Good Books

I just wanted to give a quick mention of two books I have recently finished reading and thoroughly enjoyed. (I know it's surprising that I have time to read given my complete inability to accomplish basic household tasks but one of the many joys of having a nursing baby is mandated reading time. I hope the kids will all forgive me for reading over their precious little noggins. Maybe it's those early memories of mom reading that turn them into the book lovers they are.)

The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose and Sanity by Meg Meeker. I recently heard a Family Life Today podcast interview of Dr. Meeker and tracked down her most recent book the next day. She's a mother of four and a pediatrician, so right there she has some life experience to back up her advice for mothers. There's really nothing mentioned here that most mothers don't intuitively know. Her topics are common sense points like don't give in to mom competition, make time for friends, let go of fear, and have faith. Sometimes we need the reminder and Dr. Meeker has a very approachable, non-judgmental tone. Especially on issues of faith, I appreciate that she is honest with both her faith and her doubts. She admits to having moments of questioning God in the face of struggle and suffering. To my mind that gives her more credibility as a woman of faith than those who serve out platitudes and "let go and let God" religious cliches. 

Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, gun-loving organic gardeners, evangelical free-range farmers, hip homeschooling mamas, right wing nature lovers, and their diverse tribe of countercultural conservatives plan to save America (or at least the Republican Party)."  by Rod Dreher. This book was recommended to me when it was first published several years ago. I probably wouldn't have appreciated it at the time, but now it was a most refreshing read. In this era of divisive politics and rigid ideology, I appreciated reading something I could relate to -- someone who is a conservative voter yet socially adheres to many practices assumed to be the domain of only liberal folks: organic food, environmental conservation, architectural preservation, modest consumption. I doubt it's a book to change minds, unfortunately, because I think very few people dare to read anything that doesn't promise to support their preexisting views. That's a shame because Drehers ideas are incredibly common sense and deserve wider consideration. Here's the article that prompted Dreher to write the book in the first place.

William - Nine Months Already!

William: Nine Months

On Thursday, William hit the 9-month old milestone. Despite a mild cold, he had a great well-baby check up. He is over 19 inches tall and 29 pounds of baby awesomeness. He was pleased that this doctor visit involved no shots. Maybe that's why he gave the nurse practitioner several hugs. Not even a year and already the little flirt!

William has spent the past few weeks rapidly leaving behind all things infant and leaping into little boy territory. About two weeks ago he mastered crawling. He's been more or less mobile longer than that, with rolling, scooting and dragging himself along getting him where he wanted to go. Once the "real" baby crawl technique clicked for him, though, he was able to get places ever so much faster. Now we're back to baby-proofing everything at baby level. It's so interesting to see what catches his eye. So far William hasn't pinched his fingers on the toy kitchen cabinets, but we do have the oddity of a baby lock on one of the doors. William is fascinated with doors -- he's realized he needs to back up before pulling a his bedroom forward and crawling through. Then he zips down the hallway, either heading into Anna's room to play with the alphabet magnets or, more often, into Erik's room to bang together pieces of wooden train track. It seems that we have another railfan because William is captivated by Erik's various trains and train layouts. Good to know we won't have to pursue any new toys or activities at this point. William's interest in Erik's things means we have now arrived at the moment I've been fretting about -- keeping big kid toys (Legoland!) out of little kid hands. So far, William hasn't put anything other his own fingers in his mouth, but keeping the tiny stuff away from him is going to be a major challenge for our household for the next few years.

I was going to write that William is finally getting into consistent good sleep habits, but I'm listening to him whimper on and on right now instead of napping. As it's a Saturday, the day's schedule is just different enough to convince him that he might miss something if he gives in to sleep. Overall, he's becoming a good sleeper. After a few weeks of micro naps, he's been taking two solid naps a day most of the time. Now I can't seem to do any errands since I need to be home for his sleep time, but that's fine for now. At night he's always been a decent sleeper. When he wakes it's usually just once, or twice if he's not feeling well. A few weeks ago I thought I was ready to enforce the no-nightime snacks rule and eliminate our 11:30 nursing session, but when it dawned on me that it was one of the few times I could enjoy my littlest boy without company, I postponed the event a few more weeks. So, it was Mom's issue, not his that kept his night waking going. This week I decided he was old enough for us to all sleep better, and with just mild protest he's been doing great. The catch here is that he still has no teeth, which means once I get used to full nights of sleep again, we're bound to have a few nights of discomfort when they finally come in.

The nap protest continues, so I think we have a small grump to deal with today. I think we can cure what ails him with his second-favorite activity after crawling -- eating. William despises prepackaged babyfood (except Sprout chicken dishes. Good stuff. Even I could tollerate that, I think.) but nibbling on whatever else is on the table makes him very happy indeed. So, snack time, here we come.