Bad hair cut

A while ago I was so excited to show off my new hair cut. I have never been “into” my hair nor had any thoughts about how it should be cut- much less styled. I’m a wake up and go gal, though I did buy a hairbrush not too long ago (but hardly use it). So, I was away from home and I had meant to get a cut before leaving but didn’t. I felt my hair looked shaggy and unkempt (thought I haven’t had before about my hair) so I got it cut while visiting family in Chicago.

It was all going well. It was short again, layered and I had a nice conversation with the stylist. Then a couple days later I noticed something a little strange. On the left side of my head there was a chunk of hair that kept staying up. I didn’t blow dry it and there didn’t seem to be a reason for the funkiness. Anytime I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror, I’d press the hair down and try to make it conform.

After what seemed like a week of trying to water/lick/yank it into submission, I realized that I had a patch of hairs that were sticking straight up. Yes. Straight up. They are about 2 or 3 inches tall. Just in that patch. The rest is more or less how you’ve seen it in pictures. I don’t know if you’ll believe me but I am not mad. Not angry. Not upset. Not anything more than perplexed. How could this happen? In all my years of not caring how my hair turned out I’ve never had any problems. Never anything like this. There I was trying to give specific instructions to the stylist on how my hair should turn out (and she’s been doing this for yeeeears) and I’ve got a patch of 3 inch hairs on the top of my head.

The funniest part is that I feel bad. Yes. I feel bad because the stylist is a family friend (and has been doing their hair for years) and she came over after my haircut and I asked if she had noticed these short hairs (as if this were a growth problem of mine or something). Then she felt bad and I felt bad for making her feel bad even though she had made those hairs 3 inches long. But again I’m not mad. Whenever I see (or feel) my 3 inch hairs on the top of my head I get this confused look on my face and keep saying, “this is sooo weird”.

Longest silence ever

I’ll do a more in depth post about some of the things I’ve been thinking about lately when we get home- we’re still in Chicago for a visit. For now, I’ll give a glimpse.

-The concept of parenting at work/ taking your child to work with you

-Ideas behind consumerism and how we’re affected, if not immediately than cumulatively, by ads. There’s a great book by Jean Kilbourne called Can’t buy my love that talks about this issue.

-And, there’s a conference this Spring that the Campaign for a Commercial-free childhood is putting on called Consuming Kids: The Sexualization of Children and Other Commercial Calamities.

Some things I’ve been thinking about will stay locked in my little head here and be a mystery to you. haha

Cleaning up my feed reader

Oh. It’s so sad when I subscribe to the feed of a blog that I really truly would love to read only to find myself, months later, with over a dozen posts waiting. Unread. Multiply that by a dozen blogs that fall into this category and you’ve got way more reading than you’ll do- ever. Especially with bilingual baby taking shorter naps the last couple of days, which may change again.

Anyway, as with other aspects of my life, I thought I’d go through and honestly decide which feeds to keep. I couldn’t help reading some as I went along and found one from Ideal Bite with some tips on giving gifts. What they do with their extended family is donate to a cause someone selects instead of exchanging material gifts.

I don’t know that I could make that sort of suggestion as this is not my holiday and I wouldn’t want to be accused of ruining Christmas for everyone. We all remember what Linus said to Charlie Brown:

Charlie Brown, you’re the only person I know who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem. Maybe Lucy’s right. Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you’re the Charlie Browniest.

I should also bring up the story on NPR about charity gift cards. Listen to it here. They say they are “forecast to exceed $26 billion this holiday season”. Wow!

What do people really want? As Lucy clearly states: real estate.

my to-do list

Although I LOVE paper and LOVE writing notes on paper and LOVE having little notebooks, I’m gonna make my to-do list for our trip (coming up soon!) here and potentially bore you. I also thought I’d pay an homage to the early bloggers. If it isn’t obvious to you, this post is intended to be a to-do list for me. It is not for you. Having said that, you might deduce that this blog is for myself as well.

Pack:

clothes and pjs

Robeez

Yak Trax

presents

Diapers, wet bag, vinegar spray, wipes, pack diaper bag

phone chargers

shoe options

Magazines (The new Brain, Child just arrived! Perfect timing.)

Toiletries

Toys (yoghurt cup and cloth napkin, or something like that) and books (a few favorites)

cameras and USB

wool pad

book for under my pillow

snacks for the train for bilingual baby

teething tabs

notepad and writing utencil

small knitting project (can’t bring along a sewing machine…)

Set aside:

winter coats

winter accessories

Other to-do:

Stop mail

Change thermo settings

Ergo

We’ll probably get some stuff when we get there but I’ll make that list on paper so that I can have it with me.

And, bilingual baby requested a bath at 7pm and was asleep by 8:30pm. Not to brag but it’s nice having a child who is so communicative.

Cracked hands, part II

I was just looking at an article that Dr. Mercola had on what skin moisturizers you don’t want to use and he talks about treating dry cracked hands from the inside out not just by using hand cream. He says:

Quality skin care is not a replacement for good internal health — it is a part of your entire package of wellbeing.

One of the first strategies you can use to improve your skin health is to make sure you are getting enough high quality omega-3 fats. This is such a reliable indicator that I frequently am able to tell someone’s omega-3 needs just by shaking their hand.

If their hand is not smooth as a baby’s behind, it’s usually a strong indication that they need some more high quality animal-based omega-3 fats — like krill oil.

So, while I’ve started using a hand cream (made locally) with ingredients I can pronounce and know about already, I’ll have to start increasing my intake of omega 3 fats. He also says, “Personally, I rarely put anything consciously on my skin that I wouldn’t be willing to put in my mouth.” I actually remember a girl in one of my highschools (I went to 3) in Eugene, OR that said the same thing but about food. She said she didn’t like to eat anything she wouldn’t put in her mouth. So, for her, bagels were great. I wonder what she’s doing these days…

Here are some resources and data on Omega-3 fats from WebMD, Supplement Quality,

Placing a hold on my research

With our social outings (sounds more formal than they are), getting packed and leaving the house in a desirable condition before leaving for Chicago, there’s no way I’ll get around to doing research on the whole music thing.  Did I mention I’ve got a kid? Yeah. That alone can keep someone busy. I also have my busy knitting and sewing schedule (this should be read with a degree of formality, hehe) to keep to if I want to have everything ready for the trip. {phew}

I do hope to get my hands on a couple of books on the subject, though they look like they’re hard to find. There’s Quintenlieder by Julius Knierim and The inner nature of music and the experience of tone by Rudolf Steiner. Should be interesting reads.

Anyway, there’s a reason why the phrase “ignorance is bliss” was ever coined.

Consistency and a culture of learning

I am not at all concerned with appearing to be consistent. In my pursuit after truth I have discarded many ideas and learnt many new things. – Ghandi

In my way of thinking I do prefer to be inconsistent so that I can change. Change as I see it now is how our society evolves. If we were all consistent to the point of refuting a truth, then how would we grow as a society? This matter of changing my mind used to confuse my dear husband. He couldn’t understand how one day I could be saying something with so much fervor and a month later have a new take on the same topic- with equal fervor. Over time, he learned that to expect a change of mind when new information has come to light. I sure hope I evolve (not just change) in my thinking on this and other matters (refer to anything I’ve written on this log).

And, Ralph Waldo Emerson said:

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds

It’s got me thinking…

Merck is making money off us!

The AP put out an article yesterday saying that Merck (major manufacturer of vaccines and other drugs) had recalled a childhood vaccine because there was a potential contamination in their lab in PA.

The recall is for 1.2 million doses of the vaccine for Hib, which protects against meningitis, pneumonia and other serious infections, and a combination vaccine for Hib and hepatitis B. The vaccine is recommended for all children under 5 and is usually given in a three-shot series, starting at two months.

Okay. I wonder if the writer received money from Merck because they do on to dispel any concerns that Merck would be in the red. It bothered me to no end to read the end of the short article:

Five weeks ago, Merck reached a deal to settle up to 50,000 Vioxx lawsuits for $4.85 billion, an amount expected to save the company millions in trial costs.

Its stock price has more than recovered from its post-Vioxx slump, a two-year-old restructuring plan is going well and profits are up. For example, Merck posted a 62 percent increase in its third-quarter profit as revenues jumped by double digits.

Why, when we’re talking about potentially infecting the babies of our country, is a writer of the AP writing about Merck’s stock! Do they have stock in Merck? Looking on the positive side, this does back up my thinking that these big pharm companies care, ultimately, about revenue. Not about our kids health.

Comfort

My pre-pregnancy size 8 pants were nice while they lasted. Now that a year has gone by since giving birth, I’m tired of not having clothes that fit. For a while, I just kept using my maternity clothes and was waiting patiently for the extra pounds to come off with nursing. I could probably wait some more but it’s winter and I didn’t have anything warm to wear on my lower half that fit. Last month, I bought a couple pairs of pants from Ann Taylor Loft- just in time for winter. I’m realizing that the size 12 pants I bought are perfect not only because they’re realistic (and, really, I was feeling more comfortable in my size 10′s before baby anyway) and there’s more room to move in.

Before getting pregnant, my clothes were definitely more snug than they are now. I appreciate the room. On one hand, on a shirt, there’s more room to pull it up (and not expose your tummy- I don’t care about my breast being seen) to nurse. I don’t know what’s on the other hand, but you get the picture.

So, for comfort, I’m wearing clothes that fit better and I’m not worried about getting back into my old clothes. Luckily, I’ve got some pretty slim friends here and have been giving away the clothes that don’t fit me right now. It’s a win-win situation. I get rid of the pile of clothes that don’t fit and a friend gets some nice clothes for free. It’s also nice to know that a friend is wearing them. It’s almost like having visitation rights with your old clothes. You can see them from time to time and appreciate their color, texture and drape.

I drafted this post a couple of weeks ago and now, here I am, sitting on the pockets of my old size 10 pants. Go figure.

Christmas visit and music for young children

We’re getting ready to visit family in Chicago for Christmas. We’re taking the train out there. There’ll be visits with some friends from our old jobs, some moms (we were pregnant at the same time), the Baha’i House of Worship (which I miss incredibly); we’ll celebrate our wedding anniversary and have Christmas with bilingual papi’s family. We may even get to see our cousins from North Carolina who are going to be parents soon, too! We were out on the town and stopped in Zutano’s to see if a friend was working. She wasn’t so instead we took a look around. I played the xylophone, which bilingual baby liked. She enjoys playing with our Glockenspiel at home.

On the theme of music, I’ve been reading You are your child’s first teacher by Rahima Baldwin and though I don’t agree with some of what she has to say about discipline, I do appreciate a lot of what she has to say about creativity, music, art and so forth. There’s a section on music and she recommends (also a Waldorf recommendation) that young children be exposed to music that is ethereal, like the Kinder Harp or Kinder Lyre. She says that music with a strong beat gets young children to be too much in the physical body and that they are naturally in the mystical realm and their environment should be one that enables that. She states that the Kinder harp or lyre is in the pentatonic scale which is very soothing, very much what a young child leans toward. Plus, with the pentatonic scale, anyone can play beautiful music and is much more in harmony with the inclinations of the young child than drums or pianos, I learned.

Luckily for us, we already have a glockenspiel, which Baldwin says is also an appropriate first instrument for a young child, though it’s got more notes than the harmonious pentatonic. As you know from earlier posts, I’ve played plenty of crazy beats for bilingual baby. In reconsidering the effect of this music tethering her to the physical world (one she can explore when she’s more inclined to- at a later age), I’ll be trying to make a change (it’s not about us, right; it’s about our kids) in what I listen to and how much recorded music I play around her. It’s kind of hard to think about this change, because our home enjoys a lot of music (but at what price?). I would change my name if that meant that she’d have a better upbringing- luckily it won’t. Before our trip to Chicago, rest assured that I’ll be researching the effects of music on the young child and reporting back. Anybody have any appropriate resources I can start with?

Harps of Lorien makes a Kinder Lyre and Nova Natural has three different pentatonic lyres: the Meadow lyre, the Spring lyre and the Seasons lyre.