Shepherd's Newest Musical Composition

Sung while running around the kitchen as I cooked him breakfast:

"I like bacon. B-b-b-b-b-bacon. Bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon. I like bacon."

That's my boy.

Just Random

A few things you should know about my family this past week:

Lydia: For the past week, Lydia has been waking up around 4 to 5 in the morning and making happy noises for about an hour.  Happy noises include the squeals heard in the video I posted last week and continuously blowing air through pursed lips to make bubbles.  Although we start out in our room, BJ and I have been finishing each night in the guest bedroom.   

BJ: When asked what he would like to have for lunch this week, BJ requested that tofu stuff I make.  I am doing something very right.

Shepherd: While playing outside this weekend, Shepherd made up a song about Gus's poop.  It went like this: "A dog, a poop.  A dog poops poops.  A dog, a poop."  After repeating this many, many times, he would then look up at me and say, "Eat it?"  No son.  We don't eat it.

Gus: For information on Gus, see Shepherd's song.

Yep, that's about everything for this week.

This will probably only be of interest to the grandparents, but...

I'm going to post it anyways.  Here is Lydia happy.

The Struggles of the Second Born Child

 
For the first year of a baby's life, parents are preoccupied with making sure their baby sleeps enough and isn't bothered when they are catching those zzz's.  With Shepherd, this was fairly easy.  I would rock him to sleep in the peace and quiet of our room and then tip-toe softly out the door.  Lydia, however, doesn't get the hours of rocking or the quiet nap times or really any peace whatsoever.  Turns out, when you are the second child, the first child is like a little tornado wreaking havoc all over your bedtime.  Here are just a few of the ways Shepherd has interrupted Lydia's sleep:

-Ever since Lydia was born, Shepherd has enjoyed identifying all of her body parts, especially her facial features.  Imagine being woken because I toddler is picking your nose while proudly yelling, "Nose," or poking you in the eyes and ears for his own personal anatomy lesson.  From Lydia's reaction, I deduce it is unpleasant.  And very hard to sleep through.

-While putting Lydia down for a nap this past weekend, Shepherd stormed into the bedroom with my pie crust shield around his neck screaming, "Pie hat! Pie hat!"

-Shepherd is like every other human being on earth: he wants what he can't have.  This means that if I close a door, and he and I are on opposite sides of that door, he officially wants me more that anything ever ever ever.  Every night, I close my bedroom door so that I can get Lydia to bed, and on those unfortunate nights when Shepherd sees me do this, a scene soon follows not unlike Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire.  However, instead of wailing "Stella," Shepherd is screaming in utter agony, "Mama, Mama!"

-Most of the time, Shepherd does realize that when mommy is putting baby to bed, he is supposed to be quiet.  However, when he thinks "quiet," he doesn't think "no talking." Instead, he thinks "whisper," and if you've ever heard a toddler whisper, you probably know just how loud a whisper can be.  I can't count the number of times I've had Lydia asleep only to have Shepherd tiptoe in with his little pointer finger over his mouth, look at me very seriously in the eyes, and then whisper in the loudest whisper I've ever heard, "Baby sleeping."  Baby doesn't sleep long after what might as well be the cacophony of her big brother's well-intentioned whispers.

So if the next time you see Lydia, she seems a bit sleep-deprived and grumpy, cut the girl a break.  She has a tough time catching a nap around this place.

The Very Bad Cold and My Very Strange Son

Over the past week, I've battled what I'm convinced was one of the worst colds ever in the history of mankind.  I did not like it.  I didn't like the flaming red, scale-y rash spreading from my nose due to excessive wiping. I didn't like the sinus headache and ear ache that came with a stuffy nose.  I didn't like having bloodshot, burning eyes. And most of all, I didn't like being unable to taste food. I made a delectable cauliflower cream soup full of complex flavors, and I couldn't taste a single one of those flavors until it was a two-day-old leftover (incidentally, it was quite good even as a leftover.)

As a result of this cold and the fact that I've spent the past week hiding from the world, I have very little to write about, so instead I'm going to quickly relay a story that happened about a month ago.  BJ and I are in our church's bell choir, so through out December, we were going to practices for our Christmas performances.  During these practices, I would wear Lydia in her Baby K'tan wrap, and Shepherd would play with some toys I would bring him.  Near the end of one of these practices, Shepherd started getting bored with the toys I'd packed him.  He came to me and begged for me to hold him.  With out missing a beat on the song we were currently playing, I told him I couldn't hold him because I was wearing the baby, and then I said what all exasperated parents say when they don't know how to meet their toddler's needs: "Go tell your father."  Now BJ was on the opposite end of the next row, so Shepherd passed about six people on his journey to his father.  He arrived at BJ's side just as we were finishing, and I turned around to see the whole back row laughing.  Apparently, on his way to BJ, Shepherd pinched the butts of every bell choir member he passed.  Let me repeat: All six people's butts had been pinched by my son.  What possessed him to do such thing, I do not know.  But he did. 

When your toddler does something this embarrassing, it is only natural to cringe at what you imagine other people must be imagining.  If I were one of the pinch-ees, I would be thinking, "Wow, in the Gensic household they must pinch each other's butts.  It must be a game.  How very odd they are."  Let me just say, I did not teach Shepherd to pinch butts, nor did BJ that I know of (all though that is not outside of the realm of possibilities.)  All I can say is that toddlers are wierd little people, and my son is no exeception to that rule.

My Sort-of Resolution

I typically do new year's resolutions, and in fact, I love them.  I love the feeling of a new beginning.  I love goals pushing me towards improvement.  However, this year I am making a very conscious decision to not have them.  Here is my thinking: resolutions are about rearranging priorities for the coming year, but when you have two kids under the age of 3, priorities are already set in stone.  Basically, I don't want to spend this next year feeling guilty over unmet resolutions when the reason they are unmet is because my kids require a lot of time and energy.  I figure if the house isn't consistently clean, it will be cleaned in 18 years when my kids go to college.  And if this last five pounds of baby weight doesn't come off, so be it.  I've had two children.  This little pooch of mine is not my shame.  It is a battle scare.  It was earned with dignity.  It was totally worth it.

So that being said, the only goal I'm setting this year has to do with my reading habits.  I typically read 30 to 40 books every year.  While this is a respectable number, I'm always left a little disappointed with myself at the end of each year because of the lack of variety in those 30 to 40 books.  I tend to get in ruts where I'll read mysteries by one author for six months, and then whittle away the rest of the year with fluff romances.  So this year, I've chosen twenty criteria I want at least one book to fit.  My brother is doing this (with a few revisions to the categories) with me, and I'd love it if anyone else who wishes to would join me.  I'll try to occasionally update on my progress.  For now this is the list and the whys of the list:

1. Theology - I started reading theology books two years ago so that I'd be better equipped to converse with BJ on the topic about which he is most passionate.  About 50 pages into my first N.T. Wright book, I discovered I love theology.
2. Pulitzer Prize Winner - Many of my favorite books have won this prize (Empire Falls, Angle of Repose, Gone with the Wind)
3. Mystery - I'll probably read far more than one of these.
4. Thriller - This one's broad.  It could be another mystery, a spy novel, or any number of other categories.  It just must be thrilling on some level.
5. Trashy Romance - I say this tongue in cheek.  I'm not talking about a book with Fabio on the cover.  Rather, I'm talking about fun, mainstream romances that lean towards a soap opera feel.  Why? Because I'm a housewife, and this is supposed to be our genre.
6. A Vampire Book - I find it fascinating that books with vampires have almost become a whole new genre in the past ten years.  I've read many of them and enjoyed them, so I'll definitely fit one in this year.
7. Children's Lit - Because kid's books rock.
8. A book that has or is being made into a movie - Because I love complaining about how movies ALWAYS fall short of the book.
9. A Collection of Poetry - Just because I love, love, love poetry. 
10. A Shakespeare Play - I haven't read a Shakespeare play since my senior year of high school, so I'm due for one.
11. A book of historical non-fiction written by Doris Kearns Goodwin - Goodwin is my favorite commentator on The Daily Show, Colbert Report, NPR, and PBS news programs.  I've meant to read one of her works for years.
12. Biography - This is just to try something new.  I've hardly ever read biographies.
13. Memoir - The best book I read in 2012 was a memoir, Hannah's Child by Stanley Hauerwas.  I'm hoping to find gold twice.
14. Comedy - Cause they're funny.
15. British classic and/or a Booker Prize winner - Another category I typically read every year.
16. An Agatha Christi - I grew up watching my dad read Agatha Christi books, and now my brother is a big fan.  I want to see what exactly it is everyone likes so much.
17. Young Adult Lit - This category also consist of many of my favorite books.
18. The Bible - I've committed to do this with BJ and several other people from church. 
19. SciFi or Fantasy - Because it is good to occasionally read something strange.
20. Graphic Novel - For a totally new experience.

And now, to make up for a boring blog post, pictures of Lydia "waving" and laughing.