mini godzilla

uncle todd and aunt jenn got siri a set of blocks for xmas. at first, siri showed no interest, then she decided she wanted to make "da shu" (big trees) out of the blocks. adults were allowed to make da shus too, but siri decided the structures' ultimate fates.

macbook pro fun

siri's new scar on her forehead matches this elongated head (she fell and planted her head on our bed frame)

siri thought this effect was pretty hilarious

in case you didn't realize, this is actually normal

two siris (and two bei beis) would be so fun and uber cute!

i think my child is actually a chimp

my beloved little laptop has finally decided it will no longer take any more abuse from me. and to help my grieving, jeff got me a new macbook pro for xmas. it's pretty slick feeling and looking, and aside from some minor differences, works just like a p.c. however, i have not yet had time to download or organize pictures on this thing. so, in the meantime, please enjoy some photobooth pictures ;)

life in the day, or is it day in the life?

these past couple of days have been rather sobering for me, for a couple of reasons -- macro and micro.

my intent to potty train siri in oregon was an almost success. she now uses the potty to pee like an absolute pro. but, pooping? "siri go diaper." i decided to brave it and let her go to her nanny's in her underpants, hoping that she would get the hang of using the potty, and just do her business. the joke was on me since i was the one who spent evenings scrubbing poopy underpants.

after the second day of poop-scrubbing, we showed siri the utter grossness, and begged her to please poop in the potty. or, alternatively, she could poop in her diaper. we figured, we'd take this one step at a time, and if she can poop in her diaper for now, then we can slowly train her to poop in her potty. well, this suggestion seems to have worked, but now i kind of wish for poopy underpants. you see, my child is smart. and, i don't say this like she's the smartest kid i know. i say this because many toddlers are smart in a cunningly mischievous way.

siri is an expert staller at bed and nap times (only at home, of course. she's angelic for anna). she willingly puts away books at bed time, makes up excuses to take several trips to straighten out her toys, picks her nose and insists on getting tissue to "wipe by self," requests water because her "throat hurts. please, mommy. siri throat hurt." and now, we have given her a free pass to poop in her diaper, but in the bathroom.

for the past two nights, she has added "poop in my diaper in bathroom" to her stalling repertoire. and, she manages to poop tiny "installments" each time (at least yesterday). of course, she knows we will rush her to the bathroom when she needs to poop (since she insists on diapers, we want her to associate the act with the correct location). ss. Staller pooped THREE times last night and finally fell asleep at 10:30, when i refused to let her go to the bathroom. she screamed "poop in my diaper in bathroom!" i told her to hold it until morning. silence. then, she looked at me and said, "poop mommy/daddy bed." i called her bluff. She didn't go, and fell asleep instead. tonight, she actually pooped once and "tried" two other times. after her second "try," i told her that maybe she'd have better luck in the morning. she conceded and fell asleep around 9:50.

This experience has been coupled by a rather grave national event: the attempted assassination of Rep. Giffords (D-AZ). I'm not going to speculate that the gunman is a rightwinger influenced by Sarah Palin's crosshairs map. I'm not going to ask gun-supporters to admit that they helped actualize a crazy man's political vengeance. I'm not going to say that nutjobs who support gunownership have blood on their hands (and conscience), including that of a very innocent nine-year-old girl. But, what I will say is, enough already. This bipartisan bullshit has got to end. This nation is festering with hate and discontent toward our government, toward our president, and toward each other. This has to end if we are expected to come together as a nation. As a people.

Political ideological differences aside, don't we all potty train our kids? Don't we all learn the ropes of parenthood? Don't we all contend with cunning two-year-olds? I am sobered by recent events, both in my home and in the nation. Potty training is difficult. Putting aside our differences and meeting in the middle is even more difficult. I have no idea why these two themes melded together for this entry. Maybe because they happened around the same time, or maybe because I think bipartisanship is like pooping in a diaper in the bathroom. We'll never become a better country if we never learn to use the potty.

PHL 205H

happy 2011! evie's resolution was to show siri the alpha between the two of them by scratching her. luckily, it's a superficial scratch on the arm, but she managed to break skin under siri's fleece sleeve. we don't know what went down, but are suspicious that siri probably wanted to snuggle with evie (siri got lots of love and patience from my mom's cat, savannah over the past two weeks in oregon and has tried to give evie hugs since we returned to sf), and evie had enough and decided to teach her a lesson. siri and evie were alone when it happened, so evie probably felt bold enough to show siri who's boss. siri's retelling goes something like this, "evie scratch siri. siri want hug evie."

ever since the incident, i've been thinking a lot about an ethics class i took in college, taught by dr. lani roberts. i remember distinctly one lesson pertaining to ethical treatment toward animals, especially since they are in essence perpetual small children. if that's the case, why do we blame small children when they (re)act to animals, and expect them to know better than animals? if we are to treat animals as semi-peers, then why do we not expect them to burden some of the consequences? one could argue that it's because animals cannot articulate or express themselves. i refute that argument since animals are just as capable of thinking, and articulate their emotions in different ways. for example, evie knows she did something wrong and has been looking to jeff and me for forgiveness all day. but, she continues to express her annoyance at siri by meowing at her as soon as she sees siri excitedly approach. alternatively, one could argue that humans have bigger brains and can rationalize better than animals. i buy that, but at age two, it seems that the human brain is comparable to that of an animal.

so, who do we blame, and who do we punish? for whom do we feel sorry? the child who wants to give love to the cat, and is now scared of her, or the cat who is afraid and jealous of the affectionate child? as i reflect upon PHL 205H, i also remember the numerous times over our time in oregon when we told siri to be nice to mollie the dog who wanted to lick her face, or to respect the space that savannah the cat needed. no one bothered to tell mollie the dog to stop trying to lick siri's face because she doesn't like it, or tell savannah the cat that she should spread out elsewhere in siri's presence. if they are in fact developmental peers, why do we expect more from one and not the other?

neither siri nor evie have been punished for today's incident. and, neither one necessarily deserves some form of punishment. we've talked to both of them, but i feel sorry for my child. i feel sorry that she was scolded and warned over the past several weeks, and we didn't do the same to the animals. i feel sorry for her wound, and her newfound hesitance toward evie.

in the end, i acknowledge that siri will one day surpass evie in intelligence, ability to think, reason, and to articulate her emotions. but for now, they are developmental equals, and i will parent them equally.