tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39107284234663500552024-03-04T21:48:25.827-07:00Julia blogs it like she sees itJuliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.comBlogger306125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-40967921670901756702013-11-12T13:45:00.002-07:002013-11-12T13:45:43.251-07:00Farewell, BlogOver the past year or so, I've been feeling more and more like it is time for me to close out this blog. One big reason for this is that I'm working now, and that means a) I am writing more in other ways and find I have less of that need to empty out what's in my brain (even though I'm doing science writing, not anything personal) and b) I have less time total, as well as less free time that I can/want to use sitting at the computer concentrating and writing, seeing that this is a good description of my job. Another big reason is that as our kids get bigger, I feel differently about writing about their lives. When they were tiny babies, sharing about my life with them felt natural; now, I am more aware of their ownership of their own stories, and how the job of telling their stories belongs to them and not to me. I think it's possible to write about my experience of life, including parenting, in a respectful, appropriate way but it feels time to call this blog finished. I started <a href="http://silgeland.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_archive.html">writing this blog</a> right when Grace was born and Lewis turned 2 this fall, so I've begun to think of this whole blog as a record of the baby years of our family -- the seven or so years where our lives were wrapped up in these new, tiny lives who were joining our family. I don't expect our lives to become un-wrapped from our children, of course, but we are moving into a new season of life.<br />
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I wanted to get all these posts and pictures and everything into a format in the real world somehow, so I decided to declare this blog finished as of Lewis' 2nd birthday and put together some books with all the writing and photographs. I never did traditional baby books for the kids, so I got copies of these for them, as well as us, and hopefully it will be something that gives them a glimpse into the early years of their childhoods.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/10824958854/" title="Six years of writing by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Six years of writing" height="434" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5550/10824958854_179483bed7_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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I did these books through <a href="http://www.blurb.com/my/dashboard">Blurb</a> and they turned out BEAUTIFUL. I sort of used their <a href="http://www.blurb.com/blog-book">slurping blog-to-book thing</a> they do, but I had to manually do the formatting to get it to look the way I wanted. It does blow my mind a bit to consider how much work is in these books, between the original writing and then the putting them together in this form. Making these books was not a quick process.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/10824958184/" title="Memories... by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Memories..." height="426" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3825/10824958184_58c2933410_z.jpg" width="640" /></a>
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So that is that! I have started a <a href="http://silgeland.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a>, to give me a spot to write when I feel like it. I don't plan for that to be a record of our family or anything, but rather a place to write in a shorter, more random form. So far it seems like there's a lot of food things related to Lewis' health issues. I also have another <a href="http://juliasilge.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a> that is just random, interesting things from around the web. You can also find me on <a href="http://twitter.com/juliasilge">Twitter</a> (or <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/julia_silge/">Pinterest</a> or <a href="https://www.facebook.com/julia.silge">Facebook</a>) but not here any longer. Adios, Blogspot!Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-85912579763176863992013-08-31T18:02:00.000-06:002013-08-31T18:06:29.545-06:00Two Years of LewisToday is Lewis' birthday and he is two entire years old. We went to the farmers market to eat lunch and play on the playground, we opened presents from our generous family, and soon we will have some delicious cake with singing and candles. I am so thankful for this sunny, joyful boy, and I am so happy to be celebrating a new year of his life.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8972882434/" title="Smiley boy by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Smiley boy" height="547" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5443/8972882434_1c11277a84_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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He is talking up a storm these days, putting words together into sentences and working so hard to communicate with us. The changes in his verbal skills are so fast and furious; already some of the sweet/hilarious mispronunciations are falling by the wayside. For a long time, he called Violet "Butt", which I admit we thoroughly enjoyed. He has added some more syllables to her name now, so it is more like "Bioyet" -- closer to accurate but sadly not as funny. He does still call Legos "WAY-gos", so that's something.<br />
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We have experienced some kind of potty-training miracle with Lewis. About six weeks ago, we were at Chipotle for lunch one Sunday and he said he wanted to go to the bathroom. He pooped in the toilet at Chipotle, which was the first time he had used a toilet EVER, and things have been going quite smoothly ever since. He is not accident-free or anything, but he is super eager and cooperative in all potty matters. Earlier in the summer, I had said to myself, "Wow, I probably have only one year of diapering left EVER," thinking that he would potty-train next summer right before he turned 3. I guess I was wrong!<br />
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Lewis is the first of our children to potty-train before he weans or grows out of a nap, which has felt different and odd. He's pretty much grown out of baby-wearing as well at this point; the baby carriers are sitting seldom-used in his room where he sleeps in a twin bed and there is no diapering station set up anymore. It's pretty hard to wrap my mind around being nearly finished with the cloth diapers and baby slings and high chairs and breastfeeding and baby beds and all that; all that has been such a big part of my life and my identity for the last 7+ years. Lewis is even starting preschool this fall; he'll go Tuesday and Thursday mornings at the same place that Violet is going to pre-K.<br />
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Lewis got his first haircut this summer. He had been looking pretty straggly with crazy/uneven curliness going on, but I kept putting off doing something about it. I was worried that the little kid hair place I usually take the girls would make him look really conservative; I like longer, scruffy hair on little boys. One day, Rob had an appointment to get his hair cut and on the spur of the moment, we asked the guy who cuts Rob's hair to give Lewis his first trim. The vibe of that guy is such that I did not worry about Lewis coming out looking too conservative :) and it turned out really cute.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/9421982439/" title="Lewis' first hair cut by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Lewis' first hair cut" height="640" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2887/9421982439_b4995ab717_z.jpg" width="640" /></a>
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Lewis has been on an elimination diet for a couple months now to try to figure out his various health issues. We went to an allergist that Rob thinks really highly of to do a bunch of food allergy testing; he didn't have a positive skin test to any of the commonly allergenic foods but unfortunately those tests aren't a perfect way to figure out what foods are troublesome for someone with eosinophilic GI disease. If someone has an IgE-mediated allergy to a food (which is what those tests test for), it is more likely to be a problem for eosinophilic GI disease, but it's not a sure thing and it's not always the only foods that are troublesome. Anyway, we started by taking wheat, dairy, egg, and soy out of his diet. One of the very first mornings, I gave him a little container of coconut milk yogurt and he had a classic allergic reaction to it, right there at the breakfast table. It felt really discouraging, because I thought that I had come up with something he could/would eat and then KABOOM. NO. We went back to the allergist to confirm that yes, he has an IgE-mediated allergy to coconut (which is really rare, it turns out). It's possible that coconut is the ONLY thing that he has an issue with, which would be great; I did cook with coconut oil and milk a good bit, so that could have been the source of the problem. We are staying on the whole elimination diet, though, (since we had already started it) to make sure we figure out what the problem is. Since we started the diet, he has not vomited once and his gagging/coughing/choking has drastically improved. We had a repeat swallow study (swallowing more barium, yay!) last week and it showed that he is not aspirating liquids anymore, which is such, such good news. It's likely that the combination of the diet and the reflux medication has let the damage in his esophagus/wherever heal so that he can feel enough to swallow correctly. So now we will start reintroducing some of these foods again (aside from coconut) to see if he can tolerate them. Since eosinophilic GI disease is not the kind of thing where a problem shows up immediately when you eat a problematic food, we'll do one food for a month and see if he has problems. We're starting with eggs for a month; we'll see!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/9321507365/" title="Sweet Lewis by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Sweet Lewis" height="485" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7315/9321507365_1dc7377db3_z.jpg" width="640" /></a>
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So that's the news with Lewis on his 2nd birthday. He has brought so much happiness to our family, showing us who he is today and who he is growing up to be. He is our only child to get my eyes; Grace's are true blue like my parents', Violet's are deep brown like Rob's, but Lewis' eyes are the changeable grayish/greenish/blueish color of mine. The magic of knowing a new small person, with all the unique particulars of who he is, is no less the third time around. I am so full of thankfulness that he is here in the world and with us.<br />
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Happy birthday, sweet boy.Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-76759222917819431232013-06-24T14:28:00.001-06:002013-06-24T19:54:17.718-06:00Midsummer BlurSpring has passed into summer in a haze of medical drama, family/children's activities, work, and trying to stay up on laundry and making dinner. The solstice has come and gone, my hemisphere is tipping away from the Sun, and I realize more as each week passes that these are the blurry years, a whirlwind of three small people and two jobs and two schools and a house and piles of laundry. I'm content -- happy, even -- but I seldom catch my breath.<br />
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In some rather unfortunate twist of medical bad luck, very soon after I wrote that <a href="http://silgeland.blogspot.com/2013/05/little-lewis-heading-to-hospital.html">last post about Lewis</a> in May, Grace got really sick. It was an unprecedented level of illness for our family, all the more unnerving because Grace usually gets the least sick of anyone in our family. When we pass a virus around, Violet and I tend to get the most dramatically ill while Grace will be grumpy for a day without any actual symptoms. She came home from school with a fever one afternoon and then her fever stayed very high (often over 104°) for several days. She wouldn't eat and would barely drink, medicine wouldn't bring her fever down, and she was disoriented and confused. Her fever got a bit lower after a few days (102° or so), she had a positive strep test but then did not get better on antibiotics, and we ended up being concerned she had <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawasaki_disease">something really bad</a> because of some of her other symptoms. We were within about a day of admitting her to the hospital when her fever FINALLY dropped to 100° and lower. In hindsight, the best anyone can guess is that she had some crazy virus (that none of the rest of us got? I still am not sure that makes sense...) but whatever it was, I am just glad it ended without any worse outcome than Grace losing some weight and missing a week and a half of school.<br />
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Soon after that, Violet had her last day of preschool, with a party and opportunity for me to reflect how well her time at the JCC has gone. I am very thankful for her teachers and the professional help we've pursued, as well as her own amazing self; she is in such a different place than she was 9 months ago. She still does not have a diagnosis or label, and it's looking likely that she won't have one, but I feel very good about the help we've gotten through the <a href="http://www.tccslc.org/">Children's Center</a> and the change we've seen in Violet. We'll be back at the JCC for Violet's pre-K year in the fall, and then I don't know what we'll do. BECAUSE SHE IS READING. (Or is very close, at least.) She is about a year ahead of where Grace was at the same age reading-wise, and as she doesn't have the people-pleasing personality full of empathy and maturity that Grace has, I feel very uncertain about regular kindergarten. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, I suppose.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8786012087/" title="Last day of preschool! by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Last day of preschool!" height="640" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3776/8786012087_a7cd11ac09_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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At the very end of May, Lewis had his procedure at the hospital. On one hand, everything went smoothly and safely and the doctors and nurses were all fabulous; on the other hand, GAH I never want to do anything like that ever again.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8902539952/" title="Lewis in his hospital gown and his hospital car by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Lewis in his hospital gown and his hospital car" height="480" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2818/8902539952_c2acca8d57_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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We were at the hospital for about 5 hours total, less than 2 hours of which he was under anesthesia. They did a great job at the children's hospital being sensitive to the kids there and making things easy for them; this picture shows him in his little hospital gown and his hospital car that he got to ride around in from one place to another. He was pretty grumpy by the time they actually took him back for his procedure because he was so hungry and thirsty (from not eating/drinking for so long) but in general he was content. He came out of the anesthesia calmly, and then he nursed pretty soon after waking and was pretty easily comforted. He seemed out of sorts and sleepy the rest of the day, but he wanted to eat, didn't seem to be in pain, and didn't throw up or anything. I was a bit of a mess at the hospital (crying when the nurses asked me what would comfort him if he was in pain, etc) but really, it could hardly have gone any more smoothly.<br />
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The ENT said he saw a lot of inflammation in his airway consistent with him aspirating but did not find any reason why he is aspirating (no clefts or other anatomical problems). Our GI took biopsies and they showed that he has moderate reflux damage in his esophagus and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eosinophilic_gastroenteritis">eosinophils in his small intestine</a>, which is like a food allergy thing. Neither one of those seems like it's the big explanation for his aspiration that we've been looking for, but we're trying to move forward and figure out what to do next. Last week, we had a feeding evaluation with a speech therapist (who it turns out are the people who do feeding/swallow therapy). I was expecting that this would be the beginning of swallow therapy, i.e. fixing all this, but the therapist concluded that he does not have any oral motor problems that they can address with therapy. This came as a surprise to me and felt kind of frustrating; it's good news that he doesn't have any oral motor problems but I was thinking the swallow therapy was going to be the thing we did to fix everything. Apparently not. We do have some things we're trying (new kinds of cups, thickened liquids, etc) and we're headed to see an allergist (OH, THE IRONY...) next week to see if we can figure out any food issues he has. He is still vomiting pretty frequently, and he still does a lot of coughing/gagging; we can maybe convince ourselves that it's started getting better since we started the reflux medicine? I don't know.<br />
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I thought I was coping OK with all of this, but in the week after Lewis' hospital thing, I lost my voice, had all kinds of GI misery, and got two migraines. It was totally stress; these are all the quasi-psychosomatic things my body does in times of high stress. Life needs to CALM DOWN. Also, I need to figure out how to cope with stress.<br />
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At the beginning of June, Grace had all her festivities to end her time in 1st grade. There was a school-wide fun run...<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8948233977/" title="Fun Run by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Fun Run" height="504" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7351/8948233977_49a3312db5_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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And a big 1st-grade performance (Grace is one of the ones in red on the front row)...<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8786000581/" title="End-of-year performance from all the 1st graders by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="End-of-year performance from all the 1st graders" height="480" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3725/8786000581_249f30d33b_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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And then walking off to her very last day as a 1st grader...<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8949020648/" title="Last day of 1st grade by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Last day of 1st grade" height="640" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3734/8949020648_2bc3a4f483_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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And now we are deep into summer. Our CSA is bringing us lots of beautiful vegetables, Grace is on a swim team at the JCC, and we have turned on the air conditioning in our house. Violet is going to a social skills group at the Children's Center over the summer. It's pretty interesting, actually; it's like a preschool environment with crafts/games/songs but all the activities are specially designed to develop the children's peer-to-peer interaction skills. She's the only one in her group without an autism/Aspergers diagnosis, but they are all about at the same level verbally so it works well. The clinicians in the group are students getting their masters in speech therapy up at the university here, and the two that Violet has in her group are amazing. And then Grace is doing some science camps at the natural history museum and Violet is doing gymnastics. Lewis is learning new words every week, frustrating me with his unpredictable napping, and giving the best hugs. It's all going by in a blur, but it's a blur of the amazing, tangled, messy, and beautiful.Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-70520919842442898672013-05-08T14:37:00.001-06:002013-05-08T20:52:19.038-06:00Little Lewis, Heading to the HospitalI briefly mentioned in my last post that we've been dealing with some rather serious health issues for Lewis (who is 20 months old now, as a reminder) lately, so here is the TL:DR version.<br />
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Gradually over the past 6 months to a year, Lewis has developed a coughing/choking problem. The cough/choke sometimes turns into a cough/choke/gag, and a handful of times it has turned into a cough/choke/gag/vomit. It has gradually been getting worse; I think the first time Rob and I looked at each other and said, "That's weird," was about 6 months ago. We've noticed it when he's eating and drinking, but sometimes also at other times. It's worse when he is sick, and it has gradually been getting worse overall so that he's actually gagged and thrown up a few times in the past month. (One time, with a bunch of french fries at a restaurant-- SARCASTIC YAYYYYY...) It was those occurrences that finally motivated me to call the doctors and get this figured out. We started talking to our general pediatrician and also asked a friend we go to church with who is on the pediatric GI faculty at the U (who also <a href="http://biologos.org/blog/author/pohl-john">writes for the Biologos Forum</a>!) what he thought. Our GI started Lewis on reflux medication (because it seems like it might be reflux-related?) and sent us for a swallow study a few weeks ago.</div>
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The swallow study is where they watch you swallow foods of different textures and thicknesses mixed with barium via some kind of X-ray imaging; they can see if you are having problems swallowing, which is turns out that Lewis is. He is swallowing liquids into his lungs, apparently all the time. During the swallow study he sometimes swallowed liquids into his lungs without coughing, so it looks like he is aspirating even more often than he is coughing/choking. (During the swallow study, he aspirated with EVERY swallow of liquids, actually. He is swallowing solid food with more success.)</div>
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Aspirating, it turns out, is very bad and it is something of a mystery as to why Lewis is as healthy as he is, why he has grown so well, why he hasn't had pneumonia, why he breastfed without any big problems, etc. The most likely scenario is that he has been doing this since birth (he hasn't had any strokes or brain injuries that would make him start swallowing incorrectly) so it is indeed puzzling. One factor in his favor is that he has been breastfeeding since the beginning. It turns out that aspirating breastmilk isn't that bad for you; it doesn't easily grow nasty bugs to give you bacterial pneumonia and it isn't irritating to the lung tissues. I am once again so thankful that breastfeeding has worked out for us and our babies; we likely could have been dealing with all these health issues when Lewis was a tiny newborn instead of a strapping, healthy toddler if it hadn't. I don't minimize my own preparation and commitment in making breastfeeding work, but some of it really is out of my hands, and I am so thankful. I'm actually REALLY thankful right now because we are not supposed to give Lewis any liquids but breastmilk, not even water, until we get this sorted out; water in your lungs is irritating and there is a risk of him getting pneumonia from it. He had been down to nursing just a few times a day but I'm trying to get my supply back up and Lewis to nurse more frequently. I will admit that we haven't totally cut him off from water, because he is finding it upsetting when he feels thirsty. It's a risk, but as Rob keeps pointing out to me, he has been drinking water for a year without anything really bad happening. It is stressful, though.<br />
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So now we have to figure out why he is aspirating. One possibility is that there is something anatomically wrong (like a cleft or a fistula or a hole or something), another possibility is that it's really terrible reflux or something similar (it turns out that you can get reflux so bad that you lose sensation in the back of your throat and can't coordinate your swallowing), or another possibility is that he just plain never learned to swallow correctly, for unknown reasons. The positive here is that there is a way to fix any of those problems: surgery or medication or feeding therapy or some combination of those. We went to an ENT surgeon recently to talk about all this. They put a tiny camera up his nose and back into his larynx, which was strangely non-upsetting to him. He wasn't sedated or anything, just sitting on my lap. He squirmed when it was going through his nose but he sat there, totally calm, once it was back further (because he can't feel anything back there?). The ENT couldn't see any huge/obvious anatomical problems but he did see a lot of irritation and inflammation like he has reflux. The uncertainty is if the reflux is the original cause of the whole thing or a result of another problem.</div>
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Some of you who know me in real life might remember that WAY back when he was 6 months old and we first started feeding him solids, he had some swallowing issues. When we first offered him any foods, he would gag while trying to swallow and then vomit up everything in his stomach. He did that for about a couple of weeks, then figured out how to choke the food down, gagging but not vomiting. A few weeks after that, he figured out how to coordinate his swallowing enough to eat solids pretty normally, and we went merrily on our way, thinking he just had a strong gag reflex and he figured things out. But did he? Or was that part of what's going on now? We still don't quite know.</div>
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The next step is that Lewis has to have an outpatient procedure where our GI and our ENT will check things out in more detail. They have to put him under general anesthesia (aaaaaaaaaah...) but I guess it's not exactly a surgery because they are just looking at things? From our end, the experience will basically be like an outpatient surgery, though. They will do an endoscopy and a laryngoscopy (i.e. they will look at his esophagus and his airway in detail) and hopefully we will know where to go from there. If there's something anatomically wrong to fix, we can fix it. If not, we will do feeding/swallow therapy. In the meantime, we keep him on the reflux medicine (which he has been on for a couple weeks now and maybe Lewis is choking/coughing less? I don't know...), he gets to nurse as much as he wants, and we hope and pray that he continues to avoid pneumonia. His procedure is scheduled for May 30, three weeks from now.</div>
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We are feeling a bit surprised and shaken by all this, as Lewis has never been sickly or seemed vulnerable health-wise. We are definitely dealing with some stress and anxiety about the situation, but we feel confident in our doctors, the children's hospital here where Lewis will have his procedure, our support structure here in Salt Lake, and the care of the One who loves Lewis even more than we do.<br />
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Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-8130875064232240012013-04-29T09:16:00.001-06:002013-04-29T09:16:52.597-06:00Spring Has Come, At Least For a Few DaysIt is so warm! We have had our first 70° days within the past week and have been soaking up the balmy sunshine, at least until the chilly weather returns. (Which is tomorrow, it looks like.) We went to the zoo yesterday and although I don't necessarily recommend going to the zoo on the Sunday afternoon of the first warm weekend of the year (so, so busy! we are at the end of our year's membership at the zoo and I have never seen it like that), we had a fun time. The girls rode the carousel two times each. They like the carousel better than the actual animals, which seems like a failure of some kind on our part?<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8690329817/" title="Rob & the girls waiting to go on the carousel by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Rob & the girls waiting to go on the carousel" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8401/8690329817_8c971e36e9_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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It's been a nice spring for us. We had Passover...<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8569459330/" title="Preschool Seder by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Preschool Seder" height="480" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8525/8569459330_c58543ce63_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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And then Easter...<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8608029472/" title="Pretty eggs by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Pretty eggs" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8381/8608029472_fc2ef83c8d_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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And I am having a good spring as far as body image and feeling at home in my embodied self. For starters, I have been exercising very regularly. Since Violet started preschool at the JCC in January, I have been able to put Lewis in the hourly childcare there and work out more frequently than I have in a very long time. Just doing that really has helped me feel better, physically and mentally. And then I have seen actual changes in my body from this on a shorter timescale than I would have guessed. Influenced by Rob and his Crossfit ways and all the hype about Paleo everything, I have been focusing just on strength training. Strength training is like MAGIC, you guys. I'm doing classic weight-lifting things with barbells (not machines) and I've got to say I've never seen any exercise change my body so quickly. And the exercise itself is not burdensome, which is very helpful. I wouldn't say it's my idea of a fun time or anything, but it is infinitely more pleasant than trudging on an elliptical forever or step aerobics or running or things like that. I lost 2 inches around my hips last month, my rings all fit again, people have commented on my face looking thinner, and most of my pre-Lewis clothes fit now. Interestingly, I have not lost much weight since the beginning of the year (that whole muscle vs. fat thing, I guess). We'll see if I eventually do lose weight or change size more, but to be honest, at this moment I don't care very much. I feel better, and I look better.<br />
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When I go to the gym, I shower there while Lewis is still in the childcare (because trying to shower at home without another adult to watch him is still AWFUL). Showering in the locker room there has been another body image epiphany for me. There are other naked women in there and it turns out that WE ALL LOOK PRETTY NORMAL. It turns out that women, even women who are exercising at a gym, come in various sizes and ages and shapes and that's totally OK! We're all OK! A nice epiphany.<br />
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I've been wanting to get my nose pierced for a while and I had been holding it out as a reward for getting back to my pre-Lewis weight. Lately, I've been thinking that that maybe isn't the healthiest way to go about things. At some level, I don't really control the number on the scale; I control the choices I make about food and stress and sleep and exercise, but it's a complicated physiological equation that translates that to my weight, and my weight per se isn't really what I want to spend my time focusing on. If I want my nose pierced, maybe I should just go get my nose pierced. So I did.<br />
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Here's an inside-the-car selfie (about a week post-piercing), complete with toddler photobomb, for you to see the result:<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8691428714/" title="I got my nose pierced! by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="I got my nose pierced!" height="480" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7046/8691428714_2c2f4e64db_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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It's been about 10 days with the nose piercing now and I really, really like it. It's been healing well (there have only been a <i>couple</i> instances of a child bonking my face -- OW) and I feel like it looks really "right" on my face. A bunch of people haven't even noticed, which is rather hilarious (people are not thinking about me as much as I think they are), and I've seen a few people do double-takes and visibly think, "Did Julia always have that?" And then a few friends have said that they're just surprised I haven't done it before now. I am so happy with it, which contributes to my general positive body image this spring.<br />
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Less welcome this spring, we are dealing with some health issues for Lewis. We are still in the midst of tests and procedures and appointments and figuring stuff out; it has happened sort of fast, from our perspective, but on the other hand, it seems to be explaining some weird stuff that's been going on with him for months. I'll write more soon when we have more actual information about what's going on. Short, preliminary version: he has some kind of swallowing problem and is aspirating liquids, and we need to fix it. Fixing it will involve either surgery (aaaaaaaaaaaaaah...) or swallow/feeding therapy. UGH. It's definitely serious, but right now the things that need to be done seem pretty clear-cut and obvious. Hilariously, when they gave me the info on the possible swallow therapy, it was for the exact same therapists that I had just taken Violet to for a speech/language evaluation. "BUT I WAS JUST THERE..."Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-87003068010032422452013-03-06T12:53:00.000-07:002013-03-28T09:03:35.449-06:0018 MonthsLewis is 18 months old now, halfway through his second year of life and closer to his 2nd birthday than his 1st birthday. This second year of life is so amazing; everyday he opens up to the world a little more, learns a new word, and is a more busy, animated, joyful toddler.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8372320250/" title="A very snowy boy by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="A very snowy boy" height="639" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8091/8372320250_f6b8057a3d_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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I got rid of the booster seat in favor of the <a href="http://www.kaboost.com/">Kaboost</a> recently because I just could not face cleaning all the disgusting crevices of the booster seat anymore. It's a bit of a struggle to convince him to stay in his seat instead of running around the house at mealtime, but he is getting there. If the food is a special favorite of his (the breakfast sausage we get from our local pork guy, or watermelon, or anything sweet I deign to give him) he will gobble it up with concentration; if the food is not so interesting to him, he will often hop down pretty quickly to explore the world. Despite this, I am glad to get one more piece of plastic baby crap out of the house. This time around, I am not keeping much of anything. All the clothes go to other families right as he outgrows them, and I am gradually clearing out all the infant toys and cloth diapers and so forth.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8473318769/" title="A big boy sitting at the table by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="A big boy sitting at the table" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8238/8473318769_dd869952f2_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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I am not feeling sad right now about Lewis getting so big and outgrowing so much baby paraphernalia; I do not feel nostalgic for the high chair or the jumper or the bouncy seat or any of the other various baby items I have passed on to other mamas as we have finished with them. Part of this is that he is still nursing here and there, we are still deep in the throes of diapering, he still sleeps part of the night in our bed, and so forth; there is still a lot of sweet, cuddly baby in him at this stage. (Although if he follows the same pattern as his big sisters, he only has ~6 months left of nursing and ~1 year left of diapers-- mind-blowing!) The other part of this is that he is so amazing right now. I love this second year of life, with all the language learning and exploring and engaging with the world.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8458670845/" title="Lewis exploring at the Natural History Museum by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Lewis exploring at the Natural History Museum" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8251/8458670845_6e2f48d71f_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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The language explosion is just amazing; it seems like he is literally learning a new word every couple of days. He says "nana" for <i>banana, </i>"baba" for <i>apple, night-night, nurse, go, shoe, </i>and funny versions of all of our names. I think his latest word addition is "AH-ter" for <i>water</i>. Another recent one is <i>dog</i>; for the first three days, he pronounced it as "DERRRRG" but then he shifted to a more normal pronunciation. Whenever he closes a door or puts something away or throws something in the trash, he lets out a complacent, self-satisfied "there!" Both of our girls as toddlers said "uppy!" when they wanted to be picked up, but Lewis has gone with something more like "upf!"<br />
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I will pick you up as much as you want, amazing boy.Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-9514079732058562552013-02-21T12:41:00.000-07:002013-03-05T13:32:55.335-07:00Seven Years of GraceLast week Grace turned seven. Seven! Seven is starting to feel like a big number, like a big grown-up girl, like she is emerging from the world of being a little kid into graceful girlhood. She is our full-of-grace Grace.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8472695916/" title="Seven candles for our big girl by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Seven candles for our big girl" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8366/8472695916_a2c739a428_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Rob was away in Haiti for her actual birthday on Wednesday, as well as her birthday party on Friday. We missed him but we managed to have a fun time celebrating anyway, and then we had yet another birthday celebration the day he got back when she opened her presents and we had one more round of cake and singing. We had her birthday party this year at one of those indoor bounce house places and invited friends from school and church and just around town.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8477999238/" title="Grace's 7th birthday party by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Grace's 7th birthday party" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8094/8477999238_e3d8b77aa6_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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I do so love a fun invitation. I love beautiful cards and lovely paper products and invitations and such; these were designed by a <a href="http://www.etsy.com/shop/inkwelldesignstudio">helpful, nice seller on Etsy</a> and then I had them <a href="http://www.overnightprints.com/">printed on postcards</a>. We did a pretty big party this year (again? I seem to keep throwing these giant birthday parties) because it seems like a good age to still have big, inclusive parties with both boys and girls, and also because it didn't change how much the party was going to cost to invite a ton of kids. I imagine we will be shifting toward more intimate parties as she gets bigger and more immersed in her own social world, but I was full of joy this year to see her run around with a gaggle of friends of every type.<br />
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I feel a lot of shifting in what it means to be Grace's mother, and even writing about her here feels like something new to navigate. This post on Grace's birthday is my 300th blog post and writing here feels different now than it did when she was a baby. I've seen other mothers who write online say they aren't going to share as much about their children as they get older, and I will admit that I didn't quite get it and maybe rolled my eyes. I am starting to feel the same thing, though; it becomes more obvious with every passing day that Grace is her own person and her story is all her own, not mine.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8478000456/" title="Time for cake! by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Time for cake!" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8236/8478000456_15b8978c28_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Who she is today is less wrapped up in who we are together as a mama/little-person pair. We made each other in a very real way, she shaping me no less than I have shaped her, but she is striking out in the world, a world that I think should be staggered by how empathetic and smart and beautiful and amazing she is. Her usual partners for walking to and from school happened to all be unavailable one day this week so we decided she could walk home by herself (well, actually, with the mass of other children walking home along the same streets, but by herself in that none of them were charged specifically with walking with her). She has her own voice and her own future and her own hopes, and I am so happy to get to be here in the thick of who she is becoming.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8478000710/" title="Grace in mid-air by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Grace in mid-air" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8527/8478000710_ceaeb1e554_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-69311521708610921772013-02-05T08:54:00.002-07:002013-02-05T08:54:46.447-07:00Sending Someone<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8416613531/" title="Foggy morning walk by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Foggy morning walk" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8328/8416613531_40a0bbee2c_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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We are getting ready for Rob to leave on Saturday for Haiti. He'll be gone for 10 days and will spend his time doing medical training for local medical staff. I am excited for him to go, but of course there is the specter of extended solo parenting. He'll be gone for both Grace's actual birthday and her birthday party next Friday, as well as Valentine's Day, so you can see how I'm really suffering for the gospel here.<br />
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There is a city in Haiti called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gona%C3%AFves">Gonaives</a>, and there is a slum in a trash dump outside Gonaives called Jubilee. We have a friend (who we went to church with here in Salt Lake) who moved to Jubilee about a year ago. Her name is <a href="http://onewaytickettohaiti.blogspot.com/">Grace</a> and she is a nurse; in Salt Lake, she worked as a pediatric neurology nurse at the children's hospital and now she runs a primary care clinic in Jubilee. The clinic is part of a <a href="http://muchministries.org/ministries/">holistic effort</a> in Jubilee to transform the community that includes a school for children, a trade school for adults, clean water, and so forth. Our church here is involved in a long-term relationship with Gonaives and Jubilee and this year a handful of people are going on this trip to do medical training and otherwise serve the people there in various ways, the local Haitians and the Americans who live there full-time. Grace and another nurse work at the clinic along with a handful of local nursing assistants; they are the ones who Rob and the other medical people from Salt Lake are going to be training. If you're interested in seeing what life is like is Jubilee, you can read <a href="http://onewaytickettohaiti.blogspot.com/">Grace's blog</a>; if you're interested in keeping up with the group Rob will be traveling with, they are going to update <a href="http://missiodeihaiti.blogspot.com/">this blog</a> while they are away.<br />
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Rob has gotten vaccines and sprayed his clothes with anti-mosquito stuff to fend off malaria while I have pondered how exactly I am going to take a shower while he is gone. (Ideas? I seriously cannot wait until Lewis will sit still and watch TV for 20 minutes while I get ready.) Rob has put together training on the immune system and pediatric development and so forth while I have pondered catching up on <i>Downton Abbey</i> while he is away. Rob is packing shorts and T-shirts and it will more than likely snow while he is gone. He will eat Haitian spaghetti and I will make vast quantities of macaroni & cheese for the kids. He is going and we are sending.Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-45698780946274239452013-01-11T15:54:00.002-07:002013-01-11T15:55:56.474-07:00Congratulations, This WeekI would like to extend my congratulations to this week, our first week after the holidays back to work/school/everything, for totally knocking me sideways and kicking my butt. Grace was back to 1st grade and started a gymnastics class, Violet started at a new preschool, Rob started working at two clinics instead of one, I tried to get my working hours back up to their normal levels, and somehow I also thought it would be a good week to schedule various dentist and doctor appointments. I think it would have been a lot for even a normal week, but we were all out of practice for our normal lives so things were a bit rough.<br />
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One thing that seems to be going well is Violet at her new preschool. After Violet's first appointment to do evaluations and see if there are things we should be doing to help her, we decided that it was time to pursue preschool for her again, and to try for a more traditional, structured preschool environment. I called around and discovered that the Jewish Community Center (where Grace went to pre-K) had just had a spot open in Violet's age group for MWF mornings THAT VERY MORNING so we decided to go for it. So far she is loving it; she is excited to go and sad to leave, she asks about going on non-school days, and she says it makes her happy. I've been talking a lot to the teachers about where she is right now socially and behaviorally and I feel really good about them. They are saying that she often protests transitions (no surprise there) but otherwise they think her first week went well.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8370219411/" title="First day at a new preschool by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="First day at a new preschool" height="513" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8374/8370219411_a3f8968055_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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The downside to the JCC is that it is pricey by Salt Lake standards, partly because you have to be members to enroll at the preschool. The upside is that then you are members at the JCC! They have lots of really nice programs including a lovely gym and wonderful childcare for kids Lewis' age, so now I am working out at a gym again-- hooray! I shall lift many weights and become buff and strong.<br />
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I need to figure out how we are going to feed ourselves dinner on weeknights this semester. We have something scheduled every evening Monday through Thursday that interferes with either Rob or I being able to cook a "real" dinner by an hour reasonable for children who start their bedtime routine by 7pm. By "real" I mean cooked from scratch with ingredients that require being chopped, not super-fancy or anything. I find that that almost always takes about an hour, and I don't think an hour is too long to spend on a weekday dinner but we just literally don't have that kind of time on weekdays. So what to do? Become one of those people who does almost all the cooking on the weekends? Heavy use of the slow cooker and do everything earlier in the day? Hope that we will somehow get better at navigating weeknights? Dinner is one of the ways in which this week did a stellar job of prevailing against me.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8370231231/" title="More snow! by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="More snow!" height="360" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8511/8370231231_f9133e81c2_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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It has been snowing heavily since late yesterday and I am thankful for this because a) it is super beautiful and I love snow and b) I think it will encourage us to hibernate this weekend in a much-needed fashion. I drove around a lot today in the blizzard-y whiteness; it took me the better part of an hour to get Violet to preschool, I put my anti-lock brakes to good use, and I passed many cars stuck in snow or bonked into signs or whatever. I've used up several days' supply of fight-or-flight hormones driving around so this weekend I need to exercise my hermit tendencies. Hopefully a weekend of hiding out and being lazy will allow us (me?) to approach next week with less blankness and more energy than I feel right now.Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-44892935161113779582012-12-31T15:26:00.002-07:002012-12-31T15:27:25.079-07:00Soon 2012 Will Be Behind UsI love these liminal days between Christmas and New Years, especially when they are quiet and peaceful like they have been for us this year. The twelve days of Christmas start on Christmas and go until Epiphany on January 6, and these days do feel like feast days, like holidays, even like holy days of rest and family and celebration, in many respects. I've been thinking about the year ahead of us and what might come, and the year that we are leaving.<br />
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<li>This winter has already given us more snow than we had all last year. The skiiers and snowboarders are so happy! Maybe I'll try the snow sports again in 2013?</li>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8330972462/" title="Powder by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Powder" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8356/8330972462_cb6447121c_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lazarus18/8307757928/" title="Untitled by Lazarus18, on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8074/8307757928_1d59663756_z.jpg" width="480" /></a>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8221272092/" title="Snow! by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Snow!" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8208/8221272092_5da1f235bc_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<li>I saw <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0848228/">one movie</a> in a movie theater this year. Maybe in 2013 I will go all crazy and try for two!</li>
<li>I re-joined the world of paid work after four years away and I am VERY happy. I like thinking about astronomy and education again, and it is very nice to be paid for thinking such thoughts.</li>
<li>Robert and I celebrated <a href="http://vimeo.com/5139173">our 10th anniversary</a>; we have been married a decade.</li>
<li>I read <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/680895-julia">about 15 books</a>, give or take, which is not very many by my lifetime standards. Grace, on the other hand, read probably 50 books, from just the summer when she really started reading independently until the end of the year. (Hers are SO MUCH EASIER than mine, though-- really, I swear.)</li>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7889607524/" title="Old books by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Old books" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8449/7889607524_2d10a2d655_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<li>I have had moments of fairly intense grief at the state of the world; there was the election and the stomach-turning "discourse" surrounding it, there was the shooting at Sandy Hook (which happened pretty near where we lived in Connecticut, to children who were in the same grade as Grace, and which just knocked me over with its horror), and that was just in the last two months of the year, in my own country.</li>
<li>This past growing season was amazing here in Utah; there was so much abundance at the farmers markets and our CSA and even just friends' yards. One set of friends have an apricot tree that was just ridiculous this past year; I lost count of how much jam I made and even did liqueur.</li>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7584384712/" title="The first stage of apricot liqueur by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="The first stage of apricot liqueur" height="640" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7107/7584384712_b6507ea5c7_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<li>I played piano at church, I drove Grace to ballet, I helped run my local MOPS chapter, I went to my once-a-month Friday-night book club, I went to yoga and Pilates, I went running, I half-heartedly tried to eat healthfully.</li>
<li>I did not leave the state of Utah once, although we did explore some lovely parts of our state through the summer and fall. Maybe I will venture further afield in 2013.</li>
<li>Lewis turned 1, Violet turned 4, Grace turned 6, I turned 34, and Rob turned 36.</li>
<li>We replaced some windows, had some painting done, and moved around where all the children sleep. I always have grand house plans and it felt so great to put some of them into action this year. Maybe we'll finally xeriscape this coming year?</li>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7584379452/" title="Goodbye, 100-year-old windows by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Goodbye, 100-year-old windows" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8024/7584379452_2257e2fae1_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8220192971/" title="Hello, yellow by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Hello, yellow" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8347/8220192971_1b1cc3c102_z.jpg" width="640" /></a>
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<li>Violet started preschool, Grace finished kindergarten, Grace started 1st grade, then Violet left preschool in not-ideal circumstances. We are about to start the preschool adventure again with Violet in January at a new place; I'm full of uncertainty and hope about it.</li>
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That's probably a pretty sensible way to approach the entire new year, isn't it? 2013 does not make us any promises but I turn the page to a new year with hope for the days ahead.<br />
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Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-9111073647000843612012-12-25T09:09:00.000-07:002012-12-25T09:09:00.181-07:00Merry Christmas!<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8304411015/" title="MERRY BOKEH CHRISTMAS! by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="MERRY BOKEH CHRISTMAS!" height="426" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8351/8304411015_ea01ef2452_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<i>Truly He taught us to love one another;</i></div>
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<i>His law is love and His gospel is peace; </i></div>
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<i>Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother,</i></div>
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<i>And in His name all oppression shall cease.</i></div>
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<i>Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,</i></div>
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<i>Let all within us praise His holy name;</i></div>
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<i>Christ is the Lord,</i></div>
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<i>Oh, praise His name forever!</i></div>
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<i>His pow'r and glory evermore proclaim!</i></div>
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<i>His pow'r and glory evermore proclaim!</i></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8306165676/" title="All of us together on Christmas Eve by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="All of us together on Christmas Eve" height="639" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8357/8306165676_18aa33fa91_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-15698700089741662782012-12-23T14:03:00.000-07:002012-12-24T14:45:11.169-07:00Four Years of VioletYesterday was Violet's birthday and now she is four years old. When she woke up yesterday, we wished her a happy birthday and told her she was four now but she didn't believe us; it took a good number of minutes before she wrapped her mind around the fact that this long-awaited day had finally arrived, that she could stop explaining that she was still three, that her day of presents and cupcakes and celebration was upon us.<br />
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We had such a fun day. We opened her presents in the morning, then had a bunch of friends over in the late afternoon for a joint Robert-Violet birthday party (as he turned 36 on Friday) with snacks and cocktails and cake. This might well be the last year that we'll do a joint party like that, and I am so, so thankful for the people we live life with here who came to celebrate these two people that I love so much. I just love throwing parties; I love having a house full of laughing, loud people and kids running around pulling out all the toys and good food and drinks and so forth.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8297219051/" title="Violet is 4! by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Violet is 4!" height="546" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8495/8297219051_15d1d3358b_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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It has been a hard year for Violet, and for us as we work through how to help her and how to be her family. I did not see this coming a year ago at her <a href="http://silgeland.blogspot.com/2011/12/three-years-of-violet.html">third birthday</a>, although in hindsight, who she is now is just who she has always been. There are aspects of life that are such a struggle for her, and so on Monday we finally had our first appointment with a therapist-type person to do some evaluations, to see if we can figure out where to go from here and what to do to ease her struggles. And oh, how I want to ease those struggles... Just plain because I love her but also because she is amazing and beautiful and wonderful and I so intensely want to untangle that amazingness from her struggles so she can flourish as she walks through life. Violet is so creative and bright and focused, so full of imagination and intelligence and a crazy long attention span and radiance.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8298268563/" title="My favorite 36-year-old with my favorite 4-year-old by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="My favorite 36-year-old with my favorite 4-year-old" height="484" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8082/8298268563_71a7b5bb93_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Happy birthday, beautiful. May this new year of your life see you thrive and blossom, see you full of joy and peace.<br />
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Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-60521285130284903302012-12-02T17:19:00.000-07:002012-12-02T17:19:00.747-07:00AdventToday is the first day of Advent. Last night we got our tree up, the 10th tree that Rob and I have decorated together. Violet was nearly apoplectic with excitement about the "jewels" we hung on it and Grace tried to hang every ornament at her own eye level. Lewis tried to grab every ornament off within his toddler reach.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8237189558/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="This is the 10th Christmas tree Rob and I have decorated together by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="This is the 10th Christmas tree Rob and I have decorated together" height="500" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8340/8237189558_dae2a6672b.jpg" width="401" /></a></div>
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My observing of Advent has changed a lot in the last several years, and I am so thankful for the people and churches and organizations that have helped me to make changes and in the process to find peace and joy and meaning in this season of the year. I first saw a video for Advent Conspiracy when I was hugely pregnant with Violet in 2008. I literally sobbed, partly because I was a hormonal crazy person, of course, but also because I was hungry and thirsty for a different way to observe Christmas and Advent. The narrative our dominant culture gives us about how to observe Christmas is not sustainable or healthy or good for us as holistic human beings or OK.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/30556886?badge=0&color=f9f2e0" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="640"></iframe><br />
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There is a better way to celebrate this season. There are <a href="http://www.worldvision.org/GiftCatalog">better gifts to give</a>, and a better place in the world to make for all of us.<br />
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<i style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The light has come and is coming.</span></b></i><br />
<i style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The darkness cannot overcome it.</span></b></i><br />
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<i style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></i>Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-91432145219636790972012-12-01T18:10:00.000-07:002012-12-01T18:11:19.422-07:0015 MonthsLewis is 15 months old today and he is such a toddler now; the baby in him shrinks every day and is replaced with more and more little boy.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8220186207/" title="Playing in the leaves by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Playing in the leaves" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8483/8220186207_6c6a876abe_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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He has graduated from just being a walker to climber extraordinaire. If the chairs are not pushed all the way in to the dining table, he will climb to the top of it in no time at all. He also can climb to the top of our upright piano, and is getting quite steady on the stairs as well. He loves to empty drawers and the house is often littered with the contents of kitchen drawers, the book basket, the toy bins.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8221271164/" title="Climber by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Climber" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8205/8221271164_2617612812_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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He calls me "mama" now, and he will hold pretty much anything up his ear and say, "A-yo? A-yo?" An actual phone, a block, the cherry pitter, just his hand. He is starting to copy our intonations when we say certain things, not quite ready to say the actual words yet but still learning to connect with us.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8221271570/" title="Rolling along by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Rolling along" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8067/8221271570_d1b29dd55d_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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This has been a month of big transition for Lewis as we have moved the girls upstairs to their new bedroom with bunk beds and have moved Lewis into the room downstairs that the girls have been sharing since we moved into this house. (Yes, I admit it; Lewis slept in our room for over a year.) With a tiny baby, I always sleep better with the baby in the same room as me, and I like not having to really get up and go anywhere for night wakings. With Lewis, we went hard-core hippie and just accepted that he was going to be in our room for a good long while, not even decorating a nursery. Somewhere around the one-year mark, some hormonal switch in my brain flips and then I WANT THE BABY IN ANOTHER ROOM. It happened with both of my girls (who had nurseries, but didn't really spend much time in there for their first years) and it happened again with Lewis. In the past few months, I have been SO SO READY for him to move out into his own nighttime space and the week of Thanksgiving we made the big move! It has gone really smoothly and he has been doing very well transitioning to being in his own room at night. I know it will be a while before he is there the whole night through, but even just sleeping on my own for the first chunk of the night has been great for me.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8221266980/" title="Sweet angel baby by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Sweet angel baby" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8200/8221266980_e0f7f6170f_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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I feel like my sleep has vastly improved since we moved Lewis to his own room and I am happy about it, but an era in his life has ended and he will never be that little baby who sleeps in our room again. Realizing how fleeting Lewis' present self is makes me want to soak up who he is right now and imprint on my memory forever his cheeks, his lips, his funny shrieks, his toddler waddle, his chubby hands. I don't want to miss any of who he is and who he is becoming.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8221264854/" title="Sweet cheeks by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Sweet cheeks" height="525" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8067/8221264854_b296482df9_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-57750269458258688622012-11-27T09:50:00.000-07:002012-11-27T19:25:36.598-07:00Still Feeling ThankfulI've been contemplating our autumn and how much there has been to be thankful for. Both sets of grandparents came to visit, it was a harvest season full of bounty and deliciousness, my astronomy writing job is going well, and we explored Utah outside of our own city more than we have before.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8220182555/" title="Hiking in the mountains by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Hiking in the mountains" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8061/8220182555_5a0ba43e24_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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We left the girls overnight for the first time with our friend <a href="http://afullerlife.blogspot.com/">Haley</a> and Rob, Lewis, and I went up to Park City for a little mountain getaway. We stayed at a really lovely hotel (fancy hotels are SO NICE; that is a very creative thought of mine, isn't it?) and rode up a ski lift to do a little hiking and had such a fun time. It blows my mind a little that it won't be that long before we could leave ALL THREE CHILDREN with friends and actually be away just the two of us.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8220183611/" title="Up another ski lift! by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Up another ski lift!" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8199/8220183611_2912cb783d_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Riding a ski lift in summer or autumn is my new favorite thing. Grace and I did it again during our visit from Rob's parents when we took them up to one of the ski resorts. That was a LONG ride, over an hour roundtrip including the little bit of walking we did at the top, and it was amazing. It's crazy to realize that this is all covered in snow now; maybe this is the year I will give skiing or snowboarding another try. ALL FOR THE SKI LIFTS. Seriously, they are the best part.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8221264118/" title="Heading back town to the valley by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Heading back town to the valley" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8349/8221264118_35cfe82a4f_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Not that the scenery is too shabby in the city itself:<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8221270788/" title="Autumn by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Autumn" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8477/8221270788_3d649314a9_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Seriously, you guys, Utah is amazing. That is just the view on one of my running routes from our house.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8221265204/" title="Pear + vanilla bean jam by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Pear + vanilla bean jam" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8059/8221265204_d0b62bc97f_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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This was my most productive year yet for preserving, and also the year that might convert me to finally labeling my jars with what they contain. I have enough jars this year that I'm not entirely sure which jam is which. I also might try to do some non-sweet foods next year; I've realized that I pretty much just did jams and fruit and apple butter and that kind of thing. Considering that I'm trying to shift away from eating sugar regularly, this might not be the best plan for me. Oh well, the girls like it and it all makes good Christmas gifts. And it is SO SO SO FUN.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/8220189313/" title="Bird + fairy by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Bird + fairy" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8070/8220189313_37ab41beaf_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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We had a fun Halloween, with our sweet birdie and fairy. (Gotta love <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/5137165668/">hand-me-downs</a>, right?) I wasn't sure how that bird costume was going to turn out while it was still in process. When I was sitting there cutting out those feathers from my bins of fabric scraps, I was pretty sure she was going to look like she was wearing a quilt. By the time I'd gotten about halfway up sewing them on in layers, I felt more OK about it, and the overall effect with the mask is good. I did show it to a few friends without telling them what it was supposed to be to ascertain if it was obvious, or just crazy looking. And then I never know what to do with all the candy; maybe we'll become one of those buy-back-the-candy families.<br />
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Our autumn has been full of things to be thankful for, but it has been hard too. Life with Violet is hard right now. She is amazing and beautiful, creative and super smart, but she is so frustrated so much of the time, and coping with life does not come easily for her. We did decide to give her a break from preschool for a while and that has helped, and we also decided to get a professional perspective on what kinds of changes we should make. That's still a few weeks off but I have hopes that it will help. And then Lewis is, well, a toddler-- a normal piano-climbing, drawer-emptying, house-trashing toddler. It's a challenging convergence of intense needs that has me struggling, I admit. At the same time, I am fiercely thankful for this season of my life. It's flashing by like autumn rushing into winter.Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-80768206713305737232012-10-10T08:44:00.000-06:002012-10-10T09:36:25.313-06:00Hello There, Bloggy Blog<br />
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<li>Last night for dinner we had this pumpkin-coconut-kale curry thing for dinner that I ate over spaghetti squash. It was Squash Inception!</li>
<li>There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth from the girls about dinner, even though I gave them rice into of spaghetti squash. Why do I feed them such terrible food?! Don't I love them?! This is in contrast to the night before when we fed them Costco pizza (I had been sick with a stomach bug and didn't feel up to cooking yet) when they sat there in serene happiness, cleaning their plates and asking for more.</li>
<li>For Lewis, I picked out chunks of pumpkin and slices of chicken from the pot and rinsed off the curry sauce. As one does.</li>
<li>I am working! Although actually not that much this week, between our babysitter being out of town and me having that stomach bug. Recently I have been working on questions about tidal effects in the Solar System and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1iJXOUMJpg">spaghettification</a>.</li>
<li>We have a parent-teacher conference for Grace tomorrow and in preparation, her teacher has asked her to come up with an intention for the rest of the semester, like in a yoga class. I think her intention should be to get ready in the morning quickly and independently; she thinks it should be to learn to go really fast on her scooter.</li>
<li>This week is also parent week at her ballet class, which means we are allowed to go into the class and sit and watch. She is taking ballet at the school associated with Salt Lake's professional company and it is kind of hard-core. They all wear the same leotard and are required to have their hair in a bun and aren't allowed to wear earrings or nail polish. I'm not sure if she'll want to stick with it beyond this year but she likes it, being the rule follower that she is, and I like that everything is in good taste and non-skanky.</li>
<li>We are going through a tough time with Violet, mainly preschool-related. She's been there since January and seemed to like it pretty well at first, but things have been going downhill. Now she says that she doesn't like school, doesn't want to go, school makes her sad, etc. Her teachers sat down with me recently and we had a hard-to-hear conversation about how she doesn't participate with the group, sits off by herself a lot, has pretty drastic trouble with transitions between activities, and often turns non-verbal and withdrawn when she's upset at school. MY HEART. We're still processing, trying some new things, and thinking through our options-- give her a break from school for a while? get some kind of professional help/opinion/evaluation? try a different style of preschool that would be a better fit for independent Violet with her long attention span, maybe Montessori? push through at her current school? I don't know. I do know I broke down crying while describing her current struggles during a visit to a Montessori school last week, so that's awesome.</li>
<li>And Lewis? He has moved from the high chair to sitting at the table, he says "nigh nigh" when it's time to go to bed and "allo" when he puts a phone to his ear, he gives wet open-mouthed kisses complete with "mwa!" sounds, and I really really really want to get him into his own room at night. We have to move the girls upstairs to their new room first, so we are still in process on that. I did buy bunk beds yesterday, though-- hooray!</li>
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Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-45324492270775112072012-08-31T11:53:00.000-06:002012-08-31T11:53:50.076-06:00One Year of Lewis<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7901452836/" title="One year of Lewis by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="One year of Lewis" height="481" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8439/7901452836_27639724ba_z.jpg" width="640" /></a>
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One year ago today, before the Sun had risen, Lewis had arrived here in the world after a <a href="http://silgeland.blogspot.com/2011/09/lewis-birth-story.html">much longer labor</a> than I would have predicted. And then he was <i>here</i>, his beautiful amazing self was here, on the very morning that Grace started kindergarten and our family changed and grew and became what it is now.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/28785463?portrait=0&color=c8b3df" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="640"></iframe> <br />
<a href="http://vimeo.com/28785463">Lewis' Zeroth Birthday</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user881786">Julia Silge</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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And now Lewis has made his first trip around the Sun and we have spent the past year seeing him get gorgeous and big, opening up to the world, becoming everyday more who he will be. I love newborns, I love babies, and when I watch that video, I feel absolutely in love with the tiny squashy newborn Lewis was and so happy for one-year-ago me to get to hold his curled-up body and kiss his wrinkly old-man fingers. But there is so much joy in the future of one-year-ago me too, as the newborn in that video turns into this gorgeous happy baby who is toddling around the living room right now.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7889610630/" title="Such a big boy by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Such a big boy" height="499" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8442/7889610630_4fee1a0c01_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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He is walking, just within the past two weeks or so, and stomps unsteadily around the house like a cheery drunk person, arms waving, little diapered butt hitting the ground when his balance fails him. It happens so fast, over just a few days, the transition from not being able to walk to it being the preferred method of locomotion. He still occasionally drops to all fours for his super-fast waggle-butt crawl, but its days are numbered. He says "uh oh" and "dada", with an occasional "mama" that he doesn't quite use appropriately yet. He claps his hands and says "yayayayayaya", and he waves goodbye, repeating either "nana" or "dada" while waving (apparently there are no "b" sounds yet, and no long "i" vowel sounds either). He still has just the eight teeth he's had for months now, apparently believing in the "all at the same time" school of teething. He likes to eat fruit and cheese and books (all paper, actually) and sticks. And dirt. And rocks too, if we're being honest. I did finally put all the crayons up high so at least they're not a regular part of his diet anymore.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7584380536/" title="Sweet squishy Lewis by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Sweet squishy Lewis" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8012/7584380536_9ff78658ce_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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He is a joy to be with and his presence in our lives is a gift. Today my parents are coming in town; we'll have a party with cake and a few presents and grandparents. I am so glad to be celebrating this milestone.<br />
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Happy birthday, my delicious blue-eyed boy.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7584376696/" title="Blue eyes by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Blue eyes" height="461" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7246/7584376696_bae17a1065_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<br />Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-79887152455107485262012-08-06T09:32:00.000-06:002012-08-06T09:53:12.906-06:00A Good Book Is Hard to Find<br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7646008494/" title="Nothing like a good book by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Nothing like a good book" height="433" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7254/7646008494_5e86c41843_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Apologies to Flannery O'Connor.<br />
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Grace's reading has blossomed in an amazing way this summer since kindergarten ended. She actually sits with a book and just reads independently, by herself, absorbed in book after book after book. It is such a joy to see her become a reader; it makes some deep part of me happy to see her become totally engaged with a book and just want to READ. Also, I will admit to a bit of jealousy as I am not reading as much as I want to be, or as much as I did as a girl, or a single person, or a woman with no children. In this season of life with my three little ones, I read for fun about as much as I did during grad school, which is not really enough.<br />
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We've always done reading aloud and we stick to lovely worthwhile classics for those, books that we love that we are so glad we can share for the first time with Grace. Right now Rob is reading through the Narnia series to her, a chapter a time, before she goes to bed. We can't wait to start Harry Potter, and <i><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10444.Ballet_Shoes">Ballet Shoes</a></i>, and <i><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24384.The_Cricket_in_Times_Square">The Cricket in Times Square</a></i>, and so forth... I am having a harder time finding books that are just right for her to read by herself, though. She is just at the cusp of being able to read chapter books. The early reader books we have (you know, those paperbacks that star a character like Amelia Bedelia or Eloise but are not the original works) are starting to lose their appeal for her, and she occasionally still enjoys plowing through a pile of picture books, but those options not really challenging to her or moving her skills forward. On the other hand, most of the classic children's chapter books that I think are so wonderful are still a bit too hard for her to read independently. I feel like she's in a challenging in-between place right now.<br />
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The great discovery of the summer has been the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Tree_House_series">Magic Tree House</a> series. I think I saw these books mentioned briefly on someone's blog as a good introductory chapter book and BOY, was that person right. They are somehow perfectly designed to appeal to Grace at her current reading ability and developmental stage. She LOVES them. She has finished the entire first series since school let out and is well on her way to catching up to all the ones in the second series that are currently published before school starts again at the end of August. They aren't what one would call great literature but they aren't junk-y vacuous books either. (Ask me sometime about the Barbie book that Grace brought home once from the school library. ANGRY PARENTS.) I have taken to requesting about four at once from the library and depending on how busy our schedule is, she will finish all of them within 48 hours of us picking them up at the library.<br />
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So here I am, crowd-sourcing some suggestions for books for her to read. What else would be good for a newly-independent reader just taking her first steps into chapter books? The Magic Tree House series is about as far as I'm willing to go when it comes to lack of real literary merit. I'd prefer for her to read books of real value and beauty, but age-appropriate appeal is important too. I got some of the non-fiction "research guides" that the Magic Tree House people put out to go along with their books but she struggled to get through those and did not enjoy them at all; reading became WORK again. I know that eventually we all have to read things that are hard to get through but that is not what I'm looking for right now for Grace. I really want her to love <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/537296.Frog_and_Toad_Are_Friends">Frog and Toad</a> and <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/201146.Little_Bear">Little Bear</a> but much to my (hopefully well-hidden from Grace) disappointment they just haven't grabbed her in the way Magic Tree House has. I guess a related question to my main one above is how can I make Grace love Maurice Sendak?Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-52269355626957814682012-07-30T10:11:00.000-06:002012-07-30T10:28:52.336-06:00FacesLewis is 10 months old (well, 11 months as of tomorrow) and I think he looks so much like Grace at the same age; what do you think?<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7584386840/" title="Lewis at 10 months by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Lewis at 10 months" height="550" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7139/7584386840_c08a9253ec_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/383048564/" title="10 months old by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="10 months old" height="425" src="http://farm1.staticflickr.com/167/383048564_dd2fcdd186_z.jpg?zz=1" width="640" /></a><br />
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I feel like Lewis reminds me so much of Grace at the same age in his mannerisms and expressions and whatnot as well. Genetics are so interesting! And here is what Grace looks like now, about six year later, with her adorable lack of front teeth:<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7646008246/" title="Goodbye, baby teeth! by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Goodbye, baby teeth!" height="467" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7116/7646008246_570b829c3d_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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There was such DRAMA involved in the removal of these teeth. Grace is very sensitive about physical pain and does not have a lot of toughness in her. When she lost her bottom front teeth, she let us "help" them along a little but she really freaked out about the pain and the little bit of blood and whatnot. This time around, she would barely let us touch them and she basically waited until they fell out, but in the meantime there was lots of drama about how they hurt when they wiggled and so forth. And oh, how sickeningly loose they were at the end... The second one to go could rotate almost 90 degrees on the last day. SHUDDER. I much prefer her now with her charming big gap.<br />
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I do love taking photographs of people, my small children or whoever. I went to a portrait photography workshop that our friend <a href="http://www.michaelfriberg.com/">Mike</a> organized last weekend and had such a fun time. We talked about making portraits for a while and then went outside and shot a bunch of portraits of each other using just our phones. I brought Grace with me because Mike had said it was open to all ages. When I first broached the idea to her, she said, "Mom, I already know how to take pictures of people," but when I explained it a little more she decided she would like to come. She took my new profile picture up there in the corner. Here are some of my favorite ones that I shot that day:<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7646006460/" title="Portrait workshop -- Grace by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Portrait workshop -- Grace" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8157/7646006460_01f860c6b7_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7646006892/" title="Portrait workshop -- Mike by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Portrait workshop -- Mike" height="640" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7260/7646006892_c34511e9e2_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7646014988/" title="Portrait workshop -- Molly by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Portrait workshop -- Molly" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8027/7646014988_90b9ef8547_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7646007570/" title="Portrait workshop -- Nash by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Portrait workshop -- Nash" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8148/7646007570_f46b2294f7_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7646008844/" title="Portrait workshop -- Mike by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Portrait workshop -- Mike" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8024/7646008844_a4a99970d6_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7646007950/" title="Portrait workshop -- Grace & Isabella by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Portrait workshop -- Grace & Isabella" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8434/7646007950_5d790ba3c5_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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What a fun day...<br />
<br />Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-27989434544022092882012-07-26T11:12:00.002-06:002012-07-26T18:10:00.986-06:00What Is Saving My Life Right Now<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8H7JehhzAD8NGTD19RN996-xBOizPEreHOJOFqA0kpYwjTbWmlQuCzaM7UM8WAPlHsiOE8QliyEnI2z1S6SgmpAihuiLd6ILrx7kuOFcnSku3CNnYTaCFpCTDVBFtC2YFxObimXfMw5c/s1600/Saving-Your-Life-Synchroblog-600x600.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8H7JehhzAD8NGTD19RN996-xBOizPEreHOJOFqA0kpYwjTbWmlQuCzaM7UM8WAPlHsiOE8QliyEnI2z1S6SgmpAihuiLd6ILrx7kuOFcnSku3CNnYTaCFpCTDVBFtC2YFxObimXfMw5c/s320/Saving-Your-Life-Synchroblog-600x600.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<i>This post is part of the <a href="http://sarahbessey.com/in-which-we-are-saved-synchroblog/">synchroblog that Sarah Bessy is hosting</a>, inspired by <a href="http://sarahbessey.com/in-which-this-is-saving-my-life-right-now/">this lovely post</a> she wrote yesterday.</i><br />
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<b>My gorgeous squishy baby boy.</b> I give him baths in our kitchen sink and he splashes in the bubbles with his sweet beautiful bare arms and legs. I nurse him to sleep at night, his ears perfect pink shells and his breath even and deep. We had rain the other night, something you really stop and notice in this arid valley, and we could both smell the summer rain through the open window as he drifted off to sleep.
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<b>Rob's daily presence in my life.</b> I really can't say enough times or with enough emphasis how wonderful it is to have Rob finished with his medical training. He is available, home, here more now than he has been since before Grace was born. We went from years of 80-hour work weeks to suddenly when we moved here he works 4 days a week. I am still so thankful, now two years into this phase of his career.<br />
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<b>Organizing, cleaning, purging.</b> Baby boy clothes are ready to go to a friend with a littler baby than mine, little girl clothes are packed in a box to send to a friend one state away who doesn't think homemade clothes are strange, my email inbox seldom contains above five items, and I did a giant cull of my RSS reader to only keep the things that matter to me, the things that really make my life happier.<br />
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<b>Employment.</b> It's looking like I will soon join the ranks of the gainfully employed. This week I was offered a job writing astronomy content for an online education company. It's part-time, flexible hours, working remotely, etc and I think it is going to work out.<br />
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<b>The pleasures of summer food.</b> Cold-brewed coffee, apricots and berries, rosé wine, lemon cucumbers, slaws and salads, anything grilled outside.<br />
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<b>The promise of honestly cool weather in another 6-8 weeks.</b> Summer in Utah is beautiful in ways summer has never been for me elsewhere, and it is blessedly not too long.<br />
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<b>Reading a summer-y novel in stolen minutes here and there.</b> It was <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/345221584">great</a>. I need to read more.<br />
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<b>Beautiful children's bodies in swimsuits, full of joy, utterly lacking self-consciousness.</b><br />
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<b>Grace sprawled on the couch absorbed in book after book from the library.</b><br />
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<b>The way Violet pronounces "marshmallow".</b><br />
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<b>Playing piano.</b><br />
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<b>YouVersion.</b><br />
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<b>Naps.</b>Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-13527328745985561652012-07-24T12:20:00.000-06:002012-07-24T13:41:22.511-06:00The Days Can Be Long But the Years Are ShortWe are nearing the end of July and the summer is swimming by like Grace swims by me in her lane at the community pool at her lessons. Life with three little ones is so FULL-- full of noise, full of neediness, full of demands, full of joy, full of love. The days can stretch out so long, and when one or more of these children has a particularly bad night I sometimes get out of bed in the morning looking forward to going to sleep that night. On the other hand the months are speeding by so quickly that it is a challenge to actually notice what is happening, who these small people are, who I am. Have I over-scheduled and over-committed the summer? Is this just the season of life I am in? Will I ever feel caught up on sleep EVER?<br />
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We have less than one month until Grace starts 1st grade. This will be her first year to be in school all day and I predict that a) she will thrive and do well and b) I will miss her daily company. She is returning to our neighborhood public school after a lovely kindergarten year there. Her kindergarten teacher sounded surprised that we weren't looking into the magnet schools again but Grace had a great year socially and the academic side was acceptable for now, so we'll try another year there and see what happens. It was lovely to see her and her tiny classmates in their construction paper mortar boards as they wrapped up the year. When is the next faux graduation ceremony? After 6th grade when they leave the elementary school, I think?<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7488348738/" title="Grace's last day of school by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Grace's last day of school" height="535" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8145/7488348738_0eb99baf87_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7488348964/" title="Kindergarten graduation by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Kindergarten graduation" height="426" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7138/7488348964_cf8914992a_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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We will not travel at all this summer but our home city is providing more fun things to do than we could possibly take advantage of. We've been to the <a href="http://www.tracyaviary.org/">aviary</a> and the <a href="http://www.hoglezoo.org/">zoo</a>, Grace did a science camp at the <a href="http://www.nhmu.utah.edu/">Natural History Museum</a>, both girls have done yoga and art and dance at little morning sessions at the preschool that Violet's been going to, there have swimming lessons and sports camp through the city rec centers, and some days we have to do normal things like shop for groceries or get hair cuts. We have gotten out of the city a little bit, most memorably out to a lovely state park with our church for a weekend of swimming, campfires, and time together. Grace and Rob camped and I drove out for the day Sunday with the two little ones.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7488484458/" title="Bird girls! by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Bird girls!" height="469" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8010/7488484458_62d9a32f5f_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7488485894/" title="Haircut time by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Haircut time" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8022/7488485894_db328db8af_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7584384022/" title="Singing outside by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Singing outside" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8294/7584384022_d604f4cd0c_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7584382242/" title="Time for swimming in the lake by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Time for swimming in the lake" height="424" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8154/7584382242_d823f5bd6c_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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I've also been preserving a lot of apricots in various forms: jam galore, <a href="http://instagram.com/p/NPJoubuvYm/">halves in syrup</a>, and a first attempt at <a href="http://instagram.com/p/Mv75buuvfA/">apricot liqueur</a>. We had a very mild winter followed by an early, warm spring and now a hot summer, so the growing season is about a month ahead of where it was last year and everything is going GANGBUSTERS. I should have kept track of how many apricots I've preserved because it is truly madness. The trees here in Utah are just going crazy this year.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7584385010/" title="Apricot-rosemary jam by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Apricot-rosemary jam" height="426" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7124/7584385010_1124b2019d_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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It's good for me to reflect on the things I do enjoy about summer (like all the amazing food) because UGH, it is not my favorite season, especially when it is particularly hot like this year. I am thankful for the gorgeous stone fruit and cucumbers and corn and greens, and for the fact that our house is quite a bit more comfortable than last summer thanks to the replacement of a bunch of windows. We had the original windows on the ground level of our 1917 house (the basement windows are newer) and they did next to nothing to hold the air conditioning in. We replaced a bunch of them on the west side of the house with fancy new ones earlier this month and afternoons are so much more pleasant now. The new windows are pretty cool; the glass has this coating that blocks almost all the infrared radiation but lets almost all the light through. You can stand in a patch of sunlight and feel almost no heat at all. Yay!<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7584379452/" title="Goodbye, 100-year-old windows by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Goodbye, 100-year-old windows" height="640" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8024/7584379452_2257e2fae1_z.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Things are moving forward with some of the job possibilities I'm looking into; they're all part-time astronomy education jobs. I will admit that on some of the longest, most tiring days I wonder if I am crazy to be considering returning to paid work right now, if adding another responsibility to my life right now will leave me with even less time to think and energy to cope. However, I feel like the timing (with us settled in Salt Lake, both girls in school/preschool in the fall, and Lewis emerging out of infancy) is good. And sometimes I think structuring my life so I get to do a bit of science education and thinking about astronomy and work for which I am paid genuine US dollars might actually help. I guess we'll see.Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-42096747111515160072012-06-10T15:16:00.000-06:002012-06-11T15:59:22.037-06:00Thirty-FourToday is my birthday and I am 34 years old. Half my life ago, I was here:<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7363107058/" title="Old times by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Old times" height="333" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7231/7363107058_c4dfcd5d2f.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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Look at 17-year-old me opening a present! It looks like it might be a CD.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7363107288/" title="Back in the day by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Back in the day" height="333" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7095/7363107288_41ce1787c5.jpg" width="500" /></a>
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And here is 17-year-old me with my friends from 17 years ago (most of whom I still love and hold dear and am in contact with, amazingly) at my birthday party. We have all just finished our junior year of high school and we are playing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taboo_(game)">Taboo</a>.<br />
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My mind can hardly wrap around the fact that it's been as long from when I was born to these pictures and it has been from these pictures to now. Does my hair look disturbingly similar to how I have it cut now?<br />
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Since my birthday fell on a Sunday this year, I declared this to be birthday weekend and we have been celebrating for several days now. I had a massage (which is, SERIOUSLY, one of my favorite things ever) and we went out to dinner last night at <a href="http://www.mazzacafe.com/">Mazza</a> (<a href="http://instagr.am/p/LrBJr_Ovbg/">here</a> is a blurry Instagram picture that Grace took while there) and tonight we are grilling burgers with Brie and grilled onions and dried cherries and drinking delicious Cabernet that Rob's parents gave us last Christmas. I am having a lovely day.<br />
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So what will this, my 35th year here on the planet, bring to our lives? No one can say, but I am thinking these days about the concept of going back to work. Lewis will turn one at the end of the summer and I am starting to feel myself coming out of the fog of his babyhood into the relative clarity of regular me. When Grace turned one, I was teaching as an adjunct in Connecticut and realized that working was finally starting to feel more doable and less stressful; I said to myself that if I could, I would try to take an entire year off if/when we had more babies. When Violet turned one, we were deep in the throes of planning our escape from Dallas so returning to work was far from my mind. Now I'm thinking about it, though, and pondering what my options are here in Salt Lake. My first choice would be to teach as an adjunct again, maybe just starting with one class the first semester back. I've opened up my CV to update it and have been looking into what connections I have to the physics departments at the various universities around town and WE'LL SEE. I'm not sure if this will all come together for the immediate fall semester but perhaps this will be the year that I step back into the world of JOBS.Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-37371799720000902512012-05-31T14:34:00.000-06:002012-06-01T14:36:06.134-06:00Nine Months<br />
Lewis is nine months old today and has been out in the world for about as long as he was inside of me. What a gorgeous, joyful baby he is and how lucky we are to know him...<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/6983603947/" title="Blue-eyed boy by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Blue-eyed boy" height="404" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7207/6983603947_fb1a746b3f.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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He shrieks and vocalizes and babbles "dadadadadadada" and "bababababababa" and sometimes even "vavavavavavava". He grins right up to his bright blue eyes when we copy his babbling, full of glee at communicating with us. He's a peaceful sleeper at night for 11-12 hours (still nursing a couple times, but sleepily and peacefully-- he's still in our room so it's no big deal to us) when illness or teething are not in the way and takes two long naps each day. He has eight teeth, four on top and four on the bottom, which is about what Grace had at the same age but double what Violet had.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7316360008/" title="Up on all fours! by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Up on all fours!" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7076/7316360008_ed1f7d36b1.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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He is sort of gradually starting to put those teeth to their intended purpose, although GOODNESS he is very bad at eating. He apparently started out with a really strong gag/tongue-thrust reflex. It's a protective reflex that newborns have to keep things from choking them but his was <i>strong</i>. For a while, when food would get into the back of his throat, he would gag theatrically and then throw up the entire contents of his stomach. Gradually he moved to gagging without throwing up and managing to choke the food down, and now at 9 months he doesn't gag very often anymore. In fact, he likes to take EVERY TINY THING he can find and put it in his mouth. He pooped out crayons yesterday and the day before I pulled a dead bug out of his mouth. SHUDDER.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7316360360/" title="Playtime by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Playtime" height="376" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7241/7316360360_a4e56cdd30.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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His growth has slowed way, way down. He grew from 9 lbs at 2 weeks to a tremendous 20 lbs at 4 months but since then has only gained a couple of pounds. At his 6-month check-up, the doctor said he was concerned about the steep drop-off in his rate of growth (from the 99th to the 75th percentiles in a couple of months) but I think it is probably fine and he is adjusting to his genetically-determined size, which I am going to predict is somewhere between the 50th and 75th percentiles, given the sizes of Rob and me and our other two children. I don't think we need to stress out trying to keep him at the 99th percentile. Also, the doctor was using the CDC growth charts which includes all healthy U.S. infants; if you plot Lewis' growth on the <a href="http://kellymom.com/health/growth/growthcharts/">WHO growth charts</a> which only include healthy breastfed infants, he dropped from the 90th to the 80th percentiles, which is no big deal. Anyway, there's not much we can do to "fix" the issue that we aren't already doing. We're doing the best we can with getting him to eat more solid food and he's still nursing well/frequently. I have been more deliberate about not rushing his nursing sessions and not trying to stretch out the intervals between his feedings (both tempting things to do when life is so busy) but if I try to make him nurse more than he wants to, he just tries to bite me (8 teeth!) and roll away. I'm sure that if I started supplementing with formula, it would just reduce the amount he is nursing. I really don't think he is hungry; I think he is growing fine.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7316360736/" title="Pulling up by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Pulling up" height="500" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7239/7316360736_c16e0021b5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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He has been doing an army crawl down on his belly for a couple of months now, pulling himself along with his two arms, with one little foot pushing to help and one little foot poking up in the air. In just the past few weeks, he has shifted to a real crawl, up on all fours, although he still switches back and forth some. He is finally a more stable sitter; he had an efficient crawl well before he could sit up, which is reversed from the order the girls reached those two milestones. Recently he's started pulling up on furniture to standing, but then he gets stuck and starts to panic and needs help getting back down again. In the past week, he has learned how to climb stairs which means we need to get the baby gates up, like, <i>yesterday</i>. He likes to sit with his legs tucked under him in a splayed W shape; this is how I sat as a baby and toddler but he is the first of our babies to sit like this. Being surprised at what Lewis does is an unexpected joy, as he's our third baby and all, as is being able to see him open up and become more of his own amazing self with every passing week.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7316360976/" title="Sweet boy by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Sweet boy" height="374" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8002/7316360976_cd6084b1f2.jpg" width="500" /></a>Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-11809233623606831842012-05-03T20:53:00.002-06:002012-05-03T20:57:51.598-06:00Things I Have Done Lately<ul>
<li>Played quite a bit of Draw Something. It makes me wish I had an iPad; the people with iPads make such better drawings.</li>
<li>Returned to losing a pound a week after starting my thyroid medicine. It had been taking me 2-3 weeks to lose a pound lately, so this is a welcome development. I have less than 20 lbs to return to my pre-baby weight now; a number in the teens feels very nice and doable. I haven't been re-checked yet so I don't know if my thyroid levels are back to where I should be but I'll find out soon.</li>
<li>Tried to help this baby learn how to eat actual food. He is very, very bad at it.</li>
</ul>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/6983603833/" title="Very first food by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Very first food" height="406" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7056/6983603833_d3c903305c.jpg" width="500" /></a> </ul>
<ul><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/6983604255/" title="The first non-crying food experience by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="The first non-crying food experience" height="385" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7209/6983604255_2240b5fba4.jpg" width="500" /></a></ul>
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<li>Saw a child of mine have an allergic reaction for the first time. The second time we gave him eggs, he broke out in hives all over. An allergy to egg is one that many babies outgrow so I'm hopeful that it is just a temporary thing. Rob says we can try again in a few months once he brings home "supplies" from work. I'm not exactly sure what that means.</li>
<li>Running and yoga, with a smidge of Pilates thrown in. On a good week I am working out 3 days a week. Ideally I know we all should exercise more like 5 days a week, but I feel like this is pretty good for my current life stage.</li>
<li>Despite the weight loss and the exercise and the healthy eating and the thyroid medicine, I have been plagued with bouts of intense exhaustion. I know that everyone is tired all the time and these are our <a href="http://sarahbessey.com/in-which-these-are-tired-thirties/">tired thirties</a> but it has been BAD lately. I'm not sure how to fix this.</li>
<li>Not been sewing very much. Sigh... I like to sew so much and I really want to wear the summer-y skirts and dresses I have planned out but I have lost my sewing mojo lately. See above RE: exhaustion.</li>
<li>On the other hand, reading a little more regularly than I have since Lewis was born. I love books.</li>
<li>Experienced significant brokenness in some family relationships. Sigh... Things are not good in this area.</li>
<li>Watched our neighborhood emerge from the bare gray of early spring through the bright colors of tulips and irises into the leafy green of May. Our spring has been warmer earlier than last year after our very mild winter-- darned global warming. Although yes, spring is lovely.</li>
<li>Been researching and getting estimates for replacing some windows at our house. I really love our 100-year-old windows in many ways but WOW they are inefficient. It is especially uncomfortable in warm weather; we had our first day in the upper 80s last week (freakish warm snap) and now I am obsessed with getting new windows on the west side of our house.</li>
<li>Vacuumed under our dining table. I don't feel capable of getting another dog yet and caring for ONE MORE NEEDY CREATURE but every time I vacuum there I think, "Gosh, I miss having a dog."</li>
</ul>Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3910728423466350055.post-46810354792704722842012-04-10T06:56:00.001-06:002012-04-10T07:40:29.538-06:00A Spring in Our StepsSpring has invigorated our chickens. They seemed to be fine during the snowy winter but the warmer weather has made them more active and perky and the longer days have increased their egg production.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/6899881064/" title="Laying an egg by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Laying an egg" height="307" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7093/6899881064_31d13952eb.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7045976855/" title="Look at these lovelies by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Look at these lovelies" height="354" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7266/7045976855_cc15e09cae.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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We are finally FINALLY getting green eggs. Our chickens were supposed to start laying sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Henny Penny (may she rest in peace) started laying right after Lewis was born, if I remember correctly, so sometime in September, and then we started getting eggs from at least one other chicken. One of our chickens is supposed to lay green or blue eggs so for months we would eagerly check out the nesting boxes to see what might be there, only to find just brown eggs. As time passed, we started to lose hope on the colored egg issue. Then, finally, at the end of FEBRUARY, we found our <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/6915859909/">first green egg</a>! This means that our Ameraucana hen hasn't been laying this whole time. Slacker. And I am rather surprised that there is such variance in when these hens started laying; they were all the same age to within a few days of each other.<br />
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But now! Now that there are more hours of sunlight, we are getting lots of eggs, one nearly every day from each chicken. Mrs. Benedict (pictured up there in the nesting box) lays smaller brown eggs, Drumstick lays big brown eggs (she was the second one to start laying, after Henny Penny), and Ella lays large green eggs. Supposedly within about a year year their eggs will get larger but they will lay less frequently; then they will be HUGE, because they are already as big as the biggest ones you buy at the store.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7045977311/" title="Kindergarteners playing soccer by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Kindergarteners playing soccer" height="356" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7121/7045977311_64e1a0ea71.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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This spring Grace is playing soccer at one of the city rec centers here. She's been asking to play soccer for quite a long time now but I missed sign-up deadlines and games were at inconvenient times and so forth until this spring. Her team is made up of kindergarteners and they play other teams of kindergarteners meeting all at the same time. Her team was assigned their uniform colors and they have dubbed themselves the Penguins. This whole team sport thing is new to me, as the closest I came to a sport growing up was ballet and running cross-country in high school. I think she is super adorable in her little cleats. They were significantly outmanned in their first match but in the weeks since then they've played teams more on their level; Grace has even scored goals! These small people seem to have the best luck when their approach is kept very simple-- kick the ball as hard as you can in the right direction and then everyone run after it.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://distilleryimage6.instagram.com/068d9d8c818811e192e91231381b3d7a_7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://distilleryimage6.instagram.com/068d9d8c818811e192e91231381b3d7a_7.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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This past weekend was soooooooo busy but also so wonderful. Rob's parents came in town to visit and we had an Easter church extravaganza which included me playing piano AND our church's big resurrection party AND a baby dedication for Lewis. Easter is becoming one of my new favorite holidays since we moved here to Salt Lake; celebrating with our church community here is such a gift. We did <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sdK0BgqSIg">this song</a> from David Crowder's new album this year, and I am really loving it now. We got up on stage with all the other babies and their families and read a Bible verse we picked out for him and then people who we love prayed for him and us.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7064194305/" title="Up on stage at church by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Up on stage at church" height="337" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7242/7064194305_cc3b09f625.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<i>So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover's life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of.</i><br />
<div style="text-align: right;"><i>Philippians 1:9-10</i></div><br />
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/7064194397/" title="Praying for Lewis by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Praying for Lewis" height="382" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7070/7064194397_5bbea8361e.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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In the afternoon, we had a HUGE PARTY up in the neighborhood where our church has its office. My friend Becky has <a href="http://www.thevintagemixer.com/2012/04/resurrection-party/">lovely pictures of it all</a> her beautiful blog. There was beautiful food and warm sun and a bounce house for the kids and a couple baptisms and lovely togetherness. The weather was amazing, and the view, and the experience of being with people we love as we celebrated resurrection and new life for all of us.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/silgeland/6918116256/" title="Easter view by Julia Silge, on Flickr"><img alt="Easter view" height="333" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7090/6918116256_693a63ba35.jpg" width="500" /></a>Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08570758633378171985noreply@blogger.com1