A Mindful Life

As the family photographer, very few photos get taken of me, especially me and Claire. When my mother-in-law visited around the new year, she took a bunch of photos. (She is an avid photographer and quite good!) I asked her to send some of the images so that I could post them on Flickr, and here are two I thought I’d share with the world. They were taken in January at the SF Zoo. (You can see and purchase more of her work at her website, Kay Harper Photography. All rights on these photos are reserved.)

Below is the New Yorker cover for June 29, 2009. Claire looked at it tonight, and this is what she said (note: she is still confused on gender pronouns):

“Man scared. Man can’t see, looking. He klunked. Yes, he’s looking, he klunked.” Klunked is Claire’s term for falling over. I can only guess that the look on the woman’s face seems like an expression of surprise, which is what Claire usually feels when she klunks. I’ve got an observant little kid on my hands!

Hanging Chador, by Barry Blitt

This is how I spent my “me time” today — at the library, drawing the books I selected to read. (I’ve already begun Northanger Abbey.) It felt really good to draw. It’s prosaic subject matter, but this is my life.

I’m so happy to have my little girl healthy again. Husband took the video below this evening. He introduced her to Dave Brubeck, because she really like the jazz songs on her Music Together CDs. If the video doesn’t play, click this link to see the movie.

With the forecast today predicting that it will hit between 101 and 107 here, and given that we live in a house with no air conditioning, life will move at a snail’s pace around here today.

Claire’s fever finally broke on Friday (until then it was pretty high, around 103.4). We saw the doctor on Tuesday afternoon; he said it wasn’t hand-foot-mouth disease because he saw no cankers in her mouth or throat. It was simply a garden-variety virus that would run its course and that I should keep her hydrated and as comfortable as possible. She says still that her throat hurts and she sounds hoarse, but she’s back to eating almost regularly and playing.

That meant my birthday and the rest of the week was fairly low-key and solitary, but this is okay. I got to hold and cuddle one of my best gifts ever. I will say, though, that if I were graded as a parent based solely on Thursday, I’d probably get a C or D. It was a rough day for us both, and I handled it with less grace than I could have.

The goal today is to stay cool and well.

For my birthday, I’m getting a sewing machine! Does anybody have recommendations of books for beginners? My last encounter with machine sewing was in 7th grade, when I managed to sew through my thumb with the machine and couldn’t figure out patterns. I think I failed that unit; I certainly came out of the experience hating to sew. I’m looking to sew simple things — small pillows, crafts.

I’m getting the Brother 25-stitch Free-Arm Sewing Machine, XL-2600i, which was well-reviewed by Consumer Reports.

Poor sweet Claire is ill. We thought it was teething at first, because she said her teeth hurt and her mouth hurt on Saturday. Yesterday I saw very faint red spots on her legs during bath, and a small little pimple-like bump in the corner of her mouth. Today she spiked a fever, doesn’t have much appetite. The advice nurse thinks it may be hand-foot-mouth disease (not to be confused with foot and mouth disease); this illness causes very painful sores in the mouth. When we put her to bed, her temperature was 101.2 after a dose of infant Motrin.

She says, “Mommy don’t put you down. Hold. Mommy make it better.” She spent much of the early evening lying on her tummy against my tummy. She asks for ice cream to eat; it’s cool for the mouth and the insides, and I don’t say no, because it’s full of calories.

OMG, I haven’t got my child enrolled for preschool this fall! Nearly every other mother I know whose child is about to turn two has taken care of this. I haven’t since I thought we’d be moving and wanted to see where we’d be before I pursued this.

Oh no. My child won’t be ready for kindergarten! (Never mind the fact that I never went to preschool, and I did just fine.)

She spins in circles and says, “I’m getting busy!!” and laughs when she falls down.

She adds plural ending to words that are already plural: gloveses, shoeses, kidses.

She adds “ed” to verbs in current tense to make them past-tense: “It breaked,” “I eated.”

She sits in her wading pool, looks up at the trees blowing in the wind and says, “The trees are dancing.” She sees a butterfly and says, “It’s so beautiful.” She puts on her crown and says, “I’m very cute!”

Some day I will get around to reading Steven Pinker’s book, The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language, but right now I’m observing it in action. It’s wonderful!

From this (playing in her pool and having pensive moment)…

…to this (silly with stickers).