Shots & Rockets

L wasn't able to get a flu shot last year because he was always, always too sick. So, we took advantage of this period of wellness (knock on wood) and got him a shot. I was conflicted about getting it at all, but I'll blog about that another time.

He did great and didn't cry at all! As a treat, M and I took him to a local diner for pie and ice cream.





I got the fried pickles and , but also ended up tasting L's pie. Oops.




Since L has been obsessed with all things NASA (can't imagine where he gets that) we picked up E from daycare and headed to Rocket Park. It's not a park as much as a large building that holds a Saturn V rocket. It's quite impressive and L loves it there.

Each stage is separated so you can see its inner workings, including its balls.



I mean, come on, this thing isn't phallic enough?

Outside there are some smaller rockets and engines to admire.


This was used to perform abort testing during the Apollo era.

It was nice to get some one-on-one time with L. It was a great afternoon!

The Anti-Supermom

I don't usually do this, but I would really like you to read this article before you read my post.  It's not too long and totally worth it.

In my dream life I am the "perfect" mother.  By perfect, I mean that I breastfed exclusively for a year, made all of the baby food for my kids, and the weekends are spent in museums with TV watching being a very rare occurrence.  Like I said, in my dream life.  M pointed out the article linked above and when I read it, it really struck a chord in me.   I never imagined that the ideas that have become accepted in motherhood over the last twenty years could be viewed as a burden or even a prison, but if I am honest with myself, I admit that it feels that way, sometimes. 

I don't totally agree with everything that Erica Jong says, and she comes across as being almost as hard lined as the proponents on the other side, but I think she has some very valid points.  It is easy to forget how much motherhood and its ideals are perpetuated by the media.  In this age of social networking, I would say that it is even worse.  If someone makes a comment on twitter that they were uncomfortable seeing someone breastfeed in a restaurant, they are attacked and verbally beaten until bloody.  My question is, why wasn't there a place that the mother could go and quietly feed her child?  Why isn't that the norm in a society that so clearly thinks a good mother = a breastfeeding mother?  We expect mothers to breastfeed, but there is very little support.  Lactation consultants in hospitals are an absolute nightmare of conflicting information and the state laws that require employers to set aside a room for pumping are inconsistent and weak.  So, basically, we are supposed to be comfortable breastfeeding in public, but we are also expected to take the abuse and defend ourselves when people object. 

If you open up a People magazine, there are entire subsections devoted to pregnant celebrities and celebrities with babies.  I'm sure their research tells them that the readers like to see that celebrities are just like them, raising their children.  Really?  Just like opening a Cosmo makes me feel like crash dieting, seeing some perfect looking celebrity mom does not help me, either.  I'm not going to make assumptions about Angelina Jolie or Madonna and say that they are using children as accessories.  Maybe they are, or maybe they just love children.  My issue is with the depiction of it all.  Women shout from the rooftops about the horrible things that supermodels do to our daughter's body images.  How can they put these skinny girls in magazines when it's not realistic?  Shouldn't we also decry the entire spreads that are put in magazines about women losing all of their baby weight in six weeks?  Why aren't there photos of Angelina with pink eye that she caught from her kids, or Giselle with toddler puke all over her?  This fake ideal that is constantly being pushed and that people eat up is a sort of prison.  Just as looking at a fashion magazine makes me feel bad about the size dress I wear, reading an article about  celebrity mom doing it all with no mention of the support she has from nannies and assistants is deplorable.  Getting help is not shameful, but that's the way it is treated.

It has taken me a long time to feel comfortable with my choices as a mother.  I'm not looking for anyone to tell me I am doing a good job or that I should do whatever I want as a mom.  Until I read this article I didn't realize how much of a burden the barrage of do this, do that or you are a sub-par mom was weighing me down.  I think that attachment parenting is great, but it just wasn't a reality for me.  I am a strong advocate for breastfeeding, but the reality is that it's extremely tough and not everyone can make it work.   I breastfed my kids for six months until my supply was literally nothing and they got formula for the rest of the time.  I made some of their baby food and fed them plenty of the jarred stuff, too.  If I really need to get something done on the weekends, I turn on Nick Jr.  I never let my babies sleep in bed with us when they were tiny because I just didn't think it was safe.  I hug and kiss them as much as possible and it annoys them sometimes, but that's just too bad.  I miss the kids when I drop them off at daycare, but when L comes home and counts and names the planets, I can't really say that being in daycare is a bad thing for him. 

I think that all moms do a little helicopter parenting and  little hands off parenting.  Sometimes, it's as simple as just reading what your kid needs.  I am lucky because my job doesn't include a long commute, so a mom that  barely gets home in time to tuck the kids in might have different views about all of this, but I do know that some of the things that I am seeing in magazines and on Twitter and Facebook are a little disturbing.  If moms are being victimized by the expectation that there is an ideal mother who can work and carry a baby all day, then we need to start by not victimizing each other.  I'm not always going to agree with the choices that another mom makes for her kids, but I can't possibly know the inner working of their lives.  Is this feminism?  I have no idea.  I have the luxury of not really having to answer that question.  The combination of work and home is my life and it's not really a "choice" as the feminist movement loves to call it.   

I think that this quote from the article sums is up for me:

"We need to be released from guilt about our children, not further bound by it. We need someone to say: Do the best you can. There are no rules."



 What do you think?  I am really interested to hear your thoughts on this article.   If you are a mom-to-be or a mom-in-waiting, I am looking for your input, as well.  As a follow-up, Erica Jong's daughter wrote an article about what kind of mother Erica was and it is worth a read, as well.

Fold 'Em

Well, Kenny Rogers was right, and we know that when it comes to potty training L, we should fold 'em. I spent all weekend trying to bribe him with M&Ms and wiping urine off the floor. After an epic meltdown right around bedtime, I decided it wasn't worth the stress to either of us.

I'm actually very ok with this. Being tethered to the house while potty training seems like such a shame when the weather is so nice. We'll try again in a month and see what happens.

The day wasn't all bad, though. The kids helped me make gingerbread and then cleaned up



We even ventured outside, where they ignored all of their toys and played with rocks


I'm so lucky to have those two. They are amazing little people.

Tonight

We had a rare night out, just M and me. We talked a lot about an article about motherhood that ran in The Wall Street Journal. I really want to blog about it at a later date. It had some excellent points.

On another note, we started potty training L today. There were a lot of accidents and I feel a little discouraged, but I know we'll get there. I'll be doing a lot of laundry, though. A lot.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

When I Was Your Age......

As I was completing my paper about the new health care reform, I looked at my resources and groaned. They were all online since the legislation rendered all of my textbooks obsolete, and I couldn't remember how to cite a web page. So, I used google, of course, and came across something called Easy Bib. It helps you to properly format a bibliography and will even keep a list of your sources and put them into a word document. I was stunned and a little ticked off. I mean, how many hours did I spend as an undergrad, looking up the latest MLA or APA formats in the library, in an actual book, in fear that I would be docked grade points for misplacing a period. You can just push a button now?? Humph.

I got my first email address in college through my university in the mid 1990s. I still have the first personal email I ever had, a hotmail account. I thought it was amazing that I could get my email from anywhere! Was it magic?? I also remember my first friend that got a cell phone that wasn't a car phone. It was a pay per minute plan and it was as thick as a large textbook. We thought she was the luckiest, most tech savvy person that we ever met. When I was growing up we lived in a rural area and our olive green dial phone that matched our olive green fridge was on a party line, believe it or not.

It's amazing how we have adapted to so much change. I think about the childhood that L and E will have and it amazes me. They have access to so much information right at their fingertips. They don't have to actually open an encyclopedia to find out information. They can watch almost any program they want on TV with no commercials and at a time of their choosing. They will never know a world without the availability of internet, cable and gps.

It makes me feel old to say it, but sometimes I think all of this information at your fingertips takes the fun out of looking. I know all of these e-readers are really popular, but I like actually opening a book. Asking a local for directions might give you a better route than google maps. Don't get me wrong, I love the instant gratification of modern life, but I'm not so sure it's good for our kids. That doesn't mean I'm ready to give up using my phone to reload my Starbucks card, though.

I'm the sad Holly Hobby in the front.

My Current Obsession

 

I feel all twitchy this morning because I left my iPhone on the kitchen counter, but the two of us are usually inseparable.  It has become a lifeline to social media, news, maps, and serves a a great distraction for the kids at the doctor's office.  Recently, I downloaded a free app called Instagram.  It's a way to take photos and apply cool filters to them and then share them with others.  You share them through instagram and you can also upload them to Flickr, Twitter, Facebook and FourSquare.  It's really cool.

The playground looks much cooler



A jar of candy at works seems more interesting



Clowns look scarier



Even your kids look cuter!


I guess what I like about it is that it's simply sharing a photo without a long explanation and people who follow your profile can "like" or comment on a photo.  It's like tweeting in a purely photographic format.  If you have an iPhone (it's only available through them right now) I highly, highly recommend this app.  My name is katetheowl, so find me!  We can share some photothoughts.

**this post was not sponsored by anyone**

FourSquare - An Uninformed, Unsponsored Review

 

At first, I thought to myself, why are people always telling me where they are?  Then, how can you be the mayor of  Starbucks?  Ah, Four Square, the app that is part game, part stalking tool.  I initially refused to play because of all of the warnings about being robbed since everyone would know you are at Target and not at home.  Like anything else, though, it's only as dangerous as the amount of information you are willing to share.   I looked around and decided that it would probably be a good thing if I was robbed.  It would save me a lot of cleaning and unpacking.  So, I signed up. 

I like checking in and I've already been made the mayor of my workplace.! (That is actually kind of sad.)  I like seeing what my friends are doing and there's more than a little bit of vicarious living when I check to see who gets to go out on Friday nights.  It's funny how we feel the need to stay in touch every second of every day.  Twitter, Facebook, and Four Square are all ways that we check in and ask for feedback.  I am one of those people that check twitter throughout the day and put my thoughts, happy and sad, for all to see.  If I really stopped to think about it I guess I would have to ask myself what is missing from my real, in-person life that makes me seek feedback so much about every move that I make.   Or, I can go to Target and see if they've made me mayor, yet.