July 2010

Visitors
In July we continued to have visitors. Andrea, my childhood friend, came to visit. She fell victim to being unfamiliar with how big and how un-metropolis it is. She rerouted herself to Kalispell and then had to wait an entire day for the one bus to bring to Missoula! But when she arrived we were all thrilled! Big thanks to Andrea for spending her vacation with us!!

After Andrea left we had a couple days to prepared for our friend Sarah to arrive. In the spring, a RFP crossed my desk that asked for scholars who could visit the University of Montana and lead conversations about women in science and technology. I saw it as an opportunity to bring some friends to town and have their way paid! Sarah was the first person I thought of and she accepted my invitation to come. How fun to show her the life we have built here...she saw our home, met the baby, and even taught us some things about women in science!!

The weekend after Sarah visited, Danielle and Lyle arrived. Danielle was here for the same program that funded Sarah's trip. We were thrilled that she brought Lyle with her! We were able to have them over for dinner and show them some of our favorite places, like Big Dipper Ice Cream.

Things Mikey Did

Sand

Mikey likes to play in the sand. One day I took him to Rose Park and let him sit in the sand and he began to dig. He flailed his little hands at his sides moving the sand away. Then he leaned forward and started moving the sand from in front of him to behind him. It was too fun to watch. Over the course of the month, I let him dig in various substances including sand, dirt, woodchips, and fabricated woodchip-like stuff. Of course, he discovers treasures (rocks) and, of course, he tries to taste them but I tell him, "No. Rocks are not for eating." and take it away if he tries to taste it more than once. This applies to all treasures he finds when he digs.

Backyard Camping

For something new to do I pitched the tent in the back yard. I figured that it would give us a new place to go, one that is outside, and naturally open up new things to do. Mikey seemed to enjoy it as much as anything else. One afternoon thunderstorm was certainly a "test" for us. We were sitting in the tent playing with toys and the thunder started to rumble in the sky. Then rain drops began to fall. Mikey was a little unsure of things but since I was there he probably felt safe. To further encourage his comfort I made up a story about Mikey defeating the thundering sky and warding off rain with his magic sword, which is a rattle from TDK. Along with a little nursing, we got through the thunderstorm just fine. I think I had more fun than Mikey did but whatever.

Teeth

Mikey's teeth started to come in but the funny thing is that I wasn't really the first one to notice! I was at Bonner Park one morning (before 9AM) playing with Mikey in the fountains. He likes to splash his hands around in the water that bubbles up at about his height. He also likes to turn the water park on by banging his hands on the "button" nearby and early morning is when there are no other kids to steal the glory. As we were getting bored with the water I looked up and saw an older Chinese woman sitting with a baby girl on one of the benches. I went over and introduced myself only to discover that she claimed that she didn't speak any English but motioned to me to sit beside her. We sat and enjoyed the quiet morning while the babies stared at one another. Then when Mikey gave her one of his typical open-mouth smiles she exclaimed, "teeth!" "Huh," I thought, "really?" And sure enough two little bottom teeth were poking out ever so slightly.

Out on the Town

Caffe Dolce became our regular destination in July. We would wheel up there and I would have a coffee or pastry and then we would sit in the grass and watch cars go by. This little neighborhood restaurant is now a favorite and we took many of our guests there. For Mikey, he had his first potatoes there. They were the homefries that came with my brunch that I was having with Andrea. I took off the skin and handing a potato to Mikey. He put it in his mouth, chewed it up and swallowed. I was elated and thought we had hit a turning point with solid food until the next week when we were there with Mike and I did the same thing and Mikey barfed up the potato and everything else he had just consumed (breastmilk).

Our daily morning walks continue and one fine day we had the Missoula Marathon in mind. Lisa was running to support Youth Homes and we wanted to go to cheer her on. So I loaded Mikey into the backpack and Mike and I walked up to Bonner Park where we hoped to catch a glimpse of Lisa running. We ran into our dentist, Dr. Andy, who also lives in our neighborhood, and stood with him as people raced by. Sure enough, Lisa rounded the bend but she saw us before we saw her and she gave us a nice smile and wave. On our way home I wondered how she spotted us until I realized that with Mikey in his palanquin it is hard to miss us!

We also spent an afternoon with Clifford and went to the pool with Lucy.

The Rattlesnake Wilderness

We took at least three trips to the Rattlesnake for hikes: one as a family, one with Jen and Teresa, and one with Jenny and Thomas.

Books and Blocks

Mikey still does his trick of flipping pages. This month he did something new and remarkable by comparing two different books. He tried flipping the pages of his new board book, Belly Buttons. Of course, board book pages are more difficult to flip than paper pages but he kept trying. Then he looked next to him and saw a big book and flipped those pages. We could see him thinking, "ok, that still works" before turning back to the board book and trying to flip its pages. This type of research and testing and re-testing happened for days until he finally decided that board books are different. The other things I noticed was that he gives extra attention to the photographed leaves in his DOG book.

We got a set of Plan Toy blocks from Grandma and Grandpa Schneider and I still can't decide if mama and papa like them more than Mikey. We spend hours stacking and restacking blocks only to entice Mikey to knock them over. He seems to love to reduce things to their lowest energy state. So even if the stack has been disassembled he still needs to make sure that none of the blocks are standing on their ends; each block has to be as low to the ground as possible. For this we have nick-named him the "Entropy Monster" because we are nerds.

Crawling

Mikey continued to work on crawling doing little downward dog positions and then tilting to a side to sit. He would move all over the room: downdog, sit, downdog, sit, downdog, sit. He would also get on hands and knees and pick up a hand and reach into the air. The first coordinated hand-hand-knee-knee action was just two or three "steps" from a spot in the middle of the living room toward his Papa's old puppet, Rowlf. Finally, on the morning of July 31st, I slept in. Mike was up playing with the baby in the living room for about an hour before I decided to join them. When I walked out of the bedroom and a couple steps into the hallway to see them playing across the room, Mikey looked up and saw me and then just took off and crawled all the way across the room! It was amazingly wonderful!

My Meyer-Briggs

A friend asked me to take the Jung/Myer-Briggs "personality" test and I did to humor her at first.

But then I read the following description and it resonated with me enough that I thought I should put it here.

Introverted iNtuiting Feeling Judging
by Marina Margaret Heiss

INFJs are distinguished by both their complexity of character and the unusual range and depth of their talents. Strongly humanitarian in outlook, INFJs tend to be idealists, and because of their J preference for closure and completion, they are generally "doers" as well as dreamers. This rare combination of vision and practicality often results in INFJs taking a disproportionate amount of responsibility in the various causes to which so many of them seem to be drawn.

INFJs are deeply concerned about their relations with individuals as well as the state of humanity at large. They are, in fact, sometimes mistaken for extroverts because they appear so outgoing and are so genuinely interested in people -- a product of the Feeling function they most readily show to the world. On the contrary, INFJs are true introverts, who can only be emotionally intimate and fulfilled with a chosen few from among their long-term friends, family, or obvious "soul mates." While instinctively courting the personal and organizational demands continually made upon them by others, at intervals INFJs will suddenly withdraw into themselves, sometimes shutting out even their intimates. This apparent paradox is a necessary escape valve for them, providing both time to rebuild their depleted resources and a filter to prevent the emotional overload to which they are so susceptible as inherent "givers." As a pattern of behavior, it is perhaps the most confusing aspect of the enigmatic INFJ character to outsiders, and hence the most often misunderstood -- particularly by those who have little experience with this rare type.

Due in part to the unique perspective produced by this alternation between detachment and involvement in the lives of the people around them, INFJs may well have the clearest insights of all the types into the motivations of others, for good and for evil. The most important contributing factor to this uncanny gift, however, are the empathic abilities often found in Fs, which seem to be especially heightened in the INFJ type (possibly by the dominance of the introverted N function).

This empathy can serve as a classic example of the two-edged nature of certain INFJ talents, as it can be strong enough to cause discomfort or pain in negative or stressful situations. More explicit inner conflicts are also not uncommon in INFJs; it is possible to speculate that the causes for some of these may lie in the specific combinations of preferences which define this complex type. For instance, there can sometimes be a "tug-of-war" between NF vision and idealism and the J practicality that urges compromise for the sake of achieving the highest priority goals. And the I and J combination, while perhaps enhancing self-awareness, may make it difficult for INFJs to articulate their deepest and most convoluted feelings.

Usually self-expression comes more easily to INFJs on paper, as they tend to have strong writing skills. Since in addition they often possess a strong personal charisma, INFJs are generally well-suited to the "inspirational" professions such as teaching (especially in higher education) and religious leadership. Psychology and counseling are other obvious choices, but overall, INFJs can be exceptionally difficult to pigeonhole by their career paths. Perhaps the best example of this occurs in the technical fields. Many INFJs perceive themselves at a disadvantage when dealing with the mystique and formality of "hard logic", and in academic terms this may cause a tendency to gravitate towards the liberal arts rather than the sciences. However, the significant minority of INFJs who do pursue studies and careers in the latter areas tend to be as successful as their T counterparts, as it is *iNtuition* -- the dominant function for the INFJ type -- which governs the ability to understand abstract theory and implement it creatively.

In their own way, INFJs are just as much "systems builders" as are INTJs; the difference lies in that most INFJ "systems" are founded on human beings and human values, rather than information and technology. Their systems may for these reasons be conceptually "blurrier" than analogous NT ones, harder to measure in strict numerical terms, and easier to take for granted -- yet it is these same underlying reasons which make the resulting contributions to society so vital and profound.

100 Things

I posted this on August 17th but I want my July post ahead of it so I'm changing the "Post DAte".

Mike recently shared the following NYT story with me about reducing the "stuff" in one's life: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/business/08consume.html.

The main person in the story downsized her life so she only had 100 things. Mike and I both thought it would be an interesting exercise so I made my list. Here are a couple assumptions: the home is given and includes a refrigerator and a stove/oven.

My 100 THings
1. Car
--
2. Skis
3. Ski boots
4. Ski poles/hiking poles
5. ski pants/rain pants
6. ski coat/rain coat
7. Long underwear bottoms
8. Long underwear top
9. Fleece jacket
10. Socks
11. Mittens
12. Hat
13. Helmet
14. Goggles
15. Camelbak (resevoir included)
--
16. iPod
17. iPod Dock
18. TV
19. BluRay Player
--
20. Camera
21. Computer
22. Novel
23. Pen
24. Wallet (credit cards and ID included)
25. Cell phone
--
26. tooth brush
27. tooth paste
28. shampoo
29. soap
30. sunscreen
31. Lip balm
32. Deodorant
33. comb
34. rubberband
35. lotion
--
36. Wedding ring
37. Necklace
--
38., 39., 40. Table + 2 chairs
41. 12" fry pan
42. Dutch oven
43. cast iron skillet
44. Chef's knife
45. garbage can
46. cutting board
47, 48. 2 plates
49, 50. two glasses
51., 52. two bowls
53. coffee mug
54. spoon
55. fork
--
56. bed
57. sheets
58. blanket
59. towel
--
60. sandals
61. hiking boots
62. sunglasses
--
63. - 70. eight pairs of underwear
71. - 77. seven pairs of socks
78. - 86. eight bottoms (pants, shorts, skirts)
87. - 93. seven tops
94. - 100. seven tops