Go Team!

 
Sharky and I came to DH's office last night directly after work and found DH, Little Charles, and Chacha waiting for us at the back step. I was so happy to see them all! Well, we were all happy to see each other.

Truly, no matter what happens during the day, coming home to the refuge of my little family is the greatest. We have a little cheer that we all do together. Well, DH and I do it and Chuckie just watches and laughs...

We put our hands together and say "Whoa xxxxx!" It's just one of those spontaneous fun things that families come up with.

So glad it's the weekend and we can have more time together as a family!

Best Wishes,


Jen

Sharky Visits Little Charles' Crib

 

Munich-Research scientists at the Helmholtz Zentrum Muenchen made an extensive ten year study that involved 9,000 children, studying the connection between allergies and dogs. The results: Children who grow up with dogs in their living spaces are less likely to have allergies.

Der Spiegel, a German magazine, had a big article about this study recently.

The specific reasons for this effect are kind of vague. Scientists suspect it may be that since dogs bring dirt and germs into the house this exposure strengthens the immune system.

You can brush them and bathe them as much as you like, but dogs never get really clean. I brush my dogs twice a week and spray them with an organic herbal flea-prevention spray from Shea Pet, but they still smell like dogs. So while cleanliness is next to godliness (I am a bit of a neatness nut) a completely sterile environment is obviously not the way to go, at least healthwise. My three month old son, Little Charles, won't have to worry about lack of dogs and their germs, becuase both Sharky and Chacha love their baby! Sharky even sometimes wants to get into the crib during afternoon naps.

My immune system must be doing pretty well, too because I haven't gotten sick in years. Perhaps that's because I take my dog to work, and before I had Sharky, I took the dogs I raised for the blind to work, too. Sometimes people thought that was strange but I can only say this--"This is a law office, not a sterile surgery. So ha!" Well, actually I never said that, but I thought it. Most of my clients love my dogs who have, without exception, been good natured and well behaved, so it's never been a problem. Chacha, who is neither good natured nor well behaved, doesn't come to work with me, so we're safe there!

I sure love my dogs and I'm happy to find out that they're more than just companion animals--they also help children's immune systems. However, I do draw the line at sharing my ice cream cone with my dogs. (LOL)

Best Wishes,


Jen

Jen and Little Charles @ Goethe Institut Kindermatinee

 

I took Little Charles to the Kindermatinee and we saw a cartoon based on the Augsburger Puppenkiste star, a dinosaur named Urmel. It was cute, but Charles slept through the whole thing, and besides, these modern cartoons can't compete with the original Puppenkiste marionette shows, which were original, clever and the special effects subtle and creative.

There was a children's show that played here in America in the 70s called Dusty's Treehouse that also featured marionettes and was very educational--one of the highlights of my childhood tv watching, in fact. I liked it so much! When I first became an attorney a local station played this show in the early weekday mornings before I went to work. Needless to say, I watched it whenever I could! I'd like to get some DVDs of Dusty's Treehouse so that when Little Charles is old enough he can watch them.

If anyone knows where I can get some DVDs of Dusty's Treehouse, please let me know.

Best Wishes,


Jen

Whole Foods, Whole Paycheck

Yesterday afternoon I had to make an appearance in Superior Court in Pasadena. Since the opposing party and I immediately came to an agreement and settled the case, I had a little time on my hands. What to do? I had to make plans quickly on how to use this free-time windfall. Hey--when I have time on my hands I figure I might as well be doing something productive.

While the opposing party's attorney filled out the stipulated judgment I ran to the library right across the street from the Court and checked out some books on lizards and plants, my latest family fun project.* The Pasadena Main Library has a really good selection and I found some informative reference books.

I reluctantly pulled myself out of the library stacks and went back to Court. After the stipulation was signed and duly entered into the Court record I drove to the new Whole Foods Market that just opened up in Pasadena. It's two stories plus levels of basement parking. As I walked away from my car and made my way into the store I was reminded by a sign to not forget my canvas bags. I made note of this and turned back to my car to get my canvas bags so when they asked "Paper or plastic?" I could brag that I'd brought my own!

Anyway, the new Whole Foods is actually very nice. It has a huge cosmetics section (so dear to my heart!) and different eating areas reminiscent of the German market chain, Karstadt, which has a similar set up in its larger stores. The architects who designed this new Whole Foods probably got their inspiration from Karstadt. I ordered a salad at one of the Whole Foods eating areas. Verdict--expensive. And Karstadt's salads are better.

I had a good look around the new store and bought a few items to supplement our pantry. I also bought some eucalyptus bath salts for Chuck who felt a cold coming on. But honestly, while the selection at Whole Foods is better, Trader Joe's has much better prices and stocks a wide enough variety that I'd just rather stay out of Whole Foods. Can you ever leave the WF checkout counter without shelling out less than $100.00? Even most of the ecological baby products at Whole Foods can now be found at Target for about half the Whole Foods price. Bio-diapers are bio-diapers no matter where you buy them. I'd rather buy them at Target where they're so much less expensive.

Best Wishes,


Jen

* I mentioned in a previous post that I plan to turn our aquarium-turned-terrerium into a lizard vivarium. Notice how these words all have the same suffix--arium, which refers to an enclosure, containment, or association with the root word.

Baby Steps

4/9/08
Spending time with my baby is so much fun! I can't believe how cute he is. My clients have given me so many things for him, including lots of cute baby clothes. He must be the best dressed baby ever! In fact, right now he's bathed, pink and fragrant, and dressed for bed in a cute dinosaur print sleeper that someone gave us. He smells so sweet, exuding the wonderful baby smell that no baby lotion can duplicate.

He's also awake a lot more these days, so Chuck and I have to think up things to amuse him. Since he's only two months old, it's not like I can take him to the park to play yet. (LOL)Right now we're going to bed, though....it's late and I'm tired.

later 4/10/08
Chuck is one of these really involved fathers who plays with the baby, talks to him and makes him laugh.

But in the evenings Charles and I are alone for a few hours while Chuck gets some of his computer work done. I don't want to be a bad mom and plop my baby in front of the tv. This requires some effort, but it's also a lot of fun. I'm sure I appreciate my efforts more than my baby does at this point. (LOL)

We take nightly walks with our two small rescue Min Pins, and Little Charles likes this very much, looking around attentively at all the sights. When we get back into the house he's ready for his bath and then bedtime.

He absolutely loves his baths. But most babies probably do. However, I did go swimming every night up until the night before I gave birth to him, so I'm hoping that this, combined with his love of baths, will make it likely that he'll be a good swimmer.

I also read to him in German, and this makes him smile, but I'm sure he's really too young to understand anything. But you have to start somewhere...A friend is bringing us a bunch of German children's books directly from Germany. My friend comes back to the States tomorrow, so hopefully he'll drop the books off soon and Charles and I will have more reading material.

We also have a lot of plants, and I carry Charles around as I water them, explaining to him what kinds of plants they are and the conditions that make them happiest. I also recently bought a tomato plant and am pointing out to him how it grows incrementally, eventually bearing fruit. So exciting!

It's our first little science experiment of sorts. Later we'll grow an avocado tree from a seed, and graft small citrus cuttings. When he's a little older still, we'll try to come up with our own begonia hybrid. (I used to belong to the Begonia Society, but, alas, got too busy *sigh*) Having a baby is allowing me to experience all these wonders of nature as if for the first time.

I'm also making a terrarium out of an abandoned 50-gallon aquarium of Chuck's. When Charles is a few months older the plants should be established and we'll put a lizard in there--that sounds like the kind of macho pet a little boy would like. This weekend we'll go to the library and figure out which plants and what kind of lizards go together.

Life with a baby is so much better than it was before I had him! And life was pretty good then, too.

Best Wishes,


Jen

Say it to my Face!

Life is full of surprises, mostly unpleasant ones. (LOL) I looked on the internet yesterday at two different "discussion forums", the first regarding a well-known friend of mine, and the second regarding a relative who had had a public dispute with someone. I was unhappily surprised to learn that hundreds of embittered people had decided to post their two worthless cents on the web--about my friend and my relative, respectively.

Well, I guess you have to vent your spleen somewhere...

Still, I doubt that any of these internet people would have the guts to state their opinions in person. The internet is an anonymous forum that gives people the chance to gain the tremendous psychological gratification that comes with seeing someone else's social status decline. And since it is an anonymous forum, there is little risk of being discovered as a vicious gossip, or being sued for libel.

It is safer and easier to take out one's frustrations at a distant, public figure, than it is to acknowledge the sadness of our own lives and then seek out those compensations that are available to us.

But still, who are these anonymous typists? Don't these people have friends, hobbies, children to attend to? Dogs that need walking? Jobs? Why were they investing time and emotional energy sitting at a computer writing (mostly) hateful comments about people whom they would never meet?

I hope my son Charles, now two months old, never ends up as one of these computer freaks. I guess the best I can do to prevent this is to lead an honorable life myself--to be active rather than passive, to meet life's challenges with determination and courage, and to figure out what we as a family can do to be closer to each other and closer to becoming the people we want to be.