Books

Here is the latest round of books:

The Lion's Pride: Theodore Roosevelt and his family in times of peace and war

Great book. Even more than the subject of a great book, Roosevelt was just an amazing fellow. I listened to books about Lincoln and Kennedy, both of whom were extremely good politicians. Lincoln was, at least by most accounts, an extremely ethical man. But, neither was a model parent. Roosevelt, by all accounts was—his children loved him and he took amazing interest in them. He had an amazing number of desirable attributes, and, I enjoyed very much learning about him.

The Black Swan

Listened to it for a class. Fits in the same kind of category as Blink or The Tipping point—trendy kind of book written for people who think they like to think. It was pretty good. It was referenced in this last Conference.

Lincoln

Enjoyable. I enjoyed leaning more about this president which has practically been canonized, but, which like everyone had problems. Regardless of those problems, he was, by all accounts, an amazing guy, and it was a pretty good book.

The Age of Turbulence

A recent book by Alan Greenspan, this was interesting. He spent a while talking about his life, then talked about the economy. It was interesting to see what he had to say, although it was fairly watered down, being written for consumption by the general public. It is amazing how many famous people he knew early on in his life.

An unfinished life: John F. Kennedy

One of a couple I listened to about Kennedy. An amazingly powerful family with an amazing number of dark secrets. Powerful. Corruption. Interesting that JFK has practically been canonized since.

Diary of Anne Frank

This was interesting book. It had some interesting insights, but, it was mostly interesting to just see how a teenage girl thinks about things. One moving point of the book is the end. I listened to it, and when you listen, you don’t know when the end is coming. So, it was the end of a diary entry, and the book was done. It makes one realize the abrupt finality of so many lives like Anne’s. They were living somewhere, were herded up, taken off, and most died.

Things that are Fun

Putting Rebecca's bottles in the sink when she is finished eating:

Feeling manly after eating Mom's beef stew for lunch:

(this was accompanied by grunting sounds, he was not sad)

Riding with Dad while the girls  stay home and do girly things (like blogging):

Wearing a helmet like Dad:

 

Graduation

Stacey graduated today with her Masters Degree in Instructional Psychology and Technology from Brigham Young University. She has worked very hard and we are very proud of her.

Rebecca's one month pictures

Well, despite my inabilities to feel like I was coping at least on a few days of the last thirty or so, Rebecca has thrived to the ripe old age of one month.  Here she is with her little stuffed lamb, which, like Jacob's brown bear, will probably shrink in size over the next eleven months.  I got her out of bed to take the pictures, thinking that the trip downstairs, the bright lights, and the sitting up position would wake her somewhat, but none of it did.  She even made it back to bed and then finally woke up a few hours later to eat. She's pretty cute when she's asleep, so enjoy!                                  

At two weeks she was 9 lb 5 oz, good and above her birth weight.  Next fat stats to come in a month!  

 

Nice Quote

I saw this today, and thought it was nice.

"You wake up every single day and have a choice as living as a victim or a victor. When you choose to be a victor, you have so much more positive impact on how people view you and the way you want to live your life."

- Patrick Ireland

Rebecca's First Bath

If only I could get these hands behind my head, then I'd be comfortable!

We got to bathe Rebecca pretty early on in her life since her umbilical stump fell off when she was just 6 days old.  Here are a couple pictures we took that night.  Funny thing is that Jacob had just gone to bed when we gave Rebecca her bath, and he was apparently pretty jealous judging by the sobs we heard once we started running the bath water.  Jacob loves bathtime to pieces, but we found out Rebecca wasn't too thrilled with her first real bathing experience.  Luckily she's warmed up to quite a bit!

The sour face

Slightly more relaxed...

Out of the water at last!

Easter thoughts

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday yesterday.  Rebecca and I went (back) to church, the ward choir that I lead sounded great singing "This is the Christ"...good thing we started preparing that song back in February so we could take a few weeks off when Rebecca came...and Jacob managed to survive his third week of nursery. In the afternoon while the kids were both sleeping, we listened to Elder Holland's italics-laden and thus emphatically important conference talk, None Were With Him.  The following is an excerpt from that talk:

Brothers and sisters, one of the great consolations of this Easter season is that because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so. His solitary journey brought great company for our little version of that path—the merciful care of our Father in Heaven, the unfailing companionship of this Beloved Son, the consummate gift of the Holy Ghost, angels in heaven, family members on both sides of the veil, prophets and apostles, teachers, leaders, friends. All of these and more have been given as companions for our mortal journey because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the Restoration of His gospel. Trumpeted from the summit of Calvary is the truth that we will never be left alone nor unaided, even if sometimes we may feel that we are.

I am particularly grateful for these family members that I've been blessed with to accompany me in my "little version" of the Savior's Via Dolorosa, and I am eternally grateful for the Savior's life, Atonement, sacrifice and love. 

Jacob Goes Under the Knife

So, Jacob got ear tubes put in Thursday. This is a relatively simple procedure that takes about ten minutes, but that does require the patient going under general anesthesia. We showed up to the hospital at 12:00, like we were told to. Jacob had not eaten since 5:30 AM, when I had woken up to feed him (I determined that Stacey wakes up to feed Rebecca most of the time when she requires night feeding, so I would do the “night” feeding of Jacob, kind of like the Bishopric in Soda Springs always being in charge of snow removal in July). So, after waiting for about 2.5 hours, they called us back and started getting Jacob ready. He put on a little gown, and had to wait for longer. 

By that time he had not eaten for a long time, not drunk anything for a long time, and was about 1.5 hours overdue for a nap. I asked if I could come back during the surgery, and they said I could be back there up until he was out. I donned a little suit (yes, a little one, posing a problem for this large person), and went back there with him. Jacob was not very happy when they laid him down on the operating table. He was crying pretty bad, and was really sad. They kept on saying, “What’s wrong, Jacob?”, and I just wanted to shout “He is 19 months old, has not eaten in a long time, has been refused his nap, has been waiting for 2.5 hours in a strange place, is laying next to naked on a cold table surrounded by strangers dressed oddly. What do you think is wrong?”  The anesthesiologist resident said that generally they give children a little something to drink that makes them sleepy, and then knock them out completely with gas. But, since I was going to be there, he said he would not use the drink. When we were in there getting ready to use the gas and Jacob was upset, there was a tense exchange between one of the normal doctor people and the resident that basically suggested that Jacob should have gotten the liquid to sedate him. In any event, he was on the table, crying a lot, thrashing around as we held him down, as one of the doctors had a gas mask over his mouth until he slowly became drugged enough to lie still and be out.

Once he was still, they had me leave. It was a good thing that Stacey did not have to see all that. 

Then, we waited. The audiologist came down and talked to us, as did the ENT. The tubes went in well, and the hearing test Jacob had went well. The hearing test is an ABR test, which is the same little test they do on newborns where they electrically stimulate parts of the brain to see what happens. But, when you are 18 months, you move more, so being gassed helps. He is a bit deficient in the hearing area, but not bad enough to warrant hearing aids, so, of the three oldest in our family, Jacob hears best.

After a little bit longer, they led us up to the recovery room where Jacob was sound asleep. Since he had not had a nap, he was still out. I asked the nurse that was there how we know if he is just tired, and he said we don't. So, we woke Jacob up. It was so weird to see him in a little gown, with an IV, on a huge hospital bed. So sad, and so cute at the same time. 

He was a bit groggy. We sat there for a while, and then just went home.

Jacob recovered well. Here he is right after we got home, with his legs kicked up on the recliner, taking it easy with some saltines and water. He didn't really seem to have any problems, he ate fine that night, and seemed pretty normal.

So, that is that. Jacob was gassed, punctured and electrocuted all in the same day, and he lived to tell the tale.

Jacob's Third Haircut

Our son managed to survive his third haircut a couple weeks ago.  Here is some pre-bath evidence:

Showing off the top:

Jeff cut his own hair a couple hours later.  We made no record of this event, however.  We don't document grown-up haircuts unless there is adequate reason to do so.  Better luck next time on getting 12 inches. honey.    

Tricks

Jacob has learned a few more things lately that we wanted to share with the general readership.  

Rebecca is still working on her tricks, but for the most part she just excels at eating and sleeping and going through diapers faster than you can say, well, diaper.  

I'll let you kill babies if you let me kill murderers

So, I just read this article: It is about this rule that suggests that health care providers not be forced to provide services they are morally opposed to. The main argument against this rule is that it limits reproductive choice (whatever that means), and that it was ideologically driven. Similarly for the stem cell debate--scientists suggested that the ban was standing in the way of good science and that it was only an ideological ploy. How are these ideological aversions to different things any different from an ideological aversion to torturing terrorists, in light of the fact that doing so may provide useful information? Or how about capital punishment, given that it will at least most certainly prevent the executed from committing further crime? Both sides in these debates seem to be ideologues in some situations, but ridicule any thought of "ideology" in an other.What do you think about this?