter tops, breakfast things from this morning, or bread crumbs left out from the night before. It was a wonderful feeling allowing me to breathe deeply, if only for a moment, and relax. Then I prepared my coffee, spilling tiny flakes of powdered milk onto the counter.

I've noticed something. When one lives alone it makes more sense to try and avoid messes before they have begun; it makes sense because you have a measure of control over your own activities. In marriage it makes sense to institute damage control because there are now two people in the house, each of them acting semi-independently so that, even if the rooms are clean before you leave the house in the morning, there is no guarantee they will remain that way until you return home.

Living with children it seems better, in most food related cases anyway, to let the mess be made and come along to sweep or vacuum it up later. This you will find to be true with oatmeal, cheerios, crackers, grapes, etc., but also with sandboxes, and wading pools, and other toys made to be played with outside. This however does not apply when those messy items have begun to be strewn throughout the house.

It's Shockin'

("I think there are two Ks in shokkin'"

The Shadow of a Gunman
Sean O'Casey)

Parker At Play (Kind of Like Tillman At Tea, Only Bigger)

I've promised our parents that I will try to post more pictures of Parker in the future, but there are so many good ones, I have a hard time figuring out which few of them to post. Who could possibly be as into my child as I am, anyway? (Michael and the Grandparents excluded, of course. Oh yeah, Anna Grace is pretty crazy about him too. And Pam. As well as my brothers. Where does it end?)

Parker Takes a Nap

Well, I didn't make it to the gardening post I was planning on this morning, but I'll tell you what did happen. Parker fell asleep while eating lunch!

We played outside for a while, then walked around to the front of the house where Parker wanted to swing. His eyes glazed over in the swing, and while I got no response to my inquiry about a nap, my suggestion of a sandwich met with a "ess," which is Parker's way of saying yes.

I'm out of bread, so I wrapped up some meat and cheese in a tortilla and heated it in the microwave. Little excitement from the boy.

I cooked some pasta, throwing in some mixed vegetables from the freezer, and mixing the whole thing together with pesto and Parmesan cheese, which Parker proceeded to eat. He looked so tired, but I expected him to tell me when he was finished eating. The next thing I know, I look up from what I'm reading to find Parker asleep in his highchair. It was amazing. He's in bed right now, and I hope that the fact that I've turned off the stereo doesn't effect Parker's recognition that he is sleeping in a familiar place.

All this week Parker has been taking his nap before lunch, which pushes lunchtime back to 2 or 3 o' clock. I thought today I'd try to feed him at a more normal time. I guess I underestimated how tired the boy was.

Reading and Writing--What Are They?

I always have strange thoughts while putting Parker to bed. Often they have to do with that incomplete in Theory of the Novel I still have to make up; usually these are strategies for writing it that make a lot of sense right up until the moment I leave my son's room. Tonight I was thinking about modes of interaction with texts.

Question: What do you mean when you say you have "read" something?

Once upon a time I had this great memory. I remembered things I had read, where I had read them, what they were about. I remember one time discussing A Separate Peace with my friend Joy over the phone, years after I had actually read the book for class. We talked about what the book was really about at its core. I can't do that anymore. I barely remember the plot of the Diana Gabaldon (The Fiery Cross) I read four months ago.

I finished Reflections on the Psalms this afternoon. I read it fast because I needed to read something quickly after spending so many months on Orthodoxy. Now I want to go back and simmer in it for a while, absorb Lewis's insights into secondary meanings. I've read the book, but I don't feel like I can say that I have really read it, because I did not give the book the sort of textual interaction it deserves.

Ben Talmadge said (hopefully he'll correct me if I get this wrong) that he can barely enjoy a movie unless he can journal fifteen pages about it later. I can hardly bear to summarize an essay paragraph by paragraph. While putting Parker to bed I thought--crazy thoughts about writing and writing and writing as I read, because writing clears so many things up for me. Writing helps me work out things I don't understand, posit answers where I have questions, answers that actually make some measure of sense. It help me figure out what I really think about another person's ideas. For some reason I find this very difficult to do without writing.

I wonder if this is why so much of what I read is ultimately lost on me. But then, could I, would I ever stand to do it?