Five Firsts

We've been experiencing many firsts around here lately.

1) First Babysitter--technically Eli's first babysitter was back in May when he was about six weeks old and I needed to go back to work to finish out the school year, but he wasn't aware of a lot at that point. We haven't had a babysitter since, and it was the first time we got one so that Josh and I could go on a date (it's more difficult when you don't have family around). Carolyn, a woman that I visit teach and Josh home teaches, babysat Eli for about two and half hours on Saturday night. It was a much needed date for Josh and me, but we learned why so many couples think about their baby when they're out. As we were leaving the house, Eli gave us this really confused look like he was asking, "Where are you going, and why are you leaving me?" It melted our hearts. Fortunately, he didn't cry, and Carolyn said he did just fine, but he was very excited to see us when we came home.


2) First Time Sleeping Through the Night--that same night we got a babysitter, Eli slept through the night without waking up even once. That's never happened before (yes, many of you can count your blessings now). Unfortunately, it was a one time occurence so far because he hasn't done it again. Maybe we need to get a babysitter again?


3) First Cold--I've had a cold for the last several days, and unfortunately, Eli got it too. I feel so bad for him! Of course, he has a lot of congestion, and I'm continually wiping his nose, which he hates. I can tell he has difficulty breathing at times, which may be one of the reasons he hasn't repeated sleeping through the night. Hopefully we'll both get better before going to Grandma and Grandpa Pratt's house for Thanksgiving next week.


4) First Time Saying Dada--Eli has been babbling a lot more lately, and last night he said dada about three times, much to Josh's delight (okay, I was happy too, though I had to remind Josh that it's easier to say than mama, and Eli still doesn't know who dada is yet). : )


5) First Time Pulling Himself Up into a Standing Position--Eli surprised me the other day by pulling himself up onto the stereo. Later he pulled himself up onto a filing box, and he tries to do it now with the coffee table and couch. So far the coffee table and couch are a little too high, but if my leg is in front of the coffee table, he can pull himself up by getting on my leg first. Here's a picture of him when he pulled himself up onto the stereo:

Indecision

The other day Eli seemed a little confused about which pacifier he wanted and which way he wanted it in his mouth. I thought it was funny and got lucky enough to capture it on camera.

Halloween Trunk or Treat

Our ward had its annual trunk or treat, so we went with The Wizard of Oz theme this year. Eli was the lion, Josh was the scarecrow, and the trunk was decorated with the emerald city, including the yellow brick road. It was a lot of fun to see all the children and their costumes!

Earlier in the week for FHE, we carved a pumpkin.

Eli ended up having red eyes in this shot, which sort of makes the picture even more funny. He was having a good time. He even had his lion growl down pretty well--no cowardly lion here.

Later that night, he tried to eat the rainbow from the emerald city (he'll eat any paper), and he ended up with a pretty funny joker mouth from the markers.

Honest Opinion (a.k.a. unpopular blog post)

(Warning: Please do not read if you get easily offended. I do not want hate mail, mean comments, or my apartment burned and my family ransomed.)

I guess it’s fitting that I finished a book about vampires on the day before Halloween. So, what did I think? I think I better preface my remarks first so that I don’t offend anyone. It’s interesting how something can be sickening to one person and loved by someone else. For example, Josh and I watched the film The Village when we were dating. He felt so sick in the middle of the movie that he had to leave the theater. I sat in my seat perplexed, wondering if I should follow but not really wanting to. I felt kind of bad for liking the movie since it was so obvious how he felt. A couple of years later we watched the DaVinci Code together. He had previously read the book but I had not, nor do I ever want to. I started feeling very sick in the middle of the movie, and when I asked Josh at the end what he thought, to my surprise he said he liked it. Several weeks ago Josh and I watched part of an episode of The Office. Everyone seems to rave about how great this sitcom is. Since we missed the first season of it, we were naturally curious to see what all the hoopla is about. We had to change the channel halfway into it, and we still don’t understand why everyone likes it so much.

With that said, I think most of you can guess by now that I wasn’t obsessed and addicted to Twilight like so many others seem to be. I can’t honestly say that it made me sick to my stomach, but it did have its moments where I was very disappointed, and I’m not eager to read the next three. I guess I would describe it this way: It’s pretty good for what it is, but what it is is somewhat questionable. In other words, it’s basically a 21st century equivalent of a gothic novel. If I judge it by those standards, I have to say that it’s good. It has romance/passion and terror—both essential in gothic literature as it evolved—and it keeps the reader excited and interested...mostly. Meyer sets up the novel well, and I have to admit (to my surprise) that she hooked me into it initially. Unfortunately, the novel then reveals that Edward is a vampire, and it starts to go downhill from there. Sure, I already knew Edward was a vampire from the beginning (How could I not with everyone talking about it?), but after he reveals he’s a vampire, the romance portion of the story takes over, and I’m afraid that’s what disappointed me. I almost stopped reading it then (and I did for a couple of days), but I continued more for closure (and under the notion that it couldn’t be horrible if LDS women were recommending it to me). Edward is a likeable enough character (he has his moments), though he’s certainly not perfect as Bella seems to think he is. Bella, on the other hand, is irritating to me. I liked her at first, but then she becomes a lovesick idiot, and it turned me off. It did get a little better for a couple of chapters at the end with the suspense of the tracker vampire James, but then it fizzled off again and didn’t end so well.

Truly, I cannot just judge this book by the standards of a gothic novel. Books are written and read in context, and I have to question why so many LDS women are hooked on this book and the others in the series. It may have been written by an LDS woman (which I also question), but Twilight was sensual enough, and I have to think that the other books in the series are much worse (I hope I’m wrong). I wondered before about the obsession with these novels, but I wonder more about it now. What is it exactly that is so appealing about them? If it’s the romance, count me out. I’m in no hurry to read the rest of the saga.

One final note: the novel has undertones of the Adam and Eve story (even the book cover gives that away), but it’s so twisted and somewhat blasphemous to me.