Dance, Dance, Dance!

This video is a slo-mo of my cousin’s 2 year old son, Robbie, dancing. He’s a little character and just adores playing with “Baby Jack-Jack”.

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I feel like I’m in the backseat of a speeding car that I have absolutely no control over.    I’m looking out the window, and barely seeing the scenery that is changing and zooming by.  Suddenly, a breath-taking field of flowers appears, and I nudge the person beside me so they can share in the fleeting beauty as well.  But by the time they twist their eyes to look, the field has dissappeared, only to be replaced by even more lovely views.

Watching your children grow up feels just like that.

At 2:04 am on Sunday, May 4, 2008, I was in the hospital giving birth to my first son, Jack-Evan.   And now, today, I will be mailing off the last of his 1st birthday invitations.

We’re having his party -an old fashioned family grill out- at our house, in the large patio in the far back corner of our lot. It’s something I’ve dreamed of doing since we purchased this place shortly before we married - watching our future kids grow up and celebrating life and birthdays in that patio. That was long before Jack-Evan was even thought of, but now the time has come at last.   We have his party planned, music picked out, yard cleaned, guests invited, and the menu prepared. Decorations and paper products have even been purchased (thanks to our wonderful, sweet, thoughtful Aunt Bev in New York!).   In less than two weeks, we will be singing the traditional Happy Birthday song to Jack.

So why do I feel so sniffly inside?

Watching a child that you’ve given birth to grow and change and accomplish milestones is the most remarkable thing in the world. To sit and know that that little tiny human being with the runny nose, dirty knees, bright eyes, and uninhibited giggle was once a small cell inside of you is earth shattering.  To realize that one day when his 70 year old body, eyes, and teeth are failing, he will still remember you as “Mom”, is earth shattering.

To be a mom, period, is earth shattering. (Men think they rule the world - but they must stop to ponder that if it wasn’t for us ladies sheltering their tiny selves in our bodies in the first place, they’d by in quite a mess.)

My entire life, I had feared the moment of labor.  The foreknowledge of intense pain scared me out of my wits!  Let it be known here and now:  I do not handle pain well.     

Even through the moments leading up to his birth, I still greatly feared the pain.  Being the pain-wussy that I am, I gladly accepted pain killers and an epidural - but just as my luck runs, I believe the epidural skipped town just so it could mock me.  Five minutes into actual pushing, I cried out that I had decided I couldn’t do it afterall, I had changed my mind, so could we please stop?!  The pain at the actual crowning was so extreme that I felt as if I had ripped in two.  And without sugar coating, I’ll say that I also felt like I had dipped down into the firey pits of hell.  Yes, it actually was that intensely painful. 

But you know what?  The very instant he was out, all 19 purple inches of him lying there on the table, the pain immediately vanished and was replaced with a calming peace. It was over, and I realized it was all worth it.   After he was cleaned up (he had to be suctioned for meconium) and handed to me, my heart burst with such love and pride for him that I doubted I had room for any more love to grow.

But yet it has grown immensely.

Each day, from the moment he wakes up till the last moment when he drifts off to sleep with his little hand absentmindedly rubbing his hair, my love for him grows.  And each day, he does something that melts my heart once again, and I think maybe, just maybe, this is now the pinnacle of love.  

Yet each day, once again, I am proven wrong.  Somehow…somehow… I dare to say, I love him more now than the day he was born.  How is that possible?  To what fullness is the human heart capable of loving?  Is there ever any cap?  Is there ever any limit?  I’m coming to believe there is none.  

The height to which the heart is capable of loving is only capped by our finite mind’s inability to look into the future.

My little poopiehead (or “Tooter”, a name which he earned himself by laughing every time he toots) is now  exiting his baby days and beginning his trek through toddlerhood.  

And I feel like this magnificent present that I have given life to has only just begun to be unwrapped.

1.  Healthy Food - breastmilk or appropriate formula, baby food / smashed table food.

2. Safe Place to Sit (with buckles) - carseat, high chair, stroller.

3.  Something to Hold - this should also be something that is “mouthable” (but not  small enough to swallow).

4. Board Books - reading to kids isn’t enough, they should have the chance to hold / taste / sample books themselves.

5. Clean Environment, Clean Clothes, Clean Body.

6. Conversation - they understand far more than you think!  Talk to them as an adult and forgo the baby’ish sounding talk.

7. L.O.V.E. - ’nuff said!

Narrator: Now it’s time for silly songs with Jack-Evan…The part of the post where Jack-Evan comes out and sings a silly song. 

Our curtain opens as Jack-Evan, who is fast approaching his 1 year birthday mark
(and has never seen scissors in his life),
is searching for his hairbrush. 

Having no success, Jack-Evan suddenly cries out…

Oh where…is my hairbrush?

Oh WHERREE… is my hairbrush?

oh, where, oh, where, oh, where, oh, where, oh, where, oh,
where, oh, where oh, where … is my hairbrush?

———-

Narrator: “Having heard his cry, Papa enters the scene.
Shocked and slightly embarrassed at the sight of Jack-Evan’s long tangled mop,
Papa regains his composure and reports …”

Papa:  I think I saw your hairbrush back there!

Back there is my hairbrush?

Back there is my hairbrush.

Back there, back there, oh, where, back there, oh, where,
oh, where, back there, back there, back there … is my hairbrush?!

———————————–

Narrator: “Having heard his joyous proclamation, Grammy enters the scene.
Shocked and slightly embarrassed at the sight of Jack-Evan’s wet head,
Grammy regains her composure and comments …”

Grammy: “Why do you need a hairbrush? You don’t have any hair!”

Narrator: “Jack-Evan is taken aback. The thought had never occured
to him. No hair? What would this mean?
What will become of him?
What will become of his hairbrush?
Jack-Evan wonders …”

No hair for my hairbrush?

No hair for my hairbrush?!

No hair, no hair, no where, no hair,
no hair, no hair, no where back there,

no hair
.. for my hairbrush.

———————————–

Narrator: “Having heard his wonderings, Dada enters
the scene. Shocked and slightly embarrassed at the sight of
Jack-Evan’s freshly cut hair, Dada regains his composure and confesses …”

Dada: “Jack-Evan, that old hairbrush of yours …
Well, you never used it, and you don’t really need it anymore.
So, well, I’m sorry … I didn’t know.
But
I gave it to your Mama - ’cause she’s got hair!”

Narrator: “Feeling a deep sense of loss,
Jack-Evan stumbles back and
laments…”

Not fair! Oh, my hairbrush.
Not fair! My poor hairbrush.
Not fair, not fair, no hair, not fair, no where, no hair, not fair,
not fair, not fair!
My little hairbrush!

—————————————–

Narrator: “Having heard his lament, Mama enters the scene.
Having for herself, her own long tangled mop of hair, both Jack-Evan and
Mama are shocked and slightly embarrassed at the sight of each other.
But recognizing Jack-Evan’s generosity, the Mama is thankful …”

Mama:  Thanks for the hairbrush.

———————————————

Narrator: “Yes, good has been done here.
Jack-Evan smiles, but, still feeling an emotional
attachment for the hairbrush, calls out …”

Take care of my hairbrush!

Take care, oh my hairbrush…

Take care, take care, don’t dare not care!

Take care. Nice hair. No fair.
Take care, take care …
of my hairbrush.

—

Narrator:  The end.

(P.S.  Only the tips of the hair was harmed in the making of this post)

—————————————————————————————-

(P.S.S.  For the original version of this song ,
“Oh Where is my Hairbrush” 
from the VeggieTales, and to hear the tune
so you too can have it stuck in your head the rest of the week,
play this classic video below!) 

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(Let me tell you how I’m doing it for free! Read on…)

I’ve mentioned before about my insatiable devouring of all things historic over the past 2 years. I lovelovelove history, and was quite disappointed in the discovery that my historical education during my school years was (to put it gently) extremely devoid of anything with substance.

Anyway, so I’ve been slowly working my way through studies of ancient history - especially that of ancient Greece and Rome. We’re going to be homeschooling Jack-Evan some day, and the classical education / liberal arts method appeals to me more and more as I gain a better grasp on what it all means.

Recently, I’ve begun listening to history courses from the Teaching Company (www.Teach12.com) that are available at my local library and from that, I developed an interest in reading through the classics (such as writings from Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Sophocles, etc.).

Now, while I’m not ready to tackle Greek, I am highly motivated to learn Latin. I think it would be incredibly enriching to delve into the original works from the Roman Empire since so much of the subtle meaning of phrases can be lost in translated-to-English books. Plus, it would be a lot of fun too. I really enjoyed learning Spanish in high school, and can still read it, and took French in college - thus Latin should (I’m theorizing!) be fairly simple since it is the root of the Romance languages.

So with that in mind, this past week I gathered up some latin books (i.e. “Latin for Dummies”, “Teach Yourself Latin”), an Audio CD latin course, and  a PC CD-Rom language courses (”Learn Latin Now!”) from my local library, along with a 2005 middle school beginning Latin textbook I found for 10 cent at the Goodwill, and began my quest. Shoot…Why would I pay for something I can do for (practically) free, right?  I even found a Latin podcast and Latin Poetry to listen to online.

Along with beginning Latin, I also decided to brush up on Spanish so I can begin teaching Jack-Evan. I would love for Jack-Evan to be fluent in Spanish by the time he is a teenager. My husband’s birth mom speaks fluent Spanish, and lives in an all Spanish community, so he would have someone to practice conversing with as he grows too. To help me review my Spanish (with the thought that it’s been 9 years now since I studied it), I checked out a beginner’s Spanish course at the library called “Muzzy”.

You may remember the cartoon Muzzy language courses that were extremely popular (well, on commercials!) back in the mid-90’s.  They showed happy kids laying around the TV laughing at the big green furry monster and learning French and Spanish.  I remember wanting my parents to purchase one for me way back then, but it cost too much. So of course I was thrilled to find the DVD course for free! I’ve already viewed the 1st DVD 5 times, and it’s really helped with refreshing what I learned in high school.  Your local library may have language courses too - mine has all of the Muzzy series in many languages as well as adult language programs.

Also, as with my typical can’t-help-but-immerse-myself learning style, I also began searching for free online learning materials - and boy, there are tons.  

Here are my top 4 favorite free resources online.

1.  One great free tool you can use is LiveMocha.com where you converse with a community of people in your target language, and get feedback on how you are doing.  

2.  Signing up for free podcasts and listening to free radio stations in your target language is terrific too.  I found an excellent english / spanish podcast called “Voices in Espanol” at Spanish-podcast.com.  I put it in my google feed reader and have already enjoyed a couple of episodes (even though I only understood 30% of it! haha).  

3.  Youtube is also a great resource for learning another language.  Just do a searh for “yourchosenlanguage” Lessons (insterting the language name of your choice).  There are no less than 11,000 results for “Spanish Lessons” alone.  From there, you can learn verb conjugation, correct pronunciation, new nouns, common words, and more.  For those of you interested in Greek, I know of many introductory Greek lessons on there as well.  Last year I memorized the correct pronunciation for the greek alphabet through Youtube.

4.  And then, finally, the best free resource I’ve found by far is the FSI Language Courses.  They’re US government built public domain language courses for a wide variety of languages.  The method used is mainly rote memorization in those courses, but it is quite thorough and gives you an excellent base to start memorizing a new language.  Each language course has dozens of downloadable language units and corresponding workbooks.  Languages include Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic, Greek, German, Hebrew, and Italian among many others.

For curiosity’s sake, I worked my way through the first unit in Chinese.  How extremely fascinating it was to finally understand how that language works.  You know they say you learn something new every day, right?  Well I know absolutely nothing about Chinese.  But after listening to the unit, I now understand how the intonation and voice inflection affects Chinese speech - and how one syllable can mean many, many different things based on the voice inflection (steady pitch, rising pitch, low pitch, etc).    It’s really interesting.

The best thing about learning a new language from CD courses or from FSI is that you can download audio files and sync them to your MP3 player (which is what I do) - and listen to them while you are busy with something else or just before going to sleep at night.  It’s amazing at how much you can learn (on any topic!) by listening for 20 minutes here and 30 minutes there.

So don’t be scared.   Try it and see for yourself.   Forget Rosetta Stone….Learning is fun and doesn’t have to cost a ton.  :)

(Voiced by 11 Month Old Jack-Evan, Typed by Mommy)

Here is an urgent public service announcement, urging all mothers everywhere to read to their children.

Thank you.
Sincerely,
Jack-Evan.

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Ok, so being a new mom, it constantly amazes me how much babies understand and can do. Jack-Evan began mimicking sounds (I love you, and Hey) when he was 2 months old. He’s also been doing “motorboat” (aka raspberry with the tongue) since he was 2 months old (thanks to my Dad). Last month, my mom taught him how to sing a little song they call the “La La” song - and now all we have to do is say “Jack, sing the La La song for Grammy”, and he’ll grin and sing lalalalala in the tune the taught him. He never lets me get the full song on video though, the little stinker! He seems to know when the camera is aimed at him.

I did manage to catch a little of the LaLa song today while we were out at lunch with my parents - along with a “new and improved” motorboat. Jack use to use only his lips…now, for some reason, he thinks it’s hilarious to use his full tongue. Ahh…the life of a baby.

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