Reading Brown Bear to Baby
This morning, Emily decided to read a story to Baby. She picked her favorite story from when she was one: "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? ". If you are not familiar with the book, it is very rhythmic, repeating "Color Animal, Color Animal, what do you see? I see a next-color next-animal looking at me" over and over again, with each new color and animal chaining into the next one. We read the book so often when she was younger, so she was able to pretty much recite the story to her Baby. Periodically, she would forget which animal came next, so she would check to see if anyone was looking and then sneak a peek, very quickly, at the animal on the next page. Then she would continue on like nothing happened. It was too cute.
Thoughts on “Poltergeist”
On Halloween, I have a bit of a tradition: I like to watch a horror movie that night. The choice for this year was Poltergeist. I have seen Poltergeist many times over the years, starting from about the time I was ten. However, this was the first time I watched the movie since Emily has been born and the movie affected me differently. Every other time I have watched Poltergeist, I have identified with the little boy in the movie. A lot of really scary things happen to the little boy:
- He almost gets eaten by a tree,
- He sees lots of scary things occur, such as flying objects, ghosts, flashing lights, etc., and
- He gets accosted by one of the scariest, freakiest, clown toys that I have seen in a movie (Yes, I had a bit of an issue with clowns when I was younger, why do you ask?).
This identification with the little boy occurred well into my twenties. This is a horror movie — scary stuff happens, so you should be scared of it. This view of Poltergeist was different for me, though. Now, I have a two year old little girl of my own and I found that I identified with the parents in the movie much more than any of the other characters and that made the movie much more frightening to me than it ever really was in the past. Why? Well, let us examine what the parents go through in the movie.
First, their little boy almost gets eaten by a tree and, although the father is pulling and pulling, he really can do very little to stop it from happening. Next, they go back into the house and their little girl is missing. They search and they search, but to no avail — Carol Anne is nowhere to be found. Oh my God! She might be in the swimming pool. THE SWIMMING POOL! The abject terror that is evident on the parents' faces as they are searching for her is bone-chilling. Then, they discover that Carol Anne has been taken by the TV people. They can hear her over the static of the TV, they hear the fear in her little voice, but they cannot get to her — they cannot comfort her. Through the rest of the movie, the parents take all of the other strange goings-on in stride — they can deal with anything that the house can throw at them so long as they can get Carol Anne back. Finally, the parents manage to get their daughter back, only to have the spirits try to take her again. Once again, that feeling of powerlessness is overwhelming.
Poltergeist is one of my favorite horror movies of all time. Now, I can watch it and gain a sense of dread that I did not have before. It is like a completely new movie to me.
Another Emily-ism
This picture is of one of the lovely Willow Tree figurines that Ashley has been collecting since we have been married. I believe we were given one for a wedding present and, as our family has grown, I have bought more that represent our family as gifts for Ashley. To most of us, this is a representation of a mother and a daughter — I got this for Ashley as Emily really started walking around as a toddler.
Yesterday morning, as I was brushing my teeth, Emily came into our room and seemingly noticed this figurine for the first time. What did she think it was? "Here is Daddy and here is Mommy!" Do you think that she may be saying that Ashley is a bit on the short side?
Post-Vacation Blues
Boy, vacations sure are a lot of fun. In the middle of May, we spent a week in Virginia at Erin's house. Everyone had a blast and I am pretty sure that Emily and Jake enjoyed having a playmate for the week. We even managed to get back early enough to have a couple of days off due to the Memorial Day holiday. However, things have just been off with me ever since we got back. I have been tired, short-tempered, and generally stressed. I attribute all three symptoms to two root causes.
First, I have gotten out of the habit of getting up early and exercising in the morning. I believe that not exercising during our vacation has started a positive feedback loop. Not exercising means I am not as physically worn out at night, so I do not sleep well. Not sleeping well means that I feel too tired to get out of bed early enough to go exercise in the morning. Both of these symptoms feed back on each other causing both to get worse.
Second, it has been difficult for me to focus on projects that I have been wanting to get done. When I get home at night and finally get Emily to bed, I have been so tired that I just want to watch television for the 1.5 hours I have before I go to bed. Generally, this makes me feel guilty since I can think of so many other things that I want and should do. The guilt is likely contributing to my lack of sleep as well. Additionally, my task list and inbox keep growing since I am not really clearing them out. All of these contribute to a downward spiral where I get very little done.
So, what can I do to turn things around?
- I need to start exercising again as soon as possible. This weekend will be the perfect time because I do not have to worry about getting up extra early to exercise. Getting back in the exercise routine in the morning will increase my endorphin output and cause my day to start on a bright point. This alone might be enough to turn my mood around and kick me out of the funk.
- I need to do a really good weekly review. I put it off completely right after vacation because I was unable to get any "me" time to work on it due to sleeping in so late. This past week, I managed to get one done, but it was hurried and really was not very good. Doing a weekly review will get things out of my head. Getting "stuff" out of my head will let me concentrate more on what I am doing and less on what I could be doing.
- Strangely, I have found that getting out and working in the yard is putting me in a better mood. On Friday, I came home in a bit of a funk and just really wanted to be by myself. Luckily, I needed to get out and mow the yard. Doing that before dinner relaxed me and made it so that I could be back inside with the family without being irritable. Working out in the yard allows me to have the little bit of "me" time that I need to recharge my batteries after a long week.
I am going to work on applying these three principles over the next couple of weeks and see if that will break me out of these post-vacation blues.