This and That

Okay, so I was thinking, I haven't said much about what is happening in Justin's and my lives lately... I keep talking about Rebecca! So, I'm going to try to give some information about what's happening with Justin and me... as well as Rebecca. Sorry, you can't read a blog entry from me that doesn't include Rebecca... just think, when we have two or more children, the entries will be lengthened accordingly! Maybe you'll eventually have to set aside 15 minutes or more to read an entry!

So... Justin first.

Justin has been working on a number of programs that I had no idea he was working on, but he was apparently working on them for things he thought would be helpful at Canon. It turns out, not only are they helpful, but when he sent them to their tech team, the leader of the team proceeded to send them out to each supervisor with the instructions to have each team member under them load it onto their computer so they would be able to make use of it! Justin also got an email thanking him for taking initiative, being creative, and doing something that helps Canon stay in their highly competitive position with other companies. :-) He also has made what is called "A-Player" for a consecutive 6+ months, and for making it the 6 months he gets a monetary bonus, plus he gets taken out to dinner by his company! Very exciting... especially the extra bit of money, lol. :-) Too bad it isn't going to also mean an increase in wages. I don't know if I mentioned it, but Canon had to give everyone a pay cut a couple of months ago. Thankfully, Justin had just been given a raise of 6.5%, and the cut was 5% in his tier level, so he actually ended up still making more than he was, but most people did not get that much of a raise if they even got one, and the higher tiers lost 15%, 25%, 35%, and 50%! Kinda makes one thankful to be at the bottom of the pyramid!

Justin has also been looking at other job possibilities. He's somewhat qualified to take a position as a Linux systems administrator, because places will hire on experience and knowledge rather than requiring a piece of paper for that one. He's got plenty of both (it's his favourite hobby!), and we discovered that jobs with Linux range in pay from double what he earns up to 4x the amount! Whoa!! He applied for at least one position, though he never heard back, so I guess that was probably a no go. However, there are many that come up in the area on a regular basis... so while we are quite happy with Canon and their benefits and such, we are also keeping our eyes and ears open for positions that would get us similar (or better!) benefits, and a MUCH better pay range! Another thing we would like is a 40ish hour work week somewhere closer to where we live, so the commute doesn't add an extra 1.5-2 hours each day! However, as a systems admin, he would also be on call through the night and on weekends, which would be a real pain, but hey, when overtime will get you at least time and a half around here, if not more... it's not too bad! I told him that I wouldn't want him working Sunday mornings though, and if he got a job that called him in on a Sunday they would have to wait for him until at least afternoon, if not evening. Hey, we only get so many family days! :-)

Me... well...

I'm teaching piano to my niece and nephew starting this Saturday, and trying to recruit more students. We'll see, perhaps this year it will only be the two of them, but maybe next year I'll find more!

I finally seem to have conquered the mildew staining issue we've been having, though it did result in a bit of lightening in some places on some of the garments. At least they're usable again!! We also thoroughly cleaned the washer. I took the soap dispenser apart, washed it, washed inside that area, and we poured 4 cups of bleach into the washer, ran an empty hot load, and then poured in a gallon of vinegar and ran another empty hot load! It was rather cheap, I guess, when you think about it, but the instructions I found for keeping mould out of a washing machine say that you should do that every 3-4 months, and every 6-8 weeks you should run an empty hot vinegar load. I guess a gallon of vinegar at about $2.50 every couple of months is worth it if we're going to get consistently clean clothing out of it! The clothing and diapers are coming so much cleaner since I got that done, it's been nice!

I've been really working hard at getting the house organized, because I don't want to child proof, per se (it's pretty much impossible to do in our house) but I would like *most* things that are within Rebecca's reach to be at least somewhat safe for her to get at. All I have left is my dining room table, and kitchen counter... and then my horrible mudroom/bathroom area, which will always be last on my agenda, hehe! I'm currently trying to figure out a storrage solution for all our tupperware/gladware/other containers! I'm starting to think one of those plastic tote containers under the sink might do the trick... just have to get Justin to clean out all his mouse traps so I can do it! Maybe one of the plastic drawers would be a better idea. Regardless, I think it's a potential solution. I also need to come up with some organizational strategies for our purchased cupboard, because the top shelf, wonderful as it is, needs to be split in half, and each of those spaces need to be split in half again. So, I'm thinking a wire rack organizer, and a set or two of plastic drawers might do the trick in there as well. If only those things weren't going to cost money, I'd be all set! :-)

I guess, finally, on my part, I made a new header for our blog (in case you didn't notice!). Seeing as it is rather oriented around the past year of our lives, I'll probably have to make a new one next year! I guess that's incentive to take lots of good pictures over the next year as well. :-)

Rebecca is walking somewhat well now, but is still preferring to crawl to get places. She looks at what she wants, crawls close to the place, stands up, and walks the last 3-5 steps to get close to the item!

She is not sleeping overly well through the night, though we are really working to teach her to sleep through the night at least somewhat. We're back to 1-2 wakings in a night (normally just one with a very early waking), which is so much better than it was most of the summer! She does not, however, believe that I need more sleep than I get. Often times she is up from 7:30am until 10:30 or 11pm, with maybe a 1 hour nap once or twice in the day. She actually just finished napping on me (I was holding her and typing this post at the same time), and now she's sitting beside me on the floor insisting that the frog in the picture book says "sss" even though I keep telling her it says "ribbit" not "ssss"! We're not doing so well on animal sounds, as you may have guessed, LOL!

Our big thing right now, is teaching her not to leave the house without an adult. We're trying to establish that she may not put her hand on the door except to look out. Both our screen doors do not latch properly, and with the cooler weather, we like having the breezes that come through all the screens. She makes it very difficult to get anything done, however, because every time I get occupied doing something, she heads for the nearest door (usually the back door)! So, I've been setting up training sessions for the past couple of days, in the hopes she will clue in... eventually! Any ideas on how to teach a baby not to cross the threshold of a door to the outdoors would be very appreciated!

Oh, yes, and my victory celebration of last night... we got home from sign language class and choir practise, and she was fussing at me for who knew what reason, and suddenly she just quieted right down, looked sweetly at me, and signed "milk" very clearly! She actually has been using the sign on occasion for the last couple of weeks, but it was more something we had to guess at than something she clearly knew what she was saying! She's also started telling us "finished" when she's done eating! If only we could convince her to just tell us, and not tell us and then put all the food on the floor!! :-)

Very Stark Contrast to Last Monday

We have been enjoying our spring weather for the past few days! Flowers are blooming, the weather has been sunny and around 75 degrees... basically, very pleasant! Today it's not sunny, and not quite that warm, but it's supposed to go up again tomorrow... then it's supposed to go up and down the rest of the week. I feel like we are the yo-yo on the end of the (weather) string!

I took a whole bunch of pictures of Rebecca outside yesterday afternoon (85 to be exact) and I have decided to display 16, lol. Be glad I finally settled on that small a number. Most of them are ones I wish I could show, since they're just very cute. I decided that perhaps it's just the mother's eye that makes them so wonderful to look at though, so forced myself to narrow the selection drastically! Anyway, I also took some "not Rebecca" pictures of flowers and an oak leaf that happens to be hanging out in our garden at the moment.

This is a pansy that I grew from seed last year... the first flower finally decided to come out yesterday, LOL. I can't believe that it really took nearly 12 months for the thing to bloom!

One of the daffodils my mum planted for me! It hasn't actually bloomed yet, but it will shortly, I would say! perhaps tomorrow??

Said oak leaf in our garden. I just thought it looked kind of neat. :-)

And now... the pictures of Rebecca. I really couldn't make up my mind which ones of these to post! Isn't the sleeveless shirt and shorts on the green grass amazing after the snowy pictures of last week?? Seriously, she's actually laying in the exact spot her sled was sitting last week in the pictures, just facing a different direction!!
















With this lovely weather, has come a very, very hot church sanctuary, which Rebecca was not too pleased about! She got very agitated in church on Sunday morning, and only after realizing she was probably swealtering, and therefore stripping her down to her onesie in church did she settle down again. However, we also need to figure out how to teach her to be quieter in church, particularly during the sermon. I am pretty sure she is getting noisy at that time because everyone else is being quiet, so if she makes noises then, EVERYONE responds! I think my social butterfly likes the interaction it causes. How, though, do you get 20 people at the front to not respond with so much as a chuckle?? Yeah... I don't think that's happening any time too soon. So, I guess I'll just have to think on it. Of course, it would also help if it wasn't going to cause a huge fuss if I was to give her a little flick whenever she got noisy... but I have a feeling no one would like me doing that to a 4 month old!! Oh well.

Modern Culture Children... What's the Excuse??

Why do people excuse children from good behaviour at things such as music recitals or plays, leaving them home instead of bringing them along, when those same children are quite likely sitting around at home with a sitter watching television or a movie? How is it that people think two hours of listening to music is not something a four and six year old could handle doing, but the same four and six year old could watch two or three hours of television without them, or anyone else batting an eye?

I don't think that "it's going to be a long time to sit and listen" should be an excuse. Children are forced to sit for two hours at a time in school, they are allowed to sit for a few hours at a time at home in front of the television, and sometimes (though now a days it isn't often) children will sit and read for a few hours at a time. But as soon as you want to TAKE them somewhere? It's too long for them to sit and be quiet.

Hmm... what's the difference? I do have a theory. I think our society has been conditioned to treat children very differently than they ought to be. Children have very few expectations placed on them in the modern culture. They are often permitted to talk during church (if they are taken to church at all) and sometimes during school. Television has advertisements, so they don't have to keep their brains on one subject for more than ten or fifteen minutes at a time, and have a three minute break every ten to fifteen minutes so they can talk, run, and jump, and ignore what is going on.

A hundred and fifty years ago, a child of any age, be they four, ten, or any other age, would have been expected to be still, not just quiet, for a full church service every Sunday morning, sometimes stretching to two or three hours in length. Even one little fidget would have been good for a whipping. They were then expected to sit for the same length of time, in the same manner for the Sunday evening service, and Wednesday service as well! They were expected to sit quietly in school, no fidgeting, no talking. Parents didn't simply leave their children home because they were "afraid of how their child would behave", because they knew their children were trained better than to misbehave in church, school, or any other social situation in which quite, appropriate decorum was necessary. Why should it be any different now??

We took our niece and nephew to a music recital yesterday afternoon, expecting it to be about an hour, maybe just slightly more. It turned out it was two hours long. Well, there was a brief intermission half way through, and at that point we already had people commenting on how well behaved the kids were, and how they wouldn't have dared bring their own children or grandchildren to something such as this. They were even surprised when they found out we were planning to stay for the second half! Why should they be surprised, when we came in the first place?? The kids made it through the second half of the program just fine as well. We didn't force them to be perfectly still, though we also didn't permit them to be entirely distracting to those around us. We were seated in the front row, so they were able to see what was going on, and we were sure to tell them the composer's names, and the title of the song (if it had something more "titly" than "opus 81. no 3." or whatever, lol). The kids kept the beat, pretended to be conductors, found pieces they particularly enjoyed, and ones they didn't really like. Yes, by the end, they were getting fidgety, but having been told to be quiet, they remained relatively so, right through not just the first hour, but the second hour as well.

Were we brave to try taking them to something like that? Maybe in some people's minds. Many informed us they felt we were brave to have done so. We simply told them they had been well trained by those who care for them, because we had only had to tell them they were to be quiet while there were people on the stage.

In my mind, though, those people who don't teach their children to be quiet when they are told to be, and who are too afraid of how their children will behave at somewhere to be willing to take them, are doing their children a great disservice. How many things will modern children miss out on? How many events will be "too long" or "too difficult" for children to experience? Why should a four or five year old not watch The Nutcracker (unless you have a problem with the dancer's attire)? Why should they not attend a music recital? Why should they not listen to two hours of a symphony, or go sit through a two or three hour play with only a fifteen minute intermission? What's wrong with them going to a wedding, funeral, or any other church thing, for that matter? Why should children be excused from the church service so they can play in the nursery, or go to Sunday school? What is wrong with them simply attending church with their family, and having Sunday school at another time?

What is the difference between any of that, and television? Only one thing: In order to attend anything at which they must be quiet, children must be taught from the very start to sit and be quiet for periods of time, gradually increasing the length of time, instead of permitting their minds to only focus on the subject for a few minutes at a time and then babble away every ten or fifteen minutes. I think that is a pretty significant difference.

...and people wonder why we don't want a television in our home...

And of course... that's my opinion, and hopefully I haven't hit anyone's nerves (unless you agree with me, lol). I have aimed not to insult anyone, but really... if you are insulted, because you can't make your child be quiet for an hour or two in a public location, maybe you need to work on it a little.