Why H1N1 can be fun for the Whole Family

1. We don't have to decide whether or not to get the vaccine anymore, nor do we have to worry about shortages.

2. I got to stay home a lot and finally got around to digging the high chair out of storage and cleaning it off.

3. I finally got over the icky-ness factor of taking a rectal temperature.

4. Virginia got to spend her entire half-birthday in her pajamas (three different pairs, actually).

5. Our friends brought us hearty chicken soup and other delicious food, to ease our suffering (thanks Chastons and Mobleys!).

6. It turns out being in a nice, tight full-body swaddle is still fun, and effective, even at six months old (Thank you Reynolds! This is the only way we got any sleep, day or night).

Varied Expression

She doesn't always stare intently at the camera with a very straight face. Just usually (It took me around a hundred shots to get this variety).

A Little Scout to Brighten Your (My) Day

James calls this collage "Beauty and the Beast."
We have tongues

Ready for a fall walk

Playing with Dad

These are from Virginia's first feeding. As you can see, she wasn't too sure about rice cereal. She primarily let the food sit on her tongue until it melted and ran down her throat (very little actual swallowing involved). Giving her her own spoon to hold did stop her grabbing mine (mostly), but it did not prevent her putting the rice cereal from her mouth onto her spoon and smearing it around anyway.

And if you look at the photo with her pants, you can see why it's not a good thing that our daughter's main form of communication is spitting (nice, raspberry spitting with the tongue and everything). She discovered that it's even more fun to spit when there's something in your mouth.

Is this the part where I get lemonade?

You know those days where you wake up at 3 a.m., realize that your contacts are still in and once you take them out you just can't get back to sleep? So you turn on your laptop to be a little productive and discover that after you fell asleep your husband (accidentally) downloaded a virus? And then the baby wakes up earlier than usual? And her morning nap, during which you're supposed to take a shower, lasts five minutes? And the only pair of pants that you were going to wear is dirty? And you start getting everything together really early so you'll be sure to leave early, but somehow you're late anyway? And you discover that you got a parking ticket in the night? And your turn signals decide to completely cease working just because they can?

Well, I am having one of those days. I think I will move to Australia.

The good news is...the weather is perfect (yep, a rainy, cloudy fall day is my idea of perfection), although the baby wasn't sleeping she did lay in bed cooing until I went to get her, and I'm on my way to the grocery store, where I can purchase myself some lemons, some lemonade, or just a nice brownie mix. Forget the lemonade, I'm having chocolate!

Baby Blogging Overkill

Virginia can now hold her pacifier, and is trying as hard as she can to put it in her mouth.




















I have it here.
I take aim.
It won't go (pout).
I give up.

She loves to "fly" while we sing the Superman song to her.

Her favorite pose, always with the finger in her mouth.

On the alert.

Mmm...feet.

Our favorite pose....

"More alluring Grommit!"

No, we didn't pose her. She seems to have a swimsuit model in her already.

Who's the biggest baby?!

Do those pj's look familiar Eric and Geoff?

A Song

I love Virginia,...

...she loves me.

We love Daddy, yesiree.

He loves us, and so you see....

(Due to the lack of any photos of the three of us together that were not taken by the nurse in the hospital, this song has no end. We apologize for the inconvenience.)

Virginia in September

Aren't we pleased with ourselves? This child is clearly getting enough to eat.

Getting a little more sleep after breakfast.

I'm most proud of how she can finally hold her head up when laying on her stomach (she's not a fan of tummy time), and her sitting up in a chair when propped.

For those of you who only check my blog for the baby pics

I couldn't go too many posts without talking about our little Scout, or you might stop reading my blog entirely. Okay, really, I wouldn't know if you did. But because I'm not one to miss an opportunity to brag, and in honor of her being four months old today and having more than doubled her birth weight, here are some recent photos.

She's taken to wearing bugs on her head. It distracts from the ever-worsening baldness.

Hats also solve the aesthetic problems with thinning hair rather nicely. As Grandpa used to say, "You can't grow grass on a busy street."

This last one is here because I'm pretty sure she's putting her hand on what will shortly be a tooth.

Time for some Real News

I think I first discovered CNN.com the night George W. Bush beat John Kerry to remain President. It's not forever, but it's been a while. For some time, now I've also had the New York Times bookmarked, but CNN has been the first place I click for news. No more. CNN's reign as my go-to news source has come to an end and I have removed it from my bookmark menu entirely (I know, I could just as easily type "CNN" in my address bar, but I won't. I live by my bookmarks). My news will now come from the NY Times and BBC News. Why the change? Well, to put it simply, I only have time for real news.

This change has been a long time coming. It probably began the day I sent an angry email to CNN about the pictures on their front page. If I want to see stills from Paris Hilton's latest commercial, in which she is either completely or nearly (I can't remember which it was) nude, I'll click on a link to a story with that title. I don't need the picture to show up just because I decided to visit CNN's front page. It was furthered by the summer I spent in a house with Cable, in which I realized that CNN Headline News never has any real news on and never has anything I want to watch. The other CNN channel was much better, but they did have a nail-biter of a presidential primary to cover at the time. I got closer to the edge when Michael Jackson's death became a multiple-months event rather than the brief, if significant, story it should have been. Once I realized that if I see a story on CNN, I immediately click over to the NYT to see whether they're covering it too and thus decide whether it's worth reading, the decision was pretty much made.

I had a conversation with friends a few weeks ago in which one person, who reads what I would consider fairly significant news outlets, related a revelation she'd had when cut off from the internet for a few weeks. She spends hours of each day reading nearly everything that's available in the news. And she knows very little about anything of significance in the real world. I'd like for what I take the time to know to be politically, economically or historically significant. For that, I need a legitimate news source.

I'm a strong believer in not supporting things you don't agree with. I actively avoid shopping at certain stores because I don't approve of their business practices and I don't find their products worth my money (definitely a rant for another day). Similarly, I will not click on stories that I don't find worth the time spent writing them. I'm tired of Sarah Palin, and except for the day she announced her resignation, I haven't clicked on a single headline with her name in it since John McCain lost. For a long time, I have resisted CNN's penchant for celebrity gossip over news by refusing to click on stories that I don't think merit the front page. And I'm increasingly disgusted by the contents of their "most popular" articles section. Just as much of America seems to live in blissful ignorance that a war in Africa really is more important than who wore what to the Oscars, I am now choosing to remain ignorant of what stories America chooses to read on the "news." I don't want to know that John Gosselin's announcement that he loves his new girlfriend more, Ellen DeGeneres' appointment to American Idol, and Chris Brown's fight with Oprah are more important to a "news source" than a hijacked plane in Mexico. I used to think that if I wanted celebrity gossip, I would go to People Magazine. Now I realize I can accomplish one-stop shopping at CNN, except that the "hard news" may be difficult to find amidst all the insignificant but still sensational goings on of such newsworthy topics as the "Crasher Squirrel" web frenzy.

There are legitimate, significant things going on in the world today. They are of political, economic and historical importance. And maybe most Americans don't want to hear or read about them. But I do. So I will "vote with my feet", or in this case my clicker finger and head to a news source that tells me what's happening in the real world, and not the sensationalized celebrity world. I hope a few of the advertising dollars that seek my attention will follow me.

::Melanie steps down off her soapbox and resumes normal life.::

What I Should Be Doing Instead of Blogging

Laundry
Finishing up my lesson for Enrichment tomorrow night
Making handouts for Enrichment
Baking treats for Enrichment
Planning what to teach in my tutoring session tomorrow
Cleaning
Sleeping (still recovering from last week's cold and about to be hit by today's flu shot)
Learning how to make baby food (I checked out three books, ask me if I've read any)
Figuring out what to do about the fact that Virginia seems to be getting a tooth
Washing the dishes
Finishing the email to my law school friends that has been in progress for nearly a month

...but I need a break from the to-do list. So, now that I've written it all down I'm going to go ahead and keep doing this, secure in the knowledge that my to-do list will definitely keep.