Phrenology and you

As many of you may know, the newest addition to our family (The New Guy) was born with a knot the size of an egg on his head. When I asked about it in the hospital I was told, "Oh, that's just from when he was born." However, the child wasn't so much 'born' as 'removed', so it seemed strange to me that his head had any imperfections. Cesarean babies generally have perfectly round, Charlie Brown heads. The knot was worrisome, so I took him to the doctor. Yesterday we had his head examined.

First, the doctors did an ultrasound. The knot is bony, though, so the ultrasound could not penetrate it. But they did check out his brain through his little fontanelles, which I thought was pretty neat. Little windows into his head. "Brain looks fine", they said.

Next they did an x-ray on his head. Now, month old babies are not the most cooperative little people in the world. The New Guy did not like this at all. After screaming, wiggling and flailing to no avail, I guess he decided that playing dead was his best shot at getting the doctors to go away. The x-ray was very easy after that, and no one could find anything really wrong with his head. Just a calcium deposit or something on his skull. It will be there forever, but it will get proportionally smaller as baby's head grows. So he's got that going for him.

Anyway, I had to say all that to get to this part of the blog. While I'm at the doctor with baby getting the knot checked out, I got to thinking about the old idea of phrenology. Phrenology is the science (or pseudo-science, as it were) of reading the bumps on people's heads. People used to believe that you could tell a lot about a person by reading the bumps on their heads. So out of curiosity, and really just for *shiggles*, I came home and did some research.

Since I didn't have a 3D model to work with, I used this image I found on the internet. I located the knot on the New Guy's head, and I found that it was located in the vicinity of the area corresponding to Conscientiousness (sp). I like this! This just comfirms what I originally thought about my son, that he's a thinker. (Not that I really needed a chart to tell me this. Mothers just have a way of knowing.)
I don't really know what to think about phrenology as a science (or pseudo-science, as it were). Part of me feels that there had to be enough to it that people wrote about it, studied it, and practiced it for years. It's kind of like the old idea of blood-letting as a medical treatment. But doctors have recently gone back to using leeches to treat patients. Who really knows? I find it curious.
So farewell, dear readers! I'm off to read the bumps on my own head now.

** Update **

I haven't blogged in a long, long time. With two babies now it's hard to do anything that doesn't involve feeding them or cleaning up after them. But it is a labor of love. I know I'll miss their baby-hood when it's gone.

Here's what is going on with them:

Baby #1 (lil Hercules)

He's now 2 and 1/2. Three in February. Walking, talking, and he has ideas of his own and he likes to communicate them to me. He'll ask me to do things for him, "Mommy fix it, Mommy open it, Mommy say 'one two three go!'". He loves to run, he laughs a lot. He likes to try on all of his clothes and strut in front of the mirror. He loves people, he loves toys, he loves to play. He's so much like his father it's uncanny. He likes to wear hats. His favorite show is Monk. He loves to sing and dance. Every day he amazes me with something new that he's learned.

Baby #2 (the new guy)

He was one month old on Monday. His favorite things to do are kick, stretch, wiggle, and poot. He isn't a fussy baby (much). When he's awake he just likes to look around and take in the world. He seems to be a thinker. The New Guy takes more after me. At least, he looks more like me. When he's just sitting there looking around, I like to think that he's a quiet, contemplative type. But I know that most babies just sit and look around. The New Guy is just now beginning to come to life. I like to think of him as a little flower that is just opening, revealing a little more of himself every day. I can't wait to see what kind of boy he's going to be.

Other than the babies, there isn't anything much going on in my life. There isn't a lot of time right now to pursue my own interests. I could whine about that, but I won't right now. There's no time! Busy hands are happy hands, right? I'm very happy with my role as mother, but in the back of my mind I'm always making plans for when the babies are older, when I have more time... I'll travel. I'll take dance lessons. I'll redecorate the house. There will be time, there will be time...

Right now I have to run. Doody calls! (get it! I said 'doody' instead of 'duty' because the New Guy needs a diaper! I'm so funny :)

Hope everyone is enjoying the Holidays!

There was this one time....

Like most people, my head if full of a lot of stuff. Stuff being old memories, new ideas, to-do lists, and various other thoughts and feelings. I relate the stuff in my head to the fizz in soda bottle. My brain is constantly bubbling, and sometimes some random thing will surface again and again so that I'm forced to think about it, sort it out, deal with it, make meaning from it and whatnot.
Here's the thing that's been on my mind the last few days:
(it's sort of a long story so bear with me...)
When I was in college I had to drive through a rather shady part of town to get to school from home and vice versa. Whenever I would drive through this part of town I'd always make sure my doors were locked, and I'd become acutely aware of my surroundings, the way you're supposed to do when you're in a shady neighborhood. The people in this neighborhood are not like me and I'm afraid of them because they all want to rob me and carjack me and do all sorts of terrible things to me because I'm one of the "haves" and this neighborhood is full of the "have nots". Yada yada yada.
Anyway, on this particular day I'm remembering it was raining, or had been raining. I got stopped at a traffic light. As I'm looking around my car making sure all my doors are locked, and checking my surroundings for shady people, I notice the lady in the car next to me is trying to get my attention. I look at her, this lady from the shady neighborhood who I have nothing in common with, and I notice she's pointing at something. She's pointing to something to my right. I look over to see that she's showing me a rainbow. She's pointing to a big, beautiful rainbow. This lady, who a minute before I probably wouldn't have liked, or I might have even been afraid of her, took the time to show me a rainbow. We shared a moment. It made me happy, so I smiled at her.
Whenever I think about this story, it always makes me feel good. I imagine that no matter how different people may be, that we might have more in common than we think. Even if it is only that we all like rainbows.

You've got to be the change...

Ghandi said, "You've got to be the change you want to see in the world."
That statement really speaks to me as a person who works with little people on a daily basis and as someone who is trying to raise a little person. Preach and lecture all day long, but if you really want to see results, you have to be an example.
So, I've taken Ghandi's words to heart, but on a smaller scale. I'm working now to be the change I want to see in MY world. My classroom, my home, my family.
Last week I wrote about a dream I had that really shook me up. Not in a bad way. I sort of felt it was a "call to action". Ever since I had that dream I've made some changes.
First, I've been sorting our trash for recycling and bringing my own bags to the grocery store. Baby steps to make the world a little greener. In the past I've always been a "throw it all in the trash because once it leaves my house it isn't my problem anymore" kind of person. But now that I have a child it suddenly seems so important to teach him to take care of the earth as much as he can. I do this for him.
The next big change has been diet and exercise. I've been on a diet/exercise program for two weeks now and I have to say, I do feel tons better already! Not necessarily seeing the results I want on the scale yet, but I do have more energy and I feel better about myself. It isn't easy to overcome a lifetime of laziness, but it's important to me. I'm hoping that my enthusiasm about this will rub off on my husband... only time will tell.
Finally, I've been putting in extra effort at work. I've always done my job fairly well, but if I'm honest with myself I know that there are a lot of things I could improve upon. One problem I have always had in life that affects my work is that I lack focus and organizational skills. I tend to daydream and go off on tangents. I have a rather lackadaisical approach to life which, while it has always worked for me, it rubs off on my students and it isn't particularly helpful to them. Thre are things they need to know beyond the curriculum. Life skills, time management, responsibility...I've really been working hard this year to hold myself to a higher standard so that I can in turn hold them to a higher standard. Seems weird that I've been teaching ten years and I just now understand this.
So that's what I've been up to. One day at a time, being the change.

Prophetic Dreams

First of all let me say that today's nap was one of the best I've ever had! I was able to read a book in bed alone until I became drowsy and drifted off to sleep. If that sounds odd to you, you must not have children. My friends with children will understand that THIS NEVER HAPPENS!!! I feel so refreshed! And I must give props to my sweet husband who made it all possible.
OK, now to the most interesting part of my nap- the dream. I'll retell it in as much detail as I can remember.

I was going home to my apartment. I lived in an apartment, see. I was trying to get in, but I couldn't remember the code to unlock the gate. I tried all the important numbers in my life, but none of them worked. I had to wait for another resident to come home so I could follow them in the gate.
I finally get in the gate and make my way to my apartment. I hadn't been there in a while, maybe a couple of months. I don't know why exactly. That's one of the blanks the Sandman didn't fill in. Anyway, the important thing is that someone else had taken up residence in my apartment. It was a woman. She was a cook I think. Latino. I really don't think those details matter. What matters is she had moved all of her things in. Nothing in the apartment was mine anymore. I could still see fixtures where I had placed things when I was living there, but basically everything was different.
In my dream I told my friends about the squatter who was living in my apartment. Turns out she wasn't really a squatter, she had been invited there by one of my friends. The dream-friend couldn't understand why I was paying rent for an apartment I wasn't living in or caring for.
By the end of the dream I was taking over control of my place. I was moving my things back in and making it my own again.

Now for the interpretation. I'm a big believer in dreams and their meanings, but I don't own a dream dictionary. I feel that each person's dream and the "symbols" therein are unique to each individual based on personal experiences. Whatever. Here is what this dream means to me: I'm living my life "unconsciously". I'm not paying attention to myself or the things I do to myself. I'm eating poorly, not exercising. I'm feeling stressed out, I'm unfit and overweight. My dream is telling me I need to take back control of myself. If I don't, I'm opening the door for things like disease to take up residence in my body. Like in my dream where I was still paying rent for an apartment I no longer lived in, I pay the price when I don't take care of myself.
All in all I thought it was a pretty good dream to have. Time to start living "consciously".

(In an unrelated note, in the dream I was talking to my dream-friend, and we decided that I should take one romantic vacation with my husband and start trying for baby #2 afterward. We'll see about that ;) )