Stay-at-Home-Parent Switch

Well, Yvette is off for July, so, for most of the month, she's the primary stay-at-home parent. It's no break for me, though--I've been using the time to tackle my freelance work head-on. (Whoa, was that a sports reference? Anyone who knows me will find that odd. Maybe I can pass it off as a Jesus & Mary Chain/Pixies reference.) Okay, back to work.

Since I can't seem to get enough of photos of me and Carina, here's another.

Carina, Carina

Here's a remarkable portrait shot of Carina taken by my brother, Rick, about a month ago when we were all in St. Paul. He's an outstanding photographer currently based in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

The photo really captures the pensive side of Carina's personality. These days, the energetic and restless side is much more on display--she's infinitely curious and rarely stops moving. Her cruising has progressed to full-on walking, but she still likes the comfort of zipping around the floor in crawling mode.

Happy 4th!

Well, Happy 4th of July weekend to everyone!

Funny how your attitude towards the holiday can change when you actually like your president. Fittingly enough, Yvette and I are currently watching HBO's John Adams miniseries on DVD, and it wasn't even planned to coincide with the 4th. (We were watching Undeclared on DVD, but ditched it--it's not nearly as good as Freaks and Geeks.) Paul Giamatti is great as John Adams, and Danny Huston is excellent as Sam--I really hope there's some reference to beer in there.

I'd like to take the girls to the fireworks at Congress Park, but it begins way past their bedtime...we'll have to think about that. And, of course, there's Elena's aversion to loud noises--Carina probably won't be bothered, though. And then there's my aversion to crowds...okay, maybe we'll try to catch the display from somewhere near the house. Or we'll stay inside, keep the girls asleep, and watch John Adams.

Tiny Dancers

Here's Elena joining Carina in her silly little kneeling dance:

(S)Mothering? and Cosleeping

Getting back to my previous post, as a well-read college friend and colleague pointed out to me, there actually is a Mothering magazine. (Something I should have found out myself with a two-second Google search, but oh well.) The publication has been around almost as long as I have, and, yep, it’s super-crunchy, with lots of articles about the many benefits of breastfeeding and cosleeping. While I’m certainly not going to get into breastfeeding, I will say that my experience with cosleeping is very mixed.

On one hand, it’s nice to wake up to a beautifully sleeping toddler in your bed, but it literally puts a barrier between you and your partner, and it can foster needy tendencies in your child, especially if they are already inclined to that sort of behavior. And then there’s the anxiety of worrying about rolling over on your child (which I’ll admit, fades pretty quickly) and the simple fact that once your kid gets a little bigger, it’s just not comfortable to have three in a bed, unless you’ve got a king-size mattress. The second time around, we opted for no cosleeping, and it has worked relatively well.

Anyway, circling around to Mothering, it’s worth checking out, if only to reassert the wisdom of the phrase “Moderation in all things.”

What Mattered Most to Moms

I’m happy to report that Parenting magazine has (ahem) apparently ditched its lame subtitle, “What Matters Most to Moms.” Now if the magazine had been called Mothering or Mommying, that would have been fine, but this phrase, paired with the general title of Parenting, resulted in an annoying snub to all dads, particularly stay-at-home dads. Because, you know, fathers aren’t really concerned about parenting, right?

The publication has also taken its name somewhat literally, and gone forth and multiplied. Instead of just Parenting, there is now Parenting Early Years and Parenting School Years. (The lack of punctuation makes the titles extremely awkward, by the way.) Of course, one look at the Parenting site, and it’s perfectly clear that the magazine is still very inclined towards those of the maternal persuasion (Join Mom Congress!), so our victory, gentlemen, is a Pyrrhic one. March on, paternal soldiers!

I Never Go to Work

The children’s albums/DVDs by They Might Be Giants are insanely popular in our household, not only with our girls, but also with me and Yvette, who were both into the band in the late 1980s/early ‘90s. (Yvette would probably like me to qualify that by noting that she was only really into them during the late ‘80s.)

This video—“The 7 Days of the Week” from Here Come the 123s—is fitting for me, not so much with the horn playing (though I did rock the bass clarinet in junior high) as the “not going into the office” part.