I shared in one of my previous blogs about my nephew Jimmy and it's time Mikey had the spotlight.
Tonight, I've been enjoying a very entertaining conversation with my sister, liberally sprinkled with Mikey-isms. I need to share just a few.
Today, while napping at his baby-sitter's, Miss Steffy, her daughter came into the room to get some toys. By this time, Mikey was awake from his nap and when he saw the girl, he looked straight at her and said, "You're not Miss Steffy."
When my sister failed to see some little feat he had performed, and she admitted she had, Mike's patronized response: Well.
Also, tonight, he has been using a toy contraption of some sort to shoot projectiles across the room, calling to his mommy, "I'm going to get you!" My sister playfully calls back to him not to hit her, and when he does (through sheer luck), she cries foul. In fact, she puts her hand over the boo-boo and asks him to come "kiss it and make it better". ("Kiss it, make it better" is the standard in our family for making minor boo-boos go away.) So Mike comes over and says, "Okay, move your hand."
Mikey, by the way, is only 2 1/2 years old but talks as if he is closer to four, and delivers all his lines with the inflection of the same. I mean, the kid can use "apparently" in a sentence! It isn't until he gets hurt or throws a tantrum that you see the two-year old come through. That, and his physical coordination is still developing.
Trust me, if you ever have the opportunity to hang around Mikey-boy, take some time to listen to his conversation. A gem is liable to come up. It is always worth a listen!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Text Messaging: Menace or Means?
Okay, actually, sorry for the "pithy" title there. I really should have contacted one of my grad school friends to come up with something better.... (Bryan, I should have consulted you first!)
I have many friends who have an abhorrence of text-messaging. And to a point, I completely understand. I've known teenagers to spend hours holding a conversation through text rather than spend an hour in actual voice-to-voice conversation on the phone, racking up more than 600 texts in a week! I've watched people (yes, even on dates!) ignore the person sitting right next to them while they texted someone else. And a young lady at the movie theater last night almost got a piece of my mind for texting throughout the movie and flashing the light of her LCD screen at me as I sat several rows back. (Very distracting, I promise you.)
But I have to admit: I cannot begrudge something when it enables me to get a message with words of love from my husband in the middle of the day. My husband keeps our romance alive simply by texting me three simple little words at random points of my day, and they are always a highlight for me. Yes, I do clutch my phone tightly and gaze at the black words on my screen with a happy, goofy grin. And yes, my heart still flutters each time I see such a text from him, just as much as it did the first times they began to appear on my phone. And it gives me equal pleasure to send him a message back. Nor can I complain that it means I can ask him a simple question and know I'll get an answer at some point in his day, since he is not always reachable by phone. It is not only romance, but a convenience if used wisely.
Do I dislike that texting has become a means for addictive behavior? Yes. Do I deplore the fact that cell phones and texting seem to have become a means for people to completely ignore the rules of etiquette and undermine their social skills by interacting with someone not in the room rather than with someone who is? Certainly. But I can't say texting is the problem. Rather, I think it has more to do with an inability to be present in the room or to use self-discipline and judgement, or even that we are allowing interpersonal social skills go to the wayside. Do I have an answer to the problem? Not necessarily, though I will admit, if I feel you are more devoted to your phone than conversation with me, I might say something, or just leave you to your phone.
But I will still look forward to texts from my husband. They're digital love letters he sends me over the phone instead of leaving them on my pillow.
I have many friends who have an abhorrence of text-messaging. And to a point, I completely understand. I've known teenagers to spend hours holding a conversation through text rather than spend an hour in actual voice-to-voice conversation on the phone, racking up more than 600 texts in a week! I've watched people (yes, even on dates!) ignore the person sitting right next to them while they texted someone else. And a young lady at the movie theater last night almost got a piece of my mind for texting throughout the movie and flashing the light of her LCD screen at me as I sat several rows back. (Very distracting, I promise you.)
But I have to admit: I cannot begrudge something when it enables me to get a message with words of love from my husband in the middle of the day. My husband keeps our romance alive simply by texting me three simple little words at random points of my day, and they are always a highlight for me. Yes, I do clutch my phone tightly and gaze at the black words on my screen with a happy, goofy grin. And yes, my heart still flutters each time I see such a text from him, just as much as it did the first times they began to appear on my phone. And it gives me equal pleasure to send him a message back. Nor can I complain that it means I can ask him a simple question and know I'll get an answer at some point in his day, since he is not always reachable by phone. It is not only romance, but a convenience if used wisely.
Do I dislike that texting has become a means for addictive behavior? Yes. Do I deplore the fact that cell phones and texting seem to have become a means for people to completely ignore the rules of etiquette and undermine their social skills by interacting with someone not in the room rather than with someone who is? Certainly. But I can't say texting is the problem. Rather, I think it has more to do with an inability to be present in the room or to use self-discipline and judgement, or even that we are allowing interpersonal social skills go to the wayside. Do I have an answer to the problem? Not necessarily, though I will admit, if I feel you are more devoted to your phone than conversation with me, I might say something, or just leave you to your phone.
But I will still look forward to texts from my husband. They're digital love letters he sends me over the phone instead of leaving them on my pillow.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Happy Day!
At last, at last, I think it might be safe to say that morning sickness has passed! The past three months, practically since we found out we were pregnant, has been dominated by this most odious of pregnancy symptoms: nausea and vomiting. I wish I could say I handled it with grace and stoicism, but there were times I laid on the couch, miserable and certain a face-to-face encounter with our toilet was in my very near future, and gave myself over to tears. The longer it went on, the harder it became to not become dejected with each recurrence. I lost weight, I struggled to be optimistic and good-humored, and despaired of the day when I would feel "normal" again. I was asked a month ago how was marriage and pregnancy, and my honest response was, "Marriage is fantastic. Pregnancy... not so much." Thanks be to God for my loving (and very patient) husband as well as friends and family!
Now, at last, it has been almost two weeks since the last time I was sick and my first two fingers are cramping a little as they unwind. And, finally, I feel I can begin to enjoy pregnancy and the prospect of a baby. With the cessation of sickness has come the advent of baby kicks and bumps. When I first felt it, I thought perhaps it was the baby, but being a new mommy it took me a week of feeling and considering before I finally concluded I was definitely enjoying for the first time my kid moving around in there. It still seems very strange to me that a little person, another human being with personality and talents and detractors and their own thoughts is forming in the depths of my belly. I know that sometime in the future these kicks and taps will not be so comfortable or so welcome, but for now I am enjoying them and what they signify: that my baby is so far healthy and growing and things are progressing as they should.
One thing I've noticed is that the more the fact that we are having a baby becomes solid, the more I am calling the kid "him". When I describe the baby's movements, it's usually "his" or "he's". One morning, for some unknown reason, he decided to jump from down by my bladder to up by my belly button, and when describing this to my husband, I said, "I had to massage him back down into place!" I confess, I begin to think maybe I feel it's a boy. I do NOT stand by this prediction. What do I know? I'm a first-time mommy and pregnant-lady. I still eagerly await the sonogram to tell me what he or she will be. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, and if I'm right, I'm right, and we'll start to pick out clothes and nursery colors and bedding... We will be very happy if it is a boy and Nick admits he will have more fun picking out boys' toys. But we will be equally happy if we are having a girl and I admit I will be very happy to pick out girls' clothes and putting her hair up in pig-tails and ponytails (because I cannot braid for the life of me)!
Now, at last, it has been almost two weeks since the last time I was sick and my first two fingers are cramping a little as they unwind. And, finally, I feel I can begin to enjoy pregnancy and the prospect of a baby. With the cessation of sickness has come the advent of baby kicks and bumps. When I first felt it, I thought perhaps it was the baby, but being a new mommy it took me a week of feeling and considering before I finally concluded I was definitely enjoying for the first time my kid moving around in there. It still seems very strange to me that a little person, another human being with personality and talents and detractors and their own thoughts is forming in the depths of my belly. I know that sometime in the future these kicks and taps will not be so comfortable or so welcome, but for now I am enjoying them and what they signify: that my baby is so far healthy and growing and things are progressing as they should.
One thing I've noticed is that the more the fact that we are having a baby becomes solid, the more I am calling the kid "him". When I describe the baby's movements, it's usually "his" or "he's". One morning, for some unknown reason, he decided to jump from down by my bladder to up by my belly button, and when describing this to my husband, I said, "I had to massage him back down into place!" I confess, I begin to think maybe I feel it's a boy. I do NOT stand by this prediction. What do I know? I'm a first-time mommy and pregnant-lady. I still eagerly await the sonogram to tell me what he or she will be. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, and if I'm right, I'm right, and we'll start to pick out clothes and nursery colors and bedding... We will be very happy if it is a boy and Nick admits he will have more fun picking out boys' toys. But we will be equally happy if we are having a girl and I admit I will be very happy to pick out girls' clothes and putting her hair up in pig-tails and ponytails (because I cannot braid for the life of me)!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)