Daily update

[scottahill]

- Miriam is really working on this walking thing. Tonight she took 5 little steps in a row before sitting down (controlled). She can also use her umbrella stroller as a walker and push it around just fine; she can even back it up to turn it when she runs into something. Very cool. Despite all the warnings from other parents, I'm really looking forward to her walking: it seems like it will be a lot of fun to let her run around outside.

- I took her to the local playground the other day and she loved it. She loves to climb up slides, and when she slips she thinks it's hilarious: one time she was laughing so hard I thought she was crying. Normally she never laughs that much unless one of us is tickling her or something. She loves to climb period: I will put her on our car and she crawls from trunk to hood while Daddy hovers to one side, pulling on her if she tries to get out of arm's reach. She also knows that "Where's my nose?" means that she should point to my nose, and she's done "Where's my mouth?" properly too.

- We decided not to get cable at this house to save some money, so instead I got a Netflix Roku box which lets me watch some of Netflix's movies/TV series on my TV via the internet (fiber optic internet FTW). I watch it a lot while I'm home with Miriam (which makes me feel a little guilty, but heck, it's good for her to be able to amuse herself, and while occasionally she watches the screen she doesn't get enthralled by it). Maybe I should do a series of movie reviews a la kcobweb's book reviews? I tend to gravitate towards TV series, and some of my favorite recent discoveries are The Tick (live-action series about superheroes...too short-lived), Doc Martin (British show, Northern Exposure-ish in premise, with Stephanie Cole whom I adore), and Dead Like Me (about grim reapers). I've also been watching the 1st season of 30 Rock (which is indeed brilliant) and NewsRadio.

On the movie side of things, I watched Godspell the other day, which I'd never seen, although I've known the soundtrack since it was used to wake us up during a Catholic retreat in Vermont when I was in college. I was really expecting more of a plot; the movie is more like a series of vignettes or a collection of movie videos. I liked the joy that they all had, and the silliness reminded me somewhat of Bethans, but one thing I would have liked to have seen were...other people. Jesus and the apostles were thoroughly self-involved in this movie, and that seems fundamentally at odds with the Gospel, much moreso than the fact that Jesus wore suspenders and a Superman T-shirt. :) Bringing in "normal people" would have given the movie more of a storyline and would have been more interesting. But ah well.

- At the suggestion of wavyarms, I have started to read The Feminine Mystique. Very interesting stuff; I don't think I've read a systematic study of pre-60s feminism before. There is a little bit of similarity between my own position and that of the housewives-- home with the baby full-time, stalled career, depression and feeling a lack of purpose-- although of course a) my situation is temporary, b) I have a part-time job now (but is it like their charity work?), and c) Jen takes over for me when she gets home, something most husbands wouldn't have done.

There was one passage which reminded me very much of today: "...strange new problems are being reported in the growing generations of children whose mothers are always there, driving them around, helping them with their homework-- an inability to endure pain or discipline or pursue any self-sustained goal of any sort...Educators are increasingly uneasy about the dependence, the lack of self-reliance, of the boys and girls who are entering college today.... Sociologists noted the astounding organization of suburban children's lives: the lessons, parties, entertainments, play and study groups organized for them... 'The poor kids have no time left just to lie on their beds and daydream.'" I have heard the same complaints made by professors about college students (with their "helicopter parents"), and overscheduling of children is also widely spoken of. Clearly these things go in cycles, of a sort.

- The three of us went to a monthly music night at a acquaintance's house: bunch of a people get together to eat and then perform for one another. We've done this for a few months now. The first time we went we actually prepared something, but now we flip through her music collection and pick something out we know: I sang Scarlatti's "Gia il sole dal gange" and "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables, and Jen sang a couple of Italian arias. It's a great place to have one's ego stroked. :)