Meet Simeon

Five months old. Heart stealer. Loves to cuddle, suck on fabric, and touch faces. Patient with older brother. Favorite words: Ahhh, and Bababababababah.

Hush

There are moments where chaos disappears and it is quiet. I live for those moments. It is a shame they are few and far between.

Quote Board

Reuben: "I wish I had Karate skills." He spins and kicks. "Maybe when I'm 5, or 6 I can go to Karate school."

We've been doing a lot of this:

I was doing the daily-cuddle-with-Reuben-so-he-will-be-pleasant on Tuesday. He started scratching his head, so I start looking, maybe there was dry skin, I thought. Well, there was something. Little tiny white things stuck real good to individual strands of hair, and little tiny shiny brown things on his scalp that were pretty hard to get off, and even harder to figure out what they were. Then I got to above his ear, and the brown things were bigger.

Then the internet research began.

Head lice.

Floods of horrible-mother feelings overwhelmed me. The fact that my sweet boy got head lice, and I let it happen. Reuben has this requiring nightmare about Dead Bug. "He's a bug, and is alive, but he is dead so you can't kill him, and he is scary, and mean, and a bad bug, and he eats you." Reuben is terrified of Dead Bug. He has to have the light on in a room before he will enter to make sure Dead Bug isn't in there. Now, his poor head had swarms of bugs EATING HIM!

I checked Simeon's head, nothing. I checked Justin's head, dandruff. I had Justin check my head. His exact words were, "I can't tell, your hair just falls out." I didn't sleep that night because my scalp itched. I canceled preschool at my house so we wouldn't pass it on. I sent Justin out to buy the shampoo. We stripped the beds. I posted on the Mommy's Google group so they would know to check. I had Justin check for reals, I was clear.

Then I found out that lice is one of those things like problems with nursing, and miscarriages. Something that happens to plenty of people, but no one ever talks about it until you are going through it.

From what I can tell he picked it up on the train or a bus, and from what I can tell I think I got them. I comb his hair with those little lice picks every day. We'll see next week if I really did. It is GROSS. And, while I am still embarrassed that it happened to us, I had to post it because people need to know that this isn't some rare thing and it doesn't mean that you are a bad mother. (I'm hoping that maybe I can convince myself of that.)

Simeon Laugh

Notice how I'm not holding a baby today so I can update the blog?

Anyway, watch this for a little bit to make your heart happy, watch it all the way if you think Simeon has the cutest laugh you've heard in a while or if you like listening to Justin make nonsense noise.

Simeon Laughs Jan 10 from Cook Shack on Vimeo.

Quote Board

Brecken: Oh, I didn't upload the disc.
Justin: Which disc.
Brecken: The new Norah Jones disc we got from the homeless guy.

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Reuben: "Someday I want to go to New Jersey." sighs.
Mommy: "What are you going to do there?"
Reuben: "Make films."

High School Reunion

Here is a difference between me and Justin.

He was pretty sad he didn't get to go to his high school reunion. Now there is talk of one for me, and a chance we will be biding our time with my parents until a job comes through and we know where we need to move, so a chance that I would be home for said reunion. I've got little-to-no interest in going. Not because of the people, let that be clear, I have some pretty neat high school friends. High school wasn't necessarily a high point for me, and I like to avoid social situations in general. While telling Justin about the Facebook chatter surrounding the reunion, he told me that we had to go if we were there.

This confused me. He doesn't have anyone there to go see, other than me, and he can see me from the comfort of his job searching breaks. But he has this idea that life is like the movies, and that some kind of murder mystery would pop up at the reunion (He doesn't really have this idea, but it's the only reason that makes sense to me for him to want to go.) He says it's something about showing people how far we have come. (Which is pretty far, but considering we will be starting over at ground zero doesn't mean much.)

Now, if you are a high school friend reading, I don't mean any offense, but I really hope we know where we are going before said reunion comes up.

What's your opinion? Are you with Justin, or with me?

Glow by Reflecting

I was devastated to learn that the light of the moon is reflected light. It just doesn't make sense that the biggest and brightest thing in the night sky doesn't glow on its own. It makes even less sense that reflected light can be visible during the day since the brightness of the sun makes it so you can't see light-producing bodies. The moon doesn't generate light, its glow is completely dependent on the sun, and when the earth gets in the way the moon looses its glow.

Have you ever gotten a sunburn on those parts of your face that are usually in shadow simply because you spent the day letting snow or water reflect light onto your face? If you have you know that those are the worst burns because your skin was attacked from all angles, nothing spared, and the pain is everywhere. All that sparkle on the snow is a reflection (or refraction if you are going to make me be completely scientific). The point is the snow isn't light generating, it simply takes advantage of the light available to it in order to make itself look inviting and magical.

Hand mirrors and watch faces are not light generators, but your sibling will be just as upset after a few well aimed reflections as when you shined that flash light in their eyes.

The whole reason we have light in our apartment is because there is a huge white building across the street that reflects the light so that it gets in our windows.

I've been thinking about this glow by reflection, first because I am grateful that it exists. Imagine if the moon was just this thing orbiting around us that we couldn't see, if the snow or water didn't sparkle, if you could never tinkerbell-attack you sister, if my apartment only got the light that made it there directly from the sun. The world would be pretty dark and gloomy if there were no such thing as reflected light.

I've been thinking about it because it is a pretty easy way to glow. The hardest part is getting those people who actually glow to let you hang around them so you can get your reflecting on. I have this friend who is very good at talking to people (she doesn't think so herself, she says she is just trying to emulate her mother.) I think everyone thinks they are her best friend, and that she is theirs. She is a light generator. And, while I can't generate light in that way, believe it or not I am a very awkward conversationalist, and even worse small talker, I can reflect her light. There have been several times where people have mistakenly thought that I was just as friendly as T, simply because I was sitting next to her while T and the new person had a conversation. I was simply glowing by reflection.

And if you don't believe that story, please really examine the memories you have of me being friendly, most likely Justin was there doing the light generating and I was simply angling myself to reflect some of his light. I am always grateful that I married such a nice guy. 98% of the friends that I have made on my own were those people who lived with me, so were around me enough to see past that strange, cold, dark first impression I give off (okay, that might be an exaggeration, but roommate friends, you can back me up on this right?)

On a spiritual note the only way I can truly glow at this point is by reflecting God's light. I'm not perfect, not transfigured, my hair is not producing horns let alone a halo. But, I hope to be reflecting some of that light that comes from God's love, God's truth, God's goodness. I've decided this is why children glow so readily, there isn't much blocking God's light from reflecting off of them. They aren't tarnished, and they don't let anything get in between them and God's light.

So that is the goal. Glow by Reflecting. At first it seems like the lazy-man's way out, and sure it may be, but if you think about it glowing by reflecting is pretty hard. You have to choose the right light source, be reflective material, and on top of that be clean reflective material, and not allow anything to block the light source. The goal is to remove those obstacles that are diminishing my ability to glow by reflecting God's light, and that is not going to be easy. I've got to work on distance, tarnish, light-blocking stuff in between me and God. Glowing by Reflection is just as much work as producing a glow, and that is why it is not an easy out.

Would you like to try it with me? Try sometime to glow by reflection and let me know how it works out? I'm interested.

Write a Caption

Reuben: "Maybe if we make fish-faces she'll stop taking pictures."
or
Simeon: "No! Stop! No chapstick for me!"

Now, it's your turn. Write a caption. Get your friends to play.

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Friendship Flowers

My visiting teachers brought me some flowers the other night. Reuben was already asleep when they came, but the evidence was there in the morning. When I woke up, he said, "I'm glad you got some friendship flowers. And I saw some cookies, can I have a cookie?"

He inspects the flowers periodically. When I ask what he is doing he says, "I'm not touching them. I'm just liking them."

It is nice to have something cheery in the house, and even nicer that I'm not the only one appreciating them. And they are great fun to play with in photoshop.

Original:


Texture:


Nelly Nero Pink Fade Action

What were they thinking?

I love this photo because of their expressions. They don't hide anything. It's a blessing and a curse.