Tummy time selfies

So about two weeks ago I got a smart phone. Joined the 21st century and all that. I'm even blogging on it currently.
It's been nice to have, especially on our trip to Alabama for Thanksgiving. But even before that we've put it to good use. For example:

He stopped fussing when there was a baby to look at.

Thank you, technology, for the latest milestone. (He still isn't consistent at rolling over. But he protests tummy time less.)

How my math major prepared me to be a mom of two

You take a lot of abstract classes for a math major. I mean, a couple of them even have Abstract Algebra in the title, so they don't shy away from the fact.

But what those titles conveniently conceal is how applicable the formulas and theorems learned in those classes are to the life of a mother of two little ones.

For example, in these few short months since Matthew was born and Joseph turned three, I have been able to use proof by contradiction, Gram-Schmidt orthonormalization, reverse triangle inequality, three body problem, boundary problems, complex conjugates, Fibonacci spirals, and of course, my favorite -- the three-point Steiner problem on the regular tetrahedron.

But I'd have to say it's my knowledge of the cardinal numbers that has made my math major invaluable the past few months, as demonstrated here:

(If you listen closely, you can hear Joseph demonstrating Hooke's law on the couch.)

But what about all the other things I listed? How are those helpful?

Well that, dear friend, is left as an exercise for the reader.

Poems from the Yellow Notebook: Balloon Version

Last Thursday, our family went to a free carnival put on for grad students and their families. It had everything a carnival ought to have -- carnival food, face painting, bean tosses, stuffed animals -- without any of the things that make carnivals not so great -- dirty, dark, expensive, creepy, loud, crowded, etc.

Capta Nerica.

As we were leaving, the organizers of the activity asked if we'd like a balloon. We looked at everything we would have to manage to get on and off the bus in the drizzly, windy night -- a stroller, baby in the car seat, new teddy bear, balloon animal Spiderman, diaper bag -- and said, "Sure."

Well, we made it, and even our balloons made it too. This was great news, but it also meant that Joseph had to suffer the disappointment of watching his balloon lose its helium. It's like what Harvey Dent said in Batman* -- "You either lose your balloon in the sky or it lasts long enough to become really lame."

No offense, peg-leg Spiderman.

Anyway, a long time ago I explored the first fate of the carnival balloon in a poem recently discovered in my yellow notebook. (Luckily or unluckily for you, this is probably the second to last poem I will share because the rest are too painfully embarrassing, even now.)

Where do lost balloons end up

When they float from a child's hand?

Do they end up in the sky

Or back down on the land?

Scientifically, we know that

Balloons will pop up high

When the pressure kept inside it

Exceeds the pressure of the sky.

But, what then? Does it float back down

To where it first ascended?

Are fairgrounds littered with bits of balloon

Which reached the sky while untended?

Or do they fall into the seas

Which cover most the globe,
Or deserts, or jungles, or swamps --

Nowhere that anyone would probe.

Ah, to follow the route of a balloon

Into the stratosphere,

Then follow it down back to the ground

To see if it lands far or near.

Does anyone actually know the answer to my question? I know I ran into a fallen balloon once on a hike, but I feel like it should happen a lot more often given how many balloons there are.

Also, do balloons even make it to the stratosphere?

*paraphrased, of course. Very, very paraphrased.

Children's Books

There have been many times this past week when I have been weighed down with a heavy heart over news I've heard in various facets of life.

These are the times I open a book that I've read a dozen times just to find that exact phrase that matches how I feel. Most of the time it's not a hugely profound phrase, just a little something that speaks to me.

Here are a few of those little somethings:

(from Madeline)

(from Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill [set in 1902 in Minnesota, I think])

(from The Saturdays)

and of course . . .

This pain is part of being human.

Love is a Matching Wardrobe

Yesterday, soon after Kevin came back in the evening, Joseph looked around and said, "We match!" Somehow, he, Kevin, and I had all chosen to wear sort of turquoise shirts. Even Matthew was wearing blue.

Then while we were folding laundry, Kevin and I were hanging up our clothes when I noticed something. He was hanging up a maroon shirt and I was hanging up a purple one.

"Did we both wear these yesterday?" I asked.

"Our mental synchronization can have but one explanation," he responded.

All Souls Day

Halloween always puts me in a family history mood. Maybe not Halloween so much as All Souls Day, Day of the Dead, whatever you want to call it.

So to celebrate, I invited my ward to join a Relative Finder group. (Side note: email works way better for this than Facebook, especially an email Sunday night.) The relatives started flowing in, and each time I checked there were a half dozen more people I was related to. Mostly 9th and 10th and 11th cousins. (Which . . . I don't really count that as related. If our common ancestor was born before 1600, then we have about 0% of the same genetic material.) But there were 8th, 7th, 6th, 5th, and even 4th cousins I discovered, which was really fun.

There were also a few funny observations I made as things progressed:

• The person I'm most closely related to in the ward is . . . Kevin. I figured that. It's pretty hard to be more related than third half cousins once removed. (Common ancestor was born in 1819, so it's really not that weird, guys.) (Incidentally, we are also 9th cousins 4 times removed on my mom's side, which barely counts.)
• But I had a few friends who discovered third cousins they didn't know about (both times a guy was third cousins with a girl). In an alternate universe, had they gotten married to this third cousin instead, I wonder when they would have figured it out. I can just imagine the family-history aunt (every Mormon has one) at their wedding reception collecting maiden names from the grandparents and making the awkward connections. Makes me glad Kevin and I figured it out within two minutes of meeting.
  
  

  

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• Besides us, the most closely related couple I know of are 5th cousins with each other.
• Random, but I have an Armenian friend who said once that in Armenian culture if any man and woman knew how they were related, they probably wouldn't date or get married. (I'd say that's pretty normal, not just an Armenian thing, fyi.) But I wonder if they had done Relative Finder, how distantly related they would have had to be before they shrugged their shoulders and said, "Eh. Doesn't count." (For me it's 3rd cousins, I guess.)
• One funny conversation I got a few times is people who would say that they were closely related to Kevin (he was 5th cousins with like everybody) but not with me, and they were wondering how that worked. I have 15 great-great-great-grandpas besides Henry Moon, so that leaves lots of room for other lines for people to be related. :D 
• Most everyone I was related to linked back to the same common ancestors, like a man named Thomas Ford. I was related to more people on my dad's side than on my mom's (probably because his lines are more from England than hers). If I had an ancestor who joined the church in Europe (such as Henry Moon or Traugott Bitter), I was never related to people through that line unless it was directly from that ancestor. Kevin and I talked about it and we think it's because the rest of that family is probably still in Europe.
• If you think about it, if you know you are 14th cousins with someone, a lot of people have done a lot of family history work. That is incredible. I have just gotten to enjoy the fruits of other people's labors. I feel a huge sense of appreciation for people who have done the family history work.

Of course, I had some concerns in creating the group, and some of them were realized. There were people who weren't related to anyone, usually because they or their families hadn't been in the church long so they didn't have enough family history to connect with everyone. Although I felt bad about inadvertently creating a way to make people feel excluded, it was also a good reminder that whether or not we have blood relations, we all have the same spiritual DNA as children of God. And He loves us all.

Matthew Top to Bottom

Matthew's been past the 3 month mark for about a week now, so it's probably about time to dedicate another post to him!

To be honest, the second month was harder than the first, and the third was harder still. But the hardness has been offset by how much fun Matthew is. It's so fun to see him grow and develop. So, from top to bottom, here comes an update on our wonderful boy!

Hair: He still has long hair on top, but he has rubbed a fair amount off the sides and the back. Luckily, his remaining hair is still long enough to hide the bald spots, like a baby combover of sorts.

Eyebrows: They can say a lot.

Eyes: Big, beautiful, and dark gray. Won't be long before they're pure brown.

or maybe they're already brown. Depends on lighting.

Nose: Good at sneezing. (I'm too lazy to edit this, so you can stop watching at the 20 second mark.)

Cheeks: Present and accounted for.

Mouth: Good at making noise. He isn't always this loud, but there are times when he has a lot to say.

He also laughs. 

And smiles. 

And spits up.

I was impressed, so I had to take a picture. (And then clean it up.)

Tongue: Good at licking zippers, among other things.

Chin: Usually covered in bubbles.

Neck: Strong.

Just like my camera skills for this picture. (I was excited to be helping him stand with just one hand, so I didn't care how it looked.) 

Hi pants.

Okay, the rest of the body should go faster now.

Hands: Fairly good at grabbing things. He doesn't like to stick everything in his mouth, but he definitely likes to stick any sort of fabric or his hands in.

Belly: Nice and big.

Legs: To quote my friend Rachel, "Best rolls I ever made."

Also, strong. (see blurry picture above.)

Feet: They like to kick, especially when he's nursing. 

Also, perfect.

Just like Matthew.