shokufeh is…home

I just called home to see how Sam and MrMan’s day is going. (Sam took time off, since MrMan’s daycare is closed today and tomorrow.) Apparently, they’re watching Pat and Stanley videos online. MrMan is quite taken with the ones that involve passing gas. I hear him in the background, yelling, “Doozh!*”

Are we hardwired to find bodily functions amusing?

*His pronunciation of gooz, or fart, in Persian

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O my God! O Thou forgiver of sins, bestower of gifts, dispeller of afflictions!
Verily, I beseech Thee to forgive the sins of such as have abandoned the physical garment and have ascended to the spiritual world.
O my Lord! Purify them from trespasses, dispel their sorrows, and change their darkness into light. Cause them to enter the garden of happiness, cleanse them with the most pure water, and grant them to behold Thy splendors on the loftiest mount.
-`Abdu’l-Baha

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How will you acknowledge today? Will it be by remembering the almost 2000 people who lost their lives? Will it be by thinking of the tens of thousands who are still struggling to put their lives back together?

By eating Louisiana seafood? Red beans and rice? Jambalaya?
By listening to Louis Armstrong? Branford Marsalis? Harry Connick, Jr?
By reading A Confederacy of Dunces? Interview with the Vampire? Brer Rabbit?
By going Cajun dancing? Twirling to Zydeco? Jamming to a Brass Band?

By buying gas?

However you do it, acknowledge it. Recognize all that New Orleans, and the Gulf Coast region, has offered and struggles to continue to offer. Because we can’t do it alone. And worse than the struggling is the feeling that no one cares if we succeed.
To those of you who have acknowledged it, contributed to the rebuilding, kept us in your hearts – thank you.

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If, say, you have a child who is obsessed with rhinoceri,

may I recommend The Rhino Song?

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As I’m sure many do these days, as we approach the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I often marvel at how normal things were just over two years ago. I will always be thankful for our visit here just a few weeks before the storm. When things were just normal. Not the “new normal.”
I was six months pregnant, and some friends had a baby shower for us. Inevitably, when I pick up one of the items we received at that shower, I think about the fact that when people gave us these things, they had no idea. They couldn’t begin to fathom. None of us could. That life here was about to be turned upside down. That many of our belongings were about to be washed away. Some were to burn down to the ground.
In that perspective, the books and stuffed animals that MrMan enjoys are endowed with a greater significance. Not only were they given with love, they were some of the last things people could afford to give for a while.

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Have you been wondering at what age bathroom humor develops? Apparently 21 months. A few nights/very-early-mornings ago, MrMan was having a hard time falling back to sleep. And sharing his hard time with all of us. In his wisdom, Sam distracted him by asking him questions about a very detailed poster we have on our wall. “Where is…? Where is…?” MrMan would point each thing out. At some point, though, the exploration went downhill. Out of the blue, MrMan started pointing to different things on the poster and exclaiming, “Poo poo!” and then cracking up. Don’t ask me where he learned it. It’s slightly embarassing, a wee bit concerning, but mostly amusing. Who doesn’t like a little bathroom humor?

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… or at least a household of four adults.
I really don’t know how the single parents do it.
This morning, I discovered that MrMan’s daycare will be closed for a five (count them, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, but don’t get me started on his daycare!) day weekend for Labor Day. Having recently started this job, I’m not yet entitled to vacation. It looks like Sam will be able to take those two extra days off.
This afternoon, I got a call saying that MrMan was running a fever. (I guess that tongue issue he was complaining about this morning has become a bigger issue.) My mom usually picks him up, since she’s able to get to him an hour before we would. We sorted out that she would pick him up a little earlier than normal, and that would be only a little later than when one of us could get there if we left work right then.
I’m so thankful that MrMan has four adults to regularly administer hugs and kisses and love. But I’m also thankful for the multiple bodies when working out the logistics of raising a wee one.

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MrMan’s newest trick?
Whenever he throws or hits (which, luckily, is not as much as it could be, but, unfortunately, more than it should be), he accompanies the action with an “Ouch!”
Nice of him to supply the reaction for us, or his Little People horses.

His newest obsession? (Which is an expansion of a previously mentioned one.)
His newly acquired stuffed rhino, compliments of Emmaleigh. Her mom passed it on to me last week, and they’ve been pretty inseperable since. MrMan wants to feed him and hold his water cup to his mouth and bring him in the bathtub…. We draw the line there. The rhino came with some red yarn wrapped around his neck. MrMan uses this as a leash and likes to walk the rhino around the house.
Thanks, Emmaleigh!

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I guess I shouldn’t be surprised anymore by the egg on our face. But, c’mon, a prominent member of our City Council, too? I swear, they’re going to kick us out of the Union: Be gone with you, 49 states are enough!

I get so angry with these turdnecks running and representing our city.

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daughter, sister, wife, mother
I am all of these things
daughter, sister, wife, mother
But I am so much more
daughter, sister, wife, mother
Not that these things aren’t important to me
daughter, sister, wife, mother
Some of the greatest titles a woman can carry
daughter, sister, wife, mother
They are roles
daughter, sister, wife, mother
Ones that I’ve always wanted to play
daughter, sister, wife, mother
Now that I do
daughter, sister, wife, mother
I see that are a part of me
daughter, sister, wife, mother
Not who I am

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