That's What I Get For Making Plans

My last post was auto-posted, and full of misinformation. Which just goes to show that I probably shouldn't make plans, because I am not nearly as predictable as a mouse or a man. We actually got snowed into Idaho and had to stay an extra day, so Sunday I wasn't driving home so much as enjoying an extra day of Thanksgiving. And therefor we didn't start Advent on time, we started a day late.

It was a good Thanksgiving, however. Full of family and food, and aren't those the things that Thanksgiving is about?

Malachi was mostly enjoying the food:

While Zeke mostly enjoyed the family:
and the "pajama party" (aka sleeping bags on grandma's floor with the cousins) that I didn't get caught on film memory card.

The other thing I feel foolish about is after visiting family, and my moms three schnauzers, and Josh's mom's scotty, and his grandma's scotty, and most deadly his brothers brand new australian sheppard (my favorite breed EVAR) I started thinking about getting a dog again. I started thinking hard and admittedly not with my head.

Even though Josh and I have been seriously talking about a dog for almost 2 years now, and have almost come to the brink of getting said dog numerous times, we have always decided that the timing wasn't right yet for our family. Most notably, 4 weeks or so ago.

But even though all those arguments still exist...I have a baby...I have limited time for training...ect. Well how much my kids loved that aussie, despite the fact that she is a rambunctious critter and jumping and kissing them everywhere, it took me over the bridge.

The really embarassing funny part is that Josh and I said in October that if we were to get a dog right now it would be 1. Not in the winter when the 3 feet of snow outside would inhibit both potty training and leash training. 2. Not a small breed, as Josh calls all dogs under 30 pounds rats. 3. Not a puppy, because oh Lordy are puppies 1,000x more work then a dog. 4. And a mutt, because Josh has strong feelings about the purposeful breeding of dogs when there are so many good ones that need a home.

And here we are, talking to the owner of a 9 week old (puppy), Toy (aka small breed), Australian Shepard (purebred) that he purchased and then quickly decided he couldn't keep, in December (winter).

Which just goes to show that I shouldn't make plans. Again.

It's not that we don't have our reasons. There are pluses to puppies, most notably that we have small children and cats and not many dogs are socialized well for both. There are pluses to getting a small dog, most notably that we have small children and a small car. There are even pluses to this dog's purity in breed. Our local animal shelter has a bad habit of selling pit bulls and calling them something else and this dog was going to end up at an aussie rescue anyways. And despite my brother's taunting of being an animal racist, the risks are too high to allow a potentially aggressive animal into the family. There is even a plus to it being winter (I'm impatient?).

But I suppose the real lesson here is that sometimes the heart wants what the heart wants. It wasn't exactly a "good" idea for Josh and I to get married right out of high school. Looking at statistics we are pretty much guaranteed to divorce...3 years ago. It wasnt a "good" idea to have our first child when we did, we were poorer than poor and riding on the expectation that things would work out.

And no, getting a puppy right now is probably not a "good" idea. Heck, if this puppy went to rescue I'm not even sure that our application would be accepted. Aussies are notoriously hyper-active, stubborn, and destructive when bored. They are also loyal, great with kids, smart as all heck, and eager to please...but lets look at all the facts straight. This is not only a puppy, but a puppy that will require a strong hand.

But I'm in loooove.

So hopefully next week I'll be inviting everyone I know over to help me get this puppy used to crowds :)

First Thanksgiving

No pictures at the moment but lots of news. First, we are back from our trip to Boise for Thanksgiving. It was fairly successful. We were happy to be there and happy to be home, at least, and I call that success.

Down moments: Zeke's inability to nap if there is anything interesting going on. This is a rather pain at home but even worse when we aren't at home, as you can imagine. It could have been worse, I suppose. The first day at Kathleen's he napped very well, and he always did great at night as soon as Josh or I were in bed with him. I think for Christmas I will just have to be more mindful that traveling is exciting and lay down with him every afternoon at the quietest available moment. This trip we where so busy that I tried to get him to nap on the go or in a back room of a noisy house by himself and it just doesnt work.
The drive back. We didnt leave until after 2, so well over half of the drive was in the dark, the sun set at about 4. One passenger in the car did NOT enjoy that. I tried to refrain from telling my husband that I had TOLD him we shouldn't go to church on Sunday because if we left too late the drive would be miserable. Zeke does great on these long drives in the mornings. I succeeded through the first 2 hours of screaming, then to my shame went into an "I told you so" rant.
Zeke is still overwhelmed by lots of new faces at once, people that put their faces really close to his face, and really loud people. I just described our families.

Good moments: The drive there. Zeke was so good and patient. In 7 hours we only stopped twice and he never got cranky. He played mostly by himself with his crochet hook, or listened to music.
He said "mama" for the first time!!
There were moments when Zeke did really well with strangers. Uncle Zack and cousin Tyler both got him laughing really loud. He let his grandmas and grandpas all hold him, my parents especially got to treck him all around the mall, lol. It gives me hope that he will get better and better. After all, he does better at playdates and I havent had to rescue him in the nursery at church in absolute weeks. Again I think next visit with somewhat less absolute craziness since its longer will go a bit better. It seems like it was the huge family gathering days that were the worst.
Getting home. He was so soo happy. He just kept looking around and smiling and even giggling to himself. We put him down at 9 in his crib and he didnt even move until almost 5 for a feeding. Then at 8 he moved into bed with me and slept past 10:30!
Hand-me-downs from aunt Jen (and cousin Ashton too). We spied them out this morning and they are great! Thanks!
No crawling! Haha, I win!

All packed up

I am all packed up and ready to go to Idaho for Thanksgiving, or jet-set as I like to say...I don't know where I got that...

Anyways, I am super stoked. Seriously. I am. And I should be decorating the house for Christmas so that it will look all nice when I get back home but Zeke is taking a late nap and I don't want the noise in the closet to wake him. We where at Kait's a bit too long today probably, oh well, it happens. And it was worth it because Molly, Zeke's girlfriend and also Kait's daughter, gave him a big fat kiss. Seriously people, we didn't even tell her to! She did it of her own accord. I am glad they are listening to their mommies and falling in love but a little worried at how young they are doing it. Maybe those two should slow down!

PS Haha Kaitie, I blogged it first!

Also, as many of you know, because this comes up surprisingly often, Josh and I decided not to give Ezekiel a circumcision when he was born. We had many reasons for this decision and did a LOT of research, and we haven't regretted it for a second. Quickly put we just felt that the medical reasons to circumsize didn't really hold (and neither did the medical reasons to NOT circumsize), I knew from experience with other small boys that it wasn't "dirtier" or harder to clean, and neither of us wanted to do something, especially a painful surgery, just because everyone else does it. Not that everyone else does, I was surprised to find out how many of my friend's children aren't these days.

Anyways, I wasn't actually planning on getting into that decision or my reasons for it although I'm happy to discuss it with any of you. What I wanted to segue into was this reply to one of my ulitmate fav. blogs/bloggers and hero about this same subject. I never thought of it this way and found it so interesting.

...Something that I didn't see brought up on your comments was female circumcision (FGM) [I am fairly certain this stands for Female Genital Mutilation, am I correct?]. This practice is common all over the world. There are varying types I through III. Type III includes removal of clitoris, labia minora and majora, then sewing the vaginal opening, leaving a very small opening the size of a matchstick. I have assisted in delivering babies from women with type III circumcisions, and it was not pretty. Not to mention all of the other health problems it causes. We lived in a city that was predominately Somali. The State Department sites that 90% of Somali women have been circuited and that 80% of these circumcisions were Type III. I have spoken with many Somali women about their circumcisions over the past 5 years. They cite reasons such as, "girls will become prostitutes if we don't stop their sexual drive", "if you don't cut the clitoris it will keep growing until it's hanging down between their legs". It has also become a convenient way for women to prove their virginity before getting married. It's interesting to note that it is the older women who keep this tradition going and the #1 reason for circumcising is simple to them.... "It's the most beautiful". It's how they look, and they want their daughters to look the same. [I find this such a frightening parallel to male circumcision in the U.S.: circumcising boys without their consent because it is the way their fathers look and it is the most "beautiful" (or normal, or acceptable, or common, or least different, or usual) way for boys to look in this country. Should that alone be reason to continue this practice in our country?? Should that be a reason to continue FGM of girls in other countries!?]

This really got me thinking about my cosmetic reasons for wanting to circumcise my son, and how dangerous that line of thinking can become. [I believe that "line of thinking" has perhaps become a trap for American parents regarding male circumcision as well.] Somali women would even suggest that because we circumcise our males, it should be fine for them to circumcise females. Although there is no comparison to the degree of mutilation that it causes, I am happy to be able to report to them that we haven't circumcised any of our children, male or female. [Certainly male circumcision is much less extreme than the female circumcision spoken of here. However, regardless of the difference in extremes, I drew a huge parallel between these two and the reasons both have been carried out as long as they have.]

I of course dont want you to think that Im suggesting any of you with circumsized boys have mutilated them, or even that circumcision is a bad choice. Your choice, as long as you chose it, is the right choice, if that makes sense. I just found this so interesting that I had to share.