Talking Heads, or, Playing with Dolls

David hasn't gone to his sitter Jenny's home for about 3 weeks, what with the bug he had and Spring Break when I could be home with him. So it was fun to learn, when I picked him up today, that he really liked playing with Jenny's daughter's dolls. He just sat and jabbered at them!

I wonder if that could be why girls tend to be more verbal than boys -- they are given objects which beg to be talked to, while boys are given machines, which make noises but don't communicate. What do you think?

"Blog About This Song"

Two dormmates from freshman year are part of "The Richter Scales," a twelve-man a cappella group, or, as they say on their blog, "a bevy of gentlemen songsters, all residents of the San Francisco Bay Area." Curtis Chen and Loren Cheng were both in Larkin Dorm with me, and Amy Poftak, another friend from the dorm, found out about their very funny song which has been making waves on YouTube: "Here Comes Another Bubble v1.1." One of the verses in the songs makes fun of blogging, and mentions blogging about this song. Yup, I am, because it's fun to see Larkin friends be famous! Also, the song is a pretty apt commentary on life in the Bay Area.

Loren, I hope now that you're a celeb you don't mind me recalling this: Freshman year you asked why Mormons couldn't drive cars. (We can and do, but I guess you'd seen missionaries down in southern California on their bikes.) You supposed that perhaps we didn't want any physical barrier between ourselves and God. Umm, we do live in houses. Uhh, we may carry umbrellas when it rains!

If I'm remembering correctly, Curtis was in the "Larkin Kazoo Band" with me. Ahh, his musical talent has moved up in the world!

On My Mind: East of Eden

I just finished listening to East of Eden, by John Steinbeck, on book-on-tape. What a powerful book. I do enjoy these generational epics (The Good Earth is another family epic I enjoyed). The book is based on the two foundational stories of the Genesis, which may be the two great stories of all time: the tale of original sin -- are we innately evil or good? -- and the story of Cain and Abel -- will good or evil win, when jealousy or hatred arises, and when we choose incorrectly?

I really felt for Cal Trask, as he battled with the good and evil inside himself. He exemplifies what Lehi of The Book of Mormon says when he explains in 2 Nephi 2:

For it must needs be, that there is an ^aopposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.

Cal accepts this opposition, and thus is much more sympathetic than his twin, Aron Trask, who is so good (naive? self-absorbed?) that he cannot accept evil in the world. In this way, as well as in the envy felt by Cal for Aron, and Charles for Adam, this book is thematically very similar to A Separate Peace, which I will again teach next year.

I just hated Catherine Ames/Cathy/Kate, who is the symbol of evil in the novel. I hated her horrid sins, I was disgusted by her manipulativeness. But I also hated some of Adam Trask's choices, for he was so unaware and thoughtless at times, despite the fact that Lee and Sam Hamilton saw Adam as so good. I liked Sam, Lee, and Cal for their self-awareness, and for their embracing of the idea of timshel ("Thou mayest" as opposed to "Thou shalt" or "Do thou"). This too connects with Lehi's lecture, in which he continues by explaining that our very agency is related to the existence of opposition:

...[T]he Lord God gave unto man that he should ^aact for himself. Wherefore, man could not ^bact for himself save it should be that he was ^centiced by the one or the other.

We can either face and overcome the reality of a world of opposites, of evil. Or we can deny it. Cal's acceptance of his own evil, along with his good, will hopefully be the means by which he masters what is base and low in himself.

Easter Photos

Our digital camera is on the blink, and my SLR seems to take grainy photos (or else Walgreen's processing and transfer to a CD is poor quality). Still, here are some photos. Easter was a beautiful spring day of sunshine!

Super Baby Food

Tia Brown Barth gave me a fantastic book, Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. I haven't yet sat down to read it extensively, but I took a few minutes to peruse it to find out how to make homemade baby food out of sweet potatoes, which David loved when fed from a store-bought jar. The process was incredibly easy, resulted in about 10 little jars, and David scarfed it down. Makes me excited to try other food. It saves money, is fresher and without extra additives, and allows me to feed him organic without the expensiveness of store-bought organic baby food.

Solids are still a lot more work than bottles, but David is doing quite well at diving for the spoon (sometimes with so much force I worry he'll send it through the back of his throat!). He is especially fond of sweet potatoes, apple and pear sauce, and mashed bananas (watered down with formula). Well, come to think of it, that's all I've introduced him to thus far, save rice cereal! I guess he pretty much likes it all!

And one more cute photo of David. I've been walking with him nearly every morning of Spring Break, and he got a bit too much sun one day. But he won't keep his hat on, and I hate to use the Ergo shade too much, because he can't observe the world as much. At least he isn't a pasty white as I am, so my dad says he can handle up to an hour of sun without sunscreen. He does have one patch on his arm where his pigment isn't as dark: that must be his 1/4 Irish coming through!

Da Da Da

Taylor was out of town for two and a half days. Because I have a hearing loss and also sleep like the dead, I worried I might not hear David if he cried at night. So I went to bed those three nights with David's crib in our room, the monitor on and under my pillow, and one hearing aid still in.

Saturday/Sunday night, David awoke about 1:30 am and wouldn't quickly fall back asleep, so I put him into bed with me. He lay there and talked for at least 15 minutes before falling asleep. And what should he choose to say, on this weekend when I'm the only one taking care of him, and it's the middle of the night? "Da da da da da da da da." No! "Ma ma ma ma ma...," I've tried repeating. It hasn't worked. His first clear consonant construction is Dada. I guess we've got a daddy's boy on our hands!

Yesterday Taylor took a video of David "talking" and rolling (his other big feat is to roll quite a great distance across the rug). If we figure out how to cut it down to a short clip, we'll try to post it.

The Beauty of Easter

Christ in a Red Robe, Minerva Teichert
One of the downsides about house-sitting is that our beautifully framed copy
of this painting is sitting in storage, unenjoyed.

I love the celebration of Easter. I love the springtime in which this day comes. I love the reborn life inherent to spring and to Easter. I am so grateful to know I can overcome mistakes and sin and pain because my Savior has. The Book of Mormon prophet Alma says:

"[Christ] shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities" (Alma 7:11-12).

Today in Church, Lisa Madsen Pearson gave a beautiful lesson on the Savior, complete with artwork and several quoted passages from the manual. (I appreciate it when teachers base their lessons on the scriptures or manual, rather than springboarding to their own philosophies on the topic, or even a discussion on the topic ... without any textual basis.) One of my favorites was this:

"Who...can consider himself as good as our Lord? Who is as perfect? Who is as pure? ... [Christ] never transgressed or broke a commandment or law of heaven -- no deceit was in His mouth, neither was guile found in His heart.... Where is one like Christ? He cannot be found on earth" (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, 53).

Christ Healing at the Pool of Bethesda, Carl Bloch

So I want to share a few of my favorite paintings of the Savior. I may be infringing on copyrights: tell me if you know that I am. Minerva Teichert is my favorite Mormon artist; I could have included at least six more of hers that I love; but I'll refrain and limit it to these.

Lost Lamb, Minerva Teichert

Until yesterday, when this was displayed during Lisa's lesson, I don't think I'd realized that the "lost lamb" is also the so-called "black sheep" of the fold.

Ron Richmond

Lisa Pearson had a replica of a very similar painting by the same artist, Ron Richmond. Hers was Exchange No. 8. In both the red robe of sin is overturned before the pure, white robe in the judgment seat. At first this painting didn't move me, but as Lisa spoke about it I was touched deeply. "Though your sins be as scarlet," says Isaiah, "they shall be as white as snow."

Christ in America, Minerva Teichert.
The LDS belief that Christ did indeed visit his "other sheep"
is one of my favorite doctrines. See 3 Nephi 11-30 for the full account.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has just developed a new website dedicated to the teachings and testimonies of Jesus Christ. Here are some images drawn from it to celebrate Easter. I'll add two quotes by our recently deceased prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley.

"No one so great has ever walked the earth. None other has made a comparable sacrifice or granted a comparable blessing. He is the Savior and the Redeemer of the World. I believe in Him. I declare His divinity without equivocation or compromise. I love Him. I speak the name of Jesus Christ in reverence and wonder. He is our King, our Lord, our Master, the Living Christ, who stands on the right hand of His Father. He lives! He lives, resplendent and wonderful, the Son of the living God" (Gordon B. Hinckley, "We Testify of Christ," Ensign, March 2008).

"We do not know what lies ahead of us.... But one thing we do know. Like the Polar star in the heavens, regardless of what the future holds, there stands the Redeemer of the world, the Son of God, certain and sure as the anchor of our immortal lives. He is the rock of our salvation, our strength, our comfort, the very focus of our faith" (Gordon B. Hinckley, "We Testify of Christ," Ensign, March 2008).

Other beautiful testimonies borne by latter-day prophets can be found by clicking here.

...Let Me Count the Ways

Beware: Cheesiness follows. Feel free to skip...but I wanted to write this!

I should have made this list three weeks ago for Taylor's birthday. He is in Utah this weekend, skiing with his dad and brother Brad. Since he's gone (and since Spring Break has begun!), I have more time to think about all the reasons I love him (and miss him!). I dug up some of my favorite photos of him from our engagement and wedding photo shoots.




I love being married to my best friend. Taylor respects & listens to me, so that I feel that marriage to him is a true partnership. For nearly two years, we've lived away from most of our own material goods. This is an adventure, but it has also taken a lot of cooperation & coordination, in the moving & cleaning with each new house-sitting assignment, and the work of publicizing & introducing ourselves to new people. I joke that I have the "on paper charm" (for this area: Stanford grad, PAUSD high school teacher) & he the gregarious "in person charm." I hate talking to strangers on the phone, so he usually makes the first impression. And I know he will make a good one! When we finally bite the bullet & start to rent (or purchase again), I will miss this "hobby" of ours, because it has been a joint venture.

Much more importantly than just being a partner in our house-sitting adventure, Taylor is a full partner in parenting. I could not do it without him. He's supported my part-time return to teaching. He has done all the night duty work, save a night or two (such as these when he's out of town). And he just delights in David; I need Taylor's willingness to just play with him.




Life with Taylor is fun. I love his sense of humor, and I feel like he makes me funny. (The chicken tie was my idea -- same colors as our wedding colors -- though I didn't know Taylor would wear it as he exited the Portland Temple!)




Alongside his sense of humor, Taylor is full of hope and optimism. There are times he is brought down, but his nature is a forward-looking and hopeful one. Maybe David gets that hopeful look my mom ascribes him because of his dad!




I like to anticipate, so Taylor often spoils the surprise for me so that I can look forward to things he is planning. However, I do like his surprises too. Here's one: crashing my bridal shower!



Because I like anticipating, I love weekly planning sessions with Taylor. Is that weird? I guess having our calendars out I not only get to look forward to a good week together, but I also feel, again, the cooperation that marriage takes.

I trust him. Very early on in our relationship, I recognized that Taylor was a man of honor and integrity. Few qualities are more important.

I love reading scriptures with Taylor. I love his sagacious and thoughtful insights. I love teaching Institute with him.

He fits right in with my family. Hmm: a good thing?






Though the visual focus has been Taylor's silly side, he doesn't just play hard; he works hard too. I appreciate that when I want to be serious, he is serious. I can tell him anything.

Did I mention handsome. Oh, so very!

I am so lucky!

Good Good Friday

Tonight I took David to the Valparaiso Singer's annual Good Friday Concert. We arrived quite late, but what we heard was beautiful. They sung The St. Matthew Passion, described as "the pinnacle of the vocal works of Johann Sebastian Bach during his Leipzig years..., [a work with] musical tension throughout, never quite resolved, all culminating in one of the greatest dramas of Christianity ever written." They followed the Passion with several additional shorter pieces from other composers.

David was quiet throughout, until a final dramatic pause between closing "amens" in "Worthy is the Lamb" from Handel's Messiah. At the very last pause of this very last piece, David decided to pipe up and add his own note. He made me smile!

Ever since Good Friday of 1999, when I spent several hours at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem, this day has been an important one for me, a day of pondering the power of the Atonement to heal and rejuvenate, to bring hope and promise. Last year Good Friday and Easter were emotionally raw days, since they came only days after we learned that our IVF cycle had to be canceled, and that there was no chance in the future of using my own eggs. Last year on Good Friday the pain was too new and tender, and the feeling of loss -- of death even -- overpowered my ability to look forward to the Easter celebration of life come again.

I still ache at times because of my infertility. But on this Good Friday, when I just had to sneak out of the concert for a few moments to hear David giggle as I rubbed my nose to his, I feel joyful once again. David is part of our healing and our rejuvenation, a symbol that life does conquer death. How much we love him!

This was not taken today.
However, today David & I did take a long walk/run in the Stanford Foothills
and enjoyed similar spring green & flowers.

Good Causes

Tonya Rawie sent an email reminding me to click on the Breast Cancer Site. That site is connected to the Hunger Site, too, something I used to be in the habit of clicking on regularly. I will post their links here.

I especially like Freerice.com because I am learning (or at least playing) as I contribute. I direct my students to this site each week as a vocabulary exercise.

Missed Moments

A few nights ago, Taylor and I were talking at the dinner table, with David in his exersaucer near by. I got really passionate about something (the home-schooling movement, which I’m not a big fan of), and was talking with a lot of energy. We looked at David: he had his hands folded together under his chin, and was looking at me, enraptured. You would think he was following my every word! How I wish my students listened with such concentration! So we grabbed the camera, but the moment was lost. We never captured his “intense listening” pose, but we did get this smile.




Another thing that excites David is the cell phone. I use it on speaker phone generally (better for my hearing aids), and he gets the biggest eyes as he hears the voices coming through. It's especially exciting if it's Taylor's voice, one he recognizes. He also loves the beeps made as we press the buttons. He starts to get excited and make funny noises as we dial the numbers. So we tried to leave messages on our parents’ phones…but by the time we’d finally reached them, he had calmed down. Every time we tried, he calmed down before we got through!

At the Park

We took a nice evening stroll to a park and had fun with David there. He loved swinging (though you can see, in the photos above and below, that he smiles big on the upswing but grits his teeth just a bit as the swing heads downward). I grit my teeth when Taylor pushes him higher than I would. But actually, I know it's fun for David, and Taylor is always helping David to experience new things, whereas I'm more timid and less exploratory. Thank goodness for dads!






Taylor tried holding David from the side so he could "slide" down a short slide, but some 3 year olds decided just then to come and take them over. It seemed a little bratty to me! So my boys went down a taller slide together.

It looks like David is sliding on his own, doesn't it? Not yet.
We just rotated the photo taken of him at the base of the slide;
he's waving his feet but not sliding at all.

And I liked the zipline! Not as fun as our pulley swing growing up, but close enough!

Spring Has Sprung!

I jinxed the weather by leaving tulips & daffodils with "Spring Has Sprung" notes on the doorstep of three friends a few weeks ago. Immediately after I did that, we got another week of rain. But now we've had a week of weather in the 60s and even low 70s, and the blossoms are blooming everywhere. Our most recent house-sit is in Portola Valley, a lovely town of fields and woods. I have always loved biking the Portola Valley Loop because of the beautiful setting, so it's wonderful to be out here. (I have yet to get out for a ride, though!)

However, the drive into school is often doubled in time because everyone from Portola Valley is trying to get out of the community through the same road at the same time. We're just one exit north of the one I need to get to work and to drop David off, but just getting off that exit can be 10 minutes itself, the cars backed up into the freeway itself. Yikes. Still, it's a gorgeous place to be for the month of March.

Here are some pictures from our yard and the surrounding countryside.

What's Grosser Than Gross?

It might be poor taste to share this, but I laughed so hard the other day I just had to post it. My friend from freshman dorm, Eric Ericson, has recently just become a father. His wife, Leslie, is also from Larkin Dorm, so it's very fun to see photos of them as parents.

Trust EZ (Eric) to find this device for decongesting babies' noses: the Nosefrida Nasal Aspirator. Yes, EZ writes, "one end is in the kid's nose and the other in the mommy's mouth. Yes, you are supposed to suck." What? And it's getting a 5 star rating on Amazon.com!




Even more sick? You can purchase a used device on Amazon, to save some pennies. No way.

National Grammar Day!

Even though I teach English, I don't consider myself a very good grammarian. I am a good editor: this skill probably comes from reading a lot as a kid, and perhaps from being the yearbook co-editor in high school (along with Kelly Davis, now Garrett). I score well on verbal aptitude tests, and did well in "Business English" competitions when in Future Business Leaders of American in high school. And I have to feign horror when I see my father-in-law's very funny Christmas letter, containing some grammatical errors. (I have tried to convince him to let me edit it, but he won't let anyone but Kathy see it before it's in the mail; he's very worried he'll be censored!)

But I struggle to teach grammar. First of all, I wasn't systematically taught all that much grammar during my own school days (thank goodness! :). I do not know every rule in the book. And I am not sure teaching grammar is the best way to improve grammar. (This is a topic that Steve Brewer and I frequently discussed during my time teaching at Edgewood High School; one of the best teachers I have known, Steve taught grammar frequently and well, but was always questioning its usefulness; his willingness to always question his own teaching practices was one of his greatest strengths.) I do think that we need to use language properly, and that the rules of grammar help us to communicate more clearly and expressively. And my high school students need to understand grammar (perhaps not the rules, but at least the forms & constructions) in order to do this. So I do want to become better at teaching grammar. (Today I was already squeezing too much in, and shared a New York Times article about the proper use of the semi-colon on a public service placard exhorting subway riders not to leave their newspaper behind when they get off the train: "Please put it in a trash can; that's good news for everyone." One student's reaction: "And this is 'newsworthy' because...?" Oh well.)

Thoughts? Hateful reactions? Suggestions? Here are just a few websites which I have learned of and from which I am trying to improve my ability to teach this tricky, icky subject:

• Grammar Girl: Quick & Dirty Tips for Better Writing
• The Bedford Handbook by Diana Hacker

A t-shirt which you can purchase from the Grammar Girl website.
Taylor 'fesses that English was his worst subject in high school,
but I think he's a great writer.

The Importance of Being Earnest

I had to share a few photos of David in which you can see his sweet earnestness. It makes me realize yet again what a big responsibility it is to be a parent: when David looks at us with such sincere earnestness in his eyes, I know that he is eating up our every movement, expression, and comment. How important it is to treasure that trust he has in us.

David knows when I'm praising him;
he must know if someone is critical, too.

If you haven't noticed, I'm sitting up, too!