Mommyhood-2 years in.

Just as I have mentioned before, I am a planner. I plan out my life days, weeks, months, sometimes even years into the future. I think about the spacing of our children in relation to when we will have to upgrade to a larger vehicle, a bigger home, and more convenient furniture. I think about what vacations I want to take with our children when they get older, where I want to live with Mark when we are old and gray, and what goals I have personally for the future. And then life happens, when I am making all of these full-proof, die hard plans. Reese becomes 23 months, I become a busy photographer, and baby #2 who was according to my schedule not supposed to make an appearance in our life until Spring of ‘10 is suddenly going to be a 2009 baby during my busiest time of the year. When my plans get messed up it takes me a little bit of time to recover and emerge elated and confident. I’m still reeling.

On the flip side, Reese is in dire need of a sibling. Most days she runs shrieking through the house or following my every move. I can’t wait for the day when I walk by her room only to find her playing happily with her little brother or sister on the floor. Wishful thinking, right?

My sister-in-law, Kim, had her second child, a baby girl, last week. When I went to see her in the hospital I expected to feel a rush of memories of the pain and discomfort that I felt during my experience giving birth to Reese. I felt nothing of the sort. In fact, I remembered none of the bad things, only how amazing that first day in the hospital with Reese was. How completely content I was, and happy to be a new mom. I was on such an emotional high for weeks after having Reese. That’s all I can really remember now. Maybe that’s the Lord’s little gift to me.

Reese is such a joy and happiness in my life. I can only imagine what baby #2 has in store for me. It doesn’t seem possible or fair that life could get any better.

News

Meghan wanted me to write some witty update post, but I’m too busy/lazy/not-witty.

1 – One of the things I learned in Italy was that sometimes cooking things for a lot longer than normal, if done correctly, can make it turn out even better.  Pasta sauces are that way.  Anyways, I love rolls for Thanksgiving.  So Meghan and I have a bun in the oven that, according to experts, should be ready on Thanksgiving day.

2 – We’re going to Hawaii in three weeks.  Meghan found insanely cheap plane tickets.  Luck and generous parents met for an awesome (and free) place to stay.  And it just so happens that our number 2 flight is 2 days before Reese turns 2, saving the 2 of us from paying 2 much.  We stayed at that resort five years ago, our only other trip to Hawaii, and the place is just amazing.  Pictures of the previous trip, taken with a terrible happy-snappy, here.

3 – There are a few famous MacAskill’s through the ages (see The Giant) and now we have an amazing bike rider in the extended family.

Mr. Rogers is evil?

As some of you know, I am not a big fan of Fox News. It’s extremely biased and frequently inaccurate. In addition, they often produce inflammatory segments designed to get people angry/excited/emotional instead of actually *gasp* reporting news.

For those of you, like me, that grew up watching Mr. Rogers, the following clip is likely to make you quite angry. You have been warned.

By the way, the “study” was done by Don Chance, a finance professor, who had this to say:

“The reference to Mr. Rogers was just a metaphor. I have no professional qualifications to evaluate the real problems or propose solutions. Mr. Rogers was a great American. I watched him with my children and wouldn’t hesitate to do so again if I had young children.”

It’s a good thing Fox News was able to dig up a finance professor to enlighten us on child-rearing.  And thank goodness they were able to misconstrue his meaning entirely in order to be inflammatory and garner attention.

I don’t tell Reese how special she is nearly often enough. I think every single child in the world needs to feel special, needs to feel like they can stumble, fall and still be loved. I don’t want Reese to ever be afraid of showing me how poorly she did on a test or recounting how her soccer team lost a game.

Does that mean I am instilling in her a lack of accountability? Or that she won’t have any incentive to study or work later in life? No, it means that I would rather have her be a good person and feel good about herself than get straight A’s and get into Stanford (not that they are mutually exclusive or that watching Mr. Rogers would somehow prevent her from doing that).

Perhaps the saddest thing about this debacle is them attempting to put a blemish on the memory of a great man. So here is my small tribute to one of my heroes:

- Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood was the longest running program on PBS, going from 1968 to 2001 (895 episodes).

- Mr. Rogers composed all the music for the show himself

- When the VCR was invented, there were huge controversies about people recording television. Mr. Rogers, unlike just about anyone else involved in the production of TV shows, argued vehemently that people should be able to record TV for playback at a later date. He testified before the Supreme Court and was instrumental in the case:

The Supreme Court wrote: “Second is the testimony of Fred Rogers, president of the corporation that produces and owns the copyright on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. The program is carried by more public television stations than any other program. Its audience numbers over 3,000,000 families a day. He testified that he had absolutely no objection to home taping for noncommercial use and expressed the opinion that it is a real service to families to be able to record children’s programs and to show them at appropriate times. “

(Excerpt from Mr. Rogers’ trial testimony: ) “Some public stations, as well as commercial stations, program the ‘Neighborhood’ at hours when some children cannot use it. . . . I have always felt that with the advent of all of this new technology that allows people to tape the ‘Neighborhood’ off-the-air, and I’m speaking for the ‘Neighborhood’ because that’s what I produce, that they then become much more active in the programming of their family’s television life. Very frankly, I am opposed to people being programmed by others. My whole approach in broadcasting has always been ‘You are an important person just the way you are. You can make healthy decisions.’ Maybe I’m going on too long, but I just feel that anything that allows a person to be more active in the control of his or her life, in a healthy way, is important.”

- When Mr. Rogers was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award during the Daytime Emmys, this is what happened according to writer Tom Junod:

Mister Rogers went onstage to accept the award — and there, in front of all the soap opera stars and talk show sinceratrons, in front of all the jutting man-tanned jaws and jutting saltwater bosoms, he made his small bow and said into the microphone, “All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are. Ten seconds of silence.”

And then he lifted his wrist, looked at the audience, looked at his watch, and said, ‘I’ll watch the time.” There was, at first, a small whoop from the crowd, a giddy, strangled hiccup of laughter, as people realized that he wasn’t kidding, that Mister Rogers was not some convenient eunuch, but rather a man, an authority figure who actually expected them to do what he asked. And so they did. One second, two seconds, seven seconds — and now the jaws clenched, and the bosoms heaved, and the mascara ran, and the tears fell upon the beglittered gathering like rain leaking down a crystal chandelier. And Mister Rogers finally looked up from his watch and said softly “May God be with you,” to all his vanquished children.

With that, I invite anyone reading this to take those ten seconds of silence and think of the people who have helped you become who you are.