In Jane Austen's World

Hopefully you have been enjoying Masterpiece Theatre's retelling of all six of Ms. Austen's novels. And hopefully you are not like my sweet husband who says that her novels, "pretty much write themselves." (Though no one could accuse Louis L'Amour of being formulaic...)

I have been thinking about this celebrated lady, and wondering why we love her so dang much. I think it's a lot of things. One is that we so badly want to be one of her heroines, because let's face it, she knew what good women aspire to be. Her heroines are simple, smart, good, talented, popular (with out being a "mean girl"), witty, and they always understand that there are far more important things than money and good looks.

Another reason we love her is that she created such great men. Darcy, Brandon, Wentworth, Knightly...the list goes on. All rich, but just. Handsome, but never vain (though often misunderstood). They would rather have a smart wife than a pretty one. They pine, they protect, and they own property in something known as "the Lake District".

Her villains are all recognizable. They aren't murderers or thieves, but rather they are petty, jealous, mean and greedy. The worst sin one could commit is to treat people badly, and not live up to ones word.

Finally, her world is the most just and fair place in all the literary world. By the end of the novel, each character is rewarded or punished in exact accordance to their behavior. If you are good and learn all your life lessons, you are rewarded with a handsome husband and a grand estate. If you are bad and compromise your values, you are cast out of good society and exiled to live far away from the good people.

Oh to live in her world! Oh to "Summer in Bath" or "Dance the next set". Oh to only wear empire waistline dresses!

She totally rocks.

"Godspeed, little man....Sweet dreams, little man"

Shane is out of town for the next week so it was up to me to get all the Sunday night tasks completed. Feed Hank, change diapers, say prayers and take him to bed. About 25 minutes after alls quiet lights out, I hear my baby screaming. I run to his room and pull him out of his crib and held him as he cried inconsolably for about 15 minutes. It was obvious to me that he had a nightmare (so sad that 1 year-olds have bad dreams!). I held him until he settled down, then we sat on the couch together where he just held to me as tight as he could. It actually turned out to be such a sweet moment because my boy is usually far too busy for cuddles. Often I get a quick hug before he is off on his adventures, so I treasure those times where he slows down and we just sit together. I sang to him, and we talked about how dreams are such happy things to have, and all the different places we can go when we dream. It was all very Walton's but I loved it.

The experience reminded me once again, what an awesome responsibility it is to be a parent. A few days ago I posted about my parents making everything alright, and now it is my job to do the same for my boy. As he held onto me tonight for dear life, he fully expected that I would make everything alright, and that the world would be a little less scary if we were holding on together. What incredible trust they have in us! What an honor!

It's a small thing, and something I probably would have forgotten if I hadn't written it down. But a good reminder when he is a teenager and Karma gets me back for being such a tool to my parents. I'll remember the night when my boy needed me and I could actually fix it. "This isn't our problem...this is our gift."

Latest Pics...

This is why I doubt that my son will live to his second birthday...And do we as responsible parents pull him down and give him a stern talking-to? Oh no, it was more like this, "That is not a toy, son. Now keep playing on the dangerous, slick, gas spewing oven until we get this shot."

Living in this house is truly a hair-raising experience...

Moms & Dads

Thank goodness for Moms and Dads. I am 28 years old, a mom myself, and yet when my Mom and Dad tell me that everything is going to be alright, I still absolutley believe them. What a great blessing that is. Thank guys.

Repeat the Sounding Joy!

After a wonderful and insanely busy holiday season, I finally have my computer back (a long story) and am ready to get back to blogging! My whole family came to celebrate our first Christmas in our home and it was a fun, loud, and memorable experience.

Christmas Eve, Bethany Hank and I singing a trio!

Our first Christmas as parents was a fun and eye-opening experience. I told my mom that I finally understood why they always looked so exhausted by 4:00 Christmas day! Shane and I woke up early, bundled up the Hankster and went to his parents house to open presents with his family. It's amazing how many presents are there for 2 grandparents, 4 siblings, 3 spouses, and 4 grandchildren! Poor Hank was a little overwhelmed with the whole experience. By the time we got him home, he was so exhausted that we put him down for a nap and opened more presents with my family. When he awoke from dreams of sugar plums dancing he was in a much better mood and able to enjoy opening his presents.

Hank checking out the awesome toybox his dad and Grandpa Jo made him. I absolutely love him in his Hugh Hefner PJ's!

My parents, probably also overwhelmed with their first grandchild's Christmas, got Hank a Little Tykes playhouse big enough for us all to live in (when the bank comes to take our house back, as Shane loves to say!)

Santa's Elves. My dad says the three most dreaded words in the English language are: Some Assembly Required

The finished product, to be featured in next week's MTV Cribs...

And as if Christmas and the constant attention of adoring grandparents, aunts, and uncles wasn't enough to spoil my little angel rotten, his first birthday was on the 29th! I spent the day in a haze, wondering where the first year of my baby's life had gone, and fearing that the next 17 years would go just as fast. We had a great party with both families, still more presents, and my son diving face first into his cake!

You can see his disappointment that it wasn't chocolate cake. Somehow he managed to shovel it down, stopping only when he burst into tears upon hitting the cardboard base (which he then tried to eat as well)

So I end this post with a short note to my little man. I heard someway say this past year that you don't love your kids, you fall in love with them. You are the second great love of my life. You are the best, hardest, most worthwhile, pain the butt thing I have ever done. I am so proud of you, and proud to be your mom. My "Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful boy."

Paging Doctor Clooney!

So we made it eleven months and 5 days before our first ER trip with Henry, and I have to say my experience was a bit of a disappointment...

Tuesday morning, I walk to the living room to see my son trying to chew up one of those glass tree ornaments. I get the blood in his mouth and shirt cleaned up, and am trying to see into his mouth to see if there are any cuts. The bleeding stops, so I put him in his high chair to see if he will eat. He starts crying and bleeding again, and I start to panic a bit. I'm no doctor, but I know that ingesting glass probably isn't the breakfast of champions. I run to get my clothes on and dash out the door to the Kania Clinic.

The twelve year old minimum wage kid working at the counter (apparently NASA wasn't hiring this week) informs me that they cant see Hank and I have to go to the ER.

It took us about an hour just to get triaged, and the nurse tells me that there aren't cuts in his mouth, and since he isn't choking or coughing that he likely didn't swallow anything, but that the doc would be there shortly to check Hank out.

If I thought church was fun with this guy, try chasing him around the ER! He did make some friends, first with this old gal in a wheel chair, who was kind enough to unlock her wheels so Hank could push her around a bit. Then with another lady whose gall bladder was about to burst who offered to share her ice tea with him, then the poor green teenager who was trying to sleep that Hank wanted to play peek-a-boo with. Hank just ran from patient to patient, absolutely convinced that the only prescription they needed was some Vitamin-H.

The disappointing part was that here I am, sitting by myself, no ring on my finger (it got forgotten in the rush out the door) and not one hot doctor tried to hit on me! I've seen the show, and I know that every distraught mom gets picked up by either Euro doc, commitment-phobia doc, cute-rookie doc, etc. But not me. I was waiting for a helicopter to crash through the windows, or some rare and life-threatening disease to shut the place down. Heck, I was about to OD on Dayquil just to liven the place up.

But in the end, after a few hours when it was obvious that Hank was not slowly choking to death or bleeding internally, we decided to go home and have a nap.

NBC is full of crap.

Tagged!

Thank you Seth, for assuming that there are seven interesting facts about me. Here we go-

1. I love to bake. I love it so much I would do it every day. Sometimes when I bake, I pretend I am hosting my own baking show on the food network. It would be in the same vein as Giada (or as Shane calls it, Cooking with Cleavage), not Rachel Ray (she bugs me, I don't know why.)

2. If I could have any super-power it would be time travel. There are so many places and events that I wish I could witness. I wouldn't want the power to be able to change events, just to watch them unfold.

3. I have moved a ba-jillion times in my life. My goal is to live in one house for 10 years.

4. I have a secret wish to someday be asked to appear on "Inside the Actor's Studio". I have no clue how to get asked, or what movies I would ever be asked to star in, but I think I would be an engaging and delightful interview. I would be "scrumtrulescent". Here are the answers to my questions, if anyone is interested:

-favorite sound: Hank's giggling, clock-tower chimes, and an orchestra warming up
-least fav sound: loud gum chewing
-favorite word: home
-least fav word: entitlement and the f word. (but the phrase "effing" always makes me guiltily chuckle)
-what turns me on: great power under control, and big broad shoulders
-what turns me off: mean people

5. My hair is very curly, and I seriously had the worst hair ever in middle school. Ever, ever. Fro-city. I was known as "the girl with the hair"...and not in a good way.

6. I think my humor is the best thing about me, and the worst thing about me.

7. I never thought Seinfield was funny. It is seriously torturous for me to watch that show. But I would leave my husband for Conan O'Brian or Steven Colbert.

I now tag Bethany, Karine, Stephanie and Nicole!