My Son's Perspective

Toby drew a picture today that I found pretty funny--for its accurate representation of our life from a 4 year old's perspective. The purple is what he said when describing the picture to me.
(The CUBS shirt was a gift from my brother-in-law and he's wearing it today. BJ, Toby says, doesn't have a sad face. It's a "Hmmmm" face.)

My "Friend" in my Shower

I am legally blind without glasses or contacts, and as evidence I'd like to show you what I just took a shower with:

Now I have to wait for one of my resident spider-killers to take care of that before I go back in the bathroom. It gives me the creeps thinking that thing was hanging from the ceiling while I was in there. Yuck.

3:15 pm EDIT: The stupid thing is still there, on the ceiling. I'm wondering how long I'll have to wait for the spider killer to come home.

My Next Read (or two)

Catch up with me and read these books--
OR, better yet, get them for the twelve-year-old in your life!

The Mysterious Benedict Society

Yes, I read books written for twelve-year-olds and I enjoy them very much. When I get breaks from the kids it's pretty difficult for me to fully digest much in the way of important literature. Hence, the light reading material.

But I did get a short break today in which I read this fascinating article by Andrew Sullivan. Read it now (if you haven't already) and pass it on.

My Preschooler

Toby enjoyed his first week of preschool. These are pictures from his first day. He loves hamming it up for the camera, and I don't have much patience to get a decent shot (for his album and all that). So here you go.

























































He likes his teachers, has fun building things, and comes home every day with a painting or drawing. He had his first Show and Tell yesterday and brought Little Dog (of course) and some leaves that we found that had changed color and fallen (already!).

My New Feature

I'm going to try something new...
At the right of the blog you'll notice the slideshow gadget. At the end of each month I'm going to upload a bunch of pictures to our account with Picasa. Then I'll link the folder to the blog. That way you can see what the kids are up to. Now showing: pictures from August of 2009, including a trip to the Mystic Seaport, our 10th anniversary wine, and trips to the farm and a carnival.
We'll see how it works!

My Diet

The fact is, I don't diet. I'm not skinny. I don't have high metabolism. I don't starve myself. And I don't deny my sweet tooth--hardly ever.
I have told two people in the last few weeks that I've been running and signed up for a 5K, after which they respond with "yeah, you look great." Truthfully, I'm not jogging to lose weight. And I haven't lost anything (but I don't have a scale, so there's really no way to know for sure). But it just seems like the culture of the day is to convince people they look good and to encourage people who are on diets no matter what, even if it's the most ludicrous thing you've ever heard. {Note, I'm not confusing this with one's need for encouragement with exercise or eating healthily. These are the temporary fixes I'm talking about.} For example, two of the skinniest people I know were talking about their success on the South Beach Diet. Come on, people. They were both thin to begin with. Who on earth is telling them that they need to lose weight? "I've lost three pounds in two days already!" Great, good job!
Meanwhile I am harboring this inner fear of passing judgment on to my daughter about the need to be thin. I am going to be her first glimpse at what "healthy" means, but I'm sure she'll quickly pick things up from her peers when she gets to school. So I have to have the right attitude now, while she's young, in order to help her learn about herself and what it means to be healthy. I love her so much and I don't want her to turn to diets and fads and the praise of others to feel good about herself.
We have our share of diet books here at the house. Don't get me wrong, and I want to avoid any air of hypocrisy. We want to exercise and eat right and be healthy. But it's born out of a desire to be able to keep up with our kids and enjoy the benefits of a long life, not to be skinny or lose weight to fit into my old jeans (which, yes, I have and, yes, I hope to fit into someday. There's honesty!).
I know Norah's only 18 months old and I'm probably over thinking this, but the idea of skinny people seeing benefits from the South Beach Diet really tugged a chord in my heart. I'm guessing I'm not the only one with these thoughts, either.

My Kids on the Farm

Labor Day weekend is here. Hard to believe. It seems like just yesterday we were headed to my cousin's wedding in May!
Here's a picture of Toby feeding some chickens at a local farm. Right now they just have a stand of vegetables, but in a few more weeks we'll be able to go back and pick berries and apples. The kids seemed to get a kick out of feeding the chickens, although I didn't let Norah get too close to the fence for fear of bites from the hens. One small chicken was outside the fence and enjoyed Toby's handouts.