All Brains Need Breaks -- Recess

This Slate article talks about recess returning to the school day.  I am glad that I went to school before this vital part of physical and social development was ripped away.  I didn't know kids were currently missing out, though I can't say I'm surprised.

How can you expect elementary age kids to sit and do school work all day--save a 30 min. lunch break--and not mentally suffer?  Oh wait, that's right...we can just medicate them into more focus. Silly me! Amphetamines are obviously always the answer.

But seriously, play and movement and imagination are vital to making kids smart and well-adjusted.

The Rebirth of Recess  by: Nicholas Day,  Slate.com

38 Week OB Appointment

So, the blood pressure was up today for the first time:  138/90.

The midwife is running some blood and urine tests to check if I'm developing preeclampsia.  If I am, we might need to think about inducing at 39 weeks (which is Sept 6...or 9 days from now).

Test should be back by beginning of next week.  Hopefully it is nothing.

                                                                          cdc.gov/bloodpressure/about.htm
(37 weeks, 5 days pregnant)

UPDATE: no preeclampsia, after all.

When Kids Play Across Gender Lines -- Emanuella Grinberg on CNN.com


...I love the idea around this toy store rearrangement.  Much more useful.

Nerdy Thought on a Sunday Afternoon

How entertained would I be to have a kid named Walter Benjamin Weisfeld.

lols...

So very sad that I don't like the name Walter.  I guess we could change it to Gautier...I would NEVER get partner approval on that one.

                                                  thearcadesproject.tumblr.com/

Birth Class Foodie Moment

Last night at birth class we had a lovely couple come in to share their birth story. The story was great (not scary), they seemed pretty cool, and their baby seemed to be the kind of baby I enjoy. The mom even referred to having a standard vag exam as getting fisted...and I got a good little chuckle out of that, of course.

But I was distracted through the whole second half because I was hung up on Fire Bowl Cafe.  Now, there is a reason I've never been to a Fire Bowl Cafe....it's because I don't believe in fake Chinese restaurants (that and they only seem to exist in suburbanesque strip malls--rarely a good sign).  DON'T lump together a bunch of pseudo-Asian cuisines and expect me to respect you enough to give you money. Ok, I could rant on this place forever.

The point is: this lovely couple mentioned they went to Fire Bowl Cafe while in early labor, and it sent me into a special mental space.

Later, we were divided into teams to play a game moms v. coaches. One of the moms I have identified as probably awesome made a quiet foodie-appropriate comment about the presenters' food judgments, and I was so excited to not be the only one with feelings about this! It was a nice moment for me, though probably seems totally trivial.

Twenty Reasons

20 reasons my man is the most awesome pregnancy partner in the world:

1. Despite ever-increasing workloads at the office, he has taken over most of our domestic tasks. He will leave work at 8pm and STILL go to the grocery store, do the dishes, switch out the bags in the mini trashcans (aka, emergency puke receptacles), and make sure the bathrooms are stocked for the night. He doesn't bring home his stress anymore, and I know that has to very difficult for him.

2. He joins me in occasionally breaking pregnancy rules (nothing dangerous, of course.)

3. Even when he's asleep in the middle of the night, he senses my queasiness/offness and reaches over with comforting mini-snuggles.

4. He is ever vigilantly scanning for potential nausea/emotion triggers and immediately counteracts them as much as possible, like a ninja!

5. He is better at gauging my likely reaction to things than I am.

6. He is quite funny and adorable.

7. He nerds out at our birthing class.

8. He brings me surprises...often.

Day 211 of Vomiting

[WARNING: there are like 4 different things in this short post that could leave you uneasy, not excluding a face in a placenta, and my cervix. Whoops! Well, there; you've been warned.]


...and we are on day 234 of the year. That's 90% of 2012, so far.


I worry my gag reflex is going to be permanently changed after this journey through the dark jungles of pregnancy-long morning sickness. (Insert jokes here.)  I feel like I should be reading some Sartre, but I think it could be psychically bad for the baby...and probably me.

I watched some videos of people on ayahuasca. They were comforting. From now on, I'm going to pretend that I'm knocking on the door of the spirit realms when I'm hunched over not keeping my food and drink.  Each puking session could be an opportunity to encounter my true Buddha nature within...? When I see the sparklies floating in my field of vision, I'm just going to tell myself that I'm reaching towards sacredness.

Ok, all this lemons-to-lemonade is making me nauseous now.

As of Thursday, the kid should be baked enough to be a fine human being on his own. We've made it this far.  I can do anything for 1 to 4 weeks.  May the spirit of earlyish babies in my family run strong in me!

As of last Thursday: 
1 cm dilated
50% effaced
baby is locked and loaded in the head-down position.

Hopefully his face's love affair with the placenta is still raging strong, and he'll come out face down as he should.  (Srsly, every ultrasound he hides his face in that thing. I think of them as being besties.)


(36 weeks, 5 days pregnant)

Beaten to the Punch: Baby Dictators

http://urbantitan.com/unique-baby-dictator-clothes/

At that link, you will find a delightful series of baby dictator photographs by Danish artist Nina Maria Kleivan.  My idea to do this series, sadly, was not original it seems. Of course.  But! Look how fun these are. And by fun, I mean amusing while managing to agitate several different levels of discomfort and critique.  I like to remember, also, that her baby is a girl.

                                                       Baby Stalin; Baby Pinochet

POOF!

Seriously, the issue of object permanence (or lack there of...lols) is one of the funniest things about babies to me.