Mommy Wolf or, Full Moon Time



"The horror!  What do you mean it's a full moon?"



Teaching high school, I was often aware of the full moon before I even looked up in the sky.  I would feel like I was spending more time on discipline, hear other teachers complain more in the lunch room, and send more assignments down to the in-school suspension room.  My mom's always noticed something similar with her customers in insurance--more wrecks, more problems, and more weird phone calls.

But I hardly ever hear anyone else complain about the full moon.  Which makes me wonder if I'm really some mommy version of the Michael J. Fox's 1980's Teen Wolf.  Am I a warewolf?!?  Why else would the full moon affect me so?



In the world of perfect storms, this month's full moon was a doozy.  My monthly cycle is just now getting back to normal (with pregnancy and nursing and all), and wouldn't you know it made its big appearance the same day as the moon?

Oddly enough, however, it was Luke's behavior that made the biggest difference in the day.

Tuesday, I tried to get Luke to sleep for two hours.  When he wouldn't go down (but kept presenting his tired cry), I decided we needed a little car seat cat nap, and we left for errands.  Wouldn't you know it--Luke slept for 100 minutes in the car!  I read an entire magazine from cover to cover and cut and organized my coupons in the Ikea parking lot while he snored peacefully in the backseat. 



The benefits of his longer-than-expected nap didn't last long, though, and by the time we got to Target thirty minutes later I thought I was going crazy.  I would strap Luke into the baby part of the cart, and he would stand up, mid aisle.  I would take him out and put him in the basket part of the cart, and he would throw every item out of the cart onto the floor.  I would hold him and he would grab at my sunglasses and slap at my eyes and pull my hair.  I would beg, plead, yell, and scold, and he just wouldn't get the picture.  I had never seen such odd behavior from Luke before. 

(Wednesday, by the way, he was much, much, much better and back to his sweet little self.)



So I have to ask. Does anyone else notice things going awry around the full moon?  Anyone else have any crazy full moon stories to share?!

Pottying Is Such Sweet Sorrow

Luke is a few days shy of being 14 months old.  I know potty training is still months (maybe even years, since he's a boy??) away, but I can't help thinking the process is beginning to unfold before us.

First, I was delighted when Luke started to march into his room and stand at his changing table when I would smell something and say, "Do you have poopy?"

Then, I clapped and giggled with glee when Luke began to take off his own diaper and throw it in the trash before bathtime.

The one day when I saw Luke march into his bedroom before I even smelled something funny I was amazed.

And my mom and I both have noticed Luke playing quietly in the corner when he's doing "his business." 

So I know he knows what he's doing.  We've purchased the stand-alone potty chair (which Luke has promptly ripped apart) and the seat topper (which he finds as his ticket to play with the toilet paper), but I don't think I am ready for it all to happen yet.  It is so nice to change his pee-pee diapers at convenient times.  And it is so nice to not have to wash tons of pants right now.  And I'm enjoying my Pampers rewards points.  And, of course, there's that whole thing about my baby boy growing up...  (sniffle!)

Luke on his way to the trash can with his diaper. 
(blurry because I had to hurry and snap it!)



God's Grandeur

So it's been a while since I've posted, and I'm going to cheat and put up a picture.  Jeff has made it the wallpaper on nearly every computing device I've seen him use (yep, even his Blackberry).  We have it framed and hanging in our hallway.  And I never get tired of seeing it. 

I snapped this picture at the Four Seasons Resort in Maui in 2007.  Just look at the light.  As fabulous as they were with capturing light, even the great Impressionist painters couldn't capture light this great.  This is God's work, in all its glory. 

Isn't it beyond description?

And in case you're still reading, I just have to marvel at the majesty of God's work in this beautiful masterpiece.  And because I'm not writing much myself, I thought I'd share a wonderful poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89) that I've loved since my undergraduate days, that I feel helps to better explain what we see in this picture.  Enjoy!


God's Grandeur

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; 
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.