Reading

Again, I find myself not reading as much due to being a mommy.  However, I have been reading LOTS of children's books to Stephen.  One of the things that Stephen loves is to walk around with books.  He'll pick up a book and then bring it to you to read to him.  I now know almost all of our books by heart.  One of his favorites is Fish Out of Water, which is like 60 (although small) pages long.  And he wants to read it over and over.  Sometimes, after the first or second reading, I'll say, "Why don't you read it to me?" and we look at the pictures together.  I'm going to add these children's books to my reading list because I have read them so many times that I think it counts as more books.

On the move

I haven't posted in a while since it is really hard to get a picture of Stephen when he is so mobile. Here's two of recent pictures. He had an ear infection last week, which was hard on all of us, but he is now better and eating more than ever. He ate a whole tamale on Saturday and just loves clementine oranges, pineapples, and of course, bread. I think he's looking forward to Christmas and seeing all the family. He likes walking around everywhere. Sean and I even taught him to put the clothes in the hamper, although he likes taking them out too. His favorite activity is walking around with something in his hand, anything really, from shoes, to blankets, to clothes to anything.

Also, I haven't posted because I've been spending time doing my wedding album as a present for Sean for Christmas.  I was so impressed with the book from Blurb that Lilli gave to Stephen that I did my whole wedding album on it and I think it is going to turn out really well.

Stephen walks the line

Stephen is holding a fork in this because it was just after dinner, and we got it out of his hands right after this video.  

Thanksgiving

We just returned from a nice Thanksgiving in Houston with Sean's family.  While there, Stephen decided that he would rather walk than crawl, so that was really exciting.  He also really got the hang of Thanksgiving---he ate a lot and watched football, although he wasn't all that thrilled with sitting and eating at a table, why would you, if you had just gotten the hang of being bipedal.  I'll post a video soon; if I can catch him. :)  Unfortunately, he's also decided that he'd rather walk than sleep at night alone, so Sean and I have had some sleepless nights, but hopefully he'll calm down enough to sleep in a while just like he had been doing.

Dental Update

Stephen is getting his molars in addition to the eight teeth that he already has. That explains some of the eating habits of late (wanting pureed food more than before)

And he looks like his mom

People ask us who does he look more like. We never knew what to say, so we usually said, "both". Well, the evidence is in and the verdict is that he looks like his mom...see for yourself...ok so maybe I'm biased.

Stephen

Shelby

Sean

More from the Joint Center for Housing Studies

Quickly, this is from a paper entitled, "Eliminating Credit Barriers To Increase Homeownership: How Far Can We Go?" written by Stuart S. Rosenthal in August of 2001:

On balance, therefore, evidence suggests that there is room for further relaxation of borrowing constraints to expand access to homeownership. However, such efforts are likely to be more fruitful if attention is given to mortgage products that alleviate borrowing constraints in the early years of the mortgage [ie. option ARM] and if mortgage product innovation is coupled with policies designed to enhance the social and financial stability of families

Joint Center for Housing Studies

In doing some random Googling, I came across the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard. It is a collaboration between the Graduate School of Design (yaay---my sister Lilli graduated from the GSD), The Kennedy School of Government, and it looks like Economic and Sociology Departments within the broader Harvard University. It was really interesting to go around the site, although very time consuming and very academic, but they have some very interesting publications written before the housing crisis writing about the implications of relaxing credit for mortgages, the role of the FHA in increasing home ownership and many many others. In the background section of one paper, written by Albert Monroe in 2001, he described the start of the Great Depression and the FHA: [startling in light of the current crisis]

The banking crisis in the early 1930s forced lenders to call in the mortgages as they came due, and since all lenders were affected by the banking crisis, refinancing was not available and many borrowers were forced to default. Other borrowers became unemployed and could not make their mortgage payments, so lenders foreclosed on their homes. The situation was exacerbated as the weak economy caused property values to fall, moving borrowers into negative equity situations and giving them an incentive to default. In short, by 1934, many banks had numerous bad home loans on their books (loans for which the collateral—the home—was worth less than the value of the loan). Their lack of assets and their recent experience made them unwilling to extend new home loans.
Policy makers hoped that the FHA, by insuring mortgages, would jumpstart the market for home loans, thereby increasing housing starts and employment in the construction industry. The FHA revolutionized the mortgage market, not only by getting banks to start lending again, but also by changing (and standardizing) mortgage instruments and underwriting procedures. In particular, the FHA (Section 203b) insured 100 percent of qualified loans in case of default. At first, the FHA would qualify 20-year fully amortizable loans with an 80 percent LTV. Later, the FHA began to qualify 30-year loans with LTVs higher than 95 percent. The FHA’s 100 percent insurance was very important because at that time there did not exist reinsurance markets in which banks could reduce their home loan risk.

Pictures from Stephen's Birthday Photo Shoot

These are from his photo shoot on his birthday...

Feeling very patriotic this week

The American democratic process is something that the world envies. We have a peaceful, inclusive, transparent, and relatively quick process in which we all come together to let our views be known. Our regime change comes from us, as a people. I am so encouraged by the shear numbers of people who came out to vote, to be counted, and to be heard. 8 million people in Texas and 9 million people in California came out to vote. Virginia turn out was over 75%.

Stephen as Charlie Brown

I took Stephen around Sean's office this afternoon to show him off. We also went to dinner this evening at a local Mexican restaurant. He was getting a little fussy, so they had a open air part where Stephen LOVED to watch the cars on the road. He kept saying "ga". I think he really liked seeing all the trucks on the road. Everyone got that he was Charlie Brown and thought it was so funny. He was the hit of the office and the restaurant. No trick or treating this year....no sugar for this already crazy baby. Thanks to Grandma Eidson for his wonderful shirt. She actually made another one for him and I think she plans to make even more in bigger sizes for him as he grows. Stephen got in the mood the other night when "Its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie" was on T.V.

Stephen likes his book from Aunt Lilli

This evening, Stephen kept going to the end table and picked up his book from Aunt Lilli and kept reading it and reading it, for at least 15 minutes. :) Not only can he do collateralized debt obligations (one of the pages in the book), he can read at 1 year.

So Mad at Dish Network

I called Dish Network this evening to ask about a charge on my bill, and perhaps have it taken off if it didn't need to be there. According to them, they have changed their "internal security measures" to not allow the spouse to talk about the account without the spouse's verbal consent. They did not notify their customers of this change by mail, email, or phone, but it took into account on August 1st of this year, apparently because the number of divorces and custody battles or some crap like that. There's no bit of information that I can give to them that proves that I am Sean's spouse and am authorized on the account, they won't take it. I am so livid to the point where I said that I may cancel the account, but they said that the account holder would have to do that. It makes me so livid because there's nothing that has changed in Sean's and my status between now and then, but that I was an authorized person on the account, and now I'm not. Being that I'm the person responsible for calling and doing all of this in our relationship, I should have the account in my name, but this was all done years ago. What happened to treating spouses as if they were married and made decisions together? Has the divorce rate made this an untrue assumption that makes it harder for married people to speak on their spouse's behalf?

I wonder if the change in security measures has pissed off more people than it has been meant to "protect" and perhaps it wasn't a good business decision because of this. I threaten to leave at least once a year to get better deals and usually get at least $5-20 off my bill at some point, sometimes more. I used to call the cable company and get their deal and then call Dish and go back and forth with who could give me the better deal on the set up that what we wanted. I said that their level of security was equivalent to loans taken out in one spouse's name that the other spouse has to be authorized to speak for that spouse who is on the loan documents. Given that the satellite company is not a mortgage broker and the security level is not even close to that level, it is quite ridiculous.

Ok, enough spouting off. Must eat.

Skeletons

This picture was taken when Stephen was so tired. I had just finished putting on his really, really cute pj's that glow in the dark. He fell asleep about 5 minutes after. I went to my long awaited appointment with my hip replacement orthopedist yesterday. He said that I really did need a hip replacement, but he wanted me to fail more conservative treatment first (as per logical medical protocol). What that means is that I got a steroid injection into my hip yesterday to give me at least temporary relief. They numb the area before they put the shot in me, but they had to do about four or five numbing shots before they found the right spot. It really really hurt. I don't even like people or the dog touching me on my hip, it is the most tender spot on my body, and to have those shots really hurt. I looked afterwards and they finally shot me right where I have my scar from my surgery in 1980, no wonder why it hurt. Dr. Peters also got me on the calendar to have the hip replacement on February 25th of 2009, his first available time! I will have the surgery, which takes only about an hour(!), at the Carrell Clinic in Dallas, which is just north on 75 from Sean's office, only about 10 minutes from our house. I will stay in the hospital about 3-4 days and then be house-bound for 3 weeks, which is less than I thought. I guess that so many people have hip replacements, that they really have everything down...I have a phsyical therapist that will come to my house for 3-4 times/week post-op, a traveling nurse that will also house visit to make sure I don't get blood clots. Everything that I was trying to plan for just seems to be in the natural routine for them, which is very comforting actually.

I will say though that immediately after the shot yesterday, I did find some relief. For the first time in about a year, I didn't have to help my right leg into the car and I was able to sleep on my right side last night with no pain, which is excellent. I took a walk outside for the first time in about 2 months with Stephen and the dog this evening, and again, it felt really good. The shot is supposed to last about 6 weeks and will hopefully give me enough relief to return to some normal activity level: working out, taking care of Stephen, and just normal life.

Small Birthday party for Stephen and Kaitlyn

Yesterday, we had a small birthday party for Stephen and Aunt Kaitlyn, who turned 19 yesterday. We just had Sean's family and a few friends over. I felt like we had to do some traditional cake introducing! We cooked brisket and ribs and had homemade angel food cake topped with whipped cream and strawberries, which was excellent. Homemade angel food cake is really quite good. Stephen mostly just ate the whipped cream, but he had a good time, and then a bath. He really didn't like the hat on him, so Kaitlyn held it in place for a couple of pictures. :)

Year Update

Stephen received the cutest book for his birthday from his aunt Lilli. It is a children's book including the favorite pictures from this blog and follows the year including major things that happen in the world. He likes it very much. I just took Stephen to his one year well appointment yesterday and he is 20 pounds 10 ounces (20th percentile), 40th percentile in head circumference, and a whooping 92 percentile (31.5 inches) in height. He is long and lean and perfect. We both got flu shots and I'm feeling the side effects still, although they are better than last night when it just hit me like a freight train.

Stephen walks better than his mom

We went to one of Sean's co-workers kid's first birthday party on Saturday. I thought there was going to be a bouncey house, but fortunately there wasn't. Stephen did find that he liked to push the birthday boy in his little car there, although he didn't like to go in the car himself. I was surprised at how fast he went. In other news, my hip is really hurting a lot these days. In the last week, it has gotten to the point where just taking care of Stephen while Sean went golfing on Sunday was so exhausting that I took a 1/2 hour nap after. Fortunately, I revived enough to go to another one of Sean's coworkers for dinner and pool, where Stephen had SO MUCH FUN with their seven year old twins. Sean's gone to Florida the rest of this week for business, so I'm single parenting and hopefully Stephen won't run me ragged. It is just hard getting up and down and making sure that everything is child proofed and he is safe. I did install child locks on some of the cabinets so that I don't have to continually tell him that that cabinet is not for babies. While I'm positive that some of my hurting is psychological, our dr. friend Brent also says that once the joint is bone on bone rubbing against each other, the degeneration and pain can increase really quickly.

Politics, Prose, and Blogging

A recent comment on the Palin posting on this blog has gotten me to think about the appropriateness of a response and the purpose of this blog. While this blog does feature pictures, videos, songs, and stories of my child, husband, and myself, they are not the only things going on...from time to time, not very often, I will post political comments, comments about world events, and other random things. What happens in the world as well as how I feel about it is all a part of constructing a life worth living. I don't expect everyone to agree with me and I expect readers to know that I don't intend to offend anyone.

Stephen's Slide Show

Well, I was able to view it on YouTube, so I'll include it here unless and until YouTube takes it down....

Birthday and Brunch

I'm trying to upload Stephen's slideshow from 7 months to a year, but one of the songs that I used, Guns N' Roses, Sweet Child of Mine, caused Youtube to ask about using copyrighted material. I wikipedied copyright issues and youtube and I found a case that is very similar to mine and I am in the process of challenging Youtube via an online form. I think I'm within the fair use guidelines of the copyright law, since I own the cd from which the song comes, I am not using it for commercial purposes, and I'm creating a slideshow, but we'll see. In the meantime, here's two pictures of Stephen. The first on his birthday during his photo shoot, and the second one this morning during an outing to a restaurant for brunch. He really liked the orange slice we gave him. Sean and I had a good time last night going to dinner and seeing the Stars hockey game, which they unfortunately lost in overtime.

A letter to Stephen on the eve of his first birthday

Stephen,

This week has been tough for you...you had a stomach bug that made you throw up over me and then when you got over that, you seem to have had trouble with the four teeth that you are getting all at the same time. You are a little bothered by this, but you have seemed to still sleep through the night, except for that bad Friday night when you wouldn't sleep except with your parents, which you haven't done since you were a newborn and wow, you just constantly move in your sleep and wake us up. We know you are just dealing with all the changes that are happening---becoming bipedal takes work and energy and babbling and expressing yourself is difficult when you don't know the words or how to tell us you want something. We are impressed with your obvious love of things: swinging, swimming, and a new one: the vacuum. You are your parents, both good and bad, in a mini-sized package. We look forward to your second year and how you will change...I know you will be running around soon and transitioning to eating by yourself. Your daddy is looking forward to sharing this Christmas with you...we know that you will love the boxes and unwrapping, but that you won't like that there are boxes there for you under the tree you will not be able to have yet. Soon you will not need mommy except when you are tired, bored, sick, need a new diaper, hurt...ok, so you will need mommy a lot. You are very demanding, but most times, I love to be needed. You have made our lives more...more complicated, more busy, more tired, more debt (house project mainly), more beautiful, more enriching, and more amazing. We love you,

Mommy and Daddy

First Steps: Evidence

Stephen recreated his first VERY wobbly steps on Saturday morning before we had all gotten dressed.

Milestones

Sean doesn't believe it because Stephen didn't walk for him, but Stephen did take a couple of steps on his own yesterday. We got him a walker and he's walking around now with it. When I first tried for a picture with it, he let go and stood on his own for a couple of seconds.

My entire life is being blogged

I was looking for outfits for Stephen for his photo shoot, yes you read that right, he is getting a photo shoot for his one year birthday with a friend of a friend. Anyway, I found this infant shirt and thought it was pretty accurate.

This weekend

We had a fabulous visit with David this weekend, really just spending time with one another and hanging out. We had a great homemade chicken pot pie on Friday night with our friends Sarah and Eric Bell and then had a great steak dinner on Saturday night. On Sunday night, Sean and I went to a co-worker's house to watch the football game and have some burgers. I put Stephen to sleep in a spare bedroom. About 15 minutes later some other person found him on a level below the bedroom. He had woken up, crawled downstairs and just was sitting there crying. He didn't seemed to have hurt himself getting down the stairs. We've been showing him how to go feet first; I guess he went down that way this time. Needless to say, we were very shaken and went home and put him to bed. I think every parent has this moment as "oh my god, my kid is that mobile, I need to be so careful." I've heard stories about kids crawling out of cribs and coming to their parents. I just didn't think we were there yet.

What is old is new again

Stephen fits into Sean's old jelly's from when he was a kid. His shirt says Mr. Mischief. He looked so cute going to the park again yesterday.

Campaign 08: Soap Opera or Broadway Musical?

Gorgeous Post Ike weather

It is below 80 degrees and just gorgeous, so Stephen and I went to the park this afternoon. I think this picture is one of the cutest of him. There were tons of people there at the local park. I got "advice" from a bystander mom saying that I was swinging him too high in the swing, but I said, "thanks" and just left her to think that I was endangering my child, so what, he loves it. I should have shown her how he likes to be hung upside down too...that would have scared her to death.

Stephen in the kitchen

I took a bunch of these type pictures from this weekend. He likes to take things out of drawers, but hasn't figured out how to put things back in, that is, except himself...

Feeling a little guilty

I saw the newborn photos of some friends today that they had professionally taken and they look great. I'm feeling a little guilty about thinking of not having Stephen's first birthday party be grand (maybe just a breakfast and a hat) and going out for our 4th anniversary instead (same day and time as Stephen's birth). Sean was telling me of a very grand 1st birthday party including a bouncey house. Also feeling guilty that we haven't had the standard Dallas professional photo shoot for our baby. I thought about opening it up to the readers of the blog using the poll feature. All votes are confidential :)

Random Postings

I have a bunch of random stuff, so I thought I'd collect it all into one post:

-for the last couple of weeks, Stephen has been coming into our bed and snuggling at 6am to 7am. Its so nice and it allows all of us to get more sleep and reminds me of when I was little. We have discovered that he only likes it for an hour, so coming into bed at 5am does not work and leaves everyone tired.

-Stephen is such a boy, he's started to really like cars. He's moved on from some of the younger toys to cars, trucks, and such. Its amazing that gender specific toys are favored so young.

-I saw a bumber sticker on a car yesterday that said, NObama08

-I think our city thinks that we recycle too much and were tired of seeing our blue bags. (Yes, they actually do care about the asthetics of the alleyways, why I don't know) We used to place our blue recycling bags next to the dumpster out in the alley and they would pick them up. We now have a dumpster in the alley that is exclusively for recyclables. YAAY.

-My in-laws have already made it out of Houston, they had already planned to go to Notre Dame to see Kaitlyn play soccer, but I hope that all the other family and friends in Houston are safe and/or out of there.

-Happy Birthday to my husband today. I love you.

I'm 11 months and I like to move it!

Future Executive Part 2

This weekend, Stephen helped Grandpa Eidson with some computer work. We enjoyed having Summer, Jon, Nancy, and Frank this weekend. Unfortunately Stephen has a cold at the moment and is a little under the weather, but we had fun none-the-less.

Palin Political Post

I'm trying not to judge Sarah Palin's personal life (not doing well on that), but it does reflect on her, just like Bill Clinton's personal life reflected on him. I once heard that the definition of integrity was being the same person in the public eye as in private. If the private life is not in good order, or at least in chaos, then it makes everything harder. The good things: She breastfeeds that 5 month old baby and takes him to work with her, although I'm not sure that taking your 5 month old into work with you is the most professional.

My view: She's going to be outclassed...and not because of her personal life.

I looked up her education because I hadn't heard anything about it. She transferred to three smallish colleges before graduating from the University of Idaho in journalism and a MINOR in political science. She was a sports reporter for a while before getting pregnant. She got to be mayor of her small town of 9,000 because she had lived there all her life and was president of the PTA. Note: just shows how all politics is local.

Both my parents come from small towns, and Sean comes from a smallish to mid size city. All three of them are proud of where they came from, as they should be as it made them who they are. They have all three left though because they knew that there was much more out there to see and do.

I don't necessarily care whether or not she can hunt, but I do care about whether or not she has put any thought into Israel and the rest of the Middle East, what she thinks about immigration reform, even what she reads...is she smart? Does she surround herself with smart people who guide her? She made a comment last night that she may not believe in all of the protections of the fourth amendment of search and seizure protections. Why not? It would seem to me that in a wild west state of Alaska, one might be fearful of the government takings, of land, of gun etc.

Comedy Central sometimes does a really great job of reporting

This time of year

I started this blog in August of last year. 192 posts, a kid, a house, and a dog later, here we are. Thanks for reading along with us.

Kermit goes swimming

Last night, we found Kermit had on goggles. Juana, Stephen's nanny, had put them on.
We thought it was hillarious.

Stephen at SMU v. Ole Miss women's soccer game

Stephen continued to have so much fun at Kaitlyn's soccer game last night. He even found a girlfriend (one of the assistant coach's daughters who is 6 and a half months old) We changed him into his pj's at half time and he continued to just go up and down the bleachers until the end of second overtime (they tied 2-2)

Hippie Hippie Shake

I just went to the chiropractor to get some relief before I can see the orthopedic surgeon. It went very well and I do have quite a bit of relief. He said that my hip flexors basically weren't working at all and adjusted me and they started working some. They are still very weak, but at least they are working.

I got back from the doctor and there's a voicemail waiting for me saying that the orthopedic surgeon has a cancellation NEXT WEEK! Hopefully they haven't filled it up by the time I can call back tomorrow!

Update: :( There was confusion and there was no availability for the appointment. Waiting 3 months for a consult is not fun.

Just like Mommy

I'm pretty sure this face comes from me. He was eating some cherries and eggs, which he got all over himself, which he also gets from me. He's taken a disliking to his highchair, but he likes hamming it up for the camera. We just feed him wherever he'll eat.

Start of Fall Madness

This weekend, we enjoyed having Sean's family in town for Kaitlyn's first soccer game, which unfortunately, they lost to Oklahoma State. We tailgated before the game, which was really fun, and brought Stephen. Once he was full of food, he really enjoyed cruising along the benches of the stadium (which thankfully, some architect had designed not to be open so that he could not fall through---forethought!) He had a grand old time banging and making noise and did not want to leave until the last five minutes of the game at about five til 9pm. Today, he took 2 almost 2 hour naps, which is highly unusual for him, but it was catching up with him. This weekend was the start of having a lot of family in town for almost every weekend this fall--both mine to visit Stephen, and Sean's for Stephen and Kaitlyn's games. We really enjoy having Kaitlyn here in town. I was even enjoying more the fact that I've been mistaken for a student while waiting outside her dorm. :) Unfortunately, next weekend's trip to Oregon for Sean with my dad and brother has been postponed, but we look forward to having Lilli, mom, and dad here in Dallas.

Baby Bjorn

We purchased the Baby Bjorn with back support before Stephen was born, and I've used it frequently, especially in the grocery store. But now, with my hip hurting more, I'm beginning to use it in the mornings when he is especially clingy to go downstairs and make coffee and let the dog out. I even used it to walk to the park this weekend with the dog. He likes being in there, and it makes things easier for me because it distributes the weight off my hip and over my back and shoulders. It also gives a great ab workout. I used to use a hotsling, which I loved when he was smaller, but now it is not all that convenient because the position to use at this time would be the hip carry, which is not the most comfortable. It is especially convenient to use the Baby Bjorn while traveling in an airplane, because you can carry the kid straight through security without taking the Baby Bjorn off. I'm trying to find a good backpack carrier for Sean to use, since he likes putting Stephen on his back/shoulders.

Constructing a Hip

Several people have asked me privately if I've found a surgeon for my hip and such. The answer, as a good lawyer will always tell you, is that its complicated. I sent a few orthopedist friends of mine my x-rays. Before seeing the x-rays, there was hope of possibly not doing a total hip replacement, instead doing an osteotomy, where they basically break your pelvic bone and realign the hip socket, or as I said to David, like realigning the wheels on a car so that they will wear evenly. It is still major surgery and the recovery is even harder than total hip replacement, but the benefit is that it saves the natural hip joint and may prolong replacement for hopefully another 20 years.

Unfortunately, the arthritis in the hip joint in my case is too far gone to do this kind of surgery and a total hip replacement is needed, or I need a new tire because the tread is gone. I have found a surgeon--thank you to my mom, who got the opinions of 3 independent people, plus my dr's, plus my friend Brent. The only thing is that the first open appointment is October 27th, so but unless there is a cancellation, I'm waiting until then. I have more research to do since there are metal v. ceramic replacement joints and benefits and detriments to each. On the economic front, I'm thinking that a company that makes these things is not a bad investment, since more joint replacements are going to be done with the aging of the baby boomers (and for people like Floyd Landis and I that have to have them done in our 30's)

I considered doing another blog about my hip, surgery, and recovery, potentially called Constructing a Hip, but I decided that I'll periodically post things in this blog here instead of having multiple blogs.

More from the Park

Stephen enjoyed going on the jungle gym...

I'm a hippie

I started belonging to this Yahoo Discussion Group for women with hip dysplasia...apparently they have discussion groups on everything. Anyway, some of the women have really pun worthy handles, like super hip chick, bionic woman, positively hip etc. and they call themselves hippies.

Sunday Afternoon at the Park with Stephen

more to come....we had a good time

Good Night Routine

Thankfully, Stephen has gone back to sleeping all night. We have a pretty good bedtime routine...we get a bath, which is optional, with these cool disco frogs that I got at Cosco World Market, pj's, story, and then cuddle. Whole thing takes about 20 minutes, if that. Tonight though was so cute. He was playing in his crib before bed and wanted my keys, which I gave to him (I said I would never do that, but whatever) After our story, I tried to take the keys away from him, which he didn't like, so I gave them back to him and cuddled with him until he went to sleep (about 3 minutes). I knew he was really asleep when he dropped the keys. I had been looking for a transitional object for him, but I'm not sure I would like it to be my keys. :)