Finger Cutting

I'm going to use November as a chance to catch up on some old happenings that I have neglected for too long. Back on September 18, we were making dinner when Atticus cut his finger trying to help slice potatoes. He was only using a butter knife, but as my sister Charity knows, those can cut through skin if you get it just right. Obviously he was upset at getting hurt, but he was even more upset about having to go to the doctor. Cait jumped into the back of our car with him and we drove the .2 miles to the University Hospital Emergency Room down the road. He ended up getting a few stitches, which we had a hard time keeping clean and covered. They gave him some local anesthetic and some relaxant/memory loss pill that made things go easier. He screamed a lot more when we went to get the stitches out a week and a half later. He also got to play on the hospital's cool iPad. Sorry a lot of the pictures are crappy, it reflects the craziness of the moment.

Check out Atticus giving the guy next to us a pat on the knee

He looks really old in this picture.

After a little infection, his finger is as good as uncut now.

Nablopomo and Nanowrimo

Some of you might know that November is the month of writing a 50,000 word novel in a month and writing on your blog every day for a month. I'm almost positive that Nanowrimo came first and so have no idea why the Nablapomo people (who were obviously imitating Nanowrimo) scheduled it on the same month, except that they were jealous of their novel writing friends writing 1,666 words a day, and so thought that writing a blog post every day was about the same. Anyway, I thought I'd give them a shot. I've never done Nanoblomo (although I've been close to writing every day at random times in this blogs history. I've done Nanowrimo 4 or 5 times and my first book was a product of my very first attempt back in 2004. I'm not super dedicated to succeeding, but I also have always really enjoyed Nanowrimo before. If I am somewhere close on word count, I might include my blog posts in the count, as I've done with school papers before, to make it more of a "write 50,000 words in November." That's what it's really all about, after all, creativity.

I once wrote that I felt the need to blog whether I have a lot of readers or not, or whether what I'm blogging about is interesting or not, because a blog acts as sort of a diary, and also helps to keep those who care about you informed, so that a lot of catching up isn't required every time you meet. That's all true, of course, but I think another main part of blogging is about being creative. I spend so much of my time on the computer consuming, consuming, consuming. I read other people's blogs, read the news, my emails, watch videos, whatever, and rarely do I create anything and put it out there. Although, obviously, the world doesn't need one more lame family blog, I think that blogging can act as a great way to at least put some creativity in your life.

This whole creativity/consumption divide actually resonates with me on a whole lot of levels. The idea that we are not just created by the Creator, but actually endowed by Him with the potential to become creators just like him is, for me, one of the most meaningful and satisfying doctrines in the LDS church. But even outside of the LDS context, there is just something so fundamentally right about contributing something, if even in a small way, rather than simply taking all the time. This isn't a condemnation of anyone who reads our blog without writing one of their own, but it is simply an invitation to take part in the wonderful world of writing a boring blog that people only read out of obligation.

Wow, this was wordy. But I have turned off my inner editor for the month of November. So get over it.

Posted with Blogsy

When Austin comes to call

Two weekends ago was great. Austin came to visit and we acted like young carefree college students again. But not the kind that get drunk and run around naked when it's freezing outside, Wisconsin-undergrad style. The kind that eat at ethnic restaurants and take public transportation and buy delicious victuals at the Farmer's Market. We also toured the Capitol and went to a lecture on Women and Islam and walked the lakeshore path. Tallulah hung out with us most of the time, nestled in the Ergo on one of our chests. It was fabulous, and even though I had to do a ton of work this week to catch up, it was well worth every minute!

Our sweet downtown

In the Senator's chair

Atop the Capitol

Hellllooooo, Madison!

Inside the Capitol

Hiking the trail by our house...in the rain

I'm on sabbatical

Everyone (ok, Kayla) keeps asking about my opinion and thoughts on Tim's faith crisis, or if I'm having my own, etc. I would not say that I'm having the same existential crisis as Tim, but I have decided to take a bit of a break. Years of frustration with inequality and inconsistencies of both doctrine and practice have built up until I had a breaking point and could not take it anymore. I clung to the bits and pieces that the feminist Mormon online community could throw me about how the Church is actually progressive and good for women and here's a, b, and c reasons why you should stay LDS, but ultimately it seems like grasping at threads. Elusive spider webs that are almost non-existent.

I'm over the rhetoric that women are sooooo righteous and Mormon women especially are sooooo liberated/powerful/strong/self-confident. But actually, they just do whatever a bunch of white, upper-middle-class, heterosexual white males tell them to do without questioning. They don't hold positions of power and they don't make decisions for the Church (and according to some, they should not make the decisions in their own families as well) -- but they don't want to, right? Why would we want our overly-spiritual and sensitive women to fret over the mundane workings of the Church? Leave the dirty work to the men, right? Why would I as a woman want to take on these masculine qualities of power and betray my feminine qualities of nurturing?

Well, I don't buy it anymore, and part of me feels misled and slightly brainwashed. You've told me my whole life one thing but in reality it does not play out in the least. The Relief Society budget is still allocated by males. Men have to approve women's activities. Young women's budgets are a pittance of the young men's (Boy Scouts does not equal the lame-o YW program). We claim to believe in Heavenly Mother, yet we aren't allowed to talk about her or pray to her. All the answers people give me to my questions feel like dry, empty rhetoric.

Women are invisible. They don't sit on the stand, they don't speak (often) in general conference, and then when they do, their messages have to be approved by men. I'm sick of being relegated to a lesser position, of being a second sex. I will not put my daughter on the back-burner.

The Fabulous Tallulah (at 7 months)

Sheesh, has it only been 7 months?? I feel like I've known this girl for a lifetime. She is still unfailingly pleasant and smiles at everyone. She had a few incidents of stranger anxiety, but they have been fewer and farther between. She loves to nurse (still going strong at 10-12 times a day) and pinch and pull your hair and steal Atticus's Arthur game pieces but we love her to bits anyways. She can roll and scoot on her back and even pulled herself from sitting up to her knees. She is a confident unsupported sitter (with the occasional topple) and can go from sitting to her belly with little effort (but then she gets mad that she can't go back to sitting). She rarely poops and sometimes will eat real food but not too often (so far, our biggest hit was chicken tortilla soup after she rejected the lovingly pureed beets and butternut squash from the farmers' market). She loves being in the Moby wrap while Tim does the dishes and going for stroller rides to brother's preschool.

She sits through feminist book clubs meetings without a peep (she's soaking it alllllll in) and sometimes goes to school with mom. She has fuzzy blonde hair and still the longest fingers. She weighed in at her last pediatrician appointment at a whopping 14 lbs, 13 oz. Looks like she's following the exact same growth curve as her brother. She has one bottom tooth and is (thankfully) not a nipple biter, though she does like to gnaw on people's fingers and that sucker is sharp. Despite the teething and recent illness and being cooped up in the house because of bad weather (rainy and 50s, bleh) she is a trooper! She loves her Aunt Austin and they had some serious bonding time last weekend when she was visiting. She is vocal and lets you know what she wants and when she wants it. Like now, she wants me to nurse her to sleep and is batting at my chest and squealing like a baby pig.

What a gal!

This is not edited, her eyes are really that blue!

She loooooves broccoli! Baby-led weaning at its finest.

This one is actually a few months old... and she still doesn't like avocado

IS AMERICAN

Although I am much less inclined to post about political topics than I used to be, and although there is little doubt among our readers who I am voting for, and although I am already tired of election season, I would be remiss if I went the whole season without making a public endorsement, so here is some kids summing up of nearly exactly how I feel.

A couple of notes. I think that it is hilarious the pbs kids does this. Also, I am not sure if Hillary Clinton is among the past presidential figures if you design your own sticker or if it's Thomas Jefferson. Also, I am somewhat tempted to vote for Jill Stein, as my increasingly leftist politics have left me unsatisfied at times with the President's actions, but I'm too much a pragmatist for that. That is all. Hopefully I won't be tempted to make any more directly political statements through the end of the year.

New acquisitions

Check out some of the new things we've gotten for our new apartment. We moved out here with pretty much nothing, so we've had to buy some things. Here are some of the things that we really like.

Artistic dish drainer

Bins for toys and recycling. We got two.

We actually picked up this little kitchen in South Carolina on the side of the road

We were looking for a chair like this ever since we got here

Things we still need:
A couch
A microwave

South Carolina

I really enjoyed my stay in South Carolina. I know that anyone who was with me might have some doubts about the truth behind that statement. Cait obviously has a lot more emotional ties to the area than I do, but I grew attached to the place in my time there. I found it thoroughly enjoyable how the days seemed to stretch forever, both because we were in the heart of summer as well as because we had very little structure to our days.

While I felt slightly guilty for not having a real job (although I got in quite a few hours doing some paid writing for my mom and a SEO site), it was great just to have some uninterrupted time together as a family and have a lot of other people around to talk with and to play with our kids. In a summer with so little on our plates, there was never a dull moment.

I really appreciate that Cait's parents were willing to host us for so long. We are a very peculiar family and have a particular way of doing things, as do most families, and the Carroll's also have their way of doing things. There were a lot of clashes, but few big deals. They even let me work on my car in their front yard for a few weeks.

The trip to the beach was especially nice. We never really did "full vacation" things like that growing up, we mostly camped. It was fun to all be together with most of the family in a place where nobody had anything really going on and we were all able to relax (as much as the big Carroll clan can relax when they're all together).

I often felt like my personality didn't mesh very well with the family dynamic, but that is to be expected, since Cait and I love each other for being so different form each other in many ways. I learned a lot about people who are really important in our life, and that makes being a little bit uncomfortable worth it.

So thanks to everyone who made it a great summer. I really enjoyed it. Here are some unpublished videos from the season.

Bragging about Cait

Listen up everybody, Cait is doing awesome. Of course with any big life change, there is plenty of doubt about whether this is the right course. Should we have just stayed in Provo, gone to Rutgers, been hippy midwives (both of us) in the forests of Tennessee? Well, we're here and we're doing just fine. When Cait had to pick which program to join between Rutgers or Wisconsin, she picked the more difficult one. When she had to pick French or Arabic as her primary language of study, she picked the harder one. When she had to decide whether to do the whole thing with one kid or two (this was more of a joint decision) she picked the harder one. And she's done the whole thing with a stay-at-home dad that is still having a hard time fully transitioning into being at home. He's not great at making dinner, keeping things clean or getting the kids to bed. But she's not just getting it done, she's excelling.

That's pretty much all this post is about. I'm really proud. Just check out these pictures. Cait had a full day of classes, came home and went to a potluck with members of her cohort while taking care of her baby, her son was happily running around and then went shopping with us.

She even gets great grades on her Arabic tests, something I never accomplished.

Hot Chocolate in Here for $.99

I dropped the price of Hot Chocolate in Here to a mere $.99. Pick it up while copies are still available. Also, leave a review, good or bad, when you finish.